library

Just got back from church and had dinner already. Today is the 100th anniversary celebration of the adventist church in singapore. I didn't know it had been here since 1904. It's really impressive to know that we're one of the oldest protestant churches in Singapore! Too bad during the slideshow they didn't take more photos to give us a better understanding of our work in Singapore during the 100 years. I noticed also that today's sermon was quite powerfully given by pastor kan. It's like he had really prepared this sermon well before his delivery. He gives me the impression that he's taking the dynamic presentation skills from those charismatic pastors in other churches. But well, a good thing is that he's not preaching the same style always so variety is good.

Also yesterday i had went to the doctor to get some antibiotics for my acne..grr..i was so sick about my acne condition that i had to resort to this. And i was telling myself that the reason why i have an acne breakout is because they know they have but a short time to live..hahaha...so for the next week, i'm hoping and looking forward to a new me!!!With a new face!!! And after that i'll probably go to an optician to get either a new specs or contact lenses. Glasses may suit me better as i have the studious look you see. So i have to ask different people to get their opinions on whether contacts would be fine too. Yup, with all this and a new face, it's extreme makeover!!!!muahahhahahaah.

Ok seriously, my resolution this coming week is to have my face cleared of acne and to look out for products that can detoxify my body. Oh yes, yesterday was my last day of class too!! yeah!!i'm out of school!!!!! Now i just have to sit down and start my studying to prepare for my exams which i plan to take in december. After classes this week, i had the inspiration to develop a program for the library since i was taught all the skills already. Man,i feel the POWER!!! But i'll see when i can do it...coz i have exams too..hmm

This morning my goal is to go visit the doctor after my class and get some antibiotics for my acne. It's as if the acne is playing around with me by staying there for so long. Making me feel abit down but i can't wait for next week where i'll be on antibiotics and my face will be clear again!(i hope)

Now i have to rush for class.

in class, z monster

Well, now i'm in class and i just finished one of my exercises, so i decided to write some words.

Yesterday i had a hair cut and that means i fulfilled one of my week's resolution!! What's remaining is to get rid of my acne...argh!!!!!Anyway, my dad told me to bring a bottle of chlorophyll drink and to finish it in class as he says it's good for the system. I hope that works and this is the 3rd day of me drinking green water. He bought the cholorophyll concentrate and it even has a mint flavor to go along with it, so your mouth will feel refreshed!!

Can't wait to finish the last day of class tomorrow. That means that i will have no more school and also i less chance of fighting the z monster each day. Luckily for me, last night i slept at 1145pm and so right now i'm amazingly wide awake!! I can't comprehend why 15 mins would make such a BIG difference to me for the next day. A few days ago, i read something about sleep debt. It says that alot of people thinks that you get sleepy after lunch and it's a normal response, but the article refutes this idea and says that it's because people didn't have enough sleep and have accumulated a sleep debt account that's why we get sleepy at that time of the day. It continues on to say that even if you don't eat lunch, the z monster will still come and attack you. It also says that if you don't have a sleep debt, you will not sleep no matter how boring the lecturer is...i kinda believe this theory. And it says the boring lecture actually reveals that you have sleep debt and is not a result of your sleepiness.hehe...i found all this quite enlightening.

I'll stop for now...

Driven

This week school resumes for me and today was really boring, especially after lunch. I don't know why, but at around 3pm, my brain stopped absorbing new information and i was fighting the z monster at the same time. When i got back home, it was such a big relief and thankful that it was all over. hahaa...makes it sound like sch is so bad.

I just finished watching Driven on channel 5. Haven't watched that show when it came out on cinemas and finally had the chance to watch it. As i'm an F1 fan, i was definitely interested in the show. It was a relatively good show and i recommend it as christian-friendly. It has no vulgarities, sex, adult jokes, violence and any of the contents that would make it an M-18. Best of all, Sylvester Stallone played the good guy when he was called back by his former F1 boss to race in order to help his team mate win. Through it all, not only did Stallone help Jimmy, his team mate, win but he was also the so-called reconciliater. He was the one who eased tensions among F1 peers, made friends with everyone and also encouraged jimmy to the top. Once again, it was an amazing show. Not many movies that are shown portray a main character with this reconciliatory spirit.

