Back to Study

I'll soon be sending in my application to UniSIM for a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and English. The application deadline is end Sep 07 and it is for the Jan 2008 intake. This decision came about after a conversation I had with Uncle ML as I drove him over to Uncle MW's home last week... I have been thinking of whether or not to complete my degree and where to complete it if I wanted to do so. He strongly encouraged me to complete my degree locally. Somehow, his encouragement brought about the conviction I needed... He said that being in my early thirties, I am indeed still young and he judged that with my language ability, completing a degree should be a breeze... wow! such confidence in me...

I do not doubt my language ability or critical thinking skills actually... My only fear is the lack of perseverance or stamina on my part... I just want to take it a step at a time... To my uncle who is over 70, ofcourse I am deemed young... However, I am well aware that I am a mature student juggling work and studies and that would probably be no easy task... Nevertheless, being older and hopefully slightly wiser... I might be able to manage myself better...

Meanwhile, I am pretty excited at the prospect of studying again... and a little nervous as well...

A Flyer & A Catcher

Yesterday as I was reading bits and pieces from Nouwen's meditation on dying and caring, one sentence which he wrote that struck me was this:

"A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him."

Those were not his words, those were the words of Rodleigh, a trapeze artist who performed in the German circus Simoneit-Barum.

Simple words but words filled with food for thought.

Inspirational Post

10 Tips for Creating a Life and Living Your Dream

1. Stop doing things just because others expect them of you.
Your heart must be in it to finish the race. When we do things just because we "should," we eventually reach a place of resentment, anger, and rebellion.

2. Get your priorities straight.
Spend your time, talents, and resources with the people, activities, or things that are meaningful to you. Stop wasting these on people or things that are not adding value to your life or that keep you from moving forward towards what you want to be or do.

3. March to the beat of your own band.
The most satisfying experiences in our lives are when we are engaged physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, or intellectually. Life is meant to be effortless. If you're tugging and pulling, and everything feels like an uphill battle, then you're doing the wrong thing.

4. Do what you're good at and the money will follow.
Whether you're a brain surgeon or a dogwalker, be the best you can be at it because you love it. Your enthusiasm and love for what you do is what will make you successful in the long run. Enthusiastic and positive people attract others to them who want that too.

5. Share your dream with others, but be discerning.
Realize that not everyone you share your dream with will be thrilled for you. Avoid the nay-sayers and focus on those people who can support you even if they don't agree with you.

6. Stop making excuses and just do it.
The reason (excuses) for why you have not taken that first step does not matter. What matters is that you take that first step NOW.

7. Determine what your ideal life looks like.
Most people's initial response to this is "I don't know." If you did know, what would your ideal life be like? Who would you want to live with, who would you like to meet, where would you like to live, what activities/shows/parties/places would you like to experience or be with?

8. Identify the stumbling blocks that can be turned into stepping stones.
Your past experiences and adversity can create opportunity for you. It's all in how you look at life and how you choose to use those experiences so that you eliminate the blocks and move on in spite of them. Victory is yours!

9. Reduce your learning curve.
Learn from the experiences and mistakes of others. Instead of reinventing the wheel, take what you can apply from the trials and challenges others have overcome then tweak the process to fit your own situation.

10. Align yourself with a role model/mentor.
Having someone who's "been there and done that" is one of the best ways to get yourself on track with what you want to accomplish or be. A mentor will be supportive, offer the benefit of his/her expertise and knowledge, and will listen to you when you need the support the most.

________________________

I found the post above on a xanga site I visited and just thought I'd post it here! =)

Lasik Surgery

Binny has gone for her Lasik surgery at Mt Alvernia Hospital earlier in the day. The op took place at 1.30pm and I guess she should be out by now. Hopefully everything went well and she has perfect eyesight now!

Hmm... wonder how long will it take her to get used to having perfect eyesight?

1 Month

I've actually been missing from this blog for 1 whole month!!! Oh my! Time has gone by really quickly! And instead of just 1 new student, I have 2 now! =) The other student is a Sec 3 girl called Wang Yi. She came to live in Singapore from Fuzhou, China, when she was around 7 as she started studying Primary 1 here. She lives in Yishun and studies at a neighbourhood school.

