packing room and random birds - a (largely) photographic essay

Well the date of moving house isn't getting any further (eh actually it is - just found out that the house will only be ready for moving in on the second week of June - but this is just to create a sense of panic in me) which means that it's about time i started packing my room. Here first is a quick snapshot (or rather a series of quick snapshots) of how my room looks like at present [and yes i know this is super boliao but well moving house is such a rare event (well, except for me though hmm...) and is therefore worth documenting...]





Well suffice to say my room's currently a big mess - and all this will have to be cleared out within the next couple of weeks (ok not all of it, like half of the furniture came with the house), so needless to say i've a big task ahead of me - and...

But no one's gonna do it if i don't, so the other day i decided that i must get started with packing - and i did - i went downstairs, found one empty box, and brought it up to my room. Well, and that was it for the day...

And the next day, i figured i had to do something more. Yup. So this is the result of that new resolve:


Three files worth of old school work... Yay... That's like 0.05 % down, 99.95% more to go...

Recently have been seeing quite a few birds around, and since one of the random things that i happen to be relatively familiar with is local bird identification, thought it would be good to document this as well... So for a start we have the following:

Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) outside my window

White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) at Pasir Ris Park

Um, just two disclaimers in conclusion: 1) I'm a terrible wildlife photographer, i'll admit that. 2) These are both common species so it's not as though these pics signify some groundbreaking development in local birdwatching circles...

20160 minutes

Was just thinking that in the span of the past above mentioned period of time there's been a 180 degree turn in what i had intended for the upcoming year ministry wise. On the night of Sunday 6 May 2007 i don't actually recall what i was doing but i'm pretty sure it didn't involve any preoccupations with what the (academic) year ahead would bring. Yup for all intents and purposes, two weeks ago my last two sems at nus in terms of CF commitment at least would revolve solely around the informal, providing whatever insights and help a CF member with three years of CF experience (and a gem of a semester away on exchange) could as a (love the term, btw) supportive senior whenever such insights were called for. The more i thought of it, the more i relished the idea.

Then within the span of the past fourteen equatorial days worth of daylights, sunsets and midnights (and no cups of coffee thank you very much - some tea though, dunno about inches and miles, lots of laughter and a fair dose of strife the situation has changed so dramatically and suddenly all my dreams of a nice, easy and relaxed final year at NUS came to an abrupt halt. Looking back (and it only really hit me just now as i finally got to talk to someone about it) fwah the Lord has definitely shown me that He has other plans from what i would have liked to do, and indeed, this means that the concealed reservation that i held in my heart that my joy at being able to just sit one corner and shake leg next year was not joy at all but rather more of a self-centered glee was indeed a reality...

Yup this is perhaps an incomplete rambling, but well guess the moral of the story is that you never know what the Lord may have in store for you... Ultimately, however, we are to follow His call whatever it is - so keep on praying about it man...

In largely unrelated news, went for some ultimate with the All Saints people who meet every Sun (which reminds me, poor Suns - that rule stinks methinks...) apparently to play. Had a great time - i do miss the (relatively) vibrant ultimate culture back in UNC - i dare say after i've come back that i've been American-trained (though the result isn't much better i must admit =p) but anyways yup basically it was great. Wish we could have more of such thingies - but the (relative) lack of enthusiasm here (or at least in my circles) makes it hard...

while the rain continues to fall...

I was intending to get out of the house for a spot of cycling this afternoon, since i've been finding myself rather free and lounging round the house doing nothing much more than sitting in front of the com, eating and sleeping for the good part of the last couple of days. But then the sudden afternoon downpour has put paid to those plans so here i am back in front of the com again... Meanwhile Bingo sits outside in the hallway after i chased him out of my room and closed the door cos he was affected by the thunder and hence was drooling all over my floor.

Well, since i've not been doing much i've actually not much to say heh. Let's see - what was there? Oh yeah i finally got to eat at Astons yesterday and it was well worth the wait. I can't believe i've stayed so near to this gem of a restaurant for so long and have only been to it now. And how convenient that just as i finally experience for myself what so many people have been raving over that i find myself not more than three weeks away from shifting out of this house...

Anyways i decided to try their much ballyhooed (and very tackily-named) ieatSuper Burger and it more than lived up to its billing. Methinks it can compete with the Sutton's double bacon cheeseburger (the one on my current fb profile pic) back in Chapel Hill for the title of best burger i've ever eaten, although admittedly they're of two separate pedigrees. And how ironic that both these burgers have medical affiliations - the Astons burger being put on the regular menu at the recommendation of a local doctor, and Sutton's being a diner that is fronted by a drug store. Whatever the case, if anyone would try these two burgers for themselves, i'm sure they would not question me anymore as to why i've resolved never to eat McDonald's ever again... Aiyah really so wasted that i'm moving house leh - think even after i move i'll be wanting to spend time in the east. Got ecp, got Astons, got friends - that's three up on what i've at my new place...

I've been sorta figuring out what to do traveling wise, as i really have to get out of S'pore for at least a bit before the new school term starts. Have been keeping the option of following the parents to Japan (cos they've to use their miles as well) but well, they're moving at a similar pace of procrastination as i am (now i know where i got it from) so i can't confirm anything on that side. There's also lots of other possibilities but i'm rather fussy when it comes to choosing a holiday destination which hardly helps matters. This holiday also appears to be lacking in enough big blocks of time available for me to be away for. Ideally, i'd like to be away for at least a week but depending on how things go such an extended period out of S'pore may be impossible in July (which is when's best cos there's probably more options available than say for June). Ah i shall just comfort myself by assuring myself that something will work out...

I do wish that i was more daring when it came to planning holidays - like to go to new places which don't speak English, possibly alone, and for an extended period in time. Have been looking at Greg's awesome Eastern European graduation trip itinerary and wondering if i'd have the guts for something like that next year. Of course a trip of that scale would only be possible next year [since think that graduation is one of those life events that warrants one times tua zhong (sp?) trip like that] - the problem being that the dear folks at you-know-where appear to want all those moving on to nie to be available from mid-June, and even for stuff in May, which leaves me with precious little breathing space in terms of planning a big trip of say a month's duration... There's also matters of finding people (if there's any), funding, carbon emissions etc...

Hmm so that's holiday plans for ya. One more pertinent matter at this point in time of course what to do in the year ahead. Hopefully decision for that will eventuate within the next couple of days...

