To Celebrate A Birth (with video!)

To be honest, I sometimes wonder how we justify celebrating birthdays. I mean, everyone's got one. And countless numbers of people are born everyday. Every single minute, in fact. What makes anyone's birthday any more special than others' and actually worth celebrating?

But if you ask me, birthdays are a good excuse for you to something for people whom you care about. I can imagine that without birthdays, we won't have an excuse to show our appreciation and love for those around us. "Oh, I wanna celebrate your niceness, your sweet smile, and your rocking personality, George." "Alright everyone, let's get together to celebrate Adam's humbling generosity, charming demeanor and cheery attitude!"

Nah, give me the birthday cake and pink candles any day ;D

Today's date seventeen years ago just so happens to be the very day this person called Maggie Lim Shu Hui came into the world, but knowing her she'd probably be fully booked today by her friends and family, so we sprang her a nice surprise roughly 24 hours earlier xD

The Action Plan:

Maggie had class until 4.30 in the evening, so our secret operative Mabel (church mate/RBS friend) went along with Maggie's mum (who had also been roped into this surprise) to the college to get her. The moment she got into the car, she was duly blinfolded and driven straight to One Utama, where we had all gathered.

HERE'S THE VIDEO OF MAGGIE BEING CAUGHT BY AGENT MABEL!!

There were about 6 of us who had the taken the trouble to go all the way to One Utama via public transport. Some had to sit through hours of bus ride, others had to cross crocodile-infested waters, while still some braved the horrors of taking the ever-late and never-early KTM. Tough, yea. But we made it there, heh.

It takes a whole lot of guts and determination to try and get to
One Utama using public transport...Simon is seen here focusing
on the mission half way during the ardous journey.

Once Maggie reached One Utama, she was guided by Mabel all the way (blind-folded) to the rendezvous point at McDonald's.

What would we do without iconic eateries like this...

Having arrived safe and sound, operative Mabel was thrilled and
begged to have a photo taken in recognition of her skills.

From McDonald's, I was there to then personally lead them both to where everyone else was waiting, the food court. It's one thing to be blind-folded, but to be blind-folded in a shopping mall isn't something that can be pulled off easily, we found. Taking the escalator was tricky, but Maggie survived without tumbling headfirst. Moving on, everyone at the food court got ready with the cake (cup-cakes, in this case) and candles and stuff.

You'd notice the candles aren't lit yet, because we couldn't procure a
lighter in time, but thankfully agent Sim managed to 'borrow' a small
flame from one of the nearby food stalls.

Finally, having seated her at the table, we plonked the cake (cup-cakes) in front of her, rushed to get the candles lit, yanked off her blind-fold and gave her the best rendition of Happy Birthday that we could muster in the food court.

And........mission accomplished!! (^.^)v

Thanks again, to the people who took the effort to make it there (it's okay Sim, you'd do just fine for your mid-terms next week, after all it's just how you 'balance your time', right? xD; I still have no clue how you made it there Kit Meng, but I really appreciate that you made the effort to come for this event, don't worry, it'll be anywhere BUT One U the next time, haha; an hour and a half is quite a lengthy period of time but you endured the bus ride anyway and even had to end up going back all the way to Cyberjaya late, you're really a great assistant supervisor, Kelvin Tay, I appreciate the effort you put in a hundred-percent!),

to those who helped out with the planning (thanks Mabel, for stepping in and taking the trouble to do so many things, sorry you had to skip class but honestly you made it all possible; thanks Desiree for asking on Sunday about going out, because we otherwise wouldn't have thought of planning something; and of course, the not-bad-wor Sue Ann who not only made the cup-cakes but also actually called up some of the rest),

and to iTalk, for making all the phone discussions possible without burning through huge chunks of prepaid credit.


And what a relief. Another Shirtliff reunion (with extra help) scored!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!

Up and up and up and *click*...........WHOOOSH!!!

This post is best read by those who have not sat on the Solero Space Shot in Genting

Now this is probably too cliched to even post about, because the odds are 98% of you people out there would have had sat on the Solero Space Shot in Genting before at least once in the last 3 years. A quick Google image search revealed all too quickly that Genting trips and the Solero ride have been pretty much blogged about to death. The title would be something like "Genting Retreat" and then what follows is a whole plethora of pictures with small little captions here and there. Sigh~

So it's pretty disappointing to realise that I actually had to wait until now to get the chance to board a theme park ride that I remember seeing some 5 years back in the advertisements, but then again who am I to complain? I'd sooner get slapped with some disaster-front-page rolled-up newspaper, I know, so I guess I'm really grateful to have made the trip up to the cool highlands two days ago.