Since my last entry, I have been on a trip to Redang with my bro & Binny. We've also celebrated 2 birthdays in our family - my mum's 65th on 14 Apr & Binny's 31st on 30 Apr (2 days in advance as her birthday fell on a Monday). Oh and yesterday, I went to watch Phantom of the Opera with Pauline! The tickets were given to us by Lay Yong! They were priced at $147 each, circle seats at the Esplanade Theatre Hall! I love the colourful costumes and enjoyed the performance though I couldn't really make out what they were singing about at certain parts... Also, I got to eat the curry chicken noodles at Marina Square Food Court! Just the night before, I saw the stall being featured in the TV programme Makan Places Lost & Found hosted by Michelle Chia & Gurmit Singh and was thinking of hunting it down!!! And I did just that!!! =D

Binny is now staying over at Bishan for a couple of days as my brother is away on a business trip to Jakarta and it is more convenient for her to travel to her workplace which is located at AMK from our place. Unfortunately, both my sis and I are staying out late these couple of nights... I've got to tutor and my sis has other appointments, so Binny only has Happy, our long coat chihuahua, for company...

Oh, I'll be going to Hokkaido next Saturday, right after EAST graduation day! It'll be a one week holiday with my parents and sis! I'm beginning to look forward to that! I need to start packing!!! But before that, I need to compile the exit interview results for Pauline and some silly statistics for Casey... Sigh... Big Sigh... haha!

New Student

I'll be having a new student tomorrow. A sec 2 korean girl who is staying at ACS Barker Hostel. It's been a while since my last lesson, a couple of weeks at least! Most of the evenings have been spent watching tv or korean drama dubbed in mandarin. These tv watching days are soon going to be over once tuition begins.

The new arrangement is Mon, Thu & Sat, one and a half hr per lesson. On Mon & Thu, it's 8-9.30pm and Sat is 2-3.30pm. I bought a grammar and a writing assessment book each for my student and hope they will prove to be useful to her. I am looking forward to tomorrow's lesson. =D

Snorkelling

I'll be going for my very 1st snorkelling trip next week! Pulau Redang here I come! I've already booked the 4 days 2 nights trip which cost S$391, triple sharing (pool view room). Just bought my blue rimmed mask and grey coloured snorkel for $60 in all on Sunday together with Binny, my sis-in-law. She bought a yellow rimmed mask and a transparent looking snorkel so as to differentiate with my brother's yellow coloured snorkel. We'll be leaving on a 9pm coach next Thursday. It's a 9hr bus journey and a 1hr ferry ride... and we'll have 2 full days on friday and saturday before leaving the island on Sunday after breakfast at 9am...

Actually, I must really thank quirkie kai for giving me the inspiration to go for this trip! Although it's a pity that I'm not able to join her gang to Redang, I'm still very excited that I'll be going nonetheless!!! =D

Once a month

It's been a month since my last entry in this blog! Seems like my once a week entry has to be changed to once a month! I think perhaps I have too many blogs to keep up with and not enough interesting stuff going on in my life to showcase or share...

Today is already 7 March 07! We're into the 3rd month of 2007! How very fast! CNY has just zapped us by and EAST will be having a one week school holidays for the students next week. Pauline's sister will be in town this weekend and we've planned a trip to spa botanica on 12 March! Looking forward to that! =D

Blooms & CNY

The hortências, heliconias and allamandas lining the pathway towards the entrance of our school are all in magnificent bloom at the moment. They are such a pretty sight to behold. The Lord is the Maker of all things beautiful and these flowers are definitely of his design. The sunny days are back again. It hasn't been rainy at all for the past couple of days and I think the rainy season is more or less behind us.

The Chinese New Year atmosphere is rather thick in the office! We have Ying Kheng decorating the office with fresh plants and bright red auspicious looking artwork with the Chinese character signifying Spring. I visited Chinatown with mum a few nights ago and it was rather crowded there too. As we will be ushering the Chinese astrological year of the pig, there were lots of cute piggy stuff toys and deco on sale! Hmmm, CNY is just 10 days away! How exciting! I love the festive mood of this season!

Last Lesson

I will be having my last lesson with Young Keun later. He just called to inform me that he would like to study by himself from now on and thus tonight will be our last lesson. I started my tutoring stint end of June last year and today is 1st Feb. It has been a good half a year of tutoring korean kids English.

Actually, I found that while I was busy tutoring them every single night last year, though it was physically tiring, it was a fruitful experience for me. I really do enjoy interacting with kids. It makes me wonder if I will eventually return to teaching again in a classroom setting someday. However, I think small doses of interaction may be fun while long extended hours of interaction can be extremely exhausting for me. I am an introvert afterall and I regain and maintain my energy levels by spending time alone.