Trust no one will read this before then, so suffice to say be prepared for a big shock if you're watching idol results tonight. I know on my part that i'm done with watching the show for the season =(...

revolving around raffles

Sat evening i went down to church for a lecture (and i wish they'd give it a different name apart from lecture - the negative connotations that it brings to this nus student are both manifold and unappealing) by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan 'no-i-am-not-mr-bean' Williams who so happened to be in our neck of the woods over the weekend. The topic was Christianity: Public Religion & the Common Good. I wasn't expecting much out of the lecture especially since it was obviously intentionally not overtly Christian in nature ("with special reference to Christianity" was how the lecture was billed) and also since my previous experience with the public speaking of archbishops-cum-theologian/academic people has not been an entirely positive one.

But anyways, since it was the Archbishop of Canterbury after all, i did a bit of advertising for the lecture so a handful of thursday people past and present came down - specifically two dinos (Kevin n Eunice) and two year ones (or as they are so upliftingly titled in the states, rising freshmen - Grace Koh and Pheobe).

And the lecture actually went far better than how i'd thought it would - he addressed many pertinent issues that immediately struck a chord with me since he basically focused upon the role of the Christian in society. At the same time however he was careful not to strike any raw nerves with regards to so-called sensitive topics such as the evolution-ID debate and homosexuality when they came up during Q&A time, and also with regards to other religions. Can't fault him on that though...

Less than twelve hours later i found myself back in the same place for service, after which went with the family over to the British Club, where my aunt had organized a Mother's Day family lunch thingy (which my mother could not attend cos of speaking engagements). Incidentally, i just so happened to bump into Jeremy from UNC who had just arrived back less than a week ago - that was really so coincidental - apparently my extended family knows his - which just about further extends the intriguingly large circle of people whom i know and who also know people in my extended family in some way or other...

Anyways it was an appetizer and dessert buffet coupled with a choice of main course. I chose the Sunday Roast Beef with au jus and Yorkshire Pudding - and by the end i felt like one of the five thousand that Jesus fed cos the three slices of beef on my plate had been supplemented from two more plus lots of veggies from my lola who could not eat any more. This coupled with the more-than-ample appetizer and dessert spreads left me really bloated by the end of it...

Some people obviously were a tad overeager at the chocolate fountain...

So what better thing to happen than Steven, my monthly buffet buddy calling me to go for dinner that night. After some delays owing to restaurant closures and Mother's Day mark-ups (and finding myself back at Raffles City for the third separate time in 24 hours) we ended up at Pariss (and what a stupid name btw) at Marina Square. I'm not usually one for eating there cos of the preponderance of seafood that is precisely what makes the buffet as expensive as it is. But well, the price was relatively reasonable and there was enough non-crustacean seafood around for me to eat (though i'm beginning to have issues with eating some kinds of fish because of overfishing of certain stocks - but i couldn't go up to the sashimi and ask it whether it came from sustainable fisheries could i?), along with lots of other food too of course, so i went ahead and proceeded to stuff myself for the second time in the same day. I'm sure all that would have been more than enough to disqualify me from the under-60 club...

Anyways, two successive heavy meals in a single day was enough to strengthen my resolve for a run today - my first in more than a month if i'm not wrong, and hence i really felt like i was troddling along at a snail's pace. Managed to make my usual route though - from Amber Road up round the cable ski lagoon and back - in 48 minutes - which is super slow i know but well it's been a month... Now i'm just wondering where i can run after i move...

partial recall

On this note of my less-than-effective guard dog, here goes a mundane recap of the past week plus or so since exams ended...

Think that everyone had a good time over at night cycling last week. I must say that i was a little intimidated at first as to how to get everyone organized and ready, but things really worked out well in the end by God's grace. Weather was great, fellowship was great, route was reasonable, food was ... erm relatively missing but still ok lah... Overall hope that the tradition will continue cos think it's more than worth it to do so...

Over the weekend i also finally got my hands on it - a little on the expensive side maybe, but worth it especially in the long run methinks... Maybe she's a bit too fat for my liking, ah but i'll get used to it...

Mon was games day - and once again we had great weather. Think i was so un-used to such perpetual sunniness that i had a bit of a headache for the rest of the day - dehydration maybe... But anyways, had a great time playing ultimate and captain's ball - a good way to destress after exams that's for sure.

After arts fg (which i've been missing for quite some time already), it was agm time. Glad that things went far more smoothly than last year's did. I definitely don't recall laughing so much at an agm of any sort before (and many thanks to people like Ade Fam, Debs and Evan for that - and guess what? Their initials spell ADE - incidentally the chief unintentional inducer of amusement - think she must have set some sort of a record for non-exco member whose name appears most often in the agm report...)

One thing i've noticed is that since i've come back, every time after i get a hair cut i see people i hadn't seen since before i left, and people still remark on how my hair has grown so long and therefore i was hard to recognize - at agm was no exception...

There also was pecop, which was a great experience i thought. All the fun that XK and i had preparing for our nonsense songs aside, the whole concept in itself was a refreshing one, and it did work well, by God's grace. Um and i thought i'd be far more verbose over here but somehow nothing comes to mind so i shall leave it at that...

Went to cycle and think some things through the other day - decided to take a route i haven't taken in maybe nine months - up ecp and the airport-hugging road to Changi Village and back. That road in particular, come to think of it, has remained remarkably free of roadkill in the ten or so times i've gone past it (save for a solitary snail at last year's night cycling), and i was just thinking that when what else should i chance upon but a squashed monitor lizard. And in fact, before i had reached Changi Beach Park, i encountered one more squashed monitor lizard and two squashed snakes. - enough to make at least one handbag methinks... Then i was lamenting to myself that i was glad that i didn't see any live snakes, so what should i encounter mere minutes later but a snake slithering away from me as i cycled past. The anti-cherry on the cake was when i was back at ecp and noticed a parrot chick that must have fallen from its nest onto the bike path just in time to swerve to the side to avoid squashing it. I then continued another twenty minutes or so before turning back and thinking of putting it to one side, when who should appear but a less keenly-eyed cyclist who must have run the chick over, since i heard a loud squeak and him breaking suddenly =( I honestly felt guilty for the next ten minutes or so, but odf course i didn't want to go back and see what actually happened to the parrot so i cycled away...

Well, the past few days i ended up at a place i originally had no intention of being at, but at the end of the day i guess i'm glad i did go in the first place, even if i haven't arrived at any decision even now. We'll see how things go lah...

