I thought this day will never come, but EXAMS ARE OVER! I think it's a terrible irony that those modules which I spend more time preparing for, they do not turn out well in the actual exams; but those which I barely revised as thoroughly, the questions came out the exact way that I want it to be, and thus were manageable. Anyway now that exams are over, I have a mile-long to-do list which I, hopefully, can halve by tomorrow. And complete by the end of this week!

Short entry, which does nothing to account for the thanksgiving and elation. And dreadfully sleepy state.

I shall be unabashedly shameless here. My birthday's coming! And it's a weird feeling because sub-consciously, I know it's this Sunday, but at the same time, I'm not really feeling like it's going to be my birthday this Sunday. It's kinda there, but not there, or I don't feel it's there, or I know it's there but I don't know it's there. What am I talking about hahaha. Anyway I've been kept busy studying hard for exams, the first one is tomorrow. Which is real horrible because Saturday 9ams are for sleeping, not for exams! In any case I barely realised that my birthday is coming until like yesterday or today. Gosh it's so near!

And, I'm going to put in a request for birthday presents this year! If you love me enough, here's a wish list that you can bless me with: I wouldn't mind a Taylor or Gibson or Larrivee acoustic guitars, or you can get me a Gretsch Black Penguin because I really think their guitar tone is awesome. For the former, it'd be great if you bring me along to go and test the guitar model first, because I think I've got a stickler for sound, tone and playability.

Last year I got a record number of duck-related objects! From soft toys to figurines to files and folders to whatever else. This year, a new guitar would be great! But I'm only too well aware these will easily go into the thousands, so here's an alternative for you. I am sponsoring a child from Bangladesh through World Vision; I went up there last May to visit her and I'm nothing but blessed by that trip. Which is why I'm asking you to do the same. If a 4-digit-sum guitar is out of your budget, and if you don't want to be one of millions giving me ducky things, do consider sponsoring a child through World Vision. It only costs $45 a month, and it could mean the world to a child's life. If that kind of commitment is out of your league, you can consider the World Vision Life-Changing Gift Catalogue, which I really find very funky because you can donate specific items like pigs and cows and ducks, or rice and oil and stationery packs to specific countries. That's sort of like a year-end Christmas gift thingy, so it's not going to be valid after end of this year I think. And if all else fails, you can simply choose to make a one-time donation to them too, any amount of money will do, and I think that will be a great too.

Nope World Vision's not paying me to do this for them! Haha but if you've made the decision to donate or to sponsor a child, I'd love to hear from you so that I can keep you in prayer!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeee!

I think I get annoyed easily when the worship cupboards or the sound room or the audi backstage is in a mess! People sometimes don't put mics back in the proper pouches or containers, or used batteries are not thrown away into the bin and just left lying around and it's annoying because nobody in the world would know if they are new or used, or horribly tangled cables that are just thrown into the drawer. Mostly cos when I need things urgently, especially for rental, I'd like to just be able to retrieve the things I need easily and conveniently. Can you imagine, in the middle of rental I need a cable desperately, but I open the drawer and take the topmost cable and out comes three other cables all tangled together!? And I spend more time unraveling the cables and setting everything up. Or when I need batteries on the fly, and I put in batteries which end up to be old ones which are dead.

Real ironic that my own table at home is in a mess, but I put more importance on tidiness in church. Like empty biscuit tins, or things falling in states of disrepair, or people not taking care of equipment. Hahaha I found a culprit today haha Yurong I think this entire issue is the bane of our friendship.

And just two hours ago I discovered missing 9-volt batteries. And it's mightily upsetting because I know there were at least three or four spare ones as of last week, but today they're all gone gone gone. I shall just take it that someone is a robot in disguise and needed urgent power. Saddening because I bought them without claiming money for it, because last month was my offering-for-anything month. And same goes for all the cables tuners capos wireless presenter whatever miscellaneous items which I bought, sometimes they go missing or are spoilt, and I'm just sighhhhh. 80% of it I pay for them without claiming (unless it's really expensive) cos I don't give a lot of offering to church, bulk of my 10% offering guideline goes to Priya in Bangladesh. It's not like I'm trying to trumpet this, but come off it, take care of common goods!

And thanks Jolene for the reminder. Need to be overflow with fruits of the Spirit. Love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control. There's nine right? Yep.