MBTI Test: I'm INFP

I did the MBTI Personality Test 10 years ago and just did it online again recently because Quirkiekai did it. She's an INTP. Mr Bing is an INFJ. No wonder all three of us had such a blast together coz INTP is a companion to my type and INFJ is a complement. We all got along real well! Ha ha! =D

Oh, I'm an INFP - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving person.

Here's what INFP is supposed to be. I bolded the parts that I think is true about me.

INFPs never seem to lose their sense of wonder. One might say they see life through rose-colored glasses. It's as though they live at the edge of a looking-glass world where mundane objects come to life, where flora and fauna take on near-human qualities.

INFP children often exhibit this in a 'Calvin and Hobbes' fashion, switching from reality to fantasy and back again. With few exceptions, it is the NF child who readily develops imaginary playmates (as with Anne of Green Gables's "bookcase girlfriend"--her own reflection) and whose stuffed animals come to life like the Velveteen Rabbit and the Skin Horse:

"...Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand..." (the Skin Horse)

INFPs have the ability to see good in almost anyone or anything. Even for the most unlovable the INFP is wont to have pity.

Their extreme depth of feeling is often hidden, even from themselves, until circumstances evoke an impassioned response.

Of course, not all of life is rosy, and INFPs are not exempt from the same disappointments and frustrations common to humanity. As INTPs tend to have a sense of failed competence, INFPs struggle with the issue of their own ethical perfection, e.g., performance of duty for the greater cause. An INFP friend describes the inner conflict as not good versus bad, but on a grand scale, Good vs. Evil. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars depicts this conflict in his struggle between the two sides of "The Force." Although the dark side must be reckoned with, the INFP believes that good ultimately triumphs.

Interestingly, The Velveteen Rabbit is one of my favouritest children's stories! =)

Gathering @ Kai's

I really enjoyed myself tremendously at yesterday's gathering! I'm pretty sure quite a few people will blog about it!!! Mr Bing, my new krang, has already done so at his blog. I have posted pictures on multiply and since the cross posting is working very effectively since a couple of entries ago, very soon pauline, gwen, yaling and not forgetting our quirkie host, Kai, will get to be notified of this post through multiply.

Kai, you're a great host and on your way to becoming an excellent cook!!! =) All the food, fun and fellowship was made possible by your initiative and hospitability! The wait of more than a year for such a reunion (of EAST colleagues both past and present) has been totally worth it! Beats the Robinsons sale any day!!! Gathering @ Kai's is truly "worth waiting for"! =D

Balderdash was absolutely fun!!! Definitions of never heard before words, coming up with silly or scientific acronyms, writing our own movie synopses, linking incredible events with names and dates were all such thrills! yeah, though cheap thrills they may be! :P Thanks to Matthew for introducing such a fine game to us all! We certainly had a blast! Okies, I think that's all I have to say about the great saturday nite at Kai's. May there be many more to come even if it means we have to wait... and it's truly "worth waiting for"!!!!!

Salsa

I had my 1st Salsa class just a couple of hours ago and it was pretty fun! There were about 20 students or so. The teacher, Zee, had a cheerful personality and built a pretty good rapport with us all. He made learning fun and quite easy! =) Really glad I took up the class. Learnt the basic footwork and a 360 degrees right turn today. Basically, the footwork involved stepping out on the 1st count: 1, 2, 3, pause, 5, 6, 7 pause. It's a pretty good 1hr workout too! Too bad it's only 5 lessons for now... I'm looking forward to next friday now! =D

Drizzly Day

It's been drizzling, raining, drizzling... basically a really wet day today. At least that's the weather where I work but thankfully I work indoors. It's been really quiet at the admin office too. Justin is on 2 days MC for today and tmw. Julie's on her usual half days for Thur & Fri. That leaves Peter and me. However, Peter's usually running ard trying to help fix everyone's computer problems and so I'm basically holding the fort. Fortunately, no one's attacking and it's a lull period... the students are too busy studying for their exams or completing their final assignments to come bother us at the admin office. It's exam week next week and the term is drawing to a close soon.

Time for me to leave for home. Unfortunately, the drizzle and rain is now turning to a downpour!!! What a pooper!!! I might just wait for a while before driving home. The visibility is probably pretty poor right now... Not the best condition for driving.

