work = mad

Graduation requirements are such that i've had to take class after class of so-called breadth modules - i can envision the official rationale behind it is that nus can then go on to produce well-rounded young men and women who will be well-equipped to face the unique challenges of today's society or something along these lines, only cheesier.

Well at class the other day the lecturer noted that F = ma - fair enough, i remember that from O level physics. Then came the next equation: work = Fd. And of course, being the diligent well-rounded young man that i am, i substituted formula one into formula two - voilà: the only thing i still remember from that day's class: work = mad. Go figure.

Wonder why each semester seems to pass by faster and faster - that three weeks of school are already over is just insane - and it's now just under two months till ht is due [and so far the (lack of) progress report sees me having written no more than a tentative, pre-edited and horribly overly-long lit review (but i've probably read more books than the whole rest of last year already)] and exactly a month after that when i take my first and last papers of the sem and of my entire undergrad career. That's quite hard to fathom now, but judging from the pace that things have been coming this way in no time it should be easier to grasp - just hope that my writing can keep pace with it! But seriously (yes, seriously =p) i'm quite happy with the amount of stuff that somehow has been done so far - it's a real reminder that the Lord is carrying me through it...

So cny is coming up, and as per usual i'm looking forward to it as much as i am to the latest update on Britney Spears' struggles with sobriety, child custody and the like. Guess the big silver lining i can draw out of it is the extra few days free to get some work done (i wanna say "but who am i kidding?" but in faith, i'm sure i'll get quite a bit done =)

And hooray for trips post-exams (dunno what they might be yet, but i shall celebrate in advance too)!!!

Finally managed to catch me some tennis the other day since channel 5 decided to air the Aussie Open Finals - only managed to catch the men's one, but anyways i guess my eardrums needed a rest and subjecting myself to Maria Sharapova's shrieks wouldn't help. As normally happens when i end up following a match, the one i didn't want to win won, and by my analysis it was more of Tsonga losing the match than Djokovic winning it (not that he wasn't good though), but ah heck, at least it was real quality tennis. My father, of course, theorized that Tsonga would have played better sans the ear stud - i'm not too sure about that one =p

And speaking of tennis, who's game for this wed 10-12pm at SRC?

Was reading the ST when they talked about the monetary awards presentation to the SEA Games gold medal winners - i couldn't help noticing the many foreign-born people among them - then they were also talking about how player A from the table tennis team just overtook player B in the world rankings, and how she's the highest non-Chinese player in the rankings. Then i thought to myself, but wait a minute, she is Chinese, as is player B, and i reckon just about close to every single player in the world's top ten.

Kudos to the Chinese (no matter what country they represent) for being so talented at ping pong. Heck, if i remember correctly, all but one member from our male and female national team's players are actually from China. And honestly speaking, i don't think that under these circumstances, Singapore deserves any more credit than being the best recruiter of Chinese talent that would otherwise be barely able to represent China on the highest world stages cos there are too many better players already in China. So to that end, i don't really care for any of the foreign sporting talent's achievements for S'pore, as in i welcome these foreign-born S'poreans, and they definitely deserve their accolades and all, but the SSC shouldn't go around trumping their achievements as S'porean achievements, assigning the S'porean label to them just like that. To me, it just cheapens the S'poreanness of the whole thing.

Was also reading about the upcoming Uni Town thingy nus is putting up, and how it was put in some special 'green' category which meant that it would be given priority access to limited building resources. Same goes, if i'm not wrong, to the casino (let's call a spade a spade please) developments. Fair enough - what i think stinks is that they never did the same thing for the new KTP Hospital, something that is arguably more important. After all, the Uni Town is only being pushed to be completed so fast because S'pore is bidding for the Youth Olympic Games, yet another marquee event that would put S'pore up there with the Londons and New Yorks as a (and i'm so sick of this term) "World Class City". Healthcare for a rapidly ageing (and expanding - though lky took the target down by a whole 1 million people) population takes a back seat, even when there's been a space crunch at the govt hospitals, especially in the C class wards. Just as well that something is being done to regulate the demand side by introducing means testing, but how about the supply side by speeding up the construction of the hospital (and original plans in fact had in mind a general hospital in Jurong by 2004 or so - what happened to that?). Once again the everyday S'porean whose voice gets lost amidst the progress-minded and pragmatic in our political landscape has gotten played out...

hard at work - or as close as possible to that...

