Saturday

What a dull day, I got up at nearly eleven after gunning down hundreds of zombies the night before in Left 4 Dead, the name that is now synonymous with the words 'zombie' and 'help me'. Hope I can get cracking on studying for the semester exam which is just around the corner, now that assignments have been settled and done with.

Bored and with a PC in front of me, I did what only guys like me could do. You know, guys like me who don't have much life beyond the squalid four walls of my home. Switched on my PC, took out a DVD and an hour later I was busy checking out all the eye-candy that was on my screen.


If you don't know what Windows 7 is, then by all means check it out at the Windows7 Official Site. But if that's too grandfatherly boring for you, then Windows 7 is the follow-up or sequel of sorts to Windows Vista which is the default version of Windows you would find in most new laptops and computers now. It's now available for public testing, so I just thought I should give it a spin.

Had been using it for the whole afternoon, looks and feels really nice. Faster than Vista, and should get better when they officially release it. For those of you who are sick of Vista holding you back, Windows 7 could possibly be the one to help make computing a better experience for us all. It's funny how it plays on my psychology so much, just playing a simple video gave me the impression it was nicer and crisper and more vibrant than watching it on Vista. Nonsensical I know, but it feels great anyway, hahaha.

Yes, I only did what a geek like me could do on a Saturday morning, install computer software. Boring huh? Maybe I should've asked someone to go out for lunch or something....oh well. Next week I guess.

Undeserving, But Grateful

In many ways, I would consider myself to be a terrible friend. Short of listing out all the negative aspects that I'm sure many of you can relate to, every now and then I really do feel that people like me don't deserve to have good, proper caring friends. But despite all the times when I let everyone down, I can still think of so many instances where special people turned up in special circumstances to lend a hand, lend an ear, lend a dollar and whatever else I had needed of.

And among these special people, a few would go the extra mile to be a bit more special even, and I just cannot imagine what I could have done to deserve to know them. Just thought that I should take a moment to properly thank all the awesome people who consider me important enough to befriend and be friends with.


Thank you.

Valentine's

Okay, if you were actually expecting to read something related to Valentine's then you have my apologies, because in true single-but-not-too-desperate geek fashion I spent the entire day at home doing work. Alone.

Oh well...

My apologies again if you have already given up on trying to wait for my posts, the past few weeks since I got my driving lessons from my grandfather in Kuantan hasn't been very good to me. It's the same old struggles that I always write about but never say about. I've even gotten tired of blogging about it, so in the end I always didn't know what to write about when I felt like updates are due. Sigh~

On the other hand, there are a lot of things to look forward to the next month. Semester exams aside, my sister would be coming back home from RBS after the graduation night on the 5th. That means I'd have to return the table (which I have colonised and grown to love) to her. And I'd have to fight for the bathroom with her again. And I can't have the speakers in the living hall pumping out my playlists anymore. But such is the joy of having siblings :) Really hope she enjoys herself and also gain all the experience she can from the remaining two weeks left in Camerons and also the three days during her mission trip to Nilai.

Can't wait for this short semester to be over, would definitely have more time to post a lil bit more often then.

To all the lovebirds around the globe who are splurging lots of love on one another today (and cash too, no doubt), enjoy yourselves and Happy Valentine's :D

Kuantan Happenings

Since I've taken so many photos and the neighbour's left the modem on for some reasons, I thought another post would only be all too appropriate.

Coming back here with a P license this time around, I suddenly found myself at the receiving end of the car keys to my grandfather's Grandpa-mobile, which is ironically a Red Proton Saga Aeroback too! A bit newer than my (my dad's) Red Proton Saga Aeroback, having done less than 100,000 kilometers compared to almost 300,000 on mine (my dad's) car.



