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!!

Birthday Presents

With September being such a popular month to give birth, it's no surprise that I can hardly keep up with all the birthdays throughout the month. At last count, there are at least about 7 people, and that says a lot because I hardly know of more than one friend's birthday for each of the other months. Of course, there's always the chance that my selective memory doesn't like to include birthdays in other months due to 'personal bias' towards September, haha.

With birthdays, there's gotta be presents. Cakes. Cards. Dinners, and what-have-yous. But specifically presents, because you can miss the dinner, skip the cake, forget the card and even forget the birthday, but there has to be.... a present :D

Back then it was always stationery sets. Or decorative items. Kau-tim, finish. No fuss there.

Now...mention birthdays and 'aiyo, what to buy leh??' rings in the head.

I always thought that presents are a means of showing someone how well you know them. The more you know someone, the more meaningful a present you can buy or make for them. But this year I've hardly had the remotest idea of what to get for even the people that I'm pretty close with. I wondered if it was laziness on my part. I wondered if I was starting to become indifferent to all the birthdays. Or should I just say 'no time'?

Last Sunday it was the birthday of a certain Lee, whom I had known all my life but had only really gotten to 'know' better in the last 4 years. I had nothing to give, no cards and not even a wish. Partly because I was busy, but I had nothing planned in the first place. Was I being plain indifferent, and just couldn't care less?

No, it mattered. I cared. I just wish I could find something as.... wacky and.. random, something unique enough. I'll have to keep an eye out for next year I suppose.

A happy belated birthday then, to Justina Lee, cousin extraordinaire :)

You can bunuh me now if you want, Tina :D

PS: Picture above taken during the recent 'I-almost-died' white-water rafting trip, for full coverage go to Tanjonny Enjoyed Rafting

Can't Wait

I've kinda forgotten that I don't always have to have a word limit for my posts, that it doesn't always have to be 4 paragraphs long and all xD Didn't realise that I had never really blogged just for...ya know, fun :) So here's one: Can't Wait for Dinner!

No caption needed here, heh.

Feeling Lucky

A quick Google search revealed that quite a number of people actually get their fingers squashed by car doors every now and then. Which was what happened to me today xD

Coming back home with Simon, I had the great opportunity to have my fingers totally slammed in between the front door and the side frame of the trusty grey Citroen MPV. And the door latched just fine, click and all mind you. I was sitting behind the MPV, and had put my hand at the side frame where the sliding door meets the front door to get myself inside. But I left my hand there too long and when the front door closed, wham!

I felt a sharp impact, then looked and saw my fingers buried in between two pieces of metal. It actually felt quite comfortable though...for like a second. Then it hurt. The person in front was surprised to be sure :D But when I took my hand out, I noticed first of all that my fingers were still intact. Great, I thought. Then I checked...no blue-black bruises even. Just red swathes where it hit. Still, no swelling, nothing! Whoa, I'm really lucky, I thought. Such heavenly blessings to get my fingers back in one piece.

And throughout the night I was looking at my fingers like every 5 to 10 minutes, and everytime I saw them still nice and wriggly, I smiled, amused at my own fortune. I mean, if it was my red colour Proton Saga instead my fingers would've flown off a mile away, for sure. Or at the very least get my bones crushed like...crushed ice xD *looks at finger* But it's still here!! Hahaha.

Lucky.

And just the other day, I narrowly missed a car that zoomed in from a junction where some other cars obscured my view. I know how often it happens, but it was really close. A little bit more on the pedal and it would've been ugly. Nevertheless, I got back home safely. Lucky.

Or more than that, God's been really good to me for the last few days. It's not just plain Chinese ong-ong 'luck' of course, but I know it was God's protection. And grace.


*looks at fingers* Still here!!

Remember God's Grace

I picture the Christian life as a race along a straight highway ala the AutoBahn over in Germany, with countless numbers of awesome breathtaking sights and scenes on both sides.

As we run, we encounter and discover all the amazing things that God is only too happy to show to us. Beautiful mountain trails with clouds swooping down every now then, rows and rows of trees blooming to the colours of the Photoshop paint palette and waterfalls that gush with the roar of a mighty earthquake.

But the thing is, I figure most people would find it boring at one point or another to be going in only one direction. Hence when we see the overhead billboard that says 'Rest and Relaxation 10KM -->' the curious in us steers us in that direction and off we go on a nice short detour. Who doesn't like a break from that long stretch of highway?

So it was the same with me, just a few days ago I took a detour and went off to another town to 'rest and relax'. Enjoyed myself there, and boy it sure was a nice break from all that endless tarmac grinding. Stayed overnight even, since the luxuries and entertainments offered were so alluring, so desirable. Come morning however, I knew I took the wrong turn the previous night. The town was desolate, and around me only withering trees could be seen. It's not the first time unfortunately, and I'm never short of amazed at my own stupidity at times.

