CVCF Bible Study Camp 2009

A nice spiritual retreat before the bustling school life begins all over again!

Besides learning more about the Gospels and getting to know the brothers and sisters better, there were lots of other stuff I've learnt from serving in the Camp Committee and as one of the pianists for worship sessions.

One big family!

Camp Committee

Group "Frankincense"

Taking up my first ever stint as a "photographer", I realised instead that I've developed a liking of taking "Camera B" shots. As in...

For the spontaniety I guess.

One downside is that the time for the camp will always coincide with module bidding, which poses as, well, quite a distraction for some of us, including the author of this post who was rash enough to drop an unbiddable allocated module and had to submit online appeals to reverse his error.

Laptops. Yeah.

Animal?

礼裕干事：“...可是他就说，‘男人是感性的动物’，...”

方瑜：“他干脆把‘感’那个字去掉好了。”

Too Fast, Too Slow

"浪漫只怕太慢，痛快只怕太快"

--五月天，《春天的呐喊》

嗨，两句歌词，就轻易表达了年轻人们对生命的空虚无常所感受到的无奈。

What is this feeling?

There are people around with this so-called "Messiah complex", who somehow think they're on a mission to change the world, or things of a smaller scale.

But how does this state of mind manifest itself? I have no idea.

~

I've been noticing you since that time. You're someone who, well, doesn't really get the attention you want sometimes. Might be because of the way you talk, or the stuff you talk about.

Is it just me, or is it some kind of aversion of eye contact that I observed?

I think you're not someone who's unwilling to share. I think you're willing to share loads about yourself, just that this lack of a sense of presence in a huge group is getting to you.

And when you finally find someone who listens, you'll probably, well, pour it all out. And look him in the eye.

If I'm not already reading too much into things, I might just want to say that I see some of myself in you. And I can relate.

I wish to see you open up. Cause I think I'll be able to feel your delight when you do.

=)

OLE~ OLE OLE OLE!

I just used the equivalent of "lim peh" in my Japanese oral placement test.

:D

Calm

My supposed best module was really my best module, and my expected worst module was really my worst module.

I thought I'd be "killed all kinds of dead" by maths, so much so that my heart actually leapt when I saw that grade. Not a very high grade, mind you.

That my best module wasn't my core made me think of a few things, but then again, that Japanese Studies module is clearly different from the rest. It'll take me another semester to sort things out, like whether to minor in J-studies.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to visit the Science Library much more next Sem.

I know what I'll do next summer

This December has been too short and too busy for me to do anything unrelated to school or CCA. Or video games.

But I know what I'll do come summer '09. I'll draw.

It's an old hobby of mine, which nearly reared its head for a comeback during that short period of time in Army when I got fascinated with the world of Anime and related illustration.

I said nearly.

This time, it all started with my little stay at Bedok Library when I was supposed to study Statistics for that fateful Maths Paper.

I had to seat myself near the Illustrations section.

Along came this guy with a book filled with short indie graphic novels, and naturally (for me yes) when I wanted to take a breather, I started to do this sketch of the shelves before me.

One aspect of drawing I avoided like a plague in my textbook-doodling days came right back at me -- the perspective aspect.

I admire people who can draw landscapes. Natural or urban, but definitely 3-dimensional.

A bit of talent, yes, but it's bound to take lots of practice. And that's what I'll start doing next summer.

I was reminded of this Chinese artist called Qi Baishi. Though the sources were of questionable credibility (how else would I classify Secondary School Comprehension passages?), Qi was definitely one of the "practised" artists. He basically mustered the resolve to keep drawing prawns when he was young, and he eventually established himself as an artist famous for his drawings of, erm...

prawns.

Yeah.

As if in silent tribute, and partly because of the fresh impression from the seafood Hor Fun I had the previous day, I made a sketch too.

prWned

If I go far enough I might just start entertaining that doujin dream I stuffed in the closet long ago.

Always - Atomic on 3rd Street

When we watched Always Sunset on 3rd Street 1 for our post-war Japanese film module, I couldn't really appreciate the "nostalgia" theme (I know what it's there for, though) as it's considered to be a "misplaced nostalgia", i.e. a "longing" (?) for a past that one had never experienced.

Yeah by the way, I wasn't born in the 1950s.

Me and my big mouth. Now in the sequel I got served an uber atomic blast of nostalgia in my face.

I was particularly amused when Suzuki Auto shouted "TEMEE" at the lizard!

Why does it work on me this time? 'Cause I've just watched the original 1954 Godzilla film, so I can even recognise the original theme music they used in this dreamy spin-off!

