Hah

21st September came and gone, and I'm officially one year older now. Whoopee!

I really appreciate those who take the trouble to send messages and also celebrate with me in one way or another, and not to mention those who have a knack for getting me presents. I'd post the presents another time though, because I need to take quite a few pictures.

On a different note, I had the chance to indulge in quite a bit of heavy thinking during the last few days.

My trials had concluded about a week ago, and the dismal results that greeted me didn't make me too happy. It was too be expected of course, since I practically didn't study or prepare for the exam.. I was at one point angry and upset because I obviously could have done so much better if I only had spent more time revising. But NO. Now that I think about it, I've never revised my studies at all for the almost the entire year, and honestly I am baffled as to how I've lost track of my studying techniques that helped me to ace my SPM. This year so far had been a struggle because I was waiting for my 'drive' to kick in, because for SPM I just had this sort of semangat to study almost everyday. Waiting for that semangat to come, I've come to waste many precious days. And the reality of things didn't hit me until like two weeks back, when I realised that I'm really in deep trouble. A mountain of topics to revise in a month and a half and on top of that, I'm ALSO in charge of my school's magazine (go figure). Both of them are just as pressing, demanding my attention and time and probably just about as depressing too because they are no where near completion. 'I'm doomed!!!' and 'Die lar this time' just hung around in my head, swirling and twirling and the result was a good bout of flu, sore throat and fever that marred my birthday......shucks.

Analysing my own predicament, I have to say that I'm a pampered boy. Pampered. Really. As in spoiled rotten. And totally raw, with a big capital 'N/A' for many aspects like self-independence, leadership, communication skills, stress management and more importantly; prioritizing.

I suppose that all these years I had been living a calm, protected and fairly constant lifestyle from my humble hometown of Pahang. Having lived 15 years in Kuantan, I must say I wasn't any much better than a hermit. I had an enclosed circle of friends and never learned how to make friends with other people because there was never a need to do so. I never played sports because there was never a need to do so. I never learned how to become a good leader because there was never a need to do so. Life held meaning only during the times when Justin would come back and tell me stories of his life in KL. I was always wowed by his stories because they make my life seem so dull and meaningless.

Play guitar? I wonder how it feels like... Go church camp? I wonder how it feels like... Ah, maybe I'll just stay at home and play some games...

But now I'm faced with challenges that I feel is more that I can bear. I cannot hold it all together, and sometimes I really feel like just letting go some of the things I cannot juggle anymore. I complained to God that I cannot bear the burdens that He has set upon me. I just wanna stop dead in my tracks, and go no further. Why bother, I ask myself. Just give up. Yea.

But the other person in me knows better than to give up just like that, wanting instead to hang on and persevere. To grow and gain from these difficulties. To learn. To CHANGE, is definitely the hardest to do. My old habits die the hardest, and leech on to me like tropical slugs. But the prospect of success is there. It's a faint glimmer f hope that if I can make it through this long, winding and perpetually dark cave, I would come out much, much stronger. And that biblical phrase rings ever truer now:

..do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind...

I guess it could be a good thing that I'm stumbling and falling now, because one day I would surely look back and be glad that I've gone through some valuable experiences. Falling is painful, but at the very least I have the LORD to take up my hand again. The blessings that I had been showered with, I would never be able to thank Him enough and perhaps, like the sheep that had gone astray, I need to learn the important lesson of trusting in the LORD willingly and wholeheartedly.

I found though, that if I looked more at the people around me with troubles of their own, my 'doom and gloom' situation can sometimes look unbelievably less significant. I know one or two friends whom I think are way more hardworking than I could ever be, but still struggle with grades lower than mine. A closer look at their faces could tell that they must've been in great anguish and unhappiness too, probably more so than I could actually imagine. And I would feel more determined to push myself a little bit more..

STPM would determine whether or not I enter uni, my friends always tell me. Of course, if I do not get an offer to any unis, I would honestly be stumped and not know what to do. I would be left behind and while all my friends and relatives are pursuing their degrees and stuff, I'd be left behind doing some odd jobs. Why? Just because I made the wrong choices ...............................................................................................................................................

Personally though, I am more convinced that God would determine where I'm gonna end up in the future. For that reason, I wanna hold on. I wanna hang on. I wanna...go sleep :D Here's a song also, that pretty much summarizes how I feel:


"There's some things that I regret,
Some words I wish had gone unsaid,
Some starts,
That had some better endings,
Been some bad times I've been through,
Damage I cannot undo.
Some things,
I wish I could do all all over again,
But it don't really matter,
Life gets that much harder,
It makes you that much stronger,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were,
Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I'd get through the night,
Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for every scar,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned.

