Monday, November 28, 2005
oh look what i found!
So the French veecount is going to call up in the morning but I am not going to see him again. Because French gentlemen are really quite deceeving. I mean they take you to quite cute places and they make you feel quite good about yourself and you really seem to have a delightful time but when you get home and come to think it all over, all you have got is a fan that only cost 20 francs and a doll that they gave you away for nothing in a restaurant. I mean a girl has to look out in Paris, or she would have such a good time in Paris that she would not get anywheres. So I really think that American gentlemen are the best after all, because kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever......
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos
a diamond and a safire bracelet lasts forever!!! haha. this is so funny!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
i just read this somewhere online:
a creative writing teacher was giving her class tips on how to make a short story successful.
1) it should make a reference to religion
2) it should make a reference to society
3) it should be about a scandal
4) it should involve a love affair
whereupon, a student submitted the following piece the next day. in all it's entireity, it read thus:
"My God," cried the Duchess, "take your hand off my knee!"
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
and with the flow of the mood:
If You Wanna Be Happy
Jimmy Soul
If you wanna be happy
For the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife,
So from my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you.
A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall.
As soon as he marries her
Then she starts to do
The things that will break his heart.
But if you make an ugly woman your wife,
You'll be happy for the rest of your life,
An ugly woman cooks her meals on time,
She'll always give you peace of mind.
Don't let your friends say
You have no taste,
Go ahead and marry anyway,
Though her face is ugly,
Her eyes don't match,
Take it from me she's a better catch.
Say man.
Hey baby.
Saw your wife the other day.
Yeah?
Yeah, she's ugly.
Yeah, she's ugly but she sure can cook.
Yeah?. Okay.
i tried thinking very hard about that dinosaur song, the one who tap dances. and all i could remember was, "i like to dance, tappity tappity something something"
jon-san, ohayoo gozaimasu!
harry potter o mimashita. omoshiroi ku arimasen desu yo. tsumaranai deshita!
minna-san, hajime mashite?
watashi wa miss chowbin desu. ubc daigaku no gakusee desu. ichinensee desu. ryuugakusee desu.
kinoo watashi wa heya de thomas hobbes no hon o benkyooshimashita. muzukashi desu ne..
unfortunately, i do not know the words for ï miss you all'. a lot."
Monday, November 21, 2005
hi folks..nice to see my name plastered everywhere like FREE like that..
HAHAHAHAA
and hi eugene for msging me.. to go out..wah... =P hope u enjoyed ur tete a tete sushi buffet...
and hi michelle lee.. er.. i was absent that day mrs khemani played the song cos..haha..prob cos i was too tired to go to school...but i remember xiang wei waxing lyrical about it..he told me all about it.. :)
well..guess what i learnt today...
daniel radcliffe is comin to melbourne..
and..can u believe it.. my friend's relative (there were so many links i couldn't catch who it was) managed to find out..
sigh..can u believe it...
he's..
going to stay in my suburb!
haha..hope he goes to safeway huh? :P
anyway, go catch pride and prejudice! ahhh...*swoons* =)
hey..i've got a question ok..erm..
when will everyone be flying home and for how long?
DREAM THEATER IS COMING TO SINGAPORE
christmas/birthday party thing anyone? when all the girls are like done with their exams. yesterday was like an acsi gep outing
Sunday, November 20, 2005
excerpt from latest post
oh yah. and things have been happening lately that... well, have made me realise something. watching harry potter, i swear that fleur delacour's sister is a dead ringer for ashley!! when she comes out of the water in the 2nd task... the only thing that came to mind was 'omg tt looks like ashypoo!' ashypooooooooooooo :p thats not the only thing too. today while in town, there were these two guys walking around with a HUGE potted plant on their head. well it was a hat haha, and they were promoting some garden city thing. but it just screamed STELLA. heh. and when i was walking about in wisma, as i stepped off the escalator, this guy cut across me and was calling out 'caleb, caleb!' (his son). hahaha. this is probably just my imagination, and its the dardnest thing. but it showed me one thing though. i miss you guys.
i really do.
hello my class whats with all the reminiscing? but why just talk about it? talk is cheap. so i have a FANTASTIC PROPOSITION! lets do some PRACTICAL reliving of our wonderful days..