Pope John Paul II (1978-)

Pope John Paul II is the most traveled Pope in history, and has greaty expanded the global reach of Catholicism. He is an outspoken advocate of human rights, but his critics argue that his policies overlook the rights of women and homosexuals. In addition to renewing the ban on women priests and gay marriage, he released Evangelium vitae, which condemns abortion.
Note the words on the display screen.

Angel

this morning i was leading the lesson study so we talked about daniel chapter 4 where king nebuccadnezzar wrote it. He dreamt a dream where he saw a tree being high and mighty in the midst of the earth, and it was the dwelling place of the fowls and beasts of the earth. After that, he saw it being chopped down leaving the stump. He couldn't understand the dream and so brought before him daniel and he interpreted it to him. After a year since the dream, the king was proud and looked before babylon and said " Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?"Dan 4:30. As soon as he spoke it, a voice came from heaven reminding him of his dream and immediately he became insane for 7 years. It was only until after that then he got back his reason and acknowledged that God was the person who had full authority and power to give the kingdom to whomever He wilt. So there goes the story of the king's realisation and repentence. I guess he was lucky enough to be given such a big miracle, it's like a big slap to him that made him wake up. And i tell you, last night i was reading about the city of babylon and it was so astounding i read until i had to tell myself to stop reading because i didn't have anymore time to prepare the lesson if i kept reading. Maybe next time i can have a class then i can tell more about Babylon, that great city.

Ok, so after the lesson teaching, i felt relieved that it was all over. Actually i find the book of Daniel to be VERY interesting. In fact, if there was a story i'd recommend, it would be Daniel. It's easy to understand and exciting too because of all the miracles that happened-at least for the 1st 6 chapters.

At night, we went to nat's house for his birthday party. And i think i shan't elaborate on that..i'll have someone else talk about it..haha..coz i was one of the victims there but of course i didn't mind..at least i didn't have to eat some funny food.

Anyway, i don't feel quite well today..have some break outs on my face and that itself spoilt my day today. So the plan for next week is to get rid of those acne and have a hair cut. For the week after, i'll probably go to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned and go to an optician to get a pair of contact lenses. And after that i'll be a new Sean!!! Muahahahahah.

the persistent widow

I just read joel's blog where he quotad a parable about the friend at midnight. There is another similar story that i would like to bring up and it's called the "unjust judge" or the "parable of the persistent widow".(Luke 18:1-8)

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: ‘‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
‘‘For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
And the Lord said, ‘‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

I think the lesson here is that God is telling us even the unjust judge would answer the widow's plea as long as she is persistent. So all the more would answer our prayers when we are persistent..so keep praying!!! And happy sabbath everyone!

mouth lazy

ok it's been some time since i ranted, so i guess i'll do it tonight..

i just got back from an outing. It was supposed to be a young adults cell group outing and we were to watch a movie. Initially boon leong had suggested watching wimbledon at suntec..but at the last minute, he said the cinemas weren't showing it anymore. And besides wimbledon, we couldn't decide on what other shows to watch as there weren't any good shows there too. I turned up late for the meeting which was scheduled at 630, came at 7 along and gary,shuqin,weeleng and junjie came shortly after. Boon leong and alex were waiting there. hai, really need to be early for meetings and not be late anymore. It's got to the point where i'm late almost all the time. Thankfully i'm never late for my job interviews. Yes, and i was reflecting on why i wasn't late for job interviews. It's because i use more of my brain when planning my trips. I account for the travel time, waiting time and other unforeseen delays. But for meetings like this, i realise i only took into account the travel time...haha..that's why. Oh boy, i got to change! Start being on time!!! So for this meeting, we didn't watch any movie and decided to have dinner together at Kingdom vegetarian store at suntec. I happened to see my tennis course mate there and did abit of catch up. I think i've had a busy day in the day time so i really didn't feel like talking during the meeting. Even until now, i feel my mouth is numb and lazy and my brain is depending on my hands to express my thoughts.