I think grandfathers are the best person to spoil you, if anyone is. My granpa is err..pretty old this year already, and had gone through the usual sickness routines, having just had a major surgery not too long ago. He smokes like any good cigarette-toting veteran, but he's the only one that I'll never mind to see him smoking. Most other people who light up in front of me would get two immediate headshakes and a flurry of sighs...he used to be a mechanic, and his auto skills were somehow good enough to feed the huge family of twelve healthy kids. And yes, he's hard-of-hearing, just like how they portray old folks in cartoon strips.

When he found out that I could drive, he suggested that I should use the car whenever needed. He went out and got me the customary pair of P stickers to put up after I agreed, then took me to a stretch of quiet road and asked me to try driving the car. Sort of like taking driving lessons all over again..I got in, and after taking my time to get used to the clutch and steering, drove all the way back home. He just kept praising me all the way in his characteristic "No problem lah!" mannerisms and seemed pretty happy to report to my mum that I 'passed'. Few things can come close to having your driving skills validated by your ageing grandfather, and I was truly blessed, I thought, to have him around still. I mean, who else would come up to you and say things like "hey, I've already bought the morning papers for you; hey, take the car keys and go for breakfast; hey, I'll fill up the tank so that you can use it to go wherever you want." *grandfathers rock!*

Happenings today were basically breakfast (very important over here), doing some hectic Chinese New Year grocery shopping at Tunas Manja, the local supermaket and hopping over to the beach to get some breeze and sand. Don't know if I'm just ulu, but there's always a bunch of interesting people who ply their trade along the walkway at the beach.

Nasi Lemak and Teh-C Ping again!

Ox plush toys anyone?

One of the few reasons behind our inability to boycott US products xD

Another one of those roadside artists, but he's amazing. And only ten bucks!

Fancy some sand-art from Jordan?

Weapons store selling pretty good-looking err...weapons. Which happen to light cigarettes.

Not too bad a day I suppose ;)

Back In Time

It's only Friday, still a good several days away from Chinese New Year but already I've hot-footed it back to my hometown in Kuantan, Pahang. Fearing that I'd be too darned bored with only Mandarin-speaking relatives to keep me company, I did what I could and brought back my Battle-Station :D

Times like this I'm pretty glad I didn't buy a desktop instead.

But that aside, coming back all the way here has always been a relaxing retreat of sorts for me. The pace of life here is starkly different from that of Subang's. Slow isn't the word though, it's somewhat more like..steady. After two weeks of early-morning drives to college, it's pretty nice to not have to rush to avoid those Doomsday hours of morningtime, lunchtime and after-work-everyone-is-in-a-terrible-mood-time.

The best of course, is the food. Who doesn't like to rave about all the different kinds of awesome food found only in specific enclaves in their birthplace? :D For me though, it's the nostalgia that makes the food all the more tasty and uber-delicious. Breakfast has been, and always will be, a bomb!

Nasi lemak with Teh-C Ping as can only be found here ;D

This is where we used to eat years ago...a piece
of memory that's still intact.

The most surprising this time around though, is the fact that my grandparents' jiran decided to provide free unsecured wireless Internet access! (^.^) Doesn't get any better than coming back here and still remain connected, heheh. This means that I'll get to do some research for my assignments even at 400 kilometers away from home...uh, regardless of whether I actually get around to doing any lah :)


Happy Chinese New Year people!

Where we're at as a society

I've always had the impression that Singapore was a country that prided itself on its human capital. The education system and universities there are often much talked-about and garner considerable degrees of respect from around the world with respect to their quality.

And I still have that impression. I certainly wouldn't mind at all being associated with a classy college or university like the Raffles Junior College and the NTU. Just saying that you belong to NUS for example, already puts you on a higher social standing than your peers who might be studying in any of our local universities. I'm not saying that local graduates are inferior in any way of course since I'm studying here myself, but the general consensus seems to be that Singapore has a pretty solid education backbone propping up the country's main resource: its people.

Or do they?