Oh yea, what really happened is that together with three other friends (all guys) we went and got ourselves the one-day-trip tickets (which sells at RM 42 for bus+skyway+full park+skyway+bus vs RM 51 for full park alone if bought separately).

Two of the guys were my old schoolmates, and it was certainly great to be able to get together again because once everyone hits college you know it's next to impossible to even meet up for small yam cha sessions anymore...it just so happened that we're all free, and quite likely it would be the last time we could do anything else like this.

But back to the trip. For the most part I think I really enjoyed the rides that we went on. Especially in go-kart, because Suresh (one of my old schoolmates) got a really slow kart, and I pulled off one of those F1 cornering-cut uber-cool moments on him, super fun!! (^.^) It's not so much the ride though I guess, it's just having good company to enjoy. It's like watching a movie in a cinema, I'd rather watch a lame show with a bunch of friends than to go watch something better all by myself. But having said that, I went on the Solero Space Shot by myself because I was so dissatisfied by the fact that 3 months ago I had to give it a miss due to the massive queue and although the wait was excrutiatingly long (half-an-hour for a ride that's 10 seconds??) I'm so glad I went ahead (one was afraid of heights and the other had stomach problem, one more joined me later) because I believe to experience the same kind of rush you'd need something like skydiving (which isn't covered in any sort of theme park deal that I know of) or a suicide jump off a 10-storey building (which is free but...). It's SO awesome!!

If I were made the Prime Minister, I would've made it mandatory for everyone to go ride it at least once, buahahahaha xD

Investment

When you invest in something, you would naturally hope to gain or reap benefit of some sort one way or another either in the near future or in the distant years. But when they call marriage an 'investment', it just somehow doesn't seem quite right to me. Does the husband expect to earn something at the end of the day? Does the wife seek to gain a decent profit sometime in the future? Or are they mutually investing in each other, so that they may enjoy the fruits of one another's labor?

Far be it that I should know anything about marriage other than that's how I came to be, but I guess the many nuggets of wisdom imparted at today's wedding must've somehow found their way into my central thought processing centre. But it was awesome. A bit longer than you'd expect, perhaps, but awesome.

I hope I have the permission to put this picture up, haha.
Congratulations Rach and Guan!!

And here's to all the behind-the-scenes hard work put in by people from all the different areas of their lives, be them relatives, friends, church members or what-nots. It's always the unseen ones who are responsible for a good part of big-event weddings like this one, kudos to everyone!

Lately

Lately, I realised I had not been blogging about anything substantial...

Lately, I realised I had not been doing anything substantial....

Lately, I realised I had not been thinking about anything substantial.....

Lately, I realised I had been living a life that's not very substantial.......

For more reasons than one, I've been feeling pretty angsty lately (no need to guess, angsty isn't a word). I've had far more free time on my hands than I ever imagined, and to be honest I had not been a very good steward with them...staying up late (like now) and waking up even later (like 12!!!!! It's very depressing because I'm the kind that only responds to physical contact, so the loudest alarms can buzz away without so much as to make me move a finger) can apparently have very detrimental effects on your mental health. Which I believe is why I'm so out-of-myself lately...getting worked up easily, getting annoyed for no reason, getting frustrated at the slightest trouble or difficulty and frankly, the worst is just plain apathy.

And what better way to express angst than to draw it out:

Okay okay, so it doesn't look as angsty as I had hoped it would but that aside....I've got a lot on my mind now, and I think it would take me a while before I can properly come to my senses again. I guess understanding my own psyche would be a nice opportunity to practice for uni, heh.

Music Catch

Don't know if this came from any particular music maestro, but it's the background music for this game called Music Catch (here at http://www.kongregate.com/games/Reflexive/music-catch) which I highly recommend you give a try because it's such a simple and relaxing game :D But if you do have a few minutes to spare and wanna get some thoughts in your head shaped up, click on the song to play it and just wander away in your mind ;D

Excerpt from Carrie Underwood's So Small

It's so easy to get lost inside
A problem that seems so big, at the time
It's like a river that's so wide
It swallows you whole

While you're sittin round thinking about what you can't change
And worryin' about all the wrong things
Time's flying by, moving so fast
You better make it count, cause you can't get it back...

