It only hurts when I breathe
Reassessment of my options...
Non-italicised is my original post from September 2009. Italicised are my edits.
IB
ACS(I) [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)][top choice]
Pros: Theatre Studies at IB Level, foreign languages, academic+miscellaneous DSA criteria
Cons: Gap between GCE & IB Curriculum, girls at disadvantage because of only two years...? It's gonna be tough to get in. Have to do extremely well for Midyears. Though I suppose CCA might make up a little for it...
SJII [St. Joseph's Institution (International)]
Pros: With scholarship, about the same school fees as usual, possibly different regulations on MT?, very wide "DSA" criteria
Cons: Have to get a scholarship, no Theatre Studies at IB Level, only Spanish as a foreign language Basically this is too troublesome and rather unrealistic. I ran into someone briefly as to what it's like at SJII; apparently it's hard to catch up if you go in at sixteen.
SOTA [School of the Arts]
Pros: Theatre
Cons: Near impossible to get in so late, dropping in at the fifth year would be pretty bad... generally near impossible If this is near impossible, why am I even considering it? Besides, I don't think they'll even let me in.
A-Level [in alphabetical order]
ACJC [Anglo-Chinese Junior College]
Pros: Drama Elective Programme (is this a pro...?), English Elective Programme, Theatre DSA
Cons: DSA criteria is freaky!!! You probably need a voice examination qualification! Which I can't get!; apparently ACJC isn't that good?? ACJC is, frankly, my "backup" JC. Meaning if I went here, I'd most likely go through O Levels.
HCJC [Hwa Chong Institution (College)]
Pros:Good drama, apparently [Jelly insists that I should go because one of the teachers (Mr. Perry?) apparently likes me, although I don't see how that's possible] (According to Jelly now, drama isn't as good now that her sister's left... ehe), academics DSA
Cons: No theatre DSA, will/may have to take Chinese classes if HCL results are not good, it's a SAP school!!
NJC [National Junior College]
Pros: Wide DSA criteria: Academics, Art, CCA, Science Research
Cons: According to Rachel Chew, the Drama CCA there is pretty dead. Though this isn't really a problem. Yet, not as appealing as it could be.
RJC [Raffles Junior College]
Pros: English Elect. at A Level, eh, probably the Raffles brand is just appealing. Eck. I also hear that RJC has Theatre Studies. Will have to follow up on that.
Cons: No theatre DSA, cutoff is crazy high (then again, Hwa Chong is just as high too, and why should this matter at DSA...?), and rumours about poorer students being told to take A Levels privately o_o
TJC [Temasek Junior College]
[unable to retrieve any information about DSA]
VJC [Victoria Junior College]
Pros: Theatre Studies at A Levels, good impression of it
Cons: No theatre DSA, and... a bit strange to go back...
Thursday, April 29, 2010 @ 11:28 pm.
Reassessment of my options...
Non-italicised is my original post from September 2009. Italicised are my edits.
IB
ACS(I) [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)][top choice]
Pros: Theatre Studies at IB Level, foreign languages, academic+miscellaneous DSA criteria
Cons: Gap between GCE & IB Curriculum, girls at disadvantage because of only two years...? It's gonna be tough to get in. Have to do extremely well for Midyears. Though I suppose CCA might make up a little for it...
SJII [St. Joseph's Institution (International)]
Pros: With scholarship, about the same school fees as usual, possibly different regulations on MT?, very wide "DSA" criteria
Cons: Have to get a scholarship, no Theatre Studies at IB Level, only Spanish as a foreign language Basically this is too troublesome and rather unrealistic. I ran into someone briefly as to what it's like at SJII; apparently it's hard to catch up if you go in at sixteen.
Pros: Theatre
Cons: Near impossible to get in so late, dropping in at the fifth year would be pretty bad... generally near impossible
A-Level [in alphabetical order]
ACJC [Anglo-Chinese Junior College]
Pros: Drama Elective Programme (is this a pro...?), English Elective Programme, Theatre DSA
Cons: DSA criteria is freaky!!! You probably need a voice examination qualification! Which I can't get!; apparently ACJC isn't that good?? ACJC is, frankly, my "backup" JC. Meaning if I went here, I'd most likely go through O Levels.
HCJC [Hwa Chong Institution (College)]
Pros:
Cons: No theatre DSA, will/may have to take Chinese classes if HCL results are not good, it's a SAP school!!
NJC [National Junior College]
Pros: Wide DSA criteria: Academics, Art, CCA, Science Research
Cons: According to Rachel Chew, the Drama CCA there is pretty dead. Though this isn't really a problem. Yet, not as appealing as it could be.
RJC [Raffles Junior College]
Pros: English Elect. at A Level, eh, probably the Raffles brand is just appealing. Eck. I also hear that RJC has Theatre Studies. Will have to follow up on that.
Cons: No theatre DSA, cutoff is crazy high (then again, Hwa Chong is just as high too, and why should this matter at DSA...?), and rumours about poorer students being told to take A Levels privately o_o
TJC [Temasek Junior College]
[unable to retrieve any information about DSA]
VJC [Victoria Junior College]
Pros: Theatre Studies at A Levels, good impression of it
Cons: No theatre DSA, and... a bit strange to go back...
As Long As You're Mine (Reprise)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 @ 11:04 pm.
Kiss me too fiercely
Hold me too tight
I need help believing
You're with me tonight
My wildest dreamings
Could not foresee
Lying beside you
With you wanting me
And just for this moment
As long as you're mine
I've lost all resistance
And crossed some border line
And if it turns out
It's over too fast
I'll make every last moment last
As long as you're mine
Maybe I'm brainless
Maybe I'm wise
But you've got me seeing
Through different eyes
Somehow I've fallen
Under your spell
And somehow I'm feeling
It's up that I fell
Every moment
As long as you're mine
I'll wake up my body
And make up for lost time
Say there's no future
For us as a pair
And though I may know
I don't care
Just for this moment
As long as you're mine
Come be how you want to
And see how bright we shine
Borrow the moonlight
Until it is through
And know I'll be here holding you
As long as you're mine
Hold me too tight
I need help believing
You're with me tonight
My wildest dreamings
Could not foresee
Lying beside you
With you wanting me
And just for this moment
As long as you're mine
I've lost all resistance
And crossed some border line
And if it turns out
It's over too fast
I'll make every last moment last
As long as you're mine
Maybe I'm brainless
Maybe I'm wise
But you've got me seeing
Through different eyes
Somehow I've fallen
Under your spell
And somehow I'm feeling
It's up that I fell
Every moment
As long as you're mine
I'll wake up my body
And make up for lost time
Say there's no future
For us as a pair
And though I may know
I don't care
Just for this moment
As long as you're mine
Come be how you want to
And see how bright we shine
Borrow the moonlight
Until it is through
And know I'll be here holding you
As long as you're mine
"What is it?"
"It's just for the first time, I feel... wicked."
Mull
Whenever I wait for my mother in school, I need to be in the concourse/pickup point about thirty minutes in advance or something bad happens.
Today I only received the two smses and three phone calls from my mother when she eventually got impatient and went in to search and I got into the car.
This sort of stupid thing is only supposed to happen to primary school people. Shame that it should happen to me. Shame on me.
Anyway I had gone up with Sheralyn to the staff room because she 'needed company'. Then met Charlotte there. Apparently she also needed company. But Sheralyn needed to go down again because she needed to check her phone so she told me to stay. I couldn't say I needed to check my phone too and I was assuming that my phone would actually receive messages. But clearly I had put too much trust in my phone.
