NUS says: Application status The general stages for the application status are Application received --> Application processing --> Outcome of application Your current status is Application processing. SMU says, Thank you for your interest in SMU. Your application is currently being processed. We will inform you of the outcome of your application in due course. NTU says, well... NTU doesn't say anything coz they dun even have a page that tells u whether you're awaiting a response from them...
I am so sick of seeing these on the Uni application webpages... it's like... INCONCLUSIVE! let me know whether i'm in or not soon please!!! :S I've been waiting for a reply from NUS, NTU, SMU for the longest time.
I will own this in a few weeks time... :) why? coz i'm going to buy it when i ORD. :) which is in a few weeks time... to be exact, it's 11weeks time.. that's like 2 plus months! wootz!!! haha anyways... i really quite like this phone. seems like quite a nice match for me. i've always wanted a nice walkman sony ericsson phone... so till i find something wrong with this phone or find sumthing better, this shall be what i'm aiming for... hopefully when it DOES properly come out, it won't be expensive. we'll see now shant we? ahha
Need a good phone coz mine has wanted to ORD from me for a long time... it's been crapping up, lousy reception, bad keys, no functions, useless battery... the only good thing about it is prob the look of it, the fact that it's a flip phone and the size. :) other than that.... hmmm. haha
We'll see how la. will save money for it and try to pay for it coz i never like to make my parents pay for anything i own... except the car and laptop. haha coz u know, they run into the thousands so there's no way i can pay for them. :S haha... and i am very grateful for everything i own which isn't paid for by myself... which is everything around me actually. like the house. HAHA...
Talkin bout that, i bought meself a trucker cap! yayz... ahha slowly completing my hiphop waredrobe.. which right now consists of 1 cargo pants, 1 trucker cap, 1 pair of shoes and 3 ankle socks... yarh. managed to grab some socks the other day too. i need want new shoes coz the insoles of the one i wear is gone... i need want new cargos coz having one cargo pants is just not enough... so sian.
On other news, i'm glad i'm off tml coz i have NO mood to go back to work. i guess it's coz we slogged quite a bit at work the past few days so that we could earn this off... and i'm glad i dun have to go to work coz i'm pretty sick of it. :) it's not so much the ORD mood, it's the fact that there just isn't anything to work for. i could go on and on about how i am TOTALLY not satisfied/contented/pleased with my workplace and the people there but i dun wanna be arrested... with 2 more months left... who wants to be a bellringer? and i'm not talkin bout some glam gameshow here... :)
Apart from that and all, i'm pretty ok with life. it's slowly moving i suppose. frens come and go rite? likewise for many things in life. ah... who am i kidding, when i've reached this point of the blog post, i just dun feel like blogging. hahah hope the top section has given u enuf to not demand for a 2nd post. :)
Here's a cool vid i found. It's for those people who love drifting... check it out yo. It's a truck... now how pro is that!
I don't know if it's God trying to tell us, YF, something... whether He's telling ME something or what but there has been some coincidences about a certain topic that keeps coming up in Shalom. Let me start where it should start...
Yesterday, we had the video screening of 'Facing the Giants' and it was wonderful... the show was great and the discussion after was done really well. Kudos to M.Chan and J.Low for doing such a great job facilitating the discussion. During the discussion, we talked about purpose... why we do things.. what's our purpose on this earth and what is success measured as in singapore? why do studies take a higher priority than church and God? In the show, there was a quote we all loved... it says, "If we win, we praise God and if we lose, we praise God. No matter what, we honour God with our lives"... and that really stayed with me... whatever the result, if we play for God, it doesn't matter now does it... God doesn't want us to score well, He doesn't want us to be the best in class. He doesn't grade us based on that. He just wants us to love Him with ALL our heart, soul and mind. So when we are here... what then is our purpose?
Today, the sermon topic was "win or lose, we praise God"... woah! haha... so freaky... and then during NISS class, we started talkin bout purpose again. and the discussion was EXACTLY like the discussion we had yesterday and the funny thing was that my NISS class people were the people who DIDN'T go for YF... so it was like woah... we're talkin bout the SAME things... exactly the same answers and discussion stuff. so cool la. i was jus sittin there smiling away watching them talk.