Finding my way back to the highway is always the hardest. Especially for someone as direction-blind as me. I just don't know if I'm heading in the right direction, or if I'm just going towards another one of those R&R places, or if I'm actually going anywhere at all.

And there's nothing that I can do, except to pray along the way that God would show the way again, that He would send a signboard or two to at least let me know where I am. I kind of get the feeling that after detouring for so many times, God might very well just get tired and put up a giant flashing neon billboard that says 'Good luck, you're on your own from this point onwards'. I mean, I would.



For all my worries though, I found something to rest on.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in his mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:3-5

I remembered His grace, and how He had never stopped coming back after me. A God who chases after our hearts, how stoned and foolish my conscience must have been to just walk away from the majesty that He constantly invites us into, and swim in the mud with the pigs instead. After all the gifts, all the blessings, all the joy, I find still myself in the wrong places at the wrong times doing anything but the right things to do.

Thanks for showing me the way again Lord :)

What's In A Name

What or who do you associate with a name, if I may ask?

When it comes to English names, some of us are born with one, some gave themselves one, some were given one, and still some others couldn't care less if they had one. I fall somewhere in between all of the above, I suppose. It's a relief that I have the luxury to settle for a name so easily and not have to grind my gray matter coming up with one of those odd-sounding names like Crimson or Race or whatever.

I tend to have very strong visual imageries for any and every kind of common English name that you can throw at me. An example: (meant to be non-offensive)

Nathan - Indian doctor
Charles - Blonde European
Bartholomew - Big guy with a soft character
Russel - Rascal
Andre - Rich kid, mixed-parentage or European
Roger - Short guy, 3 feet tops
John - Average Chinese person, but has an unusual personality
Simon - Has curly hair :D

So it was asked of me that.... if I had the chance to slap an actual English name (since my current name's given at birth) in front of my full name, what would it be?

In a return to having interactive posts, I've decided (I hope this doesn't end up being embarassing) to ask you guys this: what would you name me, and what kind of imagery do you normally associate with that name? Fire away at the comments (^.^)

Dial-a-number

The post about uni would have to wait, don't think I have enough time to blog about it today...

But on another note, out of the blue while surfing the net I suddenly decided to play around with my iTalk credit on the computer, and just randomly called up some of the people on my phonebook that I've not seen or heard from for a while. Here's a summary of the calls that I made:

1st call - cannot reach
2nd call - in a meeting
3rd call - chatted for 10 minutes
4th call - cannot reach
5th call - chatted for 7 minutes
6th call - chatted for 20 minutes

And there goes my homework for tonight....

It's sad how some friends just seem to 'fall out of fashion' with me over time. Not meaning to say that they're no longer fashionable, I guess it's kinda inevitable that some friends just come and go as we move on with our lives. Everytime I hit a crossroad in my life, I lost contact with some of my old friends but at the same time I also made new ones. Nothing new here I suppose.

For the most part I've always preferred chatting on the phone compared to texting, e-mailing or using MSN. Can't quite say why, but perhaps I'm a more aurally-attuned person, I talk a whole lot more on the phone than you would ever catch me doing in person. It's nice when the other person sounds genuinely and pleasantly surprised to get a call from you :D

That said, there are also a lot of friends that I don't feel like calling up, friends that I seem to have lost the connection with. So many. Too many, in fact. Something must've gone wrong, but I've no idea what or where. Or maybe it's just me being selfish and actually taking to 'choosing' who I want to be friends with and who I don't....



Now I can join the ranks of those who moan about school/college/work. Tomorrow got uni!! >.<

The Longest Post

So this is it, Sunway. Orientation. Gosh...

TQ Posmen

There is a longing, only You can fill...
A raging tempest, only You can still...
My soul is thirsty LORD, to know You as I am known...
Drink from the river, that flows before Your throne...

Thanks, Hilda Hew Mun Foong :)

Scrape

I wonder who was luckier, the one sitting in the shining BMW 5-series who was behind me just 15 minutes ago at the sloping car park exit or plain ol' me in my red Proton.

I happened to have had just scraped through the 'bukit' at Summit's secondary exit without having to empty my bank account to an executive who drives a fancy German import. And it was a really close call. I think. No idea how close I was, but from the blaring honk I figured the person in the Benz must've been sweating his pants off.

It's inexperience of my part of course, since in the one second it takes to shift my big foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator my car tumbled back a good mile.

