Second EG lab down today, one last one to go next week. Headed down to GlobeArt in the afternoon to take a look at my model. I set off rather early since it was my first time there and I wasn't familiar with the area. After reaching Kallang MRT took a bus down and stopped opposite block 66 of geylang bahru as suggest by streetdirectory.com haha. I should have taken a better look at how to get from there to block 77 where the company was located though.But all was cool had over half an hour to find it. Took a little walk hmm block 65 nope... ah block 67, continue bashing till I hit a clearing, yes block 68! On track, just keep following the general direction.. BLOCK 60?!? Took a look around and saw block60, 68 and a board listing blocks 50-ish. Uh-oh HOTEL LIMA liao! But still had time, so I went back to the main road and saw the block opposite was 72 and further down was block 73, but they were all HBD blocks, so I didn't expect to find the company there. Just when I was thinking maybe horlan liao, suddenly I see...


KALLAN(G) Basin Industrial Basin! Horlan, Kallan, might be a clue! So I venture in and see block 74! Yes must be on track. As I went further in the place looked really old and each block was a long 1 storey stretch of shophouses dealing in iron works, brass works, caskets, undertakers, props companies... A little later found GlobeArt and there was a group there already discussion one of their models so I waited outside first. While waiting saw some of the other stuff they were doing, and some of the models being built were just like the flower we built for DP! Skeleton built of wire mesh and later something else was pasted on top before paiting. Not sure what they used though. Within a few mintues they got one of the workers to help set up my model at the back of the shop. It was scaled down a lot from my original full scale one (well, 6mX4m base is rather ridiculous, how would they make it through the door?). Unfortunately in the scaling down the proportion was lost as well so instead of a rectangle stretching sideways it's mroe squarish and feels rather crammed. But the new dimensions made it a lot easier to transport and all so it was ok. The changed the form of the signs and it still looks good =) The shadow was a big disappointment though. The question marks were flat 2D instead of looking 3D, too small and too many of them as well. In addition they were all complete and contained within the shadow instead of letting them get cut off together with the edges of the shadow. It was like one of my favourite parts of the original design. They said they will look into making the changes but my model is kinda about to burst the budget they were given so they might not be able to do a reprinting. Oh well... Overall still looks pretty good though.

Back to hall after the trip to GlobeArt and some MLE before volleyball at night. In the end 12 came down so we had just enough people for a proper game. Good to see the team and be playing again. My court sense on the volleyball court is just terrible. Stand in a bad position too far to cover properly, keep forgetting to move back for spiking and end up getting in the setters way a few times wooops... Towards the end of the game someone on the opposite time set the ball and I instinctively ran over and jumped to block but I was too close to the net and Ruoci went for the spike. Our knees crashed into each other midair, I didn't feel much but I think she hit an old injury or something cause she was obviously affected and was sitting down holding her knee. After awhile she got up and limped a bit before walking and testing her knee before deciding to carry on with the game. Felt damn bad lah, even though it wasn't intentional... Getting hit on an injury old can be quite GG. Hope she's ok and it doesn't like swell or anything...

Sunday: Met up with the old WoW buddies for lunch to celebrate GGG's birthday. His parents got him an iPhone and within just a few days he said he chalked up over 50 dollars worth of application downloads lol. Raging is a secondary two geography teacher never knew that and Krav is gonna graduate really soon. Walter had diarrhoea and only joined up at North's place after lunch (which reminds me I still owe him for Kwan Wei's present last year). But by then Krav, Raging and myself had left. Lacking sleep and lagging in work so I had to head home first. When I reached home just concuss-ed for a few hours before carrying on with MLE optical properties.

Monday: We had a project meeting for CTW today and one member was missing again sigh. While working on the report my internet went crazy again. Just can't figure out what keeps going wrong. It seems like a virus that cuts off the connection as loading begins (whenever I try to load a page it immediately shows "done" as if the page was loaded but it's empty. Many many refreshes later it loads, sometimes not at all). But even after reformatting last week it STILL sometimes has this problem (I suspect the system image my brother loaded from the backup already had a problem). Usually takes a virus scan and several restarts before it becomes sane again. Weird thing is that the viruses are usually found in the windows folders and sometimes alerts come up on start up even before I connect to wireless/LAN (which makes me think all the more the problem lies in the backup). Extremely frustrating. Anyway the position paper has gone through much restructuring and looks much more readable and has a better flow. A little more tweaks and we're good to hand it in.

