I couldn't buy mum a proper birthday present because Manna Bookstore was closed yesterday! I suppose it is undergoing some renovations because there were boxes strewn all over what used to be the floor of the bookstore. I was astounded. Then, after Fuel, I went to Serene Centre to find something nice for mum but the flower shop was close and so were all the other gift shops. The only shops that were opened were food stores such as Macs and Island Creamery. It was not even past 10pm, and maybe the gift shops weren't doing so well in their businesses. I ended up buying a sundae cone for mum but I shall have to hunt for another present throughout the course of the week and it would be a super duper belated birthday present ...


Jared taught me how to make a straw heart, as in a heart made of straws ... actually only 2 straws. I think that's very creative. I finally figured out how to align the 2 straws together and made another heart out of straw for mum, after which I placed it in the sundae cup. I hope I can learn how to make a heart of love next time because that certainly outshines the heart of straw by umpteen times.


Sometimes, candid coincidences happen in life that may just make things seem enlightening for us. If we could only count the number of small and large blessings that God has brought into our lives, we will see that the number is infinite ... From the very day we were birthed into existence, till the very day we diminish from the face of this Earth. Life really is a wonderful journey if u have God in your life to guide you throughout the course of each day.


If you live for money, your fortune will be remembered. If you live for glory, your statue will be remembered. If you live for others, you will be remembered and you will live forever in the hearts of those whom you gave love and hope to. If you live for God truthfully, you will be blessed and rewarded indefinitely in heaven.

History Lesson was hilarious today. Mara sent the whole class out except for 1 boy who did his work. I mean no one heard her say that there was going to be any work assigned in the first place. She only asked us to prepare the Suez Crisis. So it was really an awkward scene in which she felt that we were all ganging up against her. We learnt more trigonometry today. We are only at the tip of the iceberg, according to TEH.


And my pipeline at home is screwed because it is springing a massive leak now and I have to turn of the water supply quickly. This sucks completely. There's no more water except for that in the kettle and the refrigerator. I have maths homework to do. I just discovered that I hate the sound of leaking water. It sounds so compressed, artificial and pressurised. I loath that sound. And the pipe is still leaking even though the supply has been cut. I don't know what's going on but most probably it's connected to the main supply from other homes. So basically, I have to wait for dad to replace the faulty tube thing.


I don't feel like blogging. No mood. Let's end with the usual positive quote. When you give from your heart to others, God gives you a refill from his heart. How sweet... Bye.

Today is mum's birthday ... Happy Birthday! And I haven't gotten her a present. She told me that its okay but I must get her something special on Saturday at church as a belated present. I wanted to buy pens for her today but she has plenty. I presume that the people we love deserve more than what we give them. Even if the gift is very big, there's always another bigger, better gift. I shall give mum a nice surprise on Saturday. We had a small house celebration ... only 3 people attended: Me, Mum and Dad. Here's the cake:

I lost my English comprehension booklet. I am positive that someone borrowed it from our class cupboard and had forgotten to return it. Either that or it mysteriously disappeared from the school cupboard where I distinctively remembered placing it. Now I need to borrow comprehension booklets from others which is not good because if this trend continues, many people would end up losing their booklets just like I did.


I think I had better sleep soon before mum or dad nags. Enthusiasm is not an accessory to life; it's an essential necessity. So don't stop me from laughing because laughing is a form of enthusiasm and I love to laugh. Goodnight.

As you can see, I changed my template recently ... it was previously a bluish road with white designs imprinted along the sides ... I find this template rather matching to theme winding road but the font and spacings between paragraphs are undesirable.



I went out with Vincent, Darren, Mitchell and his fren Quok yesterday ... forgive me if I mispelt Vincen't friend's name. We had such a fun time at K Box. It was the first time I've ever been there and I sang my heart out. The only flaw was that it was a tad expensive ... 23 dollars per person. But we only stayed there for 1.5 hours when our check out time was 3 hours. The food and drinks were free and they had room service. I wish to go there again when I' ve got time and money.


I made 2 blunders yesterday again. When I first went out to meet my friends, I forgot to bring the Renaisannce ticket and my dress code was totally wrong. I had to rush home to get the ticket and wasted 9 dollars on taxi fare. Yesterday's expenditure really burned a hole in my pocket ... maybe not to some richer people ... such as erm ... I don't wanna reveal.