Ah, in case you're wondering, the above scene was merely the speculations of the novelist character in the story, probably on the day right after a dose of the monster at the cinema.

Transient

"Chancellor's Shield? What Chancellor's Shield?"

Peace'd off

Do you know that...

Nostalgia, when the term was first coined, was used to describe a pathological longing of home, experienced by travelers.

An ancient vending machine in PGP residences awakened my "pathological" longing for the old Heaven & Earth tea series.

More than anything else, I miss the Imperial Orchid tea the most. And they still haven't brought it back.

Soldier?

"Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them."

-- 2 Timothy 2 : 3 - 4

华川: "...the analogy of soldiers. Isn't the aim of soldiers to 'please the one who enlisted him' - "

在下: "I thought it's to wait for ORD?"

"Itadakimasu!"

My pride still threatens to eat me up for breakfast sometimes.

I don't get people telling me I'm wrong. But I hate it when people do or say things that merely give me the idea that they're saying I'm wrong.

"Gochisousama!"

Studio Khowbli (read cow-blee)

During one of the J-Studies lectures our Prof was talking about Studio Ghibli, and there's this logo of the studio in her slide, with a profile view of our friendly neighbourhood Totoro.

Greatly inspired by Totoro-sama and the movie of the week (I'll just very loosely translate it as the Racoon Dog Wars), I doodled the following.

Unexpected

Excerpt from conversation with VOICES seniors about upcoming production.

~

Andy: "Emo rock."

Roger: "死了都要爱!"

在下: "Yeah. We'll let the guy scream his lungs out up till the end of the pre-chorus, then...

.

.

A girl takes over in the same key. How's that for unexpected?"

Nice try.

I can understand the campaigns against the cruel luxury of, say, sharks' fin and animal furs, but calling this

"Upsetting of nature's balance"

while simply accepting this

as "Ecology"

makes no sense to me. Are we not part of the ecosystem as well?

Immobilised

It's a bit harsh to say that, but I seriously think this,

might be good news to some.

Fuku'in no Jikan

I was at St. Andrew's Cathedral for a meeting with my fellowship for the coming camp, and alas, at the welcome centre here's what I saw.

あっ、そうですね...

Tomatography

I can't tell you how much I love tomatoes.

Tough love, that's what they call it.

"我已不能多爱你一些~"

LOL Report

Whoever's marking my lab report is so gonna LOL when he sees it.

Lesson learnt. However time consuming and reeking of double work it will be, I'm gonna do a simulation run through the experiments and calculations so that no minor detail will escape my grasp ever again.

I tried my best at titration, but still...

Wrong Answer

This happened during one of the evangelism discussions with my fellowship.

~

Imagine meeting Jesus (yes the Saviour himself!!!) at the gates of heaven. He speaks.

"Question 1: Give me a reason why you would qualify to enter."

The first thing that actually came to my mind, well actually the first few things:

• I've been having a burden of prayer over the unsaved...
• I've been serving in your house... OK maybe not very well on the social interaction side... me being introverted and all, but... still can lah, huh?
• I...

Then it struck me.

Wrong Answer.

I've never been this surprised since, well, since a certain Sunday night last year, but that's not the point.

5 years into the faith and the first thing that came to my mind when asked about the condition of salvation is still, self-effort.

I felt like kicking myself.

Nothing delivers us from spiritual death except for Jesus' blood shed on the cross. I want you to know as well.

Tada'ima

Dear God,

I'm finally back in business. 我回来了。

After this semester

After this bloody semester ends, I will play my part in

• CVCF Bible Study Camp
• NUS VOICES Emerge 2009
• Somebody's birthday bash. LOL
• Dunking Liwei at Sentosa beach.
• Hopefully go for K (finally) with my OG mates.

That, will be after this bloody semester ends.

OK, back to statistics!

Three Sighs

Sigh.

(On Lab sessions)

Eugene: "(on computing) ... it's hard to beat the scholars anyway"

在下: "For me in Chemistry... it's hard to beat those who copy their seniors' lab reports -__-"

~

Sigh.

It's my turn to lead people again. Not that I'm not happy - I'm actually pretty excited.

But I won't be going too far by saying that I'm afraid to lead.

~

Sigh.

Suddenly I'm not used to free Sunday afternoons :(

*Bump

I really shouldn't leave that lousy-mood post up here at the top for too long.

Especially now that I actually have the capacity to ruminate on my Chem stuff again and to actually think of going Vivo after my short VOICES meeting for an equally short (hopefully) shopping spurt.

