2 reasons why I am a loser

1. I have 6 coms in this house. 3 of them have broken down and the rest can't get the job I want done.

2. I have 5 links on this blog. One is my old blog, one belongs to a guy who koped my Firefly Cds and never called back, and two of them have shut down. I'm the the blogopshere's equivalent of a dour, unsociable man.


Sigh.

Life feels so good right now

Three books I'm bringing to camp:
1) Bible
2) Dragonlance- Dragons of a Fallen Sun
3) An Introduction to Sociology

I'll make it a point to clear these these by the middle of June. It's going to be a while before I get a whole weekend, but there's plenty of time to be spent in the evenings so it's all good. I got to meet up with mark and kader on friday, and chris, aaron, and kei seen on saturday, so at least I caught up with everyone these past few weeks when it's comfortable.

Urgh, friday marks the day when I was a made a clear target of racism. Cycling at Sentosa, again... Though this time it was cut short and we just headed over to my place...

Ate dinner with Aaron's family on saturday... Those twins never seem to grow bigger.... ever. Bought 3 tofu desserts to Kei's house, but he didn't want to eat so I ended up having to gobble all 3 of them... ugh. Washed it down with water and then beer... ugh. Woke up the next day and went to church where this really bubbly pastor's wife gave a sermon with a bit of Mother's Day mixed into it.

Got acquainted with two new shows this weekend: Eureka7 and Claymore manga. I think Claymore is like a first rate version of second rate Bleach.

Some guy wrote: 'We do things for two reasons- The good reason and the real reason.'

How true. How true?

But life has been so good this weekend with the exception of my lost helmet (which is really bugging me), that I can just write disconnected ramblings again. Subarashii. Back to camp.

History Lessons

I went with my family to my grandparent's birthday celebration at the Mirama. Things were pretty much the same as the other family gatherings, but a conversation with Aunty Betty and one between my grandparents made things rather memorable.

Aunt Betty told me a huge amount of stuff about my family's religous background that I knew Nothing about. Apparently the first person in their family to become a Christian was Dai Ba. After that my dad followed and then Aunt Betty and finally Aunt Jenny, all of them attending the Faith Methodist Church service at Commonwealth.. The interesting part comes in around the time when Dai Ba first converted. It seems that Mama was extremely opposed to it, and she actually went over to the church to scold the pastor for converting her son! A little while later, she had a dream one night where God came to her and asked her why she was stopping her son from going to church. After that she stopped restricting Dai Ba and later converted to Christianity herself.

Hearing this was like another Woah moment for me. Somehow the topic kept coming up. I guess it's because it was a Sunday or something and several of the siblings were late due to different church-related events. Kevin and Dominic both attend FMC, and their youth service takes place in the classrooms of ACJC. Jonathan was filling in to teach a Sunday School class.... I'm really in the dark with regards to my extended family -_-

The conversation between my grandfather and my grandmother can only be described as ...cute. Haha. They were pretty lively today and we were on the topic of ... female companionship and marriage for some reason. My Grandmother started telling me about how good she is at judging a woman's character, and that my mom was really quiet and subdued in her youth (-_-), and that my mom and my dad were together since Sec3 (hypocrites -_-)(I feel... really slow...). Then she mentioned how she had very little education but went to read books and became pretty good at... something (language I think), then my grandfather teased her by calling her stupid and she told me, 'Wo Tao yan ni de gong gong' and asked me whether I knew what Tao yan meant. Haha.. Also talked about the cool cane she bought from the hospital ( I want one.) and her getting on in years and the importance of languages.

I learnt a new word today. Pa Tor. Pa Tor. Pa Tor. Pa Tor. Pa toR. Pa tOR.

It's Easy to Remember

A lot of things happened this day. Some of it was really fun and funny. Some of it was really... unmentionable, but overall it was a great day for going cycling with the... jie mei (can't really get used to that -_-).. Although one of them was rather.. not nice to my innocent friend =/ We haven't met up for the longest time, haha... Apologies if I was slightly dense or untalkative by the end as I'd been feeling unwell since the morning. It was some great catching up =)

My goals till August are generally being fulfilled with the exception of church camp planning. I'm not playing a big role in it but it's true that I really am not putting in enough effort. Circumstances are also making it hard for me to consistently attend the meetings... Perhaps God is telling me to work harder at it first =/

...Hmmm. A random thought. I got a helluva lot of teasing about my unique surname when I was younger... Moey became Mooooeey and then Moyskito and Mui and now Momo in camp... In the end though perhaps it really is more of blessing than a curse. All the guys at camp have something easy to roll of their tongue when calling me. Furthermore, having endured all the name calling over the years has perhaps made me more sensitive to fellow uniquely named people... All the woos, cais, nettos, puays, trefors.. You are alone in name only!

Doing G shift has given me a lot more spare time in the evenings to exercise and improve on certain things, but it has also led to me having less time to spend with my friends in the main shift... Though they've been quite understanding so far as to our fortunate circumstances, I hope things will continue to be peaceful and that I won't lose touch with them till August when G shift begins to disband. Perhaps it would be best if the Gshift ppl took a more active role in promoting the welfare of our fellows...

Hmmm. 2 trips to Sentosa in two weeks. I'm becoming a beach boy!

Hayate no Gotoku- The Combat Butler

The anime series titled as above is an ultimate parody anime. It's parodying just about everything. Everything. Everything.

Haha yeah you'd think that about the IGallop huh? There's all kinds of positions like lifting yourself one-armed from the 'reins' and bending under it etc..

We act like different people when we're with our different groups of friends.. True? You might be boisterous and light-hearted with one bunch, and quiet, serene with another group. Is it duplicitous? No, but I think I used to believe that to an extent. At least I thought that it was simply a case of different people bringing out different things within us. Looking at myself and my long-time friends over the past few years, I now feel that it is because we ourselves are changing, moulting with each passing year and environment and friendship, for the most part becoming a more understanding, patient, kinder and mature person.

And our patterns of friendship also change, we shed our old skins and find our new selves interacting with new acquaintances in a different way, perhaps according to how life has treated us during that transition from old self to new self. For some, having spent time with good people make it easier for them to believe in others. Then there are those who are thrown into an environment so stifling that cynicism becomes comforting to embrace...

Still, in the face of all these changes I think that we continue the act the same way with our old friends, holding on the same comfortable and 'recognizable from a distance' patterns that we'd built a friendship over. -That is nostalgia, and occasionally regret, according to how constructive or how destructive those old patterns are.

My experience so far has been a humbling and a bolstering one. I've met a whole host of new friends in my unit but this time round, I don't feel crippled by inferiority or heady with superiority. I can talk and laugh with them all the time about a whole range of topics, but that has as much to do with me being able to do so as much as it does with them being accepting and friendly. I see bad things and good things about them, but I am neither subordinate nor superior to any. Maybe I used to think that I could understand a lot of things better than others, but now there's thinking that I can't begin to comprehend, humility I can't even nearly approach, openness that I aspire to but can't quite reach yet.

For those friends who are now in places that make it harder to believe in others, I hope you'll soon find people that you'll enjoy working with and can believe in. If nothing else, there are always the old friends and the old patterns to fall back on and spring forward from.

And for those, whom my old patterns are not so complimentary too... Forgive me if I have failed to see that you've changed for the better, and myself for not changing enough =)





-I really wish I'd payed more attention during sunday school -_-

Songs to get:

-The World Ain't Slowing Down by Ellis Paul
- All the songs on Jian Yue's mp3
- Grace Kelly
-Chinese music Cds from Yicheng