moving on to the future...

-

---

Disney movies...
-
a memory
when you wish upon a star...
the stuff that kids grow up happy with...
-
“I feel so happy,”
“but some wishes don’t come true... sigh”
looking at two other people in front of me
-

---

you wonder what happens as we move on
-
go our separate ways... whether to army. to UK, to Canada, to Uni, to wherever in the world
-
Would we forget...?
-

---

maybe why my time with you is so precious to me
-
while I also wish i had more time with tim
-
sigh...

River flows in You

-
I heard this first in played with the SAC piano
-
in choir room - Shawn
-

---

sigh... past memories again...

food for thought

Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.
(Ecc 11:9)

---

while yes... I’ve believed that one of the central messages that Christ teaches, is the denying of one self
-
yet this verse still sticks out
-
so what could it mean
.
Perhaps, it could mean a few things
-
1. Stay happy, and rejoice in the Lord while you can
-
2. Chasing after ones own desires and hopes is not inherently wrong per se,
In fact , sometimes God plant such stuff in our minds and head, so that in these things we may glorify him
However, we need to align our desires to the will of God, and these desires should be Godly in nature
-
and should God choose to ask for surrender... go ahead... and trust in Him...
-

---

Its starting to freak me out a fair bit... this consistent observations of my habits and idiosyncrasies
-
on the basis that i have nothing... I just let it be
-
but its getting a little freaky, i must say...
-
sighz...

---

And I don’t like being ignored either
-
Not like it means anything... there are a lot of other plausible reasons
I wish everything could just be open...
-
And I quote:
“you know who you are...”
-
ah well....
x.x

---

On the other hand FB is quite useful in trying to find old friends from primary school
haha...
-
a lot of funny, weird, but memorable memories
-
From getting my teeth knocked out and the lot
haha...
I miss those days...

I imagine...

a world without sorrow...
no more nightmares of a dark tomorrow...
-
if you can imagine...
you can achieve
there nothing that we cant believe
...
just like the eagles we’ll soar...
just imagine, we’ll get there...
just imagine...

---

fragments of memories outside at a darkened CPA 2
Haven...
-
sighs
-
parting is such sweet sorrow...
-
Geog paper beckons...

ah well , those were the days

Wordpress - plugin lol

Bio class last year

Ruma Banerjee was teaching us about Homeostasis (the Goldilocks Principle, not too hot , not too cold)

-

Goldilocks lol 

-

was really funny

-

recognise Cielito (I'm dying - 00:02:15)

and Evelyn's voices?(the distinct giggles at intervals)

and mine also (if you can recognise it) 

and Tim's comment at the back (oh...)

-

Dance over me, Sing all around

Amazed

-
Verse 1:
You dance over me
While I am unaware
You sing all around
But I never hear the sound
-
Chorus:
Lord I'm amazed by You
Lord I'm amazed by You
Lord I'm amazed by You
How You love me
-
Verse 2:
You paint the morning sky
With miracles in mind
My hope will always stand
For You hold me in Your hand
-
Bridge:
How wide
How deep
How great
Is Your love for me

---

an amazingly simple song

-

and an image , that brings to mind so much, of how time has flied and gone...

-

ah well...

210

the strangest things happen

-

maybe.. I've been better these 2 day, less emo, more bubbly, although...

-

but i wonder if, for particular reasons?

-

or its just a matter of the rain clouds clearing up a bit, a little sunshine in, a little smiles here and there

-

and laughing at the tests of life, laughing at Tim...

-

in a sense... some stuff , the more you think and brood over it, the more painful it becomes

-

I guess, we need to just remember the old times as good times that God provided, and he took away... 

we thank God for those times

we remember those times not with regret or sadness because of the lost, but as good times

-

and life just goes on

-

its fairly simple, Trust that God is in control

-

---

post number 210

-

class of 2.10 dan (2004)

-

CT: Wong Ping Loong

-

ah well

haha

those were tough times, funny times, and well...

-

but they still remain with me, the good, the bad, the ugly

-

but God is Good all the time =)

-

memories

there was a time...

-

trying to force feed Jeremy with vinegar+ Tabasco/curry sauce

Choir Seniors' Dinner, breeks @ AMK

Nov 2005

-

yeah...

and we sang a song together

Alvar, Kevin, Han An, Martin, Shaun, Stuart, Song Yeong, Bryan, Ding

-

Lol Ding and I still were singing alto then

-

how about love..... measuring love

Seasons of love....

-

haha

-

and Martin and Han An and Shaun doing all the diva high pitched madness

---

was reading ppl's blogs anyway... as usual

-

lol

EMIL DO YOUR WORK

STOP BEING SO MELANCHOLIC AND NOSTALGIC

AND WASTING TIME BLOGGING

-

world lit overdue

-

I think I'm going to be lit up and burnt alive by Mrs Maria Nathan tmr

(disclaimer: Mrs Nathan generally is a nice teacher)¹ 

-

Argh

I really don't know how to do world lit

-

at least IOP we had example/practice presentations to get a better feel of how to do it

-

boo

-

I hate doing a subject which I've not done for 2 years

-

I need help

argh

-

Edit:

1. Added as I didn't want a repeat of the NS incident

Everything

ah well

-

memories

-

as kevin shared in church... the greatest love story of all

-

and the skit I knew too well

-

---

Everything - Lifehouse

-

Verse 1:

Find me here

and speak to me

I want to feel You

I need to hear You

You are the light

That's leading me

To the place where I find peace again.

-

Verse 2

You are the strength, that keeps me walking.

You are the hope, that keeps me trusting.

You are the light to my soul.

You are my purpose...You're everything.

-

Pre-Chorus

How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?

Would You tell me how could it be any better than this?

-

Verse 3

You calm the storms, and You give me rest.

