We slept earlier as we had to wake up at 5am to take the 6am coach to the foot of Mt Kinabalu. However, for some reason, I was too excited and didn’t sleep much as the bed felt warm. The tour bus had to go a huge detour to a ulu resort faraway to fetch two other tourists. Hence we only reached the Park HQ at like close to 9am. We met our 2 guides, Joe and Ronnie, as we were a group of 7. After collecting our permit passes for climbing, and renting hiking poles (10 RM each which were good professional ones) we set off in a mini bus to Mesilau Gate, which was a bumpy 30 min ride. We chose to take the Mesilau trail which is longer and more adventurous, but slightly different terrain with some down slopes in between instead of upwards all the way.

Sadly, upon reaching the gate, it started raining. We had to put on our ponchos and rain covers, and it was quite demoralizing. Fortunately, it stopped raining soon after. Thank God. We could took out our ponchos at our first shelter as it was very stuffy and inconvenient to move in one. Finally now we can enjoy the fresh air and breeze.

For the first part, the terrain was mostly similar to Singapore rain forests: trees, warm, soil, muddy and many steps. However as we progressed in elevation, the air became cooler and fresher, and there was a lot of different algae and moss growing on the ground, making it look like a “coral reef”. We also spotted some interesting flora, such as the Kinabalu Blossom, and some clusters of pitcher plants.

After conquering many different kinds of steps, from rocky to wooden ones, we reached a shelter with a nice view in the clearing. In the distance we could see the rocky cliffs we will be climbing to the summit. But Low’s peak is not viewable from this angle. We also had lunch at another shelter, which includes a ham cheese sandwich, 2 hard boiled eggs, an apple and 2 bananas. It isn’t a really enticing lunch, although I heard if we chose the Via Ferrata package we would get a chicken wing. Lol. At every shelter there is a toilet with a cistern, and pipes with rain water, which the guides drink but we are advised not to. We also spotted a random squirrel near us. However, my right shoe’s sole started to come off, and I had to use gutters and black tape to secure them. The left sole also had to be secured too. Wonder if it’s because I used the shoe alot last time, or because I stored it in the cupboard for too long.

As we continued, the terrain and flora changes to a dryer ground with many cypress trees. It was very beautiful and peaceful as you could see clouds below as well. KC said it’s like a beautiful garden, and I would say it’s probably close to Eden.

Later on, at the 6km mark, the trail merges with Timphoon, the main trail, and we have another 2km of horizontal distance to go before reaching Laban Rata, our “base camp”.

The initial part of the Timphoon trail was mostly normal rocky stones, from orange ones to grey ones. As we got higher, the last part we could feel the air starting to get thinner and colder, with some chilly winds blowing at about 10 degrees Celsius, and Vic had difficulty as he was getting a slight headache. I had to wear my gloves as my hands were getting numb. We slowed down our pace slightly, and the view was also amazing as we were above the clouds. We could also see the sunset in the horizons, with the open heaven rays effect! The steps seemed never ending, I was singing to myself randomly some worship songs, mediating some verses such as I can do all things through Christ and Psalm 91. Phil had some muscle cramps and they were lagging behind us pretty far away. At last, at about 6.15pm, we reached Laban Rata. Joe joked with us that we can play volleyball to stay warm, and indeed there’s a volleyball court. Lol.

We rushed into the dining area, where we finally we sit down properly and have a nice buffet dinner. Originally our dorms were supposed to be separate hut some steps and distance away, but Joe helped us to rearrange another dorm that could fit all of us!

After our dinner, Phil and yt finally arrived under the moonlight. Temperature was probably around 5-10 deg, reminds me of California and Santa Cruz. It was a full moon with some stars, quite nice. There was no hot water hence some of us couldn’t bathe. I tried to splash the freezing cold water on my body and managed to wash my hair. After that my fingers became cold and numb. At about 8pm, all of us settled into our heated but cold beds and went to rest. This time, I managed to sleep a few hours although the pillow was hard, and shoulders aching from the weight of my backpack (but I like the fact that my Deuter backpack pushes the weight on the hip straps so that it is less straining on the shoulders. Maybe it was because I strapped my camera bag to my front chest belt for easy access).

