It's cold.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Singapore's in its own winter mode now.
It's raining everyday and I'm sure shop owners at East Coast are cursing everyday because they don't get any business. Orchard owners are cursing the weather for killing their plants, especially those which aren't suitable in cold weather.
Now, they need a heater. What an irony. Heater in Singapore.
Ah Peks are now wearing jacket instead of a singlet.
Office people are bringing their jackets to work.
Shoppers are carrying an umbrella and a jacket when they walk on streets.
I don't want the rain, I just want the cooling weather. Is it too much to ask for?
Does a smile appear on your face now that you're staying at home doing homework. Now, you don't even need the air-con. Your mum's gonna cut down on her nagging for wasting electricity cause there's a reason for saving it now.
Are you able to give that smile when thinking ahead of the new year? The new year: where you will have to stay back in school till 6 plus everyday. You're gonna get tons of homework from school, and you have tests the next day.
You have a dumb Chinese Os to face during mid-year, and they make you take again if you don't get an A.
You are pressured. for your class is the only one which can't score in Pure Sciences, and what you have heard is Tan Kee Hoe is taking you.
You have never experienced running around the lab, you have never duck-walked before, you have never gotten a dressing down from one of the two best Chem teachers in school before.
What lies ahead of you?
You don't know.
We bring in the new year with earthquakes in Taiwan, which slows down everyone's Internet and signing me out from MSN for no particular reason. I watched Youtube videos halfway and the download gets stuck. I type blog posts halfway and you tell me it can't be published.
We'll all die without Internet.
posted by Rod @ 3:19 PM,
Christmas
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas was a blast and I'm glad that it was one cause you will only celebrate it once a year. Whats more, it's the final event of the year where the whole of Singapore, and nation-wide (almost) would celebrate.
Christmas is more special especially when you're a Christian. It meant so much more to us. This is the day which Jesus came down to earth. This is the day which our Saviour came from heaven to earth.
I have a new gift for myself, a new handphone accessory. It has been said that it looks like me, when I'm angry. Such a great thing to remind myself of my long died temper.
I surely do not want to look like that. Haha.
Part of the C zone went out to eat at this big staircase just right outside Marina Square and opposite The Esplanade.
It was windy, people there were having fun, some strangers had their guitars with them. I just found a good place to be late at night, besides the top level of Vivocity. Well, if you want privacy then obviously you would not go there.
Sometimes, it's not good to eat Macdonald's McSpicy meal and Ice-Milo in the middle of the night. You do not want to get a stomache for that.
Christmas is great.
I'm glad that He came down to save me. I owe everything, to Him.
posted by Rod @ 11:50 PM,
Interesting
Friday, December 22, 2006
Now, rootofdarkness.blogspot.com has a new look. Ever since July, it has been looking the same until now.
Heyy, Christmas is coming so ain't it a good time for a change? Haha.
Have you ever take some time off your busy schedule at night, sit in front of your com. You know, drink some coffee, and just simply go through the contact card of people on your MSN list?
You might want to do that from time to time, with the element of surprise, you might find stuff which would amuse you.
So what do people normally put as their display picture?
1) Picture of themselves
2) Picture of their friends with them inside
3) Picture of themselves being EMO
4) Picture that expresses out their current feelings
Basically these few..
However, there would be some which are pretty interesting. I mean, you don't get to see them often or so. Or at least something you would never expect them to put up.
How about letting me show you some?
First, meet Baby Hitler
This guy loves TK alot. Do you?
Oh my oh my.. XX's a hacker.
This one's a little off. I mean, it's expected. By the way, this is not Lem's acc.
Girls, what do you think about that?
Interesting right?
Go, look around your MSN contact list sometime and just explore their contact cards.
You may find interesting stuff.
posted by Rod @ 9:38 PM,
Greatness
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Name above all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Greatness
To what extent does the word "great" tells you about a particular person's character, how he treats people, how he treats his friends and so on?
When you use the word "great", it all ties in with other words like "awesome", "wonderful"..
In this case, I'll use "Perfect".
I've been walking my Christian walk with God for more than a year now, a marvelous year where my life went through different trials, ups and downs. With all these, I'm proud to say that I'm still standing strong although there might be discouraging times.
