Let’s see

Frankly, I have no idea what to write about.

The bus ride on home from school was spent brainstorming on a behavior to modify for my project. Sounds easy? A behavior that has peer-reviewed research justifying its modification. One that can be measurable and quantifiable. One that is not lame.

Increase my sleep time. How to measure when exactly I fall asleep? How about sleeping in class? Naps? On the bus? Ohkay scrape that. Drinking more water? But I already drink enough water each day. Plus how do you measure how much water is a cup of chin chow? Decrease my online gaming time? It’s already decreased drastically since school started; I’m showing withdrawal symptoms. Want me to decrease some more ah? Weeeeell. It is the easiest to measure now. So decrease gaming time and spend that time sleeping. What if I can’t fall asleep because I stop gaming (my before-bed routine) and go to bed earlier? Nevermind.. play the guitar instead. Then I’ll have to explain why I chose the guitar, of all things. Well it’s a hobby. It’s stress relieving. But isn’t gaming a stress relieving hobby too? And why the guitar? So I have to stand in front of the class and emotionally and passionately explain my love for the guitar. And, is there research showing that guitar-playing is good? Thinking about all these makes me wanna cry.

So never mind that now, think of something else happifying. Last Wed, I had a whole mud pie at TCC. Last Fri, I had Gelare. On Sat, waffle with ice-cream at Daily Scoop. This Tue, shared a mud pie and a tub of blackforest at Island Creamery. Tonight, my mother wanted Hagen Dazs. I refused cos things were getting too fattening. Haha. It was a week of ice-cream! Maybe I should modify my ice-cream eating behavior.

Tomorrow tomorrow.. It’s the waste-my-7-hours-in-school-and-2-hours-traveling day. In fact the most looked-forward to thing tomorrow is the quiz for me. Without the quiz, I’d just close 2 eyes and sleep in. Unfortunately, tomorrow’s quiz will be on the lecture that I wasn’t listening to. *sighs* Got to study later. I’m really dreading my tutes. The first one gets me restless and fidgety, the second one really annoys me. Especially when the tutor doesn’t know what on earth she’s talking about.

The current school management is treating the school like a business enterprise rather than an educational centre. It’s very, very bad. Worse still, they are going to call students “clients” now; they’re starting a “Client Service Center” instead of a Student Center. I want the old management back. They know how to value good staff and lecturers. JCU is soon going the way of UNSW if nothing changes. If JCU gets the recognition of MOE, will things change, or will more students join to find that they’ve been hoodwinked by all the sweet talk and superficial marketing?

I don’t regret joining the school; JCU is a good school. There were good lecturers and tutors, and the future seemed bright at the beginning. Now in the midst of all the rule changes, the ones losing out are the students as staff quit, and ultimately the school can’t function as usual. Thank God Patrick and a few others are still teaching as of now. Don’t forget we’re paying $6420 per term. It’s like buying a degree. But then again… there are worse schools out there and thank God we’re not there. But things can be better though.

I need a GPS- I mean, a chauffeur.

Went out after morning class today to town to meet Fran and Alvin. We helped a China salesgirl find Taka and Nine West, then went to the coffee place in Taka to chill. Enjoyed a mud pie there, and couldn’t really finish it cos it was HUGE and one person’s stomach (mine) cannot really contain it. Fran ate a whole crab =O

But I finished the mud pie, well, cos it’s a mud pie!

Then we walked around abit, bought some stuff, went to Starbucks to chill and have iced lattes, especially since both of us are half-dead.

And we talked about… guys and stuff. Haha.

Then as I wanted to get back to class, I got lost as to where to get the bus. Walked from Paragon to Taka, back to Wheelock, then to Far East, boarded 167, went to Esplanade, Shenton Way, Tiong Bahru, then ended up at Bt Merah Int. Walked to school and was half-hour late, but class hasn’t started as the comp lab always has funny problems.

Oh well.

When you’re ready to share, we’ll be ready.

这句话深深地刺到心里。

从来没想过，没发现过，在身旁的姐弟是怎么看待每个人。我对别人的爱戴，是否相比别人对我的爱戴？看样子他们所能给的是多我几千几万倍。究竟为什么我不能像他们那样付出，我也不晓得。只知道唯一能帮我的就是祂。

昨夜在那里挣扎好久，最终也是认了，自己的力量是不足与跨过这个鸿沟。每次碰到这种问题，都自己撑着，到受不了，快崩溃的那时才哭哭啼啼地跑到祂身旁求救。而祂每一次都张着双手等着拥抱祂的不孝子。