This post has to go to the deserving young ones. Yesterday night was Gracehaven worship, and the customary would be for me to lead the sessions because it's like a fixture for me to be there every two months or so. But yesterday I handed it over to Melanie Meng Ren Ming Hui Tim Jolene, cos they are in training and taking steps towards worship leading. And the traditional abuse is to throw all the work to the protégés under the pretext of mentoring and practice, well, because they need the practice hahaha. But anyway, it was one of the rarer times that I visit Gracehaven services without having to go onstage. And watching them doing their stuff with worship was an indescribable feeling, sort of like watching a new generation rising and excelling better than you are. Haha I'm mightily impressed.

The year's coming to a close too, and with the coming of that it means I'm going to have to "graduate" some of the older ones from my cell group! This is the first time in at least 5 or 6 years I think, because past couple of years or so it's just been addition and addition. But just as I'm beginning to know everyone better and feeling that it's at last showing some signs of growth, it's time to move on. Alright, looking forward to next year, there'll be MR Tim Jolene on board, and they're making an impact already.

And, I kinda just realised this post sounds as if it's currently December 30th. But new year soon, new things soon.

This blog is becoming like a weekly update, but anyway school's taking a heavy turn from the usual. This coming week is the last week of school before the study break and exams! But it also means that majority of my projects and essays are gone, save for a couple which I think, or I'd like to think, is very easy. Haha the tendency for all my assignments this semester so far is to do it two nights before the submission! And I'm getting quite good grades so far heh heh. But a recent ODB reading said don't procrastinate, so well, don't procrastinate. This week kinda just flew past.

In any case, the frivolous thoughts that are running through my mind are, erm, kindergarten graduations. Because there has been a spate of hall rentals involving kindergarten graduations by various schools, so providing sound and technical support gives you the opportunity to watch free performances of children dancing in various animal costumes, and singing and reciting and the like, haha! For the most part of it it's quite nice, but my favourite segment is the certificate giving ceremony, because some child would invariably wander aimlessly on the huge stage or give back the cert to the teacher right after receiving it or start tearing the paper blah blah. It's hilarious to me, because the teachers spend so much effort to rehearse the dances and performances, but I think they always assume that this is least important part of the entire graduation. And consequently they don't waste time rehearsing for that!

Hence it's not so surprising how every performance is impeccable to the finest dance choreography, but during cert giving there's always a blur child hahaha. And it kinda amazes me how forgiving the audience is too! They would smile and laugh, but there's no condemnations at all and they're certainly way more accomodating. And I've seen standing ovations for specific children who made were too nervous onstage too. Why can't we all adopt a similar outlook?? I think for children it's always easier to pardon their mistakes, but when age seeps into a person, any small slip-ups is suddenly magnified tenfold.

Another inconsequential thought, but I suddenly feel like I don't need a new guitar anymore. Recently I've been going through online catalogues and trying out thousands of dollars of guitars and goodness knows what! But it's not a need haha it's a want. And today's worship playing support guitar with my acoustic sort of reaffirmed that. I have a nice guitar now and it doesn't warrant grounds for a new one. In fact it took quite a lashing for the past two days cos, um, I've strummed rather vigorously, and it's still awesome. How how? New, and give current away, or stick with old?

Last ramble. I recently signed up for some ladies' bags email notification! Not that I'm terribly interested in ladies' bags, but a while back I met Atiqah in school, and her friend was selling these bags at one of those flea market stalls. And I felt like I had to show some form of interest, although frankly speaking, I don't really want, or need, to buy ladies' bags?? So to be nice I told her friend that why not put me on their email subscription, and maybe I can forward it to my sister or other female friends or something. And they did, they added my email to their monthly newsletters, which didn't bother me too much except that it was rather entertaining for a guy like me to read mailers like these and I couldn't care less about ladies' bags hahaha. I never did forward them anyway, they go straight into the bin after the amusement. But, but but but but but but, the last straw came when they sent me the latest newsletter which began like this: "Hello girls!".

And I can't find the right word to describe my feelings now.  

And it's been another week of accumulated dust on this blog. I really need to blow the dust off my things and start utilising them! But October has just been a crazy month for me, with some partial church stuff and loads of essays and project meetings and presentations. So it is with a lot of anticipation and a lot of gladness that I end all my group project work tomorrow 10am! Or even earlier, depending on what time my presentation is. I still have two more essays or papers to complete before this term ends, but it's probably waaay easier because it's individual. Bah I just don't like group projects, especially group essays because I've never really figured out how are you supposed to write an entire essay with four or five others. The writing style will all be different and there will definitely be repeated information. Okay okay I shall just make sure that next semester I'm avoiding as much as I can all the modules which lists group projects in their assessment.