Complaining: Keep It to Yourself

..::*+ Small Talk +*::..

Gosh! Feel slightly down because from tomorrow onward, life would be tough and challenging. Everyday need to work hard during the practical times, not to mention how early we all should wake up so that we would not miss the bus. Sadly, yeah I know.

It has been much fun during this holiday. I made tons of new friends. I know myself better. I've learned a little about being a good friend. Most importantly, I've learned the importance of teamwork and understanding.

You may not understand. You may not know. But the truth, after all, is how great I felt during this holiday.


And a farewell bid to my 2 new friends from French Program, if you happen to be reading this post. Though we just knew each other not more than a week or two, but being around you, and having you around me is another wonderful droplet of life that I've captured this year. Your loud voice, and the "Slithice, the Naga Siren" and 默契 we had are surely unforgettable. You, the other one, although we talked not much, but your warmness towards everyone and your coolish style make my day enjoyable and fun. May all the blessings and lucks shower upon both of you. And I'm looking forward to meeting up you two again in next year!



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Complaining: Keep It to Yourself

Quoted from Checklist of Life.

Do all things without complaining and disputing

-- Philippians 2:14 NKJV

Imagine what it would be like to have a full-time complainer follow you around for a day. You'd soon discover that your house is too small, your job is no fun, you have bad taste in restaurants, and your clothes don't match... that is, if you survived the day without going crazy. Complainers can suck the life out of just about any circumstances. At work, a complainer can make a fun job into a chore. At home, a complainer can turn a place if rest into a place of stress.

Can you picture someone in your world who plays this role? Perhaps that person is you. Or maybe you're just a part-time complainer. Paul had a clear message for all who complain or have a negative attitude: Don't. I his letter to the Philippian church, Paul encouraged the Christians there to do all things without complaining. It's likely that Paul's words sounded a lot easier to obey than they actually were. But there are ways to avoid being a complainer.

Always look on the bright side of life. Okay, that may sound a bit trite. But there is a real power in looking at what's working right in given situation. If you search for something that's wrong or negative in your circumstance, you can almost always find something to complain about. That's the reality of an imperfect life in an imperfect world. But what if you redirect that search and look for something to be thankful for. At the end of the day, a collection of positive experiences or thoughts is going to go a long way toward making your life fun, fulfilling, and enjoyable.

Realize that most complaints do little to improve a situation. Instead f complaining, look for positive, practical solutions to the problem. A complaint about a work procedure may seem like a step in the right direction, but it goes nowhere fast if you don't follow through with helping to find a solution. Rather than count on complaining to change things, offer suggestions.

Complaints are like roadblocks. And each complaint on the path from point A to point B increases the length of your trip. That doesn't mean you shouldn't address improprieties or unfairness. Both ought to be identified and dealt with appropriately -- But with positive actions, not just grumbles about how things are so horrible.

18-09-2007

..::*+ Small Talk +*::..

Today I finished Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows.

Today I found back my missing letter. Thank God Mdm Kahartini did not send it to my house back in Kuching. If not, there'll be big big troubles!

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Did you remember it yesterday?

Do you still remember yesterday?

Did you recall of what happened two years ago yesterday?

Did you even care of yesterday?

Did you cry of it yesterday?

Did you?






I bet you did not.

I bet you're smiling with your friends.

With him, perhaps.

Make me laugh not, nor shall you make me cry.

For all that you've done, yesterday was yesterday and today is today.
For what path that you've chosen, there is only what will you do today, but no back-glancing of what you have done yesterday.

Pieces of me, crying. Pieces of me, leaking...


But pieces of me, will be reforming, beaming...

At the lovely you, once again!

Vincent

Happy Birthday, Mom~

..:*+ Small Talk +*::..

Today I went to play badminton at Akasa Hall. Me and Jacky. As usual, when I was there, the whole place were crowded with peoples, but thank God it's not as much as in those normal days. Anyway, to my surprise, I found someone, finally, who can do double-skip, like me. This person is a lady. Yes, lady also can do it. That time I was amazed and my stomach felt a bit uneasy. All these while I thought I'm the only rare species who can do double-skip, but suddenly, haha, I felt that I'm normal again.