There's mistakes that I have made,
Some chances I just threw away,
Some roads,
I never should have taken,
Been some signs I didn't see,
Hearts that I hurt needlessly,
Some wounds,
That I wish I could have one more chance to mend,
But it don't make no difference,
The past can't be rewritten,
You get the life you're given,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were,
Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I'd get threw the night,
Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for every scar,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned.

And all the things that break you,
Are the things that make you strong,
You can't change the past.
Cause it's gone,
And you just gotta move on,
Because it's all
Lessons learned.

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I'd get through the night,
From Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for every scar,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned,
Lessons learned.
Lessons learned."

Hah

21st September came and gone, and I'm officially one year older now. Whoopee!

I really appreciate those who take the trouble to send messages and also celebrate with me in one way or another, and not to mention those who have a knack for getting me presents. I'd post the presents another time though, because I need to take quite a few pictures.

On a different note, I had the chance to indulge in quite a bit of heavy thinking during the last few days.

My trials had concluded about a week ago, and the dismal results that greeted me didn't make me too happy. It was too be expected of course, since I practically didn't study or prepare for the exam.. I was at one point angry and upset because I obviously could have done so much better if I only had spent more time revising. But NO. Now that I think about it, I've never revised my studies at all for the almost the entire year, and honestly I am baffled as to how I've lost track of my studying techniques that helped me to ace my SPM. This year so far had been a struggle because I was waiting for my 'drive' to kick in, because for SPM I just had this sort of semangat to study almost everyday. Waiting for that semangat to come, I've come to waste many precious days. And the reality of things didn't hit me until like two weeks back, when I realised that I'm really in deep trouble. A mountain of topics to revise in a month and a half and on top of that, I'm ALSO in charge of my school's magazine (go figure). Both of them are just as pressing, demanding my attention and time and probably just about as depressing too because they are no where near completion. 'I'm doomed!!!' and 'Die lar this time' just hung around in my head, swirling and twirling and the result was a good bout of flu, sore throat and fever that marred my birthday......shucks.

Analysing my own predicament, I have to say that I'm a pampered boy. Pampered. Really. As in spoiled rotten. And totally raw, with a big capital 'N/A' for many aspects like self-independence, leadership, communication skills, stress management and more importantly; prioritizing.

I suppose that all these years I had been living a calm, protected and fairly constant lifestyle from my humble hometown of Pahang. Having lived 15 years in Kuantan, I must say I wasn't any much better than a hermit. I had an enclosed circle of friends and never learned how to make friends with other people because there was never a need to do so. I never played sports because there was never a need to do so. I never learned how to become a good leader because there was never a need to do so. Life held meaning only during the times when Justin would come back and tell me stories of his life in KL. I was always wowed by his stories because they make my life seem so dull and meaningless.

Play guitar? I wonder how it feels like... Go church camp? I wonder how it feels like... Ah, maybe I'll just stay at home and play some games...

But now I'm faced with challenges that I feel is more that I can bear. I cannot hold it all together, and sometimes I really feel like just letting go some of the things I cannot juggle anymore. I complained to God that I cannot bear the burdens that He has set upon me. I just wanna stop dead in my tracks, and go no further. Why bother, I ask myself. Just give up. Yea.

But the other person in me knows better than to give up just like that, wanting instead to hang on and persevere. To grow and gain from these difficulties. To learn. To CHANGE, is definitely the hardest to do. My old habits die the hardest, and leech on to me like tropical slugs. But the prospect of success is there. It's a faint glimmer f hope that if I can make it through this long, winding and perpetually dark cave, I would come out much, much stronger. And that biblical phrase rings ever truer now:

..do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind...

I guess it could be a good thing that I'm stumbling and falling now, because one day I would surely look back and be glad that I've gone through some valuable experiences. Falling is painful, but at the very least I have the LORD to take up my hand again. The blessings that I had been showered with, I would never be able to thank Him enough and perhaps, like the sheep that had gone astray, I need to learn the important lesson of trusting in the LORD willingly and wholeheartedly.

I found though, that if I looked more at the people around me with troubles of their own, my 'doom and gloom' situation can sometimes look unbelievably less significant. I know one or two friends whom I think are way more hardworking than I could ever be, but still struggle with grades lower than mine. A closer look at their faces could tell that they must've been in great anguish and unhappiness too, probably more so than I could actually imagine. And I would feel more determined to push myself a little bit more..

STPM would determine whether or not I enter uni, my friends always tell me. Of course, if I do not get an offer to any unis, I would honestly be stumped and not know what to do. I would be left behind and while all my friends and relatives are pursuing their degrees and stuff, I'd be left behind doing some odd jobs. Why? Just because I made the wrong choices ...............................................................................................................................................

