Disparity

Attend C

2009-04-15T22:44:00.003+08:00

Been a long time since I wrote any entries. Army life totally exposes me to the side unseen. I am at home now, on attend C status due to myself catching on a high fever during field camp.

Honestly, I haven't been writing write as of recent months. I have been doing all the physical training without leaving time for any intellectual endeavours. Days have been very hectic, with hardly any time to make calls, message to maintain my social relationships.

I wake up each and every day, telling myself, I am so shag, I barely had much sleep last night. This occurrence happens everyday. It is impressive how I manage to survive through a whole day of physical training, with only like 6 hours of sleep the night before.

Life is tough now. I hate this life I am leading.

Wouldn't it be so wonderful if I could lead back my civil an life, to reclaim my freedom that I so rightfully deserve. Why am I spending two years of my life, running and dirtying myself in the jungles and doing many terrible things?

NS is a time when I can meet many different people, even amongst the JC batch. I learn about myself at the exact same time I learn about others. Everyday is a new lesson on people management, how I interact with people. We see different colours of each others and we discover what others and ourselves truly are.

I told my friend, I am a secret introvert. It surprises me how others see me as an extrovert which I feel I'm not really am. I was delighted to hear that. I love being around with others for sure. Even so, I do treasure my individual time when my mind can simply round around in circles, just like now.

Psalm 139

2009-02-09T15:25:00.003+08:00

Psalm 139

"Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I free from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there you hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast."

Enlisting into NS was definitely a big challenge for me. There are so many things to deal with- adapting into communal living, the strict regimentation and a constrained social life. There are many times when my morale is low, I remember the above verses and tell myself that God is always by my side.

I am only grateful that I have friends who constantly stood by me, as I adapt myself to the difficult initial days of military life. Nevertheless, NS remains both a physical and mental struggle for me. The fatigue and muscle aches just accumulate everyday, without much recovery time to rest. Sometimes you wish there is a person out there by your side, but that person could not be there physically. Everything I do in NS reeks of independence. Laundry, area cleaning and tidying up my bed, these are the chores I learnt to do in NS.

I do keep a personal journal in NS. It captures the state of my mind as I go through the days of BMT. I believe in the future, I look back into the journal and be marvelled by how much I have grown.

Enlistment

2009-01-05T22:37:00.006+08:00

Ok, the moment has finally come. I am enlisting tomorrow. The anticipation has all been building up. The farewells have all been said. I would want to write more for this post, but now, I am already tired. Glad fully tired. My sentences now come short and dreamy. I am tired, tired from all the past meet-ups with friends. I am glad, glad that I am able to meet up with these people before I enlist.

Today, after I had my braces fixed, I went to giant at parkway alone, doing last minute shopping for NS. I walked down rows of aisle, pushing the trolley, it itself making rhythmic sounds as it rolled on the hard floor. CNY music was being played throughout the stall. Horrible, cheesy CNY music. I was alone, deep in my own confused thoughts. Trust me, it was emotional then. Will I be able to cope with what I would face tomorrow?

I was lost. I went to grab a bottle of beer and food. I told myself, tonight, I shall celebrate my new chapter of life.

My journey with Christ will be started anew once again. On this first day of a new journey, I put my hand firmly in Christ. May my faith strengthens during this period of time.

I have alot more sentiments to say about NS, but I am really too tired now.

Awesomeness. I am ready for NS

2008-12-25T10:11:00.003+08:00

It’s always the sudden onset of emptiness when you come home from an overseas trip. Within a blink of an eye, you are hit with the reality of what your life really is. The same typical mundane routine all over again. I was on my flight back and I thought, “Awesomeness. I am ready for NS”.

I suppose the trip was an opportunity given to me to restart myself. A week of isolation in Beijing. Only me, my family and my tour group. As I mature, I begin to see new perspective of things. Overseas trip are not merely the sightseeing, theme parks and shopping of the past. There are beauty, sentimental value attached to each object, each event and each person that you encounter. This trip has indeed broadened my perspective.

I have little idea of who will be reading this post. I do not want to be seen as one who acts so philosophical and thinks oh so too much. I am just one who tries to pause and appreciate the value of things.

The myriad of events unwound themselves so spontaneously. Despite the hectic 5 days schedule of actual sightseeing and tour, I was still able to experience each event throughoutly, as if it was played in a slow-fashioned manner. Great wall, Olympic village, forrbidden city, tong ren tang, Ming tombs and many others were all explored in a matter of days. Surely, it was magnificent being able to witness these artefacts in person, but actually, there are much more to it.

These places have centuries of historical significance. Sadly, they are all infested with the tourism bug. It is understandable that likeminded tourists like me would visit these places and swarm every feet of walking space available. Walking vendors themselves swarm themselves around tourists, like ants to honey. It gets annoying when they start to become pushy. I learnt that there are more than what we see from the surface. There was a murder at one of the historical tower during the first day of the 2008 Olympics, in which a Chinese man stabbed a foreign tourist, in his bid to protest against some political cause. This was covered up by the Chinese government to the international media. The air in Beijing is toxic, people light up their cigarettes everywhere and smog engulfs the city, coming mainly from vehicles burning on low quality unfiltered petrol. The toilet at the majestic bird nest stadium is horrible. The locals still spit casually on the pavements, despite the country advertising that it has revamped the civilities of its people. There are much more than what meet the eyes.

In the midst of the my little social isolation, I wondered, what brings me happiness. Is it being able to live in the aftermath of an event that has left me stronger? Is it though busking in the light of an event that has left me with blissful memories? Does happiness stem from people that I have encountered, who have left or are continuing to leave beautiful imprints in my life? Is it from some achievements that I have achieved?

Happiness comes within oneself. The truth is that happiness comes within oneself. It is easily to be mistaken and conceive that happiness requires a stimulus, like a happy event. But these are only the surface side of things. Happiness is the ability to turn both ordinary and extraordinary events into self contentment. It boils down to the mentality of the individual.

As with any other overseas trip, the events I experienced, the many friendships forged with the tour group, only whistles down to memories after the trip. And memories fade over time. Inevitably. As much as I want to cherish the memories, it will only become a thing of the past.

After all, we all know that all good things come to an end.

My fling with braces

2008-12-18T18:18:00.006+08:00

Let me document my braces experience in words.

Day 1:

I arrived at the dental clinic, more excited than ever. I did my research and learnt that that putting on braces without extraction would not hurt at all. So I greeted the dentist with a hearty smile and laid on the dental chair. She firstly polished my braces. The procedure caught me by surprise, it was in fact comfortable. Contrast it to school dental nurses that come along in the van, my dentist was so much better. Hmm! Money well spent! I felt a little regret as I did not bring my video camera to film to whole procedure, but I managed to get the dental assistant to take periodical photos though.

My dentist inserted a plastic frame to hold my mouth wide open (don't know the exact name of these dental appliances). Looking at the photos, I never seen my mouth being so big ever. She would than use a blue-coloured paste to condition each tooth before cementing the bracket onto it through a light curing progress. There was this instance when the blue paste fell onto my tongue and man, it had this destestable acidic taste. Taste something like plaque.

The whole process of cementing the brackets took quite a whole and I was tired, tired from opening my mouth wide the whole two hours. It certainly felt different with the braces in my mouth, a lot of a chafing and abrasion against my lip.

Met up with my friends and we went to a western restaurant afterwards. I did not know what got into my mind, but I ordered charbroiled chicken. Can you imagine it? Chicken chop for the first dinner you have after your braces. I cut the chicken into swallow-size bits and painfully inched it down my throat.

Day 2:

Woke up and thought, "ahh, this is how I gonna feel every morning for the next two years of my life". Stared into the mirror, there was a small ulcer on the lower lip, which miraculously disappeared like two hours later. The tension on the teeth was bad, I could not get a good bite. My bite just feels so different and unnatural. I attempted to try biting down a kit kat. Pain! I could not bite it off. I could not attempt such voracious bites.

Day 3:

Woke up with the uncomfortable tension on my teeth. I did not experience any pain or headache, only the uncomfortable tension from the braces. I had to brush after every meal, the braces only serve as a pocket for food to sneak into. Brushing is another horrible procedure. I had to brush throughout my teeth three times in order to make sure the food particles get removed and get my mouth fresh again. Horribleness.

Well, the only thing I can do is to just live with it. Heartache, toothache, I'm numb to pain already.

Handwriting Test

2008-10-17T12:47:00.001+08:00

Try it at http://www.handwritingwizard.com

Wen Jie uses judgment to make decisions. He is ruled by his head, not his heart. He is a cool, collected person who is usually unexpressive emotionally. Some may see him as unemotional. He does have emotions but has no need to express them. He is withdrawn into himself and enjoys being alone.

The circumstances when Wen Jie does express emotions include: extreme anger, extreme passion, and tremendous stress. If someone gets him mad enough to tell him off, he will not be sorry about it later. He puts a mark in his mind when someone angers him. He keeps track of these marks and when he hits that last mark he will let them know they have gone too far. He is ruled somewhat by self-interest. All his conclusions are made without outside emotional influence. He is very level-headed and will remain calm in an emergency situation. In a situation where other people might get hysterical, he has poise.

Wen Jie will work more efficiently if given space and time to be alone. He would rather not be surrounded by people constantly. In a relationship, he will show his love by the things he does rather than by the things he says. Saying "I love you" is not a needed routine because he feels his mate should already know. The only exception to this is if he has logically concluded that it is best for his mate to hear him express his love verbally.

Wen Jie is not subject to emotional appeals. If someone is selling a product to him, they will need to present only the facts. They should present them from a standpoint of his sound judgment. He will not be taken in by an emotional story about someone else. He will meet emergencies without getting hysterical and he will always ask "Is this best for me?"

People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, Wen Jie doesn't write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others.

Wen Jie will be candid and direct when expressing his opinion. He will tell them what he thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don't really want his opinion, don't ask for it!

In reference to Wen Jie's mental abilities, he has a very investigating and creating mind. He investigates projects rapidly because he is curious about many things. He gets involved in many projects that seem good at the beginning, but he soon must slow down and look at all the angles. He probably gets too many things going at once. When Wen Jie slows down, then he becomes more creative than before. Since it takes time to be creative, he must slow down to do it. He then decides what projects he has time to finish. Thus he finishes at a slower pace than when he started the project.

He has the best of two kinds of minds. One is the quick investigating mind. The other is the creative mind. His mind thinks quick and rapidly in the investigative mode. He can learn quicker, investigate more, and think faster. Wen Jie can then switch into his low gear. When he is in the slower mode, he can be creative, remember longer and stack facts in a logical manner. He is more logical this way and can climb mental mountains with a much better grip.

Wen Jie is a practical person whose goals are planned, practical, and down to earth. This is typical of people with normal healthy self-esteem. He needs to visualize the end of a project before he starts. he finds joy in anticipation and planning. Notice that I said he plans everything he is going to do, that doesn't necessarily mean things go as planned. Wen Jie basically feels good about himself. He has a positive self-esteem which contributes to his success. He feels he has the ability to achieve anything he sets his mind to. However, he sets his goals using practicality-- not too "out of reach". He has enough self-confidence to leave a bad situation, yet, he will not take great risks, as they relate to his goals. A good esteem is one key to a happy life. Although there is room for improvement in the confidence catagery, his self-perception is better than average.

Wen Jie has a healthy imagination and displays a fair amount of trust. He lets new people into his circle of friends. He uses his imagination to understand new ideas, things, and people.

Class of 2008

2008-10-14T23:11:00.006+08:00

To the class of 2008:

The two years have passed by quickly, too fast for me to actually fathom the buzz and twirls of it. Much as I would want time to reverse and allow mself to cherish selected memories all over again, another side of me wants to get over the two years and move on with later life.

At the start of this year, I asked myself, what will be the regrets I will have at the end of the year. It was difficult for me to answer then. Now, a full year has passed and I can assuredly say that this year has passed without much regrets.

I strove to leave the petty and frivolous part of me to yesteryear and move on in a clean slate, wanting to seek a more meaningful myself. Sincerity could be my key agenda for this year, approaching people and issues whole-heartedly, I strove to recognise them for what they are and not what they were.

I have avoided falling into the trap of overly scrutinising issues and thinking too complicatedly. I believe in the simplicity of things. Things are probably as simple as they appear and there is no need to delve too much into it. Relationships are always be best kept simple.

In the past, I always had this notion that there will always be a perfect person out there for everyone. It is just a matter of when both parties will meet. No, there is not and there will never be. It is merely just an naive idealism on one's part to think so. It takes two to put in effort and appreciate each other. Relationships are nurtured and are hardly a work of accident.

I am not a stranger to failures. I had my fair share over the years. I aspire, I aim, yet I fail. I am not one who believes in cheesy 'aim for the stars and fall amongst the stars' motivation theories. I only know that failing sucks. Because I know that failing sucks and the consequences from failing big sucks even more, hence that is what keeps me going.

As we soon bid farewell to the class of 2008

Defying the convention

2008-10-11T23:46:00.003+08:00

What is there in store for us, we will never know.
They tell us to chase our dreams, we know its difficult.