Aided in no small part by finally being hit by the fact that the final draft of the ht is due in just over two months from now, and a useful jolt to get cracking during my recent ht consultation, i'd have to say that i don't recall being as hardworking as i've been in the past two weeks ever since probably the first ever sem here (i.e. before i started getting real involved in cf stuff - you can draw whatever connections you'd like, they're probably not true anyways), yes the fabled sem of a string of As stained by one B- for HY1101E of all things...

I'm not exactly the most enthusiastic of readers, but owing to the aforementioned prep i've had to plunge headfirst into book after book for lit review purposes, at the rate of close to one a day in fact. Yes, a book a day, a feat last accomplished when i read through the book of Jude, with 3 and 2 John before that. And if we don't count the Bible, then we're looking at Bookworm books here. Yuppers, you see where i am going here? So in short, i don't really do books, which makes the close-to-a-book-a-day thingy that much more miraculous, by God's grace really...

Yup and thankfully, i'm starting to really like what i'm (supposed to have been) writing about. It hits home quite a bit - to the end that i actually felt a bit emotional when i was reading in one book about the forced eviction of elderly folk from a low-cost residential hotel which some of them had frequented for as long as 60 years to make way for relentless corporate America - real yucks, that was. Anyways, it makes the writing of these 10000-12000 words (including footnotes - aargh!!!) less of a chore. That being said, i'd much rather be writing the acknowledgements page hehe...

Well anyways, today after consultation i went down to the library to borrow more books to (aargh!) read (side note: i'm now holding 12 books - a personal record) and when i pulled out one of them from the shelf, i took a major step back when i saw the cover photo - suffice to say it's not a book i'd be parading around with the front cover facing outwards when i walk, and i'll probably hide it behind another book when i read it too - ask me if you want to see what's on the cover - so paiseh man...

While thankfully distractions have been less of an issue for me in the past week especially, i did succumb to some worthless youtube watching - for some reason i remembered that American Gladiators is being relaunched - one of the must-see shows for me last time in primary school - i remember it was Gladiators at 4pm and then WWF at 5pm on Channel 5. But anyways i wanted to see what it's like now - so i did - for two whole worthless hours. I know to my young eyes it already was bordering on tacky when i saw it on TV all those years ago, but now the new season has definitely outdone itself - see it for yourself - my goodness - some of the gladiators do so amuse me.

Nevertheless, i still remember when i saw it on tv and i was like "oh i can do that". But then i tried some of those things in army and i was sorta persuaded otherwise. Now it's become even more intriguing though cos for some of the events, instead of a mattress to cushion their fall, there's a big pool of water - and they've to swim under a lake of fire (i kid you not) in the final event as well. Quite fun.

Hmm anyways it would be quite interesting to see what a Singapore Gladiators might be like - off the top of my head i'm thinking of gladiator names like lau lee, ah meng, pai kia, MDA senior management...

No Djoke, the Fed got beat...

last(ish)

So school has started again - and it's the last semester, so to that end today was the last first day of school i'll ever have (well, at nus at least - there are many more to come actually...), the first of a whole host of lasts at nus (since i'm one for such nonsense thingies) - last first lecture, last mid-sem break, last having to deal with the wretched cors etc...

Moving into pgp again went about without any hitches thankfully - think things would be far more of a hassle for me if i had to travel to and fro everyday [of course, i've only a three day week (which i thought was pretty good until i saw some other people's scheds but nvm) but i'd be in school on the free days anyways, or risk totally wasting away the hours at home]. I can only imagine how screwed up things may be next (academic) year at nie, but we'll get this over and done first eh...

Of course now that school has started, there's all the stuff i've been putting off reading staring me in the face, and today i finally got down to looking at them - thankfully when push came to shove stuff managed to get done, and to that end, i managed to plow through two of the initial nine books that i've gotten from the lib. Which makes for (only) seven more to go... Plus innumerable newspaper articles... Bleah. Holiday!