We woke up just few hours later at 1.30am, ate some fried bee hoon and eggs for breakfast, before setting off for the summit at 2.30am. We used our headlights and climbed the initial part which was mostly steps, again. After about 800m, the ropes portion began. The first part of the rope portion was quite shocking and scary to me as the rocks were about 70 degrees steep and I had to pull myself up with two hands on the rope together with my hiking pole in my hand. After a while, our guide kindly took the poles for us so that we could concentrate our both hands on the ropes. Some parts I have to use certain rocks to pull myself up too. It was quite scary as one lost grip and you could stumble down. I kept mediating Psalm 91 to myself along the way, the angels shall bear me up lest I strike my foot against a stone. Further up, the gradient became gentler. Although the rocks were still about 50 degrees steep, we could still walk normally without using the robe and just our hiking sticks. It became harder and harder to breathe, as the air became thinner. We were advised not to rush in case we cannot catch our breath and get climate sickness. I had to stop to pant every 20 steps or so, as one gets out of breath very easily. It was also cold with the winds blowing at 0 degrees or so. A hoodie or beanie is very useful now. Slow and steady, the last shall be first. Zhan was surprisingly fast at the front and didn’t seem to have any breathing problems. I was like, I can so all things through Christ, and when I am weak, then I am strong. Keeping hydrated is also important even though one doesn’t feel thirsty, as it helps in acclimatization. It seems like we never reach the edge of the ridge, as we pass one ridge, there’s like 2 more above it with lights indicative of people in front.

Halfway through we reached the checkpoint, where we had to show our passes, and also where the last toilet is located. They checked our names and we continued. It was slightly flatter and easier as we were less than 1km from the summit. Finally we could see a peak where a cluster of lights gathered, and we knew we were pretty close! However, for some reason, we also saw many people coming down, for the fear of rain. At the very last rocky climb to the summit, it started to drizzle. No reason to give up now. So we quickly made our way up, and soon after 100m, we reached! Praise the Lord. At this time at about 6.30am, the sun is rising but it was too cloudy to see anything. We took some photos with the summit sign and sat around to admire the view. It was a small piece of rock and a lot of people crowding around. But the view is magnificent with all the clouds below you, the mist around, and the “desolate wasteland” of the different rocky peaks of the mountain.

We could not stay for too long as the drizzle threatened to pour. Yt and Phil managed to catch up with us in the end. We were one of the last few groups to walk down the mountain. By the time we reached the checkpoint, it became a downpour. We had to slide down some of the rocks, or walk backwards like abseiling. It is quite amazing as the terrain looks slightly different in daytime and you wonder how did you manage to climb those rocks which you are going down. The rain made matters worse by causing the rocks to be slippery and the paths to become streams and rivers. The cliffs become more dangerous, and my waterproof ski gloves from wintertime were apparently not waterproof. I could squeeze water out of them!

It was a long way down as each step became painful for us due to exhaustion, and the rain did not help. We reached the base camp at 9.30am, finally have some hot drinks and breakfast, packed up and began our descent. Thank God the rain stopped, and it was a nice leisurely walk. The first part was quite nice, with the water flowing through the stones like a Chinese garden waterfall. However as we continued, each step became more and more painful, as our thigh, calf and ankle muscles get stretched and have to withstand our body weight and our backpack. The hiking pole helped a bit, but soon I struggled through every step, and it seems like forever to reach the next resting hut.

Halfway down we were walking through the mist along the timphoon trail. Visibility was low, like <100m but it was a nice cooling weather. We saw many spider webs spun very nicely, like a colony of spiders. There were also some random birds, earthworm, squirrel, and houseflies? The mist is like we are walking through the clouds. When we reached closer to the bottom, it sounded as if the lower elevation areas were raining or showering, but we are still in the mist. Fortunately, we didn’t meet the rain at all. Each kilometre seems to take forever. It doesn’t help that my shoes and socks are wet, and my soles are not very secure. Some portions have 50cm high steep steps, and soon I joined the slower ones to form a trio with yt and Phil. Haha.

Finally, we reached the last 1.5 km or so, in which we persevered till the end without any rest. We saw a waterfall, and the last 100m was another long flight of steps, this time upwards. It feels weird to climb upwards after going down so many thousand steps! Every step is a chore, but we finally made it to the end of Timphoon Gate! YAY!!!