Personally though, I am more convinced that God would determine where I'm gonna end up in the future. For that reason, I wanna hold on. I wanna hang on. I wanna...go sleep :D

The Little CPU That Couldn't

This week marks the demise of the metal box under my table that I used to call my PC.....

Just a few days back, the graphics card failed to start, rendering the monitor pitch black. Efforts to bring the PC back to working condition were hampered by the fact that there were just too many parts failing. In the beginning it was the soundcard. It crashed my PC frequently, but it was something that I could live it. Okay, never mind, still can use right? Then came the USB horror. Wiped out a few flash drives before totally going down. Luckily the damage was minimal, so it's okay. Never mind, still got CD-drive. But now, even the graphics card has surrendered and that was the last straw. What was left for me to do? At best I can only hope that my data is still safe in the hard disk...

[skip the ranting in the following two paragraphs if you have used my pc before or if you're already tired to death listening to me complaint about my PC :D]

For the last 3 years or so that I had been using it, I've certainly done a lot of things with it. Those were the days when I would install ridiculously new computer games hoping that it might at least run on ULTRA-LOW settings with almost every single effect turned off while listening to McFly's Five Colours In Her Hair in the background. The games never made it past the intro screens, of course. Not to mention I've seen some of the most obscure computer errors in the world, so obscure that you'd befuddle even the most tech-savvy of people. "Your PC WHAT? I've never heard before such a thing!" Yea, tell me about it.....

Along the way, I've made good progress in my PC knowledge, no thanks to the barrage of problems and 'something-wrong's that I had to deal with every single day. From a PC-phobic little boy, I can now at least repair my teachers' computers at school and solve most of the common problems encountered in Windows XP. I've also reinstalled XP on my PC so many hundred times that at one point, I actually memorised the CD-key! I'm quite sure not many of you would have the tried doing three reformats of your pc in just one week...

[okay, you can stop skipping now :D]

So yea, the loss of my dear PC which has been with me through numerous thicks and thins is indeed a very heart-breaking tragedy. The upside though, is that I've finally managed to move on and I am now the proud owner of an Acer lappy! (laptop, in case you're wondering)

I installed this just to test my lappy's performance...And also play a bit la :D

Design-wise, it might not suit everyone's liking (especially since Justin said it was 'not nice') but hey, I like it, so that settles everything. This baby is also much more powerful than my old PC and packs a punch when it comes to doing heavy-duty stuff like video-editing and even high-end gaming! The lappy also couldn't have come at a better time as the PC's USB died exactly on the day that I brought the lappy back home. Maybe it's a case of jealousy :D

It's obvious though, that the laptop wasn't a free gift of sorts. The few thousand bucks that my dad had to fork out for it is covered in blood, sweat and tears. And a lot of Natural Petroleum Gas, if you know what I mean..I couldn't be more grateful and I only wished that I had at least worked to cover a portion of the costs instead of just taking it wholesale and not contributing anything. Sigh~

Tight budgets for the next few months aside, I hope I'd be able to use this lappy for at least the next 3 to 4 years and in that time it better prove its worthiness to me :D For now, it's Command and Conquers time! Oh, I mean study time!!

Sub-Post

The reason for the title above is simply because this post would have nothing to do with what I was supposed to blog about (read below)..but I just thought I could take some time to curi tulang from studying :D

Lately, things have not been kind to me I suppose. I had just finished my exams and..the results weren't even close to decent. I haven't actually gotten back the marks but I know better already. I realized that I had not been putting in as much effort as I could, I had been simply been putting important things aside for far too long. This year God has shown me that my current attitudes and the bad choices that I make would only get me into troubles and difficulties. I must admit that the year 2007 is really not quite what I had expected. I guess all my complaining that I had not been experiencing anything eventful since NS has finally gotten God's attention :/

Similar to Christina, just when I thought I had taken another step in my spiritual walk, it only seems too obvious that I hadn't moved an inch at all. It's only too easy to go with the motion and flow with the times. I came, I saw, I learned nothing; that was how things were..

But in the midst of all the difficulties and troubles, I could also see that God is somewhat trying to break me...to bring me further and help me to grow into the Christian that would survive the ups and downs of the real world. If I were to go into adulthood with my current mindset, attitude and character, I know too well that I won't stand a chance at all..

