woohoo! practiced with han the piece that we are supposed to be doing for his O level music practical. not bad for a first practice. haha. although i would say that i am really bad at the timing thingy. so much for going with feeling like i normally do. haha. yeah... that's why i ain't such a fantastic pianist unlike those who really keep their timing.
had ward bishop youth discussion. and bishop isn't in sg cos he's in some other country. either way... we had a nice fireside given by the 4 recent return missionaries of the year 2008 on 'the importance of a mission and how to prepare for it'. great to have all of them back again. especially glen lewis my man! haha.
kandace! u forgot to bring me e starburst and fruit by the foot! haha. don't forget that i made an addition! thanks! :D
SCV set top box changed. and now we have ALL the channels you can watch on cable. AWESOME-NESS!
u really couldn't ask for anymore. there's ANIMAX and all those digital channels too! woohoo! oh dear... it came at a wrong time. i'm supposed to be focusing on studying for my A levels. bahh! no time to enjoy!
lulu (aka llewelyn) came for his first econs tuition. haha. and he's decided on staying! ALRIGHT! haha. and we're already thinking about all the dance lessons we have to sacrifice in terms of cost because of tuition. haha. 1 month of tuition = 4 months of dance lessons. ouch. and lulu paid $500 today to cover the first month and today registration and material included. that equals to about 7 or 8 months of dance lessons. eh... i'm gonna be sick.
thus, so symbolic of lulu's call 'money!' haha.
i feel like a tourist today. walking around in shirt and pants - to be exact it was a hawaiian shirt and pants. so i felt like some holidayer - amongst all the colorfully decorated people wearing all forms of ethnic costumes. haha. there were a lot of uber lame but nonetheless comical events today during the costume runway and theatrical show. racial harmony. it was defined as a day when we 'go around to borrow and wear other people's clothes' by the theatrics. hmmmm... reminds alot about crossdressing huh?
oh ya! trent! where's ur write up on racial division? haha!
another issue that really struck me in the sunday times was the one about induced pluripotent stem cells meant as a recent technology that would change the face of in-vitro fertilization. trent... this is really directly related to your cloning post. haha. anyway, though not practical, the paper reports that it has become possible for women to give birth at an age of even 100? scary thought of becoming a mother at that age or anywhere after 60 i suppose for that matter. these induced pluripotent stem cells are created from skin cells through germ cell technology. sure. i can understand the need to create stem cells ethically for human lives to be saved in the future but creating a more viable source that does forces the boundaries of ethics in medical science and increasingly renders the issues of possible cloning and designer babies as preposterous. its simply unnatural. there should be a study to ban such actions as the repercussions will definitely not be good. designer babies are meant to have immunity to diseases, but surely this might create an alteration in the science and genetics of micro organisms only to haunt scientists even more. have they forgotten what Darwin's idea of evolution meant?
linking to organ trading, it doesn't bode well as it creates a contestable avenue for cloning and using clones as organ sources. this was one of trent's points. and then Iran calls the organ trading in society as organ sharing. this is with strings attached of course by dangling carrots for people to come forward and put up their organs for transplants. but why don't people understand that life can't just be treated as something so superficial. maybe only at their impending death beds will they truly realize that organs aren't meant for individual profiteering. i mean... the system is effective but in a wrong way. the system is furthermore only effective in Iran because of the economic circumstance of their high inflation rate and unemployment. the destabilization of the state doesn't help people make correct and sound choices only to be irrational merely for the prospect of making a quick buck. and even with the human organ transplant act in Singapore (still relatively unknown and my sister was actually hoping i'd carry on her nation wide effort on organ donation in 2007) where everyone is registered as possible donors, there's still a shortage of organs for recipients eagerly waiting to get out of the hospital. to pass something such as the Iran's approach on organ trading would simply not be welcomed by many as health is of primary concern especially with the vicissitudes and only the extremely impoverished and desperate in society would grab at it. surely even the poor in Singapore wouldn't dream of that as their circumstance is a lot better off than many in other parts of the world.