K.Tan raised up a real good point today. He was tellin us of this quote... sumthing like... If your purpose on this earth is to worship God then forget it. coz it'll always be incomplete... wait for heaven... you'll worship God proper there. If your purpose is to serve then forget that too. coz you'll be serving in heaven and it'll be free of pride and greed. But maybe our purpose on this earth now is something we can't do in heaven. What is the only thing we can't do in heaven? Reach lost souls for Christ... so maybe that's why we're still here... still alive and still given the next day of our lives to live. now doesn't it make u think of how much we're fulfiling that purpose? :)
just a thot to throw around in your heads as we start yet another week of life for Him. :) stay strong brothers, sisters and for those who have yet to believe in christ... consider the fact that our purpose on earth is defined only by someone who isn't in this world... :)
"due to the rising oil prices, sorry i cant jia you anymore"
haha i jus broke into laughter when i saw this as my fren's personal message. super funny lor. and it's true isn't it? heard that oil prices are gonna go up to almost $0.23 or more... like wth! that means i'm gonna be paying 37 x $2.30 = $85.10 for a full tank.... which lasts me what? 5 days? oh man... that's mad... for those who don't own cars, i dun think you'll really know how much that means.. so dun take lifts from frens... be nice to them. HAHA... jus kidding la.
Spent an evening on wed night washing cars... like what? yeh, i brought both cars down to a location and while waiting for my mum to end her activity, ben and i ended up washing our cars... sad to say i had the sunny AND the fit with me coz mum drove one and so did i... ended up washing the fit really well... and then since ben wasn't done, the sunny screamed to be washed so had to wash that too. tiring like anything. elbow grease that's what ben calls manual labour... wah.. tired can. haha but satisfying la. after the wash, both cars were fresher than before... shiny and new... ok maybe not new. but at least they looked drivable. :) esp the sunny who has been collecting dust for a while now. HAHA. :)
Gonna have a busy stressful weekend this week. sat got to conduct breakout and discussions after... then prob gonna see if we can do sumthing with nick coz he just came out of tekong. :) then sunday got church, NISS [oh man... that reminds me], Exco meeting, Church Camp meeting [where we're meeting session to give our official proposals... eeps] and whatever comes after that. :) maybe i'll watch a movie in downtown east after that. treat myself a bit la. since i haven't watched a show in a while :)
work's been killer. we're OTing these days... thurs, fri, mon, tues... hopefully we can clear the work by monday and then dun need to OT on tues. haha dunch know if i can go for dance class on monday. gonna talk to bosses to see if i can get excused. but need to do the work before i can ask mahz. haha sigh. thankfully i'm liking what i'm doing now la. not some dumb fault that can't be fixed or what. it's just the normal mundane super tiring servicing... like monthly servicing but the big one... must change everything la. filters, oil, plugs.... whatever... jus wanna get these 3 months done with. haha... thank goodness i'm still surviving. been driving to camp much more these days so it's not that bad la. :) glad there's a car.
yup, break's over. time to get back to my weekend stuff... must plan, prepare and finally execute a well thought of, well planned activity and meeting. :)
p.s. youth worship's round the corner! oh no. haha.
Just a quick sentence to say that all's well. Been a bit busy with dance class and meeting up with friends to really type much for blog.