Have you ever asked yourself, what does this person have that pulled him through all these difficulties, times of desperation, times when it seems as though it's a dead end and times when he feels like breaking down?
What exactly does this person have? What is the element in his life?
My answer to all these is simple: He has God in him.
Where did I get my fighting spirit from?
God gave it to me.
Why is my life so happening now?
I have God in me and it's also Christmas!
Yeah, Christmas is coming. if you don't have any plans or so you can always join me for hairstyling. If you're a female then there's manicure for you also. Haha.
Where are we going? Ask me to find out!
posted by Rod @ 9:55 PM,
A night of Music
Friday, December 15, 2006
Going to arcade to play shooting and racing games would normally be the guys' thing you know. Of course, there are girls around also.
However, not most of them enjoy playing violent games, so what do they play?
Candy games!
To them it's just pure fun spending money trying to get candies and sweets out from the machine rather than using those money and spend it wisely at the supermarket. There, you have better odds of getting more than what you can from that machine.
Yeah, back from the band concert and it was one hell of a night of music.
I have friends from other schools whom I met came all the way to Shenton Way to watch TK Band perform and I heard lots of praises of the band.
An army of 180 strong players winning 5 years consecutively. Ain't no easy feat.
Snapshot 1
Snapshot 2
Okay, this is the one where they had their own people singing, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
This is the full 180-strong band.
Awesome Night.
posted by Rod @ 11:00 PM,
Fun At Work
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Having fun at work, everybody wants that.
Sometimes you would find yourself in a situation, you're rally bored doing what you're doing and just somehow someone came along or was already there just did something random to get you alive again.
Dooddling, we call it. Am I right?
Everybody can have fun while working. It's a matter of whether you want it or not.
Take tuition for an example. A group of people would be diligently doing there math questions, taking down notes and paying real attention to what the teacher has to say.
However, there would be another group of people, who would zone out during the lesson and you know, when you're bored you doodle on your paper.
I don't think you would expect this small little paragraph to be written by someone important in the class. It's written by the teacher. They can be fun, but my tuition is in a group but it's also more of a one to one thing. I love it. You don't get this very often in other tuition centres.
Where else you would study besides in tuition? School, would be a very obvious answer.
Haha, the handwriting's nice right? This is the situation where you have a fun-loving person sitting beside you. I blessed by that and I'm glad about it. Little stuff like these can really brighten your day sometimes, if you think about it.
How about drawings? Not only we write, we DRAW. I'm not saying that I draw, I'm saying that other people draw. I've got a classic example.
I didn't draw that but just wanna show you and illustrate it out to you what I mean. That was many months ago and during the previous weekend, Pearl Harbor was aired on Channel 5. That's why you see the names of the guys who acted in that movie there and you know, the title was written quite big.
Yeah, so while at work, sometimes you would zone out and you start thinking of the past, I didn't really think much about that cause I know that the future's gonna be even more amazing.
You see me now, but most of you didn't see me when I was in Primary 1.
So I was thinking and thinking, want to give you all a scare and a shock each.
posted by Rod @ 8:32 PM,
Night Coffee
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Sometimes it's really fun just hanging out with old friends, talking about what happened in the past. You know, memories. Yes, although the future's gonna be more amazing, sometimes the past just get you cracking up.
Night coffee, at Starbucks it was. I had a great night out with Amirul, Sophia, Terence and Ronald. Just talking and talking. A total great night. You got to do things like this, like NOW. You won't have time till November 2007. You should know what I mean.
One whole year, hell lots of fights with keeping awake during lessons and struggling with your homework and revision at night.
Heck, I don't want to think about all these now. I really want to enjoy all that I can now. Homework's a hindrance.
Hot Cafe Mocha with " Monster cookie ( soft and chewy ) " was my order for the night. Monster cookie's nice. Enjoy food and drinks like these once in a while, unless you have too much money to spare then it's a total different issue.
Sometimes places like Coffee Bean, Starbucks you know, high class places ; They overprice their items too much: A bottle of mineral water costs $2.90. There's Esso Petrol Kiosk and NTUC Fairprice just right across the road. Where would you get your mineral water? The one that costs $2.90 or that one that cost $0.45?
Get what I mean?
I did a little survey too.
Who has done their holiday assignment yet?
Results: 5 out of 5 says NO.
This is a sign of GET STARTING.
An awesome night.
