Meeting Dancing Pris

Another Sunday in the office... doing duty... Sian...

Doing duty again on Deepavali, which is coming tuesday... Sigh... Dunno how many more extras have to clear? TWO? THREE? Getting sian of doing duties already.

Got a lot of work that I want to settle today, but I never got round to doing them.. Maybe after this blog.

Yesterday I met DancingPris for the 1st time. Many moons ago, We got acquainted through reading each other's blog. Then after that I realised that she's also in the SAF and we are colleagues in the Guards formation. We exchanged a few emails and sms-es but have never met up before. But on friday evening night, she sms-ed me, asking if she can come to church with me.

It totally took me by surprise but am more than happy to bring her to church. So that's how we met for the 1st time yesterday. My 1st impression is that she looked very much like a friend from long time ago. Haha.

I'm glad that I can bring a friend to church. And I'm even glader that she will be coming again next week. It's been a long time since I brought anybody to church. Hopefully there will be more in time to come.

Love your neighbour.

"It may be possible for each of us to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or the weight, or the burden, of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talked to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship - or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming posibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours."

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.

This is another favourite quote by C.S Lewis. It reminds us that everyone we meet is someone special, someone unique, someone with an eternal destiny. And everything we do with them, to them and for them has, regardless of magnitude, eternal consequences.

Love your neighbour, for what you do and do not do will have an impact on the both of you.

Eternally.

To B or not to B?

Yesterday was a busybusy day. Was totally burnt out by the end of the day. Maybe I had my life too easy before. That's why yesterday so shacked.

"Every obstacle is an opportunity for growth"

Dunno where I have heard that before, but I think it is very true. Stress is a good catalyst for the development of strength. I think I should feel stronger today, if not for the fact that I feel so sleepy.

But at least I completed my basketball team!! Haha. That is ONE MAJOR STRESS RELIEVE. Although I know that I will not have a very good basketball team to fight the rest of the army, but at least we can participate and be represented. Thanks to CPT Ivan for his kind and wonderful support.

I saw this is the Newpaper 2 days ago...



Ipod trade in for Ipod!!! Wahaha. It's a dream come true! Now I can trade my Ipod Photo for an Ipod video. It says the trade in program starts from the 3 Nov. So that means its more than 1 day right? Maybe can go down and take a look 1st.

Should I get the Ipod Video? Wait they come out with Ipod Video + Camera how? Or Ipod handphone + Internet access & Global Positioning System? Or... an Ipod Ferrari!!???? (Red colour wan hor.) That's an idea eh? Maybe I can sell this idea to the Apple people.

To buy or not to buy? That is the question.

But what is the answer?

Freedom and Humility

Humility is a difficult virtue to obtain. For the harder you try, the less humble you become. To obtain humility, you must never try to be humble. That is the last thing you must do.

In fact, to be humble, the very thought must be the furthest from you mind. Humility is the one virtue which is unobtainable, unless you don't try. The minute you try, you have failed.

You must think of everything else but "I must be humble." And you must never think that you have obtained "humility". For when you say that "I am humble", it is a clear indication that you are not.

Like freedom - the minute you say "I am free", you realize that suddenly you have a lot of work to do.

Humility, like all Christian virtues, must be given away to receive. Give and you will receive. Teach and you will learn. Bless and you will be blessed.

What does luck have to do with it?

I sent my car for its 10,000km service today. 10,000km liao, so fast I have been driving my car for more than half a year liao.

Call it fate, call it coincidence, call it fate; I saw my friend Charles Phoon at the service centre today. Heehee, he send his Cerato there for repair cos of scratches and everything. So we wait there together.

Then after that, just before I leave, I saw my good friend Desmond. Wahaha. His Rio got banged by taxi. Right now, there is only 2 person I know that drives a KIA car. And they are boh at the service centre with me. Wahaha. What are the odds of that?

Everybody, buy 4D for my car plate number!!! 1372. Wahaha.

The. Day. Is. Slow.

The days now are much much slower now that there is nothing much to do. A lot harder to get by too... Cos its so boring.