What's up with Federer?

recovery process

Exams are over after a very disjointed period of two weeks. Well, had like 60% of them in the past 36 hours so that about says how disjointed things are... Hmm anyways end of exams = mood for randomness so here goes:

Took this on the way to school one day

- one of those "the heavens are opening" cloud formations...

After my two papers yesterday, i decided to take a breather from studying in school cos i couldn't focus anymore in the snug smc behind area anymore (and that was a matter of 'when' much more so than 'if'). In any case, i was already very much in holiday mood, if you can call it that cos after two papers in a row, that's basically how anyone would feel methinks...

So i randomly (never have i been as much a fan of randomness than this sem) decided to head over to ecp to read my Cold War book in prep for today's paper. Needed a different setting and the fresh (albeit occasionally sea-stinky) air there is a great improvement from the stuffy recycled air of smc (and had just finished Global Environmental Issues paper, of which one thing i learnt was that indoor air is actually less healthy than outside air). And the sound of the lapping waves beats that of the photocopier hands down...

Walked up ecp from Fort Road - never have i seen this stretch completely empty before...

The first two souls i encountered there...

My view...

Yeah so things worked out well - at least while the rain clouds held up. Didn't manage to get in more than one chapter before the drops became more steady and the clouds became darker, after which i retreated to Parkway Coffee Bean where i managed to finish the book (or at least the relevant chapters of it). But anyways, my point is that the beach is a nice place to read a book (not studying per se cos the constant sea breeze would pose a problem to notes). Too bad i realize it all the more only when i'm about to move...

So by the time today arrived i'd already practically become physically impossible of squeezing in even one moment more of productive studying, so i basically just hung until the paper itself. That was good, and the paper at the end of the day didn't turn out too bad... (only thing interesting to note is that this was the third time out of my five exam seasons at nus that i ended my papers in mpsh5 - hate that place, though at least now it's renovated)

Ah so fast they came, and so fast they're over...

Am listening to Norah Jones' latest album on my com now (obtained via free legal downloading, thank you very much) and have arrived at the conclusion that virtually all her songs have the same effect on me, which is to lull me to sleep... Which means there's no need to buy this album since the other two that i have would do just fine...

Up next, Daughtry =)

Primate Aping Politician

Ok i so have more constructive and fulfilling things to do than this but just humor the one who's just finished two papers this day... (And one more to go!)

Look familiar to anyone?

Maybe it's easier to recognize here...

If you recognize who i'm referring to, great - but keep it to yourself... If not, well do continue to live in your blissful ignorant world, you're probably the better for it ;-p

Frayed

Well, so far the latest exam season has gone on pretty smoothly for me actually. Think the many free days available for studying this sem have made things much more flexible for me than any other exam period in nus as far as i can remember. This has been especially timely for me cos this sem, more than any other, i've felt the need to take (very) frequent (but relatively brief) breaks from studying to spend time away from everything but God (um, and also to pee, but that's another story altogether). And better many frequent breaks than one whole prolonged period retreating from civilization like last year methinks... Yup, which explains why i'm just as likely to be found out of my seat than in it if you're looking for me...

And in terms of the exams themselves, well, while initially i was somewhat apprehensive (first exams in this disgustingly rigid exam environment after a year) about getting used to how exam conditions here would be like (at UNC it was a breeze), at the end of the day things have worked out alright thankfully... Um, i do know that my name won't be appearing on any Dean's Lists anytime soon, but i also do know that the rest of the exams will go alright too =)

One regret i've had though, not having much time (or motivation) to exercise, given the fact that for the past two weeks, i've tended to eat two full dinners in a day, one at sixish in school, and the other at tenish at home...

In totally unrelated news, the latest chapter in the ongoing torture that i'm subjected to on an almost daily basis at the hands of tv mobile features reruns of pck, which i had previously mistakenly believed to have wisely been put out of its (and my) misery by mediacrap once and for all. To make matters worse, the reruns are not of the initial seasons (i.e. before the titular character had to go and take BEST English classes at the suggestion of none less than the now sm, this plot development basically killing whatever salvageable bits of the show there ever were), but of the latest season when the show was already at the tail end of its slow death.

Just to prove my point, the middle shelf of this trolley
features all the volumes that the bizzare xerox-crazy girl zapped in just ONE DAY...

The latest wildlife specimen i encountered at engin bridge,
a really big Atlas Moth, though it was dead by the time i took this pic...
The giant spider's still there, btw, if you'd want a look for yourself...

This song has been regularly playing in my mind for the past month or so methinks, and today during one of my contemplative walks it hit me - sometimes i feel like i'm living it first-hand. Ok, not all of it, maybe specifically the second verse more than the rest, yup but anyways it hit me all the same. Hope things won't come to the stuff in the chorus though...

awareness?

I was ruminating a bit upon the events of the past Monday and Tuesday and was somewhat troubled by that, and then we had prayer on Friday morning when Kumuthan brought up that very point that had been troubling me as he was praying. And think it bears mention here, so here goes (even if it's a couple of days late...)

Well, as you might have gathered, i felt rather affected by the VT shootings, which saw a total of 33 dead, on Mon; and more so than the average person here since i was, albeit only for a semester, a college student in the US myself. And then, i forget how, but anyways i came to hear about the series of bombings in Baghdad that happened soon after in which nearly 200 people lost their lives. And the very fact that i forgot how i learned about the latter incident suggests how relatively insignificant the news was compared to the VT massacre, at least as portrayed by the media. Also, the very fact that i'd to source for a link to the news of the bombings on wikipedia rather than on a news site suggests how quickly this tragedy has faded into the background, especially when compared to what happened at VT.

I definitely have no intention of taking anything away from what happened at Blacksburg - such a tragedy simply cannot be brushed over. Nor am i suggesting that comparing the number of fatalities should be a gauge of how 'serious' a tragedy is. No matter who and how many people die, the effect upon those concerned is still something no one would want to be put through. But why is it that we (myself included) pay so much attention to one event, when the other, which i'd argue deserves more than a mere mention, seems to have become a mere footnote in comparison to the former? The close to 200 people killed in Baghdad by Sunni extremists were no less deserving of a tribute to their tragic and unnecessary deaths than the 32 who lost their lives at the hands of a lone gunman. Is it because violence has become such a way of life in Iraq that the latest bombings serve as nothing more than an added chapter to the basket case that is what the 'American-liberated' Iraq has become, whereas in the states with such incidents being relatively few and far between any such occurrence deserves greater mention? Or is it because we can identify more closely with the victims of the VT massacre than we can with those in Iraq? Whatever it is, such reasonings really cannot hold water, and yet this is the sad reality that we are faced with.

