And I Say

Merry Christmas. *HIC!*

Eve

Here i am, sitting down, resplendent in all my glorious clothing, which, owing to my warped fashion sense, isn't much. Red shirt (which i've been wearing far too much for formal occasions) and a black corduroy pants that i don't like, since i dislike all long pants. Oh, and that silver abstinence necklace with the amethyst pendant that i never take off. Useless thing.

I'm pretty happy, even though chritmas eve doesn't feel like christmas eve, since its as hot as ever and there's no snow *big grin*. Check the time of this post and you'd realise that in 40 minutes time (9:00pm) i'd be in church, singing christmas carols like the rest of 'em. And so on so forth until 12 midnight. Yawn. Wish i could've brought my gameboy, or plug in earbuds. Which is weird, cause i loyally attend church every Sunday, yet don't feel like going to chirch on Christmas eve. m with most people its the other way around.

Is that weird or what? ;P

2005 review

This year has been weird. I found myself in one of the many splatters of life that just happen to be spilled over the canvas of 2005. I don't like this year, mainly because its been painful to grow and to think more and more like a person my age. Gone are the days when i can bury myself in a book and laugh off the irregularities in life. So, let's have a short review.

• The single biggest thing i've learnt this year is that i can't be funny 100% of the time. It just annoys people and gets in the way of the job
• Next up in the list of things learnt would be commitment. Kenny taught me this, through Undergroundsquare, of all places *shrugs*
• And then would be how much i care on what people think of me, looks and whatever. This particular aspect of me seems to have turned more stubborn with time, shouting "I don't care!" Which is not exactly good, and not exactly bad.
• I'm now able to speak tongues, something i find particularly disturbing, coz i have no idea what i'm saying
• I'm also now able to throw people, and if it wasn't for 2005, i wouldn't have learnt how easy it is to break a human arm
• I find i'm very pissed off at my studies and how i've been faring
• Debate presented its ugly head in early 2005, teaching me teamwork and how much i need to rein in my sarcasm ;P
  
• Its also taught me arguments can go on forever when there's no real judge to tell people what's right or wrong
• And i've learnt we live in a world full of relatives, a grey line separating good and bad. Somehow the world doesn't seem so cheery anymore
• I don't like B movies
• And, i somehow find myself attracted to clean white line and simple furniture. Uh oh. Future minimalist guy, me

And that should be about it, apart from the fact that almost every event i've been looking forward to turned out to be dissapointments, and those events that i thought was going to be lousy turned out to be great learning experiences. Life seems to be ridiculing me, somehow. What would 2006 bring?

Downsizing?

Bithday present two years ago
RM100+

Birthday present last year
RM100+

My Birthday Present this year.
RM39.45

I must be getting more contented with life or something. Maybe one of these days i'd go to the hills and live like a hermit. :D

My Great Adventure

That sounds like the line of some cheesy B-rated movie. Like, Chicken Little's Great Adventure. Or, Timothy the Telepathic Teapot's Great Adventure. But no. It's mine. And it doesn't involve any form of ESP.

Its just plain simple, really. The undergroundsquare forums had been swarming with plans to go out. First we wanted a trip to Hartz. That was shot down as too boring. Then we named all the fast food stores in Kuching (which, mind you, isn't much), and that was shot down as too boring as well. Then we said, "Why have to be makan only?" (actually that was just Paul, he suggested sports, like running, swimming, B-ball. Y'know, the works. For a moment Judo even flitted across my mind, although i knew that's as impossible as the Telepathic Teapot gaining superhuman strength (come to think of it, that might actually happen, who knows with B-movies?))

So after that was shot down (swimming was the only viable sport that everyone enjoyed, but what if someone drowned?) Eating it was. If someone did choked on a drumstick we'll laugh at it for days to come, but if he was trashing in the water, shouting "BLOODY CRAMP!", i don't think we'd be laughing at it much. Ling might, since he laughs at the weirdest things, anyway.

The discussion continued to BBQs at people's houses. Nobody was quite willing to offer their houses to be ransacked, and that was canceled. Then we came up with the bright idea of movies. Eureka! Tay took over and very helpfully provided all the timestables and movies available. It was going to be either Narnia, or King Kong. 4 kids or 1 ape. Many animals in normal sizes or a few animals in XXXXL sizes. Hmm. What a choice!