strange. i was having such a good dream sleeping since 545pm and here i am now unable to sleep and typing this post just for the sake of trying to get my back into my much anticipated slumber. haha.
i'm getting the hang of being a ward choir pianist after my absence from any form of choir in church. especially after e stake choir has not met back again in an agonizingly long time. all those awesome songs that we sang! pieta and silent was the night were the best along with the joseph smith bicentennial ones. i hope stake choir resumes. please. haha.
ying er is back from italy! and she brought back chocolate from italy for those who were regular attendees at her SNYO concerts! haha. see how it pays casey? you should have made more allowances to go for them and make sure u weren't sick! haha.
just last week i was assigned to give a talk on the 17th of august on the subject of profanity. God is probably trying to tell me that i'm using certain words/phrases that are not pleasing cos i'm kinda confused over all the meaning of terms these days. there are so many day-to-day words that really seem harmless but if u do a little digging here and there, it seems that its more than meets the eyes and ears. however, i maintain that i do not use swear words but it seems there are certain incidences that i need to bridle my tongue. President Kimball spoke on this issue years back now (1981 actually) and he defines that its taking the Lord's name in vain that assumes the status of profanity out of our mouths or showing forth how viciously we swear by any other deity or by using whatever expletives common to society. of course i think that there are many more levels that are left unexplored with the chronological change that has taken place. recently there was one instance in the newspaper that did show one such act of swearing and it was taken from the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. hello newspapers. please censor accordingly to religious beliefs too. anyway for anyone who might be interested to view,
The Message:
President Kimball Speaks Out on Profanity
by President Spencer W. KimballDODGEBALL @ mutual. wham! grab life by the balls. we actually played. aint so chicken as to watch the movie for the 'thrills'. i suppose that this is gonna be e new fave game for e toa payoh ward YM. awesome. plus there were a few 'lethal hits'? haha. anyway... it was a great DE-STRESSING session. all the hyped-up levels of adrenaline sure get e job done.
how queer. i turned on the radio on my phone and the first thing i heard was the O level chinese listening comprehension 2008. haha. yeah. i was listening to symphony 92.4. hoping that there would be some bach music on cos its meant to help stimulate study and thinking. haha. ying er suggested to be immersed in music to block out distractions especially a hard one d:
had battered dory fish with chips! @ get hooked... yummmm (:
days numbered
but there's time to smile
purpose evaded
but there's reason to smile
trials omnipresent
but there's no suppressing a smile
importance out there
that's where the smile comes from (:
a smile never fails to brighten many say
a smile is the happy interaction of thoughts and emotions
within oneself or between people
i'm still entranced by one (:
while the others are still just as wonderful
family history service project @ a teo chew cemetery today. sure wished that a lot more youth had turn up for the project. thankfully i was grouped with Han and Shannon! awesome! we did about 60 graves in total, having to record the names, the birth and death dates, their origins, and whether they needed repainting. the graves were going to be exhumed anyway as projected by don't-know-which government agency >.< haha.
highlights of the time we spent there. life threatening sums it up.
1) clearing the leaves and twigs that were strewn all over the graves was normal. having to pull a small/medium-sized tree off a grave is different. roots and everything. haha. and after that it was like pandora's box opening. all kinds of insects just burst out from where the tree roots were. can just imagine some pple screaming their heads off if they were there. YC bunk incidents.
2) crashing through undergrowth and fallen trees just to get to graves that were probably almost inaccessible. taking pictures was a real problem too cos we had to squat down in tight little spaces for those ultimately inaccessible graves. i pity those poor dead souls. no one to look after their grave. sure hope i don't end up like that when i'm dead and gone. touchwood. haha!