You hold me in your hands, You won't let me fall.

You steal my heart, and You take my breath away.

Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?

-

Pre-chorus

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

-

Chorus

Cause You're all I want, You're all I need

You're everything,everything

You're all I want your all I need

You're everything, everything.

-

You're all I want You're all I need.

You're everything, everything

You're all I want You're all I need, You're everything, everything.

-

And how can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?

Would You tell me how could it be any better than this? 

How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?

Would You tell me how could it be any better than this?

---

maybe

-

I wouldn't know

-

emotion is part of the soul

-

He knows the pain, the joy we feel

-

would you know?

-

when life is but a whisper and a breath that comes and goes

-

and ever-changing

-

---

i always wonder

if i simply posted some random stuff

would people believe it immediately?

-

after all it only took XL 2 days to realise something about me.

and wesley one

-

logical love

okay first stop CNY 3rd day:

my aunts place again.... watching a pirated DVD of Ratatouille  ,,, a fitting start to the rat year?

-

eitherways... I see why my schoolmates were crazy over it a few months back... oh my...  Remy is so CUTE....

-

but nice FAT brother rat called Emile

I am so glad I didnt go and watch it in the theaters with my friends... already charecters called "emily" are a source of jokes... 

-

and the movie was funny... typical pixar movie

-

lol

haha

---

remember reading this little short story of sort when the english teacher... Lisa Lai in sec3 if memories serve me well... was handing out booklets on how to write a good argumentative.

-

revisiting that again during some ToK material handed out about logic

-

haha.... it made me laugh a lot when I first read it.... 

rereading it again... makes me smile haha

-

---

Love is a Fallacy

by Max Shulman

 Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute and astute—I was all of these. My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, precise as a chemist’s scales, as penetrating as a scalpel. And—think of it!—I only eighteen.

It is not often that one so young has such a giant intellect. Take, for example, Petey Bellows, my roommate at the university. Same age, same background, but dumb as an ox. A nice enough fellow, you understand, but nothing upstairs. Emotional type. Unstable. Impressionable. Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be swept up in every new craze that comes along, to surrender oneself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it—this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however, to Petey.

One afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis. “Don’t move,” I said, “Don’t take a laxative. I’ll get a doctor.”

“Raccoon,” he mumbled thickly.

“Raccoon?” I said, pausing in my flight.

“I want a raccoon coat,” he wailed.

I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. “Why do you want a raccoon coat?”

“I should have known it,” he cried, pounding his temples. “I should have known they’d come back when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can’t get a raccoon coat.”

“Can you mean,” I said incredulously, “that people are actually wearing raccoon coats again?”

“All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where’ve you been?”

“In the library,” I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus.

He leaped from the bed and paced the room. “I’ve got to have a raccoon coat,” he said passionately. “I’ve got to!”

“Petey, why? Look at it rationally. Raccoon coats are unsanitary. They shed. They smell bad. They weigh too much. They’re unsightly. They—”

“You don’t understand,” he interrupted impatiently. “It’s the thing to do. Don’t you want to be in the swim?”

“No,” I said truthfully.

“Well, I do,” he declared. “I’d give anything for a raccoon coat. Anything!”

My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear. “Anything?” I asked, looking at him narrowly.

“Anything,” he affirmed in ringing tones.

I stroked my chin thoughtfully. It so happened that I knew where to get my hands on a raccoon coat. My father had had one in his undergraduate days; it lay now in a trunk in the attic back home. It also happened that Petey had something I wanted. He didn’t have it exactly, but at least he had first rights on it. I refer to his girl, Polly Espy.

I had long coveted Polly Espy. Let me emphasize that my desire for this young woman was not emotional in nature. She was, to be sure, a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not one to let my heart rule my head. I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason.

I was a freshman in law school. In a few years I would be out in practice. I was well aware of the importance of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyer’s career. The successful lawyers I had observed were, almost without exception, married to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With one omission, Polly fitted these specifications perfectly.

Beautiful she was. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt that time would supply the lack. She already had the makings.

Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces. She had an erectness of carriage, an ease of bearing, a poise that clearly indicated the best of breeding. At table her manners were exquisite. I had seen her at the Kozy Kampus Korner eating the specialty of the house—a sandwich that contained scraps of pot roast, gravy, chopped nuts, and a dipper of sauerkraut—without even getting her fingers moist.

Intelligent she was not. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction. But I believed that under my guidance she would smarten up. At any rate, it was worth a try. It is, after all, easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful.

“Petey,” I said, “are you in love with Polly Espy?”

“I think she’s a keen kid,” he replied, “but I don’t know if you’d call it love. Why?”

“Do you,” I asked, “have any kind of formal arrangement with her? I mean are you going steady or anything like that?”

“No. We see each other quite a bit, but we both have other dates. Why?”

“Is there,” I asked, “any other man for whom she has a particular fondness?”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

I nodded with satisfaction. “In other words, if you were out of the picture, the field would be open. Is that right?”

“I guess so. What are you getting at?”

“Nothing , nothing,” I said innocently, and took my suitcase out the closet.

“Where are you going?” asked Petey.

“Home for weekend.” I threw a few things into the bag.

“Listen,” he said, clutching my arm eagerly, “while you’re home, you couldn’t get some money from your old man, could you, and lend it to me so I can buy a raccoon coat?”

“I may do better than that,” I said with a mysterious wink and closed my bag and left.

 

---

“Look,” I said to Petey when I got back Monday morning. I threw open the suitcase and revealed the huge, hairy, gamy object that my father had worn in his Stutz Bearcat in 1925.

“Holy Toledo!” said Petey reverently. He plunged his hands into the raccoon coat and then his face. “Holy Toledo!” he repeated fifteen or twenty times.

“Would you like it?” I asked.