So sat with Charlotte doing bio until I looked down and realised my mother was walking downstairs (she had a friend with her and couldnt wait) and as soon as I blundered into her car i got all the smses and calls.
School is the only place in Singapore, besides elevators and underground carparks, I know of that doesn't have reception.
Monday, April 26, 2010 @ 11:44 pm.
Whenever I wait for my mother in school, I need to be in the concourse/pickup point about thirty minutes in advance or something bad happens.
Today I only received the two smses and three phone calls from my mother when she eventually got impatient and went in to search and I got into the car.
This sort of stupid thing is only supposed to happen to primary school people. Shame that it should happen to me. Shame on me.
Anyway I had gone up with Sheralyn to the staff room because she 'needed company'. Then met Charlotte there. Apparently she also needed company. But Sheralyn needed to go down again because she needed to check her phone so she told me to stay. I couldn't say I needed to check my phone too and I was assuming that my phone would actually receive messages. But clearly I had put too much trust in my phone.
So sat with Charlotte doing bio until I looked down and realised my mother was walking downstairs (she had a friend with her and couldnt wait) and as soon as I blundered into her car i got all the smses and calls.
School is the only place in Singapore, besides elevators and underground carparks, I know of that doesn't have reception.
Inundated
My sister had a presentation of one of her assignment at Nanyang Polytechnic on Friday. It was basically to answer a series of questions in the form of black and white drawings.
One of the questions was 'What do you stand up for?' Most of her classmates drew things like world peace, so the instructors/lecturers (I'm not familiar with polytechnic terminology) couldn't say anything about it.
My sister drew music.
And they looked at her and asked, "So why are you in this course?"
She's in an animation course, by the way.
She was totally caught offguard. She told me she could only say slightly incoherent things like 'i'm better at art' and things like that.
I'm sorry, I can't respect people who attack people I love like that.
I can't help but see it as them telling her 'you're wrong, you can't stand up for music if you do art, you did this assignment badly, put in more effort and actually draw something that makes sense'.
I don't see what's wrong with standing up for music.
And I don't see how anyone can tell someone they can't.
@ 12:09 am.
My sister had a presentation of one of her assignment at Nanyang Polytechnic on Friday. It was basically to answer a series of questions in the form of black and white drawings.
One of the questions was 'What do you stand up for?' Most of her classmates drew things like world peace, so the instructors/lecturers (I'm not familiar with polytechnic terminology) couldn't say anything about it.
My sister drew music.
And they looked at her and asked, "So why are you in this course?"
She's in an animation course, by the way.
She was totally caught offguard. She told me she could only say slightly incoherent things like 'i'm better at art' and things like that.
I'm sorry, I can't respect people who attack people I love like that.
I can't help but see it as them telling her 'you're wrong, you can't stand up for music if you do art, you did this assignment badly, put in more effort and actually draw something that makes sense'.
I don't see what's wrong with standing up for music.
And I don't see how anyone can tell someone they can't.
Side
Post just Published itself. Please start from previous post or this won't make sense.
So. Not only did new chapters of Naruto and Bleach come out today, they were both fairly pivotal, rather shocking, and, in their own way, utterly ridiculous.
Not to say I didn't enjoy them, of course.
So that's why I really wanted to blog today. I've been itching to do a Naruto-Bleach-what I know of One Piece (which i want to read but will not because it just takes up too much time) comparison post for some time. Maybe I'll write it for, say, project work or an extended essay (assuming I go for ib). Because there is a lot to write about.
But with these new... developments... it would be a good time now to compare them.
And I really want to.
But I have to sleep.
Maybe a quick recount of CIP. Somewhat the same as last week except this time we actually filled up our itinerary :)
Kudos to Felicia for her beyond-awesome emceeing, Vi Chien for, quoting Carolyn, "losing all her inhibitions" as a bingo caller, and Eleanor for uncannily winning over the audience during her bingo calling (she called her Chinese below-standard in the beginning, and had the audience shouting out the numbers to her in dialect as she attempted to repeat them by the end of her shift)! In the end we only had ten minutes or so for Shannon and I to quickly play the last song! And we didn't run out of anything! Except maybe bingo cards?
Vast improvement from last week; awesome job, everyone!
I ended up seated next to a woman I absolutely could not understand. And she seemed left out because all the songs were in mandarin and she didn't seem to speak it. It took Wendy to teach her bingo and all that.
So I dug out my Plan B which I've been planning since this whole thing was proposed (Plan A2 was to communicate through writing, and that is only a2 because I was actually considering it), ripped out a page from my notebook and made her a boat.
She was thrilled. I think. She wanted me to show her how to make one. She did. Then a fortuneteller. Showed her how create a mouth with it. She tried. Then I made the mistake of trying to teach her a sampan, which is really hard.
But it worked n
Okay 12:24. Should sleep. Will continue with Naruto and Bleach after school n
Friday, April 23, 2010 @ 12:25 am.
Post just Published itself. Please start from previous post or this won't make sense.
So. Not only did new chapters of Naruto and Bleach come out today, they were both fairly pivotal, rather shocking, and, in their own way, utterly ridiculous.
Not to say I didn't enjoy them, of course.
So that's why I really wanted to blog today. I've been itching to do a Naruto-Bleach-what I know of One Piece (which i want to read but will not because it just takes up too much time) comparison post for some time. Maybe I'll write it for, say, project work or an extended essay (assuming I go for ib). Because there is a lot to write about.
But with these new... developments... it would be a good time now to compare them.
And I really want to.
But I have to sleep.
Maybe a quick recount of CIP. Somewhat the same as last week except this time we actually filled up our itinerary :)
Kudos to Felicia for her beyond-awesome emceeing, Vi Chien for, quoting Carolyn, "losing all her inhibitions" as a bingo caller, and Eleanor for uncannily winning over the audience during her bingo calling (she called her Chinese below-standard in the beginning, and had the audience shouting out the numbers to her in dialect as she attempted to repeat them by the end of her shift)! In the end we only had ten minutes or so for Shannon and I to quickly play the last song! And we didn't run out of anything! Except maybe bingo cards?
Vast improvement from last week; awesome job, everyone!
I ended up seated next to a woman I absolutely could not understand. And she seemed left out because all the songs were in mandarin and she didn't seem to speak it. It took Wendy to teach her bingo and all that.
So I dug out my Plan B which I've been planning since this whole thing was proposed (Plan A2 was to communicate through writing, and that is only a2 because I was actually considering it), ripped out a page from my notebook and made her a boat.
She was thrilled. I think. She wanted me to show her how to make one. She did. Then a fortuneteller. Showed her how create a mouth with it. She tried. Then I made the mistake of trying to teach her a sampan, which is really hard.
But it worked n
Okay 12:24. Should sleep. Will continue with Naruto and Bleach after school n
Dark
It's midnight. Just finished my homework. And here I am, in bed, on my iPhone and blogging.
It's my way of compromising between my need to sleep and burning compulsion to blog.
There are pretty much two reasons why I really want to blog today. And they're the usual Thursday reasons.
Firstly, second session of CIP today, which is the last one for me. I blogged it last week and thought I should this week.
Secondly, new chapters of Naruto and Bleach came out today.
@ 12:05 am.
It's midnight. Just finished my homework. And here I am, in bed, on my iPhone and blogging.
It's my way of compromising between my need to sleep and burning compulsion to blog.
There are pretty much two reasons why I really want to blog today. And they're the usual Thursday reasons.