The end looks so distal, so unreal and shadowy.
We stumble in the midst of our journeys, it is just so hard.

Why do they expect so much from us, can't we just be we.
We try to break out of the convention, we try to oppose the orthodox.

We have been through so much, can't we just go another mile further.
Reality tells us we're different, we are more than ordinary.

We do not want to disappoint, we live their expectations.
We trudge through the impossibilities, as we pen our own miracle stories.

The greatest story

2008-09-28T19:41:00.002+08:00

So I'm writing a miracle story and whos gona be my cast

As prelims become imminent..

2008-08-10T18:00:00.004+08:00

Why does the Olympics have to coincide with my study break, urgh!

The past months have been a mad rush for me, in many aspects. I managed to watch the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and the NDP 08 over the past few days. The opening ceremony was more than just awesome, it was a declaration of Beijing's progress over the years. The lighting of the Olympic torch at the end came as a delightful surprise as never did I expected the torch to be situated at the top of the stadium.

Much as how theatrical and dazzling the two shows were, they taught me on how little gestures can go a longer way.

The boy who saved the Szechuan Earthquake was given the honour of walking alongside Yao Ming in the athletics procession. I was touched by how China gave him commendation for his little act of kindness. For our President S.R. Nathan, I was delighted by how he took time to shake the hands of the participants and thank them for making the show a success before stepping into his motorcade.

As insignificant as these may seem, but somehow they left a heartening impression on me.

As 18 approaches..

2008-06-09T23:23:00.001+08:00

I am 17, moving on 18. Somehow I dread becoming 18, that magical number, the liberalisation of personal freedom. Theoretically, at least, turning 18 will be a big gain of freedom for me. I will be be considered as a young adult. I will gain the same autonomy as what adults enjoy and able to make my own personal decisions. The days in which school consent forms required parental signature would be history. I am able to purchase once-restricted goods like alcohol. For social settings like the cinema, my status as a consumer will be ameliorated as I am able to watch movies of the M18 rating.

I miss being young.

Back in my childhood days, I wondered what it would be like being an adult. What it would be like to enjoy greater autonomy of the individual- the right to make individualistic choices. Would it be good or bad for me? Would I have the maturity to survive in this acerbic jungle of society? What would it be like being old?

Being 17 years old is like a prelude of what being lies in store for me. It is all about being liberated, in mind and in the physical realm. Our mindsets are evolving as we are exposed to greater elements of the world. We start gain new perspective of things whilst cackling at our juvenile yesterdays. We face more complex issues in life. Perhaps this rising complexity of life is what makes life so thrilling to be in.

3 years down the road, when I turn 21 years old. I wonder what my future will be like. At present, I desire to be an achiever, successful in whatever field that I am in. During the OCIP trip, when night falls, two of my friends and I will be at the wooden lounge table in our cosy dimmed dormitory. We often talk about what we want ourselves to be, years down the road. At the end of our many conversations, we all agreed in consensus that maybe being successful and accomplished isn’t all that important. We would all rather be good chaps in life instead.

So I guess I aim to be a good chap in life then.

Maybe I will chance upon this journal entry that I have written now when I am much older and reminiscence of the childishness I have now at 17 years old. I would perhaps realise the absurdity of my future predictions now. Or perhaps, much of the predictions that I have written in this journal may in fact come true.

Creationism and evolution

2008-05-12T22:29:00.003+08:00

As a Christian whose belief falls firmly on the book of Genesis, it can be quite discomforting for Darwin's theory of evolution to be imposed on me in college. In lectures, I stare at my evolution notes cringingly, appalled by the fact that the education system in Singapore and other countries only advocates evolution but not creationism.

Isn't evolution merely just a scientific hypothesis after all.

I am not total remonstrator of evolution, I can accept certain parts of it. However, the education system should allow us to exercise certain degree of freedom in deciding which stance we take. Creationism should be emphasised more than what it is now, more than just a brief mention in addition to evolution.

Think about it, how did the first forms of life came about. The big bang? What lead to the big bang.

The ultimate one- how did nothing turned into something?

Outvestiture

2008-05-04T22:51:00.006+08:00

With much dismay but also but many sighs of relief, I would like to announce that I have offically "out-vested" from student council.

Yes, the sweet taste of freedom tingling on my tastebuds. No more worrying about the next project, staying back late in council room for meetings. When meeting gets unproductive, I start to get grumpy and whine a lot. No more missing tutorials just because of rushing the proposal for teacher's day. How different life is now.

My journey as student councillor has been of many bittersweet memories. There are days when I pin on my council badge and proudly declare to the world that I am a student councillor. On melancholic days, I helplessly question on my credentials of being a councilor.

One council term down the road, I have officially stepped down. I look back and admit that council has gave me new perspectives. At least, I thought my student life was different. For example, if not for student council, I would never had the opportunity to be that lunatic family head upfront, leading the whole JC1 orientation house to do mass dances and cheers. On the other hand, I can picture myself sulking at the back and complaining about when on earth I can be dismissed. There are many other crazy things too!

When my friends learnt that I became a student councillor, many reacted with surprise, some even with shocked. Don't worry, I am shocked myself too. Looking back, the decision for me to run for it came during a befuddling period of my life. It happened when I was still coping with the transition into a new school- I was still adapting to it. Despite it not being my preferred school, I wanted myself to make the fullest out of it. Under the unanimous advice of my teachers and friends, I was motivated to give running for student council a shot.

One council term down the road, I am a learned man. Being in student council has changed me to be more extrinsic. Never had I so much opportunities to give public speeches. Oh yeah, commanding too. Its like poof, you check your school's intranet and you receive a message "Wen Jie, you do morning command for next week k?" This routine occurs weekly.

To end this post, thank you 22nd student council for walking this journey down with me.

Hey guys, I received some feedbacks about the absence of the tagboard. Use the comment below each post to air your views. Haha, I wonder who on earth would like read this blog. But heck, I'll just post to entertain myself.

Memories

2008-04-19T23:49:00.002+08:00

Memories only serve to remind us of the past we hold so dear. With every passing moment, they get washed away, trickling into emptiness. A disorientated stream. The beauty within, they fade off eventually.

If only memories could last forever.

School's tough

2008-04-14T19:51:00.000+08:00

School's tough, econs workload is a bitch. Life is bitter.

Our tendencies

2008-04-03T21:40:00.007+08:00

We with our human tendencies are so prone to distractions. It sways us off our intended path and brings one down. As our days rotate round the studious routine, let us all remain hearten and preserve on.

As stated in 1 Corinthians 1:30- It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

In times of adversity, it is through Him that we are able to embrace through it all. At times when school work becomes overwhelming, we tend to allow our faith to take a backseat. However, it may be during these times that we need His guidance the most. It is in Christ alone my hopes are found.

Faith and trust are what keep people moving. With faith comes possibilities, believe for the old impossibles.

Awaiting for the constellations to converge on each other again

Mas Selemat- a lesson on complacency

2008-03-16T22:22:00.003+08:00

Yay! The first day of my exam starts tomorrow which is GP and Chem. So I am just blogging on some random issue to get my writing genes flowing.

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Mas Selemat- a lesson on complacency

Singapore, a state renowned for its tight security . Mas Selemat Kastari, a man with stout build, he limps on his right leg. What makes him so special is that he is a Jemaah Islamiyah member, the man responsible for the foiled Changi Airport attack.

Imagine the severity of a plane crashing into our airport, too incogitable isn't it?

Perhaps many Americans only impression of Singapore is that we are the country that caned their Micheal Fay in 1994. We tolerate no threshold for the slightest mistake. Everything goes in uniformity to our rule book here.

27 February 2008, at Whitney detention center, Mas Selemat managed to escape from detention. How can it even be possible? Firstly, Whitney detention center is a beefed up security center, accepting no one but only the highest-threat convicts. How can Mas Selemat possibly just limp his way out of the center? Aren't there security personnel's on constant surveillance of the compound? Secondly, he escaped when he claimed his temporary retreat from police custody through a toilet break. How prison-breakish it seems. I can literally visualise him removing the window pane and bars from the toilet and climbing out of the toilet.

Wacky hypotheses on his escape
1) It may sound absurd but the first thought that came to my mind on how he could escape was through an insider in the detention center. A mole maybe? Perhaps another person with connections to JI works in the center and could have aided his escape. (Think of Sarah in prison break)
2) It was a deliberate ploy with the Singapore government for his escape. He is expected to make connections with his JI network and through him, the JI network can then be infiltrated.
3) Mas Selemat's escape is a cover up for his accidental death in the detention center.
4) Complacency- Given the brick-wall reputation of our security in Singapore, it is expected that not many detainee in the right mind would even want to contemplate a breakout here. However, this is not the case for Mas Selemat. Our complacency has really caused us dire consequences.

Our reputation as a state of brick-wall security has taken its swat by medias all over the world. On the day after Mas Selemat's security, many international papers have reported resplendently on the issue, some with a little tinge of sneering and sarcasm. As a Singaporean myself, I feel the incensement at such reports. However, I too feel a little disappointed and very shocked at our lax security measures.

Well, this shows that national security issue is something not to be trifled with. The actions of perhaps some dazed warden may have led to the nation's reputation. National leaders have stepped up and accepted the blame, mentionably our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Wong Kan Seng. He has to face up to the public and international media on the escape.

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Four oceans to find you. And glad I did.

Life's busy

2008-03-02T22:33:00.006+08:00

Common tests are coming. I have also signed up for the SAT test. Endless tutorials and extra lessons.

I love reading books, magazines, but sighs, reading these days is considered an luxury to me. There is simply no time for that.

I was taken aback by how the JI militant Mas Selemat managed to escape from police custody. There may be some loopholes in our security system. It is quite shocking how simple "toilet break" can lead to his escape. I really hope he gets found soon.

You are my shooting star :)

OCIP reflections

2008-02-11T00:34:00.000+08:00

Following is my friend's essay on our OCIP trip to Laos. He does a good job in expressing the experience we go through.

Nothing you ever do can prepare yourself for that dreaded moment when you encounter loss personally. No amount of steeling and mental preparation can adequately empower you with a powerful sense of equanimity when you finally realize that the things you cherish and hold dear will never be around again. Time will dull some of the pain that you feel, but you have been scarred, and the effects of whatever you have been through or come into contact with stay with you, in some way or another.

How do you talk about something that is so intense it changes the very nature of your psyche? Your words will not do justice; your reminiscences are but a poor imitation of the real thing; and the people you talk about are now ghosts in a time and place that is no more.

The people of Laos are not a homogenous tribe. They are descended from numerous ethnic groups, and their language varies slightly from region to region. Their history is a long one- there was already a highly developed culture 2500 years ago in what is known today as the Plain of Jars, because the people of this culture carved huge stone jars in which to place the ashes of their dead. The rest of this period is shrouded in mystery.

We arrive in Luang Prabang, an ancient capital that is now a UNECSO world heritage site, nestled between undulating mountains and the Mekong River. The place is charming- laid back, peaceful and hypnotizing. Time is a fluid concept here, because 1’o clock and 3’o clock are the same actually. Things do not appear to look different until night falls, and when night comes, a thin mist comes rolling in together with a sudden plummet in temperature. That is, if you are still awake to observe all these at the hauntingly quiet time after midnight.

The first time we see the school, it comes to us suddenly; morphing into view right outside the windows of the bus. We barely have time to mould an idealized image of what a village school looks like, so sudden is this incursion into our line of sight. We do not need to, because the school is exactly how a village school should be: organically laid-out in harmony with the environment, the centre of village life, and the only place in the area where there is a big enough field for sporting activities to be carried out. We are eager to see the children. Instead, we are treated to speeches by the village head, the school’s principal, and several of the local elders.

The children. They are ruddy-faced and filled with a healthy glow that only comes from playing in the sun almost every day of their young lives. Their voices are shrill, with nothing of the deep baritone that will come to mark more than one of them when they finally come of age. They gambol around you, prancing and skipping and tugging at your shirtsleeves; begging you to piggyback them around the mossy field. They are pure of heart, open to all possibilities, radiant with happiness-they are unself-conscious and unencumbered with the pride and weariness that come to inhabit older people. They remind us, more than once, that William Wordsworth was right when he observed that ‘‘the child is the father of the man.’’

We paint the school, we design a new garden from scratch, and we teach the children. The days melt into each other, and only the photographs are left to bear witness to what we do each day. Everything is lost in the sea of memory- dates, times and schedules. Each day we return to the guesthouse, grimy and tired. We talk about what we did for the day, squinting at photographs on tiny screens on slim cameras. We spend mealtimes expending more energy, regaling those unlucky enough not to witness the exploits of the more mischievous children. We spend the time after dinner mapping out what has to be done for the school the next day. We like being tired.

The first week passes quickly, and then we lurch frighteningly into the second. This is a trip we will like never to end. We spend nights talking about what-ifs, and we wish that we could move our friends and families to this beautiful place with us. Conversely, we think, if only we spent our time doing something more meaningful back in our local spheres, in our own unique ways and in the privilege of our own time.