In today's Star paper page N50, the columnist for INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH who writes about the goings-on in Singapore mentioned the inevitable skew in the mindset of Singaporean youths whose minds have been so deeply ingrained with the competitive nature of the Singaporean society that places too much emphasis on success and leaves too little room for failure.

Where are we now as a society and where are we headed? Why is it that we are so focused on churning out world-class academic wonderkids akin to a factory producing designer sports shoes? In terms of science the global society as a whole is making wave after waves of breakthroughs and discoveries and everyday we hear people telling us that our "quality of life" is getting better. But at what cost? I feel that people have become robots in how they are being pushed to fit a mould to serve in a particular manner. Never mind if you are a unique human individual with your own set of skills, talents and abilities. All that matters is success, and whether you make it big in life. The individual is overtaking the group in importance, and our society now is more accurately just an assembly of 'individual individuals who happen to share the same living place and happen to have to interact with one another but otherwise pursue only individual goals individually'. And here I am talking about all these things because...I too, am a part of this degenerate change in our societal values.

If you didn't have the time to read the article that I was talking about to the end, then here's something that I wish I would never say, whether out loud or in my heart:

A reporter recounted how her friend was shaken when her young daughter came home one day and mentioned in passing that poor people were "stupid, obviously."

Last One to Hit the Year

A year ago, I might've spent the last few days thinking and mulling about the past twelve months as a whole and slowly write out the many things that had taken place and taken hold of my time and attention somewhere along the way.

This post would probably have a longer, more elaborate and more and funky-sounding title like "The Sights and Sounds, Ups and Downs, Smiles and Frowns of Year 200X".

There would probably be a ton of photos to capture all those special moments that can only be articulated using splashes of super-macro camera shots.

A year ago, I would probably have done all that.

THIS year, things aren't too different actually. I didn't morph into a blog-hater who is now too lazy to blog and too tired to care about the blogging world. I didn't chance upon blogging enlightenment and decide that I'm suddenly to cool to continue blogging anymore. I'm still me.

But it's just that a variety of things crept up and caught me in the midst of the final month of this year. Exams, holiday trips, falling sick, planning for Watchnight Service, catching up with friends and other day-to-day life activities meant I could not sit down on the computer any longer than 2 hours a day. And two hours for me is, very little, honestly.

I want to tell you so many different things that have happened to me that I feel really deserve a mention. I want to introduce to you the long list of interesting people that had crossed my walk of life this year around. I want to show you all the thoughtful gifts that I have had the pleasure to receive from friends and family members. I want to read to you the deep, profound personal convictions and sharings inked in the letters that I have received from people who trusted me enough to let me know more than I otherwise would.

But alas, I would have to hold on to them first. Like what someone said to me recently, I don't wanna tell you everything here and later have nothing left to spill to you when I finally meet you in person. So if we do have the chance to sit down together over a glass of Teh Ais and Ayam Goreng, perhaps then you can find out more ;)

Last one to hit the year, so long 2008!

System Downtime

Unfortunately, I'm currently too sick to even be typing anything properly so there won't be any updates for the next few days. In the meantime, I have joined the masses who seem to have fallen for the year-end superbug that's been going around....

For Your Money's Worth

Story-telling brilliantly done :)

I've probably said it before that I'm too picky for my own good most of the time when it comes to enjoying a good show in the cinema. Rustling popcorn boxes catch my attention, while idiotic (yes, I dislike it that much) handphone screens lighting up around me totally destroys my attempts to immerse myself in the movie (I mean, you go to the cinema so that you can immerse yourself in the show, no?). But every now and then, I walk out of the cinema feeling like I had made a really good decision in buying the tickets.

I still honestly opine that good movies are those where you can see, hear and feel the effort put into it by the production people. Okay, so maybe we've been seeing too many animation releases lately. Dreamworks, Pixar and Disney are no doubt working very hard to woo the audiences from the global economic gloom into the cinema halls and naturally we see more and more mediocre and same-old-same-old flicks playing in the silver screens, but thankfully some good ones still manage to stand out and show everyone else how to pull off the subtle art of entertaining entertainment.