Firstly, second session of CIP today, which is the last one for me. I blogged it last week and thought I should this week.
Secondly, new chapters of Naruto and Bleach came out today.
Test
Testing out Blogwriter Lite on my iPhone!
iPhones are taking over the world.
Wait. Carolyn. If you read this, did you call me ELOQUENT last week?
Because if you did i'm pretty shocked.
And also last week when mrs thomsett said that I 'argue well'.
Yeah, all a bit unbelievable in its own way.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 @ 11:32 pm.
Testing out Blogwriter Lite on my iPhone!
iPhones are taking over the world.
Wait. Carolyn. If you read this, did you call me ELOQUENT last week?
Because if you did i'm pretty shocked.
And also last week when mrs thomsett said that I 'argue well'.
Yeah, all a bit unbelievable in its own way.
Burn
Right, as soon as I finished that post, my dad entered the room and I immediately accosted him with my misgivings towards homosexuality.
My main feeling towards homosexuality has been candid and unsure. I've been defining my stance with the flimsy statement that it is, in essence, impractical. If the main purpose of sex is to procreate, it's not achieving that purpose.
So as it turns out my view and my father's view aren't so far apart.
His view is basically that homosexuality is part of the Devil's grand plan to kill off the human race. Basically if people decided they'd rather have sex with people of the same gender than different, people will stop procreating. Effectively killing off the human race.
The thing that God and, as a result, man, can do that the Devil cannot do is to create, and if the Devil can stop man from creating, his goal is achieved.
And yeah, it also breaks the first ever commandment: Go forth and multiply.
So that's a Christian view of it. At least it's better for me than Adam-Eve not Adam-Steve.
I'm not going to even consider the nature of homosexual feelings and love; feelings are fickle things. Feelings and actions are different.
Monday, April 19, 2010 @ 9:09 pm.
Right, as soon as I finished that post, my dad entered the room and I immediately accosted him with my misgivings towards homosexuality.
My main feeling towards homosexuality has been candid and unsure. I've been defining my stance with the flimsy statement that it is, in essence, impractical. If the main purpose of sex is to procreate, it's not achieving that purpose.
So as it turns out my view and my father's view aren't so far apart.
His view is basically that homosexuality is part of the Devil's grand plan to kill off the human race. Basically if people decided they'd rather have sex with people of the same gender than different, people will stop procreating. Effectively killing off the human race.
The thing that God and, as a result, man, can do that the Devil cannot do is to create, and if the Devil can stop man from creating, his goal is achieved.
And yeah, it also breaks the first ever commandment: Go forth and multiply.
So that's a Christian view of it. At least it's better for me than Adam-Eve not Adam-Steve.
I'm not going to even consider the nature of homosexual feelings and love; feelings are fickle things. Feelings and actions are different.
Scorch
Today I'm only going to blog about Chapel. I always end up with a lot of burning comments after chapel services that only die off during the week. So I need to let them out now, because today was almost the epitome of all of them.
Chapel
Chapel from a class that I can't remember. A pretty good example of singers-outnumbering-musicians that you tend to see a lot of at MGS chapels, though for Sec 4 chapels I'm not that irked because classes may not have enough musicians etc.
But this time there was only one instrument, the piano (granted the piano player was competent enough to go solo, something that I could never ever do), and three singers.
I'm just going to say right here that there was nothing wrong with today's band; today's band was actually quite good. But this is just me being irritable. Sorry. I need to put it all here before I go berserk.
Usually I get pissed off enough because not only are there three singers they make no attempt to do anything with the proliferation (or even eutrophication, read, excess) of vocal resources. Like harmonies. Most of the time the singers stand in a row around two microphones and drone out the songs.
Of course, MGS girls somehow usually are cultured to sing like this, which accounts for the clean choir-ish (not even close though), pure tones that each and every guest worship leader stops to listen to, and some say "I Should make a recording with you guys!" Because really, MGS girls sing a lot.
Anyway. Continuing.
I'm not going to blame anyone for the whole harmonies thing; it just distracts me because why don't people do that? although they might not even have thought of it in the first place and therefore isn't anyone's fault.
I don't like it, though, that people say hey everyone let's wake up! or come on let's be enthusiastic for God! and they stand there in their row fidgeting with their hands in front of them and their eyes glued to the lyrics in front of them.
The most effective student chapel bands, I find, have fewer singers, no lyrics (for the most part) and that actually make an attempt to get involved. I've grown up in a charismatic worship environment, so I'm naturally rather biased towards this (go to Tze Shien's blog for an opposite viewpoint) but seriously, if you're singing contemporary charismatic songs that go "Lift up your hands, open the doors, let the King of Glory come in" while circling your hands in soft claps monotonously for the entire song, who's going to take you seriously?
And also, there were two types of prayers seen during this worship session, both of which seem rather characteristic of MGS: One where you say "Lord" in every sentence, and another that's prepared on a script and you read off it. I don't mind either one; the "Lord" one is pretty much status quo in MGS, and I know from chapel band experience that they actually recommend that you prepare your prayer.
It makes me sad. There's nothing wrong with it but it just... makes me sad.
Anyway, today's speaker.
For the unfamiliar, I should probably give a short summary of what this was about but... frankly I can't. It was too confusing.
Today's speaker was familiar; I know his face and first name from previous chapel band adventures but other than that I'm pretty sure he's forgotten me already. I was expecting something good from him, but as soon as I saw "Unclogging your Arteries: Freeing your Heart from Sin" I was almost going to walk out of the chapel.
Firstly, after Bio I have a terrible fear of heart attacks. (this just adds on to other things like appendicitis and various cancers so I can't really say anything about that)
Secondly, Freeing your Heart from Sin. I assumed that Uncle Jo was talking to current Christians since that's what all chapel speakers usually do except for DJW. After pretty much a year at New Creation Church, which preaches "radical grace" and I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm not going to accept any more crap of Christians still needing to beg forgiveness each time they sin because I believe that Jesus has already died for all our sins, not just our inherited sins, all our sins, so we don't need to be condemned under the law where every sin without sacrificial rituals means you go to hell.
It's not about "oh if all our sins are forgiven then we can just sin and sin and sin and not be punished!" You've been pulled out of the water. So you, naturally, won't be drowning.
Okay, I didn't want to blog today to summarise NCC's doctrine. Here I go again.
So I wasn't about to take any more crap about living under the law and cleansing our hearts regularly like another lamb sacrifice. Isn't the Lamb of God enough for you?
But he didn't address that issue at all, in the end. More of "Are you sure you're going to go to heaven?" and he did mention Jesus dying for our sins, so I assumed then he was talking to those not of the Christian faith.
So it wasn't as bad, but I'm still really really pissed off by people who quote Romans 3:23:
without quoting Romans 3:24:
Look at that difference. If only people would actually acknowledge that. Maybe this speaker did, somewhere, but I didn't see it through the Simpsons references and Adam-Eve-Steve-Jane spiel.
Okay, I should probably attempt a brief summary before I continue or people will start getting confused:
First, a personal recount about high cholesterol. And controlling your diet. And a drawn-out story of a guy who died after controlling his diet for a long time and then went to heaven, then scolded his wife saying "if I hadn't controlled my diet I would be here ten years ago!". Then suddenly "But are you so sure you're going to go to heaven?". Then "Why is God so distant?" Then ROMANS 3:23 in huge fancy font. Then "Why don't people accept God?" because they don't want to live under the Christian principles. Then the evolution and Adam-Eve not Adam-Steve spiel being products of "people living in the world; what they want" with no explanation, and ROMANS 3:23 again.