Answered

It's all too easy to bury yourself in doubt, to try and grab with your own small hands the huge clusters of uncertainties that follow us all the time in the name of living a life here on humble earth...

True, I was pretty annoyed and unhappy over how I failed my first round of driving exam. I failed before even actually hitting the real tarmacs. But the things that took place, the happenings that happened and the stuff that went on while I fast-forwarded my life to the following exam two weeks later only seemed to say one thing: who are you of little faith to question the way of the LORD?

I certainly had a good dose of surprises lately: The LORD opened new and totally unexpected doors. I was roped in for Parents' Appreciation Night. A friend came back from the faraway fields of America. I'm doing my quiet time more often (but still never enough of course). I passed my driving exam. Oh wait, sorry bout that. I PASSED MY DRIVING EXAM!!!!

Headed over to the driving school at the crack of dawn today, to see the faces of the instructors and examiners there again. To sit and frolic in the cloud of smoke (cigarette and automobile). To chat with fellow 'also-failed-road-test' friends.

I prayed did pray quite earnestly for this, because I didn't want to burn anymore cash on retaking the exams...it's bad enough that they force you waste a whole entire day there. And how the LORD answered....

Comparatively speaking, I certainly enjoyed this revisit to the driving school a lot more...being there for the second time kinda makes you feel like you're a pro I guess, haha. I knew what I had to do this time... I sat in the first row of chairs while waiting for their registration counter to open. And I was the first person to register. Muahaha~

So far so good, I went to wait for my turn at the road-test area. Having two friends around to chit-chat with sure made a lot of difference, even though I only knew them two weeks ago xD Thanks Elaine and Ian for the company! By the time I had registered, it was about 8.30 plus. They had about five or six JPJ instructors today, and each instructor took examinees in stacks of seven or more. I was at the top of one of those stacks. And off I went at 9.00, probably one of the first to take to the roads today :D

This time around, the handbrake took a backseat and there were no mati-enjin fiascoes to be had, fortunately :) Along the route, everything was smooth-sailing and I certainly could feel that God was with me all the way......I'm really thankful that He answered my prayers so perfectly, He never ceases to amaze me. Back at the driving school fifteen minutes later, the JPJ officer gave me a nice and cozy 17/20 to take back home. Not Hamis Lewilton or anything of that sort yet, that's for sure but it more than sufficed for me (^.^)

But all these when set against a backdrop of constantly turning away from God, constantly shutting him out from the things that I do....I know I'm at a crossroad of sorts spiritually. I either buck up, or I'll just end up pulling up sooner or later. Rest assured though, I'm not quite gonna give in just yet ;D In fact, the fight's just only begun...

To Be A Friend

Church camp's over and done, but since I have no photos yet I'd save the post for later..

It never fails to surprise me how most of the time we only know a teeny-weeny bit of a person. And I do mean, a teeny-weeny bit...

Whenever I find myself in a conversation, the thing that I always hope to avoid is to have a person tell you that there's something going on with them but when pressed a little further they serve you with "Oh, it's nothing lah." Don't take me wrongly here, it's not that I'd be angry with the person or anything, but rather I kinda feel dissatisfied with myself whenever I hit that sort of dead end in a conversation. Of course, it's understandable that you don't go around telling people that you have a pimple on your backside or anything of that sort, but to me it makes me feel that the person who's keeping a secret (let's say it's not a ridiculous pimple-on-the-backside one but rather something more serious and personal) doesn't trust me enough. This would of course be because I don't that person well enough. Which actually means to say that I did not make enough effort to know that person better. Which is not very nice, because I really prefer deeper-level friendships and not just being acquaintances..

Lately the question came about and made me wonder: what kind of a friend am I to the others around me?

Now I believe that my natural personality is more introverted and I'd happily be an island every now and then, but I know that I also enjoy being in the position to bless those of you out there whom I have the privilege to call 'friends' either in big or minor ways. But opportunities to help your friends largely depend on how much you know about them. And when I find that I know so little about someone, it would seem like almost insulting to even offer any sort of help...

I can only imagine what it's like to know someone through and through, to feel the hurt and share the pain, to cry the tears and laugh the joys. Everyone has their own ugly side and closet of skeletons, and being such a friend would surely take a lot of love and patience, but it also means that you are in the best possible position to render help whenever necessary. You would know what's gonna work and wouldn't, you would say only the right things and never fear offending that friend with the wrong choice of words, you would know how best to serve the needs of that friend.