Aminus3

Yes, my new photoblog is up and running and that kept me up till this hour.... please pay me a visit by clicking on eeyuing under my fave fotologs column and you'll find it! If you're a photo buff too, go create one and keep me posted!!! =)

2 a day

Just when I thought I'd only make one entry a week, I'm posting 2 today!!! Well, I've just enabled the cross-posting function at multiply and thus I'm typing this out to see if it's working. Hmm... Actually when one does cross-posting, doesn't one blog or the other become sorta redundant?

Oh everyone! I just signed up for yet another... blog!!! This time it's a photoblog from the Aminus3 community where photography is the focus and only one photo is allowed a day. The quality of the photos there is simply terrifc! You've gotta see it to believe it! I've put some of the links under fotologs in my blogger. Well, just 3 of em so far: hashbrown, jason & ruth. When my account gets processed and I get my domain, it'll be http://eeyuing.aminus3.com. Not ready for visits yet. Will make another announcement when it is! =)

Once a week

I'm beginning to think if I make an entry here once a week, that'll be quite good! =P Maybe it's because my interest in blogging is beginning to wane? Or maybe it's because I have too many blogs? Oh well, we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm glad I did quite a number of evaluation summaries yesterday and now, I'm down to just one!!! I should finish this last one today!!! Yay!!! =)

Just now, a group of us (Casey, Davina, Jonathan Shin, Tjoh Dju, Peter, Julie, Toe Set, Yeow Beng & me) went to inspect Jonathan Shin's church, Bethel Presbyterian Church at 12 Jalan Lateh. It's situated between Upper Serangoon MRT & Kovan MRT. The church grounds are beautiful. We are very likely to hold our 13th Commencent there on 11 May 2006, 7pm.

I'm actually feeling really sleepy right now. Slept at nearly 3am and woke up at 7.30am or so. That makes for 4.5h of sleep. I am sleep deprived today. I wonder if I should just skip bible study tonight to make up for my lack of sleep. It is so tempting to do just that! Sigh...

Fund Switch

I did a fund switch today - totally out of Japan Equities and split that into 40%, 30%, 30% of Regional Asia Equities, Emerging Markets and Greater Chiner Equities. Hope this will cut my loss in of $0.10 in Japan Equities and make some handsome profit in the next quarter to come!!! =)

Checked out Lionel's Suzuki Swift. A 1yr old dark gray adorable looking car. Will snap a few shots come Monday when he drops off some diaries, calendars and planners at EAST. It's been interesting how we've kept in touch since JC. Good to watch how he's grown from being an apathetic nominal Christian to one who is excited about his living faith in God. But he's also been through quite a bit of financial ups and downs. It was the downs that made him realise the only thing he could hold on to in life is faith in Christ. Even his girlfriend who is a geography teacher has recently been baptised! =)

Tomorrow I'd be visiting Bobbie's new home with Lucy & probably Chuan Heng too. Meeting niuniu for tea with jiejie before that and meeting wen tin for dinner after that. I intend to just laze around at home tmw morning and early afternoon before all those meetings...

Oh, and I received the long awaited christmas card from Gayle (USA) today! It finally arrived and it has the words JESUS THE FAITHFUL ONE on the cover. I love the words inside. "During this Christmas season and in the new year, may you rest in the deep satisfaction of knowing that because you have Him, you have EVERYTHING!"

The verse is beautiful too! "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him." 1 John 4:9 NIV

1st Post in 2007

It's pouring right now. There's a thunderstorm outside. Just saw lightning flashes and heard thunder roars. A young couple in their mid-thirties just left the admin office to head home. Hopefully, they won't get too wet. They are Chin Leng & Lisa. Chin Leng shared a poem he composed (or modified from a nursery rhyme). It's "VERY CREATIVE" as Dr Rick Langston commented! So here it goes:

Jesus Had A Little Lamb - by Lim Chin Leng
(Sung to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb")

Jesus had a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb;
Jesus had a little lamb
That has lost its way.

It wandered from the path of life,
Path of life, path of life;
It wandered from the path of life
And was about to pay

Jesus came to seek and save,
Seek and save, seek and save;
Jesus came to seek and save
The lamb that went astray.

Through His payment on the cross,
On the cross, on the cross;
Through His payment on the cross,
We can live today.