And finally a weird story about the Simpsons which ended with "Do accept Jesus, God really does want you to pass with a D-; Death-minus." And there it ended.
Yeah... sorry for the rather convoluted nature of this, but... I was really, really confused.
The rest can be summed up in this excerpt from Carolyn's blog:
See, if the speaker was actually addressing the non-Christian cohort he obviously wasn't doing a very good job of it.
If one wants to classify homosexuality and bigamy and polygamy as a sin, and at the same time remain convincing and compelling to a non-Christian audience, then one has to explain why, not because "people live like this because they live in the world; what they want". Not "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve".
I'm sorry Carolyn, I have to admit I started giggling a little when he started veering off to adding "Jane and Carol and even David and Daniel in between" because it was just getting too ridiculous.
Even as a Christian, albeit young, I remain unsure about the Christian stance towards homosexuality and its groundings. I choose to take that stance, however, as I continue to learn.
But this didn't help me at all. And won't help anyone else either.
So all in all, the message was confusing, didn't really answer any of my questions, didn't really make a point (The most I got was "to cleanse your heart of sins, go to Jesus" which was alright, but only made in the last few sentences rendering the first fifteen minutes rather irrelevant), and frankly touched far too many of my soft spots.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I need to have some sense slapped into me. But I didn't get it at all.
I was tempted to approach the speaker after Chapel and argue my point, but I was in the gallery and, by the end of the message, far too confused to even consider it.
@ 8:14 pm.
Today I'm only going to blog about Chapel. I always end up with a lot of burning comments after chapel services that only die off during the week. So I need to let them out now, because today was almost the epitome of all of them.
Chapel
Chapel from a class that I can't remember. A pretty good example of singers-outnumbering-musicians that you tend to see a lot of at MGS chapels, though for Sec 4 chapels I'm not that irked because classes may not have enough musicians etc.
But this time there was only one instrument, the piano (granted the piano player was competent enough to go solo, something that I could never ever do), and three singers.
I'm just going to say right here that there was nothing wrong with today's band; today's band was actually quite good. But this is just me being irritable. Sorry. I need to put it all here before I go berserk.
Usually I get pissed off enough because not only are there three singers they make no attempt to do anything with the proliferation (or even eutrophication, read, excess) of vocal resources. Like harmonies. Most of the time the singers stand in a row around two microphones and drone out the songs.
Of course, MGS girls somehow usually are cultured to sing like this, which accounts for the clean choir-ish (not even close though), pure tones that each and every guest worship leader stops to listen to, and some say "I Should make a recording with you guys!" Because really, MGS girls sing a lot.
Anyway. Continuing.
I'm not going to blame anyone for the whole harmonies thing; it just distracts me because why don't people do that? although they might not even have thought of it in the first place and therefore isn't anyone's fault.
I don't like it, though, that people say hey everyone let's wake up! or come on let's be enthusiastic for God! and they stand there in their row fidgeting with their hands in front of them and their eyes glued to the lyrics in front of them.
The most effective student chapel bands, I find, have fewer singers, no lyrics (for the most part) and that actually make an attempt to get involved. I've grown up in a charismatic worship environment, so I'm naturally rather biased towards this (go to Tze Shien's blog for an opposite viewpoint) but seriously, if you're singing contemporary charismatic songs that go "Lift up your hands, open the doors, let the King of Glory come in" while circling your hands in soft claps monotonously for the entire song, who's going to take you seriously?
And also, there were two types of prayers seen during this worship session, both of which seem rather characteristic of MGS: One where you say "Lord" in every sentence, and another that's prepared on a script and you read off it. I don't mind either one; the "Lord" one is pretty much status quo in MGS, and I know from chapel band experience that they actually recommend that you prepare your prayer.
It makes me sad. There's nothing wrong with it but it just... makes me sad.
Anyway, today's speaker.
For the unfamiliar, I should probably give a short summary of what this was about but... frankly I can't. It was too confusing.
Today's speaker was familiar; I know his face and first name from previous chapel band adventures but other than that I'm pretty sure he's forgotten me already. I was expecting something good from him, but as soon as I saw "Unclogging your Arteries: Freeing your Heart from Sin" I was almost going to walk out of the chapel.
Firstly, after Bio I have a terrible fear of heart attacks. (this just adds on to other things like appendicitis and various cancers so I can't really say anything about that)
Secondly, Freeing your Heart from Sin. I assumed that Uncle Jo was talking to current Christians since that's what all chapel speakers usually do except for DJW. After pretty much a year at New Creation Church, which preaches "radical grace" and I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm not going to accept any more crap of Christians still needing to beg forgiveness each time they sin because I believe that Jesus has already died for all our sins, not just our inherited sins, all our sins, so we don't need to be condemned under the law where every sin without sacrificial rituals means you go to hell.
It's not about "oh if all our sins are forgiven then we can just sin and sin and sin and not be punished!" You've been pulled out of the water. So you, naturally, won't be drowning.
Okay, I didn't want to blog today to summarise NCC's doctrine. Here I go again.
So I wasn't about to take any more crap about living under the law and cleansing our hearts regularly like another lamb sacrifice. Isn't the Lamb of God enough for you?
But he didn't address that issue at all, in the end. More of "Are you sure you're going to go to heaven?" and he did mention Jesus dying for our sins, so I assumed then he was talking to those not of the Christian faith.
So it wasn't as bad, but I'm still really really pissed off by people who quote Romans 3:23:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
without quoting Romans 3:24:
24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Look at that difference. If only people would actually acknowledge that. Maybe this speaker did, somewhere, but I didn't see it through the Simpsons references and Adam-Eve-Steve-Jane spiel.
Okay, I should probably attempt a brief summary before I continue or people will start getting confused:
First, a personal recount about high cholesterol. And controlling your diet. And a drawn-out story of a guy who died after controlling his diet for a long time and then went to heaven, then scolded his wife saying "if I hadn't controlled my diet I would be here ten years ago!". Then suddenly "But are you so sure you're going to go to heaven?". Then "Why is God so distant?" Then ROMANS 3:23 in huge fancy font. Then "Why don't people accept God?" because they don't want to live under the Christian principles. Then the evolution and Adam-Eve not Adam-Steve spiel being products of "people living in the world; what they want" with no explanation, and ROMANS 3:23 again.
And finally a weird story about the Simpsons which ended with "Do accept Jesus, God really does want you to pass with a D-; Death-minus." And there it ended.
Yeah... sorry for the rather convoluted nature of this, but... I was really, really confused.
The rest can be summed up in this excerpt from Carolyn's blog:
#major anger at chapel speaker.
come back and diss evolution when you can come up with a better idea. you, plus your self-assuredness, really REALLY irked me.
so what if your god made adam and eve (not steve, oh no we can't possibly have two guys!). you don't have to make it some dandy little joke.
so where does your argument stand if I told you I reject all you said. proselytisation at its most mediocre. can you at least have some respect for science! just fyi scientists don't think we're apes. yeah, though don't worry I'm sure people like you are the closest specimens.
lost my respect + so tempted to just walk out man.
on the other hand, at least my class is mature enough to not think gay is a funny word. props to you guys.
See, if the speaker was actually addressing the non-Christian cohort he obviously wasn't doing a very good job of it.