And how profound it is, when the Lord sees me as that friend.

He knows me like the back of His hand, he shares with my thoughts and listens to my cries, He knows exactly the best way to help me sail through the troubles that find their way to the fragile hull of my soul. He sees me for all the worst things that I am, but never once said He would take leave. He is the one who cares to care, and I am that friend who cannot be any more grateful than to call Jesus as Saviour AND a true blue best of the very best friend!

Wonder if I woule ever have the privilege to be the kind of intimate friend to others in the way that Jesus is to me...

On a side note, all the Blind Zorro and Sorrow the sister stuff must've gotten into my head, because the only thing I did after getting back home was to draw this..

I must've spent close to four hours on this...better go hit the bed now :D

Liberacion!

16th of May is traditionally celebrated as Teacher's Day here in Malaysia and other parts of the world (I think) and it so happened that I had the chance to end my teaching stint at SMK USJ 13 on this very meaningful day too :D

Having worked for close to 2 months, teaching's a bittersweet experience I must say..bitter when you get students who couldn't give a care whether you were in the class, but sweet it is when you have students whom you can get along with and be sort of a friend to.

I've had my fair share of hits and misses along the way in the last 40 days I signed on to the job of a 'temporary replacement teacher' and now I'm free again to squander my living daylights for the next month or so..it won't be long before I post again about how boring it is to have nothing to do I feel :D

Goodbye SMK USJ 13..


Goodbye Doctor Brand chalk...


Goodbye pile of books that never seem to go away....


Goodbye to all you young ones who still have to slug it out for exams.....



It's been a great experience, I'd be sure to take the time to really think about all the things that I had learned from this job..something tells me I'd miss that Pas Keluar ;D

Ger-de-bum

That, my friends, is the sound of disappointment....

Today I had finally went for my driving test and while I wasn't very fond of driving I certainly didn't mind getting myself a P license to drive around. Off I went in the early morning, and I cannot imagine how they can force you to wait the whole entire day just for a 5 minutes exam...

My first test was the practical driving, and they sure took a long time to handle their paperwork and stuff, because it wasn't until 12 plus that my turn came around. I had been there since 7.30, and waiting for 5 hours without having anything to do (I brought an MP3 player but foolishly left the headphones at home) left me somewhat half-dead. Brain-dead. I'm saying that because I failed the practical driving test in a glorious 2-minutes time frame from the moment I got into the car...

Here's the breakdown:-
-enter car
-check mirror
-check seat
-check wiper
-check signals
-check gear engagement
-check whatever else there were to check

"Boleh jalan encik?" ------"Boleh~"

Floored the clutch, swapped to gear one, pressed the accelerator and *ger-de-bum*

Finger pointing at the raised handbrake, "Dua chance lagi." Right. Okay. Come on man, 2 minutes and the car is stalled already...

Dropped the stupid, STUPID handbrake then restarted the car. Turned the ignition key and *ger-de-bum* I had left the gear in gear one from just now, much to my unfortunate forgetfulness...

""Uh-hem, satu chance lagi" he said worriedly. "Boleh ke ni?" was exactly how bad his first impressions of my driving un-skills were...

Drove a bit, made a U-turn and just when I was gonna exit the driving school, he squashed the parallel brake and made my car stall. "You sudah over itu white line lah." "Hah? Tapi saya nampak lagi white line itu?" "Sudah....." And that wrapped it all up into the three-mati-enjins exit concert that I was given after having waited the whole day sitting on the benches trying to maintain my sanity.....bah.

At the very least I did manage to pass the slope and parking tests I suppose...I've got two more weeks to prepare myself and get there again into that darn driving school, and hopefully this time I'd remember to be more careful with the handbrakes...

The Department Of Psychology

Letters letters letters...I've been getting a few lately, but one letter came in as a surprise. It was marked with the insignia of The Star at the top left corner at the front.

"Oh, I'm called for interview!", I exclaimed to myself half-surprised.

*rips open the letter* Dear bla bla bla, you have been called for yada yada at the following ABCDE and please bring along your this and that and everything else. Great.

The Star Scholarship, as offered by the company every year allows you to choose any university and course of your liking (in a long list they provide you) so long as you qualify for the said course. I ran through the list and it took me no more than 5 minutes to narrow my selection down to a handful of courses that I can qualify for. From that list, I gave it another quick run-through and in the end I penned down the following: Degree in Psychology from Sunway University College. Yeap. It was a 'since I won't qualify just simply only lah' kind of decision..

