I know it's already the end of January, and I have yet to post any updates here. Oh well, since I have completed two project deadlines, might as well take a breather and share something with you people.

The word "sleep" almost disappeared from my dictionary this whole week, given the fact I had to attend the lunar new year visitings and trying hard to complete all the work that were piling up. The CADM project was the major one, wasted the last 3 days before the weekend trying to get it right before the actual printing of my works. This was not the end, i had another deadline, also on the same day but different timing. Rushed through the power point slides throughout the night before Friday morning, and I was supposed to meet Louis as he was driving. Well I ended up falling asleep and woke up late when the meeting was at 8am.

So this was what I endured during this whole 5 days. And the good news is, I have not gotten anything for pot luck, which is today! It will be held at Joseph's place, Simei. Adelene reminded me and Kok Chye to plan games during the potluck session. Lots of things going through my mind right now. The word "stress" is getting heavier as the day goes by...

Assignments and events next week:

"Safety at Work" presentation on Global Warming.
Engineering design class test.
Aircraft System & Avionics System comprehensive test.
Engineering Design submission of project + Interview
Preparation for CADM final class test.

I will laugh if I still become normal after all this crap...

Sorry if this post bores you, I have nothing good to say... Just complaints.

Firstly I would like to wish all of you readers a prosperous happy Chinese New Year and "GONG XI FA CAI!" May everyone be blessed with lots and lots of red packets, indeed it is still the period of the economic recession, but I'm sure God will not forsake us for He will protect and bless us during this CNY season.

Today's the second day of the lunar new year, I am not sure whether I would be going visiting again. But there's one thing I know, the number of red packets that I collected has dropped drastically. Too bad my circle of relatives is very small, if not... *Evil grin =/

Alright then! That's all! Will post again when I have the time. Please tag before you leave. =D

GONG XI FA CAI once again...

One birthday down, one more to go before the start of February. The ATFKERS and I celebrated Trey's birthday not long ago, and I want to thank God because the attendance was full! In addition, Trey's girlfriend Junie turned up too. I must say the whole celebration was a success, due to our enthusiasm in the games that we played, and our camwhoring period! It was us that made it happen, but Trey's presence made it special.

It was a super long morning, and I was late for lesson, once again. Plans and ideas were running through my mind as to what I should do on a Tuesday afternoon, since it was Trey's birthday and lessons always ended early on Tuesdays. So here was my plan outline:

Complete E-Learning on SOM
Sleep in the afternoon
Running in the afternoon
Wash up, prepare to meet the pilots in campus.
Birthday celebration in the night.

Try to guess which of the following activities I did not accomplish. I think some of you have the answers in your mind, if you know me really well.

In the evening, I headed to town with Jermaine, Yicheng, Tiger, Wilfred and Louis. The others had something on, so they met us during the night. Went to "Gatoumok" and funny things happend. Had a haircut for 18 dollars due to CNY and it was worth the money, given the fact Louis, the skilled hairstylist attended to my hair. Then I went for some shopping, acquiring jeans from Levi's and a polo tee from Giordano. Spent quite alot on these stuffs, but there is something I am quite unhappy with.

I strongly discourage you all to go to the food court at Takashimaya! Seriously, I ordered this plate of "chap cai peng" and it cost me 5 bucks! The meat I chosen was all bones, only 4 cubes of mutton and a pathetic amount of vegetables. It was hyper inflation lo! My dinner was totally ruined. Heed this advice, never ever offend your stomach.

Finally the main man came with his girlfriend, and we all settled down at Gloria Jean's beside Cineleisure, and everyone finally arrived. Started off with a birthday song, followed by the presentation of the present from the ATFKERS. Then it was the moment of camwhoring! You can see the pictures on Tiger's or Trey's blog if you have their links. I am not a fan of posting pictures on my blog, but I am serious camwhorer! Relaxing there with them is something we have not been doing for a long time. Then came some random games where Trey and Junie both did the dance forfeit choreographed by myself. =) Well, unfortunately they were both shy, so s too bad you will never get to see their video.

All in all it was really memorable for each and everyone of us, and upcoming next would be TZR!
It's time to break a hole in our pockets again... Just kidding.

At least I can take a breather for now, as my CADM assignment showed optimistic improvement in progress. In the next hour, it would be both my pal Trey and Joan's birthday! I am still planning the outline programme for tomorrow. It's going to be a full day for me, so more rest is needed.

