Had dinner tonight with Bryan, Jiaqi, Sindy, Sheldon, Weilong, Ivan, Weeming, Lehung, Weesiang and Huixiang. Was a nice night, me just being my mindless self and everyone else scolding me. I think I really just spent my birthday having mindless fun. Times like that make you appreciate life yknow. Hahaha.

It's an awesome birthday because in a single day I realize how many great friends I actually have, who really care about me. It's been a phenomenal year, both in a good and a bad way. But at the end of every single day, I just tell myself I wouldn't have it any other way. God's hand is upon my life!

Nothing much to blog about my birthday though, really. It was really just mindless fun, and a lot of love being given to me.

Special thanks to Yiwen, and the others from DL4! Seriously, this is the best present I've received in my whole life, and I mean every part of what I'm saying. This is just... love. Hahaha. Yiwen's been a truly awesome friend, she's been there all the time, put up with me alot, stood by me.. thank you, Yiwen! We've still got a long walk ahead of us, let's stick together in this! Hahaha. And the same goes for all you DL4 people! Venus, for the really really pretty drawing of my name, and Ryan for the strings that sound real good, and everyone else! Sorry if I didn't mention you, but you know I love you :D come look for me and I'll give you a hug!

Perhaps birthdays are more significant than I thought they were. Jesus' birthday is huuuuuuuge in the world, isn't it. Hahaha. Birthdays are really just days where you get to see all the love that's always been around you!

Pretty tired now, been a tiring zombie-ish week. Men United conference in 8half hours, it's gonna be another life changing session! :D

Been a tiring day. Wearing skates for kids is more tiring than you think!

Gonna go sleep now.. then turn up at school tomorrow. I hope the teachers don't kill me. It's really a waste of time... them having only two lectures a day, when we can just be done with everything if they just pack everything into 2 or 3 long days. I don't like it.

Anyway, it's not 12 midnight yet, so.. happy birthday, Pei En! I don't know whether you'll ever see this.. but you've been a great sister to me! Hahaha. 18 years old, you're a woman now, no more a girl!

Work again tomorrow. Drop by Novena Velocity if you got time, I'll say hi to you :D

1. Game begins.

2. Enter the maze.

3. Hear the commentator say "Ohhhh, [insert my teammate's name here] is out!"

4. Repeat step 3 four times.

5. Exit the maze, to find 4-10 guns (in the arena it doesn't feel like you're only playing against 6 people at all.. they're everywhere) being pointed at me.

6. Activate my shield until it runs out.

7. Die.

Was like that for all my games this weekend. I really really preferred the first week's mode of play.. I only enjoy shooting people, not getting shot and running around in a maze! But that's just me. Hahaha.

Was a good weekend though. Met some new people, and Pst How preached a simple and powerful message to us. I read in Pst Kevin Loo's devotional how we always look for great miracles from God around us (like the blind regaining their sight) but tend to overlook the greatest miracle that occurs: the salvation of our friends and family!

Sometimes, at certain points in life, you meet people that change the way you think and live, the way you look at the world and people. And sometimes, you meet people that change the way you view yourself. And just on that special rare occasion, you meet someone that changes the way you view God. About three months ago.. I met a person that changed me in all three ways. Today.. I met another one. It's just so amazing how things hit you unexpectedly. Right now, you're sitting there reading my blog, while your mind's elsewhere thinking of what you're gonna be doing tomorrow. You'd never expect that, for example, you'll meet the love of your life tomorrow, or undergo a life-changing experience of some sort. It's like walking and falling down. When you know you're going to fall, you don't fall entirely, you're ready for it. It's the falls we don't see coming that really hit us hard. But falling isn't a bad thing. Ah.. I'm getting lost in thought.

Been a really tiring day, I'm missing out on loads of sleep. Hahaha.

Brain's overloaded now.. what a day.

To summarize today.. I just want to love people!

Many times, happiness is a choice we make, like lots of other things in life. To be happy, or not to be happy, it's really a very simple decision we gotta make. But something as simple as this is often complicated by ourselves.