Anyways, went for a sec 4 class gathering the other day - the first one i've been to since i was still in JC methinks - so hadn't seen some of the guys for a real long time - reminded me of how much i really appreciate my time in barker, something that i've sorta forgotten recently. One thing that i was especially (pleasantly) surprised about was that we actually started off dinner by saying grace, something that as my classmate Weiliang pointed out later, we'd never have imagined would happen looking at the class those close to ten (oh gosh has it been that long already?) years ago. It's great to see how the Lord has been working in the lives of many of my classmates since then (eh, and i guess myself included heh =p)

Yay for the Australian Open... And how 'bout them Tar Heels too =)

Oh, and check this out - cool stuff =p

vaguely voyeuristic

In the mood for some randomness so...

About two weeks ago went together with Clem, SJ and Weichang to Astons, where we had a real good meal. Here's a more-than-decent New York Strip with house salad and coleslaw, all for just $13.80.


What was a bit intriguing about the meal is that we did not head over to near my old place in Katong to have dinner, but rather we went to, of all places, pgp... Yup Astons has just opened an express outlet in the pgp food court, which is really quite an unlikely place for so atas an establishment wouldn't you say? But well business appears to be good for them, even though from my observation the prices are no cheaper than they are at Katong. But well, the prices are really reasonable given the quality anyways, so no complaints there. One other good thing is that while the ambience is hardly as good as that in Katong, at least one doesn't have to wait in line for at least half-an-hour outside the restaurant inhaling car exhaust to even get seated. I suspect that a good proportion of their clientele comes from western exchange students who are hard-pressed to find more authentic so-called 'western' food close enough to nus than that at Astons...

Anyways, yours truly is looking for excuses to go there again so if anyone is ever in school with a somewhat padded wallet and in the mood for a good steak/burger etc just buzz me heh...

In other news, it was a little sad to hear of Martina Hingis' abrupt second retirement from pro tennis under a cloud of suspicion, especially when it involves something like cocaine of all things. Well drugs aside, it's a pity that such an impressive career had to end in such a manner... Women's tennis is nowadays chockfull of hard-hitting banshees in the general mode of Maria "make every shot a power shot" Sharapova, and Hingis' clever and nuanced way of playing flies in the face of all that. Even though Hingis used to be a bit of a brat when she was playing long ago, since she returned to the sport all that's by and large gone, and she'd become one of my more favorite players. And with Anastasia Myskina also out of commission for now, it's hard to find another top-tier female player in that mould... Ah heck, i reckon most people reading this wouldn't have a clue what i'm rambling on about... Heh.

I was wandering around Cold Storage yesterday when i came across this - Saffron - the world's most expensive spice. One gram of the stuff retailing at $11.01. Fwah. But in any case, you must admit, the packaging is such a clear example of excess - the stuff is so expensive that i suppose it has to be well-showcased... I don't see what's the big deal about saffron though, all it does is add a nice orange-y color, i don't taste any difference when it's added to food...


After that, and while killing time before heading to law for some thingy, i took a brief walk around the botanics, and chanced upon the Wildlife Stampede thingy that was going on - to spread the conservation message, something close to my heart as well. While there was a really long line of people who took part, definitely more than half of them were ang mohs, and even many of the Asians who i saw were from SAS. Sadly, i don't think most S'poreans could care two hoots about conservation. While S'pore doesn't really have a lot left to conserve, it doesn't mean we should not bother to do anything at all... The recent motorcross thingy that they agreed to open in Kranji or somewhere in the general northwestern direction at the expense of an important site for local birdlife, and @#$% golf courses that take up lots of space, destroy valuable habitat, and are by and large catered to the elite do so annoy me...

Oh, but anyways, i've digressed. My point in mentioning this was that i managed to catch sight and take a distant picture of Dame Jane Goodall. Cheap thrill, but ah well...

