Saturday, August 12, 2006

1. happening shirts (from springfield or zara or both. i need to qualify: i dun usually (in fact i have nvr) buy clothes fr these atas (read: high-class and expensive) shops, but its a WISH mah, wishes are supposed to be more difficult to attain and exorbitant. if not wish for wat..)

2. $10, 000 loan, interest-free.

3. cds (upcoming jay chou's new album [sept], tanya's latest compilation, david tao's new album [hmm, this one im not so sure yet, first 2 songs receiving airplay now dun sound dat gd.. we shall see], gary cao ge's album [which has been out a long time liaoz], fir's latest album [?], she's latest compilation [?]) {advice, anyone? on the [?] albums. or recommendations of any gd listening gems? pls feel free}

4. leather shoes (present one wearing out after juz a little more than a yr into its induction.. cannot make it)

5. cool sneakers (im beginning to like the nike ones more and more but they are so ex!)

6. birks

7. new nerd specs (present nerd pair on nose since 1999. can you beat dat?)

8. digital camera

9. new pair of levi's (present one been wearing since 98, i think..)

10. swatch (haven bought a watch for a long time liaoz..)

*W.I.S.H.List stands for the What I Should Have List.
** i actually really need a fresh stock of personal sundry items, but i shall not go into details here.
*** i realize im actually quite prudent in terms of spending - alot of the things i use, i use them for quite a long time. gd job. :)

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to set the record straight, im not trying to be a 马后炮 here, but i juz want to give God all the glory He truly deserves.

since the beginning of the year, when i took over this present sec 4 class, i started praying for their results. along the way, we all put in alot of hard work together, and i told them i believe in the law of sowing wat you reap. and today, on this glorious day of 11 aug 2006, the 4e6-ers saw the fruits of their labour.

as the date of the release of the results drew nearer, i waz actually feeling more and more anxious. i had hoped dat the efforts dat we all put in would be worth it and not in vain, and dat we wld all do really well. i began to keep praying for the results. i prayed mainly for 3 things:
(1) my class, which is 4e6, wld do very well, in fact, they wld have the best results in the whole cohort. (this might sound a tad selfish, but well, they are my class wat..)
(2) the whole cohort wld all do well together, in fact, they wld achieve the best results ever. (well, i thought pray also cannot so selfish, muz pray for everyone)
(3) all the students will perform much betta than their usu standard - they wld value-add.

i waz still praying right up to the moment i went to check out the results circa 0900 hrs in the morn, and you can juz guess the exhilaration when my hod told me my class performed the best among all the classes! (i had previously set a target of 40% distinction, but guess wat, we achieved a whopping 61% distinction! 61% distinction - can you beat dat?!) i cldnt contain my excitement, and my heart waz leaping abt inside me, but i had to be sensitive to the other teachers ard me. i knew i had to keep thanking the Lord and giving Him all the glory, coz its by no means a mere mortal feat. i started writing the words 'thank God!!' on my palm, juz to keep reminding myself dat its all coz of Him, and i have nothing to be proud of.



then i had to go for invigilation. my mind waz constantly thanking the Lord, thinking how the prayers are really being answered right before my eyes. i have such little faith - praying and yet not really believing.

thereafter, i went to have a closer look at the results, and i realized we had 100% passes for the whole cohort! dat meant dat nobody in my class failed, which also meant dat some of those who were bordering perilously along the passing mark had finally cleared! praise the Lord! most of the students performed up to, or betta than, their usual standards. there were a few who missed their usual mark, but still did well nonetheless. it waz another prayer answered.

and then there waz even betta news - we achieved one of the best results in recent 5-7 years! betta than quite a few other schs in our region. gosh, dat waz juz pure jubilation.

i knew i juz cldnt keep this glorious matter to myself, i had to testify to it. of coz, there cld be a million reasons my class did esp well. perhaps the oral qn waz much easier. perhaps we got a more lenient marker. wateva. or perhaps, our efforts did pay off afterall. i remembered i first got the class to come back for extra lessons during the march hols. altho they werent really paying attention, most of them came back. the many times i made different ones stay back either for essay or oral reinforcements, they did as told, albeit sometimes rather reluctantly. many of them even did extra work or came down for extra oral practices on their own. the last sat before the paper itself, almost (if not all) all of them came down for dat lesson. they were the only class among the rest to do dat. i waz really proud of them.

and all these wld not have happened if the Lord's hands were not on our class - His favour for dat easier oral qn or more lenient exam marker, His blessings for alot of them to value-add, His answered prayers to me, which stopped me in my steps, thinking: i dun deserve such a great blessing but the Lord chose to use me and bless me in spite of me. thank you, Lord, very much.

of coz, it helped very much dat the Lord blessed our class to 'click', to have the same frequency, to like each other enuff to move together. i truly enjoyed teaching this class, and i consider it one of the highlights in my short teaching career thus far. and it will prolly be one class i will miss in time to come when they graduate.


to the 4e6-ers, i waz, am, and will be proud of you guyz. thank you for running this race with me. your efforts have definitely paid off. the law of reaping wat you sow is proven true once again. i shook all of your hands today, no matter you got an A1, A2, B3, B4, C5 or C6, coz i know you guyz have put in your share of hard work and have achieved something - either by value-adding or doing very well. i guess dats wats most impt sometimes - to beat the 'opponent' dat is really ourselves many a times. congratulations, guyz. im really very very happy for you guyz.


post-note: we shall go eat together during the sept hols. yay!

