Cherchez La Vérité: November 2005

Wednesday, November 30

Random pic. This is Evan and me. We used to work in the same office back in OCS. A real hardcore cyclist. He cycled from home (which is in CHANGI) to OCS (which is in BOON LAY!) occasionally. That's a 100km a day. Hope you're doing good bro.

Sherman Says

You guys should check out Sherman's blog. I think he writes really well and his views are truly mature, thought provoking and very well expressed.

I hope you don't mind me plugging your blog, Sherm.=)

Click here for Sherman's blog!

The Exciting Life Of An Accountant

I know this sounds sad, but balancing a balance sheet and cash flow statement is highly satisfying. OOH YEAH.

Tuesday, November 29

The Build Up

I am SOOOO psyched up for Sunday's marathon. The minute I look at my FA textbook, I just keep thinking about race plans, what distance to start drinking, when to consume the powergel, the pace, what songs to put in the iPod, etc. Man.

Got a decent grade for my Communications module. Would have liked an A, but she's really strict on marking, so I'm happy with an A-.

So far, I've had 5 people telling me to "Get of my ass". Thanks guys. I feel really loved. =)

Get Off Your Ass Gabe

This is really bad.

I'm totally not ready for Friday's FA paper, and yet I don't seem to be bothered at all. Right after yesterday's Stats paper, (which was quite an adrenaline rush, but I'll save that for later) went for a simple lunch at Subway with Yiling, Peg, Jinshu and Ben, slacked around in school till 3pm, before heading home.

Decided I needed a change of scenary to study FA, so I went to the poolside. It was sooo nice and breezy, one minute I was looking at the textbook, the next I was FAST ASLEEP! Piang eh!

Spent the WHOLE of this morning lazing in bed. Got to school by noon, had a quick lunch. Now I'm lazing around the library. Further evidence of my laziness can be seen by me even typing this entry! And yet, somehow, I don't feel bothered. Why? Numb to exams maybe? After 16 years or so of Singaporean education, exams really aren't such a big deal. All part of the system. Why get flustered by them? But I think I'm tinkering on the other extreme right now, being totally ignorant of it. Hmm.

If you're reading this, and you have me on your MSN list, can you please say a friendly "GET OFF YOUR ASS GABE!"? I think that should get me going. I hope.

Anyway, yesterday's Statistics exam was such a rush. Woo! Insane la, the marks weightage is seriously flawed. I spent one and a half hours on the structured part and half an hour on the MCQ, when 60% of the marks come from the MCQ section. It was relatively doable, but the tediousness of it caught everyone off guard. Didn't have time to double check my questions, and knowing me, I'm sure I was quite careless in some areas. Not too bothered by it though. Whatever comes, comes.

On a lighter note, I'm glad that I have a new sister-in-Christ in Yiling! Praise God! Will continue to pray for you man! =)

Got this off Peg's blog! LTB Presentation! Go Hammies!

Really kids. Don't smoke.

Monday, November 28

Priority One

Right now, I'm more concerned about surviving the Standard Chartered Marathon on Sunday, than tomorrow's Stats paper and Friday's FA Exam. Well done Gabe. You've got your priorities ALLL figured out. =(

Sunday, November 27

The flu ain't fun.

Saturday, November 26

The Road Ahead

I'll walk it with you.

Friday, November 25

Level Up

Gabe: "Must attain bankai for Statistics and FA by Monday"

Yoruichi-san: "But Gabe-san, if you don't..."

Gabe: "I told you, I won't hear about what will happen if I don't."

FA and Stats Textbook: "SHOW US YOUR REIATSU!!!"

BANKAI!!!!

Power presentation

You guys rock la! I'll miss ya Hammies.

This happened a while back. Only got the photos now though. It's Scream!

The MCs

Lucas croons

Soakin' it in.

E.I.C. in action

Thursday, November 24

La Dee Dum

Ah bummer. Caught the flu bug. Must be the weather, blowing hot and cold the past few days. Realised I haven't been posting much about what I've been up to. Eric tells me he can figure out I'm stressed when I start posting incoherent stuff on the blog. Am I stressed? A little. More bored and restless actually.

Woke up feeling ill, decided to go to the nearby Bukit Batok Polyclinic, only to be greeted by a sign that I had to wait at least 2 hours to see the Doc. No way José! Made my way down to the Coronation Clinic. Had to pay more, but at least i didn't have to wait. So what's been happening the past few days? Nothing entirely exciting I'm afraid, except that Eric, Tarn and I stayed overnight in school for some intensive studying, that's where I started feeling a bit ill. Hope it isn't the air in there.

