LaserTag

It came as a pleasant surprise when on new year's eve, Elise/Luke invited me to laser tag. I've not met up with my hall mates in such a long time that it is really a pleasant surprise!

I've made my new year resolutions/wishes to God and my second one is to restore friendships/relationships with friends and family and have God to be in the center of all my relationships. Even before the year has started, God has been fulfilling my wishes, first with my 3217 tenza friends, then with my secondary school mates and now my hall mates. How wonderful is Jesus!!

I was pretty sleepy by the time I woke to go for laser tag. I was helping my mum type her notes till 3 before her flight and woke up at 4+ to send her and daddy off to the airport for their trip back to Hainan Island. We had breakfast together at the canteen and it was nice!

Much to my embarrassment, I actually can get lost at douby ghaut mrt. I exited at the red line and was trying to find my way to plaza sing. Jason call to say head to exit D but I heard exit B and keep getting lost =.= I decided to just follow the plaza sing signs instead of the exit signs and finally found him and Elise.

We were catching up and I'm just so happy! Hall times has to be one of my best times in Uni and I really missed my hall mates! Finally, everyone was here (Jason, Elise, Nic Tay, YanxXin, Luke and me!) and we went bata (buy and throw away according to elise xp) so Luke can get his shoes. OMG, I missed how fun it could be just talking and joking around with them!

The laser tag was really fun! We played 3 missions, first is the free for all. I have got to say, I'm totally owned by the smaller sized kids and with my size, i'm like a moving target!! Though Luke was really good! He got the third rank!! I can still remember him tagging me so many times >.<

The second mission is to destroy other people's base. OMG, we were totally SLAUGHTERED though I have to say our position was really bad. Luke, Jason and I were the attack team and due to the position of the 2 other teams, we were shot from the front and back continuously. It was really sad >.<

Though the third mission was the most fun in my opinion. It was catch the flag game! Due to our distance from other 2 teams, we weren't attacked at all and most of us tried to get the flags xD Though I managed to get the flag twice, I was unfortunately shot on the way back >.< Really should have stuck to the walls on the way back but adrenaline demands I run shortest distance back >.< The hero of the day has to be Nic when she captured a flag right at the start of the game when no body knew what was going on :) It was a tie in the end and it was all in good fun!

After which we went to suki-ya for lunch-cum-dinner. Omg, it's gotta be the longest buffet I've eaten at 3 hours!! We had a lot of fun talking to each other and it's nice to know I have a fangirl friend nic xD I was totally fangirling over akashi while she's fangirling over kise xp

It was a really satisfying new year gathering and I hope for more such outings in the future! It was good to reconnect with everyone~!!

Count down

Sometimes I think it takes very little to be happy and content with life. This year's count down is exactly how it is. Lazing in the bed with my parents and sis, reading stories from my iPad. The simplicity and peace and content is so wonderful. I love time like this. It is to be treasured!

Sweet Mum

I never knew this but my mum actually keeps small notes in her hand phone like a diary of sorts. It contains some major events of the year like when we spent new year in Taiwan e.t.c.

Though I noticed quite a few notes was about me being away from Singapore for my internship and when I called back home. I wonder if my trip away from Singapore has affected her more than she lets on. If I really do go overseas to work, I wonder if she will cope with it.

Another special note I found was one on Joyce's birthday. It coincides with the ceremony where public can choose to give the robes to the monks. My mum has planned for my sister to be the first to give the robe in hope that her wishes will all come true.

I still remember my sister being rather reluctant to go and deeming it as a chore. It is not exactly secret that my sister thinks she's the least loved by mum and mum certainty re-enforces that idea with regular comments on her seemingly "lack of common sense, initiative and ability" when it comes to house work.

However, reading this note just shows how much she does love Joyce and the rest of us. Though she doesn't show it very well and irritates us at times with her nagging and her restlessness, she really does love us in her own way. Often times, it is not in ways we can clearly see and appreciate but it's definitely there and I love her all the more for it. Hopefully all of us can see this and learn to love her more!

4C gathering!

I have to admit I am pretty apprehensive at first since I haven't had any contact with them for years! In fact, I met up with my JC friends more often than my secondary school one. Though it really is a good chance to catch up with everyone so I went for the gathering and I'm glad I went.