I have to say that there are a few things that have been taking up my time. mainly church stuff la... YF and Church Camp Comm have been quite draining and stressful. even 2 months before camp and i'm already wondering whether taking it up was a good idea.. but i guess someone's gotta do it and it'll be good if it were fresh ideas and all that jazz la. :) just praying that God would grant me the creativity and innovativeness to follow through whatever plans we have for the church camp. :)
on other news, things have been looking really boring at work. when you've got 86 more days left to leave, you really jus get into this sian mood... not to mention the management there kinda really bites... so it's not making working much easier. truthfully, the only reason why i'm still sane is because of the frens at work and the after-work activity. :)
Been able to dance much more and i'm thinkin of signing up for membership [which would make me dance even more] if the price is right. also been able to get to know and catch up with a fren i haven't had the time to meet over a long time. Ice Cream Chefs and Astons have never been funn-er :P. Glad that i've got company now in P.Lee la... haha it's really something i look forward to every week and i can see myself arranging meetings a week in advance. haha.. Last nite we had botak jones and ice cream chefs. :) glad my small gift was well received too. haha just hope that today brings good news and that P.Lee passes the driving test. :> haha
This friday's the 'Great Flood' Seminar talk at moriah. i'm gonna try to pull along some frens and P.Lee seems to be quite interested in coming so yayz. at least then it'll be interesting fun. ahaha. :)
catch ya guys around. gotta fly to work now. [and this was supposed to be one sentence saying i've got no time to blog. sigh]
wow...today was youth sunday in church... It was great seeing the youth giving their 100% into whatever ministry they were involved in, whether it was to usher, sing or prepare refreshments, everyone put in tremendous effort and i must say that the service not only ran smoothly but many church members really enjoyed the refreshing change. They propose to have it more often.I dunno but if you ask me, I totally agree with that idea. I feel that the youth have a lot of energy and passion for the Lord if only we would be willing to get off our butts and start serving.
When you talk about service, it comes with the idea of having to sacrifice something or to be actively doing something instead of slacking around. Maybe that's why people dun really like the idea of serving... it also denotes that you are lower than someone, someone is your master. But my frens, that's actually something we should jealously guard... to serve God is really a priviledge and opportunity none of us should pass up. Imagine you are given the offer of maybe being the president's driver or the person who makes his coffee in the morning. how many of us would turn down the chance to? And when we do finally work, how many of us would give a half-hearted service to the president? No my frens, we'd make the best coffee we can possibly make. maybe even throw a few cups away we felt weren't good enuf. We'd polish the car, we'd wax it, clean it, make sure the right air freshener was bought, the tires all pumped up shiny and ready for the VIP... when we drive, we'd pay attention to the president making conversation with us. we'd wear white gloves to drive and we'd drive with such care and concern, slowing down when we near turns, signal when changing lanes, keep within the speed limit.
NOW my frens i ask you. who's bigger? God or the president? yet, here we are... sitting in our little comfy lives, making half grade coffee, dirty tires, dusty windows.... how come we dun see the need to be our best for His best?
Let us be reminded of how God is much greater than we normally think he is and service is just proper response from Him saving us from death and hell. If you ask me, i'd never stop serving christ if there was a choice. And there is. :)
I haven't been blogging and I guess it's coz everytime i came to this blogpost page, i just stone and don't know what to write. so i'll jus let thots flow as i type.
We've been putting quite a bit of prep into youth sunday this time around. We've met three times for rehearsals and stuff... it's quite fun i tell you, the choice of songs were [originally thot to be] quite boring and nothing new. However, when we did try it for the first time and we practiced with everything [musicians, choir, chairman, location] in... it was quite a good experience. even when there wasn't people around, i still felt like i was really worshipping God. even after a super super long day. I guess that's what they mean by getting into the zone or the mood... i felt like i was alone in the practice jus raising my voice to the Lord.
I'm putting up an item this time around. it's called Complete by Parachute Band. Abi.L and I are presenting it and I pray that God will be honoured and that we won't draw any attention to ourselves. After all, God is the one we're playing and singing for. Praying that God will grant us good voices and calmness of nerves esp for her coz it's not easy presenting an item. :)
Other than that, life's pretty much ok. 96days to ORD and it's crawling... ahha but it'll pass i guess. it seems like yesterday that i was enlisting [ok that's full of nonsense but yeh] and here i am, 3 months away. :) glad that God has REALLY seen me thru and blessed me so much thru these 2 years... God doesn't leave nor forsake us anytime... it's whether we pull away from Him or not.