Like today, I have to attend this boring meeting on behalf of my CSM. 2 hours plus there also dunno what they talking about. So I play with my handphone until the battery went dead. Wahaha.

So So Slow... Until I think I can fall asleep while walking...

I need to spend more time doing more constructing and useful things.

-------------------------------------------

Sometimes its hard to be a good person, to do something good for people. Sometimes you do it so often and so much that they forgot it is a delibrate act, with sacrifices to make and prices to pay. It becomes so commonplace that sometimes people take it for granted, and think that it is "normal" for you to do something for the good of others at your own expense.

That's very true of human nature isn't it?

But sometimes people do remember. To a friend: Thanks for remembering.

Happy Birthday FF

Today's the day!!!!

Today is FF's twenty... er... something's birthday!!

Happy birthday babe!!!!

I need basketball players!!!

Urgh!

Life sucks. I'm suppose to be the convenor for inter-formation basketball competition. Could not go to Australia because of this stupid basketball thing.

And now, I can't find anybody to play!!!! Argh!!!!!!!!

Now I can't even form a team of 8 players. (5 + 3 reserves)

Deadline is this friday!!!

Argh!!!

Help. Help....

God please help.

Numa Numa Flightplan

Me had a lot of plans today. Heehee. It's amazing I'm still functioning now. Cos, as I said in the previous post, I only slept for 3 hours yesterday.

Ready to concuss anytime.

I realised I left my pouch at my friend's place after playing Risk last night. Got more than $3000 worth of cash and prizes inside. Thank God he is an honest to goodness Christian and he did not even open to see what is inside. =)

I got so many things to do today and I was late for everything. And I think partly due to the lack of sleep. I was late to meet my friend to collect my pouch. I was late for a church meeting and I was late for the movie flightplan.

Miss E said that now I cannot scold her for being late for movies. =(

Flightplan was not bad. Better than expectation lah.. Or maybe my expectation for this movie is very low so its easy to meet. Haha. Prior to the show I read some bad reviews about the movie so I not expecting very much from it. Even thought that I would fall asleep during the show. Haha. But compared to the Election I watched on Friday, I think the Election was much better.

Being playing the Numa Numa song ever since I got it yesterday. (Its the song in the funny video and Chicken Little video I linked in my post yesterday) Wahaha. That's me. I always over-do the things that I like. Like for example take this song - I should be numa numa-ing for the next 3 days non-stop. Then after that I would be sick of it.

Anybody wants to watch Chicken Little with me? Then we can numa numa together after that.

Wahaha

I am a Pacificist.

Sometime earlier this week, one of the guys in my cell group sent out an email with the title "anybody wants to play risk this saturday?". Inside the email there is not message. Cos the the title is already the message in completion.

Dun tell me you dunno what Risk is.*

I was inclined to reply with my cliched "who what when where why?" but ended up to lazy to. Haha. sometimes, I will reply in the "5W's" when people ask me to do something. Like:

WK: Want to play mahjong?

Me: who what when where why?

WK: you, me, plus XX and YY
WK: play mahjong
WK: now
WK: my place
WK: bored

Ha!

Anyway, as I was saying, somebody from my cell group proposed Risk as the after church activity for the week and since I got nothing (better) to do, I decided to join them too. I personally am not very well versed in the game plan and strategies of Risk management and I almost never play the game. So this is one of those times I just join for the fun of it.

Wahaha. I really regret after that cos the crazy people played until 5 am in the morning. I had better spent the time sleeping. Therefore, from today on, I declare:

I am a Pacificist.

* If I am someone else reading my blog, I will put in the comment "OK, I dun tell you lor..." Haha!!

Friday Friday

I blog about last night. Last night was fun. Jade was suppose to get the result of her work yesterday. Either Pass, Fail or Re-submit.

Well, she did not get Re-submit. But then she did not get Pass or Fail either. Turns out that only those who have to re-submit their work got to know their results yesterday. Those who either pass or fail will only know in Decemder. Ha.

Oh well, gotta continue to pray for her then.

After that we went to celebrate. Haha. To reward her for her 2 weeks or hard work and sleepless nights. Heehee.