在你的怀里才知道什么是平静，什么是被爱。都不是凡人可以做到的。

在无数的黑夜里
我用星星画出你
你的恩典如晨星
让我真实地见到你

在我的歌声里
我用音符赞美你
你的美好是我今生颂扬的

..Dance with me

hold me in your arms
never let me go
let me learn to love you once again

Eugene threw a shocker at me at around 8.15pm, asking me to lead glorify for Lcell tomorrow night. Just as I thought I could get away with Steph leading worship for the retreat. Oh wells.. I guess sometimes there’s no escaping a call. Not that I don’t want to do it, but right now, I don’t think I am able to. I might have just let Bri and Fran down, oops. Unless…

when i am weak, you are strong
just make sure i let you be you

And today.. SENTOSA! Well, not really. PASIR RIS PARK!
Sentosa was closed for the CLEO photo shoot.

Supposed to have met Rebecca and Joo Leng at 10.15am at Bukit Batok to buy drinks, but was digging out the big-blue-and-yellow container for ice so was a bit late. Just thought we’d need it since Sentosa would be burning hot.

Got the sms from Rebecca late last night saying something about Pasir Ris, and I was so sleepy it didn’t make sense to me, so I thought we were still going to Sentosa. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have brought that thing, sparing me from carrying it on the train.

I stepped on board at CCK station, then once the train started moving, the announcement: If you see any suspicious persons or articles, please inform our staff or press the emergency call button.
Everyone in that car looked at me.
I was very busy untangling my earpiece wires. Thank God they were so tangled.

Reached BB, Rebecca and Joo Leng already bought the drinks. So we went out to wait for Julian and co. as he drove Serena’s mother’s car to pick us. We pointed out every vehicle that looked as though it could fit 9 people. They were kind of lost on the PIE and would be late, so we went back into the aircon, went to popular, comic connection and picked up free copies of HS5 DVD client, went to the arcade and played DDR, then they reached and we were playing, in the end kept them waiting for around 5 minutes. Oops.

Finally reached Pasir Ris Park (PRP), and parked at carpark A, the other end, away from the kiosks and etc. Had lunch, really quite good food ..they really can cook and played ultimate frisbee in the burning sun until a crow decided to attack the nasi lemak.

Then drove to the other end of PRP and rented bikes and blades. I think the dumbest thing I did was to blade… when I could not blade properly and my skating was below average. What was I thinking when I thought blading is a good alternative when I didn’t have shoes..? Forgot I could bike barefooted as well. In fact I can bike barefoot better than blade on wheeled shoes. So, yes, for once I fell so many times I forgot how many times I fell. The base of my thumbnail bled. The worst one was when somehow I didn’t manage to fall on my face and landed on my tailbone. Sat there stunned for a few moments. And man, it hurt(s). But I think Julian’s last fall was worse than mine; it was loads louder. He was down longer too.

Anyway, after that I threw in the towel (skates) and took over riding in tandem with Joo Leng behind. It was cool. A whole new definition of ’shared labour’. Like, you peddle, I steer. *Ebil grin* First time carrying a passenger and I didn’t flip the bike or make any stupid mistakes haha.

Rebecca’s slipper broke sometime after frisbee, and she had blisters so I lent her my Gisele Bundchens I’ve no idea what exactly are blisters; so far I don’t think I’ve had any. If I did, I didn’t know they were blisters. So I happily went barefoot for a few hours haha. So glad I did my toenails the night before, makes bare feet more presentable. Had to keep to the shade and the grass, cos concrete and everything else was so hot. Went to Downtown East to get Rebecca a new pair of slippers; the guy in NewUrbanMale laughed at me, although he tried to be discreet. So I was walking through the carpark, in the eHub, barefooted. Haha the tiles were cool though. Talk about bragging rights ^^

Went to Tampines mall to have dinner, then decided we weren’t hungry as yet, then went to explore, then did a piece of sand art, much to the amusement of the guys, (deprived childhood, really) went 15 minutes overtime and kept the others waiting (oops, sorry!) and then went to Century Square and ate, then came home.

Note to self and new drivers: Tampines Mall’s carpark ramps are really tight. Avoid that place like plague. Suntec too.

Freeeeee!

No more papers hahhah! Anyway, am using firefox nao instead of IE and really glad about it. Also loving its spellcheck function that prevents embarrassing mistakes in forum posts, AND it also offers suggestions about how to correct misspelt words, like embarrassing.

After Brain paper yesterday, went to Suntec for the PC fair. Met Geraldine there and she bought her MacBook, which is really wow-ish. However, as much as I want to convert to Mac, the lack of personalibility of a Mac bugs me. All MacBooks look the same. Perhaps Apple should look into this area to get more customers.

