another quote from curious case of benjamin button.

it's not about how you play.
it's how you feel about what you play.

-nameless-maybe-her-name-was-maple old lady-
-when teaching ben the piano-

cg did away with my fatigue.

thank God for care groups.

care groups are the straws in my life to sip my ice milo.

God is my ice milo.

i love what li ern said today:

when you have emotional problems,
don't rely on people.
first rely on God.
God will bring the people to you.

He did. they came. and they'll always be there. wednesday nights. same time, same place.

to fill the void that was left by mgc's wednesday prayer meet.

thank God for care groups.

initially wanted to put this up in the afternoon.
it's not really applicable anymore now. =)

selling lawnite tickets.

final years receive a Bar Council legal diary when they pay for the RM 55 ticket.

diary is equipped with lots of space for case references (non-law students: eee) and appointments.

tickets sold like hot cakes. 10 out of 15 tables sold in the first four hours.

final-year senior: "i want two tickets." *hands me RM150*
me: "erm..."
buddy sher-how: "what you counting leh? RM110 la."
me: "that means i'm supposed to return..."
buddy sher-how: "RM40 la. yoh."
me: "ah, ok."
senior adam: "you sure it's RM40 anot?"
me: "...er. it should be?"
senior adam: *amazed* "wah, you're really pure law student eh?"
me: "i can only do algebra..."

chelsea: "this calculator...
dunno bring here for what wan lor."

i'm really good at algebra.
seriously.

i need a milo fuze.

i have been working extreme overtime without pay for lawnite.

i have been very cranky for the past few days. so much so i wondered if i really am sorry i have a sharp tongue.

church was lovely, though. church is my peace haven. but then again, the peace from church should last me through the week.

sigh.

i felt the urge to pray this morning over my candu of coffee.

Father, Your mercies are new every morning.
May mine be as such today.

just a click of the alarm clock. if only it was so easy.

ah. saint valentine.

9.00-10.35 am English test in English class
10.45-11.13 am Worked on Lawnite sponsorship contacts

11.17 am-1 pm Washed Chin How's buddy's house compound
1.00-1.45 pm Read a Doraemon comic book
2.00-3.15 pm Prepared food for buddy BBQ
3.15-3.30 pm Bathed
3.30-4.05 pm Wished I'd brought along my laptop
4.05-4.30 pm Practiced Salsa with Jason and Jing Han
4.30-5.30 pm Watched Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5.30-6.30 pm Cut short movie-watching and prepared BBQ stuff
6.30-11.15 pm BBQ + Clean-up
11.33 pm - Balikked + Bathed + Washed clothes + Remembered to brush teeth
2.05 am - Plopped my corpse-y body onto the bed




Nameless old lady: *cuts Ben's hair* "You're growing more hair everyday."
Old Benjamin Button: "I know. I feel different. I think I'm growing younger everyday."
"Oh."
...
"That's sad. You'll have to watch everyone you love die before you."

-Benjamin's expression changes to one of utter despair and realization-
-NL sees it and puts a hand on his shoulder-

"Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love.
How else would we know how important they are to us?"


9.30-10.10 am Designed (or attempted to) Lawnite booklet
10.10 am-4.00 pm Designed somemore while Publication warriors cut 400 OVAL tickets
4.05 pm-6.00 pm Designed Ads pages in room
6.00-6.15 pm Somehow ate inedible college dinner (quite a waste of time)
6.20-8.37 pm Sitting here designing and blogging
8.38 pm Thinking I should probably take my bath now and wash that pail of clothes




-the night before-

Me: "Did you know that Valentine's Day was originally for friends?"
Chelsea: *sniffles*

-the next morning-

"Yay! It's Valentine's Day! Let's go be friendly and knock on everybody's door and say hello!"
Chelsea: "Siow ar? People take shoe and throw at you ar."
"Nevermind. We can run away while they bend down to take their shoes."
"You think people are like us, nothing to do ar?"
"If they're still in their room, I suppose they have nothing to do aso."

-while eating Maggi Mee at 9pm-

"I haven't bathed."
...
"Oi, I haven't bathed. No comment ar?"
"...Now I know why we are still single."
"Wah you said so many funny things today! I must blog!"
"What is so funny? It came from my heart!"

-while blogging at 9.03pm-

"What is 'sniffles'?"
Me: *imitates sniffling sound*
"Means what?"
"Means you sedih cuz you still single."
Chelsea: *sniffles*

13-year-old fathers baby.

Alfie Patten's girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, gave birth on Monday.