First, we went to Mache for dinner. Very long never go Mache liao leh. Ate a lot. Got Steak, Calamari, Sashimi (that's her favourite), Rosti with Cheese sausage (thats my favourite, in Mache) and Root Beer. Writing about it makes me hungry again...

Very expensive leh... Wahaha. But she never complain... Only I complain... Haha.

Highlight of the evening was watching Election at Tiong Bahru Plaza's Golden Village Cinema. I only watch at GV because I can get tickets for $8.00 at weekends, where everybody is suppose to pay $9.50.

Has anybody seen the Chicken Little Trailer? (I dunno if the other cinemas are showing the same trailer cos, as I said, I only watch movies in GV cinemas.) Its the trailer with the Numa Numa Song. IT IS SO CUTE!!! Haha. Cannot take it.

BTW, I just managed to find the link here.

Go see and tell me cute or not. Haha.

Found another funny video while looking for that clip. Seems like its quite big in Europe or something. Haha. Remember to on your speaker to full blast before you start the video. Now you know there's a lot of bo liao people in this world.

Anyways, I was saying, I went to watch the Election. It some Hong Kong triad movie with Louis Khoo and Simon Yam. Great movie I think. And I suspect it will be better than Flightplan. (But I will comment on that again tomorrow after I have watched Flightplan.)

It was about some HK triad electing their new Chairman and how the people fought to get the Dragon Baton, which is the symbol of authority of the Chairman in the triad. Really nice movie. Unless you have an unexplained intense hatred for HK triad movies, or any HK movies for that matter, its really a good watch.

Oh ya... for those reading my blog for the 1st time or 1st few times, Jade is not my girlfriend hor... Heehee

About a quote

Hey hey! Its Thursday night!! I can't remember when is the last time I blogged on Thursday night.

Everything is totally slow today. Totally bored. Read a lot today. Read until my eyes blur. Now my eyes very blur...

Pretended to do a bit of work. Really a bit only. Wahaha.

Practically nobody was in camp today. So sian...

Had an argument with a friend just now. About the quote by CS Lewis that I put in my profile. She says the quote is very unbiblical, which I think she totally got it wrong. Never mind that, my question is - That paragraph really so hard to understand meh?

What you think when you read my profile? Gabrielle, maybe you can help. (cos you read CS Lewis also) Or anyone else. Never mind what transpired between me and my friend earlier. What I want to know now is, what you all think when you read the profile?

Babe, if you are reading this (which I'm sure you will), this is nothing against you k? I just want to know what the rest think about the quote

Happy Be-earlied Birthday FF

Met FF to celebrate her birthday today. No, today is not her actual birthday. It will be another week before her actual birthday comes. But by then she will be in D.C with her GCB.

Remember I asked what to get her for her birthday? Thanks for all your suggestions but I did not use any of them. I thought for a long time and decided that she might like a small portable speaker for her Creative Zen. She likes gadgets and stuff mah.

But she disagreed.

She felt that what she needs more now is some books to read on her 26 hours flight to Washington D.C. So, I got her some Kinokuniya Gift Vouchers instead. Anyway, she said she got the speakers she need already.

On hindsight, maybe I should get her some insecticide or something... to help her get rid of unwanted creatures like The Pest and The Bug... Haha....

We had dinner, together with Miss E, at this place called Central at Takashiyama Basement 2. I enjoyed my fried noodles but I think the girls did not enjoy their orders as much. Not cheap though... $6.50 for something not unlike Magi Mee.

We went Dutch as usual. FF likes to go Dutch whenever we go out, be it dinner or movies. I dunno how the Dutch does it and why FF likes them so much... but, ya.... we went Dutch as usual...

Gave her the Kino vouchers during dinner, which she proceeded to buy her books after that.

Now I feel hungry again.

After dinner, I went to Changi Airport to send my guys off who are going to Australia. Sigh... I really wanted to go but no choice, have to stay and organise Inter Formation Basketball.

I'm feeling very rich these few days. Cos I was given advance pay this week. The money was for November but I was given in advance because at first I was to go Australia. Servicemen going overseas will be given advance allowance so that they got money to spend when they are there.