Concuss-ed in the afternoon for a few hours again. No idea why I'm so tired. After dinner chiong MLE Mechanical properties till 10pm but only covered about half the chapter. One of the more heavy chapters of MLE so far. After 10 decided to run down the usual route to KAP Mac but as I was nearing SP I could feel some drizzle so I turned back and just ran within NUS instead. Ached pretty fast and the last time I did anything was like gym on friday. Probably need more rest...

Another EG1108 lab up tomorrow and the rest of the day will be MLE again and hopefully EG logic gates. Have to be down at GlobeArt at Geylang Bahru to take a look at the model they've built for me for the WSHC competition. Wonder why they they attached a computer drawn picture instead of just taking a picture of the model since they said it has been completed lol. Seems like they made a few changes though, but nothing too siginificant. Hope enough people turn up at night for volleyball, seems like so far only Nic and myself have replied lol.

A stark difference between weariness and physical tire...
C'mon focus!

Cell! Totally made my day, week maybe?

So Word was from John 13:1-17 and Luke 22:24-30 on feet washing. Well not really on feet washing feet washing. Didn't touch much on the symbolism with regards to the crucifixion and cleansing that he would bring (v8 - 11), didn't want to overload them. Started sharing with a little on background information, the significance of the last supper occurring during the Passover and on the cultural practice of feet washing (In Palestine it was customary to have their feet washed before a meal since they had only sandals and not covered shoes and walked across dusty and muddy terrain. This task was usually done by servants or wives.)

Jesus knew his time had come.

He knew it was time for Him to leave the world and His disciples (v1). This would be His last act of service unto them (other than death on the cross) before He was about to leave.

Jesus was well aware of his identity.

He knew God gave everything into His hands, that He was from God and that He would be going back to God (v3). He was well aware of His identity and status.

Yet he chose to serve.

Regardless of His identity and status He chose to be the one who serves, and tells the disciples to "let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader the one who serves"(Luke 22:26), contrary to the world's standards. Must have been a really painful lesson for them considering that they were disputing about who amongst them was the greatest.

The motivation was love.

It was all for love. Later in the chapter He gives the disciples the commandment to "love one another: just as I have loved you" (v34) . Going back to v1 of the chapter all this occurred "when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."
This also ties in the the other portion of feet washing, that it symbolic of the cleansing Jesus would bring through the crucifixion, which is why he told Peter "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me" and in reference to Judas "Not all of you are clean" for though he was a disciple he chose to reject Jesus and betray him. That was the ultimate act of service and humility. From Philippians 2:7,8 "but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross."
The other portion is where the disciples are told to do just as Jesus had done to them. Of course He wasn't asking them to get crucified for others, but in reference to being the one who serves. And just as Jesus served out of love, so should we. But think about it, isn't that what service is? Isnt it...

... Love in action.

Service is love in action. Service exists because loves does. Anywhere along the way if we lose sight of this service is meaningless. We serve one another in various ways because we love one another. When we start to serve because of responsibilities, obligations etc we really miss the point. This goes beyond serving in church, it's about serving where ever we are for who ever it may be for, friends teachers etc... That was what I hoped they captured and would hold with them as they grow, that their service to others would be born out of love, that their service would really be their love put into actions.



At the end of Word told them about what was happening on Good Friday and that the secondary one segment was looking for volunteers to help out in the changing of water for feet washing. Cedric jumps out of his chair and stands in the middle of the circle and says "ME! I will go and SHARE THE LOVE!" So cute lah hahahaha. Melissa says her sister was helping out as well and asks Joscelyn "we go serve together lah" and Joscelyn goes "ok, you don't pang seh me ah!" Then Cedric approaches me and asks "can I be the one washing the feet instead?" Stunning. Secondary one boy asking if he can wash people's feet. Wow. In the end the whole cell volunteered to serve on Good Friday =)

"You must be very encouraged"
I was very surprised, encouraged of course. Made my day lah these kids, may be made my week even.