Though it was a little awkward in the beginning since I've not met them for so many years, it was still nice getting to see everyone. Everyone's grown so much and some are even getting settled down like Jasmine and Hui Qing. Looking at them, I can't help but feel a little distance as I can see that they've been keeping up with each other in their own groups, just like back in school.

It's always been a regret of mine to not have very close friendships back in secondary school. I've spent majority of my time playing badminton though frankly speaking, I'm really ostracized in the team. I think it really is the crux of my unhappiness in school. I felt like I never belonged. Though on hindsight, I really should have given up on badminton in secondary school and joined other CCAs and spend more time interacting with my classmates and making friends in other CCAs. Despite the bad times in badminton, I have always found a certain level of happiness and content with my classmates. Though I wasn't particularly very close to anyone/everyone, I still had a fun time and it was perhaps, the best times I had in st nicks.

We all have a great time reminiscing about past times and relate tales of our adventures back in the school days. It's times like this that I REALLY REALLY missed school and want to rewind time to redo it all over again, this time making sure to make more friends and keep them closer to me still.

Regardless it's was a fun afternoon and I really appreciate the get together. Though the friendship may seem too frayed to strengthen at this point, I am trusting and believing in Lord Jesus to be all my friendships and relationships!

Tenza meetup~

It's been really such a long time since I met up with the 3217 Tenza teams =) So long in fact Jon was wondering if I was in Singapore ^^ Today, 5 of us, Jon, Jiewei, Zhenling, Andrew and I met up at crossings cafe for dinner. Jon's treat with his vouchers xD It was delicious!

Can't believe everyone is already working except for me, who's still studying. It was a really nice get together where we get to catch up on everyone's work. Though Zhenling seems pretty upset at her workplace and Jiewei's so keen on recruiting people to neo xD Probably cause he's lonely there and wants referral bonus!

Though looking at the interactions between Jon, Jiewei and Andrew, seems like they are really close, going to dinners together frequently and attending courses online together! I am kind of envious of their relationships and hope I can have friendship like that too. Though I'm really happy that they organised this meetup and never forgot about me ^^ I should really invest more times to interact with them more! They are really wonderful people.

Jon's working at a "referral" start-up under Ben. I think that he's really smart and charismatic and it shows in the way he explains his job and describe about the industry here. Though when he analysed about how much we and I could earn in Singapore, it really shocked me. I never expected such high starting pay but that's besides the point. He's given quite a few good advice. This has really set me thinking about working overseas in one of the bigger companies, maybe Google. It has given me much hope for the future and I shall trust and rest in the Lord for this!

Nice coffee shop is nice :)

On hind sight, I really should not have jogged with my sister last night. The adrenaline rush kept me awake the whole night and only released me to sleep at wee hours of the morning. It probably didn't help that I woke up feeling like my clothes weighed a ton.

Out of habit, I automatically walked out to the coffee shop behind my house for lunch and greeted the chicken rice brother as I came through the back door along their stall. As I was still sleepy and tired, I ordered a plate of chicken rice and mechanically sat in the nearest table, a seat away from where he was having his lunch before attending to my order.

We didn't converse while I was eating and halfway through my lunch, I spotted a middle aged man walked up to the drink stall uncle and spoke to him. The drink stalls uncle then proceeded to walk around speaking in Hainanese really loudly as if he was relaying a message to everyone. It was only when I saw people start rushing from their seats to the car park did I realise it was a warning for the "fine lady".

It really warms my heart to see a friendly gesture and I can't help smiling as I drank my soup and savoured the warm atmosphere of the coffee shop. The people are so friendly and kind that it lifts my spirits whenever I am there and it feels like home, even though most people there except the stall owners are strangers to me. I think that this is exactly what our society needs. A kinship, an environment where everyone feels like a friend / family instead of being cold strangers to each other.

Before I even finished my thought or my soup for the matter, I was suddenly offered another warm bowl of soup, topped with spring onions that I liked so much. I've only exchanged a few words with the chicken rice brother (they only started their business here recently) so I wasn't even familiar with him. Imagine my surprise when he placed the bowl in front of me with these kind words "Here, have another bowl of soup. It's still hot!"