And in keeping in the spirit of boliaoness, she's probably about the fourth most famous person i've ever sneakily taken a picture of, after John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, and Chris Matthews (Well actually, if you're not American, you'd probably not have heard of these three people, but conversely, i reckon that most Americans have no idea who's Jane Goodall but will know who the other three are, in descending order...)

In other news, the Tar Heels are #1 - woo! Go heels!

ponderings from pgp

It's been a good three weeks now since i moved (booked?) in to pgp. So far it's not exactly worked out as how i'd expected - in the sense of how the time that would otherwise have been spent traveling to and from school from my house has now been put to use. Of course, what other way would i in theory intend to spend the two extra hours of free time than to do school stuff - i.e. readings, papers, tutorials etc? Instead, the reality so far has been largely one of spending more time sleeping and slacking in my pgp room (read: what i'm doing now) rather than doing exactly the same in my room in the house.

And the prevalent conditions actually favor me slacking off a bit, since my deadlines are relatively far away, and hence the panic syndrome that usually kicks in a couple of days before the papers are due has yet to appear. I'm really trying to reverse this apathy towards work though, so watch this space and hopefully the next time i appear (whenever that will be) at least the first paper will be close to done with.

One good thing that has come out of staying here though is that i've finally managed to find ample opportunities to run, something i maintain is absolutely lacking back at home. No more being confronted by traffic lights every what seems like thirty metres or so; or incessant noxious vehicle fumes; or intriguing bohemian types with remarkable hairstyles, creative body piercings, and eternally puffing on a ciggy.

So to that end since i've moved in i've run more times than i have over the entire holiday and the school term before moving in. Or around there, at least. This is not entirely in the interests of a healthy lifestyle though, as ippt is rearing its annoying ugly head again, and so i'm due for that in less than a month. This time i've really no lofty ambitions whatsoever. If i pass (sans $100), i'll already be happy, since i've been largely inactive for months on end prior to moving in. Hope to continue this after ippt too though. Supplemented by tennis at some point or other and maybe a swim (and on that note, the vegetarian stall lady in the arts canteen has for the past few weeks recognized me as the not-so-Chinese guy who cannot understand half the Mandarin she spouts out to me whenever i go to the stall, and hence will automatically switch to English whenever i appear; but this morning she went about the old routine of speaking to me in Mandarin again, and i was actually wondering if that was cos i've been out of the sun as of late and hence have been getting lighter and so am starting to look more Chinese again).

God's been speaking to me in various ways and more than usual this past week or two, glad for that - though there's quite a bit of stuff that requires some revamping though... However, my brain is incredibly slow when it comes to processing such thought, so hopefully things won't be so bad this time...

Make no mistake about it though - i'm at a loss - it's not an intentional delay, that's for sure.

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

They evade me so...

I type this in another of my anything-but-schoolwork moods, since i am almost about to finish two killer readings on mainstream models of welfare states, after which i then have to proceed to do a two-page response to them to submit electronically by tomorrow. This is the only real killer course that i am taking - and i can honestly admit that at this point in time, i am only not dropping it because it is very favourably mapped. It is interesting, i won't deny that, but the level is just rather beyond me (like half of my class are grad students). For these two readings in question, my general response to them so far is "huh?". And this is only the first set of readings - i'm supposed to do this for every week's set of readings. And i ask myself, how am i gonna write a response to them if i really catch no ball?

And while we're on the subject of catching no ball, that was precisely what the tar heels did just now during the VA Tech game - a crushing loss (35-10) with annoying and very avoidable interceptions (not that i would be able to avoid them though...) - when i saw that the situation for us was helpless by the opening of the third quarter, i just decided to leave the stadium together with other jaded Singaporeans and go back to my room to continue with reading this incomprehensible stuff.

But basically, what i've been meaning to say is that it's extra frustrating because i think i'm really rather diligent a student here - this is like the most productive saturday i've had workwise in this entire calendar year methinks (for me to be able to start work anytime before noontime on a saturday is really an event worth popping open a bottle of champagne to) - and i started at nine... And yet in spite of my newfound chao mugger personality i'm still way behind work wise - i've barely given time to my usual time-wasting pursuits like typing emails at an over-leisurely pace, checking up on US Open scores online or taking forever to tag my facebook pictures...