And today i was supposed to have bible study with andrew. I had planned to meet him at the void deck but because of some factors, i decided to move it to tomorrow. So today i spent the time exercising and vacumming/moping the house and tomorrow will be bible study...perfect planning..hahah. Yeah, i'm a disciplined person when it comes to exercising. I try to do it thrice a week and it will always be in the late afternoon. So i can start on sunday then rest one day and exercise again. If i do that, then my third exercise session will be on thursday. But because i start on sunday, it means i can have one day to play around with and i can last until friday for my 3rd session. So i will end the week with 3 exercise sessions. yup, i do sound disciplined.

Well, tomorrow is another day, i have to teach lesson study on saturday so i'll prepare tomorrow. Make sure i prepare well so i can teach well. The lesson is on daniel and you can have a look here.

Seminar

Right now it's only 11pm and i feel abit lethargic. Today i had quite a long study session of about 5 hours.(minus breaks) So i think that's the reason for it. Thankfully we were able to get seats. I had thought it would be packed or something. It was a cool day today so studying outside without aircon was perfect.(even had fans)

Just to tell you that i came up with the geoff youlden site here. You can refer your friends to this website regarding the upcoming seminar.

It's been a long time since i posted pics, so i guess since i'm waiting for the site to be uploaded, i'll just post a picture of my computer desktop!hehe...i just downloaded a new wmp skin that sits so nicely on top. This means if i don't like any song i can just click next instead of opening wmp always.

finally

ok finally they found out that there has been a compromise on the website. And at last when you type jurongsda.org you go to the right ip address. BUT, not everything is up yet, some features are not up as i have to upload everything...sigh...and i'm still searching around for alternative web hosts. One factor is will the web host submit the site to search engines? Coz search rankings are very important.

today i'll be meeting with weixiang, barbara and joyce to study. They have to study for their O levels while i have to study for my professional cert.(and i'm behind by 2 days!!)..right now i'm still waiting for the uploading of the site to be completed..grr.

helpless

i feel so helpless that the jurong site is down. And i have no idea why they are taking so long to fix the problem!!!! At least tell me their progress or what and not leave me guessing when they'll fix it. Anyway i think i'll get another web host after they fix it.

Just saw a chinese movie "my left eye sees ghosts" acted by sammi cheng...so touching..

Jurong site down

This morning i got a call from siow huat. He told me the jurong website is down...i checked and it was down..i think someone hacked into the server. I've sent an email to support but haven't received a reply yet. I feel frustrated as it's the 2nd time something weird has happened to the jurong church site. I feel like hosting it with another company but i shall wait and see what they will say.

Here's the steve balmer mtv if you can't get enough of him

Stand up for God!

ok guess i should blog abit. Today is the Sabbath day and i just got back from cell group. It was a very enriching cell meeting because about 6-7 non-cell members came. I was very happy that this cell group is attracting such people. And we went through daniel's story about him standing up for his faith and why he didn't bow down to the image.(Daniel 3)
It's interesting that Daniel wasn't the only one who didn't bow down. I believe that God had planned to have 3 other friends to also support him and also all 4 of them took a stand for their faith. This is all about supporting one another in times of testing. Imagine Daniel being the only one, i guess the situation would be abit different because he would probably be under greater stress if he was not strong enough. So with the group support, they were even willing to die in the fiery furnace. And though that story has been told and retold, it is still a wonderful story of how we can stand firm and be bold to proclaim what we believe. In Mark 8:38, it says that "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” "