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As "Healer" was sung during service today some lines just made me think of some sad news I heard earlier in the day... Neither know them nor can I say I understand the pain, but may things work out in time....

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas

I trust in You
I trust in You

I believe you're more than enough for me

You hold my world in Your Hands

It's the weekend again!

Saturday morning and I'm still in hall once again. Can't remember the last time I went home on a friday night. IHG, tests, DP... Last night sets had a psot DP dinner at Suntec and as expected we ended pretty late so I decided to stay in hall instead of heading home. We ate at Joaquim, the restaurant under the convention centre area. The food was pretty good, but well it has to be considering it's a $26 buffet lol. We ended up spamming char siew cause the steamboat was cooking pretty slowly haha. Won't be going home tonight either though, now that I'm back to playing for cell I can't bring both my guitar AND my laptop home so I come back to hall on sat nights to dump my guitar sleep then head home with my laptop on sunday morning. But tomorrow we'll be celebrating GGG's 21st, so I won't be home much again.

I think I should be writing more, most of my posts are disjointed one sentences that show I'm obviously brain dead by the time I blog at the end of the day. During our conference with Mdm Chan for the position paper of EG1413 she told us that our major problem was organization of our points. She felt as if things were rather disjointed making some things feel like a double read. Probably my fault since I determined the direction for most of the paper. She complained about our title AGAIN. "Equal access to cord blood for all" She said that, once again, our title is too jazzy and newspaperish. I seriously thought that this time it was as plain and "stiff" as could be. "Your personal cord blood, the essential life saver, or so they say" yes that was jazzy, "beyond the advertising and to the bottomline of benefits" jazzy, yes, but surely "Equal access to cord blood for all" is plain, no? Hope Ivan or Wang Chao can come up with something, cause I'm pretty sure anything I come up with is gonna end up being "jazzy" lol.

For Good Friday the secondary one segment is in charge of helping out at the feet washing station. We were supposed to submit the names of members who could help out on thursday, but I asked for the dateline to be pushed to after cell on saturday so we could have Word on the passage on feet washing. At least that way the kids would have a better understanding and appreciation of what they would be helping out in, although it will kinda different since we'll be helping change the water only. Did think about having our own feet washing session but decided against it since I knew that the reason why I would be doing it would be more like a "we'll be doing it on Good Friday, so since we're going to teach them about it why not we do it for them? " Guess to me that's not really sincere intentions, though they may be well-meaning. There will be more appropriate occasions for it and I shall leave it till then.

HAWKING hahaha yes, that's what we were called! When Kwan Wei posted the photos from ultimate I was still wondering if we were called like green house hahaha. Speaking of ultimate hopefully next week I'll be able to check out the pick-up games at West Coast since it rained this week...

Magnetic properties, cantilevers, Laplace and MA dinner

With only an hour of MLE lecture for class today the rest of the day was spent finishing up magnetic properties notes, cantilevers from mathematical modeling from MA1506. Spamming maths web casts this week to catch up. Hall merit award dinner at night, the dress attire was smart casual but some people looked like totally smart and not casual lol. Awarded a certificate of commendation for basketball and considering I got into Eusoff by appealing through basketball, it's a good thing I managed to get something for it, otherwise it would be quite paiseh lol. Later part of the night it was back to MA catching up with Laplace and unfortunately I only finished the earlier half of it but tomorrow's tutorial is on the later half + early half of matrices. Guess I'll just do what I can tomorrow before EG1413 conference and between lunch and the tutorial.

Much as I can't wait to get into NIE, leaving Eusoff will be a very sad thing that will have to come with it...

How hard is it to find a frisbee in Singapore? You'll be surprised...

Happy birthday Cheryl! Her gift has been lying around in my room for quite a while, did it much earlier cause I expected to be busy since it was so close to DP. Glad I did, DP turned out to be much busier than I had expected.

Did my first EG1108 lab today, went very well since it was the easiest of the 3 labs and a very short one too. After that had lunch before going on a frisbee hunt. I remembered seeing a good one at the adidas shop at vivo in the past, so I went back there but it was sold out =/. Went to other shops in vivo as well as harbourfront but they didn't have any at all! Well one shop did have the toy kinds that would chui pretty fast. Thought I'll go down to queensway instead and to my immense disappointment, there was none there either -_- though 2 shops sold toy frisbees again. Now I really understand what Da Lun and Cheryl meant when they said they hunted all over for a frisbee for me last year and couldn't get one. It's was just unbelieveable.