It was the timetable that was the determining factor. Kenny had prefect duty in school. I had a meeting in church in the afternoon for the Christmas Party (360 kids - aargh). Sam and Wandkey had to convince the parents why exactly they were going out with about 5 boys. Their parents probably were thinking along the lines of a) gorup date or b) group rape.

Or perhaps c) sure to honest gathering for teens in the U.S forums, with lots of jokes and a nice movie plus lunch to boot.

Hmm. Kinda hard to explain. You get the picture.

So we held an MSN party, with everyone trying to work out the problems. Kenny decided to ask his SSP if he needn't go to school. I worked out if we went in the morning i could still make it to the meet, though late. Sam and Wandkey had to continue working on their parents. Nem was pretty cool about it all. So we manage to work out most of the kinks, which was running on a pretty tight schedule.

I checked the fourm the night before the outing day. All good and set to go. Perfect.

Next morning, when i had already reached there, i SMSed Kenny. He said (verbatim here): They say cancel.

Could you imagine the horror? We'd sacrificed, negotiated with a stupid, uncoorperative Cineplex girl over the phone, worked to get parents trust, and there i was, having no idea why they canceled. (Of course, i understood why later and knew it was just bad luck, or bad timing that led them to cancel that; perefectly understandable).

But at that moment, standing next to one of Wolverine's claws in the X3 poster in Star, i felt at a loss. What the heck should i do? Perhaps a minute of unsureness and rapid SMSing to Kenny. He was busy, doing a tour to visitors in St Thomas's. Okay, i'd better not call. So i left him a firm message to tell me what happened, and bought myself a ticket for Narnia. I was too sick of waiting and letting our efforts (or at least mine) go to waste. So there i sat, alone, early in the morning, in a cineplex.

I totally enjoyed the movie. Most of it, anyway - there was a very awkward moment when the girl behind me started to sob hysterically because Aslan the lion had died. Her boyfriend was consoling her and telling her the lion was just sleeping, so on so forth. Well, not actually sleeping, i wanted to turn back and say, but just ready to be resurrected. But i don't think that would've helped.

Owh well.

Birthday

In the online world, the only way to find out whether your friend is having a birthday is to go check your frenster home page. Frens with big fat cakes next to their names are celebrating their birthdays soon, and i guess the only way for friends to show their happiness for you would be to write a testimonial for you.

And testimonials i got. Wen Qi (not username), Veil (username), and Keren (duh) all gave me testis this morning. Kinda happy bout that, although i still have this blasted sore throat and my fingers are red with food colouring (don't ask me, its somewhat Chinese to eat red (coloured) eggs on the morn of you birthday).

Another thing. Earlier this year i posted in my blog that since i'm a Decemberer (or Saggitarius, whichever way you look at it) i turn one year older (16) and then another year older when the new year starts (17). So from now on i'd still have tos ay i'm 17 even though i'm actually 16, and then i'm not going to say or explain that to common acquaintances why is that so, so ...

Happy birthday to me ;P

Kids Games 2005

Well, i couldn't post anything about this coz i fell sick immediately after the event - light fever and serious sore throat. Nothing too bad, perhaps because my mum gave me some horrible herbal fusion that i had to drink with my nose pinched shut. But it did its job - chinese medicinal style - got well the day after (which was yesterday; i didn't go to church) so i'm not complaining.

Anyways, the Kids Games was hectic. I'm not exactly in the mood to retell everything - but somehow last year was much nicer than this year. I don't know why - it could've been a tougher crowd of kids that tended to kick and punch (and you couldn't use any martial arts, duh), or it could be i'm losing my touch. Could it? Man i wouldn't have belived it. Got sick on the third day and culdn't even teach properly. By now these sessions are pretty normal for me, coz being in St Faith's church's TA meant being involved in organising the various camps and watevers the Sunday School needs. SO i don't udnerstand at all. What changed? The team was great - loved working with Sean, Maryann, Amanda, Joanna, Crystal and Romena, but i still don't get it. Last year you could feel the presence of God - that the message you were trying to put across really did get through. We prayed for the kids. We prated with the kids. And this year prayer just took a backseat.