So when the letter came, it was a half-surprise. Half. I did expect qualifying for it but didn't think I would quite get it...

The interview took place at the Department of Psychology's labs, and I was actually late, late for it. Not too late, but as the woman at the Info Centre would say, "normally people would come a bit earlier for interviews." Of COURSE...even more peculiar was the fact that I was the only guy out of the dozen or so people who took the interview. Hmmm...

I think I fared pretty well for the interview, but the part that undid my brilliant efforts in the initial part of the interview was the last question that the interviewers (three of them) posed to me: "So, tell us what you know about what we do here in the Department Of Psychology."

*blankstare*...........................................*blanklook*

"To be honest, I didn't do my homework on that."

*pokerface expression* "Okay." *ticks something*

And that was the end of it. Really had no idea what the interviewer ticked on the paper, could've been 'Stupid' or 'Honest' for all I know but they also said "Good" at some point, so I don't know if I could offset the blunder with my earlier responses to their questions, which I thought were pretty okay. On the whole the experience was pretty kan-cheong and all, even though I told myself that it doesn't matter how well I do it because it's in the LORD's hands. I mean, these are Psychologists you're dealing with...and it doesn't help that I have this impression that psychologists can worm their ways into your psyche and then come back out in the span of a short 5-minutes conversation without you even realizing it. Regardless of whether that's nonsense or not, it left me pretty twitched, having to wait in the guest area of the laboratory (I came last, so I was the last to be interviewed) for almost two hours before they called me up.

They said they would let me know of the result in about a week...until then, I'd probably take the time to read up on what they do there in that department of theirs :)

Hey Man, How Have You Been Doing?

Most of us RBS-ers would've gotten the send-to-your-future-self letters that we were asked to write at the very end of RBS. I wrote one myself of course, and had been waiting for it for some time, and had almost forgotten about it until it came in the mail for me today.

The title of this post was the opening line of the letter that I had penned on the 31st of January. It wasn't long, didn't say much, but it's surprising to see that I kinda foresaw where I would end up post-RBS and sadly, many of the things which I had hoped whilst still in RBS that they would take a turn for the better in the months after leaving Uncle Dexter and company did not, or more optimistically, have not.

The letter was a nudge-poke of sorts that I had written in the hopes of keeping myself in check..and kept me in check it has. I forgot that at RBS God had showed me so much more than I had asked for, I left in the lurch the many spiritual discoveries that had struck me, I laid aside the promises that I vowed to keep.

Without even so much as to do anything, I've let 3 months slip by since the end of RBS. It's time, time to re-examine, and to take a good look again at where I am now. I need to make sure that I'm still on track, and while we're at it, I'd much prefer to be on the right track ;D

I've got a few things on my hands now, with Sunway being one of them tomorrow...I hope it's not as 'goreng' as it was the last time I had to meet those representatives from The Star...full report about it tomorrow kay ;D

How Can I Stand Here And Not Be Moved By You

In the book of Job, he lamented that he had done no wrong to deserve the woe that had befallen him. He lost his family, his wealth, his friends, his dignity and practically everything else that could be taken away from him. Many times he had wanted to plead his case with God, to put it into argument, to find out just exactly why he had been treated so unjustly and unfairly. He cursed the day he was born, understandably because he simply could not take it anymore, living in suffering and, most importantly, seemingly separated from the presence of God.

It's ironic though, because I find myself being the anti-Job, in the way that I am convinced I had done more than enough wrong to condemn my soul to eternal death, and yet the LORD would never cease to lend a hand to raise me up time and again. At the risk of being self-righteous, I question why the LORD wouldn't just send down a rain of sulphur, annihilate me from the face of earth and just get it over and done with, and move on to another more 'worthy' soul. And it's funny how I can say that, because it puts me in a 'holier-than-God' position...For all it's worth, God's love is more than any soul can fathom, more than any computer can compute, more than any ruler can measure. I can only thank Him that He first loved me.

How can I stand here and not be moved by You...

Catching Up

Note: Long post about a reunion I managed to organize in the following paragraphs, you may skip this if you're looking for photos instead, because I didn't have any to put up.....yet :D

I'll be the first to say that it's never an easy task to try to organize anything among a bunch of college kids who have totally different timetables and schedules...you can never seem to find that one golden slot in the calendar when everyone is free and can make it for the event that you're planning.

