Undo

I've been here before, now here I am again
Standing at the door, praying You'll let me back in
To label me a prodigal would be
Only scratching the surface of who I've been known to be

[Chorus]
Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I've become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can't do this myself
You're the only one who can undo
What I've become

I focused on the score, but I could never win
Trying to ignore, a life of hiding my sin
To label me a hypocrite would be
Only scratching the surface of who I've been known to be

[Chorus]

Make every step lead me back to
The sovereign way that You

[Chorus]


by Rush of Fools

The Boulder

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many others never understand:
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

adapted from a source on the internet

How Are YOU Different?

Not too long ago, The Think Tank had a get-together meeting and we discussed a couple of questions... which one of them I found interestingly difficult to answer. The question was very simple, but I spent a really long time thinking of an honest answer to match it.

How are you different?

We know that everyone's different. Different appearances, different personalities, etc. But that's not what separates you from the rest. What's your X-factor, something that only YOU have, but others don't?

Think about it.

I liked one of the answers that my friend gave: "It's my experiences that make me different."

I totally agree with him on that. It's our experiences that denote us as who we are and who we've become.

I'm not perfect, and just like everyone else, I screw up sometimes.

But I'm willing to learn from my mistakes and accept my imperfections. I am different because I am who I am and I've accepted myself as ME.

Everyone has an X-factor that differs him or her from the rest.

Yours makes you special in Your own way :)

Calculus

Calculus Paper
to DIE for

While some may have nailed it,
I think I screwed it.

The Final Straw

The Final Straw

I have one final paper tomorrow morning at 8 tomorrow... Calculus.
I was at college today from 10.30 am until 8.45 pm, poring over Calculus. But I don't seem to fully understand it, somehow. I feel like it's written in a foreign language. And out of the 10 hours that I was in college, I only managed to grasp about a quarter of the whole thing. That's it. I'm doomed. There goes another paper.

I wish I had a tutor for this subject right NOW. I can't afford to screw up this subject because:
a) I don't want to retake it again next semester (it's a mood killer, seriously)
b) I can't afford to screw up my CGPA!

I think I'm going to pull an all-nighter for this subject. I'm not going to sleep tonight. Passing this subject is all I care about. Well, it'd better be worth it though.

I wish Starbucks was a 24/7 shop so I could go there and camp overnight with a cup of coffee.

Hahaha. Time to snap back to reality. Calculus awaits me now. It's going to be a long night.

Winds of Change

I changed my layout again because I was so bored of the old one... the pink was starting to look bland. Anyway, I apologize for the slight inconvenience especially regarding my chatboard. The messages that you type in will be posted there, but if you want to post a second one, you have to click "Tags" again and then you'll see your new message there. Sigh. I don't know why the code's so messed up. But you'll get used to it after a while XD

Anyway, I'll just blog a little bit about my day...
I had to go to college in the morning to study for my Math exam. Just as my mom was driving out of our neighborhood, I suddenly realized with a pang that I'd left something extremely important at home.
Me: Uhh.. Mom? I forgot something at home.
Mom: What? Your books? Your phone?
Me: (embracing myself for a lecture) No... I forgot to put on my contact lenses.
Mom: (shocked) HA?!! Then how did you leave the house???
Me: Mom!!! I'm not blind okay!! I can still see. But it's blur.
Mom: Aiyoh you arrr.. =.= (and yes, she lectured me)

Haha yeah. Morning blurs. Was supposed to study today... but ended up talking and wasting time in the AUP office looking at universities and blogger templates. Dana we so need to study tomorrow!!

On a random note, I'm currently addicted to the song playing on my blog now. [Thanks Dae!]
Every Little Thing by Dishwalla.


I know that the playlist can't be seen anywhere on my blog. I don't think it can be visible with this current blog theme... so yeah. Once again, blame the damn codes XD

Exams!

While most of my friends are rejoicing because their finals are officially over, I have to wait til Saturday. I still have MATH. =( Daymnn. Lol. In a way, it's good because I have like a 2-day holiday from now to study for the exam. I'm really hoping to nail it this time. I've never been good at Calculus... same went to Addmath when I was in high school. And I noticed a thing about Addmath teachers.. no offence, but they're horrible.

