Lamentations

Friday, January 30, 2009

The last few days I've been updating my songlist with plenty of metal songs. Black metal, death metal, gothic metal, nu metal, you name it. A bit of mainstream songs here and there but I realized that I hadn't updated my metal songs in a long, long time, excluding Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone. So I searched Wikipedia about the metal bands I knew and checked to see which were the more popular songs and downloaded them. Now I can say I've updated quite a bit plus knowing a few more metal bands. I also found out that there's going to be a book, The Gospel of Filth, about black metal and Luciferianism and plenty about the occult, which is coming out soon, and I'm itching to buy it.

Its being co-written by Dani Filth, founder of the band Cradle of Filth. It's also being contributed by Christopher Lee.

Due to the recent flood of metal in my life, I was going to make a casual post talking about it, which I'm kinda doing now. But here's the thing that was very, very (I hope) coincidental. This is my 666th post. I crap you not. Since this is my 666th post, and metal is linked with Satan on so many levels, I thought I'd make a more serious post about my Christian beliefs and my (un)healthy obssession with black metal and Satanism and darkness.

First up. I'm a Christian. Anyone who's known me for long enough should know that my Saturdays are off limits because I go to church. No one said anything about Saturday nights though! Kidding. Alright, maybe not kidding. Generally though. Quite a few intelligent people can roughly guess I'm a Christian within the first few minutes of meeting me, and I find that really interesting, because I'm one of the last people on earth most people would think to be a Christian. I'm still perplexed by how they find out because I don't usually wear my normal cross.

My normal cross. I call it my "Holy Cross".

The "cross" that I usually wear. I call it my "Satanic Cross" even though its not a cross per se.

Most people who see my satanic cross would likely assume I'm Gothic, a Satanist or Luciferian, or perhaps an atheist, but never a Christian. I don't blame them. Due to me being labeled everywhere I go, I can safely say I don't label people, nor judge them. Now I do have opinions, and I do have jokes, but there's a fine line between them, although sometimes that line is blurred when other people interpret it. I've been in church for 7 years. Come November this year, it'll be 8. Sure, length of years is nothing to brag about about specifically, but if you're a healthy Christian with a decent spiritual life, then its quite good. My maturity has increased a lot and it's made my view on life better. However, before I was a Christian, I was already very into darkness stuff. Before that, my favourite colours were blue, from a kid to toddler, and then green when the Green Ranger came out. Yeah, keep laughing. Once I entered my teen years, hormones changed and my tastes shifted accordingly. I liked black, I started delving into heavy metal and it's stuck with me all my life.

When you give your life to Christ, you are reborn and saved immediately, but the changes and lifestyles will take a lifetime to change. Also, if we were to all become the same kind of person if we were Christians, it'd make for one hell of a dull world. We can all be different in our own ways and still be Christ-like. People tend to bring a part of their former selves before Christ and have that old man transformed into a new man. That old part of themselves sometimes give us problems, but its often used for the glory of God. Take Paul. He was a pro-Christian killer, killing all the new Christians and everything. When he finally converted, he took this ferocity in his debating and missionary trips for good.

What has my love for all things dark given me? For one thing, it's made me very good as an observer. Being a victim of much scrutiny for the way I dress and look, it's given me a very good ability to generally guess what a person is like. Of course, its not perfect, but I'm pleased to say that in nearly every case, I'm more or less accurate. Also, being the ultimate (okay, not ultimate, but you get the drift) example of what Christians don't normally look like, when people do find out I'm a Christian, it brings a lot of discussion, and I've never had a dull conversation resulting from this topic.

I started my liking for heavy metal quite some time back. I was watching WWE, and I supported Kane, my favourite wrestler. He wore a mask too. So I got interested and checked his information online. In many of the websites, they stated his favourite band was Slipknot, now too, one of my favourite bands. I used Limewire and downloaded a few Slipknot songs. I never really liked any genre of metal last time because like most of the general public, I assumed it was all screaming and shouting with heavy guitar riffs. However, personally listening to the songs, I began to like Slipknot, and ventured out into more heavy metal genres. Namely, black, death and gothic metal. I read about them, and this got me into buying many books about ghosts, spirits, magic and occult. Pretty matching, no?

Speaking of ghosts, spirits and all. I've long had a fascination with dark arts and the demonic world. There is a difference between interest and actually doing it. As a Christian, I won't dabble in this, but I'm very interested by how people use it, and how other people view it, either with doubt or belief. Being attacked by spirits a few times, I can't ignore them too, and I've read a lot of material about them, from all sources and religions. This world of darkness is tempting to enter, no doubt about that. Imagine using magic to get whatever you want. Imagine all the pleasure and money you get could from spiritually manipulating others. But at what cost? Also, in the dark arts, there is a heavy emphasis on self. It's very fitting in this fallen world today. Sure, people make more money than before, and the standard of living is much higher. Yet corruption is everywhere, and more than half the world is in poverty. Attitudes and mindsets are also generally agreed universally to have dropped. Focus on yourself. No wonder its tempting. I though, have a deep interest and fascination, but not to the extent of trying it out. Researching about these arts, and true cases of posessions, deaths through spiritual means and all helps improve my knowledge. Its very amusing and satisfying to see how people react to it. To see how its done. To see how it influences the masses. And in a few cases, to see how it makes human beings turn into murderers and rapists. I love studying about it.

I also felt very empty when I dressed up in shirts and jeans, so that's what led me to buying all the chains and everything I wear. When I don't wear them, I feel really empty. It's not like a sense of security or what. I just feel more complete when I wear them. I don't overload though, 'cause that would just look retarded. As I got more and more into the world of heavy metal and all this dark stuff, I can't say it had no influence on me at all. It probably did. Sex, drugs, rock and roll and all I was interested are so intertwined. Everyone is interested in sex, its a part of being human. Sure, there are abominations such as rape and such, but excluding those, its something that'll surely get anyone's attention. I'm sure everyone's thought of drugs at least once in their lifetime? Maybe even just a passing thought. And living in the high life entails all this. I'm pretty sure it had an effect on me, albeit little. Sure, I choose to abstain for now. But there is a fear I'll lose control one lonely night. And who knows if I accidentally dabble in drugs? I can be so assured now. Whether I follow through or not in that exact moment is a totally different case.

Satan, devil worshipping and large mosh pits and orgies also seem to be totally in tandem with heavy metal. I've got something to say in defence of that though. The music I mean. If you really bother listening to the lyrics, you'll often find very meaningful or thought-provoking issues. Sure, plenty attack God and Jesus. There's a band called Goatsemen that is VERY antichrist in their imaging. I don't like their songs though. Take another example, Slayer. It's been accused of so many things. Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot. Look at the capitals and put them together. How about AC/DC? After Christ, Devil Comes. It's ridiculous. They may be anti-God in their lyrics, maybe more than the ordinary person, but I have never met anyone who didn't blame God for their problems at least once. People complain to God, beat Him on the chest and cry out so many times. Even people who don't believe in Him blame Him for things in passing very often. Anyway, listening to their music also gives me a feeling of release of my rants and such. I wouldn't necessarily dedicate my patience to heavy metal, but I'd say there's a factor in there somewhere. It's like the music helps me release my rants. Worship music may soothe me, but it doesn't "release" my rants. There are some songs I totally dislike though, from the metal genres. Sure, some are anti-God, but some neutral ones also just suck.