“Oh yes!” he cried, clutching the greasy pelt to him. Then a canny look came into his eyes. “What do you want for it?”

“Your girl.” I said, mincing no words.

“Polly?” he said in a horrified whisper. “You want Polly?”

“That’s right.”

He flung the coat from him. “Never,” he said stoutly.

I shrugged. “Okay. If you don’t want to be in the swim, I guess it’s your business.”

I sat down in a chair and pretended to read a book, but out of the corner of my eye I kept watching Petey. He was a torn man. First he looked at the coat with the expression of a waif at a bakery window. Then he turned away and set his jaw resolutely. Then he looked back at the coat, with even more longing in his face. Then he turned away, but with not so much resolution this time. Back and forth his head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning. Finally he didn’t turn away at all; he just stood and stared with mad lust at the coat.

“It isn’t as though I was in love with Polly,” he said thickly. “Or going steady or anything like that.”

“That’s right,” I murmured.

“What’s Polly to me, or me to Polly?”

“Not a thing,” said I.

“It’s just been a casual kick—just a few laughs, that’s all.”

“Try on the coat,” said I.

He complied. The coat bunched high over his ears and dropped all the way down to his shoe tops. He looked like a mound of dead raccoons. “Fits fine,” he said happily.

I rose from my chair. “Is it a deal?” I asked, extending my hand.

He swallowed. “It’s a deal,” he said and shook my hand.

---

 

I had my first date with Polly the following evening. This was in the nature of a survey; I wanted to find out just how much work I had to do to get her mind up to the standard I required. I took her first to dinner. “Gee, that was a delish dinner,” she said as we left the restaurant. Then I took her to a movie. “Gee, that was a marvy movie,” she said as we left the theatre. And then I took her home. “Gee, I had a sensaysh time,” she said as she bade me good night.

I went back to my room with a heavy heart. I had gravely underestimated the size of my task. This girl’s lack of information was terrifying. Nor would it be enough merely to supply her with information. First she had to be taught tothink. This loomed as a project of no small dimensions, and at first I was tempted to give her back to Petey. But then I got to thinking about her abundant physical charms and about the way she entered a room and the way she handled a knife and fork, and I decided to make an effort.

I went about it, as in all things, systematically. I gave her a course in logic. It happened that I, as a law student, was taking a course in logic myself, so I had all the facts at my fingertips. “Poll’,” I said to her when I picked her up on our next date, “tonight we are going over to the Knoll and talk.”

“Oo, terrif,” she replied. One thing I will say for this girl: you would go far to find another so agreeable.

We went to the Knoll, the campus trysting place, and we sat down under an old oak, and she looked at me expectantly. “What are we going to talk about?” she asked.

“Logic.”

She thought this over for a minute and decided she liked it. “Magnif,” she said.

“Logic,” I said, clearing my throat, “is the science of thinking. Before we can think correctly, we must first learn to recognize the common fallacies of logic. These we will take up tonight.”

“Wow-dow!” she cried, clapping her hands delightedly.

I winced, but went bravely on. “First let us examine the fallacy called Dicto Simpliciter.”

“By all means,” she urged, batting her lashes eagerly.

“Dicto Simpliciter means an argument based on an unqualified generalization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore everybody should exercise.”

“I agree,” said Polly earnestly. “I mean exercise is wonderful. I mean it builds the body and everything.”

“Polly,” I said gently, “the argument is a fallacy. Exercise is good is an unqualified generalization. For instance, if you have heart disease, exercise is bad, not good. Many people are ordered by their doctors not to exercise. You must qualifythe generalization. You must say exercise is usually good, or exercise is good for most people. Otherwise you have committed a Dicto Simpliciter. Do you see?”

“No,” she confessed. “But this is marvy. Do more! Do more!”

“It will be better if you stop tugging at my sleeve,” I told her, and when she desisted, I continued. “Next we take up a fallacy called Hasty Generalization. Listen carefully: You can’t speak French. Petey Bellows can’t speak French. I must therefore conclude that nobody at the University of Minnesota can speak French.”

“Really?” said Polly, amazed. “Nobody?”

I hid my exasperation. “Polly, it’s a fallacy. The generalization is reached too hastily. There are too few instances to support such a conclusion.”

“Know any more fallacies?” she asked breathlessly. “This is more fun than dancing even.”

I fought off a wave of despair. I was getting nowhere with this girl, absolutely nowhere. Still, I am nothing if not persistent. I continued. “Next comes Post Hoc. Listen to this: Let’s not take Bill on our picnic. Every time we take him out with us, it rains.”

“I know somebody just like that,” she exclaimed. “A girl back home—Eula Becker, her name is. It never fails. Every single time we take her on a picnic—”

“Polly,” I said sharply, “it’s a fallacy. Eula Becker doesn’t cause the rain. She has no connection with the rain. You are guilty of Post Hoc if you blame Eula Becker.”

“I’ll never do it again,” she promised contritely. “Are you mad at me?”

I sighed. “No, Polly, I’m not mad.”

“Then tell me some more fallacies.”

“All right. Let’s try Contradictory Premises.”

“Yes, let’s,” she chirped, blinking her eyes happily.

I frowned, but plunged ahead. “Here’s an example of Contradictory Premises: If God can do anything, can He make a stone so heavy that He won’t be able to lift it?”

“Of course,” she replied promptly.

“But if He can do anything, He can lift the stone,” I pointed out.

“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “Well, then I guess He can’t make the stone.”

“But He can do anything,” I reminded her.

She scratched her pretty, empty head. “I’m all confused,” she admitted.

“Of course you are. Because when the premises of an argument contradict each other, there can be no argument. If there is an irresistible force, there can be no immovable object. If there is an immovable object, there can be no irresistible force. Get it?”

“Tell me more of this keen stuff,” she said eagerly.