3) almost creating our own graves there. it was either God was signalling to us that we shouldn't go through some area or someone just didn't want us there. great falling durians just fell about two metres from where we were. twice. so besides looking out for any snakes, we had to watch our heads for durians. and its just our luck that many of the graves that we had to extract information from were right under durian trees.
mutual the day before was awesome! everyone had fun... JYEAH? (: even with 2 additions from the Woodlands Ward YW (kandace and myra) there was still a shortage of supply of YW for the communications session meant to enact a date environment. haha. thanks for coming anyway u two! :D
its been awhile since i saw mona. one year plus to be exact. haha. nice catching up with you and having ice cream at island creamery! and i'm so embarrassed that i still can't really recognize her (considering that i only knew and met her for one day last year during orientation 2. and mona was supposed to be in t20 and volleyball? haha)
JYEAH. i am going to enter a trent-like mode which equates to mugging and studying like mad for the next 6 weeks before prelims and then a 1 week break before another 7 weeks before A levels (i'm sorry trent :P) school couldn't get any better.
ISLAND CREAMERY IS GIVING OUT FREE ICE CREAM TOMORROW!!! GO GRAB SOME!!!
gee. i tink i learnt a whole lot about inertia today in school running around all over the place. the one big lesson is:
running and turning at a corner on a mat only to almost fall as i twisted and ran up the stairs. genius. the mat moved like half a meter. haha. awesome. DRIFT! (no flipping) haha :D
institute today was about 3 prophets. joel, amos and jonah. haha. and there was much discussion about the significance of the no. 7 (about the 7 dispensations and naaman dipping 7 times and all that stuff). han drew on the board again to illustrate the well known incident of jonah and the BIG FISH. haha. his sketch of nineveh looked like some high rise building city. were there that many high rises in the olden times? oh... and there was a white sandy beach cos it was drawn on a WHITEBOARD. reminds me of madagascar. but it ain't the san diego zoo for sure.
and ying er is leaving for italy for 11 days. won't see her this sunday. my fellow organist! :(
and i have to play the organ. whoopie! am i supposed to be happy? >.<
morning seminary today. took e bus cos i didn't confirm with Bro. Soh that i was taking his car. haha. so i was obviously late but still its worth it that i went anyway. han was there too! JYEAH! haha. it was like a visit Sis. Kate's lesson sort of thing. they were doing some enactment of some news report thingy about the parable of esther and about how almost all e jews were killed but were saved thanks to the righteous nature of esther. being late... i was declared judge to determine who had the best presentation. haha. i think ying er's group did the best although they did drag a bit cos they were slightly unprepared. haha.
basketball session afterwards. SHERMAN, DAVID and JEFF! u all very off today! what happened? u all were playing fine last friday! haha. alamak lahh jeremy! i thought we taught u not to be scared of the basketball! u tink the basketball is poisonous?! haha. better go exercise some more and practice!!! wait till we bring a volleyball and start spiking... haha. better go work on ur fitness man.
changed out quickly at 730 and left for ngee ann polytechnic to tutor kandace. actually it was really a crash course cos her test was like on today afternoon. haha. and she was
TOTALLY UNPREPARED?! haha. ok...
NOT TOTALLY. funny lahh u kandace! but must give u credit for the work u put in earlier! haha. oh... and i learnt something about sample proportion which isn't taught for A levels from the lecture slides on kandace's notebook...
oh! and i saw galvin and casey at NP too! haha. casey was being retarded. 'long time no see'. what long time no see? i just saw u ytd at church u nincompoop! haha.
woohoo! i'm crossing my fingers to get treated! heh :D
fireside today by 3 BYU Professors was simply awesome. haha. i'm glad i actually decided to go. it was on family and marriage. haha. u should see the notes trent took. and how kandace and myra were snatching it and running along the corridors. ruth is uber funny!!!
been having awesome days (3 so far and counting)
ytd was facil bbq. it was quite emotional thanks to the clouds of smoke which the pits emitted thanks to the burning of charcoal to cook the food. everyone around the pits were literally crying. haha. oh... and carmen really can get a job as a hawker.
woohoo! seminary tmr. i've finally found a perfect day to go considering that they don't conduct holiday classes anymore :(
kudos to youth day. i can celebrate being a youth for the last time before NS. where boys are supposed to become men or sth like that... haha.