I received a few revelations during the trip. Because every step was painful, I kept mediating on the Word of God and singing songs to myself. Psalm 91 literally came alive at the rock face, as the angels will lift me up, lest I dash my foot against a stone. I was quite afraid of losing my grip. Also, I was thinking, since we have dominion over all the earth, we will have dominion over the mountain! No climate sickness or pain show reign over me because I will reign in life. I was also reminded of “Walk As If”, and that I shall walk as if I am healed, without any pain or blisters.

Thank you Jesus for…

• The wonderful last 2 semesters of my NUS life. Now it seems so long ago that I did the CS4340 Digital Special Effects module with some snow effects, and the awesome favour with our professor for our CS4343 Game Development project and managed to score good grades for both. I still can’t believe that my group actually achieved our goal of creating a puzzle mystery solving game, although we had many obstacles initially as we could not narrow down our scope. NM3223 Digital Imaging was not easy as they changed the syllabus to be more interactive-based, and my group had a hard time brainstorming for a suitable artistic concept. All was good in the end when we finished our flash-based interactive art. SSA2218 Singapore Film was a little disappointing as I did not get A for my short film, probably due to my group report. Thanks Zhanhui and Siying for helping in my Singapore Film project.
• The unmerited favour multiplied many times in my FYP as described in an earlier post. Together with the first semester group project module NM3221 Situated Interaction Design, I scored an A for my FYP! NM3221 also experienced crowned goodness as our project was selected as the best interface design for an iPhone app mockup in the class, and we were selected to present to the client, NP Library, and we were even given vouchers as an incentive! Then for my FYP, other than scoring well, my lecturer nominated my project for best design in my faculty. Really really awesome and restful increase. I always thought my projects are nothing special, as I thought it isn’t the best I’ve done/seen, but they are viewed special by others =)
• The protection in my journey to my internship in New York City. I almost could not go for the internship due to VISA delays and timing issues, but in the end they gave me favour to shorten my internship to 2.5 months instead of 3 so that I could still go and come back in time for my last semester. I was pretty worried initially that I would come back too late in the semester, but in the end, all went well even though I came back 2 weeks late, I didn’t miss much.
• The awesome surreal experience in New York City, especially the friends I made in my company Armistice Media, Jiyae, Anjum, Andrew, my boss, Julian, and not forgetting the friends I made in HillsongNYC, Stuart, Ben, Mike, James, Gab, etc. and the Wunderman people, Hans, Yiwei, Kwee Gek, Wee Kiat, Benjamin, Adamson, Li Hao, Haikel, etc. and the best of all, being able to serve in HillsongNYC itself as a graphics projectionist! It is truly favour with all the people over there that I am thankful for, and also my housemates at Church Ave. Thank God for the protection and safety as well, as I was harassed once by a street peddler. Additionally, Ying Dan for visiting, the reunion with Naomi, and also the road trip with Victor to Washington D.C.! It was a very fruitful 2.5 months.
• The successful release of my documentary, Rag to Riches in August, despite the fact that I was still in New York, and also being unexpectedly featured in The Straits Times a few weeks later. Thank you Zhan, Victor, Junrong, for your help, and also yt and kc for your support.
• The opportunity to be in 13 Little Pictures Film Lab in September, interacting with other filmmakers and especially having exchanges with overseas ones like Joe.
• My CAP5 care group for always appreciating one another: Cui, for being a very-serious-but-good CGL, Chris, for being the new lively funny CGL, Ome, for remembering all our birthdays, Amelia, for organising our birthdays, Jonah, for being the treasurer and organising all the events with all the bros, Helen, for the various funny things we did and worship sessions, Daniel, for taking the SSA module with me, SingZe, for the rides home along NEL, Chingman, Eunice, and Geraldine, for your sharing of your lives, Penny, for always appearing and disappearing (haha), Nicholas, for the chats on a few topics that we like to talk about, Alicia, for your cheerfulness, liveliness, and your songs, Teck Beng and Belinda, for the wonderful trips and suppers that we go before you both graduated. And I almost forgot, our little trip to Hong Kong when we had so much fun and food!
• The rest of the brothers in the science CGs: Keith, Glenn, Ben, Dave, Seb, JW, etc. for all the fun things we did together
• The Zone Lighting Video team: Esther, Junkit, Josiah and Yvonne for the privilege to serve alongside with you all, entertaining some of my ideas and my initiative in the programming and designing of the lights.
• The Zone Spark Films team: Zixiang for all the opportunities you gave me to film and edit, Coach Hee Jhun and Ireen for the collaboration opportunities, and the rest of the crew for doing such an awesome job! I am also especially thankful to be able to attend DARE camp despite not being able to attend Legacy camp.
• My NUS friends which include, but not limited to the following: The “not so secret group”: Wing, Claud, Gab, Jiayi, Sylvia, Cliff, Adit, Brata, Heem, Hydro, Jack for all the fun things we did together as a group! The “L4D” gang: Edwin, Menghui, Zhenyang, Kim for the games that we play online together and the outings we have to watch movies. The Computing Club regulars, such as Yan Lin, Daniel, Steve, Aiysha, Guozheng, Chongyee etc. and the many other seniors and juniors, my OG mates, for sharing lunches, dinners, suppers, and many fun experiences. And also those people who always study late in school together, Gabriel, Yan Hao, Chris, YC, and those people who come and go. And to all those who are in roller blading and nuSTUDIOS. Thank you all for a unique NUS experience!
• My good old friends Jeremiah Louis and Weiyi, and Chris is to be missed since I have not met him this year =(
• Shang, for being the once-a-year-we-meet friend. It’s quite special that we only meet once a year but I don’t think I will be around next year in Singapore =|
• Elisha, Dixon, Penny, Zhiyao for the unique carried-over-from-overseas faith friendship that we have, and our upcoming Hillsong Conference 2012!
• My brother Jason for the opportunities to help him be cameraman for his new project.
• And my family and my little sister for being so cute always.