So i strongly believe wholeheartedly that whenever we have a chance, we just say what our principles are. If our friends notice we don't eat pork, don't just say "ya, i don't eat pork"..say something more to spur their interest and to get to know our faith too, something like "yes, i don't eat because of health reasons and because of what the bible says too. And also, it's not only pork i don 't eat but also seafood like prawns, crabs...". Whenever i boldly proclaim my principles, people would be very interested to know and it's a form of witnessing. So my friends, please don't be ashamed for what you believe in. Another incident i shared in my cell group was during army in pulau tekong, i was the only adventist there and so i had to carry a dummy rifle. As the bible says, we shouldn't kill and so we don't believe in killing people. That's why i had to carry the dummy rifle anyway. So obviously my friends will ask me why i was so special. I find that by telling all that they wanted to know and more, i could feel the acceptance from them. So of course the whole platoon noticed and understood why i believed what i believed. Then at the end of the course, we had a 20km route march where many platoons did it together.(more than 500 soldiers)..and i was the only guy carrying a blue dummy rifle. So because i had told my platoon mates about my believe and they understood it, i found that i had the support and it didn't make me feel that weird to be the odd-one-out. Therefore, i thank God for the opportunities he places for us to tell people our faith so that not only will they know more about christ, but maybe next time it will be easier for you too.

ok today i feel like a free being. Supposed to attend a video conference with some IT head in germany and after that i felt relieved it was over. Actually i don't even know why they asked me to attend..because in the whole discussion i only said a maximum of.......1 sentence. Firstly i'm not even hired yet and i'm called to go there...ok ok i'll stop my ranting..it's all over anyway. It was my first time attending a video conference. It was just this guy from germany and we were watching him on a big tv. The video frame rate wasn't high enough so you could see the slight lag and jerks.it wasn't smooth. I was thinking if they were using broadband and it's like that, then they better come up with a faster broadband. Even the audio was not so good. It was kinda muffled and i had to break past not only that but also his german accent. Oh well, let's put that behind me.

So today i also felt like smsing some ppl to attend friday's cell group. I smsed to 3 of them and the first 2 replied saying they were busy..then the 3rd one replied and said she would come..yippie!! Now i have to do a writeup on the pastor's page for the jurong site...hehe.

No matter what side you're on, John Kerry is on your side!

I just heard an audio file of a compilation of what john kerry (presidential candidate) has said. If it's a normal speech it's fine, but this is a compilation of all the contradictory statements that he supposedly said. Ultimately, it's just for laughs and the audio is fittingly titled "No matter what side you're on, John Kerry is on your side!"

Cellular

I just watched the movie Cellular. It's about a lady who calls a guy telling him she's kidnapped. And if he doesn't do anything, the kidnappers will kidnap the dad and the son. Ok i don't want to introduce any spoilers here so i'll not talk about the storyline. All i can say is it's a fast paced show and it reminded me alot about the other movie Phone Booth. Not that it has the same storyline..no they are so different..but i recall that the pace of Cellular is very similar to Phone Booth. Amazingly, i was right because i found out that it was the same writer for both of them. It's also an inspiring film as it show how a simple guy, who is looked down by his ex gf because he's childish and irresponsible, can do so much in desperate situations.

Changes to this blog

Ok, i took some time to have a profile picture of me. I had wanted to put a picture there but couldn't find an appropriate one so i thought i'll use one with a very plain look.
Also i changed the caption to something more appropriate as this blog emphasizes more of what i think about my surroundings and circumstances

wah i didn't realise i've not blogged for so long. So i guess i'll write a couple of stuff. Yesterday was church day and we had some of the thomson church people attending. It's their church renovation so they are visiting other churches for the time being. My mom was supposed to preach that day but last minute she got sick and so pastor took over. I was wondering it was so last minute, maybe the sermon won't be well prepared. But the sermon turned out to be good so thank God for that. In the afternoon we had an ASF(Adventist students fellowship) meeting at SDACC church. And i was asked to be one of the panel of speakers. Initially i thought i was going to be like those MPs sitting behind a long table and answering questions from the floor..haha..but then it was a simple setting with just chairs for the 4 of us and the speaker(pik yee) asking us questions only. The topic was about managing stress and from that talk i am reminded how stress can affect us negatively. For example if we have exam stress and it's too much, it not only causes us to worry alot but it results in our minds not being able to think properly. It might also cause us to have insomnia and makes us more agitated. So my word of advice....don't do things last minute....BUT if you're already in the midst of a stressful situation, then the suggestions given are to talk to friends to let it all out or to occupy yourself with something else like exercise.