People are very, very curious to see a devout Christian enjoy black metal and all. They can't imagine how a supposedly holy life is surrounded by unholy music. Just because the music may be corrupted doesn't mean I'm corrupted in the process. Some influence maybe? Perhaps. But I've come to accept that it has no outright control over my life. Unfortunately many Christians don't think that. I know a website that had links showing how rock songs and all originated with Satanic intentions, and that churches, by using rock music, are therefore spreading the devil's influence. I mean, sure it sounds ridiculous, but you'd be surprised by how many people, even non-Christians, believe that. Heck, hymns and psalms didn't originate with the church either, so are we spreading the influence of the gods of the people who started hymns? No, yet there is a biasness against rock and metal.

I've come to the point where I practically know that most people are very narrow minded in this sense. Metal belongs with Satan. Hymns belong in church. Chants belong in temples. Sure, I'm more open minded as I know this is not true, and for good reason too. Yet I'm in general disagreement with most people, as they just accept this "segregating" without real thought. I also find it amusing, because whenever people ask more about how a Christian can actually like this kind of music, they are genuinely interested, and it gives me satisfaction explaining my rationale. It's interesting to see peoples reactions, honestly. Sure, it may sadden me a bit that so many people are so narrow minded, but it does keep things interesting. I am a contradiction to them. Except for my tattoo (which has a dragon on it too) and my holy cross, there's nothing to define me as a Christian outwardly. I'm like the nail that sticks out, and many, many times, gets hammered down, although not fully.

I'm quite pleased though, with the City Harvest family. In CHC SG and CHCKL, sure, there were curious people who attempted to reconcile godliness with unholiness in my case, but they accepted me for who I was, something many Christians I know have a hard time doing, sometimes, even from my own church. I read a lot, you'd be shocked by the amount of books and materials I read. I am notoriously updated in world affairs thanks to the internet and I have an interest in designing. In a sense, I'm using both sides of my brains, the logical and creative side. Most people only generally use one side, although that seems to be changing now. But not fast enough. Regardless, it keeps my life interesting. I'd hate life to be a bore, and although sometimes I'd rather not go through things, when they're over, I learn something from it, and it's something I look back as something I regard as interesting.

My friend once made a blog post about me, saying that something interesting always happens to me. I have to admit its true. I meet a lot of people, many who are perplexed by my very salient non-Christian looks, yet totally different character. Even my leaders in church have noticed. I've had 5 sermons written with me as the main point of reference. 4 of the times, I was told I was the main "inspiration" if thats the correct word. In the remaining sermon, I knew it was about me, even though I wasn't there to attend it. Long story that's been settled. Anyway, everywhere I go I'm often very easily recognizable, due to my hair and chains, plus the fact I always wear black. I am easily seen, but I daresay not easily understandable. Sure, no one is easy to understand. But generally we know each other and our personalities and traits. For me, I'm lucky (or unlucky, depending on your view) because most people can never guess what I'm thinking. It's easier for them to know what I am like, but often their assumptions about me later on prove that they were just lucky a few times.

It's funny sometimes. When people I'm around with often think of coke, spikes and black, Gothic and such, they often tell me I'm what came into their mind. Also I use a variety of creative language and words and its near certain that people will sometimes use "my lines" some time. That makes me feel good, of course. But there's the other side of the coin, where when they think of not being true to the faith, unaccountable and worldly, I also come into mind more often than I'd like. Now no one's ever told me this directly, but sometimes its right in your face and you can't be wrong. Perhaps there are a few occasions I assumed, but I can safely say it's downright obvious most of the time.

I am a contradiction to most people. Yet I live a Christian life whilst listening to some of the most un-Christian music daily. I'm not perfect, I'm far from it. I make mistakes all the time and I try to sin less, but sometimes I still do. I do things I think are not noteworthy but it seems that many times it is, compared to many other people. It makes me feel good, and perhaps I should be proud. But its nothing to brag about. I try to live my life the best I can, in church and in the world. Like I said before, I'm extremely well balanced in both sides, which makes things difficult sometimes. Too holy for the world, too worldly for church.

I'm the person who listens to black metal everyday.
I'm the person who wears a Satanic cross.
I'm the person who wears black everyday.
I'm the person who loves darkness.

And tomorrow, I'm walking to church.

Here's to my 666th post.

Chronicled
8:52 AM

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

You hid all that from me.

I hid something from you too.

Chronicled
10:49 AM

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

This Chinese New Year was quite different from last year. Firstly, since my grandmother passed away recently, I thought that the family wouldn't celebrate due to the superstitious tradition Chinese have. Turns out I was wrong. They did celebrate it, and my cousin asked me why I wasn't there yet. I was curious too. Then I asked my mom and found out that the extended family didn't approve of uncle Ben, my mom's boyfriend, so my mom decided not to go. And she never bothered telling me till I asked. Zzz.

Okay, so I didn't celebrate the new year with all the relatives like usual.

Secondly, it was the first time I celebrated with my family only. We had a dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Funny, celebrating Chinese New Year in a Japanese restaurant. And thirdly, after that I went to Citra and Hannah's place. Cindy, Daniel and Vincent came over too. For the CHC people, Vincent is the POS broken neck guy! LOL. Anyhoo, this was the first new year I spent with friends instead of family. They're all Indonesians except for Daniel, who's from Sabah. So yeah, they're "homeless" 'cause they didn't go back to their hometowns this time round.

We ate together in their home, and the guys all spammed Left 4 Dead on my laptop. After chatting and slacking we watched some lame horror/comedy Cantonese movie The Vampire Who Admires Me. Hannah and Citra went to sleep and only the 4 of us watched the next movie, The Good, The Bad and The Weird. The movie lasted bloody long! By the time the movie was halfway through, I was the only person left awake. Worst still, I had the smallest chair. Daniel slept on the floor, but he gets the whole floor! Zzz. After praying a while on their balcony, I tried sleeping. It was 6:30am.

I woke up at 8am hearing zombies moan and machine guns shooting. Turns out the guys were playing on my laptop. I slept and woke up around 11 plus, due to a VERY loud Citra talking on the phone. Eventually that woke up the rest of us and we all called our relatives to wish them prosperity and blessings for the new year. We ate a bit more and watched a bit of TV and I went back home after that.

I went to my grandaunt's place later on to celebrate with some other relatives, not the usuals at Kluang. I ended up watching Defiance in a room after a while. Not bad, the movie. Although it's a little draggy at parts. It's a World War II story involving a true story about Jews. So yeah, I guess you can kinda know what to expect.

Speaking of war, Hamas idiots bombed Israeli patrol a week after agreeing to the ceasefire and having all Israeli troops pullout. What the hell. One Hamas representative said they never agreed to a full ceasefire, but only a lull in the fighting. Seriously, what the hell. And you know what's the best quote from him? "The Zionists are responsible for any aggression." I rest my case.

Oh, and there's one thing I noticed, in the midst of all the differences I had this Chinese new year. Everytime I wear red, I somehow end up taking pictures with a lot of girls. Don't believe me?