Come to think of it, how much of the sufferings in the world are we aware of and are interceding over? The horrifying situation in Darfur comes to mind. I myself knew next-to-nothing about what has been going on over there until i was at UNC and there were some IV thingies going on to pray for what has been going on over there. In fact, at this point in time, i'll admit that i still know little about what has been going on. I'd like to attribute it solely to the lack of media coverage but it goes further than that - my own apathy. But just take a look - the estimated number who have died as a result of what has been going on over there ranges from 200000 to 450000. How can i, especially as a Christian who is constantly reminded of God's undeserving sacrificial love for all of us, and His call for us to love others as He has us, not bother about a situation of such magnitude at all?

It's a struggle, i'll give you that. I still struggle too. But i guess the point i'm getting at is that, no matter how hard the struggle is, we need to be more aware of the things that have been going on in this fallen world, and actively intercede for them. God has put us here for a reason - i'm always reminded and remind people of that. May we never become so cosy with where we are that we forget of those around us, be they nearer or further away, and the fact that we all are equally in need of His grace and mercy.

SMC - Some Minor Confusion

Mugging at smc recently has thrown up some interesting and confusing thingies:

1. Dummy Bell


I can't figure out why the library would want to spend good money to install a dummy bell, unless it's for those dummy fire alarms that they seemed to have ever so often (like once a week) last year when the thing would go off for minutes on end before finally being switched off, only to be followed by an announcement accrediting the false alarm to some technical fault - think if and when an actual fire comes, no one would actually heed it...

2. Who was raising the raisins?


That small yellow box you see on that whatever-you-call-it is a box of raisins that inexplicably found its way up there, which is virtually impossible unless someone threw it up from below since the only windows above this thingy are sealed shut and so no one can throw anything from them... Just found that rather intriguing...

3. The bizarre xerox-crazy girl

Ok not very nice to secretly take a picture of her to post here, so needless to say, in the two weeks or so that i've been hanging at the rear of smc, right by the copiers, i (and others) have noticed the same girl appear everyday to zap books (and i mean books) worth of newspaper clippings for some strange reason. She must spend at least three or more (today it was six) hours a day doing this, and i really can't figure out why. I'm tempted to ask, but think i'd better not eh - she might hit me with one of her stacks of papers...

Hokies...

I heard about the Virginia Tech campus shootings last night, but that was still when news just came in, so details were still rather sketchy, and eventually i fell asleep before finding out what actually went on.

Then this morning i heard over the news how bad things were, and it really troubled me for some reason. I don't know anyone from there, and neither have i visited their campus before. In fact my knowledge of VTech is limited to watching the UNC-VTech football game at Kenan Stadium and gathering that their marching band performs the hokey pokey (cos that's their nickname, the hokies) at half-time; and concluding that they must have a pretty good bball team cos they frustratingly swept the season series against us. If i'm not wrong they're relatively near (by American standards - maybe a couple of hours away Northwest) to UNC as well, since they're just in the next state up near the Appalachians.

My views on gun control aside, it's a real unfortunate incident, to put it very lightly, and i can't imagine what the students there must be going through. Maybe it strikes closer to home than the average S'porean cos i've experienced American college life in a school quite like theirs (good state school located outside of any big built-up urban area, good sports teams - and both in the ACC to boot, tremendous school spirit etc) and so i can identify somewhat, i dunno... The thought that a gunman, and a fellow student at that, can just come along and cause so much carnage among his peers and teachers is so surreal, so hard to grasp; and yet this did happen, and there are thousands upon thousands directly affected as a result. Gosh. So anyways, even though none of you will read this, my prayers go out to you Hokies...

veto power

Just caught my brother who was surreptitiously dashing up the stairs in order to play his computer game on the family desktop which so happens to be in my room. While when he first started to do this i was more or less begrudging him the right to do this, for the simple fact that this intrudes on my privacy much more than i'd like; i've tried to be more accommodating to his requests as of late, since it is the family computer after all, and i guess he's the right to use it once in a while. So to that extent i've come home after school to find the lights on in my room and him inside using the com and largely ignored it - even though i'm the kind of person who treasures his privacy enough to be alarmed every time i see this happening - so i'll just hang around downstairs until he finishes (and bug him a bit in between).

Ah but i dunno, just now when i saw him trying to play again (for the second time in the day) i shouted a loud "NOOOOO!!!!!!!" and to his audible dismay forbade him from playing again tonight (and the folks were there to help to chase him away as well). Ah well, all i can say is that this incident only goes to show that i need my own room, and the days when i did share a room with him (which are all of just over three short years ago) must have been simpler times...

(And just for the record, my brother is five-and-a-half years older than me...)

Today's work progressed little more than locating stray notes and organizing them into more distinct groups. Hardly as much as i wanted to get done, but then again, Sundays are always i-don't-feel-like-doing-any-work days so... Hope the study week ahead will go well though - realized that especially when compared with some others i've been blessed with quite a bit of time for exam prep so think i ought to make the best use of it as i can...

Well, today's church service was more of the same old same old save for the fact that i only found out today that Pheobe goes to the same service as i do - i had no clue before this... Once again though, i nearly was late cos i woke up late and i'm still not used to not staying right next to church and hence not used to the fact that i've now to travel to church. Think that put me a little off today cos i was not able to have my qt till later, and i tend to not be very spiritually alert before qt. So guess must try and revamp my Sun schedule so that i can find ample time to do qt beforehand...

Glancing through this months National Geographic special report on overfishing - "Saving the Sea's Bounty", along with bearing in mind some of what i''ve picked up from my Global Environmental Issues class has made me even less enthusiastic about seafood - any sea creature that is not a fish is already a no-no for me, but i may add at least certain kinds of fish to that list depending on whether they are fished sustainably. Oh, and whether they stink too =p

It finally didn't rain today, but no point cos i didn't end up doing anything outdoorsy. Not enough motivation to do so. Did however have a good catching-up/sharing session instead, which was very timely for me cos i've had rather a drought of that as of late, and think am the kind of person who requires to bleah things out regularly to the relevant people. Yup so that was much needed =)

I'll miss the east...

this and that

In the mood for randomness so do bear with me...