If one wants to classify homosexuality and bigamy and polygamy as a sin, and at the same time remain convincing and compelling to a non-Christian audience, then one has to explain why, not because "people live like this because they live in the world; what they want". Not "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve".
I'm sorry Carolyn, I have to admit I started giggling a little when he started veering off to adding "Jane and Carol and even David and Daniel in between" because it was just getting too ridiculous.
Even as a Christian, albeit young, I remain unsure about the Christian stance towards homosexuality and its groundings. I choose to take that stance, however, as I continue to learn.
But this didn't help me at all. And won't help anyone else either.
So all in all, the message was confusing, didn't really answer any of my questions, didn't really make a point (The most I got was "to cleanse your heart of sins, go to Jesus" which was alright, but only made in the last few sentences rendering the first fifteen minutes rather irrelevant), and frankly touched far too many of my soft spots.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I need to have some sense slapped into me. But I didn't get it at all.
I was tempted to approach the speaker after Chapel and argue my point, but I was in the gallery and, by the end of the message, far too confused to even consider it.
Less than three.
CIP at Fei Yue today!
Had a long debate (largely with myself, but enough about that!) on whether I should have brought my guitar today, but in the end decided not to because, technically, it wasn't needed.
I was wrong.
CIP was, in a few respects, an epic fail. But it was an AWESOME epic fail.
Okay, the only reason why it was an epic fail was because we just didn't have enough in our schedule for two and a half hours. But I'd like to call it an epic fail because, for some reason, I always use it in a positive manner.
Started off well enough, with everyone nervous and sticking in clumps on the wall at first, and dispersing very slowly into the crowd. Language barriers were a problem; Vi Chien was the only one who could speak Malay. But in the end we were all reasonably diffused throughout the crowd (although a little quiet) while the itinerary started.
Felicia is quite the MC :) Absolutely AWESOME. Incredibly charismatic. And energetic. Mrs Ng was quipping about how we all knew who to look for to be an emcee at our weddings xD But seriously, even after we ran out of things to do and were brainstorming behind the folded-up table tennis tables she bought so much time for us even with absolutely no material prepared.
Shannon and Tabitha also put in major overtime; they had originally planned for three songs, and brought the minus-one tracks to suit, and then realised that there was no more time. So they kept singing. Acapella. Missed the guitar at about this point. They got people to sing. And dance.
We ran out of pretty much every utensil within fifteen minutes or so, but were left with half the watermelon and one and a half cakes. We were reusing and washing plastic forks (tinged pink with watermelon) and cups. We couldn't reuse the plates because they were paper and soaked up all the watermelon.
And yeah, dancing! Especially after tea. Alison, Stef and Glenda were "backstage" (read: behind the ping-pong tables) trying to figure out a simplified version of the already simplified dance for them ^^
I think we had fifteen minutes - twenty minutes of pass the parcel... or rather pass the mini-football. Again, major kudos to the emcees for buying so much time!
After this, we really didn't have anything on our itinerary any more; we were literally squeezing our materials to dry bone. The emcees/singers were putting on the other tracks on the CDs they had brought, and singing "不会唱...！ 不会唱...!" because they didn't prepare at all 8D So awesome! Deserves applause, man...
During this time Audrey (the proposer apparently) and co. decided to demonstrate the Macarena.
Yes, the Macarena.
To great success. The guests really liked it. Even after we had done it, what, ten times? (to buy time of course), I spotted three ladies sitting in rather unfortunate seats (meaning restricted view; I was standing near them doing the dance too with anyone who happened to be there just so that they could see it xD) discussing the dance steps between them (meaning "is it this before this?" and all that). Couldn't help but point it out to Audrey and co. "backstage".
Oh yeah, Mrs Ng also came up and started doing karaoke very enthusiastically 8D
Anyway, after the rest of us had come up with another action plan to stage a game of Charades and were going to present it, we discovered that the programme had been ended a little prematurely, so we didn't do it :]
So, lessons learned today (ah, we really should have a debrief session xD):
1. Bring more utensils.
2. Make sure that the planned items actually take up two and a half hours.
3. Actually be involved. (I have to admit I don't think I said more than six words to anyone today... but that didn't stop me from trying, trying meaning dancing idiotically beside guests and trying to get them to stand. Without saying more than three words at a time. And clearing plates.) It's less awkward than standing around.
4. BRING GUITAR.
Thursday, April 15, 2010 @ 10:21 pm.
CIP at Fei Yue today!
Had a long debate (largely with myself, but enough about that!) on whether I should have brought my guitar today, but in the end decided not to because, technically, it wasn't needed.
I was wrong.
CIP was, in a few respects, an epic fail. But it was an AWESOME epic fail.
Okay, the only reason why it was an epic fail was because we just didn't have enough in our schedule for two and a half hours. But I'd like to call it an epic fail because, for some reason, I always use it in a positive manner.
Started off well enough, with everyone nervous and sticking in clumps on the wall at first, and dispersing very slowly into the crowd. Language barriers were a problem; Vi Chien was the only one who could speak Malay. But in the end we were all reasonably diffused throughout the crowd (although a little quiet) while the itinerary started.
Felicia is quite the MC :) Absolutely AWESOME. Incredibly charismatic. And energetic. Mrs Ng was quipping about how we all knew who to look for to be an emcee at our weddings xD But seriously, even after we ran out of things to do and were brainstorming behind the folded-up table tennis tables she bought so much time for us even with absolutely no material prepared.
Shannon and Tabitha also put in major overtime; they had originally planned for three songs, and brought the minus-one tracks to suit, and then realised that there was no more time. So they kept singing. Acapella. Missed the guitar at about this point. They got people to sing. And dance.
We ran out of pretty much every utensil within fifteen minutes or so, but were left with half the watermelon and one and a half cakes. We were reusing and washing plastic forks (tinged pink with watermelon) and cups. We couldn't reuse the plates because they were paper and soaked up all the watermelon.
And yeah, dancing! Especially after tea. Alison, Stef and Glenda were "backstage" (read: behind the ping-pong tables) trying to figure out a simplified version of the already simplified dance for them ^^
I think we had fifteen minutes - twenty minutes of pass the parcel... or rather pass the mini-football. Again, major kudos to the emcees for buying so much time!
After this, we really didn't have anything on our itinerary any more; we were literally squeezing our materials to dry bone. The emcees/singers were putting on the other tracks on the CDs they had brought, and singing "不会唱...！ 不会唱...!" because they didn't prepare at all 8D So awesome! Deserves applause, man...
During this time Audrey (the proposer apparently) and co. decided to demonstrate the Macarena.
Yes, the Macarena.
To great success. The guests really liked it. Even after we had done it, what, ten times? (to buy time of course), I spotted three ladies sitting in rather unfortunate seats (meaning restricted view; I was standing near them doing the dance too with anyone who happened to be there just so that they could see it xD) discussing the dance steps between them (meaning "is it this before this?" and all that). Couldn't help but point it out to Audrey and co. "backstage".
Oh yeah, Mrs Ng also came up and started doing karaoke very enthusiastically 8D
Anyway, after the rest of us had come up with another action plan to stage a game of Charades and were going to present it, we discovered that the programme had been ended a little prematurely, so we didn't do it :]
So, lessons learned today (ah, we really should have a debrief session xD):
1. Bring more utensils.
2. Make sure that the planned items actually take up two and a half hours.
3. Actually be involved. (I have to admit I don't think I said more than six words to anyone today... but that didn't stop me from trying, trying meaning dancing idiotically beside guests and trying to get them to stand. Without saying more than three words at a time. And clearing plates.) It's less awkward than standing around.