So exams are up in 2 weeks, starting with Statistics on Monday and Financial Accounting on Friday. Pretty fortunate to have just 2 papers this sem, cos' the other modules are entirely project and presentation based. That means the other modules took up a lot of my time though. I'm quite thankful that all my project groups were very easy to work with, unlike the horror stories I'm hearing from my friends. I'm not entirely worried about the papers surprisingly. It's not that I'm super prepared, it's just... hmm, I dunno, no point worrying I guess? The only time I feel stressed is when I notice my peers hitting the books a lot, and then I ask myself, "am i doing enough?" But it's different for everyone I guess.

Gonna pick Dad up from the airport now. He's coming back from Burgundy, after some wine expo. LTB presentation tomorrow. "Let's Peg this all up!" eh Peg? Haha.

My head's spinning from the medication. Whoa...

Wednesday, November 23

Prof Yang Says

"HEY! Do YOU know 2-way analysis of variance?!"

-Prof Yang

Like what the heck is going on?

Eh Shuddup La.

Hey, during NS you guys were just DYING to get back to school right? Quit whining.

Tuesday, November 22

Let Go

"A 14-year-old North Carolina boy refused to stop playing his Nintendo Game Boy during school hours. The principal was called in and he still refused to stop. When the school liaison officer tried to search him, the teen kicked and punched him. The police were summoned, yet the boy adamantly resisted. Only after the officers gave him two shocks from a Taser gun were they able to remove the toy from him. He was uninjured, but one officer was bitten by the boy.

How can someone be so obstinate! Consider Pharaoh's stubborn refusal to let God's people go despite numerous plagues (Exodus 5-9). Only after the seventh plague did Pharaoh begin to relent (9:27-28).

Pharaoh was foolish to harden his heart against God. Yet look at who hardened their hearts in the wilderness. Hebrews 3:15-16 says, "If you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?" Even those who had seen God's deliverance from slavery in Egypt rebelled against Him!

Today, let us ponder whether God is speaking to us. Could it be that we are clinging to some "toy" and refusing to let Him be Lord of our lives?"—Albert Lee

Our Daily Bread Online

Monday, November 21

Have You Seen My Elephant?

OH MY GOODNESS. I've just seen the coolest (and unintentionally funniest) movie this year. TOM. YUM. GOONG.

min min mam min KORN. (that's "have you seen my elephants" in Thai, according to Ian)

Sunday, November 20

Wait A Minute. Uh Oh.

While in the midst of studying for the upcoming exams, I almost forgot about the Standard Chatered marathon happening on December 4th. 2 days after my last paper.

My only training plan was to eat a lot of rice at Grace's wedding reception on the 3rd. Oh boy. I better go get more health insurance.

Saturday, November 19

Memoirs Of A Geisha

This should be good. I hope.

Friday, November 18

Lolitas

The new T.a.t.u video is pretty...disturbing. Well, for the bad music as well I guess. Seriously, some of the stuff on MTV now could pass of as porn a decade ago.

Underestimate Me

It's better to be underestimated and perform in the end, rather than be held in high regard only to falter at the final hurdle.

Thursday, November 17

Just another day in SMU. Ian (Kwok) getting into the Chicken Little craze.

Walking A Tightrope

We're called to be good testimonies by doing our best in whatever role that God puts us in. Be it in our jobs, studies, etc. It really isn't about the grades, I mean they are important and all, but I shouldn't be putting so much emphasis on it until I neglect the other aspects of my life, the people around me, etc.

I find that the minute I start reminding myself that grades aren't the most important thing in school life, I start slacking off, which isn't good at all since we are called to be good testimonies by doing...you get the point. I'm still trying to find a balance.

Wednesday, November 16

Browsing through photos. Decided to put some up.

Thank God for all of you!

Kids. =)

Celebrities

Elliot being...himself.

Attack of the killer nerds.

Ah yes. The great outdoors.

Randomness

It's really funny how things turn out the way you least expect it to. So what's gonna happen tomorrow?

Sunday, November 13

Ciao For Now Joáo

Just got back from the airport. Right now, Joáo's on his plane to Paris, en route to Brussels to see his parents before heading back to London. Back to school buddy! Joáo's been in Singapore for the past 10 weeks for attachment with a local advertising agency, while doing his studies in London. He's been spending the past few Saturdays at ARPC, and it's been a real pleasure showing him around and getting to know him, even if it was for just a short time. The guy's adventurous with his food man! Kway chap, durian, everything! Hopefully you'll be back soon man! Or maybe if we're in need of accomodation in London in future...Heh heh heh.

The Boys' Brigade Swimathon took place at Toa Payoh Swimming Complex today. Don't know if they broke the record, trying to get the most number of people swimming 50m laps continuosly for 12 hours. We took the 7-9pm slot before heading down to the airport to send Joáo off. Nice surprise to see Monica and some of the SMU Eurythmix ppl, the dancers. Also especially pleasant to see the Si Ling BGB kids! Daniel Ong, Boon Tat, Jason, Pearlyn, Sandra, Yichelle, great to see them again.=)

The year's coming to a close. Really fast eh? Had the last BB Parade for the year at Nanyang Pri. The kids were entertaining as usual. =) I was supposed to be doing the games for them, but prior to the scheduled games, we showed the kids a cartoon on Joseph (no not the technicolour dreamcoat version, the biblical version). They were really captivated by it, so was I! Think I shall rent it from Video Ezy one day. FOR ONCE, they were actually QUIET and had their attention glued to the screen! Amazing! So when it was time for the games, I just asked if they would rather watch the movie. They decided they would rather watch the cartoon than play games in the end. Haha. Those monkeys!!!

