maths genius :P

yesterday afternoon, at my usual weekly orientation session with pastor peter (in preparation for my mission trip), he gave me a test to do, and after that, i was supposed to "plot on each grid the point where the two average scores intersect".

oh man, each time i think about what i did, i just can't stop laughing... clever me used my ez-link card to connect the points on the two axes and then i happily drew an X on that line. i did this for ALL the grids. i didn't really dare to look at pastor peter's reaction, when we both realised what i'd done. but he was very nice and polite about it. he went something like "ahh." and helped me to plot the correct point.

四舅，我对不起你了！

genius: a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect.

by a long stretch of the imagination, i think i actually fulfill that definition of a genius! haha. it's a comforting thought. there is hope for me yet. i HAVE to brush up on my maths. i do not want to cause any unfortunate kid in chiang mai to fail his/her exam.

cute kids

so that i'll never forget these funny stories!
i shall be adding more as and when i recall them or they happen.

food republic, vivocity
my mum and i were standing in front of the dessert stall and there was a young mother with her cute little girl there as well.
young mother: girl, you stay here ah. mummy go and buy drinks. (points to drinks stall next door) just here only.
cute little girl: buutt mummyyyy... what if bad people take me awayyy??? (looks at us)

she was honestly looking at us with a very worried but cute expression on her face.

marks & spencer's kids section, wheelock place
a cute little girl walked up to my mum and pointed at the colourful striped shirt she was holding.

"NICE!"

we laughed, and her mother teased her, "who ask you to be so kaypoh huh?"

yes, i was trying on some kids clothes haha. what a great place to meet cute kids.

church
one big group of us was getting ready to go home/for lunch.
kang kang's auntie: kang kang, you go and help your meimei. the pink bag is very heavy!
kang kang: lixuan, go and carry the bags! shoo... shoo... SHOOO!!! (complete with shooing hand actions)

on work

i've been snacking too much in the office!! i think it's because i'm cold and slightly stressed. this just makes me more convinced that an office job is not for me next time, hehe. on top of the fact that generally i don't like to dress up and i don't like using the computer in an air-con room the entire day. but what else i can do right. at the moment this is in fact what i do "best" (except for the dressing up part)...sort of.

well i can't do waitressing coz i have a bad memory and bad balancing skills. i can't work at giordano or something because my nose is very sensitive to dust and i'll be providing bad customer service if i keep sneezing. haha. i gotta spare a thought for my employers and customers.

but anyway, this job is actually pretty good, with nice colleagues and working environment (btw ambrose my office's colour theme is orange!), a very flexible lunch time plus good food in the area and lots of snacks, informal dress code... all of which suit me fine. the nature of the job itself is not too bad. i've also done it before so i'm more used to it this time round. in a nutshell: phone calls, surveys, data entry...

but after three weeks of this, it'd be good to take a short break and clear my mind and let my ears and eyes recover. US trip in 16 days' time! and i'm also so glad i have this opportunity to save up for it. =) praise God from whom all blessings flow.

krispy kreme

some time ago, it occurred to me that the US was the land of krispy kremes! so
i, had been gearing up to enter the land of krispy kremes. this was supposed to take place 21 days from now. but,

my very sweet uncle brought back four boxes from sydney last night and promptly gave us one. my first encounter with a krispy kreme doughnut took place at approximately... i can't remember. but it was late enough to cause damage to my diet & exercise plan (sorry partner! i've let you down). but ok never mind.

now i know why lirong always gets her friends to bring back from overseas, hehe. and now i also understand what ambrose meant by "it's very light dough". it's really not bad at all. my singaporean review: this one got standard. haha...

praying for others

intercession is an increase in my awareness. when i pray for another person, i am praying for God to open my eyes, so that i may see that person as God does, and then enter into the stream of love that God already directs toward that person. it changes my attitude and relationship towards the person i'm praying for.

today, my CG came to my place at about 9 am for part two of the study on prayer. i thank God for all of them, because even though some lived in the east or in boon lay, they still made the effort to wake up early and come. i felt quite bad that CG was at my place! well we had a nice breakfast bought from the market, and chris shared about prayer with some help from philip yancey's new book "prayer: does it make any difference?" among other insightful things, the part about intercession spoke to me. i need to learn how to see people as God does. He loves them unconditionally, too.

give thanks

and my war with technology wages on... haha. my macbook crashed some time ago, and because i didn't backup anything, i lost everything. but it's really not hard to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

1) at least school is over. so this is not a disaster.

