Month: July 2007

quick updates

~ tan-ce ~ 8 Comments

Hall orientation has started. Kelvin has finally moved in. And there are seriously many many many people from PRC… (People’s Rebulic of China) And I have trouble remembering and pronouncing their extremely Chinese names… fortunately some of them picked out English names to make it easier for us… but then again, some of them also have trouble pronouncing my name…

Orientation was quite fun. Some interesting highlights… there’s one “burger game” when at one point I had the biggest sumo ever… me and one Indian guy at the bottom. 20 people on top of us. (I figured since I’m likely the heaviest, I better volunteer to go at the bottom…)

Another was the night one… where almost the whole time we’re blind folded… liked the slide into the “pool” the best though… if I get some pictures I might update this post with it.

what the…

~ tan-ce ~ 32 Comments

ok, correct me if I got the facts wrong.

  • Taliban abducts a bunch of South Koreans
  • Taliban demands that South Korea pull out their 200 “troops”
  • These 200 troops are non-combatants – engineers, doctors and medical staff.
  • They were planning to pull them out of Afgan end of this year anyway.
  • Before this, the Taliban, unable to fight the contingent of US and NATO troop directly, resort to abducting civilians.
  • This hurts President Hamid Karzai’s government by discouraging foreigners involved in reconstruction projects from venturing into remote areas where their help is most needed.

What the crap are they doing?

I’m in…

~ tan-ce ~ 3 Comments

a-huh. Shifted in. Unpacked. Settled down. Bed made. Trusty laptop plugged into network. (I really do belong in School of Computing, don’t I?)

There’s more space than I expected. Cool.

[ – – – – – – ]

Came across a certain video on youtube… it’s a kind of patriotic song. These are the times I wish I understand chinese…

catch up: transitions

~ tan-ce ~ 48 Comments

Previously, on ¿wat?…

Gonna leave for Singapore on the 17th night. I guess it’s about time for this.

Season 9 (Transitions)
Jan – July 2007, Super 6

Transitions indeed. From Sitiawan into JS: minor transition. From JS, Sitiawan into Taiping… And soon, from Taiping to Singapore.

JS was cool. I guess one of the major things I experienced there is being a little more expressive with God, and other people to a lesser extent. Not the practical things learnt, it’s the relationships formed that makes JS special. Even with Mark and Josh.

Then there’s the “re-entry” straight into Taiping. Taiping ain’t a bad place… but it’s still a big change from my hometown. I coped simply by not letting my roots go down deep. I figured since I’ll be “moving” again it’ll be alright. Doesn’t mean I didn’t make any friends, though. But even in this comparatively short span of time, I see the proof again… there ain’t such a thing as a flawless/problem-less church.

Other things… Sieh Jin got married! It’s still a bit weird… cause in my mind Sieh Jin is almost like “one of us” (age-wise) and then suddenly he’s married… dang. Then went to Kuantan to ‘train people to produce a musical evangelistic event’… (iConnect… a chinese event no less…) A nice last chance to work with Alvin & Co and Uncle Herbert, although at least josh and I felt totally inadequate. (It’s really disconcerting to hear them call us ‘teacher’)  After that, the Taiping MYF camp… got to see Daniel Singh again.

Last thing was the last (proper) trip to Sitiawan… As I already said, at least I got to meet all my close friends sans those already in Singapore.

The future should be interesting. Cats* and Ducks…

* formerly cockroach or kacuak

Next >>

why ah?

~ tan-ce ~ 27 Comments

When I tell people I’m going to Singapore, I get one of these three responses:

  1. Make sure you come back.
  2. I think once you go there you won’t come back.
  3. It’s better you just stay there.

Response (1) I have only received from one, at most two people. Pretty much everyone else goes for response (2) or (3).

Why ah people generally assume that once Malaysians go to Singapore they’ll probably not come back? And why do some even recommend to stay there?

yes, those were rhetorical questions.

[ – – – – – – – ]

I searched for Malaysia in YouTube. Came across some recordings from our very own Malaysian Parliment.

If I wanted to become an MP, school parliamentary debates won’t help. Observing 8 year old siblings fight would better prepare me for it.

[ – – – – – – – ]

This is sad. Sieh Jin, you’re right. We need agents of change. I’ll try my best to return once I’m done in Singapore.