I remember I was doing SO badly in Form 4 so in Form 5, my friend introduced me to a supposedly "excellent" Addmath tutor. But the tutor turned out to be some cranky old woman who expected all her students to be BRILLIANT people. She used to scold me every time I asked her a question about Addmath and ever since then, I began to dread Addmath and her classes even more. The reason I stayed on was because deep down inside of me, I felt this small little flame of hope flickering there that she might be able to transform my low grade into a higher one. But she never liked me, I think. I was always struggling in Addmath... and she was always scolding me for my mistakes. 0.o Wth right. Haha. Maybe she was PMS-ing la. Or probably it could be signs of menopausal. =.= Whatever. I'm just GLAD that I did not FAIL my Addmath in SPM, and that I didn't have to see her again. "Excellent" tutor... yeah right.

I had two exams today - Macroeconomics and Religion. I slept at 2 am last night while studying Macro. So this morning when I reached college, I was like.. "econs... whatever laa.. i'm so sleepy" 10 minutes into the exam, one of my classmates walked out. She couldn't do the subjective part of the exam, I guess. And as for me, I just wanna hit my head on the wall right this very instant.

Our paper was divided into 3 sections: A, B and C. A is the objective part, B is the structural part and C is the essay part. Usually we're required to only pick one essay... I mean, that's how it went for my other papers. I thought I was doing okay. I finished my essay about 30 minutes before 10am. So.. I relaxed a bit, and because I was sooo tired, I decided to take a brief nap. Then I checked my essays... all done. Good. I looked at the clock... 9.55 am. I smiled. In 5 minutes, this would all be over. And that was when my eyes fell upon this: Section C - Answer any TWO of the questions below.

Oh. Crap.

I only did one. How could I overlook TWO written in dark, bold letters?! So I was rushing to write the last essay... and I'd only reached my 7th line of the first paragraph when the examiner demanded us to stop writing. And before I knew it, my paper was being collected. =.= Shyt. That whole essay was worth 20 marks. How could I have been so careless?! :(

Anyway, I didn't have much time to mope about it. I still had another exam in 4 hours and I had to study. So I went to the Starbucks right outside my college with Kye Le and ordered a hot Caramel Machiato. I finished 7 chapters in 2 and a half hours! :) Hehe. Anyway, it was seriously hard to study in Starbucks because of the music. I thought nice lil' cafes like Starbucks would play soothing music like Kenny G or something... but no. Even Dana who popped in at 12.30, left around 1 because she couldn't stand the music. It was a mixture of congos, drums, electric guitars, opera singers, etc. I spent half the time wishing they would PUT ON A DIFFERENT CD. The Starbucks in Taipan is so much better =D

I have a dilemma now. I don't know which subjects to apply for next semester. Philo? Micro? Public speaking? And besides, I'm still so undecided on my university! It's best to start narrowing the options now, so that I can refer to the uni's study plan to choose my subjects... but I'm vacillating between Nebraska, Missouri and New York. I used Google Earth yesterday and googled up Nebraska... hmmm it was okay la. Lots of greeneries. Then I googled Missouri... and it's just lots of BROWN patches around the university which I was planning to go to. Not a single mall in sight! And finally I tried New York... and that place is bustling with tall buildings, busy roads... unlimited shops... but New York? Dunno la. =/

Gee. I wish time would just freeze for a moment so that I could think. Every second steals another moment of the day.

Bumper Stickers

How could I give up the opportunity of blogging on a supposedly "lucky" day? :)
(In case you were wondering, today's date is 8.08.2008 and most Chinese people consider "8" as their symbol to prosperity)

I've been seeing plenty of amusing bumper stickers lately. They're so cute sometimes. And hey, they usually make me smile in the morning when I'm trapped in a 30-minute traffic jam on the way to college. I love bumper stickers with outstanding quotes. They're so funny they actually make your day. Am I making any sense? No? Well, check these out:


















Having a bad day? Stick these up!




If I had a car... I'd probably use one of these.




Haha. I love bumper stickers. Does it make any sense now? =)

Time

Today marked the final day of classes at college.
Another semester passed by just like that.
Time just flies.

Unfortunately, it flew by without me really noticing that so much has changed within so little time.
I realize with each passing day that people are actually going away. I've only just met them... like months ago? Yet it felt like I've only known them yesterday.
My final exams are coming up in two days. It's going to be an extremely hectic week. I can picture myself bending over books, screwing my brain up trying to cram everything in before the next exam. And then I'll probably complain that Calculus is a screwed up subject Calculus is so tough and Econs makes you go insane just trying to memorize all their supply-and-demand concepts with never-ending diagrams... and yes, you get the picture. Stress.