4. BRING GUITAR.
2.4
Some vignettes that I still remember after today's 2.4km + 5-item test:
1. People making arrangements for pacing and timing, and in the end being split apart by the runner-recorder pairs.
2. Ka Yi, Yun Hua and myself pacing in a sort of triangle. Thanks for putting up with me for one more year.
3. Looking at my stopwatch halfway through the last round and realising there were ten seconds left to make a B. (I missed by eight seconds.)
4. Seeing people start walking.
5. Elizabeth and Stacey flying by.
6. Glarbo's pen running out of ink.
7. The entire class cheering for Minerva as she ran past.
8. Seeing more people walking. Shouting at them not to run. Seeing them walk again.
9. Worrying that I had missed Celine for one round, then spotting her.
10. Watching Carolyn run across the finish line and half-collapsing onto her hands and knees. (read her blog for more details; congratulations, Carolyn (:)
11. Celine looking around after the run and asking "Did everyone pass"?
12. Stepping on a cockroach (accidentally) during lunch in the canteen. I hadn't put my full weight on it before this group of girls screamed at me. I was convinced that I had just stepped on their pet or some sort of precious organism. On impulse, I apologised under my breath, and ran.
13. Mr Ong wearing a green sleeveless athletic shirt.
14. Mr Lim dressed similarly.
15. People stretching beside the Sit and Reach stations.
16. Tabitha dropping rather deliberately after her third inclined pull-up, and later coming back and dropping again after doing seven.
17. Kneeling on Tinghui's shoes while the girl beside her did seventy-four sit ups in one minute.
18. Miss Su dropping a cardboard box on the standing broad jump mat into Eleanor's path while she was preparing.
19. Everyone cheering/ chorusing "Whhoooaaa" when Eleanor jumped over it.
20. Yun Hua putting her water bottle on the mat (upright) before jumping. Everyone was sure it was too high. But her legs just went around the bottle and it didn't seem to help much.
21. Feeling my abs go tense after doing sit-ups. Which means that that was one of the rare times I actually used the correct muscles.
22. Claire trying, and re-trying, her standing broad jump.
23. People stretching at the back of the classroom during recess for Sit and Reach, then practicing Standing Broad Jump.
24. Finding more people in the corridor practicing SBJ after our class' NAPFA was over.
25. Drinking water. I appreciate water now.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 @ 9:59 pm.
Some vignettes that I still remember after today's 2.4km + 5-item test:
1. People making arrangements for pacing and timing, and in the end being split apart by the runner-recorder pairs.
2. Ka Yi, Yun Hua and myself pacing in a sort of triangle. Thanks for putting up with me for one more year.
3. Looking at my stopwatch halfway through the last round and realising there were ten seconds left to make a B. (I missed by eight seconds.)
4. Seeing people start walking.
5. Elizabeth and Stacey flying by.
6. Glarbo's pen running out of ink.
7. The entire class cheering for Minerva as she ran past.
8. Seeing more people walking. Shouting at them not to run. Seeing them walk again.
9. Worrying that I had missed Celine for one round, then spotting her.
10. Watching Carolyn run across the finish line and half-collapsing onto her hands and knees. (read her blog for more details; congratulations, Carolyn (:)
11. Celine looking around after the run and asking "Did everyone pass"?
12. Stepping on a cockroach (accidentally) during lunch in the canteen. I hadn't put my full weight on it before this group of girls screamed at me. I was convinced that I had just stepped on their pet or some sort of precious organism. On impulse, I apologised under my breath, and ran.
13. Mr Ong wearing a green sleeveless athletic shirt.
14. Mr Lim dressed similarly.
15. People stretching beside the Sit and Reach stations.
16. Tabitha dropping rather deliberately after her third inclined pull-up, and later coming back and dropping again after doing seven.
17. Kneeling on Tinghui's shoes while the girl beside her did seventy-four sit ups in one minute.
18. Miss Su dropping a cardboard box on the standing broad jump mat into Eleanor's path while she was preparing.
19. Everyone cheering/ chorusing "Whhoooaaa" when Eleanor jumped over it.
20. Yun Hua putting her water bottle on the mat (upright) before jumping. Everyone was sure it was too high. But her legs just went around the bottle and it didn't seem to help much.
21. Feeling my abs go tense after doing sit-ups. Which means that that was one of the rare times I actually used the correct muscles.
22. Claire trying, and re-trying, her standing broad jump.
23. People stretching at the back of the classroom during recess for Sit and Reach, then practicing Standing Broad Jump.
24. Finding more people in the corridor practicing SBJ after our class' NAPFA was over.
25. Drinking water. I appreciate water now.
Greener
Chapel
The re-ded service I went to today was led by Eric Lee, you know, the guy who played the piano and kept saying "Who knows how to work this thing?!"
Every time he leads Chapel I mistake the piano for the Glenn [forgot surname] guy who sang songs like "Faithful Runner" and things like that, then I dread it because my mother owns his album and I spent most of my Primary Five year listening to his songs on the way to school.
But Eric Lee is good. And the auditorium was nearly empty.
HMT
Anyway, why on earth is this term such a good Chinese year for me? I don't usually post my marks on my blog but this is because I am so severely shocked by all this.
When 老师 returned the 报章报道 and the 假期功课, I was expecting to do abysmally for all of them. But I got the highest that I've ever gotten for 公函 yet (16/20, which is why I didn't do the 公函 during O Levels), and 46/70 for both the 报章报道 and 记叙文 (which, get this, isn't even my highest; it's 49.5 for 记叙文 and 49 for 报章报道, both achieved within these two terms)
But the major shocker was when she gave back the comprehension paper, which as you've probably heard was absolutely devastating. I was expecting to fail, and hoping to nearly pass, but never did I think that 老师 would ever say that I had done "particularly well" for it o_o I was certain that I had misheard her. And I still suspect I did. However, not only did I not fail, I got 50.5/80 for it. With a 16/20 for summary (highest, but not first time).
I'm probably going to remove the marks later once I get over this shock. And I know that to many of you my marks are just average marks. But still! I keep expecting it to be some fluke or something like that.
And ah, Claire is my new seat partner, with Glarbo next to her on the left and Tabby in the seat on the right in the other block.
(not word-for-word)
xD
E Maths
New statistics worksheet. Glarbo, Claire and I were all going crazy counting and sorting the data values. Glarbo and Claire were cross-referencing with each other on one side while I was circling every class with a different coloured marker.
Recess
Went down and drank my Milo and ate a cereal bar. Jelly and En were doing some - ahem - questionable things in front of me.
Physics
Electric fields. Tabby was rubbing her ruler on her jacket and reaching for people's hair and arm hair.
Glarbo shifts over to the left block during lesson so I have an entire row of seats to myself.
Hey, I treasure my solitude! ._. (Or am I just in denial? Hmm... ^^)
So anyway, I took advantage of sitting alone and drew in my notebook ^^
English
Crap comprehension test given back, and more marks deducted for using correction tape (two marks) and not leaving three lines (three marks). At least I left three lines. Or I would be doomed.
On the other side I could see Tabby drawing on the back of her lecture pad; awesome as always ^^
SS
More globalisation. Mr Seow said that he was going to "showcase a product" tomorrow and needed some music backing track (whatever for?!) and if we didn't make any suggestions he was going to play Susan Boyle. (Claire was shouting OKLAHOMA! and waving around her 1998 London cast recording which she presumably uses for MEP, and by the way which has Hugh Jackman in it)
Lit
First we went through the Mrs Boyle scene question.