For dinner, some of us went to a vegetarian restaurant in eminent plaza. It was quite fun as andrew,james, ben and jer were there along with pastor, pik yee, gary , shuqin, tc and arlene. The food was delicious. I liked the noodles particularly as it felt soft and also the sauce was appropriate for the dish. What's special about this restaurant too was that you could see the cook preparing the food. For the noodles, you could see him making it and whacking it on the table. I asked andrew why they had to whack it on the table, he said it's to show off. Then i said, maybe next time cooks will whack the dough to the ceiling to prove they have more skill. haha..And he said what if there's a lizard up there...then it will get whacked and it will wonder what hit it...hahaha...okok better get back to what i'm supposed to do.

smoking

hmm...from the place i study(tiong bahru office), as i walk from the office to the shopping centre, i notice people standing around smoking. I was thinking to myself, don't they have a smoking-section?But then again, they are not allowed to smoke in the office toilets and there are no other open-air rooms so that's their only choice. I was reminded in my army days when i went to mindef camp. It was not really an army camp but the headquarters of mindef, so you could expect that the facilities are one of the best among the army offices. That time we were supposed to collect some old computers from mindef and use it for our own camp. As we arrived, we decided to head to the canteen. And my colleagues being smokers, they went to the back-alley to smoke. For me, i didn't want to stay alone so i followed them to the back. The alley was dirty..the walls, the ground...there's even a bench there(definietly to cater to those who are smoking). I also noticed that other officers were there in their uniform smoking...hmm...i wondered that time the same question..isn't there a better place for them to "do-it"? Hmm...but i guess that's the most appropriate place for them without flouting the no-smoking rule in mindef. I don't even know whether they are allowed to smoke even outside their offices. It's the same with NUS. No one is allowed to smoke ANYWHERE on campus so one fine day, i went to a relatively deserted study bench to plug in my laptop. NUS has a few areas where you could come face to face with its natural surroundings, and the bench was the closest to it. Suffice to say, there's even a back-alley. After a while, i saw a malay guy taking out a cigarrette as he walked there and smoked away.

Then there's also my lecturer now. As classes are quite long(930-530), we do have a few breaks. There was one day where i attended a make-up class with only me as the student..so it was a 1-1 teaching session. As we came to the end of one of the chapters, the lecturer just mumbled something like "give me a min" and he went out. I then sensed it was break time. It was funny coz usually he would tell me explicitly that it was break, this time he didn't so i had to "take the cue". So after going for my toilet and water break, i came back and waited for him to come back as i surfed the net. When he came back, i could smell cigarette smoke as he talked..so that's where he went-downstairs to smoke.

With all these experiences, it seems quite sad to know that if you are addicted to something, you have to "resort" to such circumstances(go to back alleys, smoke outside) just to keep with the no-smoking rule. I think as a more general application, it's not good to be addicted(to something bad).

i'm a seahorse!

Seahorse


?? Which Creature Of The Sea Are You??
brought to you by Quizilla

just now i had a bad experience...i got a call during class time and the lady that was supposed to hire me to do the project came up with too many promises that i had to fulfill. So i blurly agreed and it was only after the call that i realised what a big mistake i made. So i called back and clarified with her that we need more time to discuss the main requirements before anything is promised...hai....haven't even started work yet and i'm faced with this kind of work-related-problem. Anyway i also need to consider about my 3 exams for this course that i'm taking. I have to take it within the next 5 months and if i take up the project and if it's a big one, then i really got to study hard and work at the same time..sigh....i need help....not that i can't accomplish these 2 tasks but it'll just be more challenging.