The teenagers, both from Eastbourne, had kept the pregnancy secret until Chantelle's mother Penny noticed her daughter was getting bigger.

Shi-Hsia:

"I think we've all been so used to hearing about teenage mothers that it takes a photo of a teenage FATHER like the one below to make us realize how appalling it is that kids this young are having... kids."

read more here.

who says facebook is a waste of time?

so the wooden chairs are back to get me.

no matter. i have my defence mechanism.

Hwei's Three-Fold Defence Mechanism

turn my back on that which seeks to hinder.

put on the gloves of perseverance and goodwill.

identify that which seeks to hinder and make fun of it.

clueless readers might want to refer to:
"wooden chairs"

i'm so bored.

it's a blue monday. navy blue maybe. or dark blue. whichever. definitely not sky blue. ah wait. maybe it is. it's raining. ok, it's sky blue monday.

right now this is how i feel:

someone please ask me out for dinner next weekend!!!!!!!!

this is me trying to imagine someone asked me out for dinner.

holiday is no fun when you have nothing to do.
absolutely nothing.
at all.
zero.
gah.

i love sundays. but this sunday was especially refreshing.

i wasted my life away on saturday.

sunday was a different story.

Church as usual. sam had to go earlier because he was on musician duty. i thought he meant practice, but at 8.20am, he assured me that he wasn't going to practice 10 minutes before worship. "it's open worship what. have to go early." [open worship in pjgh means normal Spirit-led (impromptu) worship] made me wonder why we don't practice this habit in mgc. maybe the elders should set down rules for this - chairperson and musicians must be early every sunday. hmm.

jonathan, adrian and keith said hi. auntie ah eng came over and held my hand, "hey, how are you?" lareina gave me a bag of DVDs containing two boxes of Desperate Housewives, one small one of Grey's Anatomy, and a DVD bag of random movies like Enchanted and... THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON! because she understood the dullness of life - or lack of it - in UM.

ah yes, and i passed the bread to the back when i got it from adrian on my left.

auntie at the back: *mata terbeliak* "no, no, to the front."

i turn to the front, and see yu shen waiting for the bread with the ^_^" look. and then dengan penuh malunya i passed the bread to him. how'd i know people pass from the back to the front la. in mgc, it was always front to back. -_-" but come to think of it, back to front makes more sense. ahaha...

After church, sam brought me to Lotus, another indian place besides the two i know (Rajoo's and Sri Paandi).

sam's unique teh tarik special.

i ordered tose, and decided that it was rather un-manis. my eyes blurred again as we talked about predestination. well, not exactly blurred. you know how photography lovers do those macro shots, where one thing in front is clearer than the rest, and the rest is pretty much blur? yeah, well, something like that. sam became this macro shot thing. i wonder if it happens to everyone, or i have a penyakit. is it astigmatism? the eye specialists never told me. either they were negligent, or i have another sort of penyakit.

anyway, sam said that we ex-GLO-ians in kl should get together one day, since we're all so near each other. this could probably work, since we don't have to travel that far (like from melaka to taiping) anymore. sam said he enjoyed GLO. i think i did too. though i didn't know it until 15 minutes before i left for melaka. spending one month with 20-odd people under the same house was something different and new.

we're always nice and guardedly well-mannered in our everyday lives.

smile at the random unknown auntie, nod to Block B first college residents on the way to the toilet, tolerate the gimics of our friends, say "never mind" and "it's okay" even when we don't feel like it...

those mannerisms don't really last when they're put to a month's test. i always said GLO was a social breakthrough for me. it's not that i tetiba became talkative and sociable after GLO. i had long struggled with what i called my controversial love for God and absence of love for my own species. i was truly sick and tired of being around people. GLO helped rectify the controversion.the relational experiences i had there helped me rediscover my love for people.

so yeah, i think i enjoyed GLO too. knowing that there's a bunch of people who accept me as i am despite knowing who i really am helps me react to them differently.

1.30pm, i went for a marketing hunt at Midvalley with some of the Lawnite committee members. it was tiring, and when i'm tired, either one of three things happen to me:

1. 1. nothing.
2. 2. i become extremely lethargic, so much so i can hardly move. and i drag my feet. which is usually a taboo for me.
3. 3. i become extremely energetic and somewhat, i would say, funny. yeah, tired me = funny me.

today, i became somewhat funny in Midvalley.

i got back to college at 5.50pm, bathed and took my dinner (2 pieces of bread + coffee).

neh, i didn't buy these two.

i just tot they were interesting.