Precious moments, I'm refering to that brand. Where in the logo you have a boy and a girl sitting next to each other, you know, that one?
One thing about them is that you never expect to see them, like alive and walking? They're not like Power Rangers or Mask Riders, where you have people dressed like them and they go around making kids happy?
You can have remarks of those kind of shows in shopping centers, and then you start babbling about how lame they are. Trust me, you would be totally into it and having fun with them if you're are kid of the age 7++.
Oh, trust me on this one.
Precious Moments, ( I forgot their names ). They came alive!
posted by Rod @ 11:30 PM,
Nightlife
Friday, December 08, 2006
Most of us teenagers have stayed out late at night, despite all those dumb warnings from parents and even from the police.
Yes, the "Before 11 policy". You have to reach home before 11 or else risk being caught by the police and a letter with the details of where you are caught being outside and so on being sent to your home address.
And the dumb thing is that you could check your letter box daily for it and when the letter comes you can just throw it away.
My focus now: The MRT.
Normally in the streets at this point of the night, after 11, you can see Ah Bengs and Ah Lians hanging around the void deck of HDB blocks. Better still, they hang out around the orchard area, where most of the shops are already closed and they just love to hang around there. [ Festive season is an exception here.]
What do you see in the MRT?
Well, I can tell you but I can't show you cause it's really rude to take pictures of the people I'm refering to. You know, the camera lens is an object where some people are sensitive to.
This is what I saw, come on, picture with me: A lady wearing a blue Qi Pao with slippers. A grown-up man, having girlish handphone accessories and he stands like a girl. A kid, I call him, in purple shirt spilling vulgarities every few seconds, you know, typical Pai Kia, and then he has this guy friend with him, who looks girlish.
I mean, what's wrong with the guys now? This is exactly what's happening in the world. Guy's are turning Pia Kia and gay. You know, two ends of the pole. Extreme. Lob sided. Out of balance.
This is wrong.
This is so wrong.
posted by Rod @ 12:33 AM,
Others
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Okay, so now I can hereby declare that I have lost quite a number of friends, to these great thing called HOLIDAYS OVERSEAS.
However, I won't get bored or anything like that. Emptiness, maybe to a certain extent. When you are a Christian you will realise that November and December, this period of time, is the most exciting in the whole year.
Many things, 24 is tomorrow. 3 days of VBS next week. Oh yah, we are going to watch Brave Heart by Mel Gibson. You see, a Christian's life is never boring, especially when you're in a great church and have great pastors. And most importantly, we have a great God.
I'm going to bring an atmosphere, the Presence of God into my blog now. A blog is a place where you can just write whatever you want, the happenings in your life, your thoughts. I'm going to do that right now.
Many of the VBS students got this book by Pastor Joakim Lundqvist, titled "For A New Generation". There's this true story inside that I feel that I should share it out. So it's gonna be lots of words.
It's worth it to read it so here we go. [Caution: This part is only for people who read books, if you're not a reader, you won't last]
However, I won't get bored or anything like that. Emptiness, maybe to a certain extent. When you are a Christian you will realise that November and December, this period of time, is the most exciting in the whole year.
Many things, 24 is tomorrow. 3 days of VBS next week. Oh yah, we are going to watch Brave Heart by Mel Gibson. You see, a Christian's life is never boring, especially when you're in a great church and have great pastors. And most importantly, we have a great God.
I'm going to bring an atmosphere, the Presence of God into my blog now. A blog is a place where you can just write whatever you want, the happenings in your life, your thoughts. I'm going to do that right now.
Many of the VBS students got this book by Pastor Joakim Lundqvist, titled "For A New Generation". There's this true story inside that I feel that I should share it out. So it's gonna be lots of words.
It's worth it to read it so here we go. [Caution: This part is only for people who read books, if you're not a reader, you won't last]
Others
29th May 1914
29th May 1914
The ship Empress of Ireland had just left the harbour in Quebec, Canada, on it's way to Liverpool. Less than two years after the Titanic's voyage over the Atlantic ended in tragedy, most of the passengers had surely thought about this terrible event as they moved out of the habour on their own journey. However, the thought that the same thing could happen again - that another ship's journey would end in hundreds of lives coming to an end - seemed totally unbelievable.