-Do not conform any longer to the patter of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind-

Just what does it take to become a Christian who can please God and 'follow after God's own heart'? To deny ourselves and take up the daily cross? In our society, it's already too embedded that success is a very well-defined thing: education, career, marriage and money. But those things don't get us any nearer to God, and at this point in my life at least, I still cannot imagine myself running after God wholeheartedly and to believe in His word 110% percent like we're supposed to...

-If any of you ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.-

I pray though, that God would open my eyes to the world around me and make me a better servant, because I want to be of use to the kingdom of God. Right now I'm wretched and broken, but the God who works things out in His good time, who had showered me with blessings undeserved and held back his judgement against a sinner like me; I believe and trust that He would one day see me face to face and say to me "You've come a long way". Until then, I would hold on tightly to God's words of life..

Coming Soon!

Yes, I had been slacking off for a while now (okay, so maybe one month was a bit long) but I'm working hard on pushing for the next post because it's gonna be quite long and would detail major purchases of some stuff that I've always whined about. Wait for it!

Meanwhile, here's an idea of what the next post would be all about :D

Ta-da!

Thought I should post a drawing, since it's a much easier way to update my blog than to post a full write-up :D

Pure Evil These Flashers Be..

I must be nuts to actually post at this kind of hour on a MON..i mean TUESDAY morning with the prospect of school in the next 5 hours brighter than the twinkle in Christina's eyes whenever she's up to something devious....but here I am anyway :D

Haven't updated for a while since Daph's birthday, particularly because I didn't have much time. Oh sorry, it should've read: particularly because I wasted too much time...

Nowadays I often find myself wasting time over petty and nonsensical matters when what I should be doing is to plow through my textbooks and notes..it's really odd that I still could not kick into that study-consistently-everyday gear, especially since trials is just a mere 3 weeks away. I just can't seem to revert back to the times when coming back from school meant only one thing: study.

One moment I'm trying to beat my own highscore in Elite Beat Agents (that funky rhythm game for the DS) and the next I'm glued to my PC trying to beat other peoples' highscores in some Flash game...and speaking of that, my discovery of Kongregate.com, a community for Flash gamers is very untimely indeed. And referring to the title of this post, that's exactly what these Flashers (people who make Flash games, not the other one, thank you) are: pure evil..

I mean, I wasted like the whole Monday evening just playing this zombie shooter called The Last Stand. Before that it was Triangle, and after that was Bowmasters Prelude. Darn..

But grumblings aside, Kongregate is a very nice site to poke around. The Flash games are generally quite addictive and there's a sort of multiplayer element to the whole thing. Give it a visit when you're bored. Perhaps then maybe I won't be the only one to have wasted entire afternoons doing nothing but playing them darned Flash games...pictures coming soon, don't worry (^-^)

Happy Birthday to the President

Ah, another year already. And our former TRU president is another year older. Doesn't seem any wiser though (runs for cover) :D

So yeah, there were the usual celebration and surprise party (and how the surprisee normally turns out to be not so surprised in the end) and all that but there were several interesting to note, namely:

1. I beat Daphne in the MUET test, ha :D Yup, worth a mention alright, even though she claimed that she 'didn't know what was going on', haha.

2. An unexpected guest turned up, and was pretty much the center of attention for a good part of the night. Who's that, you say? A scrawny little black rat that had been gnawing on the wooden frame of the store room's door for the past few days. Uncle Sim's rat cage worked like a charm and had the rat trapped after only what seemed like an hour (maybe the twisties used as bait were to blame). The dilemma though, was whether to kill the rat or not. If kill, then how? Don't kill, then how? The last thing Kat wanted was to have the rat crawl up to her room..."Will it go into my room? Huh? Will it? Is it going to come out of the store room? What if it goes into my room?"
Pretty entertaining to watch the tension build, if you ask me :D

Gosh, it's 12. I'm doomed. To the bed then...and oh, long live the love clinic, Daph (^.^)

Busy Week

Yet another week had passed by, and productivity was reduced due to the fact that Justin, Simon and Gabe (and later John) invaded my house armed with a PS2 and a copy of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, a deadly combination, if you ask me :D

True true, used up a good part of the Sunday afternoon but hey, it was really fun to bash (and get bashed) by them in the game..especially by Juju of course, since our rivalry dates back to the nineties when mario was more pixels than moustache.

Ah, busy busy. I don't like the very sound of it, but it's been all over my mind cause the pile of work that I had been diligently storing is now overflowing (and I don't think I swim very well in stress deluges). Not good.

At the end of the day though, I always remind myself that no matter how busy my schedule might seem (seem only, I hardly ever find myself really busy cause I'm just so so good at procrastinating) or how difficult the situations that I might find myself to be in, I've learned well enough to know this: every single one of us has enough troubles of our own.