We visit the night market on the last two nights, marveling at how the local sellers are not given to overt displays of salesmanship. There is no touting-or, at least, nothing that so much resembles raised voices or over-eager smiles-instead, we are greeted with rows and rows of neat, turned-out people sitting with their feet tucked in beneath them on mats, illuminated by the warm light of a single incandescent bulb hanging from a wire above their heads.

Down the street, the crowd thins. We notice that the people here seem to be battling cold more than they are intent on selling their wares. There are fewer sellers with light bulbs illuminating them, so it is darker, less welcoming, and more depressing than the spirited atmosphere of the main market. My friend buys a hand-embroidered purse from an old woman with a sad, toothy smile. Beside her, a young girl is snuggled against her, observing us with bright eyes (how can eyes be this shiny?) He decides to let her keep the change for a slightly bigger note, when it seems that a deal he thought he has struck with her does not go through. She smiles gratefully at him. We think he is the first customer of that night. The market is due to close in another half hour. As I walk away, I feel sad and cold.

So many more stories to tell, but these experiences have changed us. One more for the stormy night in the future when there is nothing on the TV, maybe another for the repertoire of travelers’ tales we will swap with fellow backpackers in a dim inn in another place thousands of miles from here; but most importantly, another experience that goes in shaping us into the people that we eventually become.

I am still learning to be a better leader, and the trip certainly taught me that. Thirty-four young people staying together in close proximity for two weeks brought about its own set of problems, as there is always almost bound to be, even amongst people familiar with each other. There were moments where people fell sick and spent days having to recuperate in bed, and someone even witnessed a botched theft against a foreigner.

The bus is quiet when we leave Luang Prabang in the middle of a sunny afternoon. It is 3’o clock, and we have a schedule to keep to. We spend the night on the bus, as it navigates its way past the dark silhouettes of mountain ranges, its surroundings enveloped in a mist.

I am at the front of the bus, and when I turn back, everyone is lost in his or her own dreams, deep in uneasy sleep. It is a few hours after midnight, and we are headed towards the Thai border. It is silent and I count the signs on the dark, unlit road indicating the number of miles left to the checkpoint. Every mile we gain means that we are a mile further from the people we have come to love. Goodbye, Laos, goodbye. I want to cry and it is a good time to, since it is dark everywhere. I left a bit of me in Luang Prabang. But why cry, when it will do nothing to bring things back to the way they were before?

Beauty lost, paradise lost, memories lost. We cry because we know what we have lost, even if we have taken away more than we have given.

Religion and Science will always be in conflict. Comment.

2008-02-08T10:38:00.000+08:00

My little take on religion and science. Check it out!

Religion and Science will always be in conflict. Comment.

Religion has been flourishing never like before in today’s enlightened society. Science has been the greatest intellectual development since the 16^th century. The relationship between these two cultural forces has been both tumultuous and mystifying. Historically, their relationship can be characterised as either in conflict or in concord with one another. We have learnt from past experiences that it is impossible to separate the relationship into the two parameters. There will be areas of overlap where there will be conflict along certain dimensions and conflict along others. Stephen Jay Gould puts forward the popular modern theory of “Non-Overlapping Magisteria” which describes science and religion dealing with fundamentally different aspects of the human experience and they co-exist perfectly when they each stay within its own domain.

By definition, the term “science” applies to any activity that is a systematic and disciplined enterprise aimed at finding out truth about our world and has significant empirical involvement. It involves the analytical study of nature though the assumption of a working hypothesis which occurs only due to natural causes. Religion is the belief of one of more omnipotent and omniscient God(s) as a designer of the universe. For religion to be differentiated from belief, the believer must display characteristics religious attitudes like worship, love and commitment. Religion deals with matter of faith and grows around it.

Conflict between religion and science arises in the area they overlap. Both religion and science battle each other, viewing the other party as a flawed belief system. For example the roman inquisition was developed by the Holy See in the 16^th century to prosecute individuals accused of heresy. The greatest controversy at between cosmology and religion at that time was sparked by Galileo Galilei’s theory of heliocentrism- the sun is the centre of the universe. The concept seems to contradict biblical references “Psalm 93:1” which states that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." As a result, the Catholic ordered him to recant his heliocentric idea and placed him under house arrest till which he spent the remainder of his life and died. Of late, the conflict between religion and science has centred on the theory of evolution. Christian fundamentalists accept the methodical account from Genesis with God being the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Richard Dawkins popularised evolutionary biology in which natural selection is the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other. Christians believe that living creatures are designed by God himself; according to evolutionary biology, living creatures are a product of the randomised blind process of natural selection.

Conflict aside, the Christian doctrine of creation supports a deep concord between Christian belief and science. Many champions of modern science were staunch Christians themselves- Isaac Newton, Nicolaus Copernicus and Robert Boyle to name a few. They compartmentalise their thinking. They based their spiritual being on religion while seeking secular answers to the physical world. Theistic belief and empirical science are super-imposable on one another. The theistic belief is that God created the world, he create mankind. Mankind has free will to act on his own beliefs. Mankind formulates his own belief and acquires new knowledge. In other words, God created us to learn the world. Another support for concordance is the fine-tuning of several physical parameters. These physical constants have to fall within very narrow limits for life in this universe to exist. For example, if gravity was ever made slightly stronger or weaker, stars will have been suns or stars will never been seen. Theists believe that this universe must have been fine-tuned by a God who made everything so perfect for life-forms to live.

There may be times that it is not religion and science that will conflict, but the people behind them that go head on with each other. Religion and science are both used as concealment for them to mask themselves. In the bitter truth, is the battle of human egos- both party wants to show that they are far greater than another. By showing compliance in the other party’s belief, it demonstrates weakness in them. The extremity of human’s viciousness is made apparent in Elie Wiesel’s recollection of the holocaust. He is an holocaust survivor and a political activist. Through his works, he brings forth the importance of peace, atonement and dignity to humanity.

No matter how much concordance the relationship between religion and science can have, there will always be areas in which they will inevitably conflict. They are fundamentally different fields of the human experience and they employ different approaches in handling issues. This difference gives rise to disagreement with one another. The best solution in preventing conflict is for each of them to adapt for change. Science is generally self-correctling and welcomes change. False hypothesis are corrected as new information is made available. It will be difficult for religion to accept changes, especially for those who are based on a religious scripture. However, changes eventually happen. People now interpret biblical text symbolically like heaven and hell are no longer regarded as being “up there” or “down there”. Some passages are interpreted as being valid for the age when it was written and is of little relevance to society today like male control over female.

869 words

Hey! I do blog about squad outings too!

2008-01-19T00:15:00.000+08:00

So I just reached home after our little squad gathering. Though we hardly see each other these days, but everytime we meet up, we always seem so natural and comfortable with each other. It is always delighting to know that there is this bunch of people whom you spent your growing up years with and they will always be there to share a laugh or two.

Many of us have changed, for the better of course, as we mature through our lives. Noticeably, some of us are more expressive and spirited now. While others like Nigel Wong, seriously needs to brush up on his sense of humour. xD

a happy evening.

New Year Eve

2007-12-31T23:06:00.000+08:00

Its minutes away from the new year and here I am, lying on the bed and doing a recollection of the year in summary.

This year has been a dynamic year for me. There is the transition from secondary school to a new tertiary environment. Apart from the increased academic demands, there is still the socialising aspect. In this new environment, there are always new people that I meet almost everyday and it really test my social skills.

Being in student council and holding leadership positions has taught me many valuable lessons. In every new group of people that I work with, I inevitably realise new weaknesses. Sometimes when I think that I am all capable and good, when I are thrown to work with a new group of people, there will always be aspects that I can improve on.

I realised procrastination is my second nature. I like to talk about my many aspirations and simply drift off, dreaming away. Yet at the end of the day, I look back and realise that they are nothing but delusions. I hope in the upcoming year, I can put my aims into action and really work for them.

At times, I tend to let my emotions get its hold over me. In the DISC test I took this year, it was stated that I am the "steady" type of person. I do things giving high regards to relationships. There is the balance between acting rational and following one's heart. What I tend to do is to just follow my heart and at times being irrational. Most of the time, this just feels right.

I hope in the new year, as we adjust ourselves for the new demanding academic year ahead, we still remain appreciative for those who care for us. And may we all find delightment in every little aspect of our lives.

On a side note, while I am off getting myself a round of drinks to ring in the new year, I hope next year this day, I will be in some pub toasting in the new year. Enchanting/erotic eighteen?

Happy New Year!

Pieces

2007-12-28T23:20:00.000+08:00

Many things just happen unknowingly, but what remains just remind us of what we could have been.

We are the bells that never sing.

Pick up line

2007-12-10T22:03:00.001+08:00

Try this pickup line next time-

Hi. I'm an unemployed alcoholic who just got out of prison for beating my ex wife, and I need your help to pay my child support or my mom will kick me out of her basement and my band won't have anywhere to play. Will you buy me a drink?

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams

2007-12-10T21:40:00.000+08:00

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams

10. Blind People Dream

People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body’s need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

9. You Forget 90% of your Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream (likely opium induced) - he put pen to paper and began to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English’s most famous poems: Kubla Khan. Part way through (54 lines in fact) he was interrupted by a “Person from Porlock“. Coleridge returned to his poem but could not remember the rest of his dream. The poem was never completed.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
[…]

Curiously, Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the story of Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde whilst he was dreaming. Wikipedia has more on that here. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was also the brainchild of a dream.

8. Everybody Dreams

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder) but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition, both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow.

7. Dreams Prevent Psychosis

In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the student’s brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage. [Source]

6. We Only Dream of What We Know

Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts - did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces - they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol in to your Dad’s car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

5. Not Everyone Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. People also tend to have common themes in dreams, which are situations relating to school, being chased, running slowly/in place, sexual experiences, falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, teeth falling out, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident. It is unknown whether the impact of a dream relating to violence or death is more emotionally charged for a person who dreams in color than one who dreams in black and white. [Source]

4. Dreams are not about what they are about

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. The unconscious mind tries to compare your dream to something else, which is similar. Its like writing a poem and saying that a group of ants were like machines that never stop. But you would never compare something to itself, for example: “That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset”. So whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

3. Quitters have more vivid dreams

People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: “Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.” [Source]

2. External Stimuli Invade our Dreams

This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar (though less external) example would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream. My own experience of this includes repeatedly drinking a large glass of water in the dream which satisfies me, only to find the thirst returning shortly after - this thirst… drink… thirst… loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. The famous painting above (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening) by Salvador Dali, depicts this concept.

1. You are paralyzed while you sleep

Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep - most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, “Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.”

Bonus: Extra Facts

1. When you are snoring, you are not dreaming.
2. Toddlers do not dream about themselves until around the age of 3. From the same age, children typically have many more nightmares than adults do until age 7 or 8.
3. If you are awakened out of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, you are more likely to remember your dream in a more vivid way than you would if you woke from a full night sleep.

OCIP photos

2007-11-29T22:06:00.000+08:00

Photos of my OCIP teams. Miss my late night bitching clique, accompanied by beerlao and smirnoff vodka with coke. I learnt that convent girls are REALLY the queens in bitching. Gambling in the middle of the night, nintendo ds racing games, indian pratas, joma bakery shop, ahh such fun to be missed.

Group B - My Group

Group A

Group C

All memories fade away eventually, no matter how cherished they are :(

Do we really need MSN 'nuggest of wisdom' nicks?

2007-11-29T00:48:00.001+08:00

Read this on my friend's blog, its really true and funny.

Do we really need MSN 'nuggest of wisdom' nicks?

People like phrases of wisdom, or catch-phrases. Something like.. well I'll come to the examples later. The point is that too often, people find meaning in these phrases only because they sound good, and not because they reflect some deep mumbo jumbo.

Take the following MSN nicks in italics for example (from my friends' nicks right now), and my equivalent, absolutely, and unnecessarily mean interpretations:

"Live your life intentionally"
- Plan ahead.

"Spiritual renewal must be matched by economic revitalisation"
- Find God? Need money.

"When you walk away, I count the steps you take"
-I miss you (or I just like the song).

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths that you take but by the moments that take your breath away..."
- Quality, not quantity.

"The present is the past you reminisce about in the future"
- Come tomorrow, you will miss today.

Excerpts from my OCIP post reflection

2007-11-26T22:32:00.000+08:00

Some excerpts from my post reflection for OCIP

The OCIP trip has left a striking impression on me – I learnt the intrinsic side of myself. In the mere span of thirteen days in Laos, I was taught many valuable lessons on life skills. I saw my own strengths and unravelled the weaknesses in me. Unintentionally, I also saw the best and worst in people. This trip has been more than just serving the Laotian community. To me, it really versed me in social skills.

Having said that I have seen the best and worst in people, I realized the irrationality of judging people based on first impression. Obvious as it sounds, we often do that subconsciously. When meeting a new person for a first time, I learnt that we should put our judgmental guard down and allow the person to make an impact on us. Also, every little thing that we do counts. We need to know that we do things not to please others, but to fulfil our inner-self. Things, no matter how trivial or minute they may seem to be, all snowballs up in the long run.