Yesterday as i was going back from school, at tiong bahru mrt control, i heard a boy shouting to a girl. They looked like they were 20 and he was saying something to her and staring in a threatening way at her trying to intimidate her. At once i slowed down and tried to see what was happening, something inside me wanted to go up to the guy and try to resolve the issue but then i continued walking and staring at the guy. I thought if there was no physical attack then i'll not interfere. I could see the girl teary eyed and tried to go pass the boy to go in the gantry but he blocked her way. Even the control station personnel noticed what was going on. Anyway i just walked away and hoped nothing would happen. And if something did happen, then the control station ppl would intervene. During the mrt trip back to clementi, i started to think of different scenarios like if the guy really hit the girl then what would i do. The guy is slightly bigger than average. And i thought if that happened, then i would go up and do one of 2 things..1)punch the guy or 2) protect the girl while telling the guy to stop it. Based on my belief that we should love our enemies, i decided that i shouldn't start throwing punches but protect the girl. Even though my adrenaline would be quite high then, i had to control it. That guy was probably her ex-boyfriend so i pity girls who have such guys who are not only physically abusive but emotionally abusive.

I had dinner at the market near my block coz my parents wouldn't be at home and no one to cook dinner. So on tv, they were showing zoe tay and li nanxing as a couple. And there was this part where li nanxing was shown seeing another woman. And it was only by chance that zoe tay found out coz she was at a gym with this girl and she mistakingly took the girl's phone. So the rest of the story you can figure out. Ultimately zoe left home...hmm..it's really sad to hear of such news...but they are prevalent in the world.

I love this company!!!whooooooooooooooo

Today i had a fun day lazing around. At the same time i was checking out the available controls that i could use for my next project. I need to develop a windows application so i found a suite that would be useful in developing the user interface. You just look at the screenshot and it's very cool! That means i can come up with a program that looks like that! Another thing i did today was to look at the various microsoft videos out there. I found a steve balmer song with his 2 famous phrases,"I love this company" and "Developers, developers, developers, developers.." It's just so funny, but you gotta understand why it's so funny..steve balmer is the CEO of Microsoft you see. Ok you can click here to view the "Developers" video and here to view the "i love this company" video. For the latter, you can see the CEO coming up on stage dancing around and trying to get the audience on fire.hahhaa..for the former, you hear him chanting the word "Developers" 35 times. (You got to watch the 2 videos before you listen to the song)I think he's really bought into Microsoft. Seems like Microsoft is coming up with many new technologies and that is exciting in itself. The next new release of the windows OS codenamed "Longhorn" will be out in 2006. I've seen it and it's really really cool. Not only cool in looks but also cool in how you can communicate with other applications online. The key word is interoperability and one cause is using XML web services to do so. Also, Sun Java and Microsoft have agreed to work together so that both their products are more interoperable and that benefits the consumers of course. But they'll still be fighting and improving their products. That's what consumers want too. And we as customers, we just sit back and relax.

ok today i got back early from church. Reached home about 5pm. Had a birthday party for pik yee in one of the classrooms before that. And also we had testimonies by weixiang, junjie and wayne. Really inspiring to know that God has touched each one of them and brought them to where they are now. And jurong church needs more people like them!!!!

After having had 1 week's school, i guess tonight is the time to relax and just laze around. I thank God that i had a wonderful week even though it was packed with school. I feel that i'm getting back on track to what God wants me to do. And i hope that i stay on track. I'm thinking of starting a training program in church(just at the back of my mind) because i found out that all these years, we haven't got any. And it's all left to those people who are interested to study the bible themselves to be good at it. So i guess with this training program it will help alot. Now that many of the youths are having bible study, it's time to focus on the teachers themselves. In my school, we have Microsoft Certified Trainers to come and teach. And these teachers definitely were trained properly before they taught. And i find that such a system would benefit everyone if employed into our church. But, i really need God's wisdom and guidance in this matter. Also hope that there'll be other people who shares the same idea.