Oh yea, try to catch the 3D version if you can. There are more likely to be less people, and hence less chance for interference, haha :D

Feels Like Yesterday

Walking into the airport's airplane air passengers' before-they-take-off-into-the-air area, it almost felt very much like only yesterday that he went for his holiday (plus a bit of studying) in that popular rugby country that also gave us the Dual-Flush Toilet (yes, that apparently came from Australia).

It's sad that you didn't come back with any Australian accent, dressing or hairdo that we can make fun of but no matter, we know you got us a lot of gifts :P

Welcome back, Mr. Lee.

No Worries

Consider the following evidences:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

If Exhibit A and Exhibit B, arguably the laziest people around here on this side of the world could make it through SPM without too much fuss, then those of you taking SPM this time around have indeed little to worry about :D

Haha, all the best to the SPM people, and no worries, SPM's only ONE exam, not THE exam ;D

Could've Been

To me the Sunday was turning out to be quite a nice one, driving in the rain was pretty relaxing...but the poor chap in the MPV had a bad day for sure, with a wild white Kancil that madly careened off her own lane, and packing FULL ACCELERATION dove straight into the back of his nice van. Just off USJ 4.

Headlights smashed into pieces, both the cars crashed like it was a videogame and we saw it all, my sister my mum and I. Everything was in mute, not a sound heard. It was really heart-grippingly fearlful, to recall what really transpired. I have no idea why Ms.X did what she did, but my sister said that she looked absolutely ghastly and hysterical after the accident. Which means it wasn't on purpose. Right....I was in the middle lane, and just drove by. 100 metres down the road, I had a panic attack when the whole event finally registered in my brain, when I realised just how close we were to getting ourselves a really serious accident.

Whatever it was that caused this, I don't know. But really, the MPV could've been me. I could've driven 10 kmph faster and my front door would be in need of serious repair now. Heck, I would be in need of serious repair now. By God's grace I'm still here, but I think life just got a wee bit too exciting for me today. Fuh.

Thank you Lord for the journey mercies today, and I suppose I mean it quite a bit more than I would have normally...

No Time

Getting off the awfully long study break that I had for the first six months of the year and entering into university course certainly proved to be a tad bit difficult to adjust to. A tad bit.

No more waking up to the afternoon sun, waking up from the wastage of the previous day and waking up to yet another day that would be spent doing pretty much the same things as before. So yes, I've 're-assimilated' into the general population and now join the masses chanting the popular modern-day saying of 'No Time lah!'.

The thing is, the right priorities are always the hardest to fulfill, so for me I mostly have a really screwed up priority list that puts the wrong things at the top, and the right things at the bottom. While the momentary gratifications are wonderful, the end-results of putting my time where I shouldn't and vice-versa have never failed to come back and bite me in the eyes. The pattern is normally as follows:

1. Decision to make --> 2. Decision made (mostly the wrong one) ---> 3. Time is wasted ---> 4. Possible scenarios of either a) work gets left out b) relationships take a dive ----> 5. Feelings of regret and guilt ----> 6. Strive to do better ----> 7. Rinse, wash and repeat.

I realise I've been feeling like there's 'no time' very often lately. Get an assignment, aiyo, no time lah. Go out for something, aiyo, no time lah. This one..no time lah. That one maybe..aiya, no time lah. To me, this is just plain mind-bending.

"Where did it all go? I'm sure I had a lot of time to begin with, so how come I've all but run out now?"

My time here could be up even as I'm typing, so it really hurts me to have to come to grips with the fact that I'm just really terrible with managing my time and my priorities. Why can't I do better?

I don't like to wind up complaining about something all the time here on my blog, I don't want to end up always looking for pity from other people, from you guys. But at the same time I want to take note of the different things taking place as my days pass by and I live through them, be they inspiring or regrettable.