Anyway, we went for the renaissance after K Box and it was so fun sitting next to Vincent and joking around in the dark. We squealed and giggled at the most awkward moments and I enjoyed the moment when Darren smelt the faint hint of intestinal gases and started to act like
"eeeww ... gross."


Here are some of the pictures that I took with my phone camera but the quality is atrocious because I was shaking when I took them and the lights were incompatible for optimum visual footage of the surroundings.

Here's the part where I'm not suppose to take photos ... Peeps

Keep from getting knocked out in the boxing match of life by learning to roll with the punches ...
Have a nice day everyone ...

Today is Racial Harmony Day for our school ... even though I don't know the exact date. It was very hectic for me and my class, considering an incredible chain of unfortunate events that took place. I don't even know where to start ... I'm so lost.



So this is how it goes, as I narrate the start of a new day to the end of school. I went to school as usual and we had some dumb speech during assembly in which no one listened to. Then. we went to class and only me and 6 other people put their hand phones in the drawer. Later on during Humanities lesson, some guy in my class took out his phone and captured a picture of the history elective teacher so distinctly that she found out and reported him to the HOL. Then during maths lesson, our teacher kept nagging at us for being so sloppy and the HOL came in not long after to inspect the whole class. He demanded that all those we did not lock their phones in the drawer had to surrender their phones immediately and 17 phones went whooshing to the box that he held. Our maths teacher seemed pleased and even offered to give him a few rubber bands to tie the name tags on the phones together. It was really an flabbergasting moment for the whole class. Luckily, I was one of the very few who submitted my phone in the morning.



Such checks are rare but a menace once it takes place. All because of a complaint that a student had taken a photo of a teacher during class, the whole class had to suffer the punishment of not being allowed to bring our phones to school till the end of this term. This sucks seriously. I don't think students should be forced to lock up their phones ... The school rule says that we have to place our phones in the classroom drawer for safekeeping till the end of school each day. I can't believe so many people didn't do that today ... but then again, it's racial harmony day and they're so many celebrations going on ... We are just so unlucky today that our class had to be checked for the presence of hand phones in possession. I bet the other classes are full of the same scenarios indicating the presence of phones in possession. I feel so sorry for my friends who got their phone confiscated. 333 is in dismay now. I hope this stupid rule about locking up the hand phones would be abolished just as it appears to be in higher institutions and other designated areas of education.



That's not the only plight that I faced today. There was a mini fair in the canteen during recess time. I bought some malt candy and spilled it all over my green tie. Then I bought a cup of Bandung and accidentally dropped the filled cup on my clean trousers which were eventually stained in pink. I was so unhappy that I dropped the coins in my wallet all on the cemented floor because I forgot to close the magnetic tag. I lost 1 dollar 20 cents. Either people in the vicinity at that time were dishonest or the coins rolled into some mondo drain or they magically vanished into thick cement. I hate the celebrations today. It was horrid.



We watched Hotel Rwanda soon after. There were some incompetent scenes before the movie was screened. The language was in Chinese initially but changed to English not long after. I suddenly realise how cruel racial discrimination is. In fact, all sorts of discrimination should be extinguished. People should learn to live in harmony, such is the theme of today ... Racial Harmony.



I have no mood to carry on talking about my life. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible. I can't believe that the usage of phones for 333 would be banned till next term. How am I suppose to contact my parents or friends in case of emergencies? This is simply ludicrous ... simply ridiculous.

So the O Level Listening Comprehension took place today in school. I don't understand why we have to bring our books home. I had to lug a huge plastic bag of school books and files and now I have to bring them back to school throughout the course of the week ... I also forgot to bring my entry proof to school today. Apparently, a whole bunch of students didn't bring theirs too so the general administration office was crowded with many LC candidates ... LC stands for listening comprehension in this context, though I usually refer it to Low Class.

The paper was fine. I'm aiming for 18/20 ... which is 9% for my Chinese paper. The only doubt me, Darren and my frens have is Question 3 .. which was rather tricky. The answer is either A or D, though Darren seems quite confident its A. I wrote D, in which case I might be wrong, or be the slightest blip, I might be right. There are forum threads posted in Asiasoft about today's LC. Hmm ... I guess Singapore's taking it quite seriously.

I changed my hairstyle in maple to shaggy wax and my face to that of what is known to maplers' as "Slick Sin" eyes. I think my character looks very cute and adorable now ... or in other words , "Shuai" in a dainty masculine way. What a metaphoric statement ... Haha! I am very upset with Asiasoft for not crediting my 10000 A cash into my account. As I had stated thrice in my Q Box Messages, the system had lagged and displayed an error stating: Server too busy, please try again ... I did try again but the transaction was already complete, except that no cash was credited into my account. I want either a refund of my money in real life, or a return of my virtual cash ...