It was totally unbelievable, but that's exactly what was about to happen - with a few important differences. Even more people were going to lose their lives this time. The Empress would sink in just a fraction of the time it took for Titanic to sink beneath the ocean's surface. People would for some reason almost forget - or at least brush aside - this event. And lastly this event would contain a hidden story of heroism that would show self-sacrifice and the drastic consequences of love.
Just as the Titanic had met her fate on an ice-cold night the Empress also met with hers. The passengers hadn't even been on board for twelve hours when the vessel collided with the Norwegian transport ship Storstad in thick fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. The actual collision felt quite mild - survivors later said that they didn't even notice anything had happened until the sirens started to sound - but the damage was devastating. The Empress was rapidly letting in water through a huge hole over thirty square meters in size, and sank in just fourteen minutes. Few people even had the chance to react before it was too late, and when the tragic event was over, 1027 of 1477 passengers had lost their lives.
Amongst the passengers on the Empress there was a group of people who were different. A young group from Canada's Salvation Army who, under the leadership of thirty-five year old Edward James Hanagan, were on their way over to England to take part in a large Christian conference.
When the survivor's testimonies were compiled, many remarkable report came forth all referring to the same group of people. Several people told stories about how they'd made it out of their cabins but had not been able to get hold of their life vest. They'd ended up in the ice cold water and realised that they'd probably end their lives there - it was only a question of minutes before they'd sink beneath the surface and meet the same fate as so many others on this terrible night.
Then someone came swimming towards them! A young person who'd fought their way through the ice-cold water, and as soon as they'd come within range, they'd taken off their life-vest and thrown in to their fellow passengers.
One of the most heart-wrenching stories came from a grown man who'd ended up in the water and realised that his life would be coming to an end in a matter of minutes, when suddenly a young girl came swimming towards him. After having won her struggle against the tides and waves she succeeded in coming close enough to throw her own life-vest - her only chance of survival - to him.
Despite the fact that the man wanted to survive, he felt that it wasn't right for him to keep the vest. She was younger. She was just a girl. So he threw the life-jacket back to her and encouraged her to save her own life instead. This made the girl furious! She threw the vest back to him with a short words that he would never forget.
" Take it! I will die better than you!"
I'm going to stop here. And let me just explain the last sentence. The whole story's just amazing. A youth, giving her life for an adult at least 10 years older than her.
This bring me back to a verse in the bible.
John 15:13
Great love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
I mean, that girl who sacrificed her life, she didn't even know the man personally. Yet, she could give up her life for a stranger, who had no blood relations to her, that he may have a chance to survive and live on.
We put others above ourselves.
That's what Christianity is all about. It's all about loving God, loving people, loving life.
Sometimes when you love someone, you know it in your heart. You just know, you know you know. I love God and I'm not afraid to proclaim my love for Him here, on this blog. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to confess your love, I do it everyday. I confess my love for God everyday.
Chi Wen told me something today, "I've realised that you've become more cheerful than before."
I replied, "Really?".
However, in my heart I know, I know that it's God. What Pastor How said was totally true. When you have a first-hand revelation, it will become a conviction in your life. I have the joy of the Lord in me. There will not be a time where I will sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is my strength. Os are next year, rough year I can tell.
Some people will struggle, and I will struggle too.
However, I'm different.
I have God by my side.
Just as the Titanic had met her fate on an ice-cold night the Empress also met with hers. The passengers hadn't even been on board for twelve hours when the vessel collided with the Norwegian transport ship Storstad in thick fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. The actual collision felt quite mild - survivors later said that they didn't even notice anything had happened until the sirens started to sound - but the damage was devastating. The Empress was rapidly letting in water through a huge hole over thirty square meters in size, and sank in just fourteen minutes. Few people even had the chance to react before it was too late, and when the tragic event was over, 1027 of 1477 passengers had lost their lives.
Amongst the passengers on the Empress there was a group of people who were different. A young group from Canada's Salvation Army who, under the leadership of thirty-five year old Edward James Hanagan, were on their way over to England to take part in a large Christian conference.
When the survivor's testimonies were compiled, many remarkable report came forth all referring to the same group of people. Several people told stories about how they'd made it out of their cabins but had not been able to get hold of their life vest. They'd ended up in the ice cold water and realised that they'd probably end their lives there - it was only a question of minutes before they'd sink beneath the surface and meet the same fate as so many others on this terrible night.