Yes, I am spending future money. But still, I feel very rich. So I bought a couple of stuff for myself, including a second hand Wah pedal for $190. Eh, you ask what's a Wah pedal? Eh.. It's a electionic effect that makes my guitar goes "wah wah~". Hahaha. It's the Jim Dunlop 535Q Crybaby leh. High class stuff.

Damage for the day:
Dinner - 10
Kino - 100 (including my own guitar magazines)
Petrol top up - 100
Wah pedal - 190
Total Damage - $400

Sheesh... Now then I realised I spent so much today... Pocket really damaged...

New profile.

Just updated my profile.

To love is to be vunerable. Love anything, and your heart will definitely be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenettable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of Love is Hell. - Clive Staples Lewis, The Four Loves.

C.S. Lewis is my favourite writer.

Emergency Emergency!!!

Help help!!!

I'm meeting FF tomorrow to celebrate her birthday before she flies of to another guy... But I havent got her any presents yet!! How ah? Any suggestions?

Comments?

Help Help Help!!

Here we go again

This has been a eventful week. I have quite a few things to blog actually, but I think I will make it short again.

Next week. Next week my guys will be flying off to Australia and I had to stay back to organise some basketball thing for the formation. Low morale to the max. But still, I will have more time for blogging.

Since some of my guys are going to Australia next week, I spend most of my time doing home visitations. Part of the army directive. Not too bad. Had a good time getting to know their parents.

Then I met Xenarenes on Wed evening. (No, she doesn't update her blog anymore.) Its been a long time since I last saw her. Haha. Got the S.H.E Encore Album that she bought for me 4 months ago. (she knows I had a thing for Hebe) Wahaha. I think S.H.E had come up with a new album already. But still, I had a good time catching with her.

What did I do on Thursday? I forgot already... Hmm.. Never mind. Oh ya, I did home visitation again, then went back home.

We had company cohesion on friday, playing bowling at Tampines SAFRA. Ok lah. I'm not really into bowling and barely managed to bowl 100 points in my second of 2 games. Haha. Was suppose to do more home visitation after that but too tired already. Decided to go for cell group instead.

Saturday was more interesting for me. There was this community service trip I was suppose to to go this December, in China and we were raising funds for it. We spent the morning baking cookies and tried to sell them to our friends. Heehee. Had a lot of fun there.

In the evening, I went to watch Deuce Bigalow, European Giogolo with some of my friends. Quite a disappointment actually. The 1st one was much better. In my opinion, any comedy that relied on slapsticks and crude humour is not good comedy at all.

Something else happened on saturday. I did not tell anyone and I have no intention of revealing too much here. I would just like to say... that... maybe my time is not here yet. Some heart aches and disappointments... Nvm... Think I've said enough.

On a more cheerful note, I saw something nice on Miss Slow's blog. She wrote about me. Very touched. Thanks babe. It was really sweet of you. Sorry I was quite busy and only saw the post now.

More importantly, last week was my 1 yr blog anniversary. Yup. That's right. I have been blogging for one year already. Check out the 1st post, 11 October 2004 and the few posts in the months following that. I think I was really depressed then, and I took to blogging to release my frustrations and disappointments.

If you have followed my blog from the beginning like some of my friends have, I think you will see that some of the things I wrote changed a lot from the last time. At least now not so depressing... Haha.

Maybe if I got time I will go through my past entries and highlight some of the more interesting posts I made in the past year.

Another week gone

Well, another week has come and gone again. Another time to sit down and reflect: What have I acomplished this week?

Nothing much, other than work, work and more work.

My teacher once ask us during class : "How do you define success?"

The answers from the class is almost uanimous:

"To make my 1st million by the time I'm 30 years old"

I am amazed by the uniformity of the answer. Or maybe I'm the weird one. These are not kindergarden kids mind you. They are under-graduates, Engineeres-in-training and honours holders-to-be.

To me, success is a bit different. At that time I wrote "Success is to know that I have made the place a little better than it was before." or something to that effect. Much to the scorn of my classmates.