Firstly, here's a couple of pics:


This was taken at last week's rooftop cg. We had a time of reflection on the sem past and then sharing with one another on those reflections. This is coming in very delayed, but well it took that reflection time for me to realize what a great blessing the cg has been for me not only this past sem, but ever since year one. Especially since i came back though. I guess that the fact that my sorta unique church situation has translated into a lack of any real permanence and rootedness for me with regards to church min at least up till this point has meant that the community that i've in cf and especially so in thursday cg becomes all the more important for me. Yup and if i've ever needed such a community before, i sure needed (and still need) it when i came back cos i was (and still am) rather disorientated and disjointed from S'pore and all the stuff that came along with it, and the cg has given back in ways that i never had fully appreciated (and perhaps still don't)... God's faithfulness to me through the cg has just been so wonderful - it's so humbling and tear-inducing come to think of it...


Um, ok so this is on a totally different subject - was just walking along engin bridge (btw engin bridge seems to be some kind of biodiverse hotspot by nus standards since on top of these cats i also found the giant spider - which is still there btw - over there) the other day when i came across this cat and its three kittens - and it was so cool cos although these are probably just common stray/feral cats it at that moment felt as though i was on some Serengeti expedition and before me was some rare species of small wild feline. So of course out came my camera and voila... Reminded me a bit of my UNC days when the mere sight of a squirrel would coax my camera out before i could say, erm well, "squirrel!". That of course was until i realized that there were squirrels everywhere over in the US, compared to S'pore when i spot one like once a year or so high up some tree... Not enough nuts in S'pore maybe...

As each day goes by, i've become more and more keen on staying on campus next year. It's a combination methinks of being spoilt last sem at UNC when both classes and downtown were a two-minute walk away from my room; honours year coming up which promises to be really busy, and tv mobile getting increasingly on my nerves by the second. Things should work out eventually i hope - nearly screwed up my application cos i keyed in an invalid email address - maybe it's a freudian slip that i attached my nus userid to the usual UNC email. Thankfully the relevant people got back to me so was able to rectify that...

I don't recall having started on revision proper more than a week before my first paper ever before. Somehow i ended up choosing classes that have their deadlines rather early, so actually had nothing else school-related to do but revise from as early as Wed (which i did, and am doing, but very slowly - but hey it's a start right...) That being said, as i've expressed to some random people, i'm prepared to see my grades drop somewhat this sem owing to various complicated reasons, but i know that whatever happens the Lord has been ever-faithful - and i'm thankful no matter what lah (Job 1:21 - "Blessed be Your Name" - comes to mind but i'd hardly think that in Job's situation i'd be as unflinching - was already sad when i lost my old nalgene...)

Will it stop raining here everyday already?

It seems that facebook is starting to catch on here eh - seems really different though from the good old days, so to speak, when i was still over there. And it makes me more sentimental for how things were like last time in a way - for me the primary reason why i have fb (and aim too, for that matter) when i eschew just about everything else is that it helps me to keep in touch with friends outside of S'pore, especially those back at Carolina... But, still i suppose that at the end of the day; plus ça change, c’est la même chose, n'est ce pas?

processing

Hmm after having been rather overwhelmed by work for much of the sem that has gone by, i now find myself in the enviable and strange position of having nothing really to do apart from prepare for the exams. It reached the stage whereby on Thursday morning it took me around fifteen minutes methinks to find appropriate study stuff to bring to school so that i wouldn't waste the day.

But that being said, i'm really glad for the break, cos it's long overdue, and i really really could use one now - as has been the norm for this sem, i've had a lot of things on my mind, and now procides a perfect opportunity to finally devote more time to clearing all the backlog.

So to that extent just now after dinner since i've no work to do i decided to go for a walk at ecp. Even though it was like super humid and it felt really sticky, i figured that a walk would help me to process a lot of stuff and talk to God more clearly as well.

That turned out rather well. I didn't like get immediate answers/solutions to the stuff i was bringing before God and actively considering, but it certainly helped me to organize my thoughts and get some new insights onto some stuff. Rather bizarrely as well, ideas for a song (both music n lyrics) somewhat spontaneously came to mind, which has never happened before (Love Compels was a so-called commissioned work which took a lot of deliberate attempts at conceptualizing, and i never had ideas for the music). Will try and piece the ideas together and complete the thought cos it's a useful outlet i feel...

Oh, and when i say walk, i really mean walk - as in walk from my house all the way to that place past Bedok Jetty where there used to be a coconut grove which would be perfect for filming Indian movies but which now has some fancy white garden structures, and then crossed the road to the Bayshore area where i took a bus back home - the total walk lasted around 100 min.

Oh anyways today's Good Friday service was interesting - certainly the longest service i've ever attended - it was supposed to be 3 hours long (to signify the recognition of the darkness following Jesus' death from the 6th to the 9th hour, and anyways i've sat through at least one of those before), but the seventh and last meditation extended quite a bit, such that it lasted a total of more than three and a half hours. The length meant that while initially i took in a lot of what was said in the earlier meditations, by the time number five came (ironically that was my father's one =p) and on from there my mind semi-switched off so i couldn't process a lot of it... But it was a good experience and i did manage to take back some of the stuff that was preached...

Some FAQs and then some...

FAQ #1: So did you really write in Chinese or use a translation program for your chinese post?

A: Well i won't lie - i used a translation program - haha you think my hua yu so good one ah? =p Anyways i dun even have any chinese writing software... That was just mid-project me being boliao. Anyways, just for fun, i retranslated what i posted back to English using the same program, and look what it turned up (the following is strictly cut-n-pasted from the program, didn't change it in any way...):

Heritage last week, I spent a lot of time to thinking of a lot of things. Part of the reason is many of the past week, I was not around. Many of these things anyway I went to what I thought, very disgusted with almost all things Chinese. I figured that Although I have a very bad words all this, I hate this way, when I started to learn from. This really should not do nothing to say. Therefore, I am determined to learn the language. The new part of the plan, Mine will be involved in this blog. From now on, every term of this blog will be written in Chinese. it is not easy, it is in the affirmative, But I think this is what I am doing. So I am sorry for all those who are unable to read. I do not like you were reading the blog. Well, if you have not realized this, however, This blog after the inspection date. Yes, today is April 1. happy fool's day! (by the way, I believe a lot of what is written on the no meaning here, For all-what it is to spend a whole week of work you have done tons) Goodbye, the pro -

So - my chinese name means 'the pro'? Seriously? Haha as you can see, the program isn't exactly state-of-the-art - which explains the confusing chinese post i ended up with that day (although in my defense, i did change it as best i could to make it more correct...)

FAQ #2: Why you wear so nice (on ft day)?