I skipped before Jacky asked me to join him for a double match. And she, through her friend, asked me for the skipping rope. My jaw felt when this girl did double skip for, if not mistaken, around 6-7 times. Not sure, as I'm in a match.

I've seen this girl somewhere in INTEC. She was a junior and currently still in Ausmat Program. I've noticed her, and not long ago I think I did mention her in my post about the SAF competition. Yes, she played for INTEC girls' team. Cool? Haha, She gave me a warm and sweet smile when we met again in the Ramadan Pasar Malam. =)

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Yes, this suppose to be a post yesterday, but somehow I was so tired and lazy did not write about it. Anyway, I went to meet my mom on Saturday morning, although she arrived on Friday late afternoon. I went to Aunt Dorothy's home for the meet up on Saturday morning, after having breakfast with Jacky, a French Program guy and the Korean Program girls. It's hilarious to watch them talk, argue and provoke each other. LoL.

Anyway, I reached and found Wendy was there too. Great. It means I could play computer. But sadly I was dragged to play monopoly. LoL. Monopoly, the board game, but this one is a bit modern. It uses a normal "credit card" and a "card reader" to play, instead of the paper slices, that fly everywhere whenever a gust of wind blows =.=¨ Wow, it was quite modern. But it costs MYR 140++. Yea, cool things often come with cool price.

Monopoly, need no money papers =)

Front cover of the box... Nice eh?

That night we went for a dinner, as my mom and Uncle John's birthday is coming. We went to a restaurant somewhere nearby and after that we sat Aunt Isobel's new car.

Clement: "Do you like my new car??"

Yeah, Nissan Latio. No need key to start engine, wow. But only 1.8cc. But still, it's cool enough, I mean, luxurious~ =) Sadly no picture.

We went back to Grandmother's house. There was a cake and kids. Lots of kids. So we gathered around the dining table and with a click of Dumbledore's Deluminator the lights were off. All we saw was bright candle flames on top of the cake. Everyone sang "happy birthday to you" to mom, and another time to Uncle John. And the kids blew the candle =.=¨

Birthday cake...

Happy Birthday, mom.

Everyone had a slices of cakes...

Jason: "I want 2 piece!!"

Haha. Anway, it was fun. We went back and watched the Il Divo concert (DVD, Uncle John bought it) and then SMS some of my friends, before dozing off as the air-con's wind blew down on me, leaving me chilling on the mattress.


The next day (Sunday) I woke up around 10am (as usual, GMT +8.00) and cleaned up myself. Not long after that mom and Aunt Dorothy came back with breakfast. We went to their church, Charis. Me, Darrell ( my cousin) and Wendy joined the youth service. After that we went for Cell Group, CG. Me and Wendy separated from Darrell, who went to Form1-3 Group, where as we went to College Group.

The topic of the day was "Complaints". We had some sort of discussion about things that we complain, eg. traffic jam, exams, etc. And we learned about this topic - God as the one to hear our complaints, but we must tell out with appropriate ways. Believe in Him, and let him settle out our complaints. Pastor Micheal elaborated the points and told us about some health problems that are related to the topic.

Pastor Micheal: "When I followed some of other pastors around ( when I was not a pastor yet), we often came across some people with some health problem and they asked for cure, heal and bless from God. But pastor asked back them instead: "Do you not having hatred of someone else? If you does not forgive these people I doubt your illness can be cured." And guess what? they followed what the pastor told them and the illnesses are cured.

My point is that, some of the illness nowadays are due to our relationship with God, and our relationship with others.

Learn to forgive, lie how God forgives us.

Learn to love, like how God loves us so much.

Me, totally Nike =D

Full set of Nike, except underwear, haha...

My cousin. Blimey, he's as tall as my younger brother, who is very much taller than me!

Vincent

Faithfulness and Self-Control

..::*+Small Talk+*::..

Sometimes I feel sad, but sometimes I feel, however, happy, whenever I'm happen to be standing between two different gender who are deeply in love with each other. In other words, I'm a somehow to-be-unavoidable light bulb. I have to do the talking to both sides, without destroying my friendship with either one of them. It's like, I'm a bridge, connecting two opposite banks. When they both are in love with each other, I feel happy for them, as I manage to get them two together. But if the situation is the opposite, I'm lost in my thoughts and I sometimes really don't know how to react to the situation.