CAPTAINS BALL!!! =)
my church youth camp's having this captains ball competition thing. the prizes are veeery attractiveeee (but of course it's not about the winning we all know that)
$150 swensons / $100 escape theme park / $60 movie ticks.. all vouchers
and after we win, we can have a reason for ANOTHER class outing! WHAT A GREAT PLAN DON'T YOU THINK??? i'm starting to sound like stella.
4th dec. it's a sunday so arm yee poor busy souls u can make it!!
st gabriels sec sch (serangoon mrt) 1pm onwards
6ppl per team min 2 girls (hellllooo girls hello)
$2 registration but you're welcome for our buffet dinner and the camp's programs after if you want
let me know so i can go register and give mohn knee. leave a tag? or msg me. ask your friendsfamilyrelativesstrangersalongtheroadside along too! if there's not enough ppl i can always top up the free spaces =) IT'LL BE FUN!!! lets doooooo itttttt......
Thursday, November 17, 2005
philosophical musings
sometimes u get the urge to blog simply from reading other ppls' posts. i guess this is one of those times, when just scrolling down our class blog floods my mind with memories from our days together...
how fast a year has passed us by since we were still ah de tong xue. perhaps it's due to the annual examination cycle, or maybe the fact that different editions of sporting events occur at around the same time each year, but life seems to reflect upon itself at yearly intervals. in, let's say, december 2005, i would probably find myself thinking of all the stuff which happened in the 19 decembers since 1986 (as far as i can recollect anyway). and i would be very surprised if i didn't spend 06 jan 06 wondering how much my life has changed in the past year. let's not go there for now though...
imagine for a moment a traveller traversing an infinitely long road stretching beyond the horizon. this road consists of an infinite amount of forks, such that there are an infinite amount of decisions and their corresponding outcomes. unknown to him, one of these paths has been specially reserved for him. unknown to him, the particular route to his destination is perpetually illuminated by a light source from above. all he needs to do is to follow the signs revealed to him at each junction, and that is all he does. by not allowing the darkness enveloping him to undermine his faith, he eventually masters his fate. looking back, he realizes that the route he took was the only one which ever made sense of his unique circumstances at each point in time.
'everything that happens in my life is just like... i feel like somebody's up there orchestrating it. there's just too many weird coincidences that have happened in my life.' - ace frehley
i hope everyone is doing well.
Proofs for the existence of God
By Fr Ronald Rolheiser ( Catholic News, 16 Oct 2005 )
Can you prove that God exists? Some of the greatest philosophers believed it can be done. Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibnitz, Spinoza, Hartshorne, among others, all tried to do it.
They used different approaches, Some, like Thomas Aquinas, tried to prove God's existence by arguing that the existence and design of the universe necessitate a God as its creator and ground.
One of Aquinas' proofs, for example, goes this way : Imagine you're walking along a road, see a stone lying on the ground, and someone asks you : "Who put that stone there?" You can easily answer that it's always been there. Not much suggests that this is anything beyond brute nature. However, imagine you are walking along that same road and you see a watch lying on the ground, still ticking, still keeping time. Could you still answer that it has always been there? Not so easily this time. Its intelligent design suggests that it's not simply the result of blind nature, but the product of some intelligent designer, just as the fact that it's still ticking makes it clear that it hasn't always been there.
Aquinas then takes this image and extends it to the whole universe. Its intelligent design (for example, the central nervous system and brain structure of the human being) is a billion times more complex in terms of intelligent design than is a wristwatch and the fact that it's running down tells us that can't always have been here. Some intelligent designer must have helped fashion it and it must have had a beginning in time.