A: Cos ft was at lt29 and Ade Fam told us to wear warm clothes cos it would be freezing. No seriously, i had a group debate for hist tutorial. So there.

Anyways apologies to anyone who may have seen me last week and i like totally dao-ed them - wasn't in the best of moods - kind of an amalgamation of i-feel-like-being-alone, i've-lots-of-work-to-do, i-need-sleep-badly and i-need-to-spend-time-alone-with-God moods all rolled up into one - which made for a matt as friendly to people as Hugo Chavez would be to George W. Bush.

How sweet (literally too) of the graduating batch =)

But look what i had to do to prevent ants from finding and attacking my card...
Varnish junkies...

Along the same lines of nonsensical signs...

Huge spider i came across at engin bridge...
(Like the size of my palm huge - though i didn't dare bring it too close to compare =p)

Thank you FASS for inspiring such confidence in your 'humanitites' department...

On the way to school...

Heh Dan the similarity between your shots and mine is strictly coincidental =p
Anyways this is me waiting for debate group to arrive...

文物

过去一周,我花了很多时间思考很多事. 部分原因是我不在身边的许多过去一周.

反正 其中的许多事情是我是怎样思考我往,几乎都非常反感 跟中国的东西. 我计算过,我虽然有了一个很坏的言语 这一切,我讨厌这种方式,我是从什么时候开始学, 这真是不应该这样无话可说.

因此,我有决心学好华语. 这项新计划的一部分,将涉及本博客矿井. 从现在起,每一任本博客将写中文. 实在不容易,这是肯定的,但我觉得这是我做的. 所以对不起所有那些无法阅读, 仿佛你不会让我的博客被阅读了.

那好,如果你没有意识到这可是,这博客后检查日期.

不错,今天是四月一日. 快乐愚人节!

(由程,我相信有很多这里写了什么没有意义, 如有可言 - 这是什么花了整整一周的工作是否给你做吨)

再见, 亲光

All Blacks All Banned

Joanne Wilson. Stephen Wilson. Danny Tauroa. Monica Tauroa. Nicole Wilson. Sarah Reeves. Tanya Chee.

To most (if not all) people, the following names make no sense to you. My heartiest congrats to you if that is the case.

If anyone, however, finds these names familiar, its probably cos like me you've been on SBS buses quite a fair bit this past week and have had the misfortune of catching the endless reruns of the "Down Under" episode of this show with Andrea De Cruz in it (i forget the title) whereby she and her co-host visit expats from different cultures each week. Needless to say, this week featured expats from Australia and New Zealand; and i've somehow possessed the bad timing of always seeming to kena the second half of the show (which is when the Kiwis come on) just about every single day on the bus at least once. Which in turn means that i'm now very well acquainted with the above people, and can for all intents and purposes dictate to you each and every word from the Haka (and that kamate kamate kaura kaura means to live, to live, to die, to die), and know that Maori women dance this thanksgiving dance with these swingy thingies called poi which look like giant white onions attached to a string, and that The Cellar Door is the only place that serves New Zealand food in Singapore.

I've nothing against New Zealand, please don't get me wrong. It's just the @#$% tv mobile that i'm annoyed at.

So, the bottom line is, if anyone out there even remotely able to influence the programming of tv mobile is reading this, please, for the sake of my sanity, at least make the effort to have more variety in your variety programming (cos at the moment the irony is that from the rate at which you repeat your shows, it might as well be labeled monotony rather than variety programming...). If not, one day - mark my words, you will read a news report headlined "NUS Student Goes Berzerk, Frightens Passengers Off SBS Bus". I'd have finally made headlines...

Good news for most people...

volatility

Was typing my essay in my secret place earlier today when i happened to notice (cos the desks there are angled in such a way that when you sit you'll be semi-facing the neighboring screen) that the guy next to me was playing some kind of Chinese war computer game (Romance of the Three Kingdoms?). Ok fair enough, i thought, anyways the place still had some empty coms around at that time so if he wanted to go ahead with that then so be it.

Happened to catch a glimpse of his screen some time later. I was truly sickened to realize that the guy had switched to viewing a whole host of pictures of a quasi-erotic nature (i shall not elaborate further). Eek! I'd have liked to, to put it lightly, strongly advise him to stop that at once, but i didn't know how to go about doing that so i settled on trying to shift my monitor screen in such a way that his own screen wasn't in my line of vision and strategically holding up my notes right in front of my face whenever i could to block those disturbing images from my sight once and for all...

Well, that aside, the remainder of the process of typing my essay was rather uneventful. I'm really not one for conciseness so i ended up writing too much. During the editing process, i always feel so sayang to let words/sentences go so i try and keep that to a minimum. In fact in the editing process i often end up adding more fluff rather than getting rid of it. Yup so it did get a bit long, but still within reasonable limits i hope...

I do find it weird that i seemingly have little work to do (not many deadlines left really) but i've been feeling more tired than i've ever been this sem. Today it all started to get to me so i was back in my tactical, retreatist, loner mode and tried to avoid people as far as i could. Just as well i had an essay to finish. And that doesn't seem to be going away as of yet. Maybe God is telling me that i need to spend more time alone, as in time with Him (Ok so i know that for a fact). A lot of stuff continues to bother me, and whatever talking to God about all of these has been piecemeal at best. And the slightest thing seems to trigger more "me against the world" sentiment (and going along these lines in the unlikely event that the Tar Heels lose their Sweet 16 match to the Trojans tom that would so do it for me methinks) Yeah so the point of the story: need to spend time with God. Productive time, that won't reach a premature anti-climax with me falling asleep or having my thoughts drift to totally unrelated and far less important matters.

My current earworm over the past few days when i get up in the (very early) morning: And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. Random thought but maybe that's what i've been subconsciously telling God as of late. "Going" as in going to genuinely want to do things His way. Hmm...

pumpkins and mice reappear

So for the past two nights (i.e. yesterday and today) my aim of sleeping by midnight each weeknight has not been successful. Yesterday i forgot why already, but today it's quite clearly cos i've work to do and i'm trying (in vain) to convince myself to get more of it done now so that tom when i'm in school i can spend more time just hanging.