Toa Payoh Ward Young Men mutual today was awesome! and it came at no charge! haha. met sherman and jeremy at plaza sing before heading down to church where we arrived way early before everyone else (which is good anyway considering that jeremy is usually mostly late for whatever. haha)
The Priests Quorom had an awesome mutual. we played MUNCHKINS throughout the whole time before we combined with the Teachers' and Deacons' Quorom for a basketball game at the indoor half court. crazy 4-a-side basketball match which was really close and tight but nevertheless... really fun and coolio! so therefore today was a cool fun day :D
For the many of you who have not touched or even heard of MUNCHKINS, it is a game with 3 objectives which are really very simple. i'm sure u'd love the game for this once you get down to play.
1) Kill the monsters. Yarrghh!
2) Look for treasure. Bling bling...
3) Stab your buddy (most enjoyable)
*note that your buddies here in this case are really your friends who are antagonists who simply want to beat you down and ensure you don't survive. dying is really fun in this game! haha :)
2 peculiar events that happened today.
1 is a sight. 1 is a sound.
on the bus home aboard 151, while passing through the bukit timah road stretch, the bus had to pick up passengers at the hwa chong bus stop. these passengers happened to be some hwa chong institution students. one of them said while walking to the back of the bus 'i hate people with b and j's in their names'. hmmm... benji/benjy (however you would spell it) happens to have both those letters inside. oh dear... haha!
i stopped by KAP (king albert park - for those of you who have not been to the west side of this sad little island called singapore it is located near methodist girls' school and ngee ann polytechnic... go figure and look up ur roadmap. haha) anyway... making a quick visit to the cold storage there, i had to pass through the gate keeper who was 'in charge' of 'the gates of cold storage'. this particular gate keeper was a little kid (probably 5 years old) who busied himself running in and out for whatever reason. haha. and so... as i walked past... he got kinda irritated that i was walking past and disturbing his fun. he started commanding me to move faster signaling and ordering me to move faster by the words 'come on! come on!' waving his arms to get me moving. haha. the closest thing to a 'gate keeper' his size would be those goblins in harry potter.
decided to go for institute today as trent and han said they were gonna be there on wednesday instead of saturday. oh well... haha. the lesson today was about the priests of baal and elijah. haha. it was uber cool that han got to display his extraordinary cartooning abilities as we described to him the scene between the priests of baal and elijah. elijah won with the power of God... duh. haha :)
restlessness. and a super fun (and slack) classmate edwin sitting next to me in class. haha. gee. this isn't helping. lessons have all become laughs and pure nonsense since the year started. haha. today was no exception. all the nonsense in the back 2 rows in class. get smart kinda started quite a bit of it. especially the part about jamming staples into people's heads. darn... it was hilarious beyond hilarious.
i've been kept on my seat constantly at the drawing board. constantly having to change and change (this sure sounds like my current mental/emotional state) gee... writing the music score for mary jane is ridiculously hard. maybe it's just that i don't have adequate experience to draft the sometimes irregular rhythm in the song. knowing how to play is one thing... knowing how to dictate is another. and prelims coming up in 8 weeks is no big help. sorry kandace... but i suppose i have to put it off if i can't complete it in 2 weeks time. i'll make it up to you before the year ends though that is a really long wait. haha. just like the words on one of andrea's blouses. 'always late but worth the wait'.
besides that... grace let me listen to this click5 song which i haven't heard of until today. sounds nice. but can't remember the name. haha. yupp. another one that i'm gonna make sure i arrange this month.
recently done up:
mary jane
jenny - in the process (made progress today)
i'm yours (done!)
