Friday, March 30, 2007

6 weird things about me

Seems like everyone has been jumping on this latest "Weird Things Blog" bandwagon. Ha..

#01. I cannot stand repetitive noise.
Yeah so you know the reverse sensors on cars? They drive me mad and therefore I attempt to reverse as fast as I can. Roar! And the turn indicators? Yes, those too. I flick them off as fast as I can cut into other peoples' lanes (and sometimes before erps). This applies to tuneless humming/screeching/wailing as well. Of course its repetitive! Repetitively irritating! And it doesn't help that the fellow who sits opposite me at work does tuneless so well he should go and earn himself a doctorate in it. Rrrrrrrgghhh.

#02. I don't eat chilli.
Ok this is probably not a secret to those of who know me well enough to have eaten with me a few times. But to those who just got to know me, they will invariably be shocked. Standard conversation:

A: But you don't eat chilli? You're Singaporean!
Me: Ah-huh. And guess what. My father is Malaysian and my mother is Indonesian.
A: Really! But all the more you should eat chilli!
Me: Ah-huh.
A: -shocked look-

I don't understand why chilli lovers can't live without it. They claim it enhances the flavour of food.. Bah I say because then won't everything you add it to just taste of, you know, chilli? Sorry, give me my food in all its naked natural glory and I would rather get to taste the original flavours.

#03. I am extraordinarily sensitive to "cute" UPPERCASE and lowercase.
As in I simply cannot stand reading things that are RitN iN dIs mAnR N it mkS mI wondR y pP R sO frEe 2 tyP sms N eMaiL lyk dIs.
Just typing that sentence gave me the creeps. And it took 3 times the length of time I would take to type normally. Sheesh. Is it supposed to be cute? Or is this some new phonetics method where the capital letters denote the stresses in a spoken word? Whatever! I can't stand it!
Oh yes and did I mention the short forms?? For some reason I detest seeing uppercase N and R used as short forms. Don't ask me why. Lowercase letters are just fine. So I discriminate. Sue me.

#04. I don't watch TV.
Something I gave up doing in JC when it came clear that I simply have not enough time to do everything that I want to if I were to continue my google-box habit. Strangely, I don't miss it. Very unlike my future husband who wrote in his list of 6 weird things that he cannot live without TV. Haha.
Even more strange in light of the fact that both my parents are TV addicts, the TV in my house is on at least 20 hours a day. They take turns to sleep and watch TV (I am not kidding) because courtesy of SCV, there are multiple replays of the same program every day.
Linking to the next point..

#05. I have intellectual relaxation pursuits.
I don't mind the TV, but I don't need it. I would rather read. At least reading you can do at your own time and your schedule is not dictated according to the programming whims of TCS and SCV. I also like Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, 3D tic tac toe and other "intellectual pursuits". I get a kick and feel 爽 when I apply my mind to solve or understand something rather than just vegging out in front of the TV. Shocks everyone I know when I tell them I wind down by challenging my brain to a puzzle. Yeah, I exercise my brain all day long doing stuff, but this is different - its like running a marathon and then going for a swim.
Non comprende? Whatevs. My Sudoku, here I come..

#06. I have a strange personality.
I'm fascinated with personality tests. I've done 16PF, 5 Global factors (aka Big 5), Myers-Briggs, DISC, you name it I have probably tried it at one time or another. Surest way to get me to waste time is to send me a link to a quiz website which promises some kind of personality test or the other.
Irritatingly though I always come out as very balanced on those tests. When I got my 16PF report EVERY ONE of the 16 factors was scored as average. So disappointing that all I can tell others about my personality is "I am average". Bah.
Having said that it is kind of unusual to be so balanced that my percentage dominances for almost everything are at best 60%:40%. So I display many aspects of different personality at different situations, to the extent that even those people who know me well cannot quite put their finger on what personality class I belong to.
Did you know? I am an ISFJ, but I am very E for an I, rather N for an S, and very T for an F. Go figure.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Still

hide me now /
under your wings /
cover me /
within your mighty hand /

when the oceans rise and thunders roar /
i will soar with you above the storm /
father you are king over the flood /
i will be still and know you are God /

find rest my soul /
in Christ alone /
know his power /
through quietness and trust /

when the oceans rise and thunders roar /
i will soar with you above the storm /
father you are king over the flood /
i will be still and know you are God /

blogskins: Magnette

Excuses to celebrate me

Teacher's Days around the world..