Then went to MOF for dinner at Marina Square. We actually wanted to go to SPAGGEDIES but walked all over the 2nd level and can’t find it; by then we were half dead. And also since I was on a budget and MOF was more affordable.. =)

Then now onwards it’s planning for cell retreat, being given the honor of food IC, hmmm means needing to recce around and plan food games. Tuition starts too.

Oh there’s a Sandisk sale at the PC fair, and the memory cards, thumb drives, etc etc are selling so cheap that if I’d more cash, I’d buy them first then sell them off at a profit. Then I upgraded my phone memory to 2GB bwahaha.. MP3 player!

Bought a USB numpad as well, but the quality sucks so badly that I got very upset when I tried to use it the first time. So since my dad’s heading to the PC fair on Saturday, I asked him to exchange it for me haha. I don’t mind that bright pink floppy rubbery USB keyboard =D Or a laptop skin =DD

Ah, holidays have started. Strangely it doesn’t feel like the hols, I still have the feeling I’m supposed to be studying at home. Rarrrrh.

Now I’m outside Serene’s Macs and thinking of HS5-ing. Went to PL at 9am today to help wrap presents. Well, they assigned us to PL, although I’d so very happily go to Adam. Geraldine went too, and we left there at noon, after finishing 100 presents and getting a paper cut. Then everyone else is gonna be late for jam =( and I don’t wanna head to uncle Boyd’s house so early. So well. Time to chill.

We need more people to join HS5, really. The forums are half dead.

Sundays

Loss of control
Quasi-potent looming shadow
of ridiculous proportions
Without reason
Stressors
Frayed patience
Tempers

God called Sundays
Sabbath

It’s better to go to work
Than this
Surly
Sour
Stupidity-filled
Living death

It’s my mother’s birthday
today
It’s a Sunday
Sundays shouldn’t exist

This will go on
and on
and on
until
something
gives
way

First paper today: Anthropology.

Surprisingly easy MCQs, think I’ve got 19~20 marks at least, out of 20. Any less, I’d be horribly dissappointed with myself.

Went to Coronation to have lunch with Joo Leng and Rebecca, ate at the $6.50 place, yes, GST increased. Then we had this brilliant idea of starting a foodie blog, so we took loads of pictures and reviewed everything from the steak to the ambience. [Om-bion]

Went to look for some books to gift people but could not find them. The books, I mean. Then Rebecca got an sms from JY; Julian, Serena and he were at Island Cream. So we decided to pop over, say hi, and leave. It started pouring halfway while walking to Serene’s. Joo Leng was tired and whiny, I was tired but used the energy to not look that dead. Rebecca was fresh and awake and jaunty.

They tried to make us stay and eat some ice-cream; Julian even said he’d treat (while the person who owes us a treat was actually JY). Hmmm. There’s something going on here.

Love is in the air Hope of love is in the air. Yeah. Bwahahahaha.. I can’t be wrong.

*Ebil grin*

Went home, slept, got noisified out of my dream by a bird on the windowsill that didn’t stop chirping loudly at random intervals. Crawled up, went to look, it didn’t fly away. It looked sick. Thought about bringing it in to nurse, then thought about mites/fleas/insects. Opened the window. Looked at the bird. Saw something white the size of a fullstop crawling on it and hiding under its feathers; thank God the bird was black. Left the bird there, went to get some birdseed, came back, bird gone.

Quirky

The dating agency called today.

Hello, is this Ariel?
We are a dating agency, and we’d like to invite you for a free profiling.
May I ask, are you single right now?
No, oh, so you’re attached?
Ah, okay. Thanks for your time then!

That was random.

Btw, I’m not attached. Just didn’t want a free profiling. ^^

Surreal

Been having dizzy spells recently; can’t believe my body is that weak. Got to be careful to walk on the pavement away from the main road. Anyway! The main point of this post is the highlight of my Saturday… the Hillsong worship service at the Expo! Thank God it was a worship service not a concert or I’d have keeled over, shrivelled up and died.

Let’s start with the waiting. We got there straight after cabbing from cell, and didn’t think any further than that, which Ying Min laughed at us about, which meant we didn’t have any dinner at ‘dinnertime’. But let’s all be flexible here, we’re mainly Ps right?

Bri: I don’t feel like eating.

Then halls 7, 8 and 9 were linked. We walked by the back way, past this bunch of people wearing Hillsong shirts and into City Harvest Church’s service. No wonder they didn’t need to check our tickets.
Apparently, we weren’t as bad as someone who happily walked towards the Robinson’s sale while trying to get to Max Pavillion =)

When we got into the waiting area, before the stipulated door opening time (cos we were very early), it was already very very crowded.

