PLKN Friends! =D

I must say having new friends in NS has made my days in National Service pass much faster (MUCH MUCH faster) than I imagined it would be. Comparing to the first few days in NS, time was passing very VERY SLOWLY for me. And the only people I hung around were my two schoolmates, and fyi, one of them has already left. And it was a little hard for us to get to know the other people, because we were all introverts. Now, time is now literally flying by me. I can consider myself having a good time in NS. And, I SERIOUSLY can't imagine that a month of NS has already passed by.

This some of the pictures I took with my friend's camera. =D

This is Jin Xi (Perlis), Jared (Kulim), and Dave (Sungai Petani).With the other Chinese guys... (Sorry... I'm not into posing =D)Monkey and Rav.Notice that we have a guitar there...? It's Jared's! =D

At nights, we have basically nothing to do, when the Muslims go for their daily night prayer. We occupy ourselves with chess, UNO and the guitar! =D

SUSOM 2010... [Kuantan]

SUSOM! Ah… It seems just like yesterday I was in Kuantan with Jing, getting our testimony about SUSOM ready for church deputation in Kuantan Baptist Church. Memories and experiences, I have, and learnt, that shall always be close to my heart. =)

24/01/2010

All of us had to wake up early today. The 6 of us, were split into 3 groups, and were to go to 3 different churches. My church deputation partner today would be with Jing! And we were to attend Kuantan Baptist Church with Sieh Jin and Jason. By the time we left, the first group had already left.
Kuantan Baptist Church is like Wesley Methodist Church Alor Setar… located in shop lots. It looked small from the outside. But when I stepped inside, my first impression of it was HUGE! Maybe it was because of the way it was furnished that made it look bigger. Jing and I did our testimony interview style. I think it was okay…? You should ask Jing what she felt it was. Sieh Jin preached the same message he did in Tamil Methodist Church in KL. The book table was set up as usual, and I think the response was pretty good. And guess what, there were refreshments after the service. It seems to be a routine here. I think it's a good way of fellowshipping. It's a good idea. I think churches should practice this, but it'll make the church broke. Haha…

A funny thing happened though, while we were having our refreshments. Before we came here, I was asking Jing, why they didn't invite us to join their youth which was after church service, like the other 2 churches the other 4 SUSOMites went. And it so happened that the speaker which was to speak couldn't make it and the youth counselor asked Sieh Jin to take his place. =D My wish came true. =)

Jing sharing.

I was shocked to see such few youths joining youth service. Maybe they aren't many youth Christians in Kuantan. But, we were totally unprepared though. We played a game, the game that Tong and Deb wanted to play with the youth service they were attending, and the loser had to do butt writing. =D (My group won! =D) And after that, we shared a little about our testimony and Sieh Jin shared about SU. But I think, the youth still managed to learn some things from us and know more about the works of SU. =)

After youth, we joined the others for lunch. We were invited by one of the Presbyterian Church's member. The chicken rice I had there was superb. How I wish the chicken rice in Alor Setar was as nice. Hm… And, our work in Kuantan was done! =D Time to head back to PJ!
But before that, we made a pit stop in FELDA Residence TEKAM. Jennifer wanted to check out the campsite for SUPA camp. I think Kedah SU Camp should be held there one day. The only thing it the journey would take more than 8 hours…? And, the guys' toilet is like the toilets in NS. Open bathing. I guess some guys would be uncomfortable with the idea. But the facilities there are quite lengkap I think. There are chalets, a swimming pool, a field, badminton and volleyball courts, dorms, halls, etc…

Anyway, we had bah ku teh for dinner (the famous one in PJ, by 1), and guess what, Josh says he has never had it before. Can you believe it? =D

"Da Niu".

PLKN CASE 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.

PLKN Case 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.! For the whole list of cases, click here. For Case 4, click here. =D
What caused the spot check? And why was it till 2 a.m.? I think most camps don't do such spot checks? It so happened that one of the trainees reported to the jurulatihs that there were trainees smoking in the cottages. The reason it was reported because that trainee couldn't tahan the smell of the cigarette smoke. And thus, the ketua jurulatih launched a full scale spot check for GUYS only. The girls were excused, and could go back to their respective cottages to sleep. (=S No fair!)

And thus, at about 11 plus p.m., the spot check begun. All of the guys were in their respective groups sorted to their respective cottages. A whole company of guys took about 45 mins, and there were 4 companies. Imagine that. By 1 a.m., a sight of wiras could be seen lying on the tar road sleeping. =D

The spot check ended at about 2 close to 3 a.m., and we slept for about 2~3 hours before getting up for the following day's PT Pagi. Argh!

The weird cases of PLKN! :S

2010...

2010...

I can't believe that it's almost May already! I think time has never passed this fast for me... In a few more days, Form 6 shall start (and I don't know what to feel... Excited? Or scared?). And before you know it, Christmas has arrived, and carolling shall begin! And say goodbye to 2010, and hello to 2011. How time flies.

Ah... Sometimes, looking back and reflecting back on the events that happened throughout the year can be rather fun, don't you think? =] When you think about it, the events that happened just seems like yesterday, and there is a deep longing to get back to that time frame.

In January, I joined a program called SUSOM. There, I met 5 great friends. And, also many great mentors that has touched and built my life. Looking back, I miss those days. Ah, how I wish it was January 2010 again. =)