*Handbrakehandbrakehandbrake*

Uni's gonna start in less than a week, and honestly speaking I'm still not confident enough to drive all the way to Sunway yet. Never mind that I won't be able to find my way there in the first place...but all that aside, I really thank God that we (my sis and see huang were in the car) scraped through today. And with that, I've got another close-call to add to my driving credentials :)

The People We Don't See

The last update had been more than a week ago, but not without reason of course. I had sent my Adeline (my lappy) off to get her battery changed last Thursday and I only just got it back around yesterday. Minus the battery, since they say they'd need to contact the HQ in Taiwan... I don't quite like using the desktop at home to update so I had to wait till I could get my grubby hands on the lappy again. So here's a post that's LONG WAY LONG overdue :D


First and foremost, thank God for the journey mercies during our awesome trip to Bethany Home in Teluk Intan :)

It was like a whirlwind, what had been going on for the last few weeks. I thought I had all the time in the world to bum around, and the whole of June and July to slowly burn my way through. Instead, without so much as to realise it right now I only have roughly one month left to play around with....scary.

Where to begin, where to begin....hurm, actually I can't quite remember in detail what took place over past couple of weeks, but somehow someway the days went by and all I could recall was that I did a lot of things. Oh well.

The highlight though, was definitely the visit to Bethany Home. Bethany Home is simply, 'A School and Training Centre for disabled children and adults', to quote from their website. As far as I know, Bethany Home is the best of its kind in the country and I was really genuinely impressed when Mr. Jayasingh the director said that their aim is to provide a place for the disabled 'from cradle to grave' which, if you ask me, is no small task. If you had read Sim's blog then you'd know that me, him, See Huang and David decided to visit there for 3 days. We had to brave a series near-misses on our way there, narrowly avoiding having to go back home prematurely.

Our stay there was short to say the least, since the other two volunteers we met there signed on for way longer. We reached the centre at around 6 in the evening and the place was dead quiet with nary a soul around, and it was already too late to do anything other than to clean up and go for dinner. That night we ended up watching CSI on the Astro there xD The next morning was much more eventful, fortunately and we had the chance to get a closer look at the machineries behind this huge centre that they call Bethany Home.

It never occurred to me how life is like for those the society likes to label as 'istimewa'. When I really mulled about it, I was left with nothing more than an endless series of question marks. What do they do from day to day? How are they going to grow up and work for their own living? How do they live alone without their parents? What does the future hold for them?

Mr. Jayasingh had this to say: "God doesn't create 'rejects'. Each and every one of these people here might be disabled in terms of their physical condition and state of mind, but inside them their souls are no different from ours."

And a whole lot of sense that makes, I would say.

Less Of Me

Sell fish. Take away the one letter, put them together and you have one universal trait that applies to all of us. Selfish.

Nature dictates that we be selfish, because it ensures our survival as a species. I don't suppose our cave-dwelling ancestors would've done very well if they always thought of feeding other animals first. Hence we're all born with the instinct to look out for ourselves.

But that's different.

The kind of selfishness that I find myself entangled in is just so wrong, no matter how I look at it.

Me first, me first, me first. I deserve it. I need it. I must get it.

There's never enough, and I always feel that I'm at the losing end of things, like I'm some sort of get-rich-quick scam victim. It's almost as if there's this big wooden Irish-bar kind of door that slams shut whenever I wanna forgo satisfying my own wants and whims first and see if there's anyone else whom I can do something for.

It's scary.

I have to constantly remind myself to bear less of me, and more of others. I came to realize not too long ago that selfishness comes at the expense of those around you, and perhaps that's how sin affects those around us. Most of the time it's not very noticeable but I'm very sure that somehow someway I've wronged each and every one of you at some point in time, whether directly or indirectly.

"You can't touch the water without making a ripple."

Good guys finish last, we all know. But if everyone's good, then can't we all finish together?

And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle,
encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong,
but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
1 Thessalonians 5: 14-15

It's hard, but I'll try...

Vision

I love receiving letters, honestly :)

Every now and then, a letter pops up in my mailbox, and it never fails to light up my day. Thank you very much to the few of you who do take the trouble to send me letters, be it for minor or thoughtful matters.

And yes, I got another one (^.^)



Now here's something that has totally slipped my mind. A relic from RBS, a piece of the Shirtliff mission team that we forged together up there half a year ago. In typical Ann Sue fashion, she sent three photos and scribbled on a piece of foolscap paper with her 'tiny handwriting' but surprise surprise, something else fell out of the envelope.

Along with the photos came attached a nice yellow card...

Don't think we could have said it any better.

But really, thanks a lot Miss Ong for the photos and the wonderful reminder of this 'vision' that we sought to achieve. I shall see to it that the favours are returned in kind some day ;D

It's finally up in YooToob!

Coming Soon

I've been wanting to update in the past couple of days, but just never found the time to sit down to do so...but rest assured it's coming! :D

It has something to do with these doughnuts... I think xD

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