2) i learnt how to go down to the apple store on my own THREE times. i think in the past i'd have just asked my brothers to help me. it was like entering foreign territory. i went to the info counter when the repair counter was so obviously behind me. but anyway, the people there are really nice and helpful and they didn't laugh at me.

3) i have applecare :) so no damage to the wallet.

4) i can install the trial version of photoshop again. haha. and just when the one in my brother's computer expired! i'm so glad i get to use it again coz i need it for some work.

5) with the new hard disk, it's like starting anew, and i'm more careful with the things i install (though contrary to what my brother thinks, i did not install any nonsense things previously!! =P). and like the apple lady says, maybe my macbook will become faster. yay!

6) i give thanks that i am able to give thanks. it's a much better than getting depressed and bitter about it :P

sarah 1 technology 0

i'm in shock. for the first time, i managed to figure out the alien html template of this blog and get the original line spacing back. i don't know why but when i switched to the new "customised" blog layout (colours! a more organised blog archive! and one of the Bible verses that i try to live by!), some of my posts looked so squashed together. and as all my friends wouldn't be surprised to know, this bugged me a lot. =P but html is the bane of my life. well, just when i was about to give up, it worked. wow. haha.

my other recent tech triumphs:

1) i got my scanner working again. even though i can print stuff, i can't scan stuff. and it's supposed to be a 3-in-1 machine! maybe i deleted the scanner programme by mistake (oops). anyhow, i re-installed everything and now it's back. yay! :D

2) i discovered that there was an easier way of transferring pics from the camera to the macbook. i can just slot my memory stick into that 3-in-1 machine (so now i've utilised all three functions of the machine!). yes. sigh. i used to do it the USB way, which could be quite troublesome.
[edit: it's not working anymore!!!]

3) i discovered microsoft word's format painter. why why why??? why did i only find out after school ended? this is like the best tool for someone who JUST LIKES EVERYTHING TO BE NICELY FORMATTED. haha oh man sincere apologies to all my project mates who had to put up with me these three years while i painstakingly formatted everything bit by bit. my jaw seriously dropped when kai-lin showed me how to do it the other day.

ok so even though all these came rather late, but but but... better late than never! :) be my project mate next time in uni and i'll make it up to you. i'll serve everyone around me better in future. now i can scan things, upload pics, etc etc. i can be EFFICIENT. :)

happy poly pictures

last day of preschi

it was definitely one of my favourite modules! the classmates were great, and the teacher was funny and super nice :)

沙拉秀 (me)，三马币 (samapi/sam) and 德士门 (desmond)
doing our version of a variety entertainment show. super fun and i'll always remember this, thanks guys!

lunchtime jokes (poor jenny, haha)

this is the block where we had most of our tutorials

half a happy preschi class with 郭老师
early jan '07

that is desmond's hair. haha.

with kai-lin the night before pitch competition

what i should really be doing...

is not this!
haha. but i really can't help slacking, sigh.
one paper down, one more to go...

got this from juan sometime ago but i don't know where it's from...
so i'm sorry i can't give it due credit.
but it's funny!!!

the host of the lazy virus

hey, come on, come on!! school's not over yet. still gotta study, you know... sarah loser momentum (yes that's my new name) has almost completely switched off her school mode, most unfortunately. it's always that way, sigh. i just leave the school fighting machine behind the moment the last presentation or deadline is over.

ok i'd better stay up tonight to prepare all that i can, and then meet kai-lin in school tomorrow to study together. coz looking at my calendar right now, i know if i don't get proactive, i'll just regret it on monday night. already i'm having it easier than other people coz one paper is open-book and the other, we already know the questions. so, i should make the best out of it. yeah come on!!!