See? Even the toilet sign is a female one. And its red too.

Again, more proof. Most of the cellgroup wore red on the Chinese new year service. We sat near the front too, so it was like rows of red. Heh.

Okay, Issey is in the pic too. Plus Ai Lee. But we learnt in chemistry about redundance right? LOL. Kidding!

See? When I wear red I end up being surrounded by girls.

What happens when I wear black?

We surround girls instead -.-.

Chronicled
10:49 AM

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

We've all got something to hide.

Chronicled
4:41 PM

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Aye... new generation kids. I don't see much difference in them compared to us. After all, when we were younger, we were just like them. They've got all the nifty gadgets and technology, while we were getting used to it. My generation is like the buffer in between the older and new. The older generation were adults when all the technology hit. The newer generation use computers when they're in kindergarten.

There is one thing that makes me laugh though. I was asking this guy whether he had MSN. You know what he said? "No, I only have Windows Live Messenger." I was like what the hell!

I can't believe that the newer generation doesn't even know what MSN is. They only know Windows Live. Geez. That's a stupid name by the way, Windows Live. I never liked it when they changed the entire thing. They made it so much more complicated for very unnecessary features, not like the simple MSN. They did improve the graphics and layout though, which is the only thing I liked. The newest MSN, version 9, doesn't support sharing folders either. Yeesh. But they've got some background-thingy that you can put, making it more graphical.

Oh, on a completely random note, congratulations Barack Hussein Obama for becoming the 44th President of USA. I've supported him when he was a relatively unknown senator, till the Democratic primaries against Hillary Clinton, and finally in the presidential race against McCain. Good to see he's closed down Guantanamo Bay within 2 days of taking office. Plus he's finally voiced out on the Israel-Hamas war. A lot of people were criticizing him for being quiet, but he wasn't president yet, and maybe thats why.

I expect to see much more from him. Yes, we (okay, you, actually) can!

Chronicled
9:41 AM

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

I can finally get my break -.-.

Even though school's only been on for 3 weeks and the assignments are only beginning to pile up, I'm getting very tired already. Heck. Miki just drove me home earlier today and we spent a few hours chatting in my room. After she left, I fell asleep immediately. My hungry stomach woke up me though, lol.

Anyhoo, yesterday we had our Chinese New Year service, where we sang Chinese songs again during praise and worship -.-. I'm always like so left out during those songs. Zzz. The sermon was about honouring our mother father, due to the coming new year where many people would be going back to their hometowns and all. Big difference from many Singaporeans, who mostly just travel across the island -.-. I still remember last year's Chinese new year, before I left for Kluang, the public places in Singapore near my rented place were practically dead silent. I can't celebrate it this time round though, since my grandmother passed away recently. Chinese have some superstitious tradition that you can't celebrate Chinese New Year when someone passes away recently. Hmmm -.-.

Anyway, speaking of the new year, I just realized that a lot of people have posted up their new years resolutions and looking back at 2008. I've just been posting mostly casual stuff since the new year. So why not get serious and look back?

2008 marked quite a lot of achievements and events. First, it was around the time when the ignorance era of E458 ended, which had been a crippling and serious issue for cellgroup unity. Once it ended though, revival poured in.

It also led to a very awkward response when people asked about my parents. When people asked why my parents didn't live together, I simply told them "They divorced last year." Quite a killer response, I know. When people usually talk about their divorces, its when they were young, or many years ago. I shattered that mentality.

I graduated from Dover ITE with a Higher Nitec certificate in IT, specializing in multimedia. GPA was 2.0, if I'm not wrong. Not impressive, but heck.

I moved to Kuala Lumpur. This was probably the most major thing to happen. I left behind a world and lifestyle I had been living for 7 years. The transition went smooth, thankfully. My cellgroup welcomed me warmly and I made a lot of new friends in church.

I began studying at The One Academy. I'm a natural slacker. TOA has thousands of assignments. Imagine a slacker working so hard! It has disciplined me I'll admit, although I'm like at the borderline between slack and work hard. I can easily shift between them, depending on a lot of factors. The amount of assignments TOA students get is legendary among KL, so yeah, go figure.

I liked a girl. I still like her now, although I'm confused with others, if I must be honest.

Attended Emerge KL and Asia Conference. Two great conferences with great spiritual rewards. Simply amazing.

Aye, those are the major hallmarks. There's a lot of other things that happened during my time in school and church. Those little things make life a daily interesting thing to live, and they make a huge difference in the long run. It'd be insane to list them all down though, so yeah. And for 2009? Here's a few aims and resolutions (I'm not really good at fulfilling resolutions).

Get attached. I still have that damn promise of getting married, and I've only for 3 years left. I can't fulfill it if I don't even have a girlfriend.

Fulfill my building fund. Due to me moving last year, plus the divorce and all, I wasn't able to fulfill last year's building fund, which was quite a disappointment because I had fulfilled all my previous pledges.

Pass all my subjects. Don't get retained. Stay alive in this torture chamber school. I like my school, don't get me wrong. It's just the assignment workload is insane.

I wanted to put repair two friendships. For the last few years its been one of the few resolutions that I've kept all the time. There's still one irritating friendship that is like borderline between repaired friendship and broken friendship. Sylvia, yes, Ice Queen. We talked and all, but since I last supported her for her concert, we have not said one thing at all. Is that friendship? Speaking of which, take a look at this. It's a poster I saw in Woodlands when I went back. Impressive.

My schoolmate Lucinda ended up being a professional model and Deal or No Deal girl. Now my ex-cellgroup mate is a concert performer. Gee whiz.

Although I had friendships that outright needed repairing in the last few years, I can't think of any broken friendship right now. I hope that's a good thing?

We'll see what else I can improve on in the months to come. Till then, see ya!

Chronicled
10:00 AM

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Aye... today we had Marion's class again. The discussion? How do you know what race you are? It's not easy as it sounds. The discussion was actually quite interesting this time round, and a lot more people spoke up. See, if your ancestors are from China, why stop there? They must've come from somewhere else before that. Depending on what you believe. If you believe in evolution, then humans all originated from Africa, which is geographically attested. If you believe in any of the Abrahamic religions, then we all came from Eden, which was most probably an area around Iraq. Anyway, you can't claim you're Chinese because your ancestors came from there. Because they must've come from somewhere else. Neither can you say you choose your race, because that would fall into culture and traditions already, which is separate from race. Plus, being from a certain country doesn't mean you're a certain race either, because nationality is not race.

So what defines race then? It's original meaning, back in the 1500s, meant "from a common descent". Biologically though, there's no such thing as race, because there's only a 0.1% genetic difference among all humans in the world. Melanin and other chemicals mix in different quantities to make up the 4 major skin colours of the world. So, how do you know what race you are? I believe there's no true definition of race, because biologically, its proven there's no major factor identifying each race.

Anyway, had a prayer meeting just now, and we had the audio Bible read the entire book of Ecclesiastes during the devotion time. The last 2 chapters were spoken by Dr AR Bernard! Haha! Interesting. Denzel Washington spoke for one of the epistles, if I remember and recognize his voice. It wasn't as much prayer as I thought, 'cause it was short, but Pastor Kevin asked quite a thought-provoking question: What do you come for prayer meetings for? What's your true intention? To pray and ask God for all your needs? It'd be very selfish. Or is it to please God and make Him happy? There must be a balance.