Descartes, Leibnitz, Spinoza, and Anselm have a different argument. Theirs goes this way : If God is possible, then God exists, because it is impossible to have a possible God. Since God is possible, God exists.
That may sound silly to the ordinary mind, but this peculiar little equation, expressed in different ways, has intrigued some of the greatest minds on the planet, hinting that the rest of us, ordinary mortals, are perhaps missing something of its meaning.
The British philosopher, Frederick Copleston, in a famous debate with Bertrand Russell, once put all of these arguments into one equation : If the universe makes sense, then God exists. Russell, an atheist, actually conceded this truth, but then argued that the universe doesn't make sense but is simply a brute, accidental fact that cannot be meaningfully explained.
What's to be said about these "proofs"? Do they prove anything?
These are not mathematical or scientific equations and therefore don't prove anything in that fashion. Nor are they arguments that compel a skeptic to believe in God. But that doesn't mean they're meaningless either. Their value is that they point to something deeper, beyond mathematics and science, something below the surface that invites you either to trust or doubt, to believe that it all makes sense or is meaningless. Their power is a moral power : Like how do you know if someone loves you? How do you know you can trust somebody? What gives you the feeling that life makes sense?
Belief comes from experience
Karl Rahner once suggested his own proofs for the existence of God. For him, we taste God in certain experiences and these experiences ultimately imprint us with the belief that the universe makes sense, that we have sufficient reason to love and trust, that there's a world beyond this one, and that there's a God.
Here's a paraphrase of his argument : Have you ever remained silent, though you wanted to defend yourself, though you were treated unfairly? Have you ever forgiven, though you received no reward for it and people took it for granted? Have you ever obeyed, not because you had to or else there would be some unpleasantness, but simply because of some mysterious, silent, unfathomable reality inside of yourself? Have you ever made a sacrifice, without receiving thanks, without recognition, without even feeling satisfaction inside? Have you ever been absolutely lonely and, within that, had to make up your mind to do something purely for the sake of conscience, from a place beyond where you can describe, from a place where you are deeply alone, and where you know you are making a decision for which the responsibility will be yours alone, always and eternally? Have you ever tried to love when no wave of enthusiasm was carrying you along, where you could no longer confuse your own needs with love? Have you ever persevered without bitterness in doing your duty when that duty looked like death, felt like it was killing you, looked stupid to those outside, and left you helpless to not envy those who have chosen a path with more pleasure? Have you ever been good to someone from whom no echo of gratitude or comprehension came back and where you weren't even rewarded with the feeling that you had been good and unselfish?
If you've ever had any of these experiences, then you've experienced God and know that there's a deeper ground beneath the one on which you walk.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
stoopid michelle lee u always post things that make my eyes wet.
dang it, u know i'm a big softie.
here's a rambling..i'm in a incoherent mood. he who has an ear, let him hear.
i think of days with bukit timah market after holding that cue, perched on the side of the table, laughing and trash talking. days of sugar cane after the 74 ride. interim to the 970 and 184. days of strolling down the walk/aisle and admiring my shock-factor and flair for surprises. differentiating jons from jon. listening to lena maria, fantastic voice, when it all began. kenneth. understanding the concept of being a twin. pointing at dead cats. my sweater isn't dirty although it's been under my chair near the floor. pinching, with that x factor- the twist. funny hand actions. pink everything. being competitive at basketball. joy and liz with the same polka dotted pencilbox. scribbling in diaries that don't belong to me. shouting at mark teng, placing tissue gingerly on the side of the keyboard, doing the eye-contact thing with jon when he's scratching out a solo, glaring at toshi when he opens his mouth and the wrong hallelujah comes out, watching quentin worship, laughing at how one day shaun will be a music-genius, wowing at hadassah's 6th chords and tritone substitution in jazz, joking with shannon that he has 8 arms and a catalogue of hillsongs in his brain, musing at brandon pound the air, then the table. that crazy string quartet. toshi AND the north lodge? toshi IN the north lodge? chuckling to myself from bedok camp when i'm on the phone. murphy's law on room door, watching choirboys when not feeling well. awkward dinner dabaoed from market. silence when tonsils're being dealth with. singapore idol. taufik versus sylvester. shouting embarassing things and getting caught on camera(?) haunted house and being a real estate agent in a maroon shirt. the power of the list. the power of the list. don't cut ur hair. lunch after class? btp? dover market? kap? holland v? saying grace. praying, for the first time since being close. crying crying and wishing i never had to let go. wondering if i'm the only person who feels this way. confusion. i could go on forever.