May we be complete in Christ as we recognize who He is to us all.
I wish that sometimes work wasn't so tough and dreary. I look forward to weekends like anything but when they come, they come and go. Maybe it's coz i dun fill the weekends enough to look forward to something or maybe it's just coz apart from service and meetings, I don't really have anyone to look forward to? hmm maybe. The people I want to be close to, don't let me in or don't bother to. When you tell people not to think twice about sharing with you, you normally mean it. But whatever, it's their life and not mine. I'm here, they're... whatever.
Youth sunday prep was good. Ben shared a really meaningful and necessary message. Too bad it's always the normal core group that comes. They aren't the ones who need to hear the stuff we say. It's those on the sidelines that really need the message brought to them. However, apart from that, i think youth sunday should be safe enough to pull off. Sadly though. Would have loved for more changes and more... omfph... but whatever. :)
Shawty got low....
103 days to ORD. I'm jus counting. Get me out of there.... Elections for YF Exco next year should be interesting. I was telling a youth on friday night that it's pretty sad what state the YF has become. When CCAs and other stuff take so much priority over God and YF that when it comes to elections time, we're beggin people. It shouldn't be this way. Why can't people just take ownership of the YF. [and here i speak to the general audience] is this some community club u just visit when it's convenient or when you can get membership benefits out of? Has the YF become something optional? Why won't you take ownership, step up and make changes? We try to help so much, we warn, we tell u we're here now to lead and guide you. We're not going to be here for long trust me. If this keeps up, i'm gonna have to push plans a little earlier than what should be coz well, if you don't/won't bother about the YF... why should we? Don't be surprised if we all stop and the YF is left in your hands. Suddenly, you're the older youth. well missy, sir... you jolly well wake up and smell the roses coz they're gonna wither real soon and when they do, dun look back and go "aww man! if only we...." coz hun, it'll be too late.
So i've been sick for a week. voice is back but still coughing and can't hit them high registers but who cares la... it'll hopefully get better. Need to sleep soon coz i really do need the sleep. been pulling my hours recently trying to get things done on empty brain cells. Haiz. not very productive. Just glad there's no work from work to bring home. Everyday it gets left in the workshop... for the weekend to pass. Then we're back to fight fire... so a gearbox there, a clutch master pump here... we'll see. that's life for me now... at least for 103 more days. :)
grinz. ORD loh.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Today was wonderfully miraculous... As most of you know, i have no voice now and barely can form sentences without cracking up or totally being unaudiable for a short while... so i've been trying to keep my words to a minimum... but today, i felt better and my voice was slowly coming back... and just the right time too.
Worked with 3 other frens today on a vehicle and it was a pretty relaxing day la coz this time it was 4 people workin on a gearbox... yeh so we managed to have some time to just talk and i mainly kept trying to initiate conversation to get things moving so work wouldn't be so boring. Managed to learn much more than i knew about ET and Aaron... it was like quite a good time la.
then after tea break, i managed to swing the conversation topic to Christian issues and it was really an afternoon of them asking loads of questions related to christianity and all.. 'What are the differences between Catholics and Christians' [coz one of them was a Catholic... 'What is Trinity all bout' and 'How do u explain dinosaurs' and loads of stuff la... But what i was mainly glad about was how i was able to bring in stuff bout the gospel into the topics... like who Jesus is and why He died.. :) so hopefully today was a successful 'seeding' or 'watering' of the gospel in their heads. :)
And then i realized that I should always be talkin God as much as I can la... so yeh, jus a reminder that God should be always on our mind, tongue and words. yup. Praise God for Him giving me voice enuf jus for that time. :)
So guess who finally got down to buying himself a new mouse? haha I did splurge on this mouse coz i normally dun spend too much money on myself. Gave myself a treat after convincing myself it's good money spent... I'll need it and since i use my com so much, it's better to buy a mouse that will last me and that i'll love. :) Voila! The Logitech Wireless Mouse v320! haha... it's got great functions and it looks jus oh-so-sexy. :) i love it to bits. haha Still trying to get used to the fact that there's no more cord... but i'll get used to it soon. the size is smaller than the mouse i normally use too... but that's a good thing la. :)
Anyhoo, i'm at home now at 11.33am on a wednesday morning. why? well, i'm on 2 days MC coz i'm sick. Throat infection and headaches and stuff....felt really miserable today when i woke up and it wasn't hard to decide whether i should go work or not. i sat up and the world jus spun... i was like OK! i'm not going to work... lolz... Yup, so managed to go to the doc's today and she was real nice.. talked a bit and she ended up givin me 2 days of MC coz as a technician, it's really not good and safe to be semi-sick and workin in the workshop. yup.. so i get to take some time off to rest and catch up on things i've been putting off... like cleaning my table and applying for overseas uni. :)
Waiting for this saturday. Ultimate Frisbee can! wootz! haha...
Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do Oh, I know you’d give your nicest Room to such an honored Guest And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,
And you’d keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there- That serving Him in your home is joy beyond compare But when you saw Him coming would you meet Him at the door With arms outstretched in welcome to your Heavenly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in Or hide some magazines and put the Bibles where they’d been? Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud, hasty word?
Would you hide your worldly music And put some hymn books out? Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about? And I wonder - if the Savior spent a day or two with you, Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you keep right on saying the things you always say? Would life for you continue as it does from day to day? Would your family conversation keep up it’s usual pace, And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the words you sing and read the books you read And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed? Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go? Or would you maybe change your plans for just a day or so?
Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends, Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends? Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on, Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.
There are so many times when things don't go your way or when things aren't as you planned. There are occassions that just don't happen when they should have. And there are things that you expect from people that never come.
You expect something, something big, something small... But nothing comes. Nothing gets returned nothing gets offered. How many times do you have to keep trying to realize that it's only one hand trying its hardest to clap and make sound. But all it gets is air. You realize it's all been a lie from a long time ago yet you still hope, wish, something for a glimmer, a shimmer, a spec of hope. You get none, over and over and over again.
You invest time in someone to hope they will turn out well. You work on them, you spend time talking to them about the future trying your best to excite them just enough for them to stay on and carry that vision you have because you know you don't have much time left. And at the end, at crunch time when you thought the decision was set in stone, they turn and leave. They put other things above what you thought was so important. And they turn down your offer to help. You wonder in amazement to yourself how they don't take ownership. Amazing.
You made plans. It looked great, you pushed aside things just so that this event would happen. And then, the group says they'd rather do something else. You get stuck in a flurry of decisions not made just thrown up for suggestion. Indecisiveness prods you and mocks at how you now have everything crumble in front of you. Your afternoon just opened itself up to... to well, nothing. Thankfully something else is there for a back up net. You put something there coz this situation has happened too many times for you to go home sad again. Funny how even in the back of your mind, there's a backup plan. How you trust them.
Disappointment. Man, me, do it all the time. You wonder to yourself how much will you continue to endure? How many times will you be reminded that you're no one to them? How many chances will you give them and how many times will you step aside saying it's ok? I Dunno bout you but it's wearing thin.
There are times when you just wonder to yourself whether you're doing things right, whether what you're doing is going to count for eternity and whether whatever you're doing is enough. But what we do is NEVER enough. don't you get it? We can never repay what Christ did for us.
That's what i remembered this week during Good Friday. His sacrifice was not only once and for all but it's something we can never even think we can ever repay. Even if we die for Him, that still wouldn't be enough. We can't live a life of sin then at the last moment [even if we DID have prior knowledge of when it'll end or how long we have] die for Him and expect to end up in Heaven. It just doesn't work that way. He demands us to have a life of pure sacrifice and a life lived for Him.
That's my next point i guess. Surrender. Surrender isn't partial, it isn't pick-and-choose. it's Ultimate, Complete, Whole surrender. You can not keep anything behind and say you've surrendered sumthing. When armies surrender, they don't keep a small resistance force. They don't demand a portion of the land when they surrender. When people/armies surrender, it's complete. The whole territory, the whole rule of a country and for us, our whole life; Every component of it.