While I was traveling home from campus, I saw this accident that occurred along the expressway inside the bus. A taxi driver knocked onto the motorbike, sending the rider right out of his seat. What I saw was very gory, the man was lying there motionless, with a pool of blood beside him. At that moment, a feeling of fear arose and I began to reflect on events in the past when I was young...

Never take your life for granted, please drive safely.

I have been spending the rest of my time mugging on this piece of project assignment. Though I may not know what I am doing, at least I still make the effort to do this piece of crap. And right before I can announce the completion of all my assembly parts, something happened.

All I can say is, good luck to myself if I want to score an A for this. It would be God's miracle if I manage to scrape through this semester with a GPA score of 4. My lecturers recently commented on me saying that I am beginning to become more restless in class, and starting to become complacent after the recent common test results. I will show them even I am like that, results will be produced and shown to them that I can do it.

Head out yesterday to town with ATFKERS to chill out! The attendance rate I must say, was quite impressive. Even special guest Jun Long tagged along, so this outing meant something to him, if not I am sure he wouldn't come.

Anyway it was just walking and doing some sight-seeing, and it's was really an eye-opener yesterday. As Jermaine and Yicheng tagged along too, I got to know more about them. After dinner, we sat around Far East Plaza and chatted for around an hour plus. We became bored, and wanted to do something crazy. So as usual, I volunteered to become the scapegoat again. This time, the objective was to acquire email addresses from girls. On the first attempt, I failed. It was seriously embarrassing and I felt stupid. I did not want to give up, so I tried one last attempt.

Somehow, there's this feeling telling me to go for it. So there I was, standing in front of two ladies, and began the usual speech and then... One of them looked away, the other standing looking confused.

Me: " So mind giving me your email address? "
Girl: (Ignorant) " How? Do you mind? "
Girl 2: " I'm fine with it "

I am sure you know what happens next...

Feels like my blog is dead, please bring some life to it! Always tag before you leave your net tracks.

Thank you

=)

Common test results were released last week, and it was unexpected. I took 5 papers - Strength of Materials, Applied Mechanics, Aircraft Structures & Systems, Engineering Design and finally CAD/CAM.

The scores were 99, 100, 78, 79 and 86 respectively. In addition I also received news that I got a grade B for my IS module "Understanding Relationship & Sexuality". How am I suppose to take all this in just one shot? Especially the two papers that I studied the hardest and scoring pathetic results like that. It's really something discouraging, when I really put in all my effort and heart into it. Adding on to the pile of stress is friends around me who aren't that good are actually getting results way higher than mine. I am not trying to be arrogant, but it's the first time getting results like this. Maybe in the past I'm used to scoring 90 plus average for every paper, thus taking everything for granted. This common test for this semester definitely sent a very strong warning and wake-up call to me.

So what's next? After receiving saddening results like this, I believe it's time to put aside all the fun time, and push myself and prepare myself for the final hurdle. Just one more month, and I will be free from all this burden. Yes I know, studying is really important, especially if you want to survive in this society. But there is more to life other than studying, like mission trips! I don't know why but I am very eager and anxious to participate in my next mission trip! Maybe I am still young, maybe I have not seen enough of the world yet. At least I can put down everything here and travel to somewhere with God, and spent quality time with Him, rather than being stuck here and facing temptations everywhere around me.

Just hang on for that one more month and it's time for attachment!

It's been 6 days since I last posted! Alright then, shall start a nice decent post on today's sharing during the Sunday's service. Before arriving back in Singapore, I was actually chosen to share my testimony of what God has done in my life during my debut mission trip. Sinong and Pastor Joseph's wife Jocelyn were two other teammates who were also sharing theirs.

Initially I wanted to use my mission trip posts as the testimony to share with the people in church on Sunday. Joseph told me that sharing testimony isn't something difficult at all, it is actually glorifying God's work and grace. I wasn't sure what to say, or how to say, Joseph then gave me an outline as to how a testimony is to be shared. Well I was thinking about it for the whole day, and decided to use my posts as the testimony during the sharing session. Then came this particular moment, on the night before Sunday, I was struck by this inspiration within me, somehow I knew it came from God. I quickly bathed and went on re-writing my whole new testimony.