January 16: Thailand
March 7: Albania
March 28: Czech Republic, Slovakia
First Tuesday of May: USA
May 2: Iran
May 15: Mexico, South Korea
May 16: Malaysia
July 6: Peru
September 1: Singapore
September 5: India
September 11: Argentina
September 28: China, Taiwan
October 5: World Teachers' Day; Russia
October 14: Poland
October 15: Brazil
October's last Friday: Australia
November 20: Vietnam
November 24: Turkey

Happy Teacher's Day to me!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

What is your craft?

Recently was looking through some old friends' blogs..

Each one has a number of hobbies that they spend alot of time and finances on, then they will usually take pictures of the results and post them up on their blogs. Tiffany and Keqing do scrapbooking and cross-stitching, Keqing in particular has got 2(!) whole boxes of scrapbooking equipment alone which had cost her over $1000 (That's One Thousand dollars, no typo!) to buy and maintain. Their cross stitches are oh-my-so-good, so many pieces that range from bookmarks to huge wall hangings in all the colours of the rainbow and all the super complicated patterns.

Tiffany also does blogskins and both their husbands do photography.

Juan is another one who is into cross stitching, the other thing she likes to craft is her baking items.. Never content just to achieve great tasting food, she would think of ways to adorn her food and make it both irresistable to eat but yet 舍不得吃 because you just want to continue looking at the cookies and muffins and admiring them. Thats why I have bullied her into baking cakes for my wedding.. ahaha..

Liyi makes cards extraordinaire, if you have ever been a recipient of any of W80 or W110 birthday cards, you would know how much love and effort (and materials!) goes in the making of each single piece. I have never ever seen her repeat a card design.. She would stay up till 3 or 4 am just to get the cards right.

Jing does jewellery making and does it so well that she can bring her pieces out to sell. Every time she brings a new creation of her crystals neckalces and earrings to church, she will be the center of attention of all the gals around who will eagerly search among her stocks for their favourite colours.

As I look at all the things my friends are doing, I felt like an under-achiever as I have never mastered any of those things. Probably the closest I came to having some kind of craft is making friendship bands in secondary school? But I have not touched my threads in years, I don't even know where my pattern books are anymore. I admire my friends' talent, their dedication to their craft, their creativity and inspiration to make new things, the hours they spend to train and hone their skills and perfect their creations. I began to wonder about myself, how I have spend my life, why I have never managed to find the time to start up hobbies like these. Instead all my time I spent on tuitions, church, ministry, teaching in school.. All the way since my junior college days. I would even give up on watching TV programs totally so that I can have more time to serve.

I began to wonder if I had wasted my time, so old already and yet no accomplishments to show the world that I have done.

I began to wonder if others see me as a very boring person, who does nothing but eat and work and sleep.. After all, I have no hobbies, no ability to make beautiful things with my hands, nothing at all.

But then my God corrected me.

He showed me that what I craft is lives.

All the time I spent on my students, my ushers, all goes into crafting each one of them into better people, man and woman of character, strong pillars in the house of God.

What I am doing now, I have nothing to show for on this earth. But I believe that when I get to heaven and see through the eyes of God, I will be able to see the amazing and fantastic tapestries of the lives of the people I have been with and I will know somehow that I have been involved in weaving a small part of each. All the time, effort, tears, joy, will all be worth it because a little is much in my Potter's hands.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Holidays

are just an excuse to go back to school in casual clothes.

Accomplished this holiday:

- 3 and a half days of eight-to-nine-hours-straight remedials

- one! precious day of slacking with Tiff, Keqing and Juan. We watched THE ORIGINAL 倚天屠龙记 (With Tony Leung and Shao Mei Qi looking OMG SO YOUNG and laughing at the lousy acting and special effects which look so weird to our now-jaded-with-CGI-effects eyes).
But hey the original is still the best, it brings you back to those primary school days where you would eagerly await each week's installments as you had nothing better to do with you time. Whee..

- rushing over after tuition to eat tauhuay at selegie road as a celebration of meizhen's birthday. The tauhuay now comes in plastic takeaway containers instead of those more auth-feeling melamineware bowls with metal spoons. Sigh. Must even tauhuay-eating become so sanitized and progressive? Boo!

- Sending off my dear JX from UM to CG ministry. Boohoo. Yet another person gone, and I feel each loss with all my heart. None of my ushers are just numbers to me, all of you are wonderful people that I love for each of your own unique, idiosyncratic reasons. Sighhhh. You know MC said she cried during the farewell? Well, so did I. Hahahaha. So Diu Lian hor.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Who, Me?