At night there was like a sports carnival at MPC lol. We were playing basketball then the takraw and touch ruggers came down as well. It was like flooded with people, 4 on 4 bball on one half of the court, touch ruggers on the other and many next-teams of takraw players warming up beside the takraw court. At 10 went for block supper. First proper block supper since stepping into hall lol. The food was like totally devoured. At first we had to keep calling for people to come up for supper, but after Prof Ho and Andrew gave their speeches and the eating began, the food disappeared incredibly fast (as did the crowd). Finished EG1108 tutorial 6 and going back to tutorial 5, looked at the lecture notes and the textbooks and they have conflicting formulas -_- just wonderful. Gotta ask the tutor tomorrow liao...

DP on friday was an awesome performance! The actors threw in a few spontaneous changes that made things significantly funnier and judging by the sound of the audience's applause, laughing and cheering they probably loved it. Ivan was pretty stunned by the standard and both Pat and Alina said it was a good show. The way it was run was just pathetic though. So sick of it I don't wanna even type it all out.

Working with the sets team was a great experience, but beyond sets it's meh...
As the last few days approached DP it wasn't really a climax, in fact it was one hell of a letdown...

The last few days at UCC have been pretty cool, putting together the larger sets and attaching them to the flybars, making adjustments, turning the bare stage into the places we want it to be. The stage is a pretty magical place... Too bad we aren't allowed to go up to where they operate the flybars though, would love to see what it's like up there. Tonight, tonight. Tonight we'll put on a show the audience will definitely remember...

One chance to bring the house down, one chance to make this all worthwhile.

Watching over the sets at UCC now. We moved everything from Eusoff over in about 6 lorry trips. Just as we had finished moving and arranging everything it TA, it started to rain! Canvas sheets, trash bags, cloth and whatever we had to try and keep the sets dry. Just as we finished about 30 mins of covering the sets and the rain stopped. It was about 330 by then. Tiredd...

On monday we started work for sets at 7 and ended on tuesday 5am LOL. Welfare includes 1 cereal bar and 2 rounds of bubble tea. Finished up all structures and painting, packed our tools and materials for set up at UCC. The modifications to the Ultimate Cure Machine looks really good, though it does look like part of some Japanese manga haha. Gotta buy lots of stuff for tml, probably gonna collect back my miniature from Cread as well.

We started at 5pm today, having supper now. Tml class from 8 to 6pm and sets at 7pm. The other days we're moving into UCC and the hours will be crazier. Super exhausted...

Friday: Our group for EG1413 met to finish up our recommendations of our position paper for checking on monday. Supposed to meet from 10-12 but someone sms-ed only at 1130 cause he just woke up GG. So the other 2 of us did whether we could from 10-12 and and now just need to merge parts. Met Rachel for lunch to catch up. Third year and moving to honours year, so fast lah! To think it's been more than 3 years since we graduated from PJ. Seems like a lot has happened in 3 years. Talked till almost late for class lol...

At night we had our first leaders' cell in a long time. Was good meeting up as a cell again, Ferdi and Zach were extremely high haha. None of us really understood why though. After going back was to tired to study for sat's EG1108 test so I just went to sleep.

Saturday: EG1108 test at 10am. It went pretty well except for one complicated circuit that will probably kill most people. Straight after the test it was back to hall for DP piecing. Those who managed to get tickets for DP are definitely in for a treat! But after we finished our 2 runs it was 6+ and we had to carry on with sets at 8 cause we still have props to rush finish before we move them to UCC on tuesday night. Made a quick trip down to church to deliver some stuff. Got Camelia to help me pass Zhong Kai his birthday card and pass Joseph my PJ training jersey. May he train hard and play for PJ too haha. Grabbed a quick dinner and it was then back to sets. We chionged till about 1am. A few of us went for supper but most just went back to sleep lol. Speaking of which it should be my turn as well, tomorrow we're starting sets again in the afternoon! No going home this weekend...