but first... i gotta tell you about The Host. it was fantastic. one of the best korean movies ever. and the amazing thing was, my parents didn't fall asleep halfway like they usually do, haha. i think it was because it was too exciting. the monster gave me a huge shock a few times. apologies to my father's arm because i grabbed it pretty tightly. there were also some super funny and super sad parts... so i really liked that it was not just some scary flick but a movie with a good story and REALLY GOOD ACTING. :)

my loyal companions

three years of poly and it has almost come to an end. surreal!!
i would like to commemorate my very first rest day with a shout out to all my loyal companions who armed me well to face my final semester at NP:

1. black pencil case
i know it wasn't your fault that my green marker stained you and you unwittingly proceeded to stain every paper-based object in my bag.

2. yellow a'zone notebook
thank you for holding all my notes, consultation records, exam tips... and the list of DVDs that i want to rent. i know you tried hard to be a good notebook despite your paper-thin cover which had to put up with green stains, dog-ears and disintegrating edges.

3. water bottles
sigg, don't be jealous of the red water bottle from NDP. i just had to switch to it as the days in school got longer and longer... you'll always be good for church and outings.

4. nike bag
you were big enough to carry all my barang barang and the straps didn't hurt my shoulders much. i really appreciated that :)

5. laptop bag
you didn't make the cut the first time round when i needed a bag for my toshiba, but this semester you came in real handy for the macbook.

6. barracuda mousepad
sorry i didn't know how to appreciate you earlier until everyone started pointing out that you were a really good gaming mousepad. heh. but yeah i'd known you were good all along!! really.

7. macbook
you're pretty cool, helpful and portable, though a bit slow. =P plus, you have super funny ads.

8. fisherman lozenges
even though you were not popular with my friends, i still think you're the best. HAHA. what would i have done without you during a long day in school?

9. thumbdrive
i am so sorry i lost you on the last day of school. but you really did your job well. i will miss you...

go lions!

two years have passed and the AFC (formerly known as tiger cup) is back! my dear care group had Bible study at my place on saturday and then we watched the very kan cheong penalty shootout between singapore and malaysia. the girls had a good time screaming while the boys very optimistically predicted that each ball won't go in. -_- anyway, we got into the finals! so proud of our national team. managed to get tix to the wednesday match quite easily despite all the circumstances. really thank God for that. the arrangements for who to go, who can't go and who needs extra tix were, however, quite a logistical nightmare. :P haha but it all didn't matter anymore as we finally got into the national stadium along with 55,000 others and started cheering for singapore (though you know i have a soft spot for thailand too). certainly a very memorable night. best of all, i got to go with my two cool dudes little brothers who are back from NZ on holiday. go lions!! all the best for tomorrow. :)

edit: we won!!!

Providence

well i never thought i'd get a relaxing night tonight! i was all prepared to work all night long since our pitch is tomorrow and we are still seriously lacking in ideas but God has really been good! firstly, class ended early today and i could go home and take a nap before dinner. and before i dozed off i was praying that God would make a way and help us finish our campaign in time and do it well, too. then halfway through my nap hehe i got a call from juan to say that tomorrow's pitch was postponed!! wow, really, what a relief. but i thought we still had to get 90% of the work done, so i was like ok we still gotta work tonight, but at least i was in a lighter mood already. (seriously, brainstorming is such a draining process, especially when your brain pool of ideas is already so small...hehe. but i'm contented and thank God for His providence every time.) THEN...i read the announcement on mel that class has been totally cancelled!! that means we have seven days MORE to work on our campaign!!! total joy. BUT...that's coz my lecturer has got some family emergency, which i HOPE is not serious! so anyway i shall try my very best not to take this respite for granted and waste it because this is really by God's grace and mercy! He works in amazing ways and once again I'm touched by His love. and there is indeed a time for everything...play and rest will come on thursday, when we have no school. so back to work! :)

"i love yuan ching!"

haha what fun it has been mentoring a group of sec 4 students for the pitch (advertising/PR) competition. such good kids and super funny too. will miss them!

this was the night before the competition, when we worked until 10:30pm. they're very creative posers hor? haha just look at the next pic.