Oh, speaking of balance, I think the amount of people I know is not balanced. Hell, I know I'm bloody forgetful, but I think this is getting out of hand. Over the last few months, I've been greeted by a lot of people I never knew existed. No kidding. I mean, occasionally you might meet someone you haven't seen in a while or what and they'd say hi and it'll take a while for you to remember. However, for my cases, practically all the people who've greeted me, I seriously can't remember! Its like they say hi (and because of many incidents last time where I'd greet back almost immediately, only to find that they were saying hi to someone else) now I'd look behind me to see if they were greeting someone else, only to find out it was me. Just to be considerate, I make small talk and all, but it still doesn't help me refresh my memory on who they are. Most of them greet me by name also, which makes it all the more worse for me.

And it's not a small number too. Over the last months (MONTHS!), there's been at least 15 or so people that said hi, and I couldn't recognize them. At all. Aiks! I just looked through my MSN contacts and saw that there's around 20 contacts I don't recognize at all too. And I make sure I know everyone who adds me (or vice versa). So I've forgotten these 20 (possibly more). I've had 150 deleted contacts in MSN, and looking through, I can't remember a lot of them either.

Oh man... being forgetful was a good (and honest) excuse. Now it's becoming a liability -.-. If I've forgotten who you are, I'm really sorry!

Chronicled
12:21 PM

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Ah, my first post with my new laptop. I've finally gotten a new laptop, after 3 damn years of using my old one. It was 512MB RAM, and Pentium M, 1.6Ghz and its graphics card couldn't support quite a lot of games. It cost RM 2500 (at a PC fair, mind you), which was a Gigabyte brand. It got worse and worse as newer programs needed to be used in school and I had a laggy laptop to do the assignments. 80GB hard disk wasn't big enough either. But now, I've finally got a laptop I can be proud of! From Compaq, its 4GB RAM, 2.1Ghz, with dual core processor and ATi Radeon graphics card. It's got 320GB hard disk space, which I think is enough for now. And it cost RM 2899. Damn, I feel like I got ripped off last time round.

Okay. Thursday and Friday I was extremely tired, because we had morning prayer meetings. I needed to wake up at 5am on both days so that Ai Lee and Issey, who drove me on each day, could reach by 6:15am. Well, although it was tiring, it was very satisfying. On Thursday's cellgroup you could sense the difference in the atmosphere too. Woots. On Friday, since I was so early due to the morning prayer meeting, I went to school early, hoping to sleep a few hours in the library before my class, which started at 2pm. I bumped into Nash, and chatted with him and his friend, John. Nash left and a girl called Priscilla came. After chatting with them for a while, I went into the library to sleep. Then I was "disturbed" by 2 girls who didn't know how to turn on the computer. I chatted them up, and got to know them. Peggy and Xin Yi. Wow, in the span of 2 hours, I made 4 friends in the morning.

Saturday I had service, which was about visions and values part 3. The presence during praise and worship also seemed very different, in a much better way. Also, Pastor Kevin bought an audio Bible, and during the parts where we referred to verses, instead of him reading it, he would let the audio Bible read that section instead. Damn interesting, having a voice read it for you. It's not those boring types you always see also. This one's been composed and recorded by many Emmy, Grammy and Academy Award winners. Imagine that.

I stayed over at Henry's place that night, along with Licia and Kok Kin. Fun-filled night, with hours and hours of Left 4 Dead (this new lappy can handle it perfectly), plus DotA and many other Warcraft maps. I also spammed his Heineken beer and chocolate milk all night. Weee~~~.

Oh yes, there's a ceasefire of Operation Cast Lead, which is the recent Israel-Hamas war. Finally. I just read about this doctor, who was planning to leave Gaza and work in Toronto, Canada to start afresh. But hours before the ceasefire took place, 3 of his daughters and a niece were killed. He was so devastated and wailed about them continually. But you know what? He said that if that was the price to pay for peace between Israel and Palestine, he'd gladly accept it.

Amazing. A man who loses everything still hopes for peace. With the blood of his daughters.

Chronicled
9:17 AM

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Monday, January 12, 2009

I had quite a lot of response from my previous post. Just in case you don't know, I'm actually very updated in world affairs, and I'm very vocal (to the people who bother) about wars and events. I see things from both sides and usually, there's a "bad" guy and "good" guy, though of course, its not that clear. Things aren't black and white. They're more grey when it comes to these events. Anyhoo, like I said, if you have a different opinion, do know why you support those opinions.

Anyway, enough of that! Thursday Miki drove me to school, but she got lost on the way. Heck, she thought that railings meant railroad tracks. What the hell? Class started at 9 and she arrived at 8:50. Brilliance. At night I had my cellgroup meeting, and after our meal, Ai Lee drove me back home. Had a very long and interesting talk with her. Heh. Friday I was late for school, but we learned the details of our final project for digital design. Recreate a magazine using Adobe InDesign. Hm?

Saturday was possibly the first time I didn't attend service while I was in KL 'cause I had a 2-day job. The education fair, organized by the Star newspaper (which is state-run... just read their articles about Israel, totally one-sided). Along with Ruz, and 2 other guys, we were to promote The One Academy to students, give brochures and a card calendar with some students artwork, which was a really neat idea by the school. It was a little dull, just standing and giving out the stuff (the calendars were a HUGE hit), but quite satisfying when people seemed genuinely curious. Of course, assisting the pretty girls was a great bonus! (LOL).

Sunday was pretty much the same, although Ivan joined in. I attended service earlier, but left early so I wouldn't be too late arriving for the job. The previous day we had run out of English brochures and had to give out Chinese ones for a while, until they told us not to. It was freaking embarassing giving the Chinese brochures to Indians and Malays! We were told they had restocked with more quantities this time, but I doubt it. Either that, or we had overwhelming response. Anyhoo, after running out of English brochures faster than the previous day, and eventually giving out all the calendars we had left, we had nothing left to do. I didn't mind =p.

Since we had free time, Ruz, Ivan and I walked around and ended up at YTL's hotel management school. It's very classy and to promote the school they were making drinks. Ruz, Ivan and I had a Romance, Mojita and Sun Up respectively, and they're all damn good. Sun Up was a mixture of milk and orange juice, which surprisingly tastes very, very good. We partially made the drinks ourselves, and did that shaking thing that bartenders do. Had a good chat with a few of the students before I gave them my "souveneir", a bitten can. LOL. Got a hell lot of responses from them though.

We also became morons for a while and walked to Lim Kok Wing, which had a very business/creative stall. For those who don't know, Lim Kok Wing is another university well versed in the arts, and has now expanded to business. Besides The One Academy, Lim Kok Wing is pretty much THE school when it comes to arts. So in a way there's an informal "rivalry" between the two schools. They have their own campus though, which is fully black (yay!), but I've heard about many things about the school which kinda make it lose out to The One Academy. No offence of course. Their business courses are top class though. But there's one thing both sides don't have. A good school name! I mean, Lim Kok Wing may have founded his own school, but it's not exactly the nicest sounding name. You've got body parts mentioned in every word. Lim (limb), Kok (cock... I swear I'm getting someone offended), and Wing (wing, duh). And The One Academy. The ONE. Reminds me of Neo. It's better than "Tatsun Hoi's College of Communication Design". But The One Academy just sounds a bit... empty, the name. I mean the student's artwork is world-class, but it's just the name problem!