do u feel as i do?
hi 2AH :)
i'm in my hall study room now, and there's a girl who's holding up her brown umbrella whilst studying. it's quite funny because everytime someone looks up from his/her work and sees it, he/she bursts out laughing.
its really quite funny.
!
see, uni life over here... does have its er, moments.
:)
anyway i remembered this song yesterday:
Slow down, you crazy child
you're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, tell me
Why are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You'd better cool it off before you burn it out
You've got so much to do and
Only so many hours in a day
But you know that when the truth is told..
That you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
Slow down, you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Tonight...
Too bad but it's the life you lead
you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right. You're right
You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
Why don't you realize, Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?
it's been more than a year.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
how can u run when His arms hold the sky?
how can you run when you know He can fly?
how do you withdraw when He's hot on your heels
how can you you run when your heart longs to kneel
if i go in the oceans, Your spirit is there
if i rise to the sky, You're there in the air
if i hide in the dark, and make night my cover
your light would pierce through and You would come under.
if i fly far away, to the bounds of the sea,
you'd be there, even still, You'd be there with me.
when i run from your hold, You're still my road's end
and as i kick and struggle, You're still my best friend
as a child i might rant; whine, shout, scream, and stamp
but still You are gentle, even when i wrestle.
i still throw these tantrums, as a babe of age seven,
but whilst i may run, hound me, Hound of Heaven.
Monday, November 14, 2005
five things you never needed to know about miss chowbin
this is all stella's fault.
1) miss chowbin has been know to talk to clothing, birds, squirrels, her t1 canoe, and drying liquid paper blobs. her previous exchange with the liquid paper blob: "are you dry yet? yes, you are!"
2) miss chowbin may or may not have a turtle obsession. she used to keep terrapins and star tortoises as a kid, and still likes to go to the wet market to look at the tiny terrapins piled up in their tanks under the fake plastic palm trees. she used to buy turtle shaped whatnot wherever she went, and currently has over 15 such whatnots in her house, made from every possible material: clay, shell, marble, stone, bone china, wood.. in her dorm room now, there is the torto keychain from action city and the really huggable turtle from the mudpie buddy. ;p
3) miss chowbin hates having her photo taken and having to speak to people whom she suspects look down on her.
4) miss chowbin's secret ambition is to buy ant (or another t1), a bresca 216 and a lifejacket, so that she can go and paddle round macritchie every week for the rest of her life. she hopes other alumni will join her.
5) miss chowbin likes to use black ink in white paper to draw because it is the only way of creating worlds where everything is clearcut and certain.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
this post is for dawn...about my brothers..
today is david's birthday..
and we were in the city and they had walked off ahead of me...
and suddenly..
they came running back!!
JIE JIE YOUR FRIEND YOUR FRIEND
huH? zzzz....
THERE THERE THE ONE WHO STAYED WITH US
zZzz...