Ah but it's hardly the end of the world like i probably make this seem like - this work will be completed in time and i will get through this whole atas welfare class which ironically has deprived me of much of its own subject matter...

You see things are already starting to get better for me - in an hour's time, i'm off for dinner at Arby's =)

You never let go

Hmm first things first i'll be posting all of my photos on the site labelled "US PICS" in the links column over there =======> so do take a look if you want to see more pictorial representations of some of the nonsense i mention here...

I came to the realization today that using facebook was the best way to put my pics online in a way that all can see, since i had already been using it as prompted by some of the UNC peeps. I know that you know that my usual rule is none of this online friendship stuff (which is why i neither have msn nor have friendster), but figured no harm in at least getting an account, though i probably won't be doing anything much with it. And further more it's a really convenient way for me to upload my photos for people to see since you don't need to be a facebook user to view the albums, and there's unlimited space for the pics too...

I was able to come to this realization because today basically i did nothing more than slack at home - nope i didn't even leave te house, which is just as well since here it can get pretty hot (over 100 degrees F), though thankfully without the energy-sapping humidity back in S'pore. This meant more than ample time to just laze around at home (since the lack of a car and driver made going out not a possibility). I even had time in the evening to catch some tennis on espn - the last point of Roger Federer's semifinal victory over Fernando Gonzalez in the Toronto Masters and the whole semifinal match between Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams in the LA JPMorgan Chase Open which the former won (both outcomes being to my delight). As much as i follow tennis, my lack of cable back home means that this match was probably only the third or fourth full tennis match that i've ever watched in my life - and it was quite fun to do so...

Hmm yup Fresno so far has been pretty boring (btw there's a suburb of Portland called Boring, and it's right next to another suburb called Happy Valley - go figure...) but i guess i expected that lah- i was here just last year anyway so i've seen pretty much most of the little that there is to see... Anyway, it's good to slack a little now and then...

Here we're staying with some former church friends, who happen to also be Filipinos - and needless to say from being plunged into the deep end with Cantonese now Tagalog is the language that i have to tackle - i can roughly understand what is going on in a conversation, and be able to respond to questions asked me in Tagalog, but every single reply i give is in English, and more often than not i'm still left fairly clueless... I tell you, there's not a day that does not go by here when i do not wish that my parents had just heck care about Mandarin and gone ahead and taught me Tagalog last time - either way i'd still do badly for my so-called 'mother tongue' anyway...

Well, i'll finally be flying to school on Tuesday, after almost two weeks of pure slacking - am both excited yet apprehensive at the same time over what to expect. I'm thankful for these two weeks as a good means of transition so to speak between the busyness of the supposed holiday period in S'pore and the different pace of studying life at UNC. The words of this song (which i've probably at some point in time heard in S'pore but have since heard twice, and remembered over here) speak to me and are very apt at this point in time. To read them however you'll have to go here since the site itself says that the lyrics are not to be reproduced without permission, and you know what a guai kia i am =p Well, enjoy and reflect...

la di da

All of a sudden, i'm feeling rather uplifted (though this has absolutely nothing to do with an uplifting event of a totally different variety that to my horror i accidentally chanced upon just now on Oprah involving women and their inner garments, if you get my drift...).

The reason for such happiness suddenly ensuing is that i came back home just now and checked my email, and found out that certain troublesome hindrances in my path towards being able to leave worry-free for the states (and arrive there and clear customs without running the risk of being deported) on that obscenely early United flight just more than a month from now have cleared up somewhat, with regards to the country which professes to trust in God, the folks who mould the future of our nation, and of course the peeps at the top 20 university in the Pasir Panjang/Kent Ridge area too... I'm as usual always one for procrastination, so when i finally got around to doing something after a week's delay since i've been back, then thankfully things have started to get moving whee =)

But of course i am far from done with all this bureauracy and red tape, but it's a start i suppose... And can also get started on less boring things like planning for trips and the like, though now since the folks have now decided to tag along for a while i have to make certain adjustments to my plans, but no worries overall =)

And Wimbledon is on now (this of course means next to nothing since i donch have cable and hence at the most can only catch poor quality delayed feeds of matches online as the sole means of actually watching any of the action, but never mind)! At least there'll be some respite from the barrage of blah world cup news that is flooding every media available...