Then there's the whole dilemma of embracing a whole new semester. I'm not quite sure what I'm in for. New subjects. New lecturers. New classmates, maybe. New clothes. New bags. New shoes. (Hah I wish!) And the cycle repeats itself.

Time's irreversible; we cannot change the past.
But before it's too late, we can still change our present, which eventually affects the future and becomes our past.

Updated

Friday (August 1): Went to Pyramid with my college mates to watch The Dark Knight. There were about 14 of us if I'm not mistaken. And all of us agreed that the movie was excellent.

Credits to Heath Ledger for his outstanding performance as the Joker because he had to act the part as an insane, deluded freak and to Christian Bale for being the hottest Batman ever in history!!! LOL. Seriously. He looked so hot in the movie... in his Batman suit. Only in the Batman outfit.
By the way did you know that Christian Bale also acted in the latest season of Desperate Housewives?? (if you're not a DH fan like me, you're excusable)

That's Christian Bale for you.
He played the role of an aggressive ex-husband to one of the new actresses on the set. Guess what his screen name was? Wayne. In The Dark Knight, he was Wayne also.
PS: I'm a huge fan of Desperate Housewives, so naturally, I was quite excited to learn that Christian Bale (HOT BATMAN!) acted in that show too.
I want a navy blue tee-shirt with the batman logo embossed into the front.

People used to ask me who my favorite superhero was, and I always said "Spiderman".. but I'd like to take that back, please :) I heart Batman!! Haha. (Damn. I sound like a fanatic now.)

If I had to rate The Dark Knight from 1 to 10, I'd say 9.9, because I didn't want the movie to end and because I hated it when it ended.
Anyway, in case you haven't seen it yet...

The ending sucked.

Oops! I leaked that out on purpose. Haha.

It's just...the directors of the movie could've chosen a different way to end the movie... oh well. Who cares about the ending anyway, right? The whole thing was really good.. and like they say, good things always come to an end. =p And I guarantee it's worth every cent of your Rm10 ticket.


Saturday (August 2): Baked cheesetarts with my mom! A couple of aunties ordered cheesetarts from my mom, so on Saturday, we set to work.Baking is fun but it's a tedious process. The good thing about baking is: the results.
Tadah! Freshly baked blueberry cheesetarts! :)
(4 hours dedicated to them)
Oh. They're best eaten when chilled.


Sunday (August 3):

Went for the PASSION WORLD TOUR conference in the evening. It was held at the Sunway convention centre. Parking was a problem. I think we spent about 30 minutes in the car.. just driving up and down searching for a spot to park. The whole event was really awesome. I can't believe that I was actually there, seeing Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio in action! I'd always seen them on TV or heard them over the internet... and they just totally blew the roof off the house that night. Fantastic. I enjoyed it more than the Dark Knight movie. :)
The conference sort of changed me too. I mean. It reminded me of what my life's purpose really is all about. And that's exactly how I intend to live my life.


Today (August 5): I was in the AUP office before my mom came to fetch me, and since my friends were all stressing out over their Chemistry and Physics papers, I decided to enlighten them with a couple of lame jokes. Then when I was on the way back, I received a call from one of them. The conversation went something like this:
Him: Did you hear about the Tong Tong joke?
Me: Nope.
Him: OK. So there's this guy... he went to the North Pole to do a research on penguins. He saw a penguin and asked, "What do you do daily?" So the penguin replied, "I beat Tong Tong, kick Tong Tong, and sleep Tong Tong."

Then the man saw another penguin coming and he asked the second penguin, "What do you do daily?" And the penguin said, "I play Tong Tong.. bathe Tong Tong.. shit Tong Tong.. and sleep Tong Tong."

The man spotted a third penguin and asked the same question, "What do you do daily?" The penguin replied, "I eat and sleep." Curiously, the man asked, "How come you never mentioned Tong Tong like the other penguins?"

And the penguin said, "I am Tong Tong."

Me: Hahahaha!

So there you have it. My update :)

I've got an Econs test tomorrow which I'm totally not prepared for. Oh shit. Gotta start studying soon.