Zzz. I'm just dragging on. Today we had perspective studies again. 2 point perspective this time, unlike last week's 1 point perspective. I did not too bad this time round too. Also, I bumped into Zhi Ling 3 times today! Once in the morning, once in school, and the final time when I was going back home. Lmao.

Oh yes, I also had a really disturbing nightmare last night. It was weird though, because I had trouble sleeping. I dropped to bed around 9pm and slept until 4am. I tried to sleep again and managed to around 5 plus. Then I woke up at 8, but slept soon after and woke up at 10am. During those periods when I was sleeping, the nightmare continued and continued. I'll blog it another day. I'm lazy now -.-.

Chronicled
10:00 AM

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Why the hell are so many people so pro-Palestinian?

99% of the Muslims I know support Palestine and are urging for Israel to be destroyed. Protests are happening worldwide to stop the war, and they're all blaming Israel. Heck, I found out that Muslims are sending SMSes to each other urging for prayers to their Muslims brothers and sisters, while praying for the destruction if Israel.

Gee... yeah, go ahead, support your brethren in another country. If they're civilians, I agree, go and support them in any way you can, morally and financially. But, it was Hamas' fault in the first place. They sent rockets into Israel first, killing several people. Israel waited and waited, and when the rockets still continued to fire, Israel decided to respond with an invasion.

What do I think? I think its fair, for now. Israel willingly left the Gaza Strip in 2005, and the Palestinians are using it as their temporary land, in a sense. Yet Hamas, after taking over Fatah in a bloodthirsty battle for Gaza, now fires rockets regularly into Israel. Israel gives warnings, and when they're not heeded, they fight back. They claim they're not interested in retaking Gaza; they just want to teach Hamas a lesson. Then they will retreat once the lesson is learned.

Honestly, I know Muslims want to support Muslims, and for the civilians, I feel for them, for sure. But it was Hamas that fired rockets. The blame fully goes to them. That's why I "support" the war, but only because its in defence. However, I do find Israel's force to be a little too much. Yes, they'd like to kill the terrorists and all, but 25% of the casualties have been civilians. As Israel is not allowing foreign media to enter, only the local media provides the information, which may be biased. However, with the UN mentioning that Israel has killed some UN peacekeepers and volunteers, I find that hardly biased, and that's where I draw the line.

It's annoying, to see so many people blame Israel for the entire thing. I searched through a few pro-Muslim websites and they're all (and I don't exaggerate when I say ALL) convinced that Israel, who claims that they're trying to kill terrorists, is the terrorist itself. They also say its a lame excuse for an invasion of Gaza, because they want to steal the land from the Palestinians and kill Palestinians. Total bull? I mean, I'm not even being religious here. I'm neither Jewish nor Muslims, so I consider myself a neutral judge. Israel freaking willingly gave up Gaza 4 years ago, so why would they want to reclaim the land for no reason, other than to "murder and kill Muslim brethren". They did no violence towards Gaza until the rocket fire could not be tolerated.

Hey, pro-Palestinians, if you're going to support Palestine for the sole reason of religion, I'd say you're seriously deluded. If there were Christians sending rockets into Muslim territory and killing people, and the Muslim nation invades the Christians, I would gladly support the invasion, if only for the sole purpose of teaching a lesson. Because the Christians would be in the wrong. Why should I support terrorists and murderers for the sole reason of religion? If so, I should support Hitler. He was a Christian after all, although a really misguided one. He did nothing that the Christian faith honours. Yet it is the equivalent now. Support Hitler because he's a Christian. That's exactly what's going on now, support Hamas and Palestine because they're Muslims.

There's something called self-defence. Although in the Middle East, it's terribly understood, maybe except for Pakistan, and the more moderate countries. There was a case in 2005, where an Iranian girl and her friend were nearly raped by a group of men. She managed to kill her would-be raper and later was arrested and sentenced to death. What the hell right? I'm sure this would be total unfairness to most civilized people, but so many people in the Middle East supported this. What? The? Hell? She killed in self-defence, is that wrong? To the Arab world, yes, because she seduced the man into raping her. Screw that. People in jeans and a t-shirt would have a hard time seducing people. Let alone a veil and those long garments they wear. If this is the standard of morality in the Arab world, then I can fully see why it is all Israel's fault to them.

Hamas sent rockets. After repeated warnings Israel invaded. It was Hamas' fault in the first place, so for any pro-Palestinian, get your damn facts straight, and your reasons for supporting Palestine. If it's just for religion, I can understand, but your morality is screwed up then. And you're biased too. If its because you're anti-Semitic, you're even worse off, bloody racists. If you support Palestine because you think Israel started it all, think again, Hamas sent the rockets first. But, if you support Palestine because of Israel's excessive force, you've got my support. I think Israel is using too much force, but then again, would less force help to enforce their message for Hamas to stop? I cannot and do not know, and therefore, it is just an opinion, whether it is supported by evidence or not. However, there's also the case of Israel's settlements into Palestinian land, which isn't something Israel should be very proud of.

So, make an informed decision, Muslims especially, because just because they're you're brethren, it doesn't mean that it wasn't their fault to begin with. Israel must fulfill its promise of leaving once the lesson is learnt. The fact that they give a daily 3 hour ceasefire for humanitarian aid is notable.

But above all, let there be peace.

Chronicled
11:42 AM

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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Aye... the last few days have been quite interesting in school. Let's see, on Tuesday we had culture and society of Malaysia. Our lecturer is Marion D'Cruz, and my first impression wasn't that brilliant when she introduced herself to the class, I thought she was quite crass and vulgar. In the first five minutes of talking, she had said f*ck twice and bitch twice. Geez! She then said she was three times as old us as, so if we treated her bad, she'd give us three times the sh*t, and if we were good, she'd be three times as good. She also says she loves to torture students and is quite evil.

What a lecturer. Well, as she talked more, my impression got better. She's got a very witty and sarcastic sense of humour, and she teaches 4 schools. She's also opened up her own art studio and her list of achievements is mind-blogging. I mean mind-boggling. Rumour has it she's a datin!

We were introduced to the subject details later on. She's strict though, 'cause if we were to typo any important well known name (like, say Jesus Christ, or Yasser Arafat) she'd give us zero straight. Later on a group of the class sat in a circle, and introduced ourselves. I remember Neal, Hui Min, Esther, Pauline... gee.. is that all I remember? Our homework, discuss next week the thing we hate most about Malaysia. I think I like the subject already =D.

Today we had our first drama class. Quite fun, and very humourous, although I'm not used to acting. I acted in The Tempest once-a Shakespeare play when I was in grade 5, and I did a video assignment back in ITE. Those are the most impressive already =/. Today was basic though, and we had to do short skits. My group's was quite simple: I snatched a bag from a girl who was with her friend... a stranger knocks me down and takes the bag from me, then runs away himself! LOL. Other groups did various ones, and they all involved relationships, heh. Cute.