My aim now is to squeeze in as much as possible before i leave, and also before i start at the school, cos think once that happens my happy, fun and carefree life will grind to a halt... Nothing without labour...

Oh, and RIP.

i'm off the jet plane

ok actually i am a little tired and a little sick (more on the latter later - hey - latter later - i like the ring of that - latter later latter later latter later - heehee its even more fun to type - ok enough nonsense) but i know that if i don't start recording stuff down now i'll soon forget it so here goes:

firstly, updates on the stuff that i thought that i would be missing since i was away:

Exam results:
Ok checked these online after coming back from the first English session that we had - before that was alternating between eagerly anticipating them (in hope of all As) and downright avoiding them (in fear of all B minuses or worse). Anyhoos, i was initially quite disappointed because after all the drama of the past sem - the unexpectedly high CA grades amidst the utter lack of time to even do these things, and then the whole severe mood swing right around exam time - i had somehow gotten the slight gut feeling that this sem's results would be the best yet - but instead they were the second worst (or for the optimist - third best). To make things even more unsettling - i got the lowest grade for the level one ss module (once again, this history major vows never to do another soci module ever again - and beat me with a stick if i stupidly even consider breaking this vow again), B+s for my three level 2s, and the highest grade for my level 3 hist. But after prayerfully considering all things, i realised that i still can be thankful that i'm still fairly safe in the desired range, and by most accounts my grades are actually quite okay... And i've also come to the conculsion that the more i desire better grades for my own personal gratification (which is what i feel was the case in this case), the less i'll be granted them...

American Idol: Oh well, Kat lost - but from what my mother told me - serves her right for singing the same old safe and boring stuff - if she sang more cool stuff like Black Horse and the Cherry Tree for her final repertoire then maybe she'd have done better? I donch know - and i'm a sore loser i guess so i won't bother to check out exactly what happened in the finals... In any case, i still cannot stand the other guy.

Singapore Idol: I seriously can't be bothered - even with the sisters who may be my distant relatives...

World Cup: Darn, thought i could escape this one - but world cup fever was just as bad there as it was here four years ago when i was subject to soccer-crazed bunk-mates and the like - think i dislike the sport more than i've ever before...

French Open: Quite cool huh - i correctly predicted the winners (Henin-Hardenne and Nadal) and my other favourites all reached at least the fourth round =) If i could be so accurate for soccer results (that is, if i cared), maybe i'd be a rich man now heh... Caught a glimpse of the fourth round results on Thai TV and later saw a picture on a newspaper of the winner and runner-up of the women's singles - and even though it was all in Thai (duh) at least i'm happy there wasn't an information blackout...

Ok apart from that there of course is a lot of stuff that happened with greater relation to the trip itself - which i wil probably talk about at a later date (or else you'll just have to wait for the presentation heh). Here are some little snippets first:

The trip saw my first time:
-eating guava [i hereby retract my previous claim that i do not eat all tropical fruits - rather, i do not eat most tropical fruits, save for stuff like rambutans, peeled guavas and fried (i.e. not fresh) bananas]
-riding a motorcycle (albeit only for two two-minute trips to the market and back, but still, a trip's a trip)
-being called 'handsome' by someone not of the cheek-pinching auntie variety (though the caller in question was instead of the male variety so i don't know whether to be flattered or to flee...)

Also the 'latter later' stuff:
I fell sick towards the end of the trip, and was fluctuating rapidly between mildly well and horribly delirious over the last three days. Some insisted that i must be homesick but i said no - how can i be homesick when i am often so sick of home? Well, today i was still sickish, but by the time we touched down, my bad throat was now barely noticeable, and the other ailments were all but gone - all this to such an extent that i was able to follow my parents to Sizzler to eat steak for dinner - and round it off with ice cream furthermore (this is all the more ironic considering how my last meal before falling sick was steak...) so in short, maybe i was subconsciously homesick after all...