A little boy once saw a butterfly, with wings of a rosy red. He decided to call it Rose. It was a small creature, flitting from flower to flower. He crouched down, set his mini shovel down on the floor, and wrapped his arms around his knees. Following the butterfly with his eyes.. he couldn't tell why, but it just brought a joy to him. Unknowingly, he stuck out his right arm, and unexpectedly, it flew over, and landed on his outstretched palm. He was scared of insects.. but this was different. He began to speak to the butterfly.

"Hi, what's your name?"

No reply of any sort came.

"My name is Peter."

Still no response.

Now feeling stupid, Peter decided he would just let the butterfly fly away, then head back to the beach. So he blew lightly on it. It didn't fly away.. he blew a little harder. Still it stood, on all six legs, not even moving slightly.

"Go away!"

It still didn't move.

Now Peter felt weird. He had read stories with talking animals. Perhaps the butterfly was speaking real softly, that he couldn't hear? He put his head a little closer to it. He waited for awhile.. but heard nothing.

"Stupid butterfly!"

He had such an urge to crush it in his hands. So fragile, so brittle, and it infuriated him, that it didn't talk, didn't want to budge, but still stayed on his hand. But he didn't. He looked around him.. there was no one. Then he started telling the butterfly everything. He told the butterfly how he wasn't happy. How things at home weren't good.

"Daddy doesn't like Mummy,"

"I'd get woken up at night and beaten for nothing,"

"Mummy doesn't like me,"

He told the butterfly everything. The butterfly listened to everything. As he spoke, tears started to well up in his eyes. Then they overflowed, and streamed down his cheeks in a line. He was so angry. He wanted to fly away, like how the butterfly could. He told the butterfly how he admired it, that it had wings and that it could go wherever it wanted.

He sobbed, he weeped, and the butterfly stayed ever so still.

The boy finally finished confessing his woes. He looked at the butterfly. It had such small eyes.. minute little globules it had at the top of its head. It was looking at him. They held each other in their eyes for a minute.. then it flew away. The boy looked on as it flapped it wings quickly, flitted away.. he could only continue crying.

And he cried. And cried.

And then he stopped crying. His wings folded, he never tried to fly.

Now he will soar.

I feel totally on fire today. Fire. That's what I want myself to be made of. Something is stirring in my life, and in the lives of people around me. Things are being set into motion. The flames of war have begun to burn!!!

Okay maybe the last part was a little exaggerated. But there's definitely something, you can just feel it.

Discipline, it's the focus of the season.

"Clutching his silver sword in his right hand, and his shield in the left, he gave a triumphant cry to the distant horizon. It was said that this cry echoed on for miles, that people far away could hear his voice, and recognize it. Then he slumped to the ground, having defeated his enemy. He had accomplished his deed. Now he must rest, for greater trials await him, as do greater strengths."

Really really tired now. I'm gonna have to go sleep...

By the way, thanks Novel for the steamboat at your house! It was a great dinner really. But more than that, it was the company that was truly awesome!

Happy birthday Novel!

Woke up real late though, and went to school real late. Hahaha. But at least there was good news.. I'm promoted to J2! It's really a burden lifted off my chest, to know that I still have a place in NYJC next year. It's not bad a place, really...

Anyway I've been thinking about which ministry in church I want to join. Basically it narrows down to Sound and Children's Church.

If any of you chuckled/sniggered/laughed, I hate you.

But yeah, I'm gonna seek God on this. It's not really about what I want. Maybe He would want me to be in Choir, I wouldn't know! :D

If any of you chuckled/sniggered/laughed at that too... words cannot describe my feelings toward you.

Progress on the guitar isn't too bad, my chords sound human now. Still a long way to go, though.

Here I come, breakthroughs!

Had a steamboat at Ryan's house! Happy birthday Ryan, hahaha. The food was great and the people were great and the music was great (my music especially) and your family was so nice and everything. I'm really glad to have met you and have you as a friend. And that applies for everyone else in DL4. And hoGc. Life is just so great now with all of you. I love all of you! <3

Public confession. Hahaha.