Not having closure can be a really frustrating feeling, I know. But hopefully you'll hear something over the weekend yeah

Got owned yesterday at EG lab. I got the dates wrong and was supposed to go last tuesday but I still went for this week's one since it was also experiment three. But I was told to drop an email to arrange a makeup lab instead -_- oh well... More painting the last 2 days, my shoes are pretty colourful by now haha requested to be excused from thursday nights painting so I can prep for sat's EG1108 test and catch up on maths. Laplace is over and I haven't really understood any of it yet. EG tutorial today was terrible cause the tutor did half tutorial 4 and half of 5 and I hadn't even gone through the chapter for tutorial 5 so pretty much everything he explained flew right pass me...

This could be everything or this could mean nothing... This limbo is just terrible...

Absolute KO on monday. After ending so late past midnight on sunday it was classes from 8-6 on monday with 3h of break only. During MLE lecture I just slept through probably 3/4 of it. Was so tired the pen in my hand fell off as I dozed off lol. Sets from 7pm till midnight. After washing up Matthew Wan asked me some EG1108 practice set question. My brain was totally dead didn't know what I was doing when attempting the question, had to fish up my notes and do some reading first in the end. But well, at least at the end of every monday, HALF THE WEEK IS OVER YESSSSSSS. Received a call in the afternoon regarding the WHSC competition and they're trying to arrange a time they can meet groups of participants at a time. I think the company in charge is Clear Channel (the one in that has adverts at almost every bus stop) Gonna have to finish my miniature model and eg1108 tutorial tomorrow after lab and before sets.

Friday was the physical proficiency test for PE teaching in NIE. It's just something you need to pass before you start your course in NIE but it doesn't affect the acceptance of an application. I was so shocked went I looked at the detailing list. I was wondering how they would get enough people for the ball possession game since it was 6 at a time. But there were actually 250+ people coming for the test! Met a guy in my group called Jonathan who was also transferring out of his current course to NIE and he was from engin too, electrical though haha. Yue Hua (a friend from Pre-U Sem in JC) was in my group also, didn't know she was from Team Singapore Dragon Boat, fierce sia. There was this state cricket player from India called North(or maybe Noth, his accent was very heavy and kinda hard to catch) too. The gymnastics test and agility run were pretty interesting (badminton was just exchanging of strokes, swim was just clearing the 25m and ball possession was just a grading of the way we make space and passes). Forward roll was not much of an issue for everyone but the back roll most of us couldn't really do one with good form. Surprisingly many people had trouble with the arabesque. The option of cartwheel/handstand/headstand was where most people had the most trouble. Many couldn't do a decent cartwheel, either landing awkwardly or bending their legs and arms a lot. For the heck of it I decided to do a handstand. Was kinda hesitant since I'm not always able to hold a decent handstand at my first go but you were allowed to try till you're satisfied so I decided just whack lah. Fortunately my first try went well lol held it for about 2 secs before losing some balance and moving my hands to compensate and held it a few seconds more. The agility test was harder than I thought, the run looked simple but the starting position was extremely strange. we proned on the floor and on "GO!" we would quickly get up and start running. Timing to beat for the full 3 points was 15.9 and I scraped a 15.3, having to prone made a significant difference to timing.
At church after SSL we celebrated Oli's birthday and Sam (Lo) was the ultimate kidnapper. Used a laptop cover to cover Oli's head and make her walk blindly all over church while the rest of us wrote her card and got ready the cake. After Sam took off the laptop cover Oli looked all flustered and breathless. We all sang happy birthday with a soon-to-have-all-the-candles-melt-out cake before Alina passed her the card and gift from the cell.

Saturday: First saturday in a long time I managed to spend with my sec one kids. We went to watch Marley and Me at Plaza Singapura, and it was actually the guys who suggested that show. Well Josh suggested it at least. While we were having lunch at PS bumped into Rachel and talked to her a bit before we left to catch the show. Haven't talked to her in like 4 years. Marley and me was a not bad show but I guess it's more for dog lovers. Celine cried at the end of the show and the boys kinda made a joke out of it, sigh.