When I reflect on my takeaways from the trip, I feel a sense of selfishness as personally I feel that I have gained more from the Laotian people as compared to what I have given to them. How would my thirteen days spent in Laos impact the people as just free labour and playing companions to the children? What would they have gained after we have left the village? Were the tears shed by the children when we left the school because they were thankful and touched by what we have done, or is it due to the mere separation of newly forged friendships. What they have shown me is the joy derived from leading their simple lives. They always walk around with a smile on their face and always ungrudgingly rendering their help to us. Even the local shopkeepers and the guesthouse staff made an impact on me, even though the language is a communication barrier to us; they have never failed to outreach their hospitality and friendliness to me.

These are the joys of a simple life.

back to singapore

2007-11-24T22:09:00.000+08:00

life's somehow empty without ocip :(

Will be in laos

2007-11-10T20:01:00.000+08:00

Check this this series of human disection videoes. May be too gory at first, but you get used to it after seeing the first part.

http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/132407/Autopsy_Emergency_Room_Part_1.html

I will be in Laos for ocip during the period of 11-24 Nov.

Heres what I predict my trip to be like-

I will be in some cheapo 2 star hotel through out the 13 days. Although there are hotel services such as laundry services, but I am expecting the worst already. The food will be gross, I won't be expecting good ol' fish n chips like in perth, but rather some sucky local freaking spicy dishes.

The hotel will be small, there may not even be a television (though I am praying hard there will be one :) ). The bath towels will be old and stiff, perhaps even with the stench of the previous user.

The school will be like a large wooden shack, perhaps some chickens at the door step to welcome me. I hope the school is rain proof, I don't want to find myself hiding under some table to avoid the rain. I expect the children to be quite tanned, weather beaten I suppose. They should be all speaking in Laos, a language I may find weird and funny at first. They will come and rush up and hug me. Ahh!

Through out the work schedule, I will not be suprised if my OCIP team members start to reveal their other ugly side. They may slack, gossip excessively and such. I will be a nice chap and fake ignorance to such people and continue to do my fair share of work.

Ok, now is the shopping part. We will be doing night market shopping at Changmai. I hope I am able to get some decent looking clothes larh. I hope that sell things other then their local silk clothes.

Bleah, I think too much. Just hope that it be fun and meaningful.

The fun part is that you can all still contact me through my handphone. I suggest you send a sms instead of calling me, however, bear in mind for each sms will cost $0.70. Receving a sms is free for me :)

Wenjie writing this at 11.50pm, 10 Nov.
Will be flying off at 6am later.

The thing about school camps is that..

2007-11-05T21:21:00.000+08:00

The thing about school camps

I have been through many camps in my schooling life already. I think it is more of a passing fad that claims to allow students to learn "beyond the classroom".

Recently, my friend told me something that happened during his leadership training camp. There was this girl who completed a high element. When she got down, she cried immediately.
When probed, she replied that she did not cry cause of fear of height or anything, she cried due to her "sense of accomplishment" in completing the high element.

I feel that there is nothing to be proud of in completing the high element. Many have been there, done that. Yes, some pull themselves and overcome their fear of height but that does not justify to the extent of them crying.

Does such school based camps thrive by instilling an artificial sense of fulfilment into its participants. What happens when one steps out of that guided campsite, is it all back to square one?

I think that is the case.

After promos

2007-10-20T22:25:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone out there. Promos is finally over yays.

I have been overwhelmed with PW and Chinese A lvl (unsuprisingly). After these two hurdles, then I gotta deal with OCIP. Damn I love OCIP, its hella fun working with nice people. After I get back from Laos then the orientation nightmare will start.

I have been told that next year PAE wil only last like 2-4 weeks or so and our OG1 is supposed to be made low-key. On the other hand, OG2 will be made a blast. This idea will not definately not work.

Shall blog more intellectually next time when I manage to find myself some free time.

"Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shall drink it with pleasure."
Sirach 9:10

Its cool to hang out with old pals sometimes.

Wish me luck for chinese. =D

My guitars

2007-09-08T23:12:00.000+08:00

I borrowed the yahama classical guitar from my classmate to play during service learning. Sadly, the guitar has been returned already.

See how the yahama guitar matches with my washburn guitar? Nice eh.

Fireworks!

2007-09-08T22:48:00.000+08:00

Went for service learning at Bedok Senior Activity Center today, afterwards had to take the folks to East Coast Town Council Mega Carnival at the open field outside tanah merah mrt. The fireworks at the end of it made our time spent all so worthy.

Whinings of a jc kid.

2007-09-02T01:23:00.000+08:00

Whinings of a jc kid.

Teachers' day burnt up two weeks of my time, staying back for the last two weeks before teachers' day to do planning/decors. Average time I left school on those days were like 7-8pm. urgh!

OCIP.Im in teaching commitee, gotta plan and prepare teaching materials for kids in laos during year end holidays. Not as demanding as SC projects but still burns time.

Extra lessons and shit, oh cmon freaking hell, these things kill you when ya half dead at the end of the day.

Day passes so quickly and reptitiously that we can't feel its extensity.

I think dhs and dhs ppl are cool, somehow I look forward to meeting them. Its so easy to relate and joke with them.4G peeps are as cool as ever. NP peeps as rocking as ever.

OH I wan np chalet. It will be post-promo retreat after all these turmoils in these few months. Sometime days get so busy that I go without msn messenger for a whole week, this was certainly an impossible feat in the past.

I am being so frank yet random, haha.

Till my next blog post, for goodness who knows when.

Good days to you all, my friends.

2007-07-08T20:16:00.000+08:00

Nostalgia

2007-06-28T22:46:00.000+08:00

I often feel nostalgic these days as we all gradually settle down in our new enviroments.

Tony Laf on Britain's Got Talent

2007-06-16T02:01:00.001+08:00

Updates

2007-04-27T23:17:00.000+08:00

Okay, I think its time to post some updates on my life.

- I am currently in TPJC. tpjc rocks! *shrieks*

- I am in Bio/Chem/Maths/Econ combi. Unfortunately, I have to take h1 chinese cause I screwed up my HCL, got 48.5/100 for sec 3 EOY and dhs forced me to drop it.

- My chinese teacher happens to be a ex-dhs student too, she is probably in her late 30s, kind of obese, cracks jokes at her own expense.

- I am most "playful" when during chinese lessons.

- Hao Jun from GEP happens to be in same CG as me.

- There are 2 malays in my current CG, down from the 6 in my pae CG. (no pun intended)

- I am glad to be in my CG, in contrast to the other "wilder" classes.

- My classmate, Jun Jie from AHS, envisions people in our CG to top the school.

Moving on..

- I got elected into the 22nd student council.

- It is my only CCA now. I was in sailing for PAE, but it was closed down after JAE, reason being sailing is too expensive for the school to maintain. The other CCAs just do not interest me and I prefer to use the extra time to buck up on school work.

- I felt that NPCC leisure camps were so much more fun than Council Camp.

- Yes, Kim Wakerman is in council too.

- I am in no position to comment on whether its a good or bad thing.

Speaking of council camp, it was quite "eventful". Before our night walk, we were all gathered in the conference room (about the size of typical classroom). The Thai horror movie, The Shutter, was screened and we were forced to watch it. The J2 councilors did not watch it with us, for fear of scaring themselves in the night. Admittedly, the movie was quite freaky and the nasty sights in the movie flash in my head till now. The girls just screamed at every opportunity they had.

Then we proceeded to the night walk, I was one of the earlier ones who started. The night walk wasn't scary at all, there were too much J2s around, lights too bright, they chatted loudly, they were unenthusistic in scaring us, route wasn't too well planned.

The night walk was cancelled half way cause some of the J2s reported seeing "things" at the hall - piano playing by itself. *goosebumps*/*like duh* The hall route was like this, enter the hall from the side entrance, get on stage, go through the drawn curtains, press every key on the piano, find the back door of the stage and get the fcuk out of there.

- yeah, council people are nice.

LOL, remember Yi Liang from 4b? His mum is my maths lecturer. She speaks too fast, how to understand what she is teaching.

I miss the days in DHS. The people, the teachers.

This is all, take care and God Bless.

Visual DNA

2007-04-27T23:06:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Hey humans, I am still alive :)
PLEASE do chat me up on chat when you are free k?

2007-03-26T22:02:00.001+08:00

Memorable msn exchanges

2007-03-25T22:14:00.000+08:00

Memorable msn exchanges of the week. First from weijie and second from my econs teacher.

伟杰Weijie! `:
oooohh
LOL
ok
gdjob.
work hard
dont let urself down again

Del:
ya
but teaching U cant look at $$
cannott sustain
must realli have a heart for students hehe
ok la
but some students do not appreciate
wells U r one of those few :)

How many does it take to change a lightbulb?

2007-02-22T21:32:00.000+08:00

these light bulb jokes make sense actually.

Q: How many RJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 4 whole faculties. One to design the new bulb, one to manufacture and test it out, one to write a proposal on it and one to market it.

Q: How many HCJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The whole school. To compete with RJC.

Q: How many VJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The whole school. One student to screw it in and the rest to cheer and wave flags and banners to give him/her support.

Q: How many NJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They can study without light.

Q: How many AJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: They’re too busy trying to be one of the top 5 JCs.

Q: How many ACJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They’ll rather use all their money to employ YJC to do it for them.

Q: How many YJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Only one teacher to tell them what a light bulb is in the first place and to demonstrate how to change the light bulb. (So how do you think they’re able to change it for ACJC?)

Q: How many CJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: They’ll prefer it to be darker. (Hmmmm?*raises eye-brows*

Q: How many JJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Their physics is so bad that they made their macho male physics teacher cry.

Q: How many TPJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Would they even bother?

Q: How many SAJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They believe in praying for it.

Q: How many NYJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are still using oil lamps.

Q: How many SRJC >students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Huh, what litebarb?

Q: How many PJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Heck the light bulb lah, the principal would do something about the rightbarbs. Let’s do 300 jumping jacks for not wearing the proper school attire.

Q: How many MJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are too busy trying to get promoted.

Q: How many IJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are Innovians. They’ll find ways out of the dark.

Q: How many ~~TJC~~ DHS students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They think they are already very bright.

COOL SHIT MENS

14 points

2007-02-10T15:57:00.000+08:00

Hi there,

life's been a stumbling block for me. 14 points. 5 A2s and a B4 for english.

A2 is like a bitch, it looks seemingly acceptable on it's own. But once you bring 5 of them together, it's a catastrophe.

I got a feeling I flunked my English comprehension, just like the way I got 10/25 during prelims. The B4 from English really hurts.

Officially, I have taken the o level Chinese examination three times! Obtained a B3, B4, A2 respectively. If I had gotten a A2 on the first try, I would not have to drop HCL and thus, able to retain my 2 bonus point from HCL.

Sighs, little regrets from the past.

People have been telling me, JC pass by so quickly before you realise it. Sooner or later, academic concerns will be so overwhelming that it precedes before anything else.

No one cares about the JC we are in when we are out working in the society. It is the degree that truly matters. Whatever decisions we make now, it is all for that piece of degree at the end of our university life, keeping the end result in mind.

Yup, I'm feeling better already, accepting whatever that comes by.

Anyone out there who hates A2 as much as me?

What it means to be held

2007-02-03T14:25:00.000+08:00

Ahh ha, rough times ahead!

This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

Mrs Gay

2007-02-02T18:44:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, over a conversation about my estimated o level results, I realised something lame. The week after o level, I told myself that I would be glad settling with 10 points. During the holidays, 15 points seems somewhat likely. Now I quite worried sia, was at first happily looking forward for the results to come and now getting jitters all over it.

My biology lecturer posted these on the school online portal. She got this nice habit of signing off her online postings with her own words of encouragement.

JC 1 Biology Lecture Powerpoint slides 5/2/07

Hi everyone,

The attachment with the rest of the powerpoint slides for Cell Ultrastructure is now available.My target is to complete the lecture by Monday's lecture on 5 Feb 2007.

Wishing all of you the best for the coming 'O' Level Results - remember that our self esteem lies in who we are - special creations of God, Our Heavenly Father up above who loves us very dearly and disciplines us for our good - and not in our works like academic results.Warmest regards,

Mrs Gay

Special Greetings for JC 1 Biology Students 5/2/07

Hi everyone,

Guess all of you are excited about the release of the 'O' Level results. I would like to send special greetings and wishes to all and to thank all of you for being such wonderful students for the past month. My dearest wish is for all of you to remain in TPJC .... but if you are moving off to another JC or Poly, I would understand too! Still, I would love to have all of you back here.

Thank you,

Mrs Gay

Attachment: Wish-kittens 2007.ppt
Posted by: Mrs Gay Guay Kim

Preview of her slides.