Then someone came swimming towards them! A young person who'd fought their way through the ice-cold water, and as soon as they'd come within range, they'd taken off their life-vest and thrown in to their fellow passengers.
One of the most heart-wrenching stories came from a grown man who'd ended up in the water and realised that his life would be coming to an end in a matter of minutes, when suddenly a young girl came swimming towards him. After having won her struggle against the tides and waves she succeeded in coming close enough to throw her own life-vest - her only chance of survival - to him.
Despite the fact that the man wanted to survive, he felt that it wasn't right for him to keep the vest. She was younger. She was just a girl. So he threw the life-jacket back to her and encouraged her to save her own life instead. This made the girl furious! She threw the vest back to him with a short words that he would never forget.
" Take it! I will die better than you!"
I'm going to stop here. And let me just explain the last sentence. The whole story's just amazing. A youth, giving her life for an adult at least 10 years older than her.
This bring me back to a verse in the bible.
John 15:13
Great love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
I mean, that girl who sacrificed her life, she didn't even know the man personally. Yet, she could give up her life for a stranger, who had no blood relations to her, that he may have a chance to survive and live on.
We put others above ourselves.
That's what Christianity is all about. It's all about loving God, loving people, loving life.
Sometimes when you love someone, you know it in your heart. You just know, you know you know. I love God and I'm not afraid to proclaim my love for Him here, on this blog. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to confess your love, I do it everyday. I confess my love for God everyday.
Chi Wen told me something today, "I've realised that you've become more cheerful than before."
I replied, "Really?".
However, in my heart I know, I know that it's God. What Pastor How said was totally true. When you have a first-hand revelation, it will become a conviction in your life. I have the joy of the Lord in me. There will not be a time where I will sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is my strength. Os are next year, rough year I can tell.
Some people will struggle, and I will struggle too.
However, I'm different.
I have God by my side.
posted by Rod @ 10:43 PM,
It's over
Saturday, December 02, 2006
No more going back to school for preparations.
No more going back to school for rehearsals.
No more late nights cause of doing up PPT and script.
Yay, this really calls for a celebration.
Haha, anyway, the pre-dinner segment people had our own fun in the COE today. Yeah, I'm sure we were enjoying ourselves more than those who are performing for the dinner segment. Haha. Being in the COE with fun-loving people sure helps hype up everything. [ Amirul was there for a while, which makes him one of us. ]
This shot came at the right time. Managed to take a shot of Justin's Powershot in it's focusing mode. Haha, that brought orange light.
There would be many things that people would do when they're bored. We played around with our cameras and came up with an idea of taking a " Triangle and Square Shot ". Is that what it's supposed to be called? I don't know. Everything came together with the flow so I just floated along. Haha.
Yeah, someone's gonna put all the photos together and form it like a filmstrip. So by then, it will look darn cool. With the effects and all. Haha.
Yong Quan asked me today if I have ever regretted taking D&T as a subject to study. Here's my answer to him as well as everyone.
No.
Haha, the part of the class which take D&T are very bonded together and we get lots of benefits that most people do not have. Like, having the tablet to ourselves. The longest time we had it was like 2 weeks. We were allowed to bring it home and so on. But of course, we need to produce work. Haha.
Well, back to the fun we had in the COE.
Yeah, it's the small things that makes everything fun. Justin had fun playing with my face when he asked me stand at the white screen. Playing around the with the pen function of the Microsoft Presentation. I saw how bad it was on the camera. He gave me a panda's eye and long nose hair. That's really cruel of him.
I hereby present to you the lounge of where the D&T teachers relax in..
I will start dreaming BIG now.
I came across this laminated poster at Times Bookstore when I was just walking around Plaza Sing, don't wanna go home that early after dismissal you see. And this line was exactly what we need.
You've gotta think BIG! Be a BIG person! And guess what was below that line? Haha, I ain't gonna tell ya. Go there and find out yourself. So yeah, think BIG! Be BIG minded!
Christmas is coming. It's actually in abt 4 weeks time and everyone and everywhere is already in the festive mood already. Discounts everywhere, prices are slashed to more than 50% and so on. Girls, go get your wallet/purse and start your window shopping today! While stocks last. Haha.
posted by Rod @ 11:46 PM,