Anyways, after more than a week's worth of trying to eliminate the six other question choices before finally settling on the chosen topic, and practically another week's worth of (sparingly) researching on the topic, i finally got cracking on the essay itself yesterday afternoon in school. Got a decent bit of it done, though got distracted as i usually do. This time it was cos i was seated in the library fourth floor com cluster directly on the other side of the glass from the video room, and the girl directly behind me on the other side of the glass was watching, for some strange reason, Toy Story 2. She also was using subtitles, so i was able to watch and figure out what was going on even though i couldn't hear the audio of the dvd. It was the scene when the cowgirl doll was singing the Sarah McLachlan song "When She Loved Me" cos she kena abandoned by her original owner. For some strange reason i started to feel really sad for the poor doll. Yup. oh but i digress, basically i got distracted by that.

Felt that i had enough time to take some of it off doing the essay to play tennis for the first time in more than a year methinks. Went with Evan and Junwen and William. Was a good break from studying and up till now my muscles aren't aching so maybe that's a good sign i dunno. Oh and btw, is it really so amazing that i can eat a footlong Subway and still be hungry?

With all the com-related stuff that i've been doing as of late and my laziness to bring my laptop along (not to mention the trouble of trying to find a powerpoint), i've been spending a lot of time in various com clusters. Would like to think of myself as someone who's a seasoned enough nus student to know where to go to find an available com which is not packed to the hilt no matter what time of the day it is. So today i found (ok, not really found, more like finally visited after knowing of its existence for a little while now) another good place to go (the exact place shall be kept a secret hee) to use a com, particularly if it's for stuff like essay writing. Managed to spend almost four (relatively) productive hours there writing the essay, which is now waiting for around 400 words in order to be completed. Only problem is that all the staring at the screen left me feeling really tired, and so have not really been myself since then and have gotten all contemplative again. Ah maybe i need some of that...

Later

cinderella man

Nice clouds that greeted me as i was leaving school on bus 10...

No i've not got a penchant for dancing at fancy balls while looking for my Prince Charming while wearing glass slippers, nor am i even remotely interested in boxing (what kind of a wimpy nickname for a boxer is "Cinderella Man" anyways?).

What i'm alluding to rather is my sleep patterns over the past week. After week upon week of struggling to get up by 6-ish on Mon and Tue so as to make it in time for a bit of prep before morning class, only to have the lack of sleep be redeemed over the rest of the week when i end up getting up around 8-ish or later (and subsequently only reach school between 10-12)cos i can't get myself to get up any earlier; i decided to revamp my sleep sched and see how things would go.

So to that end i spontaneously decided to sleep by midnight before every school day this past week (and "spontaneously" because it just so happened that i was so tired last Sunday night anyways so slept early to begin with...). The flipside of this though is that i had to wake up at 6am each morning so as to get a ride from my father halfway and eventually reach school by 7:45 latest. But in any case, an ensured 6 hours of sleep every single night for even five days in a row has been a rare occurrence as of late so i can't complain really... Furthermore, forcing myself to sleep by midnight means that i don't waste unnecessary time online each night till 2am or later, which is what i'd previously been doing a lot of, and the early mornings at school have meant more chance to quieten down in prep for the day ahead, not to mention to get to go for morning prayer again, which is something i've not been able to do (cos either have classes or am not in school yet) since week 4 methinks... Yup so hopefully i can continue at least somewhat along those lines for the rest of the sem to come...

In other random news i had the misfortune of sitting one of those 'new-generation' sbs buses when i took bus 30 back the other day. I sat myself upstairs and was enjoying the peace of a tv mobile-free cabin (btw the new ones all seem to not have tv mobile - could this be an acknowledgement from sbs transit that it fundementally sucks so they're not installing it on any more buses?) when suddenly i heard what i thought was some toot that was sampling every single ringtone that his/her cellphone had to often. I distinctly remember hearing at least two national anthems (God Save the Queen and Das Lied der Deutschland), not to mention, bizarrely enough, Silent Night, among other tunes that are best left forgotten. After a while, however, i realized that the timbre of the 'ringtone' matched that of the stop bell, then i put two and two together and figured out that annoying music would play whenever the rear passenger door was open. Can't figure out why they'd want to do such a stupid thing, but anyway all the more reason to use earplugs from now on i guess...

We had some kind of reunion thingy for
the S'pore people who were at NUS last sem...

Corny sia...
And the freaky thing is that i was actually the
first one to spot this sign and laugh at it...

still lost in transition

Today for church i went to SAC again, but this time to check out the later and more contemporary service. The rest of the family went for the earlier service, so i was more or less alone this time. While the service itself went well (it was the church missions Sunday which was nice, felt reminded of MEET), i couldn't help but feel irked to a certain extent, because there i was having to try and get used to yet another church environment (which is the main reason why i'm somewhat reluctant to say i'm really leaving SHC just yet) - after like five or six church moves one tends to get somewhat weary of it... It takes so much to settle down, to get to know people and to find one's place within the whole structure of things; and yup, assuming at the end of the day the Lord wants me to move on to SAC (which i feel is more and more the case), this will mean a grossly long integration process for me i fear...

So you know when people ask me if one feels pressure being a pk, while the answer to a certain extent is yes, at least for me it's relatively easy enough to keep a low enough profile, so in my opinion the far greater problem is getting used to (at least within the Anglican context) having to be shuffled around so very often and the difficulties that arise with each move.

And speaking of moving, i also had my first look at the new house - oops, i mean apartment. Yes after 23 years i no longer will be staying in a house with a garden, and probably not for the forseeable future either. Actually the place itself exceeded my expectations (which were set very low anyways cos i was, and still am, dreading the move away from the east to some funny knoll in the far boondocks of town...), it's bigger than i thought, and after a decent renovation it shouldn't be too bad... That being said i still wish i could stay put...

Was a tad overambitious just now with the run, and was trailing far behind for much of it. Predict aching calf muscles for tomorrow when i wake up... And ate so much for dinner that whatever was burnt has probably already been replaced. Bah.

How bizarre, no bazaar?

Come and see,
Come look around,
There are now no more sights and sounds.
'Twas here to stay for endless days,
Now it has finally gone away!

Bizarre bazaar,
Wondrously unfleeting,
What studying and meetings will you be disrupting?
Bizarre bazaar,
Full of noise - off-key singing,
You bring to us the pain of cringing.

Ok this is coming pretty late i must admit, but hopefully the point is made nonetheless. The amended lyrics to this little ditty came to mind when i arrived at the forum come Monday morning, wondered what was strangely peaceful about the place, looked around, then realized that it was the lack of furniture - the @#$%-ing bazaars had finally gone.