We met 2 of Bri’s friends who graciously allowed our group to join them at the second section of the queue. By then we had met Ying Min, Kai Xin and co. When the doors were opened, I was shocked, honestly, by the behavior of the first few groups of people. They were like racehorses raring to go, and, when they could, they run screaming into the place. Teenage girls. Scary. More like crazy ardent fans than anything. Unnervingly like a secular pop concert.

For us onwards, they made rules. No running, pushing, etc. Emmee auntily suggested we link arms to avoid getting broken up by the crowd. The guys right behind us were like a herd of bulls, bellowing and chanting “hoi hoi hoi” or something, walking as fast as they could. When we walked in, the area was still very empty. We decided to take the chairs and leave the front standing area to the young ones and those not carrying guitars. Which was a smart choice.

Tweens rushing to pack near the stage:

I met Nicole [Magika] there as well, but I’m not gonna post the picture cos I look hideous in it hur hur hur.

It was really great once the band got on. Before that, the hosts facilitated a couple of games. Some autographed posters and CDs of the band and were given out.

When the band led in that anointed time of worship, it really was surreal. When I reached home, told my parents I was at the “Hillsong concert at the Expo!” there was a fleeting instant when I wondered if it were all a dream, and I’m stuck in the normality of life again, when my mother started being indignant that I hadn’t gone to the food fare instead. Honestly!

The songs What the World Will Never Take and some along that line brought me back to Ignyte, and people were jumping, we were jumping, I was jumping, praising God and declaring our victory. So long since the last jumping. I found myself hesitant; what would people think? Am I a ‘lil too old for this? HECK! I’m just celebrating God. Ha. Perhaps they could open the front during adult service and we can go up there and jump too. Then more people can join us and we’ll all feel younger and more exuberent.

Hosanna brought me back to Manila, when I was onstage with everyone else, worshiping with Fran leading the crowd below. The stark contrast of then and now struck me so hard; I don’t wanna become another statistic.

Joel Houston and team are really really anointed people. Even though he didn’t say much, you can sense his heart for God and the people. The times he prayed, you can feel God’s presence just flow, and Him touching hearts, healing, mending, transforming, melting. After a while, the novelty of being at a life Hillsong ‘concert’ wore off, and people were getting more concerned with God in general. As a worship ministry, internationally acclaimed, having acheived that drawing of tweens’ attention and focus to God, not an easy feat. Really awed. *Salute*

Youth Pastor Benjamin of New Creation gave this message about stepping into the Zone of God’s undeserved favor. I’m sure there’s a better way of phrasing it; sounds like someone did God a favor. Anyway, I felt that he was trying too hard to reach out to the youth. Some might like the way he preaches but overall there was an overemphasis on the good stuff of Christianity. I do not think God explicitly wants me to have a PSP or NintendoDS. I believe He will provide for my needs, not grant my every whim and fancy. In which case I want a red (any color, God, it’s Your will) Ferrari with a built-in chaffeur.

Quarterway through his sermon I was zoned out and so were many others. I was glad that there were so many youth who responded to the altar call, but got a little worried about them joining NC. The differences in teaching of that church is so far only on an aspect concerning grace and favour, and keeping in the context of everything Christianity covers, it’s so little and subtle that I’d easily miss it, let it slip, or believe it. Not to mention I’d loved to have believed that God is a big fuzzy Daddy. Here! Take this Wii, it’s for you! And that red Ferrari! And that chaffeur! And everything else on your ebay wishlist!

Me zoning out and taking pictures of him preaching:

Glad the sermon came to an end, and I couldn’t help wondering what on earth Joel and co. thought of the message. After that the band just played and played and played.

Some funny things after the whole service, when Bri, carrying her guitar, stood on the bench at the MRT platform just so that us, who were split up and lost in the crowd, can gather. So sacrificial, so touched! *sniff*

And here marks the end of my 1000 word essay.

I’m Hungry.

Woke up 50 minutes ago at 8.40pm, after sleeping for 4 hours and 40mins. Then I remembered I was lecturing my sister on some O Level stuff, but can’t remember what exactly it was. So I decided to show her a video on Youtube that I really enjoyed.

But she just refused to do anything other than play with her DragonFable game. So I told her she was more boring than a stick on the floor; if she were the stick, she’d yell “Put me down!” when I picked it up to play with.

Here’s some of Xinlin’s shoes.. as in she designed them. They’re selling at $25 per pair, and if you want, she can help you remove the straps for free!



If you’re interested, her email is xinlin.wg@gmail.com.
Alternatively, you can leave a comment with your email and I’ll get her to get back to you.