I'm still hopeless addicted. I mean ... last night, I actually made a list of all the items that I wanted in maple and audition. This clearly proves my addiction already. I have to drive a sledge hammer into these virtual bonds with the computer and in doing so, I pray for a miracle to break the addictive bonds.

Enough with the blogging tonight. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Faith does not believe that God can, but that God will ... And I have faith that God will ameliorate my plight. I must have the determination to carry on life ... despite the major tummy ache I have now ... OUCH.

I learnt a lot of new things in church today. I feel that I have to do something more inspiring with my life. I don't want life to be ordinary. I feel that's not enough for me. I want my life to be meaningful and extraordinary... After all, we only have one life, so live it to the best that we can be. I need to draw closer to God too ... even though I've told myself umpteen times to do my Time along with God, I can't seem to do it on a regular basis. I have to affect change now but changing myself. There's no time to lose.

I don't wanna go deeper than the above today. I have to get new clothes for my maple and audition character soon since all of the items are expiring soon. If I don't get them by tomorrow, I'll have to save up more money till I can get cash. I don't think I should waste so much money on virtual items. And my advice to all the people who have not ventured into online cash is to stay away from it as much as possible. Don't get addicted like me. I'm still trying to control this addiction with God's power and I'm much wiser in managing the little finance that I have at the moment. I limit myself to only a certain amount of money to be spent on cash items, while the rest to be used for sustenance, bus fares and offerings.

It's getting late. Had better sleep early to maintain a healthy body. Pride is like bungee jumping: The initial thrill is followed by lots of ups and downs, and eventually you're left hanging. Let's all try to be humble because sometimes we can be very indifferent. God bless everyone. Goodnight ... Hmm ... Most of my posts are typed at night ...

Today was fantastic ... SJI won the Canoeing C Division Championship Title for our 4th or 5th consecutive year and our B Division did very well too .. placing 2nd in the Championships ... losing marginally to ACS(I) ... I'm very proud of the effort that our team put in and I hope that we can continue to work together and strive to obtain both titles next year. I will also make sure that I put in more effort in whatever boat that I'm assigned to next year and make 2008 even more memorable than 2007. Well done SJI ... keep up the good team spirit ~ Praise the Lord for blessing us with good health and strength!

I have a few photos to display but I didn't take any direct shots of anyone for fear of controversies online ...

Relaxing before heats ...

Bringing out the boats ...

Sceneries around the reservoir ...

We had dinner at Seoul Garden Takashimaya to celebrate our victory ... and Sean and I played some cute Pokemon game in his hand phone throughout pockets of the day ... It was so lame but fun ... I have school tomorrow so I think I'll sleep early. I heard that my history teacher broke her ankle... that's so saddening because we won't learn as much as we had intended to ... and I haven't even finish compiling my notes on the Cold War between USA and USSR ... Argh

Putting other's needs before your own is the shortest and surest road to happiness. I have a lot of practicals and homework to catch up on. Goodnight everyone. May the peace of God be with you. Chile.

Oral went well today ... I'm actually pleased that I didn't screw my oral examination up. The topic was generally about our viewpoint of corporal punishment in schools for students who have committed major crimes. I actually have more to elaborate on that statement but the old man asked me another question ... What other ways do you think can be implemented to reprimand the teenage offenders with the same effective results ...

I think I did quite well except for the last part where I stuttered for like a few seconds because I was thinking of the Chinese translation for warning letter ...I know the phrase but my mind suddenly blanked out. Well .. anyway, that was near the end of the conversation, after which the old man asked me to leave ... Hmmph ... Looks like the examiners are very impatient..

Then there was this lady sitting next to the old man .. probably in her twenties, who kept smiling and smiling and putting her hand over her mouth in what seemed to be an offending gesture. I don't really know the reason for her prescence in the examination hall since she did nothing but smile, but I guess it's because she was assigned to encourage the candidates by giving them confidence in speech. However, she failed badly to do so because her smiling made me even more anxious ...

It's so sad that not many people from the B Division made it to the finals... particularly the Secondary threes, according to Sean. Since the Oral examinations are over, I've have to Bedok Reservoir tomorrow as usual. We have to meet in school at 6.30am ... because the bus leaves at 7pm. That is so unfair .. I want my beauty sleep ..