But what I feel sorry is, that people to be standing in between me and the one that I like, when both of us are having cold war, and perhaps a battlefield. And my friends are stuck in the midst of the gunpowder exchange. They hide informations about opponent when I talk to them. But when I retrieve the informations that they refuse to tell out from other sources, seriously I can't blame them from hiding them (the informations) from me, but honestly, I feel sad, because that is the moment when I realize that they could not be honest to me. It's not their fault in the first place, but it just hard for me, too hard in fact. Until now, I think the most trustworthy friend is a diary.

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Wow, so long I did not blog anything about Campus Alive. Basically I missed the last session, which was roughly a month ago, due to my badminton competition (SAF) at main campus. It was great to be able to go there once more. And I was curious about them not to have CA session 2 weeks ago.

Never mind. Today CA, as usual and to be expected, it was as fun as ever. The title today was Faithfulness and Self-Control. We started off with some ice-breaking games. We were asked to form 2 circles with equal number of peoples. We were supposed to remember our partners (one from each circle) and had music played by Michelle from Korean Program and once the music stops we need to find our partner as soon as possible. The last one would have to be punished by eating lemons without changing any facial expression. It was funny.

Then we started off with worshiping. We sang songs and clapped hands. Honestly I enjoyed the musics a lot. After that, it was time for speech. And again, this time is Pastor David again with his wonderful speech. He spoke about today's topic and told the story of Eve and Adam: how they were lured by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit. He then talked about the temptation that Satan used to challenge Jesus. And Satan failed, 3 times in fact, of course. Throughout the session there were laughters and jokes and we all listened to him as he spoke. It was another enjoyable moment with Pastor. Thank you, I learned a lot today =)

Campus Alive rocks!





Vincent

A Trip to Penang

..::*+Small talk+*::..

Before I talk about my journey in Penang, I would like to say Thank You very much to Alicia and her mother for being the host for our visit. Thank you two for bringing us around and expose us to food and tourist-attraction places. It was a wonderful moment there. Thank you, thank you.


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So as mentioned above, I was in Penang for some sort of holiday. Actually is to meet up with Alicia, who is, of course, another JPA scholar. She is currently having her holiday back here in her hometown, Penang and will be back to U.S. for her study in 2 weeks.

Well, everything was such a fun. On the lovely Saturday late afternoon (or is it called "evening"?) , which is 7pm (GMT +8.00 of course!) me and Yen Zhao packed up and went down to meet Jing Xin and Theng Theng. Before that we had 2 games of DotA, play against the super-pro AI. So we met up and called a cab to KTM Shah Alam Station. And something that we did not much account into our time management happened:

The stupid KTM train was so unusually usually very "punctual", and 3 of us sat there and waited for quite a long time. By the time we reached Central KL Station, we only had about 10 minutes to take our dinner. =.=¨ So we bought ourselves some breads and drinks and went to the platform. And unusually this long-distance train was already there! We thought we could depart and go to Bukit Mertajam Station in time. But guess not again! The train was not moving until around 9.40pm. In the ticket it wrote departure time was 9.00pm. Typically Malaysia public transport. And yes, I prefer German's rail system: You'll also miss your train even you're only late for...

1 minute

Yes, just one lovely minute.


Anyway, we supposed to reach there around 5.50am on the next day. But we ended up nearly 2 hours late from schedule. And very embarrassing that Alicia already at the train station since that nearly two hours ago. I felt bad for myself.

Her mother brought us then for our breakfast. LoL. We were really really hungry. This was the first food that I ate from the time when I set my foot here:

Tadaaa~ This is their Curry Mee!

After our meal we went to Alicia's house. Wow! I've known that she is a girl with super-great brain, but I didn't think that she is so super-great. She had lots of trophies in her cupboard. Yes! I meant A LOT. There was one that is 1/3 of my height. That is her 常识比赛 trophy - Penang State Champion. OMG right? She's cool! Haha...

So after a while we went to the ferry jetty and before we cross to Penang Island, we bought our return-to-Shah-Alam ticket. After that we went across by ferry. From mainland to the island it costs MYR 7.70 per entry (correct me if I'm wrong) and the ride was about 20 minutes.

Penang Island, here I come!!!