Ok, i do want to elaborate much more, particularly on the ministry and how the Lord has really blessed me through the trip, but i shall leave that for another day - nitey...

i'm leaving on a jet plane, i know when i'll be back again...

Have actually been thinking about what i'll be missing while i am away during the trip =======> for quite some time now - so thought here before i go i shall list them all down -

Exam results:
They're out like two or so days after we arrive there - hmm and on the one hand i have a feeling that i'll do better than ok so am a leetle eager to get them back (which is possible) but on the other hand if my feeling is totally off then i'd be all mopey and sullen for the rest of the trip if i did check them so i dunno lah...

American Idol:
Am missing the final by a matter of a day or two - actually i would not be that eager to catch it anyway cos my gut feeling (which i hope is seriously off) is that Taylor will win [and i am probably more anti-Taylor and his affectations (which make him look like he's having a seizure or indigestion or something like that) than pro-Kat], and also that the idol song that both of them will have to sing will be high up there with much of the rest of them idol/idol-contestant-sung songs such as "I Believe", "Inside Your Heaven" and the worst offender of them all, "8th World Wonder", in the sheer cheese factor...

Singapore Idol:
After catching chunks of it on tv, i am so glad that i won't be subject to a lot of its nonsense - imho, even most of those who made it to the next round simply don't even pale, but basically fade away in comparison to their American counterparts (and i'd like to think that coming from choir, i have slightly more credibility in my opinions than the average Singaporean. Way too much oversinging which results in strained voices that tend to go flat or sharp on a regular basis... The only potential sourse of excitement for me is seeing methinks three filipinos among those who went through (my kababayans - and honestly, filipinos in general have really good voices), and furthermore, two of them share my mother's surname - Pelaez - and my mother informs me that in all likelihood, they are probably somehow related to her, and therefore to me, but still, there are many filipinos who can sing way better than they did - maybe the dull singing environment of Singapore had a negative effect upon their vocal quality (my mother - to borrow a page from the PM's book - remarked that in terms of singing quality, S'pore is stil very much of third-world standards)

World Cup:
The last time i was still in the army, and was practically the only bochap guy in a sea of soccer-crazed course mates. This time, i dunno how readily available soccer coverage and the like will be over there but whatever it is, i'd be glad to not be in S'pore while it's on...

French Open:
On the other hand, am sorry to miss the French Open - have become somewhat of a closet tennis fan as of late - since unlike badminton i am able to serve and hit the ball over the net occasionally - but owing to it's relative unpopularity when compared to (imho) silly games like soccer and golf, i never get to see it on the telly save for short highlights on the useless channelnewsasia since i don't have cable. Clay court tennis is realy intriguing - and allows for some really long rallies and that's always fun to watch... Ah well... But anyway, let me go on the record as saying that i am rooting for Federer, Davydenko and Ancic for the men and Clijsters, Hingis and Myskina for the women (though i predict Nadal and Henin-Hardenne to win)...

Okies, so that's it from me for now, thanks for all the prayers and encouragement smses and what nots - they're very much appreciated... Be back in a jiffy - ta! =)

more musings in the middle of mugging mania

Think i've said this before, but anyways am always encouraged and challenged whenever one of these sharing-cum-prayer sessions come around. Methinks it's really amazing how the Lord can speak to us through so many different channels, one of them being through the experiences and prayer of other people. Another good day today, not so much strictly in terms of revision progress (much room for improvement there!) but rather holistically, so to speak.

Today, owing to catching an earlier bus, i got to school before 8am (for the first time in months...), and so had the highly amusing experience of watching the impatient early morning
(30 or so strong) nus crowd hovering outside the library entrance, and then promptly dashing madly for the discussion rooms on the sixth floor once the doors were opened at 8am sharp. It was a scene more akin to selfish aunties converging outside OG for their annual sale, or those hoards who lined up like crazy outside McD's some years ago for those (in my opinion) ridiculous Hello Kitty toys.