Mrs Thomsett called one of my points "perfect"! Seriously!
But after that she returned the crap passage-based question during which she said that the only ones who were actually competent at this time (according to Carolyn it's 'having a good sense of the book' though I can't really remember) were Minerva and Carolyn.
So I'm really pissed off with myself.
I passed, at least. And not as badly as I've done so far. And I didn't get called up to talk with Mrs Thomsett to discuss dropping Lit. But it's still not good enough.
Something from Carolyn's blog about this:
HMT
Not much happened after Lit, or either that I can't remember.
--
Compiled an O Level Revision List today.
...
I'm scared.
Monday, April 05, 2010 @ 8:05 pm.
Chapel
The re-ded service I went to today was led by Eric Lee, you know, the guy who played the piano and kept saying "Who knows how to work this thing?!"
Every time he leads Chapel I mistake the piano for the Glenn [forgot surname] guy who sang songs like "Faithful Runner" and things like that, then I dread it because my mother owns his album and I spent most of my Primary Five year listening to his songs on the way to school.
But Eric Lee is good. And the auditorium was nearly empty.
HMT
Anyway, why on earth is this term such a good Chinese year for me? I don't usually post my marks on my blog but this is because I am so severely shocked by all this.
When 老师 returned the 报章报道 and the 假期功课, I was expecting to do abysmally for all of them. But I got the highest that I've ever gotten for 公函 yet (16/20, which is why I didn't do the 公函 during O Levels), and 46/70 for both the 报章报道 and 记叙文 (which, get this, isn't even my highest; it's 49.5 for 记叙文 and 49 for 报章报道, both achieved within these two terms)
But the major shocker was when she gave back the comprehension paper, which as you've probably heard was absolutely devastating. I was expecting to fail, and hoping to nearly pass, but never did I think that 老师 would ever say that I had done "particularly well" for it o_o I was certain that I had misheard her. And I still suspect I did. However, not only did I not fail, I got 50.5/80 for it. With a 16/20 for summary (highest, but not first time).
I'm probably going to remove the marks later once I get over this shock. And I know that to many of you my marks are just average marks. But still! I keep expecting it to be some fluke or something like that.
And ah, Claire is my new seat partner, with Glarbo next to her on the left and Tabby in the seat on the right in the other block.
(not word-for-word)
Claire: Hey, when you sat in the middle, where did you put your bag?
Me: On my chair...?
Claire: So... where do you put it if you don't put it on your chair?
Me: I don't know... at the side?
Claire puts it at the side.
Later.
Claire: Uh, where else can you put it?
Me: Uh, I'm not sure...?
BEAT
Claire gets up and puts her bag at the back of the class near the cupboards.
xD
E Maths
New statistics worksheet. Glarbo, Claire and I were all going crazy counting and sorting the data values. Glarbo and Claire were cross-referencing with each other on one side while I was circling every class with a different coloured marker.
Recess
Went down and drank my Milo and ate a cereal bar. Jelly and En were doing some - ahem - questionable things in front of me.
Physics
Electric fields. Tabby was rubbing her ruler on her jacket and reaching for people's hair and arm hair.
Glarbo shifts over to the left block during lesson so I have an entire row of seats to myself.
Hey, I treasure my solitude! ._. (Or am I just in denial? Hmm... ^^)
So anyway, I took advantage of sitting alone and drew in my notebook ^^
English
Crap comprehension test given back, and more marks deducted for using correction tape (two marks) and not leaving three lines (three marks). At least I left three lines. Or I would be doomed.
On the other side I could see Tabby drawing on the back of her lecture pad; awesome as always ^^
SS
More globalisation. Mr Seow said that he was going to "showcase a product" tomorrow and needed some music backing track (whatever for?!) and if we didn't make any suggestions he was going to play Susan Boyle. (Claire was shouting OKLAHOMA! and waving around her 1998 London cast recording which she presumably uses for MEP, and by the way which has Hugh Jackman in it)
Lit
First we went through the Mrs Boyle scene question.
Mrs Thomsett called one of my points "perfect"! Seriously!
But after that she returned the crap passage-based question during which she said that the only ones who were actually competent at this time (according to Carolyn it's 'having a good sense of the book' though I can't really remember) were Minerva and Carolyn.
So I'm really pissed off with myself.
I passed, at least. And not as badly as I've done so far. And I didn't get called up to talk with Mrs Thomsett to discuss dropping Lit. But it's still not good enough.
Something from Carolyn's blog about this:
oh, and i was quite amazed when mrs thomsett said that min and i are the only two who have at least some sense of the book. surprising how all these random things crop up to reassure you when you most need it.
i must work harder for lit. it's bad that our whole class is so passive - think mrs thomsett was really pissed off by how we all honestly admitted that we don't touch the text outside of lessons. i feel really complacent + think min is facing a security crisis too. help.
HMT
Not much happened after Lit, or either that I can't remember.
--
Compiled an O Level Revision List today.
...
I'm scared.
DJW
From Tze Shien's blog:
Regarding the sermon, I respectfully disagree. Maybe it's because I go to New Creation Church (where sermons are two hours long), but the way I see it, if the gospel means good news, sermons should be filled with it; filled with joy, and hope for the future.
I guess I rebel against pastors who stand behind a pulpit with their eyes on their three-point sermons and bullet-point powerpoint slides and delivering the whole thing like a lecture. That was one of the reasons why we left PLMC. I felt like I was being condemned.
Personally, the reason why I see that Mr. Jeremy Seaward (?) was so effective was because people could see the effect of God's love and joy working on him and through him. And personally, the reason why NCC is so big right now is that people are tired of living under the covenant of the law.
I wouldn't be able to listen through a sermon written and delivered like a PEEL essay.
But I have to agree on the songs. I think I've posted about it before. Somewhere.
Sunday, April 04, 2010 @ 10:31 pm.
From Tze Shien's blog:
I shall not be too cynical and critical about the speaker, but I must say that the speakers nowadays like to talk for ages, even though they only have very simple points. They should just state the points, give the relevant verses, give 1 or 2 examples, and finally, the applications for our lives. Maybe they don’t do that because they want to cater to non-Christians. I feel that the essence of the gospel is lost because of this. Sometimes the speaker keeps on talking, and at the end of his sermon, you don’t even know what his point is. Even the contemporary songs don’t have meaningful lyrics anymore. So what if we “see a near revival, stirring as we pray and seek, we’re on our knees”, followed by endless repetitions of “hosanna”?
Regarding the sermon, I respectfully disagree. Maybe it's because I go to New Creation Church (where sermons are two hours long), but the way I see it, if the gospel means good news, sermons should be filled with it; filled with joy, and hope for the future.
I guess I rebel against pastors who stand behind a pulpit with their eyes on their three-point sermons and bullet-point powerpoint slides and delivering the whole thing like a lecture. That was one of the reasons why we left PLMC. I felt like I was being condemned.
Personally, the reason why I see that Mr. Jeremy Seaward (?) was so effective was because people could see the effect of God's love and joy working on him and through him. And personally, the reason why NCC is so big right now is that people are tired of living under the covenant of the law.
I wouldn't be able to listen through a sermon written and delivered like a PEEL essay.
But I have to agree on the songs. I think I've posted about it before. Somewhere.
How to Train Your Dragon
A brief shout-out to 4G'10: Do not be discouraged by the apparent failure of our April Fools' pranks on Thursday. At least we had successful ones on Tuesday. It doesn't need to be April Fools' to pull them off.