Also, I don't think I could even bother to think about all these things, if not for some of the things that some of you had said or done. I suppose the fact that I'm thinking about it means that all hope aren't lost yet.

Time.

"haihhhh so hard to juggle everything... family, friends, spiritual life, work, all"
-anonymous-

Grow

Can't quite put the thoughts down in type, but I'm getting more and more of that odd vibe that I need to....'reinvent' myself, to borrow the term from economic-speak. Or more like, 'rebrand' myself. Or wait, maybe not. Bah.

The areas where I fail, the times when I regret...I know I'm at the crossroads already. I either keep up what I'm doing and perish, or I make the real efforts to change. The more I fall, the more I feel hurt and disenchanted with the idea of even bothering to try, but I learn to pick up myself better also along the way.

Okay, so in the end I've said nothing, but I just wanted to post about what's been twirling in my head for some time now.

More Information to be Googled

6 things I'm passionate about:
1) Computers
It's an obsessive-compulsive thing I guess, I just can't stand a PC that isn't properly taken care of. A PC should be well-oiled, well-maintained and well-tuned, so that it can run to its best potential. I can't write programs and I can't do any physical modifications like adding jet-exhausts and stuff, but give me any PC or laptop with a problem (Internet not working, sound not working, programs can't start, virus/malware/spyware/I-don't-know-ware) and I shall not rest until the problems are solved and resolved.

2) Technology
I like reading about gadgetry that I'll never own, for some reasons. I can read a DSLR magazine just for the sake of reading, without even knowing my aperture from my shutter speed to begin with. MP3 players, Blu-ray Discs, WiFi, Solid State Hard Drives, LED-Backlit LCD Displays, bla bla bla and everything else you can find related to consumer technology would nicely find a place as my preferred reading material (although I don't actively look for things to read).

3) Mission Work
I'm not sure if I would be involved in full-time missions in the near future, but I appreciate the work put in by missionaries and if I'm not one then I would at least want to be part of the 'senders' and contribute in other ways. But of course, the more I think about it the more I have to question my own involvement in missions work, or the lack of it to be more exact. Makes me think about how I'm being more and more attached to what the world has to offer, when there are so many other things that can be done, so many areas that I can serve in.

4) Malaysia
To me, Malaysia is my country, and it's nothing to do with National Service, so no indoctrination symptoms here :D I like Malaysia, I like the races here. Can we for once put aside the racial slurs, the racial prejudice and racial nonsense? Why are we still struggling for that 'one country, one citizen' notion even after half a century? It's sad to see that the generation running the country now are still talking about 'their own people' only. Most discouraging is the mentality of 'Malaysia as My Temporary Home', with foreign citizenship in one hand and luggage in the other, ready to flee when 'the time comes', so to speak.

5) Environment
Yeap yeap, better a tree than a plastic neon-coloured decoration any day. Littering is what miffs me the most, when nice rivers are clogged with rubbish, and also bits of brains that people must've thrown out along with the trash. In Malaysia the environment is seriously underrated, with forest reserves being shaved to make way for small decorative shrubs just so there's money to be made. The environmental movement in Malaysia is still slow, and the government really should push to protect the green heritage that we have around us. Of course, the headlines would tell you that they're currently too busy for that..

6) Others
I realised that I can sometimes be passionate towards certain people that I come across. Please don't get the idea that I'm talking about girls, I meant to say that sometimes I'm drawn to keep in touch more with a particular person just to see if there's anything I can do to help out. Wish I could be more rajin in this respect though.


6 books I read(ing) recently:
1) The Bible
You can't stop reading this for too long without going over the cliff, I realised :)

2) Christian Psychology's War on God's Word
Tough book to chew on, and rightly so because I've not touched it for a while since borrowing it from the church library. I think I should try to finish it some time. Great insights on how psychology theories and God's principles compare with one another.