I'm so touched by this small action, bless his kind soul! I've not talked to him but here he was, offering me a bowl of soup. It shows how thoughtful he was since he took time in the midst of his lunch to prepare the extra bowl and added the usual garnish I used. He must have noticed and cared enough to remember since I know for a fact that he'd usually have added pepper if it were someone else but thankfully not for me >.<

Using this as an opportunity, I started talking to him. We've learnt much about each other as I shared that I'm in University and am studying for my exams next week. We proceeded to talk about random stuff as the vegetarian stall uncle came and joined out conversation and it lead to talking about sleep of all things!

He's a generally content and happy person but I do wish he'd put himself in higher regards. He's wonderful in his own way and it's a wrong concept that he'd feel inferior because he is not as well educated and works as a hawker.

Through our conversation, I could tell that he really wishes that I would do well for my studies and not end up as a hawker like him though I do not see any fault with how he is living right now. He is happy and works in such a healthy environment (he sometimes even work less hours than my family =.=). He even laughs when I told him I wanted to learn how to cut up a chicken like him. He thinks it's not a useful skill and I have better things to learn in university than that. I'd beg to differ though.

Thinking deeper into this, I think people like him are precious children of God. Even though they might not be as well off in their opinion, they still celebrate and sincerely hope for others to succeed. Many people these days wishes for others to fail so they would not feel as inferior. I myself am sometimes guilty of this. Through the grace of God, I shall learn to reject those thoughts and learn to be more like this brother and celebrate and encourage other people's success.

His parting reminder to rest and not take things too seriously is sincere and warms my heart yet again. I left feeling good and happy that I've managed to make a new friend.

The idea that this coffee shop is like home is further enhanced when I went back for dinner with my dad. When my dad came back with sugar for the prata, he got an extra packet of biscuit with him that I'm sure the coffee shop nor the prata shop sells.

Turns out, the mixed rice lady offered it to my dad on his way back. A passing drink stall uncle then commented and told us to put the biscuit in between our bread and it'd be very delicious. I tried and it really is very delicious. My dad then proceed to share with me how the people there will frequently share tidbits with him every time he comes.

It really does feel like family in that coffee shop especially when the chicken rice brother came down the isle with a bucket of beer and offered my dad and I a drink from his personal stash. We refused of course. The casual offering of food and joking conversation makes these strangers-turned-friends seems like family as each day passes by. I really treasure this coffee shop and maybe after my exams, it shall be my turn to make some food and offer it them. I hope that this sense of home will never go away and I thank God each day for such a rich blessing. Hallelujah!

:: it's time to reflect and learn ::

"what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." It all started from cs1101s. When I started to really learn, not only academically wise but to really start thinking and solving problems. It was so different from what I've encounter and it was an eye-opener. Then came cs3216. I was hesitating at first, whether to take this module and in all due respect, 3216 is not only an overload module but also "useless" in my academic pursue since it goes no where in my double degree. However, I knew that it would teach me much more than what the textbook does, it would teach me real-life experiences. In addition, i was still so new to computing and i never really knew what should i do. I was eager to explore, coupled with the fact that it would be the last time prof will be doing it, I sent in my application.

This whole journey through 3216 has opened my eyes to so many things. Not only did i gain academically wise but 3216 opened my eyes to the deeper aspects of life that I've either taken for granted or was just too naive. I've learnt so many things, experienced so much. I won't go into much details about the technical aspects of the things I've learnt since i believe it's secondary to the life lessons and experiences that I've gain. Illustrator, photoshop, flash, SQL e.t.c., these are just some technical stuff that I'm sure everyone's learnt over the course of 3216. Put it this way, most of us, especially freshies like my group signed up for 3216 and noobs like me know nothing about whatever that was required of us. The most important learning point is not the technical stuff but rather the willingness to learn, the resourcefulness in which we search for things that we need but not know and most importantly, how to teach ourselves. (Google's been my best friend) I find the education system these days are lacking rather severely, many students just learn what their teachers teach them, in other words, they were spoon fed but they never seem to know how to teach themselves. Through 3216, we were taught to teach ourselves from scratch. While I can't say that I've totally learnt everything that I need to know computing and the various programs but I know that I won't be lost and that if I need anything I know how to learn them myself, or source for help. Which I'm pretty sure everyone in 3216 can do.

