Tuesday, February 17, 2009
12:15 am
Camp was quite interesting actually.. I got my wish for a night and got to sleep really close to nature!
We dug our own graves to sleep in for a night and mine was really secluded coz i was surrounded by trees so it felt quite private =)
Camp could have been better if we din have to wait an eternity not knowing wad was going on, if the time was used more efficiently instead of just waiting, if we din have so many night snacks being force fed down our throats each night.
Camp was good cause my immediate commander was cool to talk to =)
coz my friends were there for me!
coz the day's activities (not the routine activities in the morning n night) were fun
Looking forward, the first phase of training is coming to an end and things are looking brighter!
God has been really great coz it only rained on the days whr we had tents to sleep in an when we slept without shelter, the skies were CLEAR and starry =) thank You!
ben says AMEN!
Monday, January 05, 2009
11:51 pm
Going to Cambodia for the 2nd time was quite a heck of an experience. My khmer vocabulary multiplied bout twice or thrice and now i can have 3-4 worded sentences tho its only bout limited topics... haha!
We painted a 100m long wall which averaged 1.5m tall and illustrated the stories in the bible from creation with adam and eve to noah's ark to jonah to Jesus' birth to His death and ressurection.
Also, we were given the chance to plan the programmes for various activities like the gospel services for the first 3 nights of the trip and later a short service on a floating church on the ton le sap river, a special meeting in the church there, and the usual programmes on sundays.
Through the many stress inducing activities, God really showed me how important trusting in Him was. Maybe its in my nature but i tend to compare quite a lot. And when i looked at how the other guys did their messages, I freaked and realised i had a message to prepare for the next morning completely from scratch. (apparently youth camp speakers get half a yr to prepare) hahah!
But yea. thank God for reminding me to depend on Him and I simply sat down and prayed for guidance. Committing all this to God helped calm me down a great deal and thanks to Him, I managed to prepare a comprehensive message on Love. =)
"We love Him because He first loved us" 1 john 4: 19
God gives us agape love which is unconditional love. A love that does not demand reciprocation. A love which self sacrifices. Self consumes. A love which resulted in His sending Jesus down to the cross to die for our sin.
Thanks to this love, we are made righteous and justified in God's eyes if we accept and believe that Jesus has done that for us.
It is like an air ticket to paradise has been bought for u. Will you take it and board the plane?
ben says AMEN!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
10:33 pm
Tim and I took upon ourselves a giganormous task!
We decided to give cards to THE WHOLE YOUTH. ok most of em...
and that decision resulted in my first night where I sat in front of a computer and worked through the night till 3 since I handed in my World Literature Assignment in july or august.
We had a total of 100+ cards to write and interestingly we spent less than say... $30? i dunno.
Doesnt really matter anyway =) so the first day we tried that, we spent like 4 or 5 hours at his place drawing ppl's names in nice block letters. and we accomplished almost all the greetings!
*pats self on back*
Tim spent the whole of wed doing cards and punching holes in em, unleashing his creativity while i spent it walking arnd queensway. heh!
but to make up for it, i stayed up till 3 to finish up my cards =)
we werent even done the morning of Christmas so we met at Macs n TRIED to finish it but FAILED. so we were a lil late for service and still unfinished. but we did finish in the end!
The whole experience was real fun coz you actually spared a thought for each and every friend of yours esp the " O CRAP! did we do one for *******" where we ll rush out another card's design n get stumped on what to write agian.. haha!
The giving was INSANE. once the service was over, ppl ran all over the place and finding ppl was impossible. I grabbed a pew as my HOME BASE and splashed the cards across it while looking across the hall for prey. haha!
well, we gave out 90% of what we made and thats a GREAT SUCCESS in my book =)
dont think we re gonna try that again for a long time to come.
I got a blister on my finger now....
=(
This week was likely the first time in a LONG time that ive been seeing depot ppl so often.. and no im not being separatist here! Lots of em are real great friends, ppl who I really dont want out of my life.
But well, its still gonna happen one day.
THAT NOT THAT PT OF THIS.
I wanted to say,
its often seems that Depot is a "better" place coz if u realise, u only hear bout ppl going to depot but rarely the other way arnd. HMM.
Many say,
"its more cosy"
"its more fun"
"its ..................................."
well, I've gotta admit that there are many things we can learn from one another =)
one of em, a stronger, deeper enthusiasm in the things we do.
Im not trying to put anyone down but the christmas specials this year were kinda disappointing.
There video choice was a lil off tangent for both YP and SS and decorations were merely "ying chou" and even just conveniently reused from the effort of others.
I know this sounds almost like im flaming but these are just examples of things we can strive to IMPROVE! =)
Here's something to think about
"If things are better changed, why let them stay the same?"
In the same way, if you've analysed an improvement from all angles and its boons outweigh banes, why not? of course, do make sure its inline with God's will!
Esp, since these are for youths, the youths shld take charge and provide input! we cant really expect the adults to know what exactly suits us if we dont open our mouths to let em know right?
Maybe a weakness of an old church is the unwillingness to embrace change, an unhealthy fear of authority.
In a way, that brings much unhappiness and disgruntled youths.
However, it helps also to guard against conforming to the world's standards. So splice and dice the two till its the right mix and you'll have an updated assembly which is grounded in the Word.
Definitely easier said than done.