I'll always keep it in mind because I learned a great deal about it in NS. Heck, I should write a short story about my experiences in this regard, haha. But honestly, I think it applies to everyone that there's always someone out there who's having it far worse than you. It doesn't take long for me to know the countless (tak boleh kira man) blessings that I've received from God and the people that he had put in my life. Sure enough, "When God is big, your problems are small". Only thing is, often times I see God through a stained glass: He's blur, He's fuzzy, and I can't tell if He's really there at all sometimes. But God's great, because he's patient. If you ask me, I would have summoned a rain of fire and sulphur or two on myself for being the absent-minded, lazy and sinful person that I am.

Oh no, wasted another good 10 minutes updating my blog..but thanks anyway for those who actually read my blog (especially this faithful reader called x-tina who believed I would actually update any time soon). To the battlestation!

Transformers

Like, what's there to say? It's definitely been a long while since I've heard an entire audience go "Fwah~" at the same time in a movie, but I thought Transformers really nailed some of the scenes. 'Really nailed' as in the scenes and stunts were choreographed to utter perfection, *muah* (imagine those French chefs doing the 'bon appetit' finger kiss). Awesome! No spoilers here of course, don't worry. Just a picture of the star of some the hottest scenes in the movie :D

Woohoo!

And The Crowd Goes Wild..

Judging from the posts on my Cbox, it seems like there's been a steady massive uprising to overturn my bloggingdom of www.fongkeeken.blogspot.com and send me to the Alcatraz for bloggers :D Out of my obligation as the supreme ruler over my bloggingdom, I shall post something to please my subjects. Don't worry, Officer Your-Blog-Is-Dead IiShan, I'll let you know when I decide to step down and join you in retirement :)

The past few days after the June 23rd evangelical event at Segi had been a dull one..in fact, it's probably the worst week of the month. School work is piling up, school co-curricular work is piling up, laziness is piling up..shucks. Not to mention that Su Leen and Jasmine are going off this week too....great. By the end of this year, a good number of College Group peeps would be all over the world.

-sigh-

I wonder if it's the side-effect of having been involved with the Invitation drama, but the half-dozen nights that I slept late due to practice culminated in my ponteng from school today due to flu-fever...*at-choo*

Still, I was really glad to had been involved with the production actually. Can't really say why, but I just enjoyed it. It was hard work, yea, but somehow the 'oomph' factor was just there. When I checked with Der Ming he said he really enjoyed it too, and we're both pretty sad that it's actually over.. If you've read Der Ming's blog, then you would know that he's been grounded indefinitely from church. Guess we shouldn't have ordered the ayam goreng at Kenchana that day, otherwise we would've been back much earlier....do pray for him and his parents ya :)

And tonight is the farewell for and Jas, hope my flu-fever doesn't get in the way..forecast for next two weeks : Busy with scattered intermitten rests. Thunderstorms? Quite likely..

Holidays. Who doesn't like em'? The whole past week had been a really refreshing break from school and was well-spent doing anything and everything except STUDY :D Quite a good holiday it has been for me. I did feel like I wasted a week of holiday, considering I have an entire legion of organic chemistry and biology's biodiversity topics thirsting for my skin and blood...but I felt it was worth it because I doubt I'd be free anymore after the holidays, what with the STPM panic and school co-curriculum work tying me up in the coming months. AND, I wasn't planning on updating initially, but since our resident dead-blog examiner Mr.Low had been persistently trying to pronounce my blog dead, I was left with no choice but to come up with something :D

What did I do again last week....hurm...I visited my uncle's apartment somewhere in PJ. It was a family event of sorts..had a steamboat at his place. Nice apartment actually, but I have no pictures to show though. Only thing worth mentioning is that for an apartment housing two persons, the fridge at my uncle's place was twice as huge as the one serving my five-person household..maybe he's planning ahead for expansion :)

More interestingly, I was supposed to watch the long-awaited Pirates 3 but Justin felt that the stars pointed towards a not-so-popular movie instead, Blades of Glory. I didn't know what to expect because I had no idea who the two actors were, and had not seen any of Will Ferrel's other supposedly horrendous titles. I didn't even know it was actually a comedy (I thought drama or what) so I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be so entertaining. Over-hype of shows like Spiderman and Shrek just ruins the whole cinema experience, I feel. But that aside, I was humored for a good hour and a half and the cleverly placed jokes were just spot-on. There were some jokes that are harder to catch, however, and half the time I ended up laughing alone (it's scary to laugh alone, really),but if you are like me or Su Leen, then you would find the movie brilliant and appreciate those nuggets of wisdom like 'the first person who walked on the moon' :D


Then there were the retro gaming sessions with Justin and my sis..Justin managed to dig up this really obscure board-game that fuses monopoly with shopping malls, and it's aptly called TOP SHOP. It's a great party game and has more than enough depth to hook casual and serious players alike for at least two hours or more (the game can last up to four hours, or even more if you are seriously kiasu). And oh, did I say it's a Playstation game? :D

Don't let the kiddie in-game graphics fool you, if we played this during a sleepover, chances are there won't be any sleep at all xD I played this on my pc, thanks to an emulator and Justin's PS controller converter that plugs into my USB port. I've also been playing :

And oh, one more (^_^)

And all this time I was wondering where my holidays went to...silly me :P

Presenting....