Had another fruitful time of sharing and prayer today with Evan, Adrian and Ming Hui. Also, it's extremely refreshing to just unburden the stuff that has been a bother to like-minded brothers and sisters, to know that apart from the Lord forever being with us, there are others too who are aware of what is going on and who are there for you.

Exam tea day two went on well, as far as i was aware of. Of course, since was doing more preparation work throughout the whole thing, didn't really have the chance to speak to anyone. I'll also be the first to admit that i didn't really feel like talking to anyone new today anyway. What a challenge it is for us to get out of our comfort zones sometimes in accordance with what the Lord has commanded. That's another area to pray about.

Had an early end to today's revision session to go (attempt to) play tennis at Ming Hui's house, together with Evan and Maicie Chiam Mei Si. Had a great time, definitely have progressed a teeny bit since last time, but i still stink overall. That being said, am definitely beginning to warm to the game, and hope to have more chances to play in future. (What i'll never warm to is the aches and pains in my right upper body that always greet me upon waking up the next morning - in fact this time they have even pre-empted my sleep...) Much preferred to badminton, definitely, since at least i am able to hit the ball with the racket, something that has remained strangely elusive whenever a shuttlecock comes my way...

After the game, washing up and dinner, went over to Haagen-Daaz to just chill for a while. Ms Maicie Chiam Mei Si (a.k.a. "mei mei"), was in her element, and proceeded to dish out many choice verbal gems that resulted in more guffaws from the rest. Some truly were real classics... I kid you not... But aiyah, she so poor thing, kena laughed at by us just now, so won't embarrass her further by posting all the farny things that came out of her mouth. If you wanna know, look for one of us lah...

*my phone rings*

in the midst of my moderately meaningful mugging...

I resolve to never take bus 33 to school ever again. 10 cents saved by taking it instead of bus 10 doesn't make up for waking up at 645am in order to get to the Dunman Road bus stop by 710am, only to promptly watch not one, not two, but three bus 16s (the only other bus to stop at the stop) whizz by before a pathetic old single-decker bus 33 troddles along. This bus then proceeds to troddle along for the rest of the long and uneventful journey to nus (make that one event - the bus was overtaken by the next bus 33 en route *peeved look*), which it only reaches at around 840am.

I realise that this sem, a whole new community of chao muggers has taken residence in the central library. Imagine that, the whole floor is full of people by 10am... Compels yours truly to wake up even earlier to chope a good table for the vcf library fellowship (central library chapter) before none remain.

I am very thankful to God for the opportunity to gather together with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ to just share with and pray with one another.

I try to hypothesize what may have caused my tongue to have seemingly unilaterally retired a significant portion of my tastebuds, leaving me unable to fully appreciate sweet and hot (disaster!) food for the past two days now (my nose is fine so it's nothing to do with smell). Delayed reaction of mala huoguo, perhaps?

I reflect upon the stuff covered as of yet and am extremely grateful to God for keeping me (fairly) disciplined, such that a substantial amount of stuff has been done so far...

I am humbled by His graciousness in seeing me through my last essay and even blessing me with a surprisingly good mark, in spite of all my worries and fears that i would screw it up badly. Haven't been so overjoyed about any mark for a long time now. All the more incentive to persevere on till this exam is done on 1 December. When will i fully learn that His grace is indeed sufficient for me in my weakness?

I observe, how from the goings-on of today's arts exam tea, that yours truly is not really a people person, as in i am hardly the most gregarious of people. Yet at the same time, i recognise that the Lord is challenging me to break past these silly self-imposed limitations that i have and to actively reach out to others, not out of obligation to Him, but rather out of an overflow of a Christlike love.

I wonder how tomorrow's tennis game (weather permitting) will go about considering that we have a grand total of two orphaned and neglected (i.e. abandoned by their previous owners and subsequently picked up by us) tennis balls and no more than that. Are we destined to spend more time picking up the two balls than actually hitting them?

I am aware that even during this period, i still need to exercise to help to clear my mind and to relax, or else may just burn out... But where is time to be found to swim/run/cycle? Looks like for now (apart from tomorrow) i will have to settle with climbing up and down the steps between the library and the co-op...