Last PUNJ meeting for the year today. Edmund and Chew Chern are leaving for theological studies next year. Elliot's leaving come December. Pam and Roger are taking over next year. The possibility of moving to a new building on the cards for the church. I think there's gonna be some major changes in store for next year. We'll just wait and see.

Probably means a different meeting time for PUNJ, and hopefully more time for fellowship, which is serverely lacking right now. Had a very meaningful talk with Elliot just now, about the direction in which PUNJ is heading, and how it's really great that there's so much emphasis on learning the Word, which is really lacking in a lot of churches. But when it comes to fellowship, I hardly know a lot of people in PUNJ. It's always the usual people, and often I don't get to hang out with the rest of the guys, mainly because some of us scoot off to Saturday 5pm service, or some of us just go home after meetings. Hopefully they'll change the timing of PUNJ back to the Friday night days (well although I wasn't around then). That would give us so much opportunity to just chill out and get to know each other better.

I thank God for such great friends. They help me put things into perspective. It's so easy to become narrow minded and put too much emphasis on school (while uni is important, it isn't everything).

Love and fight. I miss you. =)

Friday, November 11

Hear No Evil

Exams are drawing near. I refuse to let the constant grumblings and moanings from friends and classmates get me down. It just makes it so much harder to focus on the task at hand.

Sure there's plenty of work to do, projects due, and much revision to be done. We're all entitled to vent our frustrations by voicing out our concerns or just whine about it, but how does that help others? If anything, it just puts more undue stress on others. In times of pressure, I pray that we'll watch our tongues and be sources of encouragement rather than discouragement.

Thursday, November 10

The Red Brigade

What 12 years of all-boys school education could lead to.

That is just. WRONG.

I seem a bit underdressed for the mountains.

*Muacks*

Wednesday, November 9

Servant Leadership

I'm supposed to do a paired assignment with Peg for LTB. The topic is Servant Leadership vs. Charismatic Leadership.

All these years in church, we've been learning and constantly encouraged to emulate the ultimate servant leader of all- Jesus Christ.

The textbook defines the servant leadership as *ahem* "leadership that transcends self-interest to serve the needs of others, by helping them grow professionally and emotionally."

We read about it in the Bible, about Jesus lowering himself to our standards to actually come and serve us, and ultimately die for us. How about in John 13, where Jesus actually washes his disciples' feet? You read about it, but can you actually imagine GOD HIMSELF lowering Himself to the lowest of the lowest to wash YOUR FEET? What for? Is that not love?

If God himself can lower Himself to serve us, what more us mere humans? By refusing to humble ourselves to serve others, are we not portraying ourselves to be higher than God? Pride makes us stumble so often.

Servant leadership. It's the way to go.

I finally got my hands on the other 2GB worth of Eurotrip photos. Thanks Wenz. =)

Guys I really don't think you should stand so near the uh... sculpture.

The boys in blue.

Contemplating in Beaujolais

That's right kids! Everyone should paraglide!

Counter-strike. Euro style.

This is Monaco.

Monday, November 7

Humbility

Just 3 weeks till the final exams, and it's pretty evident that the combined workload for the past 12 weeks has taken it's toll on most. I think a lot of us are feeling the fatique, the result of starting out too strong maybe? Especially for the guys, you know how it is. You spend two years doing your NS, all that time spent looking forward to the opportunity to study again. When the time for uni finally comes, all the guys just start to pia and become super muggerish, as if to make up for lost time.

Like a race, it's so important to pace yourself and make sure you don't burn out too soon. This term has been quite an eventful one so far. New experiences, and more importantly, new found friends.

Studies haven't been too bad as well. I'm quite content with the results so far, but just pray I'll have the discipline to push on and not stumble at the last hurdle, these last 3 weeks. The FA quiz in week 10 turned out a lot better than I thought it would be. If the FA quiz weren't open-book, I'd be pretty screwed though.

Comms is OVER, and I really hope I can get that A. I just have to! Quite shameful if I taught MOI in OCS for a year, and not get an A for what I was teaching all that while. That and I think I'll need it to pull up my GPA, cos' there're gonna be a lot more tougher modules in time to come.

It has been a very productive first term at SMU so far, and I just pray I'll be constantly reminded that it isn't by my own strength that I can accomplish all these things.

It is truly by God's grace. As April would say, humbleness and humility. Humbility.