The day started off as usual going to school, with my dad shaking my hand before I left the house, and my brother buying me a present last night. Just that this time  I went to NP Library for a fieldtrip for NM3221. While reading the facebook posts on my WP7, I was thinking how facebook has made it easier for people to remember (or forget) one another’s birthdays. In fact, it has become so easy that saying “happy birthday” is now reduced to just a one-liner. Compare this to 5 or 10 years ago, when the people wishing you would have to call you. Which is better?  I don’t know, but I wish people say more than just a one-liner for Happy Birthday. Hence, sometimes I hesitate to wish Happy Birthday to people whom I don’t really know well on facebook. What’s the point of 100 people wishing you Happy Birthday when only 10 of them actually, really, care about you?

As one grows older, birthdays don’t seem that important anymore. After all, if I don’t take the effort to remember my friends’ birthdays, I won’t really expect everyone to remember my birthday. Although I like the idea of surprising other people. Of course, it is nice to know there are some important people in your life who care about you and make you feel like the most important person of the day. During devo, Jonah remembered and wished me. After that, I went to meet Gab for a while before deciding to go home. I wanted to edit some videos at home before going out.

In the evening, I went out to meet yt and vic, yt gave me some home-made choc chip cookies, which were amazing, and a lens cap replacement, which I lost the original while geocaching in Ubin. Then I went to have dinner with Jere and Louis. I could not decide who to meet the day before, and no one asked me out, so I should ask people out right. Turns out that Bel and Helen wanted to meet me too! And so, I had dinner at Botak Jones with Louis and Jere after their work, after going around various places like EwF, Wild Honey, and all having long queues. After that, I travelled to Bedok Point to meet Bel and Helen. We were eating dessert at Sun Kee, then they suddenly disappeared for the toilet for very long, then they surprised me with a slice of cake and some giant biscuits from NYDC next door. I was half suspecting when they took so long. Haha. I’m very honoured and blessed to have such great beautiful friends who would spend time with me =D

Throughout the day, there were some nice SMSes from nice people, like Sel and Chris who texted me from overseas, and also Shang who wrote me a card! Amazing.

The next day, after Arrow, the video team celebrated with me outside the AV Room with a small slice of cake. During diner at the food court, my cg gave me 2 surprises. Firstly, they gave me a box of macarons from Bakerzin, and I thought that was the only thing. They wanted to “try something different”. After dinner, they distracted me from looking around, and surprised me with the real thing – a strawberry cheesecake. I feel blessed to have so many surprises and birthday songs!

On Sunday, went to Aunt’s house and we had another cake again.

As I type this under the night sky on the top of Gunung Datuk, a cool 20 degree breeze flows past with a fog. Reminds me of Santa Cruz weather. Too bad there are no stars visible in the sky.