GO AND SAY HI
and...and....
miss ulynn cOMes into siGHt, boUNcing with JOy, as shE walks towARDs me :)
haha.. and later at the safeway downstairs...
i do my usual step-in-front-of-a-person-when-she's-not-looking-and-say-something (mind u this is quite dangerous cos this is what i did to cheryl chew when i bumped into her at chadstone a few months ago and she was so eXCited to see me that she jumpED on my expoSEd toes)..yeah..in front of......
hahah.. esther.. =D my friend from servE.. and the girl next to her waves to me and says hi.. hahaha.. and i did a very typical stella thing and asked, "why are u saying hi to me? i was saying hi to her!" and esther looked at her curiously too and said, "ya! why?" hahaha..AH..DAWN.. that was.. liane :) :) :) cheryl may wong.. i haf met liane!! hahah :)
and this is the friendster puzzle.. hahaa.. esther asks me how i know zian? OH, my GOOD FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND..and anyway, esther knows her too since they were both from cj. :) and i tell esther, oh, liane's in dara's (our friend from serve) church u know! haha. and later zian asks how i know esther.. and we both couldn't explain what serve was/is so after alot of puzzled expressions we agreed that it was a "church function" (yeah, a 3 month church function..we are happy methodists too.) and yes liane is also my cousin's classmate.. :)
muSings:
1. singapore is really small
2. it's really cool to bump into people - it's like an explosion of lOve :D
may u haf many explosions of love today.
Friday, November 11, 2005
shumin, i hope this cheers u up.
"Post 5 weird and random facts about yourself, then at the end, list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this."
1. stella doesnt wear glasses all the time because when she does she ends up noticing so many things she can't concentrate
2. stella (is no longer embarrassed that she) went out with shumin, daphne and sarah chian when she was in primary 6.. even though they did embarrassing stuff like take neoprints and made sure they left it on the booth so the whole world can see that we are such lovely friends
3. stella thinks her brothers are really cute and adores them and she's trying to think of better ways to express her affection other than to pinch their oh-so-cute-and-still-rather-chubby-cheeks. (it's David's 12th birthday on sunday)
4. stella tried to use big and funny handwriting for her essays because she thought it gave an illusion of intelligence
5. stella toook much too long to do this..haha.. i love u shumin!!! =P
er..Yin Fern (hahaha i hope u see this), JOSHUA PINKY J PHUA, LIZZZZ, MICHELLE LEE, SULYNN..oh..u all can do it jus for fun.. jus..er..really..dun take so long :S
Thursday, November 10, 2005
and so, with the weekend that came and went, whypee (our valedictorian, no less,) came to visit humble upenn. and for the first time, i went for a football game! granted, it's not the same as rugby, but it felt semi-nostalgic: although i think ac rj games are MUCH more exciting and the spirit is stronger at home! =) but the traditions are penn are...very INTERESTING!
here's toasting! where the spectators TOAST the players at the end of the 3rd quarter....guess what they do? since alchohol is an *erm* *cough* discouraged beverage, they literally -toast- the players, throwing heaps and heaps and heaps of toasted bread on the field (some try and hit the cheerleaders) but take a look!
and somewhere over there, there's quaker- the penn mascot. he's like...erm.. u know quaker oats? the guy with the hat is a quaker! =) and there's the toast guy! driving the giant toast vacuum cleaner =)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
what a difference a year maketh
to learn the value of one year,
ask a student who has failed his final exams.
to learn the value of one month,
ask a mother who has given birth to a premature child.
to learn the value of one week,
ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
to learn the value of one hour,
ask two people in love waiting to see each other.
to learn the value of one minute,
ask a person who has just missed his plane.
to learn the value of one second,
ask a person who has just lived through an accident.
to learn the value of one millisecond,
ask a person who has just won an olympic gold medal. (how about kurt angle)
alternatively, to learn the value of one year, also ask an nsf who has one year to ord. (pick me!) as of today, 081105, i've got a nice, palindromic (is there such a word) 363 days to 051106, the day of reckoning. gogogo! and the best thing of all is, regardless of which stage in the process u happen to be at, every step u take brings u a step closer to ord. it's true, it's true.
how was the class party? any photos?