Thats why we need to as I wrote in many of my cards, "abide in Christ"
disclaimer: I AM NOT SEPARATIST!
hahaha! =)
and the 2nd bit feels a bit disjointed. feel free to ask me about it if it doesnt make sense to ya or if u just wanna check bout what i meant =)
ben says AMEN!
Friday, December 19, 2008
12:04 am
I wanna settle things once and for all. so quit hiding n face me.
My blinders are off now and im looking at the things around me.
I ve been convicted of the strength of distractions and now ill try to keep them out.
Lord please give me the strength to withstand temptations to be distracted. To see and learn the many things which you wish to impart to me.
ben says AMEN!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
12:41 am
Here's to economic geeks =)
Heres an economic explanation to why lots of guys in ACS I are not attached
There is a certain level quality of girls which the guys in AC are willing and able to date. At a lower quality, more guys are able to date these girls (ignore the willing). A downward sloping demand curve results.
There is a certain quantity of girls available at each quality level. With fewer girls at higher quality levels, a upward sloping supply curve results.
Thus with a minimum quality level required by the guys, an excess demand results. The following diagram illustrates this phenomena
Change the demand for labour to that for girlfriends, and likewise for supply. Min wage rate would be the min quality and this diagram fails coz it doesnt show the lvl of excess demand. -.-
Moving on, this issue is further complicated by the fact that there are foreign competitors who are so called more "efficient" or simply put, better.this foreign supply is a lot less responsive to differences in quality and thus is represented by a horizontal supply curve as shown below.
Ignoring the Pworld + tariff curve, the girls from other schools are represented by "World price"
Without the outside competition, a level between Qs2 and Qd2 would be the resultant number of couples in school. However, guys getting gfs from other schools, a resultant of 0Qd is the resultant quantity of couples.
This explains the low number of couples formed in the school and yet the high number of guys attached or at least who have been attached.
Im a geek arent I?
ben says AMEN!
Monday, December 01, 2008
11:49 pm
But unlike Huck Finn, Paddy Clarke or even Siddhartha, its not bout whether to set a black man free, bout who to side with in a deteriorating family unit or over the pull of Samsara vs Enlightenment.
It seems that this one is a lot more adolescent. Its a lot more hormornal.
Its some kinda sick, twisted mind but its actually quite common. Or so i'd like to think.
Maybe its the smile.
Maybe its the height.
Maybe its the lack of mass.
Maybe its the way they pray, the way they lick cones, the way theyve got pimple scarred faces.
Honestly, tho, these r just excuses the let me justify another smart remark, another smirk, another observation.
There's a void there and im trying to fill it.
The way im filling it is just wrong. Im going against everything ive fought so hard to uphold for 2 years. Im only halfway thru and im already faltering. O so im actually more than halfway thru. Actually time is passing quite a lot faster than i tot it would. I guess, thats good in a way right?
I'd tell myself : O its not coz i dun try. Its not ur fault. Its hers.
But thats just the human need to justify their actions.
It just the great temptation to tell urself that everything is alright, ure doing well, ure doing things right.
My inability to stick to the route shows just how unready i am. It shows how i might break u again. and im not gonna do that since u told me bout ur fall at Killiney
I guess im just not ready.
But will anyone ever be ready? Honestly thats quite a tough question.
God please mould and shape me the way you wish, help me to stay aright, filling up the void the right way.
Maybe all of this is just en route to enlightenment.
Can i think, wait and fast?
ben says AMEN!
Friday, November 21, 2008
7:48 pm
Partners are quite cool ppl too! Im liking this attachment on day 1. hope it stays this way =//
=)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
ben says AMEN!
7:05 pm
But my brain is still itching for somthing to think about. so i think i was a lil overboard with questions today.
Here's what's happened today
I went for my attachment with MOE today and went to CCAB to meet my mentor and 2 grp members.
the mentor looks kinda like s choo with his calm and serene looking demeanor.
anyway, the internship started with a meeting forthe Youth Olympic Games(YOG) launch event.
skip.
den we went to HCI. The home of softball, basketball and touch rug champs.
Mentor briefed a barrage of teachers from lots of diff schs bout the setting up of booths on the day itself.
well since he was busy and the 3 of us had nothing to do but play djmax on their psps, i asked if we could go walk arnd the sch and mentor said ok! so we went walking arnd!
it was quite interesting la.. maybe im just weird but i like walking around other ppls' schs cause it shows u wad their school is like to some extent without u even sitting in any of their classes.
anyway.
we were to be back at 12 and that only gave us 15 mins.
but when we got back, we ended up waiting for 30 mins. so we could have actually toured the sch more la.. =(
right.
so we went for lunch at the pool restaurant and were fed like kings. lots of food, period
Next stop,
the organising committee meeting!
there was the PUB, MOE,MOH,MHA,MFA,MOF,MTI,URA,SSC,NYC,MOM,NPARKS and others that i cant remember
like WHOAH right?
after that we went to the learning centre where u get to play around with the displays and try out the equipment used in some sports. its at redhill tho so its not that accessible. google it if u want =) best of all, its free! now dun u all love that?
yep. now im tasked with coming up with a proposal for the template for the booths that ppl will be setting up on the launch day. Itll be bout the culture of other countries to promote the racial harmony theme and its supposed to tie in with the YOG so gotta figure out how we 'll wanna do that..
sounds like quite a simple job actually. But i shant talk too big coz it might turn out to be some gargantuan task =/
cola: I BET ure tagging as anon too so that uve got something to do with ur insanely free holidays.. haha! ok no i dun seriously think that way.
ben says AMEN!
>