I'm running out of things to blog about. My posts are getting shorter and shorter. Come on people, give me some ideas!

Caught paranormal activity last night with Valerie, Julian, Weicheng, Lionel and Yilong. It was a great horror movie, not the typical cheap scares kind. The way the atmosphere builds up is just chilling.. you're literally teetering on the edge of your seat every night the camera films them sleeping. Plus it all feels so real. Go catch it if you haven't. And bring a few friends, you won't want to go home alone. Hahaha.

Anyway, service was seriously great. Being a real man is really not simple. I haven't really organized my thoughts. Maybe I'll talk about it. But really, it was just so powerful, the service. I think that at my age it's really time to start being a man.

The knight in blue and gold. If I'm gonna be a knight, I gotta first be a man!

Supper with my old friends was nice. Talked about stuff we usually talk about. Friendships don't change, but people do, I think. I feel that friendship is not a result of circumstances, emotions, chance, etc.. it's a choice. Because friendship is about love, and love is a choice per se. Anyway, the friends I had in secondary school.. I only meet them occasionally nowadays, but they remind me of how much I've changed. And I think they haven't really changed. Don't know whether it's a good or bad thing.

Thoughts are pretty disorganized tonight. I'll be blogging again tomorrow.. all the way till 25th November.

To all A Level students taking their exams now, press on! It's about halfway through, stay strong! Do your best, and God will do the rest!

Hey that rhymed. Catchy. Hahaha.

Anyway it's been a few days since I blogged.. life's been pretty good. As usual. Although, I don't just want to stop at good. I want to make life great! Most of the time, we just go with the flow of everything. Good times, bad times, we take what's coming and go with the current. That'd be a good life. One with ups and downs. I want to break out of this current. I wanna turn my downs into ups, and my ups into.. up-ups. Life's a sea, with its fair share of calm and storms. But the boat is ours. And I'll let God be my boatman!

I don't really know what that meant. Hahaha. I'm doing this just so I get to see Valerie scream.. this isn't easy mannnnn.

Lazer tag is in 11 hours from now. I'm excited just thinking about it. Gosh. If anyone's interested in buying the gun tell me, if there are enough people we can do a mass order, cuz we got to import them from America or something. They're about $80 a gun, shipping costs included. We'll probably do it next year, if we are to do it.

I caught This Is It just 2 days ago! It was good.. but really it just felt like watching youtube clips on a big screen. Michael Jackson's great though, he's really a legend. He divided music into 'Before MJ' and 'After MJ', that's why he's a legend. And he stayed true to himself as well as others throughout his whole career, I think. He reminds me alot of the phrase 'child-like faith'

D'you know Elvis Presley is a legend too? That man is just great. Listen to his songs! I like this song 'Wooden Heart'. Go watch the video on youtube, its a black and white movie. It's just really... romantic.

I remember looking at this little baby like two weeks ago, on the bus. He was sitting on his mother's lap on the bus. At one of the stops this man came up. Pretty unfriendly-looking guy. Sat beside the mother, and after a while he started playing with the kid. It was pretty nice to see. It struck me how everyone can't stop themselves from loving a child. Perhaps it's because children don't judge. Or maybe they just remind us of the purity of heart we once had. Maybe I'll think about it some more and blog about it again. Hahaha.

Lots of times, my head gets cluttered with thoughts. I box them up (hahaha Yong Siang, the boxes in the brain thingy!) and label them, then keep them somewhere in that space between my ears. And lots of times, I lose track of which box contains what. I think I gotta upgrade my OS.

Well that's it, first of my 13 posts for the next consecutive 13 days. 13. *shudder* I need ideas, people, ideas about what to write on. Drop me a suggestion in that tagboard or something!

No I'm not in love I just really like these lyrics. And to my future wife: if you're reading this, you must like Elvis Presley okay, or else I, um, won''t buy you flowers next time.