TPJC

2007-01-16T20:27:00.000+08:00

Today was a hectic day, left house at 6.30am for school and returned home only at 7.20pm. And today wasn’t a cca day. Is this the jc life that everyone’s talking about and the one I am seeking for?

Normally, school should end at 1.50pm today, but as I am taking KI, I had to wait till 4.30pm for it to start. Today was my first lesson on KI, which was interesting a mind opener for me. Although being a h2 subject, the lessons are held in a discussion basis and everyone is welcomed to chip in their own opinion. Being a passive person myself, I admit I was a little shocked to see how vocal and extrovert my classmates were and the way they presented their ideas. I hope that I am able to adapt to the demands and style of learning in the KI class over the next few lessons.

The teacher started off the lesson by asking us a teaser question.

A bear travels 60km south, 60km east and 60km north and then returned to the same exact starting location. What is the color of the bear?

(Scroll down for answer)

...

(Think harder leh!)

...

White, because the bear is a polar bear. Imagine a globe, with the polar bear being on the extreme North Pole, going down south and back up north again, to the North Pole.

Interesting eh?

The ironic part was that my little discussion group had to present on the topic “Does God exist?” I initially thought that there would be more Christians other than me in my little group of 5 and it turned out that I was the only Christian and the other four were free thinkers. Sadly to say, they chose to agree on the viewpoint that God do not exist. I felt it hard to contribute ideas to the group; especially it was going against what I believe in. Good thing was that they were also sensitive to the believers.

The conclusion that we made that we had was that God exist due to us wanting to seek an explanation for all the unknown surrounding us and for a reason or the creations in this world. Although we couldn’t truely prove the existence of God using any mathematical/scientific method, we also couldn’t prove that God do not exist. It all boils down to an individual’s faith.

Heh.

Haven’t blogged for a long time. What I've been up to was trying to fit myself in my new environment for which I must admit, I don’t really like the school. Baosheng, now a j2 in tpjc told me the school sucks and hope the best for my O level results so I can get to a better environment and not end up suffering for two years there. Sorry to tpjc for saying this, but I didn’t feel very comfortable in the school environment. Maybe it’s just the stubborn old me.

After orientation, I had two ccas in mind to join. One was badminton and the other was sailing. Sadly, the badminton coach only accepted 7 male players, 6 of which were selected during the trials were secondary school team players and I had no chance in it.

Sailing was slightly better as the people there were amicable, easy going and were zealous in wanting to know the j1s better. The sailing orientation from what I feel was so much better than the school’s orientation. It was probably due to the smaller group of people and the j2s themselves getting involved in the orientation, even grouping up with the j1s themselves to play the silly games. (Lotsa water bombs, dog'n'bone, captain's ball with a bar of wet soap :)

Within these few weeks, I rubbed shoulders with many people, namely og24 (oh yeh, jack sparrow, aka champs\class (07s04), sailing, and the sj ppl from dhs which I had never spoken to in my 4 years of dunmanian life. The intense socialising scene for the past few weeks has taken a toll on my weary soul. sians.

Small rebecca from sj even told me that she read my blog and felt the cao cao post on boonwei during lc06 was funny. LOL

Yep, I’m kind of tired now after writing all these out. What I hope is that I can have a open mind and accept all the wonderful teachers and friends that come by during these few remaining weeks.

God bless.

*plural pronouns used for "God" in the post"

A New Year

2007-01-01T00:53:00.000+08:00

It's a new year and guess what? I got myself a nifty ipod nano and I'm so proud of it.

I enjoyed reading the new year posts from you guys, on friends, regrets, resolutions. It just shows the humane side in each of us, just how simple and naive we all are. I guess most of us are just like that, only realising how beautiful things are only at the end of it.

I must say that my sec 1 to 3 days weren't spent as fulfilling as my sec 4 days. Many regrets, which are too late to redeem.

Call it a fluke, I was bought back to church in July, 2005. It somehow made me stronger, spiritually and I realised that I needed to live the purpose driven life, instead of wandering about aimlessly.

Sec 4 life was slightly better, I knew the importance of getting a good grade. Forced myself to study harder than never before, regardless of any unwanted distractions. Started to be grateful of the true friends around me.

Thanks for being there and getting me through the end of DHS journey. It would have been meaningless without you all, to get past it with nothing but only academic credentials.

Keep true to what you believe in.

I hope my tpjc schoolmates do not stumble upon this blog, oh cmon.

Debbie Wong

2006-12-30T21:42:00.000+08:00

First time to correctly identify the above person wins my warmest regards for the new year. Post your answer on tagboard. Have fun guessing.

I am bored and I dunno what to post so i posted a picture of debbie wong.

Commercialized Christmas

2006-12-25T00:32:00.000+08:00

As you all celebrate Christmas, remember the true purpose behind it. Think of the birth of our saviour Jesus and share this season with your loved ones.

Screw commercialism.

Standard Chartered Marathon 2006

2006-12-16T23:37:00.000+08:00

I participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon 2006.

See this Kenyan dude, I was practically pacing him all the whole while. I must say that he runs....er kinda brisk though. Had a really really hard time catching up with him.

That's me, I went for the 10km run with Ivan Loh. I think that's funny. "I" or rather "we" were targeting to break the one hour barrier. As you can see from the chip time, I was off the target time by 5m 24s.
):

Humph, I think I look a little funny. Ha Ha. I am supposed to pay Marathon-Photos.com $40 if I wanna have the full quality photo certificated printed out. What a rip off!

As you can see, based on the gun time, I am ranked 1505th, approx the 29th percent. My time of 1h 5mins is only slightly ahead of the average time of 1h 17mins.

The run was great, running with thousands of tanned, brawny men gives you an unrivalled sense inferiority in which you push your flaccid body to its maximum in order to prove your embryonic might to them.

The initial water stations did not excite me, not even the least bit. I chose to ignore the little girls pleas for my attention to pass the miserable cup of plain water to me.

The kick of adrenaline actually started after I drank the 100 plus from the 100 plus station. Surprisingly, the 100 plus tasted sooo good. I never once enjoyed 100 plus so much til that particular moment. Amazingly, I actually ran faster after I drank the 100 plus than before. I am sure that it wasn't the placebo effect and rather, the result of drinking the 100 plus itself.

Well, the Kenyan dude in the picture was the winner of the full marathon.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, A Time For Everything

2006-12-16T23:34:00.000+08:00

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Salvation is here!

2006-12-16T23:06:00.000+08:00

The previous church that I been to, BMC, sent me a email, asking me to invite my friends to their christmas outreach event. Irony is that I havn't been to that church for a long long time.

Go if you want, but I'm not goin heh.

Nike Sale

2006-12-13T00:28:00.000+08:00

Nike Sale
Public - Free Admission
Expo Hall 6B
15-Dec-06 to 17-Dec-06
Start Time: 12:00; End Time : 18:00

Show Profile:
Nike Year End Sale

Event hours:
15 Dec 06 - 12.00noon to 6.00pm
16 & 17 Dec 06 - 10.00am to 6.00pm

Organiser:
Nike Singapore Pte Ltd

Who wanna go down with me, preferably on this saturday?

Why some people hate Christmas?

2006-12-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

For your reference, I do somehow look forwad to christmas but there just are some people out there who just doesn't like it.

These are probably that reason why they hate christmas.

Those stupid car commercials
Who buys their wife a fucking Lexus for Xmas? Only a guy who got caught shagging his secretary last weekend would pull something like that. No pussy is that good.

Relationships
Anyone who is over 25 and single will understand this; Xmas is the time of year your friends and family who are around your age and already married will always ask you when you are going to “meet that special someone”. Fuck that, they are just trying to drag you into their misery. When they aren’t looking, piss all over their curtains.

Everything has to look like Xmas
Why is Santa outside the grocery store begging for change? No doubt Google will be festive as always this holiday season. Everywhere you go you will be reminded it’s Xmas. No one can escape the wicked reach of the evil hybrid Santa Clause /baby Jesus /consumerism Xmas spirit. Don’t let folks catch you without the festive spirit either, nothing is worse than being chased down by a mob of red and green clad over-sized elves all hyped up on the spirit of Saint Nick and a strong eggnog /rum mix.

We have heard all the Xmas music already
Why is it around this time of year the latest pop crazed band or singer has to release an album full of Xmas songs? You would think people would be sick of them by now, they are the same shit every year. Everyone has heard them all before. The worst part is they run through your head for hours upon hours after you were unfortunate enough to catch one playing somewhere, making you want to rip your eardrums out with a spork from Taco Bell.

Santa Claus is a dirty lie
It is a fairy tail told to little kids to explain why they didn’t get everything they wanted, because most little kids are really rotten inside. The parents can just say “Oh, I guess you weren’t a good enough person to get that this year”, all the while covering for the fact that they were either too cheap or too slow to get them the latest fare from the world of trendy marketing.

Xmas movies suck
The same plot, over and over again. Oh look, it’s Xmas, everyone is happy. Oh no, look, something is going to ruin Xmas. Wait, no, Xmas is saved! Sprinkle in a couple of out-of-work semi-recognizable actors and you got the plot for every Xmas movie or seasonable television show ever made.

Shopping is hell
Tis the season where otherwise peaceful soccer moms will kill you with their SUV’s over a parking spot ten feet closer to the entrance of the mall. Every place you go is packed with long lines and few cashiers. The roads are full of crazed shoppers trying to get through the stoplight five seconds quicker than everyone else. You are better off just starving in your basement until the new year.

One day, Sony will buy it all anyways
Yes, mark my words. The year will arrive when the PS15 can’t be produced in time for December 25th and Sony will immediately buy the rights to Xmas and move it to January 5th. To be fair, I think the Super Bowl will go before Xmas, but in the end, it’s all going to be for sale someday.

HA HA

(got the article from here)

are you a COLD_FIRE_nigel? I am a frosty_blazing_wenjie

Entry Gone :(

2006-12-08T02:04:00.000+08:00

Oh man I typed in an entry and somehow got screwed by blogger. Its 2.24am in a saturday morning. I started my first working stint yesterday, although I must admit that the long hours are really pulling the plug, but I look forward to gaining some working exposure. And of course, the wonderful pay at the end of the month.

Bless ya.

Movie: The Last Kiss. Wrote an excerpt on it but to my anguish, it got lost due to blogger. While I decide if I should write about it again in my next entry, just enjoy it.

Merry Early Christmas

2006-12-04T00:52:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah, its Christmas here again. The season of giving and sharing, when the best of people is bought out.

The day celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. The time when shopping centers are dressed up the nines, glittering street lights, enchanting little ornaments hung, presenting a most glamorous image. All the sales will start and the bargain hunters will stimulate the economical growth of the country.

Well, its Christmas after all.

I missed out the Magic of Love show last year and whoa, I will be attending it this year round.

Bonus: I got a little gift to you all. Its a full Christmas album by Hillsong called Celebrating Christmas. Hope it gets you all into the festive mood. :)

Track list:

Angels We Have Heard On High
Joy To The World
Christmas Time Again
O Rejoice
O Come O Come Emmanuel
O Little Town
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Hark The Herald
Emmanuel
What Child Is This
Can You Here
Saviour Christ The King

Download : http://rapidshare.com/files/3910454/HS-Christmas ( Got the link from a music forum)

Share the joy.

People come and go

2006-11-28T19:25:00.000+08:00

How would you know who are the ones that are going to stay with you?

People change with time. Sometimes, people tend to move ahead faster than you, settling into their new environments while you are left behind, clinging on the the past memories.

People come into a life for a reason. They make an significant impact, leave and than move on. What's left is only a stronger you.

This is a constant cycle of life. The game called life.

You can lose people but never lose yourself.

They leave the same way as they came in. By the stroke of luck and when you least expected it.

Acceptance may be the best answer.

Just keep moving.

4G chalet 06

2006-11-22T19:08:00.000+08:00

4G chalet was great, glad to see so many people turning up for the bbq itself on the first night.

To me, going for 4 days 3 nights of chalet straight without going home to rest is a feat by itself. Grats to kiat jas tx kif darren for emerging as vindicators.

Room itself was small, everyone were forced to cram ogether. Also thanks to the beehoon and otahs given by the next door neighbours, they were left to rot in the room and POOF, copulatingly smelly.

Did couple of crazy stuffs.

Dyed hair, chionged alcohol.

Our beloved weekiat bought/kupped his dad $200 cognac xo (did i get it right) to chalet, for the sake of our enjoyment. We feel bad if we were to drink it and decided it would be best if he retuned to his dad. I did not enjoy the taste of vodka, perhaps I am just not used to the alcohol taste.

Chill guys, the dyeing of hair was more of giving it a little touch of colour. Not that obvious actually, unless you really notice it under bright lights.

Went lan in the middle of the first night. I was not used to the bed and could not sleep. Plus, kooky yaoliang was shouting "like a pro", non stop, in the middle of the night. A promising butcher in the future for sure.

yaoliang arh..yaoliang..

(to be continued)

Roller blading, night cycling, burnt hole in pocket.

Truth or dare.