Thank you Daddy God for the following:

• Last year at this Christmas season, I was enjoying the holiday of my life with Joshua and Vanessa in New York and Canada. I was probably in Niagara Falls or thereabouts. Thank you Daddy God for allowing me to see the world, to see New York City and San Francisco, two cities on two different coasts of another world. It really opened my eyes to see America, see how different people live, homeless people especially. Thank God for all the favours shown in the road trips and the arrangement for the beginning of my exchange programme in USA, from a bigger car, avoiding accidents, to getting the modules in UCSC. It was a truly rewarding experience.
• Thank God for Nikki, Zoe, Whye Kiat, Kep Kee, Stephanie, Canny, Billy, Nidhi, Donna and Jikang, the main people, mostly from NUS, who hang out with me or helped mr frequently during the exchange programme. It was good to have familiar people around who are familiar with one’s own culture and language needs in a foreign country. They made me feel at home when I miss Singapore sometimes.
• In the exchange, I met very wonderful people from the Intervarsity group at Kresge-Porter (K-PO) College, especially people like Jason the leader, Coral, Hannah, Brian, Cameron, Michelle, Duanne, Michael, Naomi, Randy and many others! It was a blast to eat at the dining hall with them and fellowship with them during Kairos and bible study. They allowed me to experience living with American friends in college, in a Christ-like environment. I miss the nights which we would watch LOST together!
• Thank you Daddy God for the many right places and right time, certainly my wish was fulfilled in knowing you more in exchange. Also especially allowing me to meet Penny and her NOC Christian friends, Elisha, Zhiyao and Dixon. They were my weekend buddies when I wasn’t out with the earlier mentioned people. Thank all of you for the church services we attended and the various trips we had, such as to Point Reyes and Bay to Breakers. Zhiyao, thank you for all the wonderful photography insights you sharedq. Dixon and Elisha, thank God for the wonderful excursion to Catalyst West Coast, which is another story altogether. Elisha, thank you for sharing your heart and allowing us to find out how many mutual interests we have. It was really blessed to know you and I look forward to more collaborations in future!
• Thank You Daddy for opening the world of American Christianity, to be exposed to the various good and odd churches around. I enjoyed every single church which I visited and toured to, and especially those which I had contact with the pastors, such as Christian Life Center, Vintage Faith, Santa Cruz Bible etc. Thank God for allowing me to go to so many events and participate in some of them, as ushers in Catalyst West Coast, and the best of all, as video crew at Spirit West Coast. Thank God for the wonderful people I met there, especially Tom and Tracey, who taught me about live camera shoot, mixing and painting. It was really a ball of a time to be involved in such a big scale event. Thank God for allowing me to go on a “world tour” to all the concerts, such as David Crowder, Phil Wickham, Leeland, Skillet, Firelight, Kutless and many more. Amazing.
• Thank God for my CAP5 care group in New Creation Church, for constantly keeping in touch through webcam whenever you all have devo in school. Thank you Selene for the various discussions we have over email, and teaching me how to find my peace in God. Thank you Helen, Teck Beng and Belinda for the countless 4th services we attended and all the fun we have eating and phototaking. Thank you Ome and Alicia for sharing the same modules with me in school and giving encouragement to one another. Thank you Kit Fan and Jonah for always being there and also in our other groups of friends in SoC. Thank you Amelia, Daniel and Nicholas for joining us!
• Thank you Esther, Josiah, Yvonne, Joshen for integrating me and teaching me the ins and outs of the Zone Video ministry! Thank you Zixiang for allowing me to serve with you in the Spark Films!
• Thank God for my best friends from GTC: Jeremiah, Louis, Weiyi and Chris. You guys are great company and support, and will always continue to be my innermost support group (like Jesus’ 3 disciples out of the 12), as you all have been with me through thick and thin for 8 years! Time flies.
• Thank God for allowing me to integrate back into Singapore and joining events such as SoC camp and rag dance. Rag dance is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, thank you to all who were in the team! Though I probably may not join again. Haha.
• Thank God for restful increase in my results. Even though there were many project-based modules, I still pulled through by the grace of God. Thank God for constantly multiplying my time and never failing to show me favour with my lecturers.
• Thank God for my earthly father who also gives me all things which I ask, and supporting me in everything I do. Thank God for my brother Jason who always share tips and insights about films and also advising me in various matters at home.

I am still praying for my life partner and the salvation of my family.