Now, God died for you, what will u do for Him?
Today I almost fell to my death. No, I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I was repairing the sanctuary stage ceiling lightbulb with B.Tsao for the Easter skit. I scaled the ladder all the way to the top and was unscrewing the old bulb from the bulb holder when i leaned out and semi-pushed myself off the wall to get a better angle. I lost balance coz i was leaning out and the ladder shook outwards and so did my body. I looked down and immediately swung myself back inwards holding on to the ladder for dear life even though the ladder itself was swaying. B.Tsao below grabbed on and tried his best to get the ladder to stabilize itself. Once the whole swaying was done, we both were stunned beyond silence and I just laughed away the adrenaline of almost falling although my heart was trying to get its normal beat back. We both realized after that if i did fall, there was no possible way he would have been able to catch me so i'd have either broken some limb really badly or died if i had fallen from that height.
On the way home just now i was thinking of how close i could have come to dying. I recalled everyone important to me and what i did or said last to them. it was scary. to think that what i said to them could have been my last. I'd have celebrated Qiang's 21st birthday and died the very next day. Stuff flooded my mind and then i realized, this is Good Friday week. someone DID die around this time. Jesus Christ, God's Son, gave His life willingly for us. I realized I had been pretty selfish asking myself whether i was ready to die when Jesus died FOR me, for you, for the world.
Today was pretty ok. there were 2 people working in my section and the two of us managed to put a gearbox back into a vehicle. maybe that doesn't sound impressive but a gearbox is prob the size of a oven. weighs about 30kg? or a bit less maybe and can sumtimes take a day to get in alignment. Frankly, i felt quite accomplished that the two/three [coz one came to help later on] of us managed to get the gearbox, prepare it to be put in, raised it with a crane, lowered it into position and managed to get the biting point to finally slot it in nicely to fit the rest of the gearboxes and engine components of the vehicle.
i was quite happy. it wasn't fully finished coz there were some propeller shafts that were still not fully attached.. but hey, i thot we managed to do quite a big task today. :) shag like hell la coz it was real hard.. but it's only when u get shagged like hell days that you begin to realize how far you've come since the 'eww oil!!!' days of Trainees. :) so what if i've got 4months more to ord... the fact is that i've been doing this line of work for the past 1 and a half years... and that's what i'd never have done if i were a clerk. :)
so that's kinda my day. hoping i won't be sian-ed tomolo. need to stay motivated to work otherwise feet get a bit draggy. :)
watched The Arena jus now... been dying to catch it but last week i had an invited guest over for dinner so had to give it a miss... but today, it was Global Indian International School against Jurong Sec... wowz... fiery battle can. i wish i had taken up debating in sec sch. i did try but there wasn't enuf interest for the 'cca' to stay alive so it kinda simmered down after a while... i love to talk about current affairs/social issues... but i dunno whether i've lost my eloquence over the past years... sad to say, it's not all about how u speak but what u speak. without content, even the most immaculate speech can fall flat on it's face if not backed up with solid, compelling and well delivered content. Just my 2cents worth on debates. but all in all, i'm glad jurong took home the win. the last speaker was SO much like hello kitty and her smile, DAGGERS! but she delivered some really good points that were so great it jus made the Indian girl look bad. Wonderful show. loves its to bits. haha
Summary of 17th March 2008. One day away from 4months-till-ORD. :)
Heh. today was great... amazingly fun. i knew it'll be fun to get to know more people and esp from the BP circle but wow. today was real cool. wanna do it again soon. :) The talk by C.Chong was excellent. really really engaging and humourous... So many people turned up too! Just from our side, we had 24 people. wowz! After the talk, we had captain's ball and dinner which was really fun too. haven't played captain's ball seriously in a long time. :)
Today was great. made new friends, learnt much about science and God and all within a day. :) check out the post at shalomyf.blogspot.com alternatively, u can check out Josiah's facebook photo album. :)