One of the dare was to ate the piece of cake yaoliang bought for his queen and omg, poor soongteng had to finish it up. Cake looked nice though. He was kinda cute, imagining him calling up in the middle of the night, "hey i left my cake in the fridge, you guys can have it."

ZzZz

Thanks 4g for what you have given me, despite the many trials and tribulations that we have been through, we shared some of the most wonderful memories together.

As what they say, if you cannot see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.

Eeeks.

Thats it.

Thanks and best wishes in your future endeavors.

2006-11-15T22:17:00.000+08:00

hello world

What the world will never take

2006-10-19T16:36:00.000+08:00

Live performance by united live

Tutorial on playing the intro

Link

"With all I'm holding inside
With all hopes and desires
And all the dreams that I've dreamt

With all I'm hoping to be
And all that the world will bring
And all that fails to compare"

-Hillsong

Sounds great eh?

Anyone able to give me tips on playing the harmonics. My harmonics like KEK sai. How much is the right pressure to apply? Pluck and lift fingers immediately?

*Ok, I got the harmonics part right*

And also, I got this problem that. I use recording software on my computer to record from my guitar, connected to my CPU through the mic jack input, and through effect processing software. Yet the sound that is recorded is unprocessed, without the fancy effects. So what I want is to record the processed sound, from my guitar input. Email me if you know.

Not too confusing right, OH MAN, I don't expect to get any help from my pathetically low traffic blog. I am better off posting this in a music forum.

TEE HEE HEE!

The general consensus in my class is that ss + lit elect is the worst combination for combined humanities. Social studies and literature is from the extremes of the humanity world. One talk about Tunku, another talk about Krishna. Wad the hell man, no relationship at all. Ok maybe both of them sucks BIG time. It’s really a pain in the ass to study.

For the young one out there, do not choose ss + lit, history and geography will be much better. History is something like the chapter on harmony and discord, while the human aspect of geography would be on industrialization, which is covered in ss.

forive the hurt, release the feelings.

VJVJVJVJ

2006-10-13T23:19:00.000+08:00

EH THIS IS CRAZY. I REALISED HOW CONVENIENT VJ IS FOR ME. ITS JUST A 5 MINS CYCLE FROM MY HOUSE. SO FROM MY RANTINGS, ITS LIKE A FREAKING GOOD SCHOOL IN FRONT OF MY DOOR STEP AND WAITING FOR ME TO PUT IN THE EXTRA EFFORT AND STEP INTO IT. OH YAH, VJ GOT BICYCLE STANDS CATHERED TO PPL LIKE ME -.-

AND WAIT, THE PATHWAY TO VJ ISNT THOSE ROADSIDE ONE, ITS A DAMN PARK CONNECTOR. LAY NICE NICE FOR ME TO CYCLE ON!

OMG. IF I DUN SCORE WELL AND END UP IN MJ. GOSH! HOW INCONVENIENT WILL THAT GOIN TO BE. TAKE TRAIN TO PARIS RIS, SWITCH BUS. OMOOMG.

COMPARE IT TO A 5 MINS CYCLE TO VJ. YES 5 MINS. IF I RUN, 10 MINS, WALK, 20 MINS. OMOOMG.

VJ, I'M HAVING A STROKE CAUSE OF YOU. MARRY ME?

IF IM EVER IN NEED OF A MOTIVATION TO STUDY, WONT THIS BE ONE?

Pledge by teachers

2006-10-13T18:23:00.000+08:00

Do the teachers recite this pledge everyday? O.O

Buy me a PODxt Live!

2006-10-11T20:54:00.000+08:00

POD® XT Live is an uncomplicated, gig-ready tone machine that's portable and adaptable to different real world stage and recording environments. PODXT Live can be used as the ultimate multi-effects pedal in front of any guitar amp, as a complete direct PA solution, or as the world-standard guitar recording workhorse in the studio.

Awards:

2006 Editor's Choice Award
Electronic Musician

2005 MIPA
(Musikmesse International Press Award)

2005 "Guitar Tool of the Year"
PPV Magazine

Some nice go buy it from me! $650 for first hand, $530 like that for a second hand.

I don't mind a second hand.

lolols

The only way I play my guitar is through direct line in input to the amplifier and the sound that comes out is very plain. Even with the build in effects in my Roland microcube, the tone is still anywhere close from replicating the sound of the mainstream bands. Ok, I am pathetic, I admit. If I ever going to work during the holidays after o levels, I wil certainly get this effectboard. The reviews for the podxt rate it as being expectionally value for money at its price range.

Also, there would be more tones than I will ever need in this lifetime.

Who on this damn world uses it? Many. From the guitarist of planetshakers, youth alive to hooberstank and led zeppelin. And others which I never ever heard before.

Chill it. Don't let the books burn you out.

The internet is such a boring place to be in.

2006-10-10T22:04:00.000+08:00

What you all think? *boreeeddddddddd*

Idiot Tv: Hold it. Don't move.

2006-10-09T22:16:00.000+08:00

Dumb kid.

The Mr Yeo Talk

2006-10-05T19:02:00.000+08:00

The intention was good, but I felt very uncomfortable relating myself to the class. I was being so superficial fyi.

Guess there will be alot of blog entries about today's happenings. I'll update next time. Damn tired now.

Meanwhile, enjoy this improvised version of canon rock.

Procrastination

2006-10-04T21:14:00.000+08:00

My prelims results have been very disappointing. It has been really tough waking up everyday, to the fact that I will probably be spending the first 3 months of next year in some ulu jc. Really tough.

Procrastination. This is what I have been doing for the past month. I keep telling myself that with the fantastic effort I put into studying, getting into a top jc will not pose as a problem for me. Ironically, when I got back my results, my larger than life ego was pricked and I was really fucked, realizing what I was thinking all these while. My big ego is destroying me.

Nevertheless, I am glad to have many supportive friends around me. They have been more than wonderful in immersing themselves in my woes, already taking half the pain away. Some cursed and swore with me, some analyzed which part of my revision I did wrong and others just graciously listened to my whining.

Perhaps the crux of my problem lies in the fact that I did not enjoyed the least bit of my study. Yes, I studied hard but did I studied happily? Without a doubt, no. I conceived studying as a chore that I had to complete before I let myself hit the sack every night. Thinking back, I realized that I was so fucking naive, studying, hardcore studying will get me nowhere.

What I have to do now, is to make myself enjoy studying, reduce the amount of mindless studying and give myself more room for fun.

I will be better tomorrow.

Am I being too optimistic?

Creative DiViCam 516

2006-09-26T22:33:00.000+08:00

Featured on Digital Life today, the Creative DiViCam 516.

Its basically a video player, a 640x480 VGA video camera, TV-input vcr recorder, 5.1 megapix camera, voice recorder, web cam, storage and a mp3 player all rolled up in one. Just for the measly price of $249. To call it a jack of all trades, master of none would be perfect. Damn attractive for that price, isn't it?

The jack of all trades, master of none. It reminds me of Kelvin Ang? That silly boy rather get 9 B3s than 6A1s and 2F9s. What a jack.

:)

OH SCREW THURSDAY!

Evil manifestations of dotA

2006-09-25T21:26:00.000+08:00

I’m kind of bored today, having spending the day doing one amaths paper 1. It is like do 3 questions, fall asleep, another 3 questions, sleep again. Hard to adapt back to the studying mood you may say. A bored person is a creative person. My thoughts strayed to dota and having uninstalled dota yesterday night, I pondered on the previous three consecutive days of lanning. I wondered what would happen to happen to me if addiction got the better of me.

I decided, DOTA IS EVILZZZZ!!!

Why playing dota is a sin?

1 - It advocates the use of black magic and witchcraft in order to kill your enemies. It shows explicit relevance to satan from items like satanic to skills like doom, presence of the dark lord blah. It uses blood, gore, and virtual ownage to deceive our little innocent minds into the few moments of supremacy.

2 - It deprives you of a proper social life. One typical game usually lasts one hour. Imagine what you can do with the one hour? Watch an episode of desperate housewives, read another topic of biology, do another 10km run. So much more. On an average day, one may play up to three games of dota, at the least, 7 days per week, 4 weeks in a month. So it’s a total of 280 hours on game itself.

3 - You have a lack of a proper conversational topic with your lan buddies. You hang out with friends who play dota and what you all talk about is dota and dota. I must agree that it is possible to talk cock about dota for hours and it is such an overly-intriguing topic, but we all got to develop from just talking about dota itself.

4 - You start to spew vulgarities like a monkey with a hot pan on its ass. People ks you, first thing you type is...? Fuck you cheebye, na bei kser and shit. Subconsciously, you realize all the dirty little words all start to come out from you month. Ranging from small boob sizes to mothers I believe.

5 - The addiction. You put much more important things in life behind dota. Wake up, first thing is to switch on your computer, breakfast, lunch, dinner, all taken beside your computer. The computer seem to be a worldly obsession, your urge waiting to be satisfied. It takes priority over your daily routine. We can also rephrase this as a sort of idolatry, which is of course, bad.

6 - Psychological hurt to loved ones. This is in my very own opinion. How many times have you demanded money to pay for your next LAN session, stayed up late despite countless appeals for you to turn in early, give no shit about your next upcoming tests just because you want to dominate using that bone clinkz once more? This can even go to further extend of ponning school/going to school late, a daily routine just to curb your longings for dota. Have you ever let dota ostracize your love for others?

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him"

No more dota for me!

File Hosting?

2006-09-20T21:44:00.000+08:00

From this dude.. Just the article I had been searching for.

File Labs - http://filelabs.net/

5. Megaupload - Being that it is in the top 100 of all websites (acording to the alexa rank) I expected much more. Well let me explain myself. I expected much more options for uploads and less propaganda. For every click came an add and in one case, an huge pop up prevented me from seeing the upload box. Next.

4. Imageshack - This site was really enjoyable. You can resize an image, and upload up to 2mb, which is average for an image... but I have some images that are larger than 2mb, and I also want to share more than just images.. sadly it only supports Image and Flash Files. Good experience overall; just not enough features and very slow load times.

3. Rapidshare - My experience at rapidshare was pretty good, however; there is absolutly NO hotlinking and no support for streaming media (audio or video). While it didn't force me to download the image, it would not let me link to it and view it. I had to go to a link, and go through a bit of a process to see it. Also, when uploading a file it makes it quite simple, up to the point that the file is uploaded. It than makes it kind of confusing by saying "Register an account to get the links!", but below that it says "Click here for the links". Click the bottom link, and you have a winner, but it only gives you 1 link; A link to grab the file, no way to link to the file itself. With a max filesize of 300mb, its pretty generous, but it is a bit confusing and a hassle.

2. Photobucket - Photobucket allows you to upload Video's as well as Images. This made me happy. However; it will only let you upload a video of 5mb or less (unless you "Go Pro!" which cost money). It does have embedded video, so if you can get a video uploaded for less than 5mb, you can certainly enjoy the benefits. A downside is that you can't upload anything without first registering an account. While this is understandable, it is also a hassle because you can't even test it out before you register. It has "albums" which are just folders so you can sort your images/videos. It also has some nice flash usage, where you can do slide shows and such. Another down side is the "Bandwidth" limits. I had files go over their "bandwidth limit" in a good 5 minutes.. I am guessing each file gets at best 5mb of bandwidth.

1.File Labs - This has been my most enjoyable experience so far. With a max upload per file of 500mb, with unlimited storage and no bandwidth limit for both registered and unregistered users, its simply unbeatable. Unlike the other sites that allow such large amounts of data, this one does not bombard me with ads. I can upload up to 10 files at a time, giving each one of them its own name if I want, and to make it even more enjoyable it supports most major file types (within reason, I guess). You can't upload exe's or ISO's or bat's, but that is not such a big deal because I just zip those files. If you register an account you get what they call a "Directory". In this directory you can sort your files, view them by a list or by thumbnails, and receive comments on your directory. Also, when you upload a file you get a HUGE asortment of links, from a direct link (for images apparently) to thumbnail links. It does allow streaming Audio, Video, and Flash. The one downside to this site that is quite annoying to me is that there is no progress bar for your uploads. For a site of this caliber I would expect this to be an essential, however it is not there. All in All, this is by far my favorite.

I got stress. You got stress.

2006-09-20T19:54:00.000+08:00

"I got stress, you got stress. Why you aggravate me?"
-Hong Kong uncle.

Yes, we all know that the last hurdle is always the hardest. Tomorrow would be emaths paper, last paper for prelims. Hopefully, emaths should be fine, just try not to be careless and make any dumb mistakes. I'm done with studying anyway and currently on my six days adstinence from school work.

Screw prelims, such a pain in the ass. Main purpose of prelims? Give us a wake up slap and I guess I took more than just a slap but more a hard pound on the head instead. I mugged, is mugging and will be mugging.

Within the span of a mere two months, I unconsciously lost my social life, its more of a go school -> study -> go home -> study again routine. And it SUCKS. I begin to admire the IP kids more and more, especially Hwa Chong. Had a primary school gathering couple of weeks back on teachers' day itself. Soo...the bunch of us went Swenson under the advice of our primary science teacher, Madam Chong.