Anyway, my point is, I think I haven't done much to make the place a little better, for you and for me and the entire human race. Like what my pastor preached last week, I focus too much on the urgent rather that the important.

I need to remind myself to focus on what is important in my life. Again.

This week's sermon is on the condition of our hearts, which I think my heart is in pretty bad condition as well. Sigh... I think I need a lot of help to get my heart right and in line with God's.

Had 2 x wedding dinners to attend this weekend. And everybody is starting to ask when my turn is coming. And its making me feel a little desperate now...

Haha. Oh well... I'm trying very hard... but the fact is nobody wants me.... sigh....

BTW, Congratulations to Desmond and Dixie!! Here's wishing you all the best in you marriage.

And I watched the Andy Lau show today. Its a movie titled "Til you are older". Its about a little boy who ran away from home and becomes an adult overnight and through it, finds out how much his family loved him. Very touching story. I almost couldn't hold back my tears at the end.

Makes me realise, this most important thing in life is actually your family, and the people around you, whom you loved. And Time is limited. Really.

Go tell somebody you love him or her today.

XXX XXX XXX

This is one of those days that I dun really have anything to blog and I'm just blogging for the sake of blogging.

Or just for the sake of practising my typing skills.

Dad is flying off overseas tomorrow for the rest of the week. Which means I can drive his Mecedes Benz to work while I send my own car for maintainance. 6 months into my possesion, my car has suffered numerous battle scars, dents and scratches. Its time I send it for some touch up.

But now I'm not used to driving his Merc anymore. It seems really huge compared to my tiny Cerato. I used to drive his Merc around all the time so I had no problem then. But now, after driving my mini Cerato for half a year, I'm not very confident of driving that major Merc now. Haha.

Pray that I dun add any battle scars to my Dad's car, lest he kills me when he comes back.

Gtg now. Think nowadays I need a lot of sleep, to catch up with those I lost when I was marching my 32km. I am hungry too. Cos I missed dinner. Its so miserable to be tired and hungry at the same time.

Haha.

My interview

Its getting late so I'll just write a short one.

Was interviewed today by 2 NTU students. Heehee. They say they want to interview me cos I am a reader of Finicky Feline. Haha. Imagine that: Being interview for reading other people's blog.

Anyway, I met them at NTU at 7pm today. They were actually one cute looking guy and one cute looking girl. Quite friendly. They asked me questions like "Why you read FF's blog?", "What you like bout her blog?"... etc.

The whole thing lasted for about one hour...

Haha. Quite fun. To be interviewed...

Anyway, I need to sleep... Tired... And my sprain still painful. Never go and see doctor yet...

The Agony of Defeat

It is finished.

After weeks of preparation, the time has come. In army language, it was D-Day, H-Hour: 30th September 2005, 2000hrs.

And now, it is over.

It was a grueling 32 kilometres. Plus a crossing of water obstacle at the 24th kilometre, it took almost 12hours to complete. From 8pm on Friday night until almost 8am Saturday morning, we were on the march. And we ended with a 100 metre range shoot at the Tekong 100m Range.

Totally.Shacked.Out.

All these were for the Combat Skills badge I talked about earlier, but at end of the day, its just another badge. (Haha, as if I got a lot of badges like that)

What is more important is that my whole Company walked together and we completed the thing together, except for some of the guys who could not make it due to medical reasons.

By the end of it, I got countless blisters on the sole of both my feet, abrasion on my inner thighs and pain on the heel of my right foot. Oh, I think I forgot to mention, that I sprained my left foot the day before the march. And it was a very bad sprain. And I had to do my 32km with my sprained foot. Painful all the way!!!!

Now, the sprain felt worse and more painful. And I can walk properly since the end of the march. I dun even know which leg to limp on since both my feet hurts quite badly. Every step is pure pain and agony.

That's why the title of my post is "The Agony of Defeat"

=> De Agony of De Feet

WAHAHA.

And now the display name for my MSN is "My name is Ping, Lim Ping". (Some of my friends din get it and I have to explain to them... Sigh..)

Haha. I am so lame I can't stand myself. Sometimes you can spot the lameness of some of my entries and now, you can also see how lame I am from the way I walk too!!