6 songs I can listen to over and over again:
1) Carrie Underwood - Lessons Learned
I like how the lyrics paint a good picture out of all the mistakes that we could possibly make, it's a lesson learned to have known that we did something wrong.

2) The Corrs - Summer Sunshine
I just like the tune :D

3) New Found Glory - Kiss Me
Brilliant song here, love how they made the classic song their own.

4) Juwita Suwito - Only In The Dark
It's only in our times of need that we hear the promptings of the LORD, "only in the dark when I can't seem to see, I'll learn to hear your whisper that's been guiding me".

5) Shannon Noll - Shine
The intro alone is worth listening to over and over again, haha.

6) Sara Bareilles - Love Song
Again, the intro is the best thing to get you started on a drive.


6 things I learnt this past year:
1) God loves me, has always loved me, will always love me, no matter I do, or don't do. That is truth.

2) The harder decisions to make, are more often than not, the right ones.

3) Investing in relationships still yields the best returns.

4) I can be here and dead tomorrow, it's God's call and who am I to think that I 'tomorrow never dies'?

5) I've got to move on from the rut that I'm in, and grow up.

6) I've really got a long way to go in terms of spiritual maturity, still so many areas that I could work on.

6 valuable things I own:
1) My life. Stripped of everything else, it's just me and God, and I thank you LORD for having brought me where I am today.

2) My family and my home. My family's not perfect, and I'll never want that anyway because it's already the best one that I could ever ask for. The house is only rented, but it's home enough for me, and comfortable by all means :)

3) Friends and cousins - Coming here and making so many new friends those few years ago was certainly one of the better things to have happened to me :)

4) Provision - God will provide for me and my family one way or another, and I still don't have any reasons as of now to doubt Him.

5) Adeline - My lappie of course, not a person, although that would've been err...nice :D Most expensive thing I ever asked from my parents, at almost twice the price tag of an ordinary low-end laptop. Don't know why I picked something so expensive, but I was kinda picky with the specifications I guess. You better serve me faithfully for another decade, Adeline! xD

6) Creative ZEN - Most expensive birthday gift here. Nice to have a mini photo-album movie viewer MP3 machine around, especially when it's free :D

In Death There's Value

A remark that stuck with me for while now is that 'You guys are lucky because you've not really experienced the loss of a close one'.

The closest person that I could think of whom I had 'lost' would probably be my grandfather, whom I was only moderately close with.

The ironic thing with death, I think, is how the person who dies suffers the least. Sure, you can die the most excruciating death (by electric chair or firing squad or electric squad or firing chair or...), and writhe in all the pain and agony, but death cuts deepest into the hearts of those who knew you, those who loved you. Emotional scars that go unnoticed and wrenching of the heart that goes on indefinitely...

But as I pondered the other day, it's only when you take a look at death that you can find value in the things that really matter. Life is so precarious, and dying is really not that hard a feat to accomplish, admittedly. Have you ever imagined yourself dead, or dying, and thinking of who would be there to see you at your deathbed? I have. I do. (I'm typing on a wooden table, :D)

When I think about the undeniable fact that life here on the mortal plane is only as long as the LORD wills it, then the implication of it is that at any and every single moment, there is a possibility of me going six feet under.

Perhaps people should think about death more. We always stop short at saying anything 'unlucky' about ourselves, and utter the famous wood phrase. But really, it is in death that the value of everything that you ever thought you had comes into examination. Money's the last thing you'd want to keep, for sure. Your car? Nope. Your three-storey terrace? Can't be buried with you. In fact, everything that you are, and have, on this world stays with this world. I'd like to not have lived and died just knowing that I had a successful business. I'd want to know that I had lived a good life of time spent investing on other people, in building relationships and in sharing hardships. I'd want to avoid taking for granted the fact that I am alive and breathing. I'd like to say, before I die, that 'it's been great knowing you guys' :)

In death there's value.

Do you see them? Do you see the things of value to you?