Another shout-out to 2G'08: When Shannon and I were walking on the floor below the staff room, we saw Ms Ng and said Hi to her; she shouted back "HELLO! THANKS FOR THE HOMEWORK!"
So I think that's a success!
Yet another shout-out to Diana: Your prank was an epic fail... Mrs Ni came in right after Ms Yang! Most of the class didn't even know about the prank xD
--
Anyway, here goes my very first movie-dedicated post! I should probably be posting this on my other more review-orientated blog (which I shall reveal at a later date) but this post probably won't be as much of a review as some species of scattered, flailing little creature.
So I went to watch How to Train Your Dragon 3-D with my family this morning. My family wanted to watch that instead of Alice in Wonderland a few weeks before but since HtTYD wasn't showing, we watched that instead. I wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland so I carefully prevented myself from having any sort of opinion on HtTYD. However, I had seen the trailers for HtTYD many times, and just dismissed it as a usual Dreamworks film that I would get a kick out of but would not really remember as something really great.
But it was. Really great.
We went to watch it at GV Marina Square, which by the way has the most comfortable 3-D glasses out of the cinemas I've went to (VivoCity for Avatar, Cathay for Alice in Wonderland). We came in just as the movie was starting, and it was a good thing we did.
Anyway, a brief plot summary which I will try to keep as spoiler-free as possible (if you go on Wikipedia you can get all the goods there): On the island of Berk, there lives a Viking village that is constantly assuaged by dragons, and the residents measure pride and strength in the number of dragons one slays. Hiccup is an unfortunate Viking who humiliates himself by being weak and rather foolish on the battlefield, and as thus is a social outcast, banished to the weapons shop where he watches and envies the other Vikings as they revel in glory and bloodshed.
During a dragon raid, Hiccup sneaks out and manages to wound a legendary Night Fury (a species of dragon), which no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale, long-range (with a contraption he invented himself). However, the village refuses to believe him, and while searching for the Night Fury to prove himself, he ends up befriending it. As he reluctantly starts his dragon-slaying training, he must fight to protect the dragons that everyone in the village sets their heart on killing.
First off, the animation itself is really spectacular. Not as good as Avatar, of course (which in itself was a live-action cum CGI film so the animation would naturally be better), but still something to marvel at. The dragon and Viking battles, and the dragon flights which range from tumbling and spinning to graceful glides above the clouds, are really amazing.
Also, this was the closest I have ever come to crying while watching an animated movie. The fact that the film actually made me feel for the characters is although something that every film should do, is something that I marvel at every time.
The design for the dragons also have something to do with this:
This is the Night Fury:
And this is also the Night Fury:
And this is the Night Fury again:
It's the same dragon. The Night Fury is supposed to be the most dangerous dragon on the face of the earth. But my sister says that the dragon looks like Stitch.
Indeed, in the same way Disney made Stitch so fierce (?) and lovable at the appropriate times, so is the Night Fury. Its face is an ellipse, almost, with no visible nose, and huge eyes. The teeth and mouth, even, cannot be seen. That removes all menacing features of the face. The pupils also dilate and change in size within seconds. That just adds to the impression the Fury makes and changes it whenever necessary.
It's amazing.
Additionally, the film just ties up together extremely well. The usual formula for films is that the main characters don't die, everything ends well, the bad guys die or get converted, etc. I'm not saying that this formula was broken. Some films don't have villains. But I can't say that this film doesn't have villains either. But it pulls it off in a way that doesn't piss me off, and that's really great.
My mother insists that it's better than Alice in Wonderland. But I insist that the both of them are in two different categories. So we can't compare them.
Friday, April 02, 2010 @ 9:35 pm.
A brief shout-out to 4G'10: Do not be discouraged by the apparent failure of our April Fools' pranks on Thursday. At least we had successful ones on Tuesday. It doesn't need to be April Fools' to pull them off.
Another shout-out to 2G'08: When Shannon and I were walking on the floor below the staff room, we saw Ms Ng and said Hi to her; she shouted back "HELLO! THANKS FOR THE HOMEWORK!"
So I think that's a success!
Yet another shout-out to Diana: Your prank was an epic fail... Mrs Ni came in right after Ms Yang! Most of the class didn't even know about the prank xD
--
Anyway, here goes my very first movie-dedicated post! I should probably be posting this on my other more review-orientated blog (which I shall reveal at a later date) but this post probably won't be as much of a review as some species of scattered, flailing little creature.
So I went to watch How to Train Your Dragon 3-D with my family this morning. My family wanted to watch that instead of Alice in Wonderland a few weeks before but since HtTYD wasn't showing, we watched that instead. I wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland so I carefully prevented myself from having any sort of opinion on HtTYD. However, I had seen the trailers for HtTYD many times, and just dismissed it as a usual Dreamworks film that I would get a kick out of but would not really remember as something really great.
But it was. Really great.
We went to watch it at GV Marina Square, which by the way has the most comfortable 3-D glasses out of the cinemas I've went to (VivoCity for Avatar, Cathay for Alice in Wonderland). We came in just as the movie was starting, and it was a good thing we did.
Anyway, a brief plot summary which I will try to keep as spoiler-free as possible (if you go on Wikipedia you can get all the goods there): On the island of Berk, there lives a Viking village that is constantly assuaged by dragons, and the residents measure pride and strength in the number of dragons one slays. Hiccup is an unfortunate Viking who humiliates himself by being weak and rather foolish on the battlefield, and as thus is a social outcast, banished to the weapons shop where he watches and envies the other Vikings as they revel in glory and bloodshed.
During a dragon raid, Hiccup sneaks out and manages to wound a legendary Night Fury (a species of dragon), which no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale, long-range (with a contraption he invented himself). However, the village refuses to believe him, and while searching for the Night Fury to prove himself, he ends up befriending it. As he reluctantly starts his dragon-slaying training, he must fight to protect the dragons that everyone in the village sets their heart on killing.
First off, the animation itself is really spectacular. Not as good as Avatar, of course (which in itself was a live-action cum CGI film so the animation would naturally be better), but still something to marvel at. The dragon and Viking battles, and the dragon flights which range from tumbling and spinning to graceful glides above the clouds, are really amazing.
Also, this was the closest I have ever come to crying while watching an animated movie. The fact that the film actually made me feel for the characters is although something that every film should do, is something that I marvel at every time.
The design for the dragons also have something to do with this:
This is the Night Fury:
And this is also the Night Fury:
And this is the Night Fury again:
It's the same dragon. The Night Fury is supposed to be the most dangerous dragon on the face of the earth. But my sister says that the dragon looks like Stitch.
Indeed, in the same way Disney made Stitch so fierce (?) and lovable at the appropriate times, so is the Night Fury. Its face is an ellipse, almost, with no visible nose, and huge eyes. The teeth and mouth, even, cannot be seen. That removes all menacing features of the face. The pupils also dilate and change in size within seconds. That just adds to the impression the Fury makes and changes it whenever necessary.
It's amazing.
Additionally, the film just ties up together extremely well. The usual formula for films is that the main characters don't die, everything ends well, the bad guys die or get converted, etc. I'm not saying that this formula was broken. Some films don't have villains. But I can't say that this film doesn't have villains either. But it pulls it off in a way that doesn't piss me off, and that's really great.
My mother insists that it's better than Alice in Wonderland. But I insist that the both of them are in two different categories. So we can't compare them.