In the last two weeks I took it upon myself that there was gonna be a reunion of sorts for Shirtliff (no, not the cheerleading team) RBS mission team and it was supposed to take place at Aunty Yoke Kheng's place. Aunty Yoke Kheng was the chirpy supervisor for our mission trip and she offered her apartment as the venue. In the process of organizing, after what must've seemed like countless dead-ends and impossibilities, I finally managed to narrow it down to one date, the 26th of April (which was yesterday). And it was going to be a dinner. And after even more negotiation, it was turned into a sleepover. Now there were originally 9 members altogether in the team, and here's the breakdown:

Supervisor: Aunty Yoke Kheng
Asst. Supervisor: Kelvin Tay
Team Leader: Me!
Asst. Team Leader: Ann Sue
Members: Simon Sim, Maggie, Jon Lee and Kit Meng and Jill

Initially it all seemed pretty well and there was hope that we could make it a full-blown gathering with everyone around. At the end of it though, it became like this:

Kelvin Tay: Exam and stayed too far away
Maggie: Cousin leaving for overseas for 5 years, had to attend farewell dinner
Kit Meng: Understandable lah, since he's in NS
Jon Lee: Lazy bum too lazy to make his way to the apartment, and had LAN class on Saturday
Jill: Can come but cannot stay-over at the apartment

Some simple mathematics would suffice to tell you that less than half of the team was actually able to make it for the sleepover event in the end. Haih~

BUT, but but but, it wasn't all doom and gloom because we did manage to catch up on a lot of things, amongst the five of us who were there for the dinner and later the four of us who stayed till the wee hours of the morning chatting away....

What really amazed me though was how the whole thing turned out so so well. SO WELL!! Let me explain what I mean:

On Saturday evening, the plan was for Jill to fetch me and Simon at Lick Hung (hope it's the correct spelling) at about 6. I joined Simon for TRU and when TRU finished, Jill's message came, saying she's on her way. I had thought of walking from the church to the school, but I felt we were gonna be late so I tried to see if we could tumpang somebody's car and we SO HAPPEN managed to hitch a ride with Uncle Chooi Meng and arrived there early. Jill reached about three minutes after we did. *Phew!*

Now, me and Simon are in the car. The plan was to pick Ann Sue up at the Kelana Jaya LRT station at 7. We reached there and got her at 6.50. "Early some more, great!" I thought to myself. Next we were supposed to meet up with Aunty Yoke Kheng at One U because her apartment is nearby, but it turned out that Jill knew how to get there and we reached her apartment earlier than she did, because she went out to buy our dinner. Woohoo, first-part of the journey accomplished successfully!

We ate like crazy and we talked like crazy. Jill left early because she had another place to go to, and we were left to our own devices; me, Aunty Yoke Kheng , Simon and Ann Sue. We went out to Old Town at about 12+ and came back around 2, then slept about two hours later xD

Next morning we woke up later than expected and couldn't have breakfast together, so the three of us (me Simon Ann Sue) were dropped off at Taman Bahagia LRT station and we made our way to Sentral to have our breakfast. Again, we still had time to chit-chat and slowly chow down our Sausage Mc Muffins. Then came the time to leave, and we were kinda late because Simon had to get back to church in time for the Youth Committee meeting (since he's the President and all). The time to beat was 11.30, and we went into the Sentral KTM station at 10.44. Simon walked down the stairs and almost beyond our mortal imagination we saw the train coming BEFORE the time shown on the LED board. Unbelievable, I know ;D And as if that wasn't enough, the train pulled to a stop with one of the doors right smack in front of Simon. Awesome!!! Now that's something that I always look forward to whenever I board the KTM, to have it stop with the doors sliding open in front of you xD

The train didn't make any 'recharging battery' stops and chugged all the way to Subang. We alighted and the time was 11.10. My dad wasn't there yet, so we waited and it did feel like very long, because with every ticking second Simon's chance of being in time for the minute grew slimmer. Finally I called my dad again to check if he's arrived, and he said he had! We rushed to the car and I told Simon that he would make it back just in the nick of time. "You'll be back at 11.30 sharp, Sim". And so it was, 11.30 on his watch and we were outside the church. Like, whoa! It doesn't get much better than this, really.