What matters enough to you to outshine even the consuming fire of death?

Sleeping at 4 in the morning

Tomorrow shall be a short day for me...oh well. At least I finished this, haha.

Alamak, Blimey!

Last week, I took the invitation to go up to Fraser's for a short two-days holiday of sorts, with a pretty rag-tag bunch of people. I had assignments in mind, and there were some other appointments with other friends to manage. So quite a few times I had wanted to just pull out and stay at home instead, but I tagged along in the end, and yes, I made the right choice indeed :)

I had the impression that there really isn't much that you can do in Fraser's. And I still think so. Clearly there's only so much flora to see, and so much strolling you can do. But the X factor in the trip, or any trip to anywhere for that matter; was clearly the company. I didn't think much of the combination of Elena, Jon and Ann together, since they're the Footstool bunch so to speak and I'm the odd one out joining the trip. Until the three of them started poking at each other of course xD At almost every turn and corner, there were plenty of smiles exchanged, laughs traded and jokes shared. I certainly didn't sign myself up for so much entertainment, hahaha.

Once we got to the Gap house and were on our way up, the familiar cold mountain breeze came in through the windows, and even though it's not the first time I've been up these highlands, there's just nothing quite like leaving all that uncouth 'civilisation' behind and soaking up the refreshing misty air. Forget Genting, Fraser's is the place to be to chill and relax (I'm not gonna use that combination word, thank you).

For some reasons, when you're up there, you seem to subscribe to a different time-space continuum. Time moves a whole lot slower and you'll feel like you're entirely removed from the cities just down below (Point proven when Ann said "When you get back to Malaysia....."). It sounds like escapism and hints at 'I-don't-wanna-face-my-troubles-so-I'm-just-gonna-run-away' attitudes but it was really more like...slowing down. Lowering the external noise. 3 days without the Internet proved to be a great puasa of sorts, like how fasting can give your stomach a rest. With our minds off Facebook, there were plenty of real interaction and 'poking' going around. Wall-to-wall comments were face-to-face for a change, and yes, it sure beats having your conversation indexed by the search engine and end up being searched by others xD

I had fun. I really did. Thank you so much Ann Choo for the apartment, the chit-chats, the food and the great tours around Buona Vista :D

Thank you so much Jon Tan for the comfortable (well, mostly) ride up and down and all over Fraser's and for the steamboat, great fun having it so high up in the hills xD

Thank you so much Elena, for all the comic relief and entertainment provided. Twiggies on me, hahahaha.

And thank you so much guys, for inviting me along for the trip. Best three days spent in Fraser's since the committee retreat, definitely.

If Jon had smiled this would be the perfect photo to end the post with...oh well :)

*A huge apology to all the people that I had to ditch in the last minute because of the extended stay in Fraser's.*

*For more pics, take a look at Elena's Fraser's Trip Pics*

Presents and Blessings Abound

Already, it's now October. What a year 2008 has been for me, simply amazing and unbelievable in so many ways. From RBS to entering university, this year I've definitely received more than my fair share of blessings and provision from Him. Every time I think about all the things that I had done this year, the friends I made the gifts I received and the things I've managed to do; I am simply awestruck at how the LORD made sure I was never left wanting, despite all the times that I sidetracked or even backtracked from my spritual walk.

Okay, so it's not quite the 31st of December yet, but I just wanted to do a short recap of some of the gifts that I received for my birthday, so here it goes :D


Tada! This was taken on the day they handed out the certificates for the The Star Education Fund recipients, of which I am one of them :) I truly had no idea what was in store for me after STPM was over and done with, but along came the surprise that I, the one who recklessly said "I don't know" to one of the interviewers' questions; was chosen to pursue a degree in Psychology at Sunway University College. Even more surprising was how my application for the local universities came back with my first choice, something that the dudes at the education department seldom give out. In the end I made the choice to go for Sunway, and it has not been easy adjusting to how universitiy education works but it's certainly been a wonderful blessing to have the opportunity to study there.