Haha... And so we reached at the Island. Alicia's mom booked a corner room at G-Hotel for us. It is located somewhere at the coast area of Gurney Drive. Yea, we stayed at North of Penang Island. We checked in and went to our room. One thing I like to do the most when I'm in a hotel room:

Yes toilet... and it was so classy. Saw the phone which is hanged on the wall?

After that we went travel around Penang Island. We went to visit a lot of places. We went to a youth recreation park. It supposed to be for the teenagers, but after renovations, the target was changed to kiddies =.=¨

Then we went to a flower garden.

Flower flower nice nice?

Since there was a rain when we're on the way there, so the atmosphere was a bit misty, heaty and uncomfortable >.< style="text-align: center;">Tadaaa~

But we did not go up to meet the Guan Yin Statue, as the "cable car" will consume lots of time before reach at the top, so haha, we're all lazy to go up. After that we went for Asam Laksa at a stall which is located very close to the temple. It is rated as "The best Asam Laksa Stall in Penang" by the folks, and I think those who went there will agree with them too! Too bad I forgot to snap some shots of it. But trust me, the food was very nice~! Enjoyed it a lot.

Then we went for other places and we went back to our hotel. Yee Tong and Yin Nin joined us not long after. Later after that we went to have our dinner and me and Theng Theng went for the gym at 3rd floor of the hotel, as it only allow 2 persons to use the facilities. We booked room for only 2 person and yet we have 7 persons! Haha... Anyway, the gym was cool and full with lots of facilities! And too bad again, I forgot to take some pictures of it. If not you all will understand the "cool" that I meant =)

Night time we went to Gurney Plaza for some walk. But since it was late already so most of the shops were closing. True enough, after we had some drinks at Starbucks at ground floor outside the building, I accompanied Theng Theng to go to the plaza to buy mineral water, but the guard shooed us away since it was pretty late.

So we managed to have some good rest and the next day I woke up so damn early, just to watch the sunrise. Everyone agreed to go look at the scenery before we slept, but in the end only me and Jing Xin and Alicia were hardworking enough to wake up for it on the next days. The others slept like pig =.=¨

Anyway, I took the pictures of the process. This is it, and hope you all like it =)


Not nice right? Thanks to some thick Grey clouds that covered my lovely sun T,T

Carlsberg, anyone?

Haha, then we went for breakfast and next to buy some Tambun Biscuits. I bought a box of it and I regretted of that. Should have bought more T,T

So we had our lunch and went back to hotel. We pack our stuffs and went again to Gurney Plaza and body-guard those girls to buy things =.=¨

Ahaha, then it was about time to check out. We checked out but left our things at the lobby. We went for a movie in Gurney Plaza. We watched The Invasion. Swt. Strictly it is 18pl. So gross man! It's a story about some microorganism from outerspace and sticked on an spacecraft and spread around earth, "mind controlling" human so that a so-called peaceful community is born. If you want to watch then go, but as mentioned, it is 18pl so make sure you're already 18 before you go. Don't say I didn't tell you that! haha.

We went to ferry jetty around 6.30pm and crossed the sea. Accompanied Alicia at KTM Butterworth Station until her train came, at 10.00pm. We went later to our bus station and waited there for our bus which scheduled on 10.45pm. And we, as in me and Yen Zhao went back and here we are in Hostel of Cemara now.

It was a nice and sweet time at Penang! Thank you Alicia and you mom!



vincent


p/s: All the pictures were taken by my phone's camera.

1.3 MPixel

So dun complaint ya!

The Smiles And The Tears...

Today it's the day, when we got our DSH German result.

And today it's the day, when I can shout out loud:

I GOT MY TICKET TO GERMANY!

Although my I got 3,4 for the exam, sick, but thank God, I confirm going Germany!


But sadly, this year is a shocking for nearly everyone of us. A lot failed to claim their ticket. A lot of them failed the DSH exam. It was sad scene when Prof. Danneil announced the result. 38 out of 65 people can go Germany. How sad. We had our "thanksgiving" dinner with pizzas. All of the people who failed were also presented. They all tried to hide their sadness, but the impact was too hard that everyone knows how disappointed they were. Just sad.