Truly the LORD was with us all the way, from the time we took off from the church to the very moment we stepped foot into it again the next day. No hiccups, no "oh no" moments, nothing at all. I prayed, and God answered. What more could I have asked for ;D

Super Quick Update

Like the name implies, here's a super quick update on my work, or rather workplace :D

Taken with my webcam - one of those rare moments when everyone's out in classrooms.

Doeo!

It has been ages upon ages since I last posted a flash game, because it's hard to find something that everyone can play together and at the same time compete over some high score or something..

The last time we squabbled over the monkey ball game it was certainly hilarious to check the scores every 5 minutes to see who's at the top, and equally agonizing to see that your scores are not even in the top 5 xD Below's a really weird and funky Flash game that isn't so much about scores and how to get more of them, but about having fun playing it ;D Enjoy!

Sidetrack

If you're expecting a post about my current job as a teacher, then you have my apologies, I'm keeping that for another day xD I just thought that I should blog about what took place just now.

Yes, just now. Like, '2 hours' just now. Tanjonny and Simon_vindicated and yours truly here went out to the nearby mamak to chit-chat and gulp down some heavily-sugared drinks, and of course we engaged in our usual round of talk and discussions about this and that and everything else.

We talked about teachers, and teaching as a job; about marketing people and 'management recovery'; about Vision 2020 and flying cars and Archie comics; about smoking and coming out with health cigarettes; about Goo Goo Dolls and Randy Jackson playing bass; about Jon's new SonyE phone and how much it costs and how he can't spin it on tabletops anymore like he did with his old trusty Samsung; and even about our fellow blogger who's in Aussie now, Currynoodles :D

But the more interesting part of the night was definitely in how we branched into discussions on.. non-material subjects (not sure how to put this). We brainstormed on so many different thoughts and ideas that are not...material, so to speak. We talked about dreams, supernatural events and then delved very far into the topics related to the mind and the subconscious part of our existence. In no way can I possibly describe the discussion in detail, but it was seemingly...eerie, in the way that we were grasping at unknowns and debating without any real plausible proof or substantial evidence. All we had were arguments and we kept throwing them into the melting pot of ideas which soon bubbled and simmered under the fire of our engrossing speeches. I had really wished that we had the discussion recorded down, it certainly would've been really really interesting to recollect what we went over together in our own limited wisdom and experience, because this kind of deep intellectual and philosophical conversations tend to have a very fleeting hold in our memory, and surely enough by the time we finished we could hardly remember the meat of most of what we blabbered about.

I just wish we had it recorded down one way or another...

Preview

There are quite a few things that I could rant/rave about my current job at the 'the place near my house' but I'll save it for tonight I guess. But just for teasers, here's a picture :D

Frisbee

What's a public field, if you don't put it to good use and what's putting it to good use, if you don't use it to host a sports tournament of some sort, and what's a sports tournament if it doesn't involve throwing the round piece of plastic that we love to call...the frisbee!

I'm not particularly into this sport in any way, and didn't even remotely take part in the competition save for helping to tabulate some scores in the beginning but it's nice to know that there are so many people out there actually who are into this whole 'I throw you catch' phenomenon.

As in any tournament or competition, it takes a whole lot of effort and coordination to get things going smoothly and perfectly, as demonstrated by the hilarious moments that ensued when the stubborn PC microphone just refused to pipe in a live connection to the speakers. But then again, it was actually quite cool to have announcements pre-recorded and played later ;D Kudos to everyone who was involved in the tournament, all the hard work and effort would eventually pay themselves off someday, I'm sure :D

I managed to snap quite a few pics here and there with my fresh set of rechargeable AAs, but the best ones were taken by someone else who ran around with my camera, whom I have no idea who it was. Thanks anyway for the shots, Jud! (I think).

Our very own line of first-aid members on standby, how's that for being professional? :D
Okay, maybe not ours but still...

The competition under way.

But the more interesting part of the day was definitely having some Temerloh youths over for a short visit here. And of course we got the chance to meet up again with Jason and Khai Jye :)

Who doesn't miss Khai Jye's smile around here, heh xD

We managed to squeeze in some time for a short session of getting to know each other over the outdoor games and also the lunch that followed. Wielding my trusty ol' camera, I got off the hook of 'everyone must play' and stood around trying to capture the funnier moments of the charades that they played (it's always a blast to play charades).