I really need to brush up on maths ... Trigonometry is consuming me. I have to get the formulae of secant, cosecant, and cotangent into my brain before juice starts to leak out. And I hate it when my teachers say that we are only covering the surface of a certain topic in a certain subject .. that just demoralises us further since we become more aware that we have much much more to learn and memorise.

Life is a series of chain reactions. Each event affects the next one in line. You may remember the end result, but it's all those little choices that you make each day that either get your closer to your goal or tie you down. Off to dinner ... Have a nice evening.

So today's competition heats went smoothly. Everyone in the C Division made the finals and most of the B Div's entered finals and semi finals too. There will be more heats and semi finals tomorrow, with the finals taking place on Thursday. I can't make it tomorrow because I have Oral examination. I am freakishly tired and I feel a lump in my throat which is undesirable for tomorrow's conversation with some unknown examiner. I wanna sleep soon.

I hope tomorrow's competition ends well too ... the bus ride home took 1.5 hours. I will fracture my butt if I keep taking Bus 67 from Bedok to CCK. Open your heart to another's troubles, and your own will be easier to bear. No pictures today ... though I have 2 in my hand phone but I'm just plain lazy and exhausted to upload them here. Probably do so on Friday ... Nights.

I hope for this week to pass by as quickly as possible. It's going to be a hectic week for me and the canoeists and the people taking the oral examinations. I'm under pressure. I have to fight back with a stronger force. Though the water may press on me, I shall adjust my bodily pressure to make sure I won't get crushed. Sometimes, the trials of life make u stronger. And most of the time, it does.

For the rest of this week ... it would be mostly cheerleading at the Bedok Reservoir, where we have shifted most of our boats to. That's the new venue for the Championships, instead of the previous venue at MacRitchie, where some renovations are taking place currently. I shall work hard to win something next year. But I shall not feel lost out this year at the same time. I have worked hard and put in a considerable amount of effort in training. I just have to work harder and smarter I guess. You see ... I only have around 60% attendance for trainings and there are 5 trainings a week which means I go for at least 3. But I've not been attending trainings lately due to the heat of the competitions overhead. There are not enough boats to spare. So I guess it's mainly supporting this year for me and Sean and a few others.

I have a good friend to take down my homework while I'm away from school. I'm coming down with a bad throat and that's not a positive sign since the Oral Exams are only 2 days away. I'm second on the list for the examinations. I really have to get some rest. My bones are aching for no apparent reason and my left thumb feels numb. I pray that God will help me and the team and those taking the Oral Exams to have a healthy body, a calm, focused mind, and a strong spirit to pull through all the plights and situations that we are facing in our lives. Thank you God for promising that we would never walk alone.

Stay focused on your goals, not your immediate problems. But remember to solve your problems as soon as possible and don't procrastinate. How I wish wishes come true ... God bless you who are reading this post. Goodnight.

I'm not so worried about my life anymore. I just found out last night that I have been doing Time Alone with God (TAWG) for the whole of June, nor have I been writing in my journal. I feel that I should re cultivate the good practices that I have lost. Yeps ... I need a lot of motivation and help to do so. I just finished physics and chemistry homework and my Chinese newspaper reflection. I'm left with 2 maths worksheets on trigonometry and a Biology Plan which I have completely no idea how to do.

I'm happy that I managed to solve a very old logarithm problem that I wrote in my journal ages ago. I think it was in the A Maths Past year papers. 2log7 + logx3 = 1 Or something like that ... But I solved it in 2 mins. I was like so shocked that I suddenly became so smart. Perhaps it is true that wisdom comes with age ... which explains why most university professors are so old .. with the exceptions of geniuses such as me .. just kidding. I dunno what to write. So I'll just write this sentence to fill up space. I'm so weird. Haha.

My aim is to have over 1000 songs in my Itunes Playlist ... There's currently 469 songs in the library and a total of about 600 music files in my computer. If anyone has any good song ... please send it to me and I will try to appreciative to you. And I want to get a diploma in music next time ... when I'm much older. I must work on my piano... and now someone just nudged me in MSN. Oh by the way, in today's Sexual Orientation Talk, we learnt that MSM means Males having Sex with Males... in the context of homosexuals. So I guess MSN stands for Males having Sex with Non - Females. Omg ... how can I be so perverse. Please DON'T be offended by the above statement. It is purely ludicrous humour.