Actually the bazaars themselves have not been the problem, but rather the frighteningly high noise level that they contribute to the forum - in my opinion the only feasible place left in the vicinity for people to study without feeling obliged to speak in anything within the volume of a whisper with the temporary lack of an arts canteen. Why they have to invite bad bands (with singers who sing so flat that engineers should probably take reference from their voices if they're checking if a plane surface is really 180 degrees) down and amplify them with an already overbearing yet misguided sound system that does nothing but make their mediocrity even more audible, or replay the same substandard techno or whatever-nonsense-have-you cd over and over again is really beyond me.

Since i'm in a ranting mood, can someone please do something about the smokers who never fail to light up at the dungeon level (or as one prof calls it, "cancer row") of as1, no matter what hour of day it is? I had classes there the other day, and the psi in that particular corridor area must have at the least been at the unhealthy, if not hazardous level. I do however understand that they need a place to smoke - if i were a smoker, i would hardly want to find my way till i'm safely out of sight from the "NUS is a smoke-free campus" before lighting up. So just get them a room for goodness' sake... Like they do in airports - think that they deserve a room, if not for themselves to smoke themselves to death with, then at least for the health for the rest of us who still have to inhale nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and i dunno what else on a regular basis thanks to this...

lost in transition

Well over the past week or so my father has officially moved church over to SAC from SHC, and accompanying it has been a flurry of activity including a range of farewells from the latter, culminating in a pseudo welcome dinner yesterday and church service today at the former. Really neat that they've planned all these stuffies, yup and i must say i could really feel an atmosphere of agape love all around (i feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes...)

Not that this is anything new (for me this is my 5th time moving church and subsequently house, my family has done it a couple of times before i was born too), but i definitely feel that as one gets older one feels the change more. I mean, last time i was still like totally blur cos i didn't know any better, but the move over to SHC and now this one have been harder cos i guess now i've more of a life of my own now than, say when i was in p6. I can honestly say that after so many times, having to uproot oneself and find one's own way into a new church setting still isn't any easier, which is why i'm not really 100% confirmed on making the church move along with the family (nor the house move, for that matter, but that one bo pian one...) so am gonna take these next couple of weeks to try and feel my way around the new church and see how things are. Of course, to complicate matters even more, my family was in this church from 1986-1991, so there's a significant number who do know who i am and hence have approached me to say hi (and given me the expected "last time" remarks like "last time you were so small, now so big already!" or "remember my son/daughter? last time you used to always play/fight with each other!"), even if i myself have little if any clue who many of them are cos i was only like 7ish when i left.

Ah well, have to get used to it i suppose. I'll find it expecially difficult to get used to the fact that my church is no longer to be found next door to my house, which has been a happy reality for like close to eighty percent of my life including the past 12 years. Today my mother woke me up at 7am or so reminding me that we had to leave soon in order to reach church by 8am - that's when this hit me... I've been pampered man...

Rain stop already leh can - need to run...

looking back on the weeks of work

Aiyah actually this is supposed to be the last pic but me and tech... well...
And i used to say that i wouldn't be caught dead in a soccer jersey -
well in my defence that was borrowed cos my short was too dirty already...

Ah you have no idea how happy i am to be able to even have time to just post this cos at the end of a week where i had to type 5500 words in 3 essays and answer 80 questions for two tests (okok mostly mcq lah...) any form of relaxation is really more than welcome. *whee* So anyways i'll try to recall things in chronological order...

Ok this is really totally irrelevant
but just to note that there's one "dollar" too many there
- talk about doubling your $...

Well the above pic was taken in school on the mon of our dear term break which really was anything but a break. Ok, i take it back, it also was not a holiday, a time of relaxation, an opportunity to finally sit down and reflect fully upon sep, a time to spend with friends and family... Hmm i guess i'll say instead that it was anything but fun...

Why was i in school on mon? Cos i needed to watch a video and only could do so on campus, but the silly library was closed so i had to be content with finding some obscure corner in the forum with a powerpoint. Super annoying ah...

That night had dinner at a family friend's place. One of the guests there was a guy from VS (not there anymore so can reveal the name of the school liao), where of course i was attached to previously and had a very interesting time in the process. Was quite funny cos we got talking about school stuff and i realized that in the future i'll be at the receiving end of such talk... Hmmm...

Ah well, moving right along...

Ha? Sure or not?

Well wed had a project meeting in Chiam territory of all places cos we've to do a survey of the area. Pretty ironic that i used to stay just across the road in Sennett Estate for like five years but almost never ventured across to the hdb area. Anyways, have never seen such a quiet hdb estate in my life - the 'lunchtime crowd', if you can call it that, at McD's consisted of a handful of people plus one group of SAJC folk and that was it. But actually come to think of it i actually do like the place. I treasure my peace and quiet and Potong Pasir is definitely a good place where one can treasure one's peace and quiet very well... Chiam actually has done a good job considering the cards he's dealt with... I just wonder how the poor folk there can cope with just one measly bus service going through the town and not having a reasonably-sized supermarket in sight within the estate...

Thu it was arts cf cny visiting day and thoughthere were only a small group of us at both Florence's and Jocelyn's places, it still was fun nevertheless. Pit is actually quite a fun game to play despite its rather simple premise. For me too it was a good break from doing my essay (though in actual fact i hadn't technically started on that essay yet - nope, i only started typing that one on sun morn, the day before it was due...). Anyways, this was definitely hands down the most fun cny visiting experience i've had this year (and i didn't even get any $ that day either, so there...)

And with regards to this week, well, i'm just glad the workload, which is as far as i can remember the most work i've had to do within a one week timeframe; was bearable by God's grace. Throughout the whole week i kept on harboring grand visions of how i'd keep sleep to a minimum and hence maximize time spent on typing essays, such that i'd be able to end sooner. Well suffice to say that after the first day when i slept for all of two hours, it went downhill all the way from there, with me constantly oversleeping in spite of alarms and also constantly deciding in the middle of typing an essay that i needed a nap, which would inevitably upgrade itself into an full-fledged snooze fest. As a result, i was late for tutorial for the first time i can remember in my university career cos i woke up late and also was left doing each essay till mere hours before the deadline came. In the midst of all that, however, i really do recognize God's hand in all of this, cos He knew that i needed sleep and grandted it to me in spite of my lofty desires to the contrary, and at the same time never let me oversleep to an extent that i did not have enough time to finish any piece of work. Well, now that my so-called hell week is all but over, the postponements to the other things that i've been delaying considering and praying about have to finally reach an end. And boy is there a lot of stuff now that i think of it... And people have been (albeit understandably) swarming around me for various reasons - sheesh... Guess it's the right moment to just take time and really just listen...