That aside, I've also learnt how to make things work. Gone were the naive thought that as long as you are good at something you can succeed. Well, it is mostly true but i realise that hardly everything can be a one man show since we aren't all perfect. Add on to the fact that most of work nowadays emphasise on teamwork. If you can't work in groups, it's going to be a tough time. We need people who are different from us, to help us in areas that we are weak at while we concentrate on our strong areas. It is important that we learn where our weaknesses and strengths, so that we can keep on improving. For me, as a human, we have to keep learning and evolving, afterall, we are better today then yesterday, otherwise we'd just be at a standstill and life'd just be so dull. 3216 has really helped me in the area of self discovery and I'm starting to learn to love myself more.

Along with that comes teamwork. I've worked with different people and I must say this particular group work have left a rather huge impression on me since i've never worked in such a close knit group for something so huge (most of the projects in the past are either rather small scale compared to this or that we have a lot of manpower). I've learnt it rather keenly that everyone is unique and have their special quirks and working style. It is important that we learn how to accommodate each other and allocate the work between us such that we optimized our working capacity. The key and in my opinion, the most important part of a group work is communication. Miscommunication can cause a lot of trouble and is an art that one has to keep refining. A lost of idea between groupmates are fatal and can costs us a lot of precious time.Apart from that is to also keep learning from one another. No one is perfect and we can learn from others and by observing the world around us. There can never be enough of learning. 三人行必有我师焉，择其善者而从之，其不善者而改之。 For people who doesn't understand, it simply means that we can learn from anyone, be it their strengths or from their mistakes.

3216 has taught me a lot about patience, the importance of communication as well as responsibility and also how to be resourceful. Patience wasn't one of my stronger suite before this semester but I've learnt that different people understand things in a different manner and at different pace. It allows me to be more patient and understanding. I understand that every single one of us plays a very important role in the group and that if anyone is gone, codename penguin will collapse. With that comes responsibility. It is very crucial in a group like us that we deliver what we promise and give our 100% since all our work are interlinked and dependent on each other. All of these just link back to our working attitude in life. No one but us and only us are responsible for our own actions and results. We have to work hard and there's no shortcut to success.

There is also the issue of personal interest versus what is best. Group dynamics was one of them. To choose your friends or people you can get along with or to choose people who can do the job. It's a dilemma and i think choosing the balance point is very important. However, when you are thrown out from the sandbox known as college, I doubt life gives you much of a choice as to who you will be working with unless you are your own boss and get to choose who you want to work with. Moreover, life's unpredictable and it's hard to come by people you really work the best with. For me, it is important to apply the lessons we've learnt in teamwork and treasure your group mates for they are the one working alongside you.

Life's unfair and it is hardly simple. A lot of times we think that our ideas will work and everything will be fine but guess what, reality often turns that up-side down for you. You'd realise that reality differs a lot from what you think and until you try it out, you'd never know if it works. Many times our ideas failed and we have to keep trying. I guess in the end, we must learn to be able to change spontaneously and not cling onto our ideas too much since we have to keep changing and improving. One good way is also observe and learn from successful people around, see and  understand what makes them so good and adapt from it. Afterall, most of the ideas are development of other ideas, as a designer, i take inspiration from other people's work and this can be applied to every aspect of our lives. In addition, it is also important to network and create connections, to find people to help and guide you. Laurence's taught me that.

Most importantly, I've learnt perseverance, developed my passion and kept up the never give up attitude while learning from my mistakes. I've cultivated my will and determination to keep on standing no matter the number of times i fail or fall down. Whenever things start to go wrong, the worst thing one can do is to start pushing the blame onto others and pointing finger. For me, i think it is rather pointless. What's done is done, there's no turning back and no amount of whining or finger pointing is going to solve the problem, only active work can do that. Solve the problem and learn from it. Only then can you keep growing from it. Not only that but also provide action to your thoughts. Many times in life have i been passive but that shall not be the case anymore. Nothing's absolute in life and studies' definitely not it either. I totally love this quote "Life'll be fine in the end, if it isn't, it's not the end yet."

Never give up, keep on learning and make sure to count your blessings everyday. I'll be better today than I am tomorrow, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger so let's all be a sucker for pain.

With that I must also thank proffy for allowing me this chance to explore and discover, the wonderful tutors for all the guidance and endless things that i've learnt from you guys. My wonderful coursemates, i've learnt a lot from you guys as well:) 3 cheers for 3216 !! heh, that ryhmes :)