"You all ah, better go some place like Swenson and talk, instead of crowding the staff room leh! Ayah."

Hmm, imagine her like Lim Shiao Hong, only a bit more plumber due to her second pregnancy in two years, damn...such a baby machine. Yah, her lips also as beefy as Shiao Hong's, super defined.

So we reached Swenson and settled down. Boy, majority of them all came from IP schools like RI, TJ, HC, NUS HIGH and not forgetting our fellow head prefect and 6th in dhp cohort, Tan Bao Jia. Wong Yong Kit too. The most satiric shit is that the Hwa Chong IP kids only need to get 18 points for their eoys to get into HCJC. Compare it to the 4 points o level students need. Saddening isn't it? The cut off point for HC at our year was 259, only one point higher than the 258 of dhs's. Not saying that they got 623547 more brain cells than DHS kids. Just one more point for psle only.

Why is it so unfair? One word - affiliations. Sad but true, many occasions in life, in order to gain a better stand in the society, we need lobangs. Get a lobang, they pave the way ahead for you. So...what affiliations we got? Dunman High Jc? -.- cool..

Ok just as I am writing this, suddenly sum1 pops up on msn "I don view you as a distraction from the exams but rather the exams are a distraction from my love for u." Holy Father in heaven, what is wrong with this brother of ours? Brother, you seriously NEED to prioritize your goals. Ok scrape that. Do what you want for your love. But, at least warn me when you are going to spring up in msn with another CORNY nick of the day. GAWD, I’m on a crazy bout of laughter now already...

Won't be posting much these days,

2006-07-25T21:49:00.000+08:00

don't bother coming back and check.

The next few months going to be rough and I guess its good to take the time, comtemplate on the purpose driven life and what I really want.

Best wishes to everyone preparing for the upcoming exams.

POP 2006

2006-07-09T22:52:00.000+08:00

3 1/2 years of np life just passed by, gone are those senseless countless pumpings and sweating, what remains are the candy-coated memories. What I miss are those changing parades, how we squeezed the shit out of the boy squad into the 2A toilet, whiffing at each other's smelly stench, how the humidity and heat in the toilet can bring you to a state of insanity, how we swore at our squad ncos for their silly and impossible time given to us to change into full u. How we loved the ecstasy of bersurai after one long day of crazy training. So many priceless stuff.

It all officially ended with a POP, and then its all over. Thanks everyone who influenced and inspired me and also those who had to work with me, unfortunately.

I was pretty amazing at the gifts bought, I bet the total transaction amounts up to a hefty figure, thanks to Nigel Wong with his 6k pocket money. Received couple of nifty gifts and those meaningful notes. Its the thought that counts, but man, no harm giving a nice gift right? Hehh. Worth mentioning, Nigel gave each of us a cd, a video compliation of photos from past significant events, quite nice.

If I knew that I will be talking during the NCOs performance, I would have prepare as I got so much more to say, so much more people to express gratitude to. Edwin best during his speech, " ....secondly, I would like to thank Wen Jie bleah bleah... I work best with him in the DnP squad" Haha, edwin and his "DnP squad".

*Parade fall in*
*Good morning Sir, DnP squad reporting Sir, strength 2 present 2, no absentee.."

Imba DnP squad, want join?

Anyway, much of my NPCC memories go back to the Perth Trip, CNY bash and leisure camp. I guess, NCO life is soo much challenging, you are the one doing the planning for the whole unit, you decide what you want yourself to do, you can do what you want during activity. *mac delivery in middle of night in lc xD*

Will post more pics of Perth Trip if I got the time, only 46 more days to prelim, chiong arhs.

Mighty To Save!!!

2006-07-04T23:14:00.000+08:00

Mighty To Save (2006)
Mighty To Save is the latest live worship album to come out of Hillsong Church!

Recorded on March 5th, 2006 and led by Darlene Zschech and the Hillsong team, over 10,000 worshippers at the Sydney Entertainment Centre sang, danced and worshipped their God wholeheartedly and without reserve. The presence of God was powerfully evident throughout the night as His name was lifted on high.

These new songs are infused with life, energy and a heartfelt adoration for our Saviour. Our prayer is that you would be inspired to worship in spirit and truth as the message of God’s unfailing love and power is declared through these songs.

Australia (inc GST): $29.95 (AUD)
International (ex GST): $27.23 (AUD)

The long awaited album from Hillsong. Can't afford it? Fret not, I managed to grab hold of a imba download link here. Share the love around! This album not even released yet in Singapore. Ain't I cool?

Ha ha.

To those Germany fans out out there..

2006-07-02T17:04:00.000+08:00

...here's to the goalie that you all idolized last world cup *cheers*

Absurdity of shopping

2006-07-02T00:44:00.000+08:00

I was lying on my bed this afternoon, chilling out to the music from my amplifier, when a noob by the name of Edwin called me.

"Hey wasssup Wen Jie, tell me a joke pls."

I played along with the noob and said,
"If I am a noob, then what are you?"

Noob replied "Duno lehh."

"You are the hair on my noobass!"

HAHA Noobhair.

So after much hesitation, I decided to join these bunch of noobs in their shopping trip for POP prezzies. I left my house at 3pm and never did expected to come back only at 12.30am (as I am typing this) Whoa! Damned. My squad = stand up comedians. Especially with the owners of malformed and distorted faces like Ivan loh (notice the bold) and Edwin and then you throw in a couple of Wei Jies and Wei Zhous in. Massive ownage siah.

Bugis was our first destination, was kinda sians as the real action started out when Nigel, Edwin, Ryan and me headed out to Suntec/Marina area ourselves as the rest all had something on. We ended up laughing at Nigel-centered jokes for 6 hours straight. The endless miles of walking and the heavy burden on our wallets did not seemed to dabble the least bit on our spirits. We spent effort in getting the right gifts and man, we felt great having settled all the shit in just one day. Also met Mr Fong and Laura Yap at Giant in Marina Square shopping mall, wassuped them, they wassuped back. Such cool lovey-dovey couple.

The secret tool we had was Nigel's ATM card, just one quick swipe, BHAM, money paid. LOL, we even filmed a video of him doing just that, thinking of selling it to credit card companies. Makes more than just a good commercial with Nigel starring in it. Another funny shit was talking to the female sales assistant at some clothes shop. It was also the first time Edwin's figure came to good use- used as a rough estimate to gauge the size of the receiver.

Reminiscing on the past years..

Upon her head,
she wears a yellow ribbon.
And if you ask,
for why she has to wear it,
she wears a yellow ribbon for Yee Boonwei.
Yee boon wei *Yee Boonwei*
Yee boon wei *Yee Boonwei*
She wears a yellow ribbon for Yee Boonwei.

Sweet times..

Was somehow in a dilemma and I asked my Lord for a solution, he referred me to Proverbs 24:10, "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!"

Living For You

2006-06-25T22:34:00.000+08:00

Its Youth Alive, OMG. What I could say about them is that they were down to earth and bought themselves to the same level as the crowd to give praise and worship. They even went to the extent of stepping down the stage and offered to pray for members of the crowd personally. The songs were not so rock-ish but focused more on worship. Personally, I think I am on the verge of backsliding and that really gave me the much needed push, back onto the right path.

Started holidays with Red Rain, end it with Youth Alive. At least, I am able to say my holiday wasn’t wasted after all.

You are my Shield, my Strength, my Portion, Deliverer,
My Shelter, Strong Tower, my very present help in time of need.

Don't worry lah, you are still very pretty leh..

2006-06-21T21:07:00.000+08:00

Repeat the ^above^ sentence 10 times loudly in your head. Ok, done? Now start to laugh like there's no tomorrow. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

That freakish thought just suddenly came to my mind today. *Shudders*

Anyway, just found out that Mr Yeo Meng Han reads my blog, isn't that simply awesome. How often do you have your emaths teacher reading your blog, man, whoa! Wsup Mr Yeo, you look good with your new moustache xP!! Talking about emaths, damn, the mock exam as I put it, "too hot to handle", simply too much kick for me. Too much kick = no good. The questions sort of caught me by suprise, maybe do one tys paper not enough, must do one book. Wait, didn't Yao Liang did 2 books already and still say he cannot do the exam?

Tonight last episode of Da Chang Jin, stupid yet addicting show. Don't understand the plot? Fret not, just stare at the girl and laugh. Funny looking girl with abnormal expressions.

Finals

2006-06-17T20:01:00.000+08:00

Was at Raffles Place on Friday, was hanging around level 1 when this lady walked up to me and handed me this event booklet, "Finals by Grejpfrut".

"Catch world Cup fever with this multimedia street theatre performance and fulfill your fantasies of becoming a football star instantly! Hear the crowd roar as you pass the 'football', make a crunching tackle, avoid taking a red card or go straight for the goal! Street soccer meets impromptu comedy and 'live' commentaries. This is one soccer match you don't want to miss! "

Initially, I thought wth was it going to be. It sounded like a gimmick meant to attract shoppers. I ignored it and proceeded out of the mall. Saw a "soccer pitch", marked out by masking tape just beside the joga bonita booth. What a goofy deliberation put up by some event organiser to show his/her passion for the World Cup, I wondered.

I returned back to Raffles City later, the "Finals" stage show finally started. Honestly, that stage show was damn dumb yet incredibly funny at the same time. Some hidden camera was located at the "soccer pitch", taking live transmission of passerbys walking on the "soccer pitch", relaying the images to the wide screen right smack in the middle of the shopping mall. The live-streaming was doctored such that it resembles a real pitch while the passerbys were real players.

And all this action that went on was watched by everyone in the shopping mall. Imagine you face being shown on the big screen unknowingly, damn pai seh right? To add more kick to it, everytime a "goal" was scored, a cameraman would zoom into one of the lucky person in the crowd, imitating how they zoom into the coach in the World Cup. And then, a comentator would mumble some stupid funny shit out. Damn..that totally cracked my day up . HAHAHA!

Anyway, I realised that I'm not someone who likes to post stuff about his daily events, feel damn ghey doing it. My neck hurts terribly now :/

..and then u ask urself, wad the hell u did that for in the first place..

Wife Biscuit

2006-06-14T22:06:00.000+08:00

Darren Liew loves 老婆饼 a lot. He has been eating a lot of these lately.

gona jam with co. gotta learn 3 new songs in a week++. bless me no flop

Fat Lip

2006-06-12T18:17:00.000+08:00

The song I am currently practising ^

For those who dun know, its my birthday TODAY!
The spirtual nature in me is strong..
And I'm glad to have everything that I have now
Finally, just wana say thanks to all the ones out there, really appreciated it(:

Guitar Porn

2006-06-11T19:11:00.000+08:00

Ain't "The Handle" from Jim Reed sibei just damn chio? Slim, light, high tech and stylish, what more can you ask for? Click here.

The soccer fever rages..

2006-06-09T23:05:00.000+08:00

Less than an hour before the commences of the opening match, me, weijie, edwin and weizhou were goofying around with soccer pics.

Ultimate one siah!

Gift to the soccer diehards without cable tv

2006-06-09T17:17:00.000+08:00

With a stroke of luck, fate bought me upon the RTM1 channel, courtesy of the kids next island. Thing is that they broadcast live world cup matches.. Starhub can go cry now. :(

The Guitar Shred Show

2006-06-08T15:19:00.001+08:00

All you guys out there should check out the Guitar Shred Show. A humorous yet educational flash based site. The techniques showed there damn freaking pro! HooOOooO!

Practice safe lunch, use a condiment!

6/6/06

2006-06-06T18:39:00.000+08:00

Watched The Omen today at The Cathay. I will admit, some of the scenes were freaky, threw m out of my seat. But generally, it is more of the story line that intrigued me. This little boy, so called the anti-Christ. Somehow managed to get in this diplomat's family with the help of evil priests. His presence trigger many evil events to happen. Scariest part was when the mum bathing, then her wrist suddenly bleeding. Immediately, the subwoofers in the cinema go BAMMMMM! The little boy appear looking like the fucking gross image of the devil(Imagine those flashbacks that you see in The Maid). Nb, I bet 80% of the people in cinema kena stunned, can tio seizure one like siah.

Now, as I am speaking, the date is 6/6/06. Also known as number of the beast. What can you possible do with 666? You go take 6.66 mins to change into your number 666 jersey at cubicle 6 in hotel 66, take out your Nokia n666 phone, read your 6 smses, jump into your BMW 666i, head out to long john silver, order their combo 3 which costs $6.60, eat for 66 mins than go to the cinema, order tickets for The Omen right on the dot of 6.06pm and finally head inside cinema 6.

You see the image of Damien, the little boy on the large screen right in front of you. He stares down at you. Emotionlessly. At this point, you realise you are the only person in the cinema. Looking back at the screen you assure yourself that its just an image of him. Without warning, you see his eyes move. You blink your eyes to make sure you're not seeing things. Suddenly, the screen zooms into his morbid eyes and screaming of a woman can be heard in the distant. You are petrified. As you start to run for dear life, you look down and realise that you are at row 6, seat 66.