7.28pm, sam came round and picked me up for a concert at First Baptist Church.

the fella beside me sang super loud.
don't think she was aware of that.
maybe sam's recorder caught it all. poor sam. =P

it kicked off with three songs from youth band. which was pretty good. for the first song only la. i personally thought they should've left the singing to the girls and just let the guys do backup. =P fcp? (female chauvinist pig)

flashy part of the show where they tetiba froze.

Juwita and Joanne's performance were awesome. awesome, i tell you. i usually don't enjoy concerts very much, although i still attend them whenever i'm asked, because the opening of these concerts is usually smokin' hot, but the energy level decreases substantially as the concert progresses. not so with tonight's concert.

Juwita Suwito rocked the house with a hit from... THE BEATLES!


"How many of you know the Beatles?"

i usually don't respond to this sort of question, but with the Beatles...

"ME!!!!!!!!" i exclaimed, my hand raised and waving.

ah. ask me if i know Kenny Rogers, and i'll straightway grab the mic from you and start singing "The Gambler". and then i'll say his songs are better than his chickens.

anyway.

Joanne Yeoh was alright, but i was really impressed when she did an impromptu Great Is Thy Faithfulness with Juwita on an encore request from the audience. it's one thing to play the violin to a vocalist's singing, it's quite another to play the violin to a rockin' singer with killer vocals, and an unfamiliar band that plays not-so-common chords. she pulled it off though. and well too. especially at the end, when Juwita courteously gestured for her to play before she wrapped up the song. she sapu-ed some butter on the violin (my way of saying "really quick and precise string of arpeggios").

i felt extremely comfortable at the concert because Juwita and Joanne did a lot of oldies' music, with which i am quite acquainted, because dad used to play those songs on the radio all day long. Joanne even did Theresa Teng's Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin.

me: she looks like she's a girl from a movie where the boyfriend died,
and she's playing for the dead boyfriend.
sam: ...killjoy.

and then she jazz-spiced it up at the end of the first chorus.

sam: "blasphemy!"

then joanne said: "ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce... my boys." she said that in a really cool way. keng la. so professional. and the band was just... inhuman. i think they're aliens. the next time a UFO lands in the USA, i'll volunteer their names as allies of the aliens. they must be from a musical planet or something.

"i've never known a guy who has broken the hearts of so many girls."

seriously. i could see why he could break so many hearts. sam and i were mata-terbeliakking at his playing. he was the lead guitarist, but here he's using the acoustic la.

i was taking pictures with my cameraphone, and sam said:

"your cameraphone is looking unsurprisingly puny in the eyes of my DSLR."

me: "oh, you proud thing."

"sometimes the truth hurts."

"pride comes before a fall."

"after the fall comes immunity."

and then i forgot to argue somemore because i was too busy writing it down in nokia-san's notes.

at 10.19pm, sam asked if i was hungry. although the 2 pieces of bread for dinner were cute and cuddly, they didn't do wonders for my stomach, and so i nodded enthusiastically. well, not literally. but it's just to cut a long story short.

we went to sri paandi's, and i ordered an appem manis. 

it's the only indian food besides roti and tose that i know.
desmond has not been doing a good job. -_-

sam: "this appem manis is anything but manis."

me: "it's more manis than the tose."

"tose is not supposed to be manis."

"really?"

"it's supposed to be savoury."

"what's savoury?" my ERT was kopak-ed wan in school.

"not manis."

the big metal bucket of dahl.

come to think of it, that wasn't the most helpful answer, sam.

we then talked about movies, and i learned that sam's history is pretty sucky, but he has good knowledge of greek mythology. ah. people who like greek mythology are like, er, He-Man merchandise. yeah. you don't get them everywhere. i was quite excited when mark knew a lot about greek mythology too. =D

ah yes. i also learned that sam doesn't appreciate the traditional values of a good plot, but goes for brainless fighting movies. (i'm not being harsh. those are his own words.)

i like movies with patriotic values. like Ip Man, Fearless, Hero, and The Last Samurai. those sort of movies really get to me. best of all, those movies don't need sexual elements to rock socks. (sorry, elena. i'm too tired to think of another phrase, so i gotta borrow yours.)

got back to college at exactly 12am and made sam late for his 11.55pm MU-Westham match. eh i won anot ar?

then i cut my thumb in various places (not on purpose ok. i'm not that suicidal in my boredom.) with my shaver and had to stand at the sink for 10 minutes trying to get the blood to stop flowing.

oh ya, i discovered i have a secret reader in church. well, not that i discovered it la. the secret reader told me wan. so he's actually not so secret after all. but he was before he told me, so... ah what am i doing? i'm sleepy beyond sleepiness.

anyways.

i can't wash my socks because of my cut thumb, and i shall now proceed to brush my teeth and wash my face with one hand.

ciaoz.

i wrote all this at 3am.
added pictures today.

ah. driving.