At Ion Orchard, for most of the time, I was standing outside the Orchard MRT station exit with another girl and guy giving out random souvenirs such as fans, flags, luggage tags, ear plugs and brochures to tourists and Singaporeans. I would say that I was slightly biased, as I tried to give more to tourists (Ang Mohs) than to Singaporeans. After standing there for a while, one would notice that that particular MRT exit is pretty useless: it leads to a dead end of the road where one can’t cross to anywhere else. Everyone asks us the same question: how do we get to the other side? We probably told a dozen people to use the underpass at basement 2, while some young European girl did not know what was an underpass, and I was thinking how do you say basement 2 in Chinese. One of the more interesting incident was when a Black German guy requested me to help him take photos of almost every angle at Ion: The (outdated?) YOG clock, the entrance of the MRT, the LV, Cartier, Armani boutiques etc. and of course, with the beautiful ambassadors with our photo backdrop. He was very enthusiastic about F1, and we gave them a giant YourSingapore F1-themed flag for them to wave around. Other than that, there was not much of a crowd, and the rain did not help in that. Another interesting incident was when a Chinese National asked me for a place in Chinese, and I could not figure out the English name of the place. He then asked me what was the road junction, I said Orchard Road in Chinese, and he asked me what was the other road, and I did not know how to say Scotts Road in Chinese. That was pretty funny.

Over at Raffles City, it was more fun yet more crazy and hectic. We were giving souvenirs to an ever-streaming crowd into the gates 3 and 4 of the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Within 5 minutes, many of the souvenirs are quickly snapped up. We had to time our giving in 15-30 minute intervals, otherwise we would finish all of them too quickly. The kiasu Singaporeans would wait and crowd around you, and snatch the souvenirs from your hands before you know it. Some of them actually wait around for the next interval. There was this strange uncle who wanted to ‘date’ one of the girls, and he actually came back to disturb us later. There was also this interesting guy sitting at McDonalds with a huge Panasonic AVX DV camera, and 2 huge and bright gold/silver headphones. A Korean Broadcasting Network cameraman also filmed us as we were giving out the stuff. There were some nice tourists who wanted to take photos with us (we are like stars haha). Some people asked us for directions to the different gates, but we were not quite trained in that, but fortuantely there was an F1 fan in our midst who could help out. One of them said the Circle Line was closed, which was weird. Probably he did not know his way there.

I was wondering, it is named the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and what if some unsuspecting tourists actually take the MRT to Marina Bay and realise that they are in the middle of nowhere? Haha. I think that the Marina Bay MRT Station was built at the wrong location – it was built when the master/concept plan of Marina Bay was still in the draft stages. Now that it is better refined, it is evident that the station location is nowhere near any of the exciting developments: it is quite a distance from MBS (Sands), MBFC (Financial Centre) and is still in the middle of nowhere.

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As for school stuff, recess week is just over. Time flies. I have not done much during recess week but God is amazing in multiplying my time. Restful increase and I shall ace because I have the mind of Christ!

Reflecting back on 2009, thank God for…

• Bringing me into New Creation Church and CAP5 care group, which I believe is by no coincidence, and allowing me to grow more spiritually there and get to know many great friends. I am very thankful for all the fellowship and support they have given me, and I am greatly blessed. And I’m sure everyone else is greatly blessed too.
• Allowing me to embark on a tour in the USA and this SEP journey in the USA for the next 6 months
• Granting me favour and wisdom in my exams. The last semester was probably the best so far, with most of the subjects which I took, I liked them (except for Math). Even so, Math was a miracle, and the CS and NM were great. The three projects which I had to do – A Wii Game for CS3249, a shuttle bus website for CS3240, and an advertising campaign for NM3215, all turned out to be awesome by His grace! He is ever so faithful! Also thanks to the wonderful groupmates which I had.
• Allowing me to experience to be the VP of nuSTUDIOS for a year. It has been a long and challenging time to juggle administrative stuff and the passion for film. Often, the admin stuff sucks your energy away from the passion, but it has been good times with Choices filming and the Durian Complex just before I leave. Even though it was tiring, it was a fulfilling experience!
• Granting me extra time and time more abundantly. It was almost a constant prayer last semester, and God never fails to expand my time to do all the things that I need to do
• For the scubacam website – it was probably one of the most challenging projects that I have done, and finally it is finished.
• For my new dSLR! To take wonderful photos! I should so start a photo blog.
• And lastly, 7 wonderful years of walking with Jesus.