Ah, fuck the devil. Christ overtrumped him already. Not point being scared in the aftermath of the movie.
On a lighter note, the date 6/6/06 really sparked a lot of interest in me. Why should so many people out there be so paranoid of this number, turn 666 upside down and you get 999 matta number liao. Aren't dates like 2/2/02 and 6/6/06 neat? Only appear once in a lifetime. Anyway there is a website- www.betusa.com offering 100 000 to 1 odds of betting today being the apocalypse, end of the word. If you throw in $100 bucks, say today would be doomsday, and today just happens to be doomsday, you will be $10 million richer, but how the hell will you be able to collect it? Ahaha.

Recently, this blog has received a surge in the number of hits. I missed the good ol' days back. Low hits but just the right audience. Even so, I am glad to see the wassupers, NPCC mates (my squad and my juniors(: ), and also those inquisitive wanderers here. But if you're the one who constantly pisses me off, I recommend you to stay away from here as the stuff here gona offend you. For the rest other than the pisser, press ctrl + d on your keyboard.

Got a new guitar pick, 2.0 mm and is hard type. Feeling great with it!

My Revision Timetable

2006-06-04T19:13:00.000+08:00

Many of you unlucky ones may have heard me proclaiming about it already, but for the love of james gomez, just endure another time. I have devised a effective timetable for the next 3 weeks of the holidays. This revision scheme allows me to spend a minimum of 15 hours on each of the subjects excluding languages by the end of the month. I got it written out nicely and neatly on paper. Right now, I am currently seeking subject consultants on amaths, biology and chemistry. Please step forward and render your help for it will be greatly appreciated.

*runs back to my prelim papers*

Kanye West and Christianity (Read if ur're bored. I am bored right now.)

2006-06-03T20:08:00.000+08:00

"I ain't here to argue about His facial features, or here to convert atheists into believers/I'm just trying to say that the way school needs teachers, the way Kathie Lee needs Regis/That's the way I need Jesus" — from "Jesus Walks"

Call it a cultural thing, but hip-hop music is just as prone to ecclesiastical excommunication as crossover gospel music. Some believers this side of the musical divide cringe when one of their own gets a little mainstream exposure—say, a Yolanda Adams performing R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" or a Kirk Franklin sharing the stage with R&B chanteuse Mary J. Blige at the Grammys. Others almost mechanically cry "sellout" the moment the artists they love decide to record a pop album for a change (Take 6, BeBe Winans, and soon his sister CeCe). In this context, rap music becomes the mere appearance of evil—and understandably, considering mainstream rap's rep as "that devil music about hoes, bling, and drugs." Still, there's an increasing number of overtly spiritual tunesmiths and emcees—Lauryn Hill, Talib Kweli, Blackalicious, and others—who wisely sidestep the hackneyed gangsta clichés and opt for something a little more wholesome.

Rapper-producer Kanye West seems to be on both sides of the fence at once. On one hand, his debut The College Dropout offers vacuous, uninspiring lyrics about everything that's wrong with hip-hop; on the other, it brings to life a fire-and-brimstone advocate for the Lord, willing to indict the very ills he himself celebrates.

In the impressive "Jesus Walks" (excerpted above), West is a soldier of God who wants to break racial barriers and bring peace to all despite the hurdles: "God show me the way because the devil try to break me down/The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now." And: "I don't think there's nothing I can do to right my wrong/I wanna talk to God but I'm afraid 'cause we ain't spoke in so long." He concludes with a dig at mainstream radio: "Radio needs this/They said you can rap about anything except for Jesus/That means guns, sex, lies, and videotape/But if I talk about God, my record won't get played?"

God shows up again in West's version of the hymn "I'll Fly Away," interpreted in classic quartet fashion, upright piano and all. "All Falls Down," while not directly about the Father, addresses materialism; in the hook, West uncannily uses a vocal interpolation of Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Iniquity," a track teeming with biblical imagery. In the inspirational "Never Let Me Down," guest poet J-Ivy drops these divine nuggets: "I'm not just another individual, my spirit is a part of this/That's why I get spiritual, but I get my hymns from Him/So it's not me, it's He that's lyrical…Let it been known that God's penmanship has been signed with a language called love/That's why my breath is felt by the deaf/And why my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind."

Despite these overtones, be forewarned: The College Dropout is far from pious, with an array of expletives and lyrical undesirables. One wonders why West so adamantly makes a case for Christ in "Jesus Walks," yet quickly dismisses him via duplicitous party rhymes. The answer is probably in the album's liner notes, where West openly declares that he's not where he needs to be, despite still being on God's side. "Matter of fact, [I'm] far from it," he says. Referring to Bible prophets, he then says that when somebody is given a word to preach, one will always have an excuse. "I don't got no excuse," he reaffirms, then adding, "You spared my life, but somehow I'm still on [stuff]. Amen. You're the Executive Producer of my life."

Guild Wars Factions Official Soundtrack

2006-06-03T08:42:00.000+08:00

Just managed to get my hands on this. Kicks ass.

-Deleted-

2006-06-01T20:08:00.000+08:00

Felt so bad writing this post, yeah gg deleted.

Up next...the chronicles of deng yao liang and also by popular demand, you know who!

2006-05-30T22:34:00.000+08:00

(Since everyone's lurvin him soo much)

Watch this space, pbly up by this weekend. Sighs..geog mock exam, no time write =(

RED RAINNNN!!

2006-05-27T21:37:00.000+08:00

So 3 of us guys went for the redrain concert with pretty. Pretty pretty me. Anyway..Pretty got much of the attention ; damn- the reason why people turned up there was for RedRain, not to look at pretty.
Din expect such ulu band like RedRain to perform such impressive music. At the start, the audience were told to sing the Singapore national anthem, followed by the lead vocalist giving his rendition of the New Zealand anthem, goes something like "God bless the country.." or something.
The heavy fast songs like "Red Rain" hit the right note while the slow ones like "Majesty" and "Sure" tugged at heartstrings. Especially during "Majesty" when all the believers felt His holy spirit and there was emo all over.
My all-time favorite song from that band is "Red Rain" Download here! Totally burned out the concert with it.

Anyway, here's some random pics from my hp, cool eh?

"I see red..Raining down on me..As far as the eye can see..I see red..Raining down"

My RedRain t-shirt OMG!

Guitar at the shelves

My humble little Washburn Nuno Bettencourt N1
Max's $1.75k Ibanez prestige RGT

Feeling the love..

On overdrive!

Getting ready for the show

Pig eye to dissected in bio pract.

Jimmy's ah lian doll

SJ girls' dolls

Rawr!

Everyone needs this shit

Kiss - Because I'm a Girl

2006-05-22T20:13:00.000+08:00

Not wanting to be an emo kid or anything, but I seriously think that this music video is damn touching. A must watch you wana shed some tears.. (and no i din cry)

Stupid USB Shit / Hillsong albums

2006-05-21T18:24:00.000+08:00

Cant seem to get my phone usb cable to work...be posting up pics if i ever get tat shit workin'.

For the moment..chill man!

Anyway..here's some links to download hillsong music. Falls in the genre of christian rock/spritual. No harm listening even if you are not a christian, treat it as another spiritual song. By no means are the albums mine, I just complied them from many sources into one neat page. Enjoy!

Look to you

More than life

United we stand

For all you done

God he reigns

One way.

2006-05-16T12:30:00.000+08:00

Oh man, I have been too playful, wildful, cheeky, horrible. I need to take life more seriously now, end my silly doings and better a better person.

Our Father, who art in heaven
hallowed be thy name
thy kingdom come
thy will be done of earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Hillsong 4tw.

The Direction

2006-05-13T19:52:00.000+08:00

Lets see..This week..What happening stuff happened?

Phone died on me the second time, nbpcb! -Sony Ericsson = noob brand, nothing but problems. Luckily they got some decent customer service to chill myself down.

Chemistry practical on tuesday by Grace Ong, who always seem to piss me successfully to a great extend. Can't she just keep quiet and let us do our own shit, instead of criticising us every 10 seconds on what wrongs we have done and we should do instead. We learn things through our mistakes, through trials and errors. End your tyrannical manner of teaching before you see a huge revolt coming up. Yet other times, you may be the sympathetic old school teacher..

Damn, can anyone even sense the excitement I had for chemistry test this week? The heart-race , the eagerness, the burning passion for chemistry, all become a crazy stimulator for me. Guess I was the first one in class to flip over the paper and wrote down my name. And hey, Grace Ong found a comfortable spot on the teacher's table and sat there right in front of me for the whole duration of the test. What a priceless morale booster! How often can you have your chemistry spurring you do well for a test by staring at you and your paper every 30 sec? I love chemistry. Period.

Snowcity trip. GAWDDAMN FREAKING AWESOME. No pun intended. Though I would gladly skip the snowplay part, the demostration makes it all worthwhile. Just an insight on liquid nitrogen, not wanting to sound like a geek. Snowplay was kinda dumb, little boys and girls throwing fistful of snow at each other. What did the cooler dudes do? Look around for the larger chunks/blocks of ice and WHAM, the annihilation of another few thousand braincells of some innocent victim.

I have since came to a conclusion to my friendship with Edwin. Since I known time, my IQ has dropped from 289 to 150. Why is it so that our msn conversation, smses all are crappy/meaningless/nonsensical/unintelligent? Thanks pal, you brighten up my day. You gotta stop stealing pratas and robbing mama shops!

everything all makes perfect sense now..

Bucket head

2006-05-07T13:21:00.000+08:00

Check this guy out, very funny!

From wikipedia..

Buckethead is the stage name of Brian Carroll, an avant-garde guitarist and minimalistic composer. Although multi-instrumental, he is most trademarked for his virtuosic guitar-playing, characterized by a blinding fretwork speed and idiosyncratic lead lines

His stage name and persona comes from an upside-down KFC paper bucket which he wears on his head during performances along with a Japanese abuki mask

(Now's the funny part!)
In an interview with Revolver, Ozzy Osbourne stated that he had offered to have Buckethead play guitar in his band at Ozzfest. Ozzy quickly changed his mind after meeting with him when Buckethead refused to go on stage without a disguise:

"I tried out that Buckethead guy. I met with him and asked him to work with me but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket. So I came back a bit later and he's wearing this green fucking Martian's-hat thing! I said, 'Look, just be yourself'. He told me his name was Brian, so I said that's what I'd call him. He says, 'No one calls me Brian except my mother'. So I said, 'Pretend I'm your mum then!'. I haven't even got out of the room and I'm already playing fucking mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he's gone and there's a note saying, 'I've been beamed up'? Don't get me wrong, he's a great player. He plays like a motherfucker!"

Simple Life

2006-04-29T19:10:00.000+08:00

How simple to live a life with predictability. How simple is it when all things go according to the way you want it to? To me, I rather live a life of uncertainties that suprises you with either a good or bad twist.

This week had been jammed-pack yet nutty at the same time. Got chi prelims, geog, bio and couple of maths tests slotted in. Meantime, also had to deal with the Cis/Tos tee, calling up the decaying Wah Mee uncle and also had to prepare my full u which has been left
fermenting in my cupboard for months just for np day.

I'm also pretty glad that I've got some cool frens willing to teach me a tip or two on the elec guitar. Damn, why is the world so cool. Max also been trying to introduce me to the progressive genre of rock music, also regarded as one of the more challenging forms of music ever produced.

Perhaps, the puffy hype I used to have towards 4G is worn out, honestly speaking, I been realizing that I do not look forward to the subsequent class outings with the kind of fervor I used to have . Maybe, I have became more self-contained and reserved..

Going to red rain concert with weekiat, wish us luck in getting tickets. This gona be fun!

I'll make a point to post at least every fri nite or sat nite of the week :)

Video downloader - Site that allows you to download videos from youtube right onto your computer, worth a peep.

Duck!
Interesting video on types of soccer leaques found around the world

Guess whos back?

2006-04-23T15:14:00.000+08:00

Ok, I know I havnt been posting for a long time already. Too lazy haha. Life for me been ups and downs, same shit everyday. Chatted up couple of my old friends, realised that I am still being loved and cared for t_t. The world isn't that dark and gloomy after all. >:-P

Been watching many drama serials and videos and movies when I'm on the comp, particularly like the oc, desperate housewives, lost, and those latest releases blah blah. I guess the greatest technology invention of the century goes to bittorrent. Its simply C R A Z Y man. You can get almost everything under the sun/galaxy/milky way from it. (Disclaimer - I do not condone act of piracy and illegal activites) For example, lost in america in at episode 19 now. In Singapore? I guess its episode 3 or 4. Its like 3-4 months of lag, insanity huh.

Go peek @ esnips. It links to my account. That sweet webby provides 1 gig of storage space and you can do so much with it, more than just your typical web storage. I plan to upload all my perth trip photos by next week or so. Just wait.

I think the keyboard and electric guitar are both cool to master. Wished I had the skills to do so.

Check out the video below, it is some soccer mixtape, totally blew me out.

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Been searching for soccer or basketball mixtapes to chill out on, pls share with me if you got any. :)