I JUST read Pei Ling's posts about how she felt when she failed her driving test the second time, and when she passed her driving test at the fourth try.

...because I've been clicking this three-month-old culs de sac post for, well, three months. forgive me for thinking your blog was dead. =P

Anyway.

Those who've been following my Friendster blog early 2006 would have read my post about how I passed my driving test. (sorry, can't give you the link, cuz campus barred friendster) Horrible. I still shudder when I think about it.

*shudder*

For those who don't know, I passed at the fourth try as well. Fifth, if you count the PRE-TEST I failed. Yeah, call me bizarre. At that point of time, I seriously hated driving. I hated blue uniforms, Kancils, old pak ciks, and I even hated hearing BM because the lingua franca in driving school was BM.

I spent so much time in the driving school that I no longer got lost in there. THAT IS A BIG DEAL, I assure you. By the fourth try, I even discovered that the old pak cik at the slope had a twin brother. true, i tell you. you go see yourself. And I could tell anyone which tester was driving which Kancil. car no.3 mia quite leng chai.

Let me just recount my driving experiences:

Pre-test #1
Failed because I lost my way.

Pre-test #2
Passed because the tester told me where to go and when to change speed.

Test #1
Failed because of a bunch of dumb mistakes like forgetting the seat-belt, using Speed Four instead of Speed Three when driving up a steep road, and finally, sliding down the steep road.

Test #2
Stopped - for like 10 seconds, that's long - when the light was green.

Test #3
Drove when the light was red.

Test #4
PASSED. But only because God sent an angel in the form of another L-driver who was taking the same road for the test. The car was in front of me the entire way. I copied whatever the driver did. God bless that driver, whoever he/she is. Because I would've failed otherwise. You know how I know? Because at the first right turn, I pulled the hand-brake, and the car came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road rather unsurprisingly. The JPJ officer was very surprised though.

...silence... (the car still very much in the middle of the road)

"...Kenapa tarik hand-brake?"

-snapped out of shock and put down the hand-brake-

"Tak tahu."

-drove like nothing happened-

Maybe he was still in shock or something, because he didn't say anything else.

Yeah, I know it's all very lame, and I allow you to laugh about it. It wasn't very funny at the time though. I'd say it was rather devastating. In those days -I can't believe it was 3 years ago- I spent the eve of every test trying to memorize mapS (yes, plural) my sister and dad drew for me. It's unfortunate that I still can't read maps today, but yeah, I tried to read and memorize maps in those days.

I felt like I was never going to make it out of driving school, and I probably never would have. Seriously. Because after I passed, 4 months later, under intense guidance by my dad, I was still driving like an idiot.

Before, I prided myself as a quick learner. Most things came easily to me. If I couldn't excel in it, I could at least master its concept and teach it to someone else who could excel. The only time I failed a test was during my first KH test in Form 1, when I thought I only had to do the Perdagangan paper, and left the ERT and Manipulatif KH papers blank. From then on, failing was not an option. I vowed I would never fail at anything ever again. that's why last time a bit kiasu.

When I first started learning how to drive, I was so proud and confident.

When I failed my pre-test, I was flabbergasted. That failure didn't stay with me. I took the first test with a significant amount of confidence, believing in my age-old principle:

If you think you can, you can.

I thought I could. But I couldn't.

Like Pei Ling, I was traumatized after that second failure. Devastated after the third. Detached and spacey after the fourth. The final time I stepped into the waiting room, as I sat on the chair and watched the twins talk, I came to the same conclusion as Pei Ling did.

God - I needed Him.

With driving skills like that, who doesn't? That's what you're thinking. Yeah, think it. Laugh. It's quite funny anyway. Hah.

Point is, unlike me, you may not need God as a driver. However, if you haven't already experienced it, you will one day come across something you can't do without help, and sometimes human help just doesn't cut it. You'll need something, and you won't know what, and where to get it. You may be proud now, but when you're broken, there wouldn't be enough space in the pieces of your heart for pride.

The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

Pride. It's not an option.

btw, to you-know-who,
this can be counted as that testimony for the tag la.
=P

MILO® FUZE® Energising Your Day!

I clicked on the ad that happened to be at the end of my last post today because I liked Milo.