Had figure studies after that. We needed to do a live sketch in class, except with all the details this time, unlike last semester. I did alright, although I didn't do much of the background. I slacked in the arcade, and played Time Crisis 3, hoping to complete the game with two credits like last time. I died at the final boss, with those laser/electric tanks. Pfft!

Today was the first time I took public transport back home too. Zhan Yang drove me on Monday, and since I needed to help move out one more table from our old place, my mom came and I drove back. Today though, I took the bus at rush hour, and slept a hell long time in the bus as a result. Oh, by the way, Singaporeans, if you think Singaporeans are inconsiderate when it comes to public transport, you haven't met Malaysians yet. Trust me on that.

Oh yeah, I think most of you can see I changed my blogskin. This is a Silent Hill based one, with pictures from the movie and Silent Hill Origins game. I was just bored of my old Christian based one, so I made this horror skin in about an hour. Ended up better than I expected. I love darkness, everyone knows that, so this skin shouldn't be a surprise. The song is the introduction song of Origins by Elizabeth Mary Glynn, and her voice is fantastic! I've heard her voice a few times and it's very beautiful and sultry. This song is very dreamy and soothing too. Everytime I hear this song I feel very relaxed, and has made me sleep when I'm just resting for 5 minutes. It's that good.

Chronicled
10:20 AM

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Monday, January 5, 2009

This is what happens when you accidentally fall asleep while leaving yourself online. Everyone, I'm so sorry I didn't reply!

Chronicled
5:42 PM

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Well, I'm back in KL now, and I'm quite sleepy at the moment.

My final day in Singapore was spent with Debbie, Joycelyn and Liana, and we watched Bedtime Stories! I was so damn reluctant, 'cause the title is such a turn off, seriously. But throughout the movie I laughed heartily and I enjoyed the movie tremendously. I seriously recommend it! It's slightly fantasy, but the jokes and humour are top notch, and it's a great movie, except for the damn title.

Group picture, my final picture in Singapore, heh.

I went back to KL on Friday and took a long rest. Next day was service, and Pastor Kevin preached a message about visions and values, and our strategies to work towards our visions and goals. Very refreshing and energizing sermon to kick off the new year's first service! The praise and worship was also doubly stronger, and His presence was like just so tangible. Aye, very good start for the new year. It was also great to catch up with the cellgroup again, after half a month. Fellowshipped with Natalie's cellgroup later on. Heh, good times.

Speaking of the new year, school has just started today. I thankfully passed all my subjects (was super worried I'd fail Malay!) and was originally in AD085-1, the first class for majoring in advertising and graphics design, my chosen course. However, I had a few problems with my class, because of the timetable. Firstly, there's a class on Friday that begins at 5:30pm and ends at 8:30pm. Geez! I come to school in the afternoon and leave at night! Forget it! Plus, there's still classes on Saturday! Figure studies 3! I hate classes on Saturday, 'cause it always makes me tired when I'm going to church later on. Plus, doesn't waking up early on a Saturday morning just spoil your mood?

I sent a letter of appeal to change class, and it was approved, I ended up in AD085-2, which has an earlier Friday class and no school on Saturdays! Finally. I came super early though, since I'm living in Cheras now. No more driving to school. Pfft, now I take public transport like every other sucker without a car (no offence). Let's see... Malaysian LRT system, some of the stations are practically HIDDEN. Yeah, HIDDEN. They're like in the middle of some random roadside and deep in there. Then some of the carriages don't have connectors with each other, so each carriage is a box by itself, making it more squeezy and therefore, more hot. It's also thinner and shorter than the Singapore MRTs, which makes it all the more cramped. Oh, there's also a lot less eye candy on the trains too. I mean this morning there was quite a few, but on all my other rides, nearly none! Mostly what I see are the Malay girls wearing the veils. I mean, at least some eye candy would be good for a ride. The guys outnumber the girls quite a bit. The cramped conditions don't make it better at all -.-.

Okay, enough with the complaints! I'm gonna be taking it every day, so might as well get used to it. So anyway, first day of school. I had perspective studies today, and we had Darren as our lecturer. Not bad, quite a humourous guy, but serious too; seems like a good mix. We needed to go around outside and do 2 sketches of a place which showed obvious perspectives. I spent over an hour on my first, and 10 minutes on my second, due to lack of time. Comments? Not bad, and I have understanding of it. Whew!

My new class is alright though. I was hoping to be classmates with a few other people, like Marcella, Miki, Wai Kwan, Susan and Winnie. Sad to say, for many various reasons, they're not, even though they were "supposed to" (long story, sorry I'm lazy). And if you notice they're all girls, its because there's no real close guy friend I have taking advertising. So yeah. Don't assume so much! Anyhoo, almost a third of the class is from my previous class. Let's see... there's Ryan, Kin Yaw, Wai Yern, Mei Linn, Elaine and See Jek. Then from the other classes I know Angela and another girl who (you guessed it) I've forgotten her name. I did shake hands with a guy though, but I find it hard to remember Chinese names, so yeah, sorry!

I guess it'll take some time to know my class better. In half of our subjects we're split into 2 groups though, so it might be harder. Plus I don't have any outright close friends in the class. My previous classmates who are in the same class are all from Kongkamness, and although I'm on good terms, there's nothing very close and personal between them and I, because we never hung out that much. It's almost like being in a whole new class again. Well, so be it then, I'll see what happens, and how I'll work it out. Just like I did when I first joined the school. Just don't let me be the freaking class monitor again!

Chronicled
9:22 AM

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Saturday, January 3, 2009

Part 3, the final part of my "Journey in Singapore". Corny title, I know -.-.

On Monday I went to Republic Poly again, this time to visit Joycelyn, who asked me to audition for a character in her final year portfolio. Well, I don't know what to say about my acting skills, except that I spoke fast, as usual -.-. She starts filming after school starts though, so I can't help out. My character was the main character, a suicidal guy who ends up having leukemia and dies, and that inspires my girlfriend to commit suicide. Right -.-. Liana was there too, plus a certain Claire and someone I've forgotten.

Later on, I went to meet up with Khar Loo and Michelle Lee, who were in Suntec City. We had like no idea what to do, where to go, and even what to eat, so it was messy, lol. We ended up eating at Just Noodles (but I didn't eat noodles =p, and come to think of it, neither did they). We were thinking of a movie, but The Spirit was a bit late, and I didn't want to watch Bedtime Stories (I don't need bedtime stories when I'm 19, get it? Eh? Eh? Oh nevermind...). We spent some time at the arcades and mostly just walked around talking. Got to know them a bit more, and I told them a few of the hellish things that happen when you go in between the 2 countries daily. Heh... I accompanied Khar Loo back home later. Okay, simple day, but still quite enjoyable.

At one of Suntec City's fountains. I don't know why the hell I look so uptight. Geez.