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

in celebration of the 2nd birthday of my bloggie, i shall present to you a guest writer, whose works ive read a couple of times, and on both occasions, he has proven to be a competent writer, his style characterized by a highly logical flow of thought and sincere life anecdotes, often shedding light on high-brow theological propositions and bringing clarity to an otherwise mind-boggling piece of prose. i din set him any restrictions or topic requirements; he decided to write wat you are going to read below.

ladies and gentlemen, pls put your k/b and mouse together to welcome our guest writer for today, mr kevin cheung, aka cheungster.


How’s life?

I’ve always disliked this question because I find it too vague. What do you want to know? Which part of my life are you really interested in? Finances, social life, physical health, etc. Suffice to say, I am an engineer and I like my world to be precise and sharp. Most of the time, I would just mouth off safe but forgettable replies like, “Oh fine, I just bought a new LCD monitor” or “Great, I got an A for my exams” to throw off my questioner.

The other reason why this question irritates me is because I don’t really know/have the answer. How do we measure the quality of our lives anyway? For some, it would be their own personal happiness while for others, it is all about a life of status and popularity. At the end of the day, most of us are still quite confused as to what we really want in life. I was reminded of this the other day when I caught Gayle Nerva singing “If I Ain’t Got You” on Singapore Idol:-

Some people live for the fortune
Some people live just for the fame
Some people live for the power yeah
Some people live just to play the game
Some people think that the physical things
Define what's within
I've been there before
But that life's a bore
So full of the superficial

Someone once said that before we can know what something is, we first have to know what it isn’t. Its like that in life sometimes, before we know what we want in life, we first have to know what we don’t want. I like this song because it is therapeutic to me in the above manner. It makes me reflect on my life and helps me identify the driving forces behind some of my most important decisions in life.

I do believe there is nothing wrong with fortune, fame and power. Life would be pretty much unbearable if we are to do without the above 3 entities. Picture an existence without money, popularity and control. Without money, we would have no food and life would be quite sad if no one likes me. And without a certain measure of control over our lives, we would live in fear, trembling at what tomorrow might bring. I don’t have a problem with these resources, the more the merrier. But the problem arises when I allow, as the song says, “the physical things to define what’s within”.

Now, I firmly believe that nobody of reasonable intelligence will define himself solely by his salary and status. We as human beings instinctively know that there is more to life than all these. But having said that, why is it so easy then to measure life by the externals alone? I guess there are a few reasons, the first one being that our society actively promotes a materialistic lifestyle. In a highly materialistic society like ours, our quality of life is measured by how much we have.

The second reason is the mistake of allowing our identities to be defined by the status symbols of this world. If we are not careful, we will start to measure our self-worth by our academic prowess, friends, or looks.

And the flip side of living life this way is that we end up “running on empty and running after emptiness*”. By exchanging what’s within for what’s without, our lives become rushed, bored and isolated. Our relationships turn shallow because we are no longer interested in loving people, but rather in using them to fulfill our material wants. We network to increase our business contacts, make friends only with the rich and the intelligent and spend time only with people who are useful in our climb up the status ladder. We forget to cherish people for who they are and are only concerned with what they can do for us. Children are judged on their academic grades, wives are judged on their looks and husbands are judged on their salary.

One of the things for which I am very grateful for ever since I started working is the fact that I am a Christian. I have lost count of the endless number of dinner meetings that basically revolves around money, women and position. If we are not talking about our paychecks, then it must be about our future marriage plans; if it is not about our marriage plans, then it is inevitably about so-and-so who has just been promoted to managerial level. These things aren’t bad in themselves and actually do enhance the quality of our lives but something inside me tells me that there is so much more to life than life itself.

And God offers me just that in the form of His Son Jesus Christ. He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins while I was still a sinner. In Him, is forgiveness of sins through the shedding of blood. Even though I’m still messed up and have my ugly moments, but God still accepts me unconditionally through His everlasting love. And because I’m accepted by the almighty God of the universe, I no longer have to strive to merit the acceptance of this performance-obsessive world. I no longer have to define myself by what I do but by who I am in Christ.