One distinct improvement were the Games. Richard really pulled it off amazingly as Games coordinator. The only flaw with that was perhaps the schedule. We were always hurried through Games, so we could get to the Bible Discovery, and then we were hurried through Bible Discovery to get to Games ... Last year we seemed to have time for everything - even multiple rounds of the Experience It games so that everybody would be involved - made the experience a lot more effective in teaching them about God.

I dunno, i really don't. Something didn't fit in right, but i can't place it. But what cannot be denied was the sheer hard work the Extension Chruch put into this project. I absolutely salute them for that.

Fishing For Noobs (Like Me)

Ruby's catch

all of us

samseng fish

As things are often such, i couldn't post the fishing trip yesterday, with memories fresh in my mind and my face gleefully red from sunburn (my reflection today tells me i'm looking more and more like an Iban with a darkened face - the hilarity of it all)

It was lovely - well, most of it was. If i had been fishing by myself, i'd probably be bored to tears, but the company of many (and jokes galore - more on that later) was too much to not have fun. The waits, especially some parts when the fish continously eat my bait and leave my hook, was frustrating, but the moments of tension when the rod curved in response to a nibbling fish wasn't. Lovely, lovely stuff, fishing - even though i caught 1 fish, while my sister several times younger than me caught 6 - 2nd highest amongst us *rolls eyes*

I reached Church at about 8.30 in the morning, lepaking around with Jason and his cousin, Brendan. Then (if i tell you every single detail you'd be bored to tears, too) we made off for the farm at about 9, with me squeezing in the back of a van and wondering why i let other people enjoy my iPod. The breeze was cool, the skies were clear - it looked perfect. Well the skied-were-clear part wasn't exactly, coz that'll mean that the unforgiving Malaysian sun was burning from above.

The fishing ponds were muddy and the first impression of the place wasn't anything nice. It smelled like my dog, which i had not bathed for two weeks, and the flies were having the time of their lives with the bait we made later on.

I didn't mind at all.

So then we put our stuff down and started readying our equipment. It took about a half hour before i got help to string mine, me being a newbie in everything concerning a rod. And then i learnt how to cast, mostly from watching other people casting theirs. Aaron's advice on fishing was simple but perfectly understandable: "1, hook. 2, hook. 3? HOOK!"

Fishing hooks were not something you wanted under your skin. They tore and made a lot of blood, as proved several minutes later, since a hook my little sister used went right through the roof of a catfish's mouth and out through the eye. By the time i used the pliers to extract it, the eye was hanging out.

And then there was that samseng (gangster) patin (local name for a type of fish) that pulled Aaron's rod into the water. We thought all was lost.

"I saw my rod flash before me eyes!" he wailed. Minutes later, God bless, Elaine got a fish, which turned out to be Aaron's rod, which was still connected to the samseng fish. We quickly reeled it in, and then grabbed the water-soaked rod, and started to pull. It got away. Then, a little later, Aaron got his revenge by pulling it in. Huge fish, it was.

That should be about it. Course, there still was that time when all of us started yelling "Howie Day!" into the water, just because me and Amanda managed to catch fish right after we talked about him (i was singing She Says to the water), but i'm running out of online time, as i probably stink of my dog. Just gave her a bath and even my skin is screaming for a shower. Oh well.

Photos courtesy of Ruby Chan, and her marvelous ability to upload photos into Frenster. ;þ

Quote for December

A ship in a harbor is safe; but ships are meant to sail."

-John Shedd

10 to 1

10 Firsts:
first best friend: Terence. Lost track of him
first screename: Roa
first kiss: I was a kid, mom kissed me. No idea whether it was her or dad first, but its safer if i put her
first time you spoke tongues: Planetshakers concert
first piercing: None yet
first crush: Uhum. Private.
first music: Perhaps it was You Are My Sunshine. I didn't choose what music to listen to - i was a fetus.
first love: God.
first date: Cancelled.
first EX: This blog has no collection of that yet. I'll keep you posted ;þ

9 Lasts:
last cigarette: Nil
last alchoholic drink: Shandy. A year back.
last song u heard: Relient K - Who I Am Hates Who I've Been
last real kiss: Please don't make me answer that question.
last movie seen: Spiderman 2. I was really bored, so i grabbed the best movie on the couch
last phone call: Kenny. He wanted me to attend some daft camp.
last CD played: Ling's burned confection.
last bubble bath: Two years ago
last cried: in God's presense

8 Have You Evers:
have you ever been arrested?: Nope, unless by prefects.
have you ever dated one of your best friends?: My best friends were all guys.
have you ever skinny dipped?: In a bathtub.
have you ever been on TV?: Background. It was a news story on F1
have you ever kissed someone & then regretted it?: I was 5. SHe was 10. Questions?
have you ever had a sex dream about someone you knew?: Am i a boy?
have you ever cheated on ur lover? : Its not in my nature. I think.
have you ever been in a fight: Duh.