Tuesday I met up with Tiffany, and Lynette and Sandy too. We met at Vivo City, but went to Orchard, to Borders, because Lynette wanted some books at 40% discount. We were introduced to a few of her friends, Edwin, Josh and another guy who's name I can't remember. How come for these 2 weeks, there's always one person who's name I'm forgetting? Later on we had food at a Japanese restaurant, and separated from the guys. The girls and I went shopping in Plaza Singapura, which looks the same as when I last visited. We were like dead tired from a long day, and Lynette, Tiffany and I took Causeway Link back to Malaysia, and slept throughout the journey. It was freaking fast though, which pissed me off 'cause I was like expecting a longer period to sleep. Oh well. I went home and KO'ed on the bed.

Tiffany KO'ed in the cafe at Borders. Lawls, Cheapcheap.

On Wednesday, New Year's Eve, I went clubbing with Tiffany and Lynette. This time, we went to Dolce, which is a club in the Zon, a major hotel in JB, which also happens to be my dad's workplace. My dad warned me of the dangers there, and told me a few stories that happened recently. Let's see, some guy got killed with a screwdriver stabbed straight into his stomach, one Korean guy hitting on a girl got beaten up by the boyfriend and gang, and one Indian guy smashed a flowerpot over a Chinese guy's head for hitting his friend (LOL, I thought you only see that in movies). Okay, we walked to Dolce from Tiffany's home, and met up Lynette's friend Shawn. Or Sean. Or Shaun. I don't know which spelling it is, geez, 'cause I know quite a few "shawns" and they've all got variations in their name -.-. Anyhoo, his dad had reserved a table, and also let us in without the cover charge. Thanks Shawn/Sean/Shaun's dad! We met more of his friends inside. Dolce is pretty small, but quite cozy and very bluish, which gives it a very cool feeling. Anyhoo, we counted down inside the club, and sprayed each other like mad with those snow sprays! We had 2 tanks of Carlsberg beer, and a bottle of tequila. Yeah, BOTTLE! DAMN! Woots! After a few shots everyone was high, including me! I was sober, but at least intoxicated slightly, which is an achievement, at last -.-. Thank tequila!

We were going off soon, so before we left, I finished the tequila left in the bottle (greedy me, sorry), and gave the table away to a really cute girl and her friends. Outside, Tiffany and Shawn/Sean/Shaun were pissed drunk. And Tiffany threw up. Geez. We had a meal later on, and I was driven back home. Thanks dudes! It was a fun night, even though it was mainly just drinking and chatting.

Oh, yeah. That was like the cheapest kiss I've ever gotten in my life? Heck! It's been a really long time since I kissed a girl too. Excluding a very unintentional kiss at a club a few months ago (which I still continually apologize for), it's been years since I've kissed a girl, aunties and grandmothers not included. People let go of themselves when they're intoxicated, and you see (or show) a side not normally seen. Me? I'll admit it, I was jealous that night. For what? Honestly, I don't know. Jealous for nothing. How's that for pathetic?

Chronicled
9:41 AM

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Alright, part 2. The weekends were spent with the cellgroup mostly. Saturday was very messy. I needed some money, and my mom couldn't transfer me the money, due to some problem, so she asked me to go visit Uncle Miki (not my classmate Miki, who's a girl by the way), and get the money from him, and she'd pay him back. Okay, he works in a carpark near the checkpoint, so I thought that when I reached the checkpoint, I'd go down and get the money, then go back. I had forgotten though, and due to the layout and all of the new checkpoint (it looks damn nice, but all the extra walking is really unnecessary) I was in Singapore before I remembered that I had no cash. I went back to Malaysia, and at the Malaysian Checkpoint, since I had a Malaysian passport, they usually just scan it and let me go. The officer stopped me though, and said I had a case, a federal case. I'm like what? Since when? He led me to another officer who told me about the problem.

About 2 years ago, I was rejected entry from Malaysia, with my Canadian passport. Just for those who don't know, I used to go in and out of Singapore daily to go to school, and I used a Canadian passport. Inside, there was a special pass, that needed me to stamp my passport only once a month instead of daily. At the time, it was the due date, and I went to the foreign passport lane. Lucky me, it was the same officer that had gotten me in trouble last time. You see, I had a Malaysian IC, but a Canadian passport, which led to complications. This moron found trouble for me and brought me to the HQ that time. Thankfully though, 2 officers (one Chinese lady and another Malay guy) fought for my case and eventually I was allowed to pass, although they told me never to show the IC till I got my Malaysian passport, 'cause most of the officers wouldn't know what to do. Okey-dokey. Anyway, that same officer who gave me trouble was in the foreign passport lane, and he told me to take out my IC after looking through my passport. Heck! He remembered, and I couldn't lie, so I just took it out. He talked with his partner and the partner, predictably, didn't know what to do and suggested I go to HQ. Argh! The friendly officers weren't there, and everyone in the office voted in favor of rejecting entry.

I was pissed, and worried. I asked what I was being rejected entry for, and like they always are in the Malaysian checkpoint, they ignored me. They printed a form of rejection, and said the reason for my entry was stated there. I took a look, and it said what section blah blah blah act blah blah blah and that stuff. As if I know the codes and law of this messed up system! I kept trying to ask why I was being rejected entry, and none of them answered. One Malay officer led me out and told me that I should just keep quiet. Hell man, as if I'll keep quiet when I have no idea what I'm being rejected entry for. He flagged down a 950 and told me to get on, saying I wasn't allowed to enter Malaysia. I said that I was a Malaysian and took out my IC to show it. He said good for you, and didn't give a second glance. They can't reject a Malaysian from entering Malaysia right? But apparently he didn't care. He took my passport and IC from my hands, THREW IT on the bus floor and told me to pick it up. I mean SERIOUSLY. That was the limit, I got up to take the stuff and when I turned around to argue more, the bus doors closed and I was driven back to Singapore. Long story short, I snuck back into Malaysia later on at like 4-5am.

Anyway, I suppose this was the case that wasn't settled, and the lady said that I was rejected entry, so how did I get back into Malaysia? I told her the plain truth (excluding the sneaking back part) that I've been going in and out of the countries for the last 7 years, and no one's given me problems except for a few. She brought me into an office and told me to sit down. Later I spoke to another officer who said I was committing a federal offence because that I had 2 citizenships. Geez anyone? I told them that I surrendered my Canadian citizenship 2 years ago, and was given the Malaysian passport in return. For a period I was holding dual citizenship, with a Malaysian IC and a Canadian passport, but that was inevitable since I had a waiting time for the process. Then he asked for proof that I surrendered it. Well genius, if I didn't give it up, do you seriously think that your government would give me a Malaysian IC and passport? I don't think so, I thought that it was proof enough with my Malaysian passport and IC, but he said that wasn't proof. Then what? He said I needed a document called a Perakwan Taraf (I think I seriously mispelled that, its the correct pronounciation though). It's in KL, and I've been visiting Singapore within the last 6 months, and have been going through the 2 countries daily for 2 years since I've gotten my Malaysian citizenship, so why was there no problems till now? Geez.