(During the event, some people said the scarf looked not too bad, and I need to have the self-confidence to bring it on. My cousin said I looked like Rain? I guess I need to be less self-conscious and more Jesus-conscious! As You are , so are we!)

The place looked very familiar, then I realised that I went there before 5 years ago for VJC’s 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Ah…we had a cocktail reception before proceding in for the dinner. First time there was the ROM solemnization ceremony incorporated before the dinner. Quite interesting. The food was good, my favourite was the cold dish and the dessert was not bad.  Coincidentally, I met yongxue there. Somehow, he knew my cousin through his workplace. What a small world after all…

My cousin hired a pretty impressive video team, which did a short-film-quality MTV-like same-day highlights video, which showed what happened during the tea ceremonies in the morning. It was very cool, the colours were graded very well and the film-like HD quality was quite good. Some samples of similar videos can be found here.

Going to a wedding also makes one think about what would yours be like in future. But I guess it is too early for me to think about that now!

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School has been good so far. God is good, I have been praying for abundant time and God is certainly faithful in many occasions to multiply my time. On one occasion, I actually reached school half hour earlier. I also managed to finish my CS3240 report in 7 hours on the deadline itself, and the other projects are going on schedule. CS3249 has been the most interesting. Although the project – designing a Wii game – has little to do with the module name, Elements of User Interface Design, it is one of the most fulfilling projects so far.  I did not want to the usual design role, and hence I took up the courage to do the programming role for this project. I had to figure out ActionScript, which was my first time, as well as using the WiiFlash API to program the Bartender game (which another group designed). I had to find out with my teammates how to ‘pour’, ‘shake’ and map the cursor based on the infrared sensor. We managed to create a prototype last Monday, and it was fun and amazing to see the game work. Everyone’s been cooperative and the other groups were quite impressive too. NM3215 Advertising Strategies is going to be stressful as our report about Kia Motors is due next Friday and presentation after that. As for Maths, it is a struggle as always to learn and keep up, but by His grace, I will. NM2101 has been interesting but I hope it is not too difficult to score. Somehow, my essay-writing skills are going raw.

Last Monday, I attended the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum with MM Lee as Guest-of-Honour. It was an interesting but short event as it was my first time in such an event hearing MM Lee speak life. Quite insightful and it is obvious that many people are still interested in politics and Government, just that most of our generation tends to be more nonchalant. MM Lee said that in order for our generation to survive the next 50 years, we need the ruggedness, roburst attitude, will make it, do -or-die attitude like our grandparents/forefathers and understand what it means to be poor. Our forefathers fight against all odds (just like how now Foreign Talent fight with us), and built the Singapore as it is today. I think our generation still has some way to go to learn that, living in so much comfort.

It’s week 10, and 4 more weeks to go. Not long later, after exams, and I will be flying off! For my SEP! To the land of freedom and liberty…in a flight that will cost as much as a computer. haha. I am looking for flights now, it is hard to find a cheap one. Trying to arrange to meet Josh P. there for Christmas too.

I REFER to yesterday’s reports, ‘PM signals a slower intake of immigrants’ and ‘A tip to students: Be driven about causes’.

I am a student at the National University of Singapore. I agree with what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that bringing in foreigners will help ‘raise our standards and create a stimulating environment’.

I enjoy working with people from various cultures, having been exposed to them since Secondary 3, which is when the Ministry of Education brings in scholars from China and Asean.

However, at university level, there are sometimes too many foreign students competing for Singaporeans’ space to grow.

For instance, in a mathematics lecture I attended, almost three-quarters of the class comprised foreigners. During in- lecture quizzes, it was obvious that the foreigners were better than the Singaporeans, and so ‘stimulated’ the learning environment.

However, it has come to a point where the competition has become stifling and stressful. This is because, in most cases, the foreign students have already learnt lower-level maths and science in their home country. Hence, Singaporeans are at a disadvantage in studying the same subject together with them.

Besides, universities here should give higher priority in offering places to Singaporean students from polytechnics and junior colleges. It is like giving your own children priority in education instead of those of a stranger.

Why should we give priority to foreign students at the expense of Singaporeans? I feel sorry for Singaporeans who have no university place because of this.

Singaporeans should be given more opportunities to learn and grow. Otherwise, many of those who cannot secure a place in a university here will go elsewhere.

[In the Straits Times today]