Steamboat for my Birthday

I have finally reached 21. Throughout the past 2 days, I have been receiving greetings from friends I have not seen for ages. It really makes me feel blessed and contented from these greetings alone. I dare not ask for any gifts as I don't feel I deserve any of them but I still received some gifts from YEC, Union gang and my siblings.

I am really grateful to be born into this family especially my mother who has utmost tolerance with my noisy gang and my elder sister whom I guessed did the sponsoring. And perhaps my neighbours who did nothing even though we were slaughtering chickens in my room. I believe most of us are suffering from the post-wii syndrome which leaves the hands sore and shaky along with doing wii-like actions while we are asleep. I am proud of my home and I sincerely thank those who makes an effort to at least compliment the layout of my home; firstly because its my dad's greatest creation other than the 3 of us. And secondly, I learned some where in the arts of Rome where they treat their home as their first and last line of defense. That shows how much pride they take in building their homes.

Hey Grace (union de) thanks for the chocolate! Thanks for coming down too! Sorry for letting you feel out of place :(
My batch guys Jean, Eddie and Candice are great people who has been tolerating me. But I was still expecting some gifts from them(LOL) despite saying shamelessly that their attendance is good enough. They did redeem themselves by promising me a buffet. For their convenience, I have planned the following dinner cuisine for each of the following:

Eddie--> Dinner at chomp chomp would be good enough (we are still NSFs)

Jean --> How about a lunch at Machae?

Candice --> Candle light dinner anywhere would be fine :) preferably a date (^_^)

Thank you Jean, I was really looking forward to receiving your hand made card. I am a believer in karma and for some time I was thinking if the light bulbs, condoms, coin banks and other rubbish I have stock you guys with would flow back to me. I am really grateful that you guys did not bring these stuff to my house or else my mother and sister would probably be very worried.

Hey, Chi Ho!!! Thanks for your chocolate and unlocking of all my games. LOL. You have been a great senior. Will visit you at Sheng song some other time.

My YEC peers (Lina, Chak, Chritine, Des, WW and Terence): Thanks for coming down. I have decrypt the hidden message of having the watch as a gift. However. . . . as the surface is too beautiful, I think I might not wear it so soon. I am still a cheap bastard afterall. Something this expensive is too luxurious for me. So, try getting me Rolex or Raymond Well next time. :)

my birthday -> a day to reflect

It has been a kinda short year for me as I was resting for around 10 months or so. Its been quite a challenge whenever I meet my batch boys be it officers or BMT platoon mates. Deep down in me, there has always been this sense of jealousy and envy towards them as they are able to make it through OCS whereas I am still marching on the spot. Many of them couldn't recognized me on first glance; I am sure that my looks didn't really change that much or perhaps I am not longer the proud and courageous damien guy any more.

Even among my poly friends, I felt that I have not improved or matured into someone I expect myself to. Not just me, even my officer and friends have expect something more out of me. I have been wasting time (10&1/2 months to be exact)whereas everyone else is evolving. I really feel like a caterpillar who has turn into a cocoon and stayed there. I have been trying to overcome this mindset of mine and reassuring myself not to worry and I would excel some day. However, this only gave me greater pain because I have yet to achieve what I have set out to achieve.

I don't need any sympathy but all these years, I have never achieve anything that is worth calling an achievement. Being 21 years of age and accomplishing as good as nothing isn't really worth any celebration. It is important for me to achieve something by my birthday each year so that I can tell myself that I am not a living corpse and have done something decent to match my name.

However all is not lost. I have tried many ways to throw away my obsolete pride and arrogance; but throughout the process, I realized the more I want to dispose it, the more I actually resist it. Thus, it is better to let it slowly decompose itself then to destroy it. Pride is something really temporary for a business student; it obstructs the way of learning and acceptance. I hope to be a humble and hardworking wenhan by the end of my NS.

Hope for Change/ Yes, we can.

yup, okay, I admit I am an Obama and Biden fan. I like Obama's mentality and Biden's stability when facing challenges. Obama started out quite shabbily and shaky while having scripts in hand and finally matured into a fully charismatic leader who is able to inspire simply through his speeches. (Btw, I do agree on his econimic take on taxing the richest to drive the middle class)

But lets face it, the real challenge just started. With 2 wars on its front, a crumbling economy and a weakening dollar, Obama's government is gonna be in for some trouble. In addition, he entered the office with too high an approval rating. So, maybe, if he has some powerful method of reviving maybe like Ma Ying Jiu (who did so perhaps easily by just mending ties with China), his (Obama's) aprroval rating would be sure to drop by perhaps a 10 point fall, maybe lesser.

Perhaps he could do what Bill did by just focusing on their economy and neglecting foreign affairs; but it would be deem impractical as the world isn't what it was in the 90s. Obama would need to mend ties with the its allies and revive the economy and ending the wars. He lives with not just high expectation of his own country but also throughout the world.

John Mccain's take on the economy sounds logical (taxing the middle class so that the richest are able to provide jobs), but lets face it; it has been there for CENTURIES and thats where it has lead America to, another economic crisis.

Palin is still not prepared to be the VP nominee as she lacks stabilty and logic in her debate against Joe Biden. She is however; good in one thing, attracting attention. She goes around the coutry like a rockstar. She makes a normal person (perhaps less potical sensitive people like housewives) feel important.

focus, endurance and persistence

I have always been complaining even though I managed to installed internal freedom to distract myself to stop complaining. I absorbed this very valuable lesson just very recently in my office.

Complaining only makes one circulate around the problem but not the solution. It saddens the human spirit as we all know that what has been thwarted cannot be undone. Which then leads to another theory; "things that you focus on, expands." People with strong minds focus on the solutions to problems, not the problem itself. Thus, it is never smart to convert your problems into complains and sadden your spirit. Keeping your focus on all your positive energy will bring you unexpected findings on how much achievement you can accomplished.

It is important however; to realize the worst case scenario for every possible challenge you are facing. Therefore, a balance is once again in the story; with one hand holding all the worst case scenarios, whereas the other maintaining a positive mindset neglecting all the complains.

I hope to be mentally strong enough to endure through whatever it takes to complete what I have set myself out to accomplished. As I have read from a book; a man once asked God,

"Have I completed the mission you gave me?"

God calmly says "no, not yet."

"why?!?!?!"

"Because you are still breathing."

Congrats to Christine and Desmond!!!!

I almost cried during Desmond and Christine's wedding on 2 occasions. The first was during the solemnization, Christine was crying and so was her father. I was kinda touched by what the Justice of Peace who solemnize them said. Another reason was this photo. I almost laugh till I cried. I swear to everyone reading this, that I did NOT edit this photo at all. It was quite obvious what this person was trying to do.

The wedding was fun with Wei Ming, Terrence Quah, Zhao Ming and De Wen as buddies, Terrence and Lina as MCs. In addition, I managed to help Chi Ho found his long lost brother (Lian Huat)and entertained my gang of friends over there. I did alot of lousy videoing probably due to inexperience. I promised I will be so much better at videoing the next time round.

It was a boring bachelor night for Desmond as we chat about everything under the sun before have an "Ops Order" from Desmond. All I could remember was Chak and Wei Ming playing online solitaire and the gang of brothers having very late supper and very early breakfast around 1am at Hougang point.

Something to be so proud of was that I managed to play a prank and scam Lina to speak into the mic with her thinking the mic was off. It was all good fun even though I was so much burnt out and drunk as compared to the previous wedding.

Arh~ So shagged.