TWO presents from the ever-generous Mr. Lim who came back a few months earlier from Texas for his holidays. The first one on top literally got me into a stupor of sorts because it was supposed to be a 'random present'. Uh...the thing is that my old mp3 player disappeared on my way back from Bethany Home when I went up there for a visit a few months ago. Mr.Lim then kindly thought of getting me a brand new device, complete with 8 times the storage space, a nice shiny display and brilliant sound quality. But to me, it was the single most expensive present I've received, and quite shocking it was I would say. *oh no, what the heck am I gonna have to get for him?!?!* Still, I really really appreciate the gift, and the beautiful player has been my faithful in-car entertainment wonderbox ever since.

For the controller, it was also incredibly thoughtful of Mr.Lim to get me an original PS2 analog pad to replace my age-old PS1 joystick which is now bruised and seasoned. But it's too nice for me to even want to take it out of the box, so it's still in the box now xD I probably won't want to use it until my PS1 controller explodes or something, haha.


That's me in a nice and comfortable brand-new just-arrived last month Wild Channel hoodie from Aunty Choi Chew :D Many thanks to her concern about powerful air-conditioners in Sunway, and for bringing me all the way to Subang Parade to shop for it! Lectures are no longer the chill-fest they used to be, and this would certainly be brilliant for exam halls.


Over here, last but not least; is a Solvi Titus spectacle frame from the mother of a friend in Kuantan. Always wanted a plastic frame for sports or general rough use, although the problem was that I never looked good in any sort of plastic frame. Unfortunately I've not had the frame fitted with optometric glass yet, so it's still sitting there in the box on my table. Better go and get it fitted soon...

And there you have it, a quick run-down of some of my newly-acquired :) I wouldn't mind of course if there's more to come still this year, heh.

Presents in Print

Just about a week ago, it was the favourite day of my favourite month again. According to Wikipedia, I supposedly share the same birth date as some of the more well-known people around the globe such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Stephen King, to name a few. Not that I'm hinting at anything of course, haha.

But rather, this year I had the opportunity to receive so many presents. Funnily enough most of them were advance gifts, so by the time it was the 21st of September I had more or less received all the presents there were for me. More or less, because I still received a present on the day itself, and I even managed to get another present today!

I had wanted to post about all the presents that I've received, but university took up most of my time. Of course, if I posted about all the presents at one shot then the post would be too long, so I'll post about the biggest (size) present that I received this year first :D



Taking off the outer colourful layer of wrapping revealed that I had a lot more work to do...



I've wrapped with newspapers before, and I've done the 'newspaper-upon-newspaper x 1000' style also, although when it's normally not a very efficient use of newspaper because the recipient tends to take advantage and rip off 4 - 5 layers in one go. And yes, it's very time-consuming. And takes plenty of effort. And newspaper of course. So I decided to play fair and nicely unwrapped the newspaper layers one-by-one.


Which took quite a while actually. An hour after I started, it was like this:



Funkily, along the way there were plenty of litte 'encouragements' to spur me onwards. Talk about being meticulously creative :) Let's see...an Orlando Bloom-wrapper chipsmore, a Fergie-wrapper Tiger Biskuat, a box of Moo Milk Candy wrapped in another posse of stars...presents in a present.



Another half-an-hour more of careful tearing finally got me to the real present beneath the boxy exterior. And surprise surprise, there wasn't any real box to begin with. It was an open-top container with the genuine present inside.



At the end of the whole exercise, the actual present itself wasn't the focus anymore, because I really thought that the effort and thoughts put into wrapping it were a whole lot more priceless. The box could have contained a bag of peanuts and I would've been equally satisfied either way because the time spent on wrapping it up alone is already one of the most special things that you can give to someone. But I liked the present of course, don't get me wrong, hahaha.


Thank you very much once again!

Still Many More Presents to Put Up!!