Ah yes, finally. Just when I was about to catch my winks, I thought of paying a visit to the flash game bank, jayisgames.com and behold my catch of the day, a fun maths gamecalled Plupon :D The premise is simple. So simple you'd think it would be easy. Well, unless your name is Jonathan Tan (super-kiasu) or Chui Yeng (super mental arithmetics), be prepared to get a beating by the third stage. The gameplay : numbers would fall from continuously from the top and all you have to do is to link 3 numbers together by simply clicking them to get a total sum of 0, 10 or 20. If the total sum is below 10, it would simply merge to become the total sum value. If you go over, it would deduct the extra points from your "life" bar(which every good Flash game must have). Let the numbers fall,
and your "life" bar gets deducted too.

Hope you guys would like it, and as always there's the all-important high-score thing to worry about. I dunno how well you guys would perform, but I'd post a starter score first. Doubt it would last more than a day after you guys start playing though :D

My Score : 131, 720 -finished- beat me

Sleep

For some funny reasons, everytime I feel like putting up a new post, it's always very near to my bedtime and this time around it's no exception.. but mind you that my blog's no where near dying yet. It's just..taking a hiatus from posting. A short one, hopefully. I've got like tonnes of things to talk about actually but since tomorrow is a Monday, I won't risk doing a late-night post. I should be updating sometime later this week. Flash games? Dunno, but I'll think of something...meanwhile, here's a PRIVATE family photo to keep you guys occupied for a while :D


Notice the brilliant placement of the surfboard - no tummies in sight, haha. And smack dab in the middle is the long-lost brother of Justin. Handsome eh? Not to mention buff too. (I am so gonna get punched for posting this, heh)

Almost One

Well well, guess what. It's been three weeks since the last update. Yay, another new record..

I'm not so sure myself why I didn't update my blog in the last 20+ days. Maybe I just got lazy, I suppose. Or maybe I didn't have anything truly groundbreaking to write about.. But me being me, I just kept telling myself that I would update as soon as I can and before I knew it, almost a month had passed without a single word conjured.

Lately I seem to be having a lot of reflective thoughts. It's kinda odd cause back then I used to live life from day to day without really doing so much as to ponder on personal issues, and 'future' to me was truly what Crayon Shin-chan depicted in one issue of the comic that I can't quite remember : my future extended only to thinking about what was for dinner.

I can't say that it's a good thing that I'm being so contemplative now, although it's not a bad thing either. Only sometimes, I wish I could be a bit more simple-minded.

As usual, the torrents of thoughts running around beneath my skull have to give way to my yearnings for my trip to slumberland. My eyes are starting to weigh more than Justin's Matthew. I think I should start keeping a diary again...there are obvious benefits but I might not be diligent enough to keep it updated enough. Guess I'll think about it another day..

Boomshine

Seeing how the last few weeks had been filled with countless hours of Tabuto-ing and monkey kick-offs, I thought we should at least take a quick break from hounding on each other's high scores to play something a lil' different.........a little lah, not too much :D

Boomshine is a very simple (again) Flash game that emphasizes fun over everything else. Well, it's fun at least until you try to break past the last few levels :D It's got a nice cool background music and the gameplay is self-explanatory. Click anywhere to make an explosion and the the moving coloured-dots that collide with the explosion would in turn explode. Try it, the last level was where Justin and I took forever to break..there's not much of a high score here to squabble over since the game takes too long to finish, but there IS an interesting fact that should get you worked up enough to complete the game. ONLY 4% of players ever complete the game, according to the website's details and Justin and I are among the proud FOUR PERCENT, heheh. It looks like the statistics now show that the SUCCESS RATE is 4%, and not that only 4% of all the players ever completed the game..but still, it's a fun game to play nonetheless and I hope me and Justin would be able to find another nice Flash game to post sometime soon :D . Take a break, relax, play Boomshine xD By the way, I finished it three times liao :)

SJGC's Success Rate so far = 100%

Where Love Leads

When Uncle Kah Wan first lent me a copy of the book "Taming The Tiger" by Tony Anthony, never would I have thought that he would one day make a visit to Malaysia. So I was obviously thrilled when presented with the chance to see him in person at a youth rally of sorts at SAGC. Things never turned out the way I planned it of course, otherwise I wouldn't be posting this here in the first place..