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. -- Henri Nouwen
Der Freund (a poem)
(Widerstand und Ergebung, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft, München, 1952, p. 269; cited in Herman Dooyeweerd, A new critique of theoretical thought, volume 3, pages 179 and 180)
Nicht aus dem schweren Boden
wo Blut und Geschlecht und Schwur
mächtig und heilig sind,
wo die Erde selbst
gegen Wahnsinn und Frevel
die geweihten heilgen uralten Ordnungen
hütet und schützt und rächt, —
nicht aus dem schweren Boden der Erde,
sondern aus freiem Gefallen
und freiem Verlagen des Geistes,
der nicht des Eides und des Gesetzes bedarf,
wird der Freund dem Freunde geschenkt.
[A friend is a gift to a friend
not from the heavy soil where blood and
race and oaths are mighty and holy,
where the earth itself watches over the sacred
hallowed and ancient ordinances
and defends and avenges them,
not from the heavy soil of the earth,
but from free choice and the free desire
of the heart, which are not in need of
an oath or a law.]
"Finest and rarest blossom, at a happy moment springing from
the freedom of a lightsome, daring, trusting spirit, is a friend to a
friend..."
- my attempts to find Dietrich Bonhoeffer's poem "The Friend"..
(if u guys haf a free moment in the library.. could u help me find the english translation please?)
- stella dropped a thought
*plOnk.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Almighty God, the great I am
Immovable rock, omnipotent, powerful, awesome Lord
Victorious Warrior, commanding King of Kings
Mighty Conqueror, and the only time
The only time I ever saw Him run
is when He ran to me, took me in His arms
held my head to His chest, said "my son's come home again"
looked at my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
with forgiveness in His voice he said "son, do you know I still love you?"
it caught me by surprise, brought me to my knees when God ran
the day I left home, I knew I had broken His heart
I wondered then if things could ever be the same
then one night, I remembered His love for me
and down that dusty road ahead I could see
and the only time, the only time I ever saw Him run
Words and Music by B. Hester
Thursday, November 03, 2005
翻著我們的照片 想念若隱若現... 去年的冬天 我們笑得很甜
its christmas time liao! or okae maybe still like 1 1/2 months shy... but they're already putting up decorations.. at least there's a HUGE tree outside paragon now. im pretty sure soon the one in taka will be up, and then the lights and tressels and all the christmas spirit will be in the air =)
which means one thing... time for christmas party! yes yes indeed. a time of revelry for all... induldge in your utmost desires.. hahaha. just have fun, basically ;) i guess this is a special shout out to all those who have been notably (or should it be [in]conspiciously) absent.. its time to partaayyy!
haha aside from all that joyous occasion.. this long break is going really well! after catching domino ystd, didnt really expect myself to end up at cine again watching another show, much less a violent action flick called 'tom yum goong'.. (its a name of a restaurant, btw heh) which has a rather... POOOR plot. but still quite entertaining, if a bit er xin at some parts. tony jaa is fierce sia. haha. oh well life is good! now if i can just find some way to get rid of these pimples that have been haunting me for months.. *sigh*
speaking of apperances! haha something v interesting happened today! amusing to say the least... some guy from i models apparently thinks im model quality... either that or his specs need fixing. haha. because he stopped me (he kinda arrowed his way across the path outside orchard mrt) and gave me a card! lol... gave him my number and he said he'll call me to go for auditions. fainted. i bet most of you are thinking.. '*fainted* just gonna boost his ego somemore' and well. IT DID! muaha. but haha all im thinking is '有没有搞错?' haha. oh well!
life is good :)
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
hellloooooooooooooooooo me again the missing person haha!
ran into dawn recently and shall post a photo of us up here, guest starring a hot bunny dalena =p
YES the one on the right IS me... although i had to spend half the night saying hi to people who couldn't recognise me hahaha =p
hope to see you guys soon toooooooo!!!