Then I, er, printed the screen because I liked the crumpled paper at the top of the page.


Then I scrolled down and read about the contest because I liked this energy level thing.


Then I clicked the "About the Contest & Prizes" at the top of the page because I liked the prizes.




Then I looked for a photo among my pictures because I thought it was quite a do-able contest. (that means a lot of people will join too? lol.)


Then I decided to spread the love because the participants who are picked by the Milo team will receive prizes too. Yay!

don't we just love CNY?

aside from the much-anticipated return to the good ol' fishing village, the red ang pow packets (more importantly, what's inside), and the many lovely cookies...

PKV has its annual CNY dinner at New Paris.

(not the real one, and there's no old one either)

what a bizarre piece of decoration. lydia: "it moves! it's real!"

birthdays still happen, with lovely birthday cakes.

happy birthday, chin how!

PJGH Young Adults Care Group has their get-together dinner.

"college students no need to pay. take it as your ang pow."
college students squeal.
-i took these photos, observing that everyone was in pairs-
-i took them all so quickly they can be sambung-ed-

wooden chairs.

the need to sit down, and the knowledge that it will bring no rest.

wooden chairs.

it's an emotion.

this is for the guys.

2 days before The Day

I die also won't join LawNite next year!

Don't feel like being A's housemate anymore.

Feel rotten for not seeing that it's inappropriate to assume upon Mel's hospitality to fetch A.

Hate going back to campus.

Ken's sleeping already. Wish i packed earlier so i could spend more time with my siblings. Where's that quality time sis had with us before she left? =(

-handphone notes-


1 day before The Day

Not enough pads. I'm a lousy packer.

I think I'm PMS-ing. Yeah. Definitely PMS-ing.

-handphone notes-


I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back!

Why can't I say more things to Mum? After today, I won't see her for another month!

I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back!

-while mum was driving out after ironing my lawnite dress during lunch break-


then i cried.


The Day

The Pain.

Unbearable.

I'm gonna turn suicidal soon.

God, help me!

-after bathing, clutching hair-dryer with one hand and stomach with the other-

GUYS, there's that time of the month for almost every girl. not every girl gets The Pain. those who do either have it mild or bad. i have it bad. not bad bad. just bad. i have to take medication. i tried not to today. but it was so terrible i think i would have hopped at the slightest suggestion to jump down a building. it doesn't make me proud to swallow two pills every month. it makes me feel helpless because i know i'm pumping chemicals into my body but i can't do anything about it.

whether the PMS is emotional or physical, a girl is just not herself when she's PMS-ing. don't expect her to be herself. she can be herself on that day as much as the average person can smile and make conversation after stubbing his toe on a piece of hard metal, the pain searing through his entire body in huge waves.

by the way, the physical pain is like driving a knife through your stomach, twisting it around a few times, pulling it out, then repeating the cycle. it's a little different, i confess. as in when the imaginary knife is out, there is a momentary period of grace where the victim feels no pain at all, as opposed to the lingering pain when one pulls a knife from a wound.

however, i wouldn't say it's that much of a blessing either. cuz the pain seems to grow with every turn.

ALL GUYS, don't tease a PMS-ing girl. you might see a side of her you'd wish you never saw.

guys with girlfriends, do learn and be wise. tolerate your girlfriend. it's not her fault she's being cranky and weird. sis says ck keeps note of her Days, and even invented this wonderful shortcut method of counting when the next one will come.

-this is for the girls too-

we usually do this:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + Cycle

i.e.

The Day (April) = 5 March + 28 days = 33

then we minus the number of days in Month 1, since there's not 33rd day in any month:

The Day (Month 2) = X - number of days in Month 1

i.e.

The Day (April) = 33 - 31 days = 2 April

the equation is thus:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + Cycle - No. of days in Month 1

i.e.

The Day (April) = 5 March + 28 days - 31 days = 3 April

ck figured that algebra could be used even for such stuff. he summarized it this way:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + x days - y days

in math, we learn that if two thingys are of the same family, e.g. cm and cm, they can be grouped together and arithmetized:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + (x - y) days

if Month 1 has 31 days:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + (28 - 31) days
= The Day (Month 1) - 3 days

i.e.

The Day (April) = 5 March - 3 days = 2 April

if Month 1 has 30 days:

The Day (Month 2) = The Day (Month 1) + (28 - 30) days
= The Day (Month 1) - 2 days

i.e.

The Day (April) = 5 March - 2 days = 3 April

so i've been using this ever since, and it's way easier to count.