Earlier this week my friend approached me to attend her church's Easter play and persistently hammered into my head the whole 'my church is the coolest and most fun one, so you better come' sort of thing. I wasn't so willing to let go of the chance of the chance to catch Tony Anthony's message however, so I hesitated initially, though in the end I made the decision to go for it anyway because a non-Chirstian ex-classmate of mine didn't quite have any teman to go with. The church is called City Harvest and is located behind 3K (somewhere there) and is actually a renovated warehouse-style building.

I went there today at around 5 something and there were just SO MANY people who attended the play..the church sits a maximum of 1000, I think. But the turn-up was probably 30-40% more today. The queue poked through the main door of the building and though unable to squeeze inside into the hall, me and my friends managed to settle in a small room with a dozen others watching the play on a tv set. Not the best of scenarios, I know, but hey, it was better than totally missing it.

Being the charismatic church that they are, the order of things were of course Praise & Worship, A Short Bible Discussion, The Play, Altar Call and then a final song to sum things up. Overall, I thought the play was pretty good and managed to inject a lil' bit of humor into the events leading up to Easter (I mean, the first song item was in Hokkien, singing that popular Million Dollars song by dunno who and the actors were happily swinging their hips around).

Personally, I think their acting is just okay, not bad at all actually but not quite good enough to leave a strong impression. Perhaps I'm too used to plays acted in the style of our Footstool Players, which are more serious and detailed, while the play at City Harvest was more like a musical in terms of the story. But that's just my opinion, of course. The team that took part in City Harvest's play deserves credit for their efforts, nonetheless. (pats their back)

The one thing about the church that caught my interest is the friendliness of the church members there. They seem to give a lot of emphasis on running their cell groups (there are 70+ of them) and the cell group members looked very close-knit and warm to each other..not an easy feat considering the size of their congregation (~1000). As always, I found it very encouraging and cool to see the many members there who serve in the different ministries. I was certainly most curious at a girl who did a simultaneous translation of the pastor's speech inside the room where I was watching the play on the tv. She was pretty good, but that's beside the point. What I found most entertaining was her constant smile and the way she did what she did with not only hardwork and dedication, but total passion that drives a person to continuously do better..probably what we'd normally call 'the joy of serving the LORD' :D It's great to see people who eager servants of God and I only pray that our church would also be blessed with more of such people. Time to sleep then xD

My Blog's Not Dead Yet :D

Before my blog beats Justin's in the most-lazily-updated-blog competition, I thought I should post this interesting game called Tabuto that Liesl and Gabe have tried earlier. This one's very quick to play, and requires nothing more than good concentration and some degree of luck. Have fun, and as usual winners get to brag :D Oh yea, there IS a prize, or prizes depending on how things go, so go get those scores ya! When I posted this game, I had a good level of confidence that my 2.9 million score was divine enough to fend off even the most seasoned gamers (like JON!!). Of course, poor ol' me got shocked enough in the frame of one day to make me feel like a complete gaming buffoon..oh well, all for the sake of entertainment, heheh. Oh yea, Curry, you better gimme a new high-score, or I would have to remove you from the score table cause I don't think that I'd be able to find a font small enough to represent the difference in score..Well, the week has finally come to an end and the winner of this Tabuto Championship is regretta... *ahem* I mean obviously our resident flash gamer with epic proportions of kiasuness, Jonathan Tan!! (insert confetti and cheering and clapping, or jeering and protests whichever suits your fancy :D)

And the prize is? Well, it's not quite worth much, but hey, it's still something lah at least :D For his hardwork and determination (and the truckloads of kiasuness needed to pull off the 6 million score), he receives a free copy of PC Zone UK's Christmas Issue dual-layer DVD jam packed with this and that and everything else, courtesy of Sprint Sunway, hehe.

Tabuto-NinjaKiwi Games

Score Table

Jon Tan (^_^) 6,365,990
Hwok Chuen 3,298,310
Christina How 2,782,960
Simon Sim 2,524,840
Currynoodles 1,426,710
Low Iishan 752,000

Ps : Just to get you all started, my initial high-score was 300,000.
My second high-score was 700,000.
My current high-score is 2,990,000.
Rankings are sized according to the difference in score.