Sunday had to meet Ivan and Wang Chao to finish up our EG1413 position paper introduction. Sigh, sunday also must meet. Fortunately we managed to clear it up fast. The night was spent painting and painting away at sets. We be painting every night in the coming week!

MA1506 last night was terribad. 6/10. The past 3 papers combined were not as hard as this sem's one sigh, hyperbolic and trigo coming out zzz...

EG1413 is picking up pace and we're starting work on our position paper. Good thing we have a lot of information to fight our case but it's still gona be quite a task writing it out as a group and figuring how to divide things efficiently and effectively.

NIE physical proficiency test tomorrow! Should ace all except the gymnastics section would might be a little tricky. Need to finish up tutorials for next week and build a miniature for the designer so I have something for him/her to work with. Still haven't been contacted though, guess it's a good thing since I'm not yet prepared either hahaha.

The afternoon in (China)town

Finished 2 MA1506 past year papers today; one in the morning and one in the evening. Did some shooting before the lights at MPC went out...

Spent some time over at Chinatown area in the afternoon since I was going for the discussion at Ministry of National Development. Had lunch at Maxwell Food Centre before walking around the area and taking some photos since I had quite some time to burn before I had to be at MND. Passed by the URA building, reminded me of the time a few of us from PJC were here for an interview with one of their CEO's for our Pre-University Seminar Presentation. It had those cool lifts where there weren't any levels for you to choose from; the security guard would punch in the floor the lift was to take you to from his desk.

The discussion at MND was a rather short one but it was definitely not what I had expected. Or at least the details they updated me on were most unexpected. It started off with them asking me about the rational and further details behind my concept and then they threw in the stunning part. I don't have to make the model on my own. Or more like I don't have to be involved in the physical building of the model at all. In a bid to make the model look more professional and more "artsy fartsy" as they put it, they'll be hooking me up with a professional designer who will build the model according to my design and specifications as well as a supplier who will handle all the materials needed. If that sounds extreme, the reason is because the models are no longer gonna be like the figurine size as in the video (that's always playing on TV mobile), they want it live size, think installation art/huge exhibits at museums. Looks like the government is taking this work safety campaign really seriously if they're willing to go to such an extent, not to mention the amount of money that must have been pumped into it for them to get designers and suppliers for all those shortlisted for the 3D models. So from this stage on they said that what they need from me is my time, to lias with the designer/supplier, check out how the building is getting along and they said I could go down and take a look at the actual building, maybe get involved if they allow me to. Can't wait to get started man, only huge problem now is that I have to come up with all the dimensions and specifications for a live size model and I need to think of what materials I'll need. No more plywood, cardboard, newspaper and spray paint as previously planned...

"It is written"

Caught Slumdog Millionaire with the NUS cellies today, it's definitely a show worth catching. The story behind how he knew the answers is really sad though... I read up a little on the show the day before and saw the comment by AR Rahman, the Indian composer who received two Oscars for best song and best score. From BBC News: "He hailed 'all the people from Mumbai and the essence of the film, which is about optimism and the power of hope and our lives'." After watching the show, couldn't help but feel that he was totally wrong. Pretty sure the director was talking about destiny and not optimism and the power of hope and our lives, though Jamal's story and his reason for taking part in who wants to be a millionaire does make it seem that way. At the very start of the show there's a play on who wants to be a millionaire and shows the multiple choice of how Jamal knew the answers and to be honest at that point when I saw "it is written" I was totally huh-ed by it. Like absolutely no link. But at various points in the show and more importantly at the closing scene you hear Jamal/Latika saying things like "it is our destiny". I believe that was the whole subtle play on the "It is written" statement, and not the scene where the host tries to give Jamal the wrong answer in the toilet. That it was their destiny and the events that were played out were already "written" to happen. But maybe that's just my own interpretation haha. We had lunch/tea and chilled at Hong Kong Cafe at Taka after the show before going home in the midst of the downpour. It was incredibly packed at the underpass from Tangs to Orchard MRT, people were moving like snails and the bus stop outside Tangs was so overcrowded with people I had to wait at Tangs till the bus came before running to the bus stop to board the bus since I didn't have an umbrella lol.

Discussion for the WSHC 3D modelling competition on tuesday and physical proficiency test for NIE on friday, gonna be an interesting week!

"It is written"