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 61%
Visual : 38%
Left : 52%
Right : 47%


Huiming, your hemispheric dominance is equally divided between left and right brain, while you show a moderate preference for auditory versus visual learning, signs of a balanced and flexible person.

Your balance gives you the enviable capacity to be verbal and literate while retaining a certain "flair" and individuality. You are logical and compliant but only to a degree. You are organized without being compulsive, goal-directed without being driven, and a "thinking" individual without being excessively so.

The one problem you might have is that your learning might not be as efficient as you would like. At times you will work from the specific to the general, while at other times you'll work from the general to the specific. Sometimes you will be logical in your approach while at other times random. Since you cannot always control the choice, you may experience frustrations not normally felt by persons with a more defined and directed learning style.

You may also minimally experience conflicts associated with auditory processing. You will be systematic and sequential in your processing of information, you will most often focus on a single dimension of the problem or material, and you will be more reflective, i.e., "taking the data in" as opposed to "devouring" it.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself - and of others - while maintaining an "openness" which is redeeming. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity is not in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, the more obvious and the more functional.

Hm, yes, very true indeed.. =)
try it here

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Year of the Ter


Der TER der.

Here are some signs that it's the Year of the Ter!!!

1. You’re pigging out more than usual.

2. You’re meeting your friends for talk pork sing song sessions.

3. When you refer to a girl as a “Babe”, and she thinks you’re calling her a talking piglet.

4. The literature text for this year is Hamlet.

5. Your community centre is holding swine appreciation courses.

6. Toy stores are selling “Babi” dolls.

7. The question is no longer when pigs fly, but whether they will be flying business or first class.

8. “Uniquely Singapork” banners are lining Orchard Road.

9. The Chingay Parade features MPs dancing hip-hog.

10. Those darn hawkers keep adding ter kua to your bak chor mee.

11. Your telco is acquired by Ter-masek Holdings.

12. Effeminate men are rebranding themselves as “Bak Quahs” this year.

13. This is the one Chinese New Year your Muslim friends won’t come and visit you.

14. The PM goes to the food court and orders, “Mee siam mai ham.”

A Glass of Stupidity, Anyone?

QUESTIONS ABOUT 2010 OLYMPICS

Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics these are some questions people the world over are asking!!!! Believe it or not these questions about
Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website (frightening, isn't it!)

Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (
USA)
A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from
Vancouver to Toronto-can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only four thousand miles. Take lots of water.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of
Europe. Ca-na-da is that big country to your North...oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in
Canada? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into
Canada? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (
USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in
Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in
Canada? (Germany)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you sell it in
Canada? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in
British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in
Canada? (USA)
A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in
Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in
Canada, but I forget its name. It's a kind of big horse with horns. (USA)
A: It's called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (
USA)
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Backside...

.. i've got one the size of a train car and i cannot fit into things that make me look good.

Boo.

Involuntary

Bah I dislike being forced into doing things.

And i've just been forced, no less, by Blogger to change to the "new" Blogger system (signing in with Gmail).

Irritating to say the least:
- I can't use some of the templates I've designed; the error message that keeps on popping up has something to do with 'template is not well-parsed' and NO ONE knows freaking anything about how to fix it! (Roar!) It works fine in the original Blogger lor. Not well-parsed?? Hmph! I give you loads of PARSLEY!!!

Pity I couldn't find any pictures with said parsley stuck into a heap of *ahem* organic fertilizer *ahem*.

- You have to sign in with a gmail account and so I get auto-logged-out of my "official" gmail whenever I sign into Blogger. Bah. Of course I don't use my UM mail for this!!
- Most of all I HATE HATE HATE being left without a choice.

Boo.

Short snips:
- I need to looooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee weight weight and more weight. Can someone please teach me a painless, sweatless, timeless method that ACTUALLY WORKS. Maybe I could cut out my irritatingly metabolically efficient bowels so that not everything I eat gets transmuted into fats. Hmph. Oh that would reduce the size of the gut area too. Hooray.

- My dog snuffles and whines. And he actually looks cute doing it. Oh Scampy, teach me how!!

- My Eye, Singapore Style:

Driving past the construction site of the ferris wheel opposite Marina. We begin to admire the sheer size of the thing. (OK, I thought it was a really large Viking ship ride at first, but lets not add my ignorance to the already-hilarious situation):

EC: They say the ferris wheel is going to be bigger than The Eye in London.
Ming: Wow. So what are we going to call it? The Bakchew?
Ming: And if we sell stamps on it. Wouldn't that be Bak Chew Tah Stamp??

Note: Proper name of said ferris wheel is Singapore Flyer.