Part One

I think it's almost become a habit whereby I always read Jon and Christina's blog first before actually deciding to come up with a new post myself. Regardless, it was pretty odd to see the issue of dying being brought up, simply because it's been hanging in my head too for a while now...

Being in Form Six (upper) this year, the class that I'm in is different from the rest in that it's situated on ground floor away from the other classes which are on the highest floor. The reason? One of the students in our class was afflicted with a heart disease, rendering it difficult for her to climb the flights of stairs (I mean, going up four floors with the brick-laden school bag ain't very fun for me either). She's somewhat frail-looking and from the look of her eyes you could tell that she was weak.

Just so you'd know, I was actually shifted to my current class from my original Biology class because there were too many people. Like, almost 50 on the first day of school. So this year, I had to be separated from my classmates whom I had gotten to know over the last six months. Along with 10 others who were so unfortunate as to have registered a bit later than the rest of my classmates who retained.

Now some of my friends weren't too cool bout the matter, and rightly so because the ground floor classes were super-duper noisy, but you can't possibly fault her (my sick friend,and let's just call her A cause she's an A student) for being born with the sickness. And never would I have imagined that the so-called heart disease would rob her of her life..yeah, if you noticed I used past tense earlier.
Apparently, the parents knew she wasn't gonna live for much longer. The doctors already predicted that she would only live for a certain number of years..and from what I heard, she and her family managed to spend some good quality time together. The most ironic thing though was that she passed away DURING the school holidays last week. So you could imagine me being told on Monday "eh, you know that A died right?"...No way?!?!

When I thought about it, I wondered how it was like to be in her shoes. In Jon's case it's a feeling, a premonition, but her death sentence had been waiting all the while..to live with the thought of possibly not being able to see the next day, what motivation was there for her to have remained strong? If you had asked me, I don't think I'd even want to ever fall asleep..she was a top student, and the only reason I could think of for her to have worked so hard was to make her parents happy..and I wonder what would happen to her, since she's not a Christian. For people like her who had only known suffering, what would God's verdict be? At times like this, I can only fall back on the righteousness of God and trust him to judge accordingly...

Nobody likes dying I'd assume, save for those who hate their lives and everything else to death..but I think it's safe to say that for most of us it's not a very great thing because of the security that we are shelled in..our parents, our friends, our relatively peaceful country..die? Nah...I'd sooner hit a jackpot, I can hear you say. Right.

-And since I run the risk of over-lengthening the blog, I'd save the rest for Part Two. Later then :D-

Here Goes Nothing

Breathe in....sigh~ It's actually already pretty late at night, and tomorrow being a school day I know too well that I should be in my bed by now but having read Christina's blog, and then Jon Tan's blog, I couldn't help but to try to pen down a little of what ran through my mind....

First and foremost, to be honest I was so totally disturbed by the fact that Christina actually drove a REAL CAR on the REAL STREETS of Subang. I was so disturbed. More than that, I was appalled. Worried sick. It drove me nuts (pun not intended) to see the danger that she was putting herself into, and that was the least of my worries. What if she was so unlucky as to meet an accident? Never mind the fact that she would be prosecuted under juvenile law, I cannot imagine if anyone were to be injured, or worse still : die. Christina, should you be reading this, I'm really sorry to sound like some holier-than-thou police officer, but I voiced this out of concern. Out of fear. Thank God that you got back home safe that day. Should you now feel that I've overstepped my boundaries as a friend, I can only apologize but my stand and my statement stays the way it is. Please be careful the next time, Christina..

Shifting the focus from our Miss C, Jon's recent post Friends for Christ? did give me some food for thought. I too, didn't think that you would see yourself as almost the same, if not identical to that 'periphery guy' who doesn't belong to the group, Jon. To be without friends isn't what most people would've thought about you, I guess. But I just want to say that, you had been, and still are, a fantastic friend to me, Jon. In the absence of a brother whom I can closely relate to, I really appreciate the fellowship and friendship that you've afforded me. I don't really know why, but I had suddenly felt the need to say so..somehow it didn't feel right to just let the matter drop like that.

Perhaps it is the very same burden in my heart that I experienced while in National Service that pressed me into writing this post. My heart stirred, and it wasn't exactly the most comfortable feeling. Thinking I might be genuinely concerned with how you two have troubled hearts, I wrote exactly what I had in mind, which explains the different tone of this post. But then again, it could also very well be that I myself tengah syok sendiri only..and to put it in the bluntest manner, like to jaga tepi kain orang.

Haih, now even I am emo liao...is it infectious or something?

(the very next day) Can't believe I actually managed to write such an odd-sounding post myself. Maybe I should avoid posting while under the influence of sleepiness....sigh~