Chugging my way to 150 ... I need more fishing baits ... 7k more exp to being Lev 17 in Audition..

Here's a nice poem for the poetic individual:

From a bush with thorns comes
the beautiful rose.
From a broken heart comes
powerful prose.
From a cramped cocoon comes
a butterfly new.
From a tough mountain climb comes
a breathtaking view.

Be a better person than your enemy by being nice, especially when they aren't. What am I? A weird teenage philosopher out to psycho the whole world. Hmm.. You decide... Goodnight everyone and

have a nice night ...

There's my Oral O level Chinese Examination to worry about next week and I'm afraid that something happens on the day itself and during the preparatory stages before the examinations because the Canoeing Championships clash on the day of my oral itself and I'm so scared that something might happen to me on that day. How am I suppose to break the news to my CCA teacher and my Chinese teacher that I am having both events on that day ... Perhaps I should just skip supporting the championships on the day of my Oral Exams ... And since I'm quite inconspicuous ... that shouldn't be a problem. I have to pray earnestly from this week onwards. I dont wish to take an earlier examination as that would be exceedingly trepidating.

I really have nothing much to say today. My whole mind is blocked. I feel like spongebob sqaurepants in the aspect of having no brain. I want to know the answer to the last question of the Matrix test we took today. I hate matrices. They are so useless and confusing espcially in sorting huge chunks of data.

How can you effect change? By first letting God change you.

HAPPY BELATED YOUTH HOLIDAY !

To all youths out there ... enjoy your youth while you can, but don't forget that God is watching your every move. Have fun before you grow old, but know and keep to your limits. Anyway, I'll make this post a short one since there's school tomorrow. I leveled to 149 today ... Yeah. So happy and I'm gonna slowly chug to 150 and let my rank drop drop drop.

Congratulations to Darren, Timothy and some guy from 331 besides Darren for obtaining High Distinction for NSW Science Competition. I can't believe I lost to darren by 1 mark in the test. Hmm ... at least we all did our best and perhaps the information about our NSW scores is not yet creditable until I see them in black and white.

Just cleared my chemistry project somewhat in a flurry. I just wanna get a pass for that since my group members have not done anything significant. Two pages worth of 80% Copy Paste, 20% personal opinion and persuasion. My highest rating: 6/10.

Today I took a Guild Screenshot with my guildmates: I shall post it up later. Not everyone came because we planned the meeting in a haste during 4x exp and it lasted like only 5 mins or so. Sobs ... we seriously need to expand the guild ... only 8 people in the shot. Cheers ...

Every king was once a helpless baby, every oak once an acorn, every mighty ocean swell once a ripple, and every great structure once a blueprint. It's not where you are today, but where you are going that counts.

Smile everyone ...

It's like really late now and I came back at 11.20pm. Anyway the MILK run was a success as it has always been but we didn't get a chance to perform because Tim Chan and Wei Gee didn't show up at all. Well ... they better had a good excuse on Tuesday. I came quite late for the run as I thought we should only be there by 3pm. I was actually required to report at 10am. Exclamation mark! Anyway.. I did manage to take a few pictures from my camera phone. I ended up selling drinks instead of performing. We sold over 2000 dollars worth of drinks. Not kidding. But all the proceeds will go to charity. I missed Played Out, Reality Bites church event. Perhaps I should have gone for the event instead of the run...

I had a hard time finding Joo Kiat Street. I took 190 and switched to 16 later on. And then I went Takashimaya to find Sean, Vincent and Tze Yang for dinner. Almost took the wrong train!

I'm so blur nowadays, especially in crowded areas. When Jamming with my new church band ~ Passion Foothold and it was great. I love the song they self composed ... Legacy .. Not only is the melody fantastic, but the lyrics are also very meaningful. I need to brush up on my music and vocal acoustics. Jamming was fun ~ Haha. Can't wait to do it again...

Here's some photos from the event .. they're not very clear because my Phone's Camera is only about 2 megapixel. Enjoy ~

Selling Drinks ...

Opening more cartons in the back ground.

Dinner with grinning Sean ...

Someone is scared of the camera...

What is Tze Yang doing?

This is the empty LRT I sat in at 11pm. I took the photo from the front of the cabin. It's looks so spooky ... even more if the lights were dimmed. Brrr .... I'm off to bed soon. Yawns.

Goodnights everyone. Love is a miracle; it is a touch of Heaven.