For someone like me, it's a good sign that I'm starting to need a belt again :)

I'm finally out of that bloodshot-eyed (well my eyes felt bloodshot; they didn't actually look that way), blocked-nose state of existence, and we've closed the chapter of our J-studies group work. Sorry Rin for the time issues =( , and sorry myself by that stupid pronunciation mistake I made during presentation.

You will get my new mobile number soon.

After the mini-concert on Friday I can finally have a nice Saturday morning. Bright sun, clear sky, just my chemistry notes, some data on ionisation energies, and I.

I'm actually very much looking forward to that.

I have drunk the green potion

So now, in the very words of Dumbledore himself,

KILL ME!

Bell Bless You

Had a fun night out with Kelvin and Jon at Wala, listening to Unexpected while rambling about the detriments of the legendary Bell Curve.

Glad that our group presentation is more or less finalised, and my own lines are starting to take shape. I must have scared the shit out of my groupmates with my sucky trial presentation earlier today LOL! I will do my best for Monday, I promise.

And my popular writing article about molecules. Rachael seemed to have 无心插柳 when she made a casual summary of the desired style being somewhat like blog writing.

You'll know what my 柳成荫 refers to then.

Looking forward to starting writing it in the first place. After all (act casual)... it's already 2 days left before the deadline...

Good NEWS

It's pure coincidence I'm sure. 偶然だよ。

The top song for Oricon Single Charts on October 13 was:

Monday Come

In times like these my mind is just, blank.

Projects to be completed, gig in the afternoon, assignments in the evening. I never thought it to be possible that this blankness and mental fatigue would go out of control, but it just did.

Come next week, I'll be a happier person. Right now I don't even have the capacity for emotions anymore.

祝我生日快乐

Thanks for the well-wishes, the TFU Concept Art book! And the cake!

I really enjoyed the night out with the IT Club guys, at Mel's Birthday chalet. It's really a reunion of old friends; I feel at ease there, not like the kind of gatherings which I'd rather say I'm obliged to go for.

Here I am, 3 a.m., writing this post while waiting for my instant noodle to get done. Burned my midnight oil. Now too hungry to actually have a proper sleep, hence the noodles.

And partly also to view the After-Action-Review of the Voices practice today. I mean yesterday.

Free 个屁

It's good to put into words the tasks on hand. Baby steps away from procrastination-

that word, hurts.

• J-studies Group work (20 Oct)
• J-studies Individual Paper (12 Nov)
• 2000-word essay for Chemistry Freshmen "I-love-you-Jiamian" Seminar (20 Oct)
• Music at Church and Campus this Sunday.
• Voices Mini Concert (24 Oct). Yes, this is an advertisement.

Revenge of the Splurge

I regret to inform you (yeah right), that

.

What with my recent purchases of

The Force Unleashed, for PSP

Yeah that same bag

Audio Technica ATH-SJ1 headset

iPod Classic, 120GB

The Splurge has begun, indeed!

Spot the Milo Truck!

I did! Albeit a bit slow, huh.

What with everyone talking about culture, and how to build a culture in communities which are said to have no culture, I realised that culture is really made up of little things like this, something a community has in common, something that will make everyone's day, something that will...

OK I'm babbling too much. Stop.

Collide

That's called being a fan.

I never got the implication of having crossover characters in Soul Calibur 4 until I saw that gameplay video on Youtube.

Starkiller looks like a nihonjin here...

Angol Fear, designed by Yoshizaki sensei based on Angol Mois from Keroro

That means, the galaxies of Star Wars and Keroro, collide.

Sleeper

Sunday night 2359. Monday morning 0000.

Thought I wasn't going to sleep until 2.

Then the e-mail came. Irony huh.

*One red bull down*

Monday afternoon 1251,

Nostalgia

Back to the time when Fujiwara wasn't the first fictional Tofu shop that comes to my mind...

I guess I'm really getting nostalgic.

Die nice nice

死，也要死得漂亮。

养兵千日

Tomorrow. I will go forth. And fulfil my destiny.

Do's and Don'ts - A Photoblog

What happens when Tagger Bags is having a storewide 50% sale?

User Warning: Don't say Hi to your friend from PRC.

What happens when the people writing school rules just don't get it, while the advertisers do?

Yeah, remember, don't go huh.

What happens when you attempt to awake a collective nostalgia?

Don't forget, nostalgia is the ultimate overrate. And yeah, I got the one with the red bean paste.

Some are more equal...