If you would like to experience the freedom and joy that comes from following my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you can do so by praying the following prayer:

Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive you as my Saviour and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.**

If this prayer expresses the desire of your heart, I invite you to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life.

God bless!!!

Reference
* Quote by Pastor Edmund Chan
** Sinner’s prayer taken from the 4 Spiritual Laws

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did you guess it right?!

[in all gurmit-ish gusto] the lines are closed.

as of 0308060019, the votes stand at

off-in-lieu hol - 6 votes (50%)
my birthday - 1 vote (8%)
some birthday - 0 votes (0%)
release of chinese o level results - 5 votes (42%)

well, the countdown waz for..
[drum roll] the 2nd birthday of my bloggie!
(which means, sad to say, nobody guessed the purpose of the countdown correctly)


my blog has turned 2!
in all nostalgia, lets take a look at my inaugural blog entry on 3 aug 2004..

entry title: blogging..
entry: blogging has finally arrived for me.. after my bro and the whole world have been using it for millions of yrs, i am juz getting acquainted with it.. and i thot it waz juz one of those fads to fade away in 3 mths.. nvr did i realise that the classmate sitting beside me has been using it for 6(!!!) yrs already.. and i happily bochup a blog addy my friend sent me some yrs ago, thinking it too much of a hassle to have to go online juz to know abt the intricacies of pple's daily lives.. but now, here i am..

as can be seen, the blog has come a long way since its inception and has grown, both in terms of length and maturity of writing. over the past 2 yrs, the content, readership and IT-quotient* have also multiplied by quite a bit. all thanks to God and the many readers and fellow bloggers who have kept me motivated.

*now, im trying to further up the IT-quotient by learning how to embed music into my blog, both for my own, and for the class one im doing up. anyone care to teach? but b4 i have learnt dat, you will have to bear with the silent birthday song..

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to hahahihaveablogtoo
happy birthday to you!

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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

You see a man curling up in pain and groaning incessantly along the pavement. What will you do? Naturally, you will walk over in hope of lending a helping hand and getting him on his feet. On turning him over, you realize his face shows much less agony than you had expected but you think nothing much of it, and its not until he finally stands up and asks you to look in a certain direction that you realize you’ve been on..

Gotcha!

You feel like a fool.

If this really happened to you, perhaps you would be appeased by the mere fact that you finally had your few seconds of limelight by being caught on national tv. But more often than not, most of us do not really take to the idea of being taken for a ride. We hate to look silly and make a fool of ourselves, privately or publicly. We have this immensely strong sense of pride that builds itself up around us, causing us to want to look all made-up and pretty all the time. We cannot afford to look any whee bit less than perfect.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. – Jim Elliot.

Yet Jesus was made to look like a fool for us. He was made to wear a thorn of crowns. He was mocked. He was flogged in public. He was hung on the cross between 2 other criminals, for no obvious crimes whatsoever. He was made to suffer the most humiliating form of punishment in his time.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. – C S Lewis.

However, deep down inside, you and I know that we can never really call Jesus a fool, whether you are a believer or not. Perhaps the one thing, if any, that Jesus did, which might be remotely classified as ‘foolish’, was to die for a bunch of fools who did not have the slightest idea what was good for them, and instead chose to trudge on in their own foolish (and sinful) ways. He chose to die for us in spite of the fact that he knew way beforehand that we, the fools, would take His grace for granted and continue to hurt and grieve Him. He loved unconditionally.

Now who is the real fool?

I had been the fool all along. Yourself?

~~~

I scolded some of my students today very angrily for lousy attitude, and I pre-empted their apologies by saying something to the effect of "don’t show me the guilty face now and apologize, only to put on the same behaviour the next day.” It got me really heated up and I put on my black face mode for my remaining 4 periods for the rest of the day, which, on hindsight, was kinda unfair to the other classes. (I kept reminding myself to compartmentalize my anger/disappointment but to no avail). My temper became much shorter that day and my patience was constantly put to the test. Students had to ask me why I was in such a bad mood and I could only manage a weak smile and said “nothing much.” As the day drew to an end, I was still rather affected by what had transpired earlier in the day, until suddenly, it dawned upon me (and therein lie some of the uncanny ironies of life) that I just might have been like some of my students – unrepentant, stubborn, prideful, always coming back to seek forgiveness for the same sin over and over again, making no effort to change whatsoever, totally taking God’s grace for granted. And that, IS utter foolishness.

A double fool. I am.
A fool and all his stories.
A fool with all his sorries.
To the great I Am.
To the throne on which sits the Lamb.
I humbly come.
I pray I truly repent.

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1 more day..

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

wat do you think im counting down to?
off-in-lieu holiday
my birthday
some birthday
release of chinese o level results
Free polls from Pollhost.com

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2 more days..

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