I consulted my watch. “I think we’d better call it a night. I’ll take you home now, and you go over all the things you’ve learned. We’ll have another session tomorrow night.”

I deposited her at the girls’ dormitory, where she assured me that she had had a perfectly terrif evening, and I went glumly home to my room. Petey lay snoring in his bed, the raccoon coat huddled like a great hairy beast at his feet. For a moment I considered waking him and telling him that he could have his girl back. It seemed clear that my project was doomed to failure. The girl simply had a logic-proof head.

But then I reconsidered. I had wasted one evening; I might as well waste another. Who knew? Maybe somewhere in the extinct crater of her mind a few members still smoldered. Maybe somehow I could fan them into flame. Admittedly it was not a prospect fraught with hope, but I decided to give it one more try.

 

---

Seated under the oak the next evening I said, “Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam.”

She quivered with delight.

“Listen closely,” I said. “A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his qualifications are, he replies that he has a wife and six children at home, the wife is a helpless cripple, the children have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, no shoes on their feet, there are no beds in the house, no coal in the cellar, and winter is coming.”

A tear rolled down each of Polly’s pink cheeks. “Oh, this is awful, awful,” she sobbed.

“Yes, it’s awful,” I agreed, “but it’s no argument. The man never answered the boss’s question about his qualifications. Instead he appealed to the boss’s sympathy. He committed the fallacy of Ad Misericordiam. Do you understand?”

“Have you got a handkerchief?” she blubbered.

I handed her a handkerchief and tried to keep from screaming while she wiped her eyes. “Next,” I said in a carefully controlled tone, “we will discuss False Analogy. Here is an example: Students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during examinations. After all, surgeons have X-rays to guide them during an operation, lawyers have briefs to guide them during a trial, carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a house. Why, then, shouldn’t students be allowed to look at their textbooks during an examination?”

“There now,” she said enthusiastically, “is the most marvy idea I’ve heard in years.”

“Polly,” I said testily, “the argument is all wrong. Doctors, lawyers, and carpenters aren’t taking a test to see how much they have learned, but students are. The situations are altogether different, and you can’t make an analogy between them.”

“I still think it’s a good idea,” said Polly.

“Nuts,” I muttered. Doggedly I pressed on. “Next we’ll try Hypothesis Contrary to Fact.”

“Sounds yummy,” was Polly’s reaction.

“Listen: If Madame Curie had not happened to leave a photographic plate in a drawer with a chunk of pitchblende, the world today would not know about radium.”

“True, true,” said Polly, nodding her head “Did you see the movie? Oh, it just knocked me out. That Walter Pidgeon is so dreamy. I mean he fractures me.”

“If you can forget Mr. Pidgeon for a moment,” I said coldly, “I would like to point out that statement is a fallacy. Maybe Madame Curie would have discovered radium at some later date. Maybe somebody else would have discovered it. Maybe any number of things would have happened. You can’t start with a hypothesis that is not true and then draw any supportable conclusions from it.”

“They ought to put Walter Pidgeon in more pictures,” said Polly, “I hardly ever see him any more.”

One more chance, I decided. But just one more. There is a limit to what flesh and blood can bear. “The next fallacy is called Poisoning the Well.”

“How cute!” she gurgled.

“Two men are having a debate. The first one gets up and says, ‘My opponent is a notorious liar. You can’t believe a word that he is going to say.’ ... Now, Polly, think. Think hard. What’s wrong?”

I watched her closely as she knit her creamy brow in concentration. Suddenly a glimmer of intelligence—the first I had seen—came into her eyes. “It’s not fair,” she said with indignation. “It’s not a bit fair. What chance has the second man got if the first man calls him a liar before he even begins talking?”

“Right!” I cried exultantly. “One hundred per cent right. It’s not fair. The first man has poisoned the well before anybody could drink from it. He has hamstrung his opponent before he could even start ... Polly, I’m proud of you.”

“Pshaws,” she murmured, blushing with pleasure.

“You see, my dear, these things aren’t so hard. All you have to do is concentrate. Think—examine—evaluate. Come now, let’s review everything we have learned.”

“Fire away,” she said with an airy wave of her hand.

Heartened by the knowledge that Polly was not altogether a cretin, I began a long, patient review of all I had told her. Over and over and over again I cited instances, pointed out flaws, kept hammering away without letup. It was like digging a tunnel. At first, everything was work, sweat, and darkness. I had no idea when I would reach the light, or even if I would. But I persisted. I pounded and clawed and scraped, and finally I was rewarded. I saw a chink of light. And then the chink got bigger and the sun came pouring in and all was bright.

Five grueling nights with this took, but it was worth it. I had made a logician out of Polly; I had taught her to think. My job was done. She was worthy of me, at last. She was a fit wife for me, a proper hostess for my many mansions, a suitable mother for my well-heeled children.

It must not be thought that I was without love for this girl. Quite the contrary. Just as Pygmalion loved the perfect woman he had fashioned, so I loved mine. I decided to acquaint her with my feelings at our very next meeting. The time had come to change our relationship from academic to romantic.

“Polly,” I said when next we sat beneath our oak, “tonight we will not discuss fallacies.”

“Aw, gee,” she said, disappointed.

“My dear,” I said, favoring her with a smile, “we have now spent five evenings together. We have gotten along splendidly. It is clear that we are well matched.”

“Hasty Generalization,” said Polly brightly.

“I beg your pardon,” said I.

“Hasty Generalization,” she repeated. “How can you say that we are well matched on the basis of only five dates?”

I chuckled with amusement. The dear child had learned her lessons well. “My dear,” I said, patting her hand in a tolerant manner, “five dates is plenty. After all, you don’t have to eat a whole cake to know that it’s good.”