We enjoyed the dinner together, one last time. Yep, a lot of them by now already went back to their hometown, and to us they bid their farewell. I felt sorry for them. After all, we all had been together for more than 2 years. The bond between us are very strong, that with this kind of separation, it hurts everyone. EVERYONE. Think, your roommate had been staying with you for 2 years and now suddenly they got the unpredicted result and unable to go to Germany together. How will you feel?

Personally I felt sour too, thinking that I might be separated from my comrades here. We're all applied for different universities ( or Fachhochschule). And worst is that me and her are not going to same place. How sad. We still don't know where we'll be placed, but since she applied for different universities, so the chance that we'll be seeing each other often is theoretically ZERO. Maybe this is also what she wanted I guess. Sigh, I just don't know why I'm so urging to write these out. Maybe it is a leak of my feeling that I missed her a lot. And maybe for all this, God is creating chance for me to forget about her. Beide sind möglich. But... I just don't know what I wish for now. But I guess I'll miss her a lot, although she hates me so much. Well, life is complicated, and soul-draining.

For all my fellow friends who manage to fly to Germany, CONGRATULATIONS, WE FINALLY DID IT!!

For all the people who failed the exam, I'm so sorry to hear the sad news. But cheer up, life still goes on, and for the upcoming steps, do continue with your will and spirit to push you to a better life, will you?

For all the juniors, and super juniors, STUDY HARD FOR YOUR A-LEVEL, ENGLISH AND GERMAN. YOU NEED IT TO OUT STAND YOURSELF IN DSH EXAM.

Anyway, I've chose my courses:

1st preference: Mechatronic and microsystemtechnic in FH-Heilbronn
2nd preference: Maschinenbau in FH-Heilbronn

You might ask: Wow! Sooooooooooooooooooooooo really wanted to go FH-Heilbronn?
Yea I guess. I just hope God can grant my wishes.

I don't know what else to blog for now. Tomorrow night will be going to Penang with friends. So will not be online for some time. I'm trying to recover from my sadness. I knew myself very well, that I should go away from this point. Learning...

Work hard, everyone! We all can do it!!



Vincent

The last exam... Muahaha...

..::*+ Small Talk +*::..

Wow, it's been a long time since I last post something here. Sorry if you guys ever curious about it. Actually these days I was into my German studies. Preparing to do a "final showdown", which was indeed just now. Haha... Anyway, thanks to the people who SMSed or chat with me and Pat & Pei Pei for the comments regarding my last post. Thanks!

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So I say, bye bye exams! No more books, no more stresses, no more trouble, no more nothing. I can enjoy my 24/7 spending my time in front of computer and online, if the hostel internet remains steady.

Yes, few days ago it was a chaotic situation, I can't online. Basically I can't connect to the infrastructure. And even if I managed to connect to it, the internet is too slow, that I can't even surf net properly, that my MSN can't even refrain itself from keep on disconnecting. Sigh. Yes, it was funny you know, it keeps on sign-in then sign-out then reconnect. The process keep rolling back itself and for certain time I feel like smashing the whole infrastructure down. Exaggerated, of course.

Today we did our last exam. Yes, the most feared "Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang (DSH)". Bet most of you don't know what that is. Well, it's actually a German language exam that a student must take before entering a German Hochschule or Fachhochschule, errr... Directly translate it will be called "high school", but I prefer something like technique school, or rather university. Haha....

It was not within what I've expected, of course. It was harder than I thought. And the "Hörverstehen" or Listening was kind of messed up. Haha... Don't know what will happen. I guess I did my best? Will go through the whole exam, about the format, time limits etc in some future post. Haha... now tired to describe.

But one thing for sure: I need not to take any exam anymore, unless I fail this DSH exam. Swt... who knows right? No, I was kidding. I will pass. Pass only what, no that hard right? :P

Well, suddenly feel like empty shell again. No purpose in life, I mean, no more exam already, and there surely will be no mood to motivate me to go read my Germans again. Oh ya, I still remember my dear "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". Yes, sickening, people already finished the 7th book and I didn't even started with the blooooooooody book 6. Oh yea, I did start with it, but errr, say 50 pages the most? Haha... zzzz...

Anyway, this period of time might be the best time for me to heal my wounds, to stand up again and to look deep into my future. Time heals, don't it, Pei Pei? Haha... So I'll just take my time, and give myself a good rest =)

Later will go play badminton with Jacky they all. Can't wait. Ciaoz~



Vincent