them and their supporters. hilarious bunch. i almost got into trouble when i called them "kids". it was a slip of the tongue! and they went, "KIDS? who are you talking about?" like in a half-bewildered and half-threatening way. i knew i was in the danger zone then.

blessed new year

it's so surreal. i'm working on my imc tiger beer assignment and i just heard the sound of cars and kids. then it occurred to me that today's the first day of school! think of those cute little primary 1 kids who have to wake up so early for their first day of school... aww. i remember last year kai-lin and i were saying we could feel the national gloom descending upon the first day of school for everybody else, but not for us lah coz we were already in the middle of the term, just like this year. but somehow i lost track of time during the past two weeks so i also don't really feel like i'm stepping into a new year hehe. anyhow i'm really really looking forward to tonight when i can come home from school, watch some tv, relax, and catch up on the sleep i just lost. i'm gonna miss the holidays so much!

the low foundation

my mum's family gathered for dinner on Christmas and what i always enjoy about our gatherings are the singing sessions we have. this family is cool haha. we always sing the same old songs and always forget the lyrics at the same part and always only come in the loudest at the choruses but that's where the fun is. the music's always good too, courtesy of my brother and cousin. and up-and-coming cousin 2 on the piano. plus our all-time favourite singer, my cousin-in-law, the best male singer ever!!! (yes i'm his fan haha)

anyway, this is one of those catchy songs that we like to sing and clap along to. eric moo 巫启贤 sang it
it sort of represents me a little too, haha so yeah i can relate to it and i like it!
(and now that i've found the lyrics i realise we've been singing a rather different version! haha probably unknowingly modified over the sessions...but the meaning's still there hehe)

小人物的心声

也许我自己 不能发出万丈光和亮
但我能为斗室带来足够的光芒
也许我一个人 不能成就一番大事业
让我尽力贡献一份微薄的力量
我从来就不在乎 自己不是一个大人物
因为平凡也是一种幸福
看到名人总是忙忙碌碌
我的时间由我控制
平凡日子一样会充实

funny thai ads

thanks to our funny lecturers, we've discovered that thailand has a really cool advertising industry. its tv commercials are simply hilarious and extremely creative. i hope you'll enjoy them as much as i have.

Thai Health Promotion Board
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCtPFmA5soI

Cheers Beer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx0fy-9NWFg

Thai 7-11 E-Payment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRijjmvUEpw

Black Up Coffee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_VZOxTiYs

Good Salesman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DE2yciFh-I

Lizard Love Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PHZZhdkk-c

let's fly

eight minutes more to my current favourite show, triumph in the skies. yay!!! i'm sooo glad it's the hols now and i can watch it in a more relaxed state of mind and follow it like a guilt-free tv addict. hong kong tv dramas are still the best!!!

pics!

the 向左走，向右走 effect was totally unplanned....

obviously somebody didn't understand "let's take a nice pic" in time...hehe.

i like this.

nice colours!

this time for real

ever since PR pitch ended two weeks ago, i've been thinking of blogging about how i'm so excited about being slack finally, etc etc. but it didn't happen simply because IT didn't happen haha. ended up being busy again until TODAY. yes this time for real. our holidays have arrived, dear friends. took lots of pics using photo booth which did me proud by not lagging finally, hehe. go mac! well this sem has been wonderful because of friends like lirong, sam, jenny, wanjun and yiling. on long and busy days, we're practically together the whole day in school and then the whole night online. so i'll really miss them and this camaraderie we share. :)

i'm really looking forward to taking a break from what has been my most stressful and busiest semester. though we still have work to do and all, at least we can have a little nice break, hehe. i can finally watch the 10pm HK pilot show on ch U without school nagging at the back of my mind. i can even continue to watch 出路/stepping out which is a re-run but still a very good drama serial. i can also go shopping at IMM again! imagine what went through me a few days ago when i saw that it has esprit factory outlet. basically "!!!" would be an apt description. i'll be happy just to have giordano and esprit factory outlet for the rest of my life. :D having said that, i shall try not to wear polo t-shirts all the time, haha.

indeed, praise God for He is faithful, slow to anger and rich in love. He has carried me through tough times and given me much to be thankful for. all glory and honour and praise be unto Him!

在主里有平安...