Ol' Marcus had a farm, Ea-ya-ee-ya-oh!

Still got milk?

牛仔 有段时间 不会太忙。

Stardy

Prologue: It might be just me. But I feel like spreading the blame, can?

Well does this come with being too busy in school? That you sometimes have to be reminded about even the simplest things?

Probably because... you worry too much before actually sitting down and think?

And then comes CCA. I have 2 commitments as a bassist now (暗爽), in church and CCA. I'm loving every minute of it but the problem is, while I don't really pull stunts in church, in VOICES I actually do songs like Jay's 阳光宅男 and 有话直说 by Power Station. Which means I've got to play quavers at about 140 bpm.

Trained musicians (ahem!) won't be impressed, but I've usually played at more reasonable speeds in the past so I actually felt like I've just visited the gym after a jam session! And then I realised that without proper cool-down stretching I'll have significant muscle pain along my lower arm.

Yeah, that area.

So I did all the stretching I could today.

And since I'm bassist here & there and keyboardist nowhere, I haven't touched the keys for ages. No time for leisure playing, sigh.

And since self-pity is so addictive (did I hear someone cough up there?), I shall just list down what I've got to do for my coming reading week.

• 2 Lab reports. Hahahahahaha.
• Substantial research for my Japanese film module group project. And substantial discussion with my group.
• At least watch the film on which I've got to write an individual paper, for said module.
• CCA. VOICES practice and erm, "socialising" with J-Studies Society.
• Mug for my 2 Chemistry modules and 1 Math module. Yes, the one with the Integration.
• Wake up my idea and go Google for tests for Sulphur Dioxide gas. I was so humbled in the lab.
• Wonder how my tutor actually churns out enough material for her J-Studies Master thesis on (get this) SMAP.
• Then do the same for the movie I've finally decided on (hopefully) for abovementioned individual paper.
• Take photos of chiral objects. Take my hand can?
• OK I've so got to include this. "Sleep".

Think that's all?

• PLUS! Prepare for emcee'ing the coming VOICES mini-concert.

OK I shall spare you. OK actually I'm done :D

Guy

OK. 2 news about guys making silly decisions due to... unrequited love?

So you think you're being faithful and persistent, until the bitterness builds up to the extent that it's no longer under your control?

It upsets me seeing guys losing themselves like that. Brings back unwanted memories.

~

They say 戏如人生, but recent events got me to wonder whether life is really like what we see on TV. What if the people making the shows we watch and the songs we listen to are as clueless as we are?

"Persistence". "Faithfulness". All lauded as virtues on TV. Ask, beg, suck up, get down on your knees, send her creepy and awkward SMSes, stand in the rain. Get the girl. 'Cause all these make her happy.

Yeah right.

"I believe I can give her happiness."

Yeah when even the sight of you pisses her off? Gives her the creeps?

And then when your bubble bursts and nothing works out for you, you get bitter.

Real bitter. And destructive.

My recent readings on self-help made me realise how dangerous it is for guys to, in the words of one of the writers, "give the girl all the power".

Decision making power, power to shake your perception of reality, and then the power to put you down.

Especially dangerous if it's all a one-sided effort.

Do Not Forget

The Force Unleashed launch trailer.

They're letting out a lot more of what's going to take place in the game. Not surprising, now that the novel is already out. And I'm... supposed to have gotten the novel by now, but ever since I recovered from my sickness there's only been my Chem assignment on my mind.

Which was a good thing, of course.

I've watched the gameplay marathon (precious time off my reading for my Chem assignment) and clearly, the environment in Wii and the PSP is totally chui compared to the next-gen consoles, namely the X360 and PS3.

Which kind of makes me wonder if I'll really enjoy the PSP version that much. And the DS version, aww...

The Battery Unleashed

My laptop just made my day by showing me some super imba stats.

And that's only 50%!

This happened right after I unlocked my laptop and apparently there was some bug in the battery life estimation routine. Otherwise I'd really be surprised!

And Juno Eclipse in the Force Unleashed turns out to be more chio than I expected. Maybe it's the way she talks.

"You're walking into a trap!"

Happy Science Friends

There's this beautiful building in our Faculty of Science, called S16.

At the level where I have my maths tutorials there's this place they call Risk-management Institute.

Upon initial visual scan it's apparent that the place carries a few risks itself.

Risk #1: You can turn your friend into minced meat by dragging him back & forth against this wall long enough.

我还在哭

Where did the last tiny wedge of the budget pie go?

Here.

This happens to be one of my favourite songs in the album.