7 Things You're Wearing Now:
A black graphic tee
Shorts
Abstinence necklace
Specs
Livestrong band
A puzzled face
iPod earbuds

6 Things You've Done Today:
Kids Games training
Forum administrating
Blogging
Bathed my dog
Chat
Ate lunch with friends


5 Favorite Things In No Particular Order:
iPod shuffle
My blog
The Bartimaeus Trilogy
Undergroundsquare
Celtic Circles :þ

4 People You Can Tell Anything:
Garrick
My aunt
Paul
My dog (its a person)


3 Choices:
black or white: white
hot or cold: either
chocolate or vanilla: vanilla

2 Things You Want to Do Before You Die:
Create and run a successful corporation
Drive

1 Thing you lookin for:
Who i am inside

Another picture from Div

Announcement

A coupla changes to the blog, guys - all minor. Perhaps you've noticed that the name's changed, and so has the description:

Life like an hourglass, glued to the table

That one's taken from Anna Nalick's Breathe (2am) - as featured in Joan of Arcadia. Another thing's changed - anyone can post a comment, even without logging in, but comment moderation is on and i have to approve the comments before they can be displayed in the blog. But enjoy - i've always meant for this blog to be chockful of wit (and - sometimes - sarcasm ;P) and i'm not going to let up. And if you guys are blogging, keep it up - i usually bookmark the blogs of my frens.

Dienasty out~

I had a stupid day

You know these essay competitions that ask you to write short pieces about 'The worst day of my life'? I think today certainly fits into that category.

For starters, it didn't involve Tay, coz if it was i'd have started this post on how hard it is to break arms in a self defense situation, even if using Juji Gatame. It also doesn't involve embarassment, coz if it was i'll be in the toilet trying to drown myself.

It was dead boring, and i had a running nose that was stemmed after i forced a fat effervercent vitamin C pill down my throat. First there was this daft environmental seminar thingy, with speakers from all over the world. But although the Ian guy, some Brit with a whacked sense of humour, was good, the others were presenting history and theories (the Polluter Pays principle, anyone?) which was more well suited if i was in debate mode, which i wasn't. I just couldn't bring myself to think out of the box like in those blasted brainstorming sessions right before a competition. And you know what was worst? Knowing that if i had skipped this, i could've either done Kids Games and polished up, or i could've been in Judo doing Shiai practise.

Kids Games Preview

So, as promised, here's the one up on the training. I'm really sorry i coudn't get online last night to type out a day by day, blow by blow account - hey, don't look at me - it was a problem with my streamyx ppp layer. I could explain what that is, but it'll take too long and it'll make me seem like a geek (which probably is true if i know what it actually means).

Anyway, i'll be going out to Parkson later on just to hunt for christmas presents (lol) so i'll make it snappy.

The training was really tiring. Met a lot of Extension Church people, most of them leaders in the teams (whew - safe!). Mine is Sean and Maryann Chang, brothers and sisters, both good but not as experienced as the old team in my church. But that team is long gone, and although i had a lot of fun organising some of our exploits (and i miss them), its broken up by life and time ... i guess i'd rather not talk about that, yeah?

So, cool. Aunty Jennifer was seriously picky about the skits and all - she seemed stretched by all the darn work involve. Bless her - i can only guess at the stress being put on her. And i'm very happy with the team i was put in - they're all great people with different strengths being put into play. There's Crystal, Romena, Joanna, Amanda (yeah - that Amanda from the old team), Maryann and Sean. And there's me, i guess.

We just went through most of the skits, and prepared for the games. There's still going to be a lot of sweat and tears and i ...

... i'll keep you posted. ;D