Finally it was the day of sharing, the number of people filling up the seats in LOCCW on this day was indeed encouraging for me. Before the service started, I went up to Joseph and asked if my testimony was acceptable, and it did. Pastor Vincent then prayed for me before going up to share my testimony. So I stood up, walked to the center where everyone had their eyes focused on me.
I began sharing and spoke to everyone with confidence, though my face looked tense up when Sharity told me after the service. It was after all 3 testimonies were shared, almost everyone in the church was inspired to want to go for their first mission trip! I felt very touched and warmth because God allow me to speak through their hearts, something very encouraging and I felt very blessed at that moment.

The next part in my life is going to be determined on this Saturday, 5.30am@East Coast park. You guys might be wondering, "What exactly am I going to do there in the early morning when I can actually sleep till cell group starts?"

Well all I can say is, I will be just be going for a morning jog with missionary Dr. Tan Lai Yong. And I heard that those who always ran with him, became full-time missionaries...

Previously, I shared about punctuality and stepping out of one's comfort zone. Today I would like to share more of my experiences during my mission trip to China. Though what I say might not make an impact to your lives, I do want to challenge you to go forth and attempt your first ever mission trip. And by that time, I assure you, your first mission trip would not end there...

My objective of my mission trip was to organize a two day youth camp, as the villagers there have not done it before. It was indeed encouraging and motivating, as the number of villagers present was quite a massive one. Of course the expectations on the game programmers were naturally high. Wei Qian, Kok Chye and me were the game programmers! You could feel the stress building up around inside the church. I learnt one thing from being a game programmer, and that is getting your mind to be really super flexible! Initially the 3 of us had quite a well-structured plan as to what games to execute during the camp program. Eventually we faced space constraints and terrains that we had never seen before. Creativity and flexibility was really needed during that time. Somehow, God helped us by giving us impromptu games which managed to last for about 45 minutes during the introduction session between us and the villagers. I felt His presence during that moment of time when I really needed help for the games. Amen to that.

It was finally lunch time! All of us gathered for a moment of prayer before eating, and I could really feel the warmth of the villagers especially their sumptuous food which filled the table. One thing I learnt from this lunch session was to never waste food and take them for granted. From the villagers point of view, food is their source of strength and life. They will never ever complain even if the dish did not suit their taste buds. Oh in addition, the leftover food on the table will be kept until the next meal, for example dinner. I only found out about this when I arrived back in Singapore. Oh no... Imagine I have been eating the same thing in repetition over the 2 days..
=)

Be sure to look out for part 3 ! =)

The mission trip finally ended on the New Year, bringing back smiles, memories and everyone back in one piece. For me, I have received the greatest gift from God during the trip, which is priceless. And this gift, is getting to know more about Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

On the 25th of December, I left Singapore for my official debut mission trip to somewhere in China. Before this day arrived, I accepted Jesus Christ on the 5th of December so that I was ready for an open heart, open soul, and open mind and to face what was on the outside world. I wanted to get out of here so that I could see more of the world and seek for answers to problems faced in my life. There were lots of prayer trainings before preparing ourselves for the trip, and tagging along with me were other 9 members, including my two brothers, Kok Chye and Wei Qian. Indeed it was a blessing, cause I've known Wei Qian for almost 12 years, and it was my first overseas and mission trip with him! As for Kok Chye, I've known him for 5 years and we often seen as the "3 Little Pigs". Or you can also call us "Kok Chye & the Chipmunks".

I learnt many things from this mission trip, be it the daily morning devotions, the sharing sessions, the villagers, and the endless traveling journey to our destination. Taking the time out to really sit down and reflect was one thing I would definitely want to thank God for. Through the devotions, I actually got to learn more about what is like to be living a christian life. For example, "the fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom". This phrase struck me with a huge impact, knowing that even though what I've done is sin, and yet I continue committing the same thing repetitively.

Getting to know more about the villagers there, was something out of my comfort zone. I thought it was difficult trying to communicate with them, but I was wrong. They were a bunch of friendly people, much better than Singaporeans too. And they, like me, were also Christians too. So I started asking one of them,

Me: " How often do you travel from your hometown to your church? "
Villager: " Around 3-5 hours like that. "

I almost had the shock of my life. Traveling for hours just to come for church service, and looking back at my weekly routine of coming for church service, I should be totally ashamed of myself. The journey from my house to Christ Church Sec is like only 10 minutes plus, yet I am always late and complaining and taking punctuality for granted. I hope you readers also reflect on this, cause I am not the only one facing this kind of problem in our lives.

I believed you are quite tired after reading this much, I will post more about my trip and thoughts tomorrow.

Thank you.