I was let go though, eventually. Some senior guy said that my rights as a Malaysian take priority above all things and that you couldn't stop a Malaysian from entering Malaysia. So yeah, I went back, took the money, and went back to Singapore for service. I was late, because I was detained for close to 2 hours. When I had a Canadian passport, the Malaysian Immigration gave me problems. When I have a Malaysian passport, they still give me problems! Which reminds me of something at the Singapore checkpoint recently. There's a section in the card that you must write where your Singapore address is, but I don't fill that portion in, since I have no address. The officer asked me to fill it in and I said I had no address in Singapore, then he asked me where I'm going. I said church, then he told me to write down where my church was. I began writing Singapore Expo Hall 8, but when I was about to write "hall", he accused me "Oi, you said you go church, then now you write expo. You lying is it? Har? Har?" I'm like what? I said in a very condescending tone "My church is in expo, got a problem?" Then he gave a very retarded look and said sorry. Pfft.

Service was enjoyable though. Instead of the usual sermon and preaching, it was an interview of Sun, who had come back a while, by Pastor Kong. We basically heard from her what it was like to live a busy celebrity life, the temptations, the people, environment and the daily life, plus a significant portion talking about her extensive charity. Funny, witty and warm hearted, it was nice to just see everything from the very personal perspective from the both of them, instead of the usual "holy, pastoral" side we always see every week. My final service in Singapore was the final service of the year, and I found that really significant.

I stayed over in Ashley's place (for those who don't know the Ashley in my cellgroup, he's a guy! Despite the name). I was dead tired from traveling and the detaining part earlier, and after using his problematic laptop, I fell asleep promptly. Next day I spent a few hours at Ashley's workplace and the conversation ended up being the long history between me and Cedric Koh. Nothing you need to know =).

Chronicled
1:10 PM

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Aye... about time for an update I suppose? Heh... since I'm like covering practically 2 weeks of my travels here, I thought I'd cut it into parts. Easier for you to read, and uh... not "easier" for me to type, but oh well, what the heck.

Alright... so on the 19th I came down to JB following my mom and uncle Ben, who were driving down at the same time. I did have an ulterior motive for coming down so early to Singapore though... clubbing! Gary had told me about Double O quite some time back and said that the alcohol there was bloody cheap. It is! It only costs $12 for a vodka jug. Yeah, JUG! That's freaking cheap! Way more worth it than buying a bottle. With cheap booze, people get high easier, when people get high easier, everything's more fun. Things were a little messy, and in the end only Gary, Darren, his friend (sorry I forgot your name) and I went. It was quite alright, fun even though it's only four guys.

I drank 2 jugs of vodka plus a peach bacardi (damn nice!), plus I drank a few cups from some strangers. I don't know why I did that =/. I was still extremely sober throughout the night, which kinda annoyed me 'cause I thought the 2 jugs shoulda at least got me more intoxicated. Towards the end of the night though, due to the lack of girls, we were all trying to at least get some "female involvement". Only 50% success though, out of the 4 of us. Gary managed to dance with a girl (woots!), and I ended up getting a girl's number, who's name is Prudence. But guess what? She's a science teacher teaching chemistry in a secondary school. Aiks! Geez... I hit on a teacher -.-. Darren, the self proclaimed pro at picking up girl's didn't do anything at all! And his friend was a little too busy taking care of the rest of us when we were dead tired. Aye, it was enjoyable though, at least. But I lost my bracelet in the process. Argh!

Next day I went for service, and I surprised my cellgroup by showing up, heh. It was a candlelight service, a pre-Christmas service so to speak. As always, the candlelight service was extremely beautiful, and deeply majestic. We fellowshipped at Brian's place, which I found out is the usual place for the cellgroup meetings for them now, and after eating and watching some movies, I accompanied Jessica back home. Yeah, it felt weird accompanying her back after such a long time of not doing my "duty", haha. It was a great time catching up with her though, and throughout the bus journey we talked about her relationship stuff, my relationship stuff (as always, a mess), and Twilight. LOL.

I stayed over at Koh Wee's place, since we'd be visiting Yao Qi the next day, because she fractured her toes. Yeah, stop laughing. I don't know how you fracture toes! Toes! Aye, we chatted, watched movies and some episodes of Phua Chua Kang and Police and Thief, and fell asleep later on. Upon waking up, Amanda, his girlfriend, joined us and we went to see Yao Qi, plus Angela and Hui Fen. Had a simple time of just chatting and all, plus an interesting book that was brought along which talked about the different personalities of people. I'm mostly sanguine, and a bit choleric. Hm?

Koh Wee and I went to Junction 8 later on, which for some reason, looks a lot bigger. I know there was construction last time, but I didn't think it would make it to this size! Anyhoo, we looked around for him to buy his present for Amanda, which ended up being a pink laptop. Wowserz -.-. We spent the night doing the same things as the previous day and slept a bit, waking up at like 6am. He needed to book in to his new camp, since he joined the navy. I went to find Nicholas, since most of the Magic gang wasn't free. We played basketball at Republic Poly, after such a long time. Surprisingly, my skills weren't totally gone, and after playing an hour, I got my touch back. Yes man! We got bored of playing though, since there were no strangers to play with, and went back to his home, playing Fatal Frame 3. I loved Fatal Frame 2, but 3 felt a little different. Still fun and creepy though, at least. Later Joel came and we played some Magic, me winning both rounds. Joel looked fatter than before (no offence) and his hair was super long. I swear if you look at him from the back he really looks like a girl! Meh... after playing till evening we explored Causeway Point a bit before I headed home to JB.

Next day I just spent it at home, catching up with my dad, simple stuff. On Christmas Eve though, I went down for service again, and had our Christmas drama. Titled "Operation Save The World", it's about the Christmas story, but through the eyes of the angels instead. They're in charge of setting up the stage for Jesus to be born, in the process, things go wrong and there's all the humour, plus the cute sheep! It was a tad too short, compared to all the previous dramas, and no songs, but it was enjoyable. Kudos especially to the angels that flew down from the sides of the hall. That was really impressive. Pastor Kong then gave a short message about letting Jesus change aspects of ourselves when we invite Him into our lives. We went to Marina Square to eat Mac, of all things, and settled at some corner. We sort of counted down to Christmas, We didn't have the actual time, so we just shouted Merry Christmas when most of our phones showed midnight. Later on, there were like 5 other loud shouts of Merry Christmas from other people all at different times, so honestly, I don't think any of us got our countdown's correct -.-.

As always, beautiful; the candlelight service.

Majestic eh?

Next morning was Christmas Day itself, and we had the same service in the morning, with the drama and all, except without the candles. Afterward, the half of us who remained went to Changi Airport to eat, and chatted a bit before Hui Zhen, Esther, Jasmine, Karnex and I went to Parkway Parade to just hang around. There's like nothing new there -.-. We bumped into Fu Qi though, and Candice joined us later, then we had a few rounds in the arcade. Candice and Hui Zhen were joining Michelle and the leaders to eat, but Karnex and I, supposedly going off, ended up joining them. A lot was ordered, and I ate the most -.-. Lol. As always. I stayed over at Karnex's place and we just chatted. Next morning I played with Bobo, his dog, who's like freaking CUTE! Also patted Pretty, his other dog, who looks a bit like a hot dog, since she's getting a lot fatter -.-. Not bad, spending Christmas with your cellgroup members. Simple, but very satisfying.

Bobo is like uber cute.

Cute I say.

CUTE!

I think those pictures should wrap up this post nicely?

Chronicled
10:55 AM

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