And to top it off..
Try to guess the character they were trying to portray, hahaha xD

Khai Jye notices the camera even when everyone else couldn't and whips up his trademark smile just in time for the shutter :D

It was a great day for the most part, though it was a shame that we couldn't accompany the Temerloh people to Pyramid for their shopping trip. Oh well, it'll be our turn next to visit them in Mentakab and Temerloh. But by then, I had better get my 'half-bucket-of-water' Mandarin brushed up to an acceptable level...

Sunny? Sweaty? No problem at all ;D

One anorexic-looking kid and a temporary teacher bored out of his skull after the Temerloh group got on their way to Sunway for their shopping quest.



And the clincher...taken from the recent Beijing Olympics adverts, here's our brilliant Jonathan Tan doing his bit for the biggest sporting event of the year!

Quote: As a coach for the upcoming Olympics, I always tell my athletes that "You are what you eat". Eat garbage, and you're more likely than not heading for an early exit. Eat right however, and you would be able to bring out the very best in yourselves. Whether it is in running or jumping or any form of sport that we're competing in, I insist that my boys get only what they deserve. Real athletes need real food, and real food needs real quality. That's why I believe in McDonald's. Great nutrition, greater taste.


Oh yea, happy birthday Mr.Tan!!!

International Month Of Tagging

Ya know, the tag doesn't work half as well lah since I've already read it but I'd do it anyway xD

rules:
1. name 5 people you can think of right off the top of your head.
2. don't read the questions underneath until you write the names of all 5 people.
3. randomly list the names. no cheating!

the 5 people:

1.Justina Lee
2.Ann Sue
3.Lee Zhen Ee
4.Simon Sim
5.Christina How

The names were not exactly 'right off the top of my head' but close enough lah. And the randomizer I used was a pencil and a piece of paper (*closes eye* poke! oh, simon's number 4...)


questions:

1. how did you meet 1?
Back when Justin used to come back to Kuantan every now and then for our annual gaming sessions, I had always seen her around but only really knew her better in the last two years or so :D

2. on a scale of 1 -10 how would you rate your friendship with 1?
Unrate-able, since we're cousins ;D

3. how long have you known 4?
It's been....pretty long. Back when I was Form 4. So that makes it about 5 years now.

4. how do you know number 3?
Sat beside him on my first week in the new school after shifting here from Kuantan

5. wheres 5?
Probably online now or watching some Korean music video, at home of course.

6. a fact about number 1?
She's chun in her own special ways xD

7. who is 4 going out with?
Sim Simon Sim...I'll skip this, heheh.

8. what does 1 do for a living?
Going to college lor.

9. would you live with number 3?
We would be fighting pretty often, haha. And playing a lot of PS2 too xD

10. what do you like about number 2?
Never short on smiles..and 'smart' remarks about bears.

11. do you miss number 5?
I miss the going-outs and all lah of course, back when Justin was still around (you see Ju, you're a very important part of the friendship-chain here)

12. would you make out with number 4?
Eating out would be more preferable..

13. what's your opinion of number 2?
Not too bad lah.

14. what's your favorite memory with number 5?
Walking in the rain!! To date I've not found another person who likes that sort of thing, haha.

15. what would you do if number 1 and 2 were going out?
That would be...another blog post altogether.

16. ever had a long conversation with 5?
Yeap..

17. have you ever slept at 2's house?
I'd have to be pretty bold to do that xD

18. do you hang out with 3 a lot?
Okay-lah~

19. who have you known the longest?
It feels like I've known Simon forever, but on technical grounds it's Justina

20. how often do you talk to 1?
Normally on Sundays when I see her.

21. what about 2?
SMS more lah, calling is expensive. Besides, you're not a phone person, right Ann Sue? Or maybe I just don't know you enough..

22. have you ever thought 3 more than a friend?
Yes, a crappy friend!!

23. would you go out for a date with 5?
Huh...it would be pretty stressful to have to measure up to the likes of those Korean heartthrobs, what with the romantic songs and romantics one-liners and romantic hairdos and romantic what-have-yous....

24. do you dream about 2?
Nah, fortunately I can escape the 'brother bear' chants while in slumberland..

25. what did no 4 did to you that you can never forget?
The way he rolled on the floor laughing about the Tasek Bera incident..

26. what have you done for 1 that the person never forget?
How would I know? xD

27.what's 3 hobby?
Doing crappy stuff lah!

28. tag 5 people
I follow Christina's trend. All the above mentioned...