the personal statement is completed! as of 1.18am this morning, i finished my personal statement draft 2! so yay, i'm very happy with that.
today is friday and i am very sad that the week is coming to a close. normally i would be dying for friday to come sooner, but these are not normal times. you see, i've been on a week-long mc starting from last friday, and i have really been enjoying myself at home. i had an epiphany yesterday, well, not strictly an ephiphany, but i'm just saying coz i like the word. and that is that this week is exactly what ORD is going to feel like. the one week of pure slacking bliss after being released from the dreaded blackhole that is the army. i felt really free and unhindered for the first time in i don't know how long. no need to wake up at 5.30 every morning, no need to scan my 11B at the cookhouse, no need to shower in unheated water every day. gosh, tears are almost beginning to well up in my eyes as i ponder the prospect of returning to camp this Sunday. how time flies when you're having fun...
anyhow, i've made a full and good recovery and i'm very thankful for that. no major damage, no problems, don't think i can get a downgrade, but that is secondary. who doesn't want to get a downgrade? i think it's the only time in a singaporean male's life that he's hoping for a downgrade in anything, what with our supposed obsession with the 5Cs and climbing the coporate ladder yada yada...
don't really know what else to be blogging about really. i went to tampines today to get myself a new notebook. i need it for church. i realised i no longer find joy in trawling malls looking for new clothes to wear. yes, i am not a girl. but i was really fun going out with friends and buying stuff with them (notice i try not to use the word 'shopping'). but really, it was shopping, or rather, the very needless and impulsive expenditure of money in order to accquire material goods that serve no significant purpose other than to make oneself look good. surprisingly, the most shopping i've done this year has been with my army friends. (what? a bunch of army jocks hitting marina square trying out zaras, topmans and Club Marcs? what is this world coming to?!) i thought about it, and yes, it was quite gay, but i have a perfectly good reason for it. the reason is, that for 8 saturdays, yes EIGHT, me and my army friends were stuck down at marina bay for the national day parade rehearsals. during our breaks we could only go to places around the area as we only had 3-hour breaks at a stretch. this resulted in our numerous visits to Marina Square and Suntec City, and, being Singaporeans, we inevitably ended up shopping.
ok, enough about shopping. while we here in Singapore are enjoying ourselves, indulging in consumerism, many of our Asean neighbours are reeling from the worst impact of natural disasters this past week. the frequency and intensity of the disasters are nothing short of alarming. typhoons in the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, earthquakes in Indonesia, with another typhoon set to make landfall on the Philippines tonight. it really is quite distressing reading about the disasters in the newspapers and watching them on TV. not only that, but there have been four major earthquakes in as many days: Samoa (Tues), Sumatra (Wed), Sumatra (Thurs) and Tonga (Fri). it's crazy! (do i hear anyone shouting, Armaggeddon? but really, no use speculating). i should really do something to help i guess. would SAF give me three months off to fly to Padang and help in the rescue effort? i would most gladly go. maybe SAF will call for volunteers to fly over and take part in some Singapore delegation to deliver aid or something like that, i mean, they did that for Meulaboh in 2004. if they do ask for volunteers, i think i would really want to go, although the Parents would almost definitely oppose it. still, it just makes me really want to learn some First Aid skills or something like that so i might make myself useful if i were to take part in such missions in the future. when will the day come when i can work for the Red Cross?
nevermind, tonight there's going to be a Young Adults dinner thingy. i really have no idea what's going to happen, which is quite rare, since most of the time, i'm usually involved in most of the events i attend in church. i think it's going to be quite an unusual experience not leading a group but actually just going and receiving. having been a youth leader for almost 5 years (i think), and now being on the other side, it's going to be a very interesting experience, and i think, a much-needed break from always being in the forefront. i'll just have to get used to having a mentor. haha. so anyway, i'm very excited about what's going to happen in the YAs over the next few years. they're multiplying to 3 Life Groups from 1, with quite a substantial infusion from Livewire. i think many of us will have to get used to a new (older) culture (oh i love the paradox), and different dynamics, but i think it's high time our church had a successful YA ministry and i believe this is the time to get it off on the right foot. so yes, i am approaching this meeting tonight with quite a bit of excitement.
oh and i also want to talk about the Chinese National Day Parade. no i didn't really watch it, but they were showing it on CCTV at the coffeeshop downstairs and all these old people were sitting fascinated by it. i think old chinese people have this attachment to China somehow. the younger generation would be reviled if anyone were to suggest they were PRC, but i think the older generation hold some pride in seeing China rise to international preeminence. i remember my grandparents watching the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, their eyes transfixed on the screen as they watched the mass displays. it was quite something. i think China is confidently taking its place on the world stage and chinese people all around the world, whether born in China or not, should be proud of it in one way or another. so good for China, but not forgetting that it still has a long way to go. if China is going to be a superpower, does it mean that it's now a good thing to be an ethnic Chinese? will people from other countries look at me and see me according to my nationality and associate me as Singaporean, or will they see me according to my ethnicity and associate me with China? in this day and age, is it a bad thing to be associated with China? i think not. maybe someday Singaporean Chinese from my generation will ultimately be proud to be associated with China when it becomes a cultural trendsetter, much like Japan, or when it softens its communist image and perhaps move towards, dare i suggest, liberal democracy? i don't know, i still rather be seen as Singaporean than Chinese...
random fyi: PSP doesn't play WMA files, it has to log on to the Internet to do something before it can play WMA. i hate converters.
a thousand times i failed
your mercy remains
should i stumble again
i'm caught in your grace
everlasting
your light will shine when all else fails
never ending
your glory goes beyond all fame
and the cry of my heart
is to bring you praise
from the inside out of my soul
-Inside Out (Hillsongs)