Apparently many other users on Youtube expressed displeasure at this MV as well.

If there're enough voices for change on the Web, I can foresee a remake of this MV.

Please.

Old School

"We're gotta take you back. All the way back... Old School style!"

To the times when "So Tell Me" by Heartsdales was the latest Mass Dance song in TJC and the html source code for our TJC online Forums was not a simple UpgradingInProgress.jpg.

Dear Junqun, found this wonderful site that allowed one to have a look at how websites used to look.

Sent memories flooding back....

Behold! The logo just as it was!

Back when 15/04 (my class in the first 3 months) was the reigning class in the Class Forums.

The above shot was taken just after the admin team decided to stop awarding post count to posts made in class forums. 'Cause they're afraid of us :D

CCA forums. That was the first IT Club thread.

Yes there were the 2nd and 3rd IT Club threads. Our brains were too big to be contained in just one.

Screenshots are made in IE7. On purpose :D

Lightshow

Day and Night. 2 extremes of the day when light plays with my eyes in different ways.

Tampines Stadium. Literally beams of sunlight made possible by the morning mist.

One night in NUS... it's just the way the base of the street lamp is made, but in a moment of impulse I took a shot anyway.

Vampyroteuthis Infernalis

Vampire Squid from Hell. That's what its scientific name means.

Not exactly very stunning in terms of size (a mere 30cm long), it's famous for its defence mechanism which is shown in this video.

Just a snapshot of our amazing marine life.

61

Did someone say "MISIA"?

Aircraft Carrier

There's a type of sushi called Gunkan which is actually the Japanese word for "Aircraft Carrier".

Gunkan.

Not "Kun-gung". Seriously, I don't know where that spelling came from. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went to Google this phrase, but the search returned no results.

Not that I expected much from a joint that serves Donburi in plates anyway.

Voices

My new CCA.

I'm happy to have a chance to be part of this big family. Even though things are going slightly off my plan, four years is definitely enough time for me to achieve something I want. So I'm looking forward to whatever comes.

Confusion

I've outgrown begging. And I'm now facing the frustration of seeing people get what they want through begging. Kind of makes me sick, actually.

I get this feeling that my thoughts are taking a darker turn. At least I no longer avoid seeing the flip side of things that appear good on the outside, just for the sake of being a nicer person.

I foresee it breaking apart. And then I'll dive between the cracks to get what I want. And I don't see anything wrong.

Minna Onaji

Watching Kon Ichikawa's Makioka Sisters (known in Japanese as 細雪 Sasameyuki) for my Japanese film studies module brought me back to certain issues of life.

The film is basically about 4 sisters from a traditional merchant family, living in the pre-Pacific War period when the influence of the family business has slowly faded out.

Adhering to their traditions, they treated marriage very seriously, and the whole agenda throughout the entire film was to marry off the 3rd daughter Yukiko through matchmaking.

What made it more urgent was that our dear 4th sister Taeko had to wait for her elder sister to get married before she could do so.

The 2 unmarried youngest sisters had meanwhile been living with the 2nd elder sister Sachiko, inevitably posing a constant temptation for their brother in law Teinosuke.

You know... this whole one sided "imaginary sexual tension" that guys like you and I so freely indulge in.

And it was the ending scene that spoke to me the most. Yukiko had finally made her choice of Mr Right after a long search by her sisters. Brother-in-law Teinosuke is seen drinking alone in a room, muttering "she's getting married" to a puzzled waitress, tearing as he gazed at the snowfall.

Doesn't it happen to us from time to time, this equally imaginary sense of loss? The drop-dead gorgeous colleague from the next department who just got attached? The emotionally jarring bus ride home thinking about that girl you saw for the first time at that event and would never see again? The very chio classmate of yours who just isn't your type?

And then it would fade away. With time, with new preoccupations, with new doors opened.

Guys. I think we're all the same.

Anyway, another thing that amazed me was Yukiko's persistence in, erm, turning down matchmakings?

So that when the right one comes by, she was ready.

I respect that spirit, though not forgetting that it's probably something anyone can do when your siblings are bringing prospective mates to your doorstep by the month.

Still, it awakened the question in me about waiting for the right one.

But it remains a question.

Delusion, indeed!

I was browsing stuff at Times, when I saw this very familiar cover.

What is that book doing under "Science"?

Thankful

I'm very thankful I got my first choice of tutorial slot for my Maths module. 'Cause anything other than my first choice will mean I either have to wake early on Mondays or compromise my commitment to my church band on Wednesdays.