“False Analogy,” said Polly promptly. “I’m not a cake. I’m a girl.”

I chuckled with somewhat less amusement. The dear child had learned her lessons perhaps too well. I decided to change tactics. Obviously the best approach was a simple, strong, direct declaration of love. I paused for a moment while my massive brain chose the proper word. Then I began:

“Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, the moon and the stars and the constellations of outer space. Please, my darling, say that you will go steady with me, for if you will not, life will be meaningless. I will languish. I will refuse my meals. I will wander the face of the earth, a shambling, hollow-eyed hulk.”

There, I thought, folding my arms, that ought to do it.

“Ad Misericordiam,” said Polly.

I ground my teeth. I was not Pygmalion; I was Frankenstein, and my monster had me by the throat. Frantically I fought back the tide of panic surging through me; at all costs I had to keep cool.

“Well, Polly,” I said, forcing a smile, “you certainly have learned your fallacies.”

“You’re darn right,” she said with a vigorous nod.

“And who taught them to you, Polly?”

“You did.”

“That’s right. So you do owe me something, don’t you, my dear? If I hadn’t come along you never would have learned about fallacies.”

“Hypothesis Contrary to Fact,” she said instantly.

I dashed perspiration from my brow. “Polly,” I croaked, “you mustn’t take all these things so literally. I mean this is just classroom stuff. You know that the things you learn in school don’t have anything to do with life.”

“Dicto Simpliciter,” she said, wagging her finger at me playfully.

That did it. I leaped to my feet, bellowing like a bull. “Will you or will you not go steady with me?”

“I will not,” she replied.

“Why not?” I demanded.

“Because this afternoon I promised Petey Bellows that I would go steady with him.”

I reeled back, overcome with the infamy of it. After he promised, after he made a deal, after he shook my hand! “The rat!” I shrieked, kicking up great chunks of turf. “You can’t go with him, Polly. He’s a liar. He’s a cheat. He’s a rat.”

“Poisoning the Well ,” said Polly, “and stop shouting. I think shouting must be a fallacy too.”

With an immense effort of will, I modulated my voice. “All right,” I said. “You’re a logician. Let’s look at this thing logically. How could you choose Petey Bellows over me? Look at me—a brilliant student, a tremendous intellectual, a man with an assured future. Look at Petey—a knothead, a jitterbug, a guy who’ll never know where his next meal is coming from. Can you give me one logical reason why you should go steady with Petey Bellows?”

“I certainly can,” declared Polly. “He’s got a raccoon coat.”

Source: http://www1.asknlearn.com/ri_Ilearning/English/631/elang-ilearning/page3a.htm

---

haha... i guess before EA1 starts screwing my head and I analysis it on a basis on literary value... use of irony,a twist... foil?, blah blah blah...

-

oh well... I need something to smile at sometimes

-

most of you probably read this before

-

ahh well...

Water Testing

I guess... I might have pushed stuff too far on one hand... but i guess... I'm fine, I guess... 

-

Lord grant me wisdom on these stuff... we make mistakes, and we learn from them

-

but I guess... Joshua chapter 1

"I will be with you"

and all the other stuff I've got last year and combined... I know... God has something in mind after all, but:

Love is patient... is not self-seeking... always trusts , always hopes, always perseveres... love never fails...(1 Cor 13)

-

while reading it in context is important...  I know...

-

perhaps, patience, trust, hope, perseverance... learning all that... while remembering to put God first in everything

-

God can take away everything that is precious to me...  but please don't be distant, please never let me not be able to hear You

-

---

memories of singing this particular song during valentines day last year... choir project... i remember that week so vividly... I remember so many things...

-

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy, when skies are gray

You never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away

-

yet there is a greater sunshine above all, the light of the world,

-

Jesus

-

yet as pastor spoke today about Joshua 1:9 and he mentioned... sometimes we want something more tangible, and more easily felt

-

---

to say... I'm not affected by the issue anymore isn't really the truth... to say I largely got over it would be better, but there is always that small part... and I really dunno

-

I wish that... the choice whether it is necessary to squash the last bit of myself is necessary... was clearer... and if not so? does hanging on to it have any benefit whatsoever... from a purely utilitarian point of view?

-

sighz... when one remembers the happiness that came about that sms... that got dampened after 'neth being even more pleased than me about the it... and

its not an easy struggle... resolute, yet it get more painful as time goes by... same way a thought fast worked... the initial part was easy, until much later

-

surrender is not a one-shot thing, it is a continuous process... 

The Walking dead & a torn heart

sometimes you see the people around you, joking, laughing, going about their lives
-
yet inside, many of them, yes , even those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, many of them are like the walking dead, destined for an eternity in hell
-
and it hurts... so many of the people we see are deceived, that simply by saying you believe in this man called Jesus Christ, gives you an automatic entry into heaven
-
we are saved by faith yes. but this faith must be preceded and followed by repentance.
-
and true faith is accompanied by works, faith without works is dead
-
but Lord I wonder, how much of this is genuine, this burden, this heavy heart?
and how does one do this not from one that is condescending, as if I, a supposed, "holy holy" nonsense, yet I am nothing either, we all are equally wretched, yet saved by His Grace
Yet how can one manage to be burdened by 1 person exclusively so easily, yet in only feels for the school only in the rare moments like this

---

Come and Heal Our Land

Verse 1:
Here we are Lord, waiting for your Holy Spirit
Here we are Lord, waiting for your Holy Fire
We have lost our first love, Lord have mercy on us all
Fill us again
-
Chorus:
Hear us when we cry out
Come and heal our Land
Forgive us of our sins and
Live in us again!
-
Verse 2:
Create in us a clean heart, as we turn to seek Your face
Create in us a clean heart, please don’t cast us from your presence
One thing we desire Lord, to dwell in your holy place forever
Take us again
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the song tim and I penned down on 16 February, it was an emotional turmoil of a week for me, yet God still was a comfort
-
One thing we desire Lord, to dwell in your holy place forever
-
tim already did the first verse and the chorus, and the second verse, Psalms 51, which I was around with him, after sharing about the thing that was troubling me greatly,
while 2 other ppl were receiving counsel from Wesley and K, the rule was broken, while... broken
-
and we had our prayer meeting later, and... tears... and ...
-
and yes, i found out something, but, it didn't help much...
-
memories...
-
yet Lord, send revival, send revival into our hearts and the school, and awaken the dead, to truly be alive again in Christ

---

and today
-
worship, heart of worship
-
the word was surrender, and surrender is hard to grasp, to simply put every thing in the trust of God, and trust Him
"though i'm weak and poor, all I have is Yours, every single breath"
-
while John Tay and Daniel was doing evanglism later, and I was praying
-
yet.... oh no....
-
I wanted to talk, but I'm supposed to pray, how does one heart be torn into 2? Service and love to God , or...
-
oh well
-
surrender...
-
I wish my heart wasnt torn into 2 sometimes. you don't know what to do, or maybe you do, yet you want something else
-
maybe, "love God wholeheartedly" , its easy to say
-
yet we remember that passage in Luke 14:26 or Matthew 10:37
-
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.(Luke 14:26)
-
"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.(Matt 10:37)
-
Can my love for God be more than that of anyone else
-

---

oh well
-
surrender... help me to do that. not my will but Yours be done

5215 & 5225

while the exams are over, I guess... its back at home with nothing much but stone, sleep and silence
-
and the msn convos, and the dreaded EE and IA stuff to do soon
-
but we shall see
-

---

perhalps after the exams , would be time to recouncil the differences and more, and once again be united, as 1 body in Christ,
-
the thunder looms outside my house, the rains would come soon
-
post exams soon the holidays are there, and we could draw this chapter of school life to a close, its another SGB, another year older soon
3/11 to come
-
and next year we would know, its no longer a 5215 but a 6215
-
you simply change a digit and it makes a big difference
-

---

the auditorium, another place of memories
-
sec4 prelims, I remember, "trust in the LORD with all your heart"
-
we could say many years of chapel, 3 in fact, until we moved from the hall of blue doors, gray chairs and blue curtains to that of gray doors, red chairs and red curtains
-
we could say seniors dinner last year, but those werent much to say,
-
but I remember the first time I came to school to that audi
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and we could say to 2 FOA performances, Kalideoscope and Full circle
-
and the honors day choir Merit cert
-

---

and we wonder, whats ahead to see...

All in All

When I fall down You pick me up
when I am dry You fill my cup
You are my All in All

---

X-Country
nearly killed myself by.
1) not drinking water before starting off
2) Trying to not let someone beat me( and failing to do so thanks to dehydration)
3) Joseph Gwee's "Haha You lost to ... ... ..."
-
Noooooo
-
I deserve to get pinched by Tim 70 times 70 times for being such an idiot
-

---

Thanks ... ... ... for telling Tim to look for me though...
-
and thanks Tim for letting me vomit my emo-ness on you.
-

---

yet would it break God's heart to see us let something so trival become more important than Him?
-
maybe thats why waiting is the correct thing to do... or maybe?
-
yet the same answer;
"I will be with you no matter what you choose to do."
-
God is still more important tho... although distractions are always there, but... He is still more important.
-

---

"These kind of things should never be rushed, or they are doomed to fail..."(Sam Lee, former youth worker from GMC, paraphrase)
-
...think about the shirt vs TNT... or what? ...
No... dont judge people, Emil you are a BAD BOY
-
...these kind of things are painful for the people involved, dont drag it up...
ok... fine... slap me.
-

---

memories of Nanyang while taging along with TnT along namily road and 1,2,3,4,5,6 avenue
-
oh well...

The 3 words

A statement, up to you to interpret:
1) Who the "you" refers to
2) What the 3 words are
-
"if i said those 3 words, would it mean anything to you?"
-
anyway, to start off the post:

---

random dumb stuff(G.Ong quotes)
“If you on council duty better not walk near the VIP” (to Cielito after a particularly loud burp)
“Make sure you Eyes Sparkle”(to J. Low)
"at this time we all become very retarded" (to the class)

---

The more comtemplative bit
-
while i was in P4(not yet a Christian) , reading through the 200+ Enid Blyton books on the bookshelf, and I came across this book, The Land of Far Beyond (First published in 1942).
-
I dunno how many of you read it, its a bit like The Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, or The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, only its not so well known.
-
anyway an excerpt from the second last chapter

---

The children and Mr Scornful have finally arrived at the gates of the Land of Far-Beyond, after enduring much dangers and difficulties from Journey from the city of Turmoil , in the hope that by getting to the City of happiness, their burdens could be removed. alone the way many of their companions got sidetracked and were left behind, leaving only the 4 of them.
-
before that....
" there are 3 passwords to the Land of Far-Beyond, and its great City of Happiness" said Sleep. "They are passwords given long ago by the Prince of the City Himself. The three words are - Faith, Hope,- and Love. If you are asked which is the greatest of these, you must try to give a right answer - for each one must answer that for himself.
-
later....
"Well - could we just go in to see?" said Peter at last. "Could we pass through the gates and walk on to the city?"
-
"Only if you know the 3 passwords" said the first gatekeeper, his clear eyes looking through the boy
-
"We do know them," said Peter. "They are - Faith, Hope, and Love."
-
"Quite right," said the man. "And now tell me, each of you - which is the greatest of those 3?"
-
The children looked at one another. They remembered Kindly and Friendly, they thought of Comfort and Cheerful, they remembered Mercy and Pity - all of them had helped them through love and kindliness. Love must surely be the greatest of the three, since it could bring so much help and happiness to others.
-
"Well - I think Love is the greatest," said Peter, and his 2 sisters nodded their heads. But Mr Scornful threw back his head and laughed.
-
"Love!" he said jeeringly."As if Love is great! Love is silly and soft and no good at all. Good gracious me, if I'd love my fellow men I'd never had got the riches and the power I did get! Love doesn't get you anywhere."
-
"Do you need to get anywhere?" said the gatekeeper. "Ah, I suppose men like you must get somewhere! Well tell me - which of the 3 do you think is the greatest?"
-
Mr Scornful thought for a moment. "Well I don't think much of Faith," he said. "But Hope isn't bad. I'm always hoping something good will turn up. I'm always hoping I'll make more money. Yes - Hope is the greatest of the 3 I think!"
-
The 2 gatekeepers lowered their swords and beckoned to the 3 children. "You may pass through the gates," they said. "But this man may not."
-
The children passed through the iron gates as they swung open. But when Mr Scornful tried to pass through, the gatekeepers stopped him with their flaming swords.
-
"You cannot pass." they said. "No man who scorns love and charity may pass on to the City of Happiness"....

---

-
These 3 words : Faith, Hope, and Love
but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)
Would that mean anything to you?
-
Faith: In Jesus
Hope: of Salvation (not in riches)
Love: From God
-
the greatest of these is Love
-
reading this while as a non-Christian back then, it would still have meaning to me... yet... even more so now...
-
Love, not just that BGR kind of Love, or even as the Chinese say : Mu Ai (mothers love), but a Love far greater, the Love of God.

---

yet Lord the times i wish... ... yet
-
Quote(tim lim)
"If God doesnt give it to you now, it probally means He'll give you a bigger cookie later... or it could be he wants You to learn something... ... or both."
-
It doesn't matter, yet it matters, why?
-
3 words, would it mean anything?

---

And somehow conversations with certain people seem to hold a slight pinch of salt in it, like there was something that went wrong earlier, whats still with the comparing of Guitars and etc, and that competiveness?
-
reminding me of Shaun Ang, one of my best firends in Sec 1-3. yet he changed alot since the Choir Exco positions problem... and become more competetive, even perhaps bitter? I dont really know?
-
3 words, would it change anything?

---

And I close off with the same statement, letting you decide what I could possibly mean.
-
"if i said those 3 words, would it mean anything to you?"

When the Music fades

FOA over on friday... ... finally can get my life back from choir... and end my my career as a "Professional Procrastinator" (Quote from a convo in April)
-
oh well... disappointed ... in a sense, the people i wanted to turn up didnt turn up, and no one to say hi to at the end of the concert , while i see people get cheered, flowers, chocs, outside the dance studio, all I had was a collection of clothes from my mum before rushing down to join the FireAC ppl downstairs...
-
I guess i wasnt the only one, Evelyn probaly was also, with Tim disappearing for the "reach out to UYO" FireAc thingy before the end of the concert... and oh well...
-
memories of Haven , the CPA , the warmup room , the dance studio, the girls all having fun taking pictures of each other... and well...
-
bye to all the y6 alto girls, Theo, Ethel, Xuan, Sze, thanks for all the fond memories as an alto last year , and all the best for your exams
-
bye to the other y6 tenors too i guess, Clement(dispite me half hating you at first lol, i guess after sometime it was ok), Collin, Jeremy Goh, Soon kai, Chris Ow,
-
bye to Kenneth Yeo, thanks for all you've done for the choir, and tried to bring God back to the Picture, yet... i guess time to say good bye, while I attempt to continue the ministry, with Jeremy and you gone...
-

---

while thats all over, while I went over downstairs for the reach out to UYO thingy...
and God was so real, as I cried... the same way I've seen other people cry when they were touched by God, something which I haven't done since Plunge
-
slept over for 4 hours in school before waking up to a cheese sandwich breakfast, bus to Queenstown, 2 run thrus of the NDP, this time no "XL sms" problems, while taking random pictures, and strange looks, and ...
-
before heading back, Wesley Birthday, Cao's crazy singing, BS, lunch with Tim...
"if XL sees me within 10m distance of ... ... he will slap me"
Tim hiding in a Box, and Tessa for once encoraging me to take a picture of him...
"you are not very good at hiding"
-
while, i wonder... why
-
off to church for worship prac from 3-6, resting in church from 1-2
-
while the soloist keyboardist problems still there, working with a full band, haven't done it since Koinonia, and I remember me and Tim competeing with each other that time
-
even so... as the music fades... as all these times, FOA, gone... ...
-
even so... its been 24 weeks since that week in Feb, and half a year has gone by
-

---

while TnT, DC, reminding me of the prayer meeting in 16 Feb,
-
memories... ... ...
-

In Christ Alone..

In Christ alone I place my trust
And find my Glory in the power of the Cross
In Every victory
Let it be said of me
My source of Strenght
My Source of Hope
Is Christ Alone
-
Your love is my Anchor...

---

-=God's Love=-

^{the recording}

^{Guitar and vocals only}

---

While my HL1 Biology period this week are going to be half eaten up by choir :(
why Cant it be SL3 instead :(
-
a really really old memory suddenly happens to come to my mind
-
"You're the meanest friend I ever had"
(an Email from Belinda in P5 or 6 , I was a little blunt about some Group Project work stuff...)
the group members were the usual Docas and Belinda and if I remember correctly Clarissa was around too, all crammed into my room cutting Vanguard sheets...
-
I supposed what might have triggered that memory would be Yi Hang's: " my primary school best friend"
-
people have changed alot... from the time I knew them till now. What used to be one of my best friends (Docas/Clarissa/Belinda/Timothy chua/Yi Hang/Yi mian) , I hardly talk to now, except perhaps one of those rare MSN chats, like after O level results /PAE/JAE results were released...
-
yet I wonder, after we leave IB , the friends and acquaintances made made, (Tim Lim, Wesley, XL, Kenneth, Gerald, Joash, Darren, Song Yeong, Audrey, Amanda, Cheryl, Celito, Christine, Evelyn, Tessa,... so many of them ... too may to be counted, the BB, Choir, and Classmates)
-
Will it all be forgotten? Like I remember Tim Lim mentioning it in one of those Emo walks to his house...
-
yet at least for many of them, we'll see each other again in Eternity,(sorry for those who can't stand me like a certain Evil T =p)( but I guess i'll get the same treatment for ppl like Seb Yap... whom i cant stand either)
-
Or rather we would be transformed into His likeness
-
All for His glory
-
A new creation In Christ Alone

hey hey you you... & memories

"hey hey you you...."
the retarded song called "girlfriend"
blasting off:
Shaun's/Han an's/Maria Kong's handphone(April)
-
Genting highlands first world Plaza (June)
"what the heck why play this in a shopping center"(Me to martin at that time)
"haha its Malaysia they don't care what they play"(martin)
-
and while passing by Best Denki at Vivo City today
"HEY HEY YOU YOU..."
ouch... so much for Malaysia
-
and after that at Food republic
"hey hey you you..." blasting off someones handphone
-
I Cringe...
people either
1. like demented songs
2. have no taste.

---

-
anyway
today...
clicking in church again... and... Mr David Leong dancing around on stage and jumping around his ppt slides... stress sia.... I had to run to the camera to zoom out... as he kept leaving the Field Of Vision.
-
and certain ppl annoying me... while i was doing the slides, causing a nice delay
*"oy I' m on the next slide."(think Paul Tan voice and you get something similar to Mr David's voice)
-
opps
-
nmind...
-
eating at Vivo city before heading to Best Denki to buy a DVI cable and audio cable for the BB room.
-
then... off to Vivo City Giant with my mum for shopping for Groceries...
-
memories of one day before LDC, with Kenneth, Jack, Jerome and Amanda, buying stuff for Hike... the cereal bars, fruit cocktail and bread... and 100 plus, after eating BK (Kenneth ate Carlos Junior), and watching Shriek 3 in the front row of the cinema.
-
and back home... while my mum returns to the hospital to take care of my sis.
-
all alone...
-
with MSN conversations on Taylor guitars, after I get mine you all also want to get also right...(XL and Wesley)
-
while memories are all i have to come back and plague me... in every possible place.
-
CCK MRT remembering after Bethany in February. A short lonely bus ride home after that.
-
the coffee shop at Dover...(16 Feb)
-
various locations in school
-
and more...
-
not so lonely primer rule 2.... but still lonely memories...
-

---

memories of childhood , the innocence... of soft toys and pokemon and more...
the songs i used to love to listen to before a time I knew God,
when those songs had no significant meaning what so ever to my mind, it was just music, music that sounded like music...
-
of the times of RA2 and Dune.... and even earlier
DX ball (while i could still play it now)
Jazz the Jackrabbit 2 (wish i had a copy of the original game)
battling out with Javier, a cousin which i lost contact with after my dad's passing, as his entire family side disowning us.
-
the times when my dad would return from Malaysia with a VCD of the latest Disney cartoon for me to watch, wrapped in flimsy plastic wrapper,... i still have the VCDs in my room...
-
or even further back in the old house, the pink walls of my old spacious room with the sun streaming through grilled windows, the noisy ceiling fan. the writing desk which is still in my new room...
-
the old sandy playground... the monkey bars and slides.
-
the old long cycling route.
the really deep end of the pool.
-
the AYE sound of cars rushing past.
-
and Aunty Eleanor, Felix, Tien Wen, all the old neighbors, the noisy Japanese kids at the playground. The rabbits grazing at the grass.. the trees.
-
the plucking of ixora and taking out the straws and sucking the sweet nectar... memories that came back on sat when Tim and Tessa tried the same outside the school.
-
and Pei Boon, the old kindergarten classmate of mine, my p5 and 6 classmate. who passed on 2 years ago if my memory serves me correctly.
-
NYPS days...
-
the school even when I come back is different... no longer the same. no longer the old basketball court , the canteen, the hall, the library the field, the classrooms, no longer the same as the new extension...
-
E.C. and Zap comics and Pigs... remember so well... Clarissa, Dorcas, Belinda, Yi Hang(He's changed a lot even though I see him now in school), Timothy Chua, Jian Ling(J.L. or Jay as he wants to be known now, nice Jay Fong of RJC who appears in the newspaper commenting on Thaddeus) ,and so many more whose names I've forgotten. The old 6G class of 2002, the 2 years together, Ms Winnie Lau (5G teacher) and Mrs Wong (6G).
-
the Lightning striking the center of the field during a Chinese Remedial.
-
random memories of recess games,
-
watching all the disney cartoons at the library.
-
abacus club of P1, the pandan cake, the leotards of gymnastics, the weird Kong fu music.
-
the triumphs of shiny trophies, the english poetry competition 1999 (1st prize), the Math quiz 1998, the Social studies quiz 2002, the lyric wrting competiton 2002(1st prize). all the shiny trophies in my room... owning all the GEPs in school =P... while ACS(I) has left me with none save a graduation thingy(an irony since I'm back in this school.), A honors day Choir merit cert, and a BB UYO Gold award cert.
-

---

-
wishes life would be what it used to be, so carefree, so innocent.
-
but God is so faithful
You have seen me through so much, and found me while while i was a lost sheep.
-
and you will see me through the rest, The Lord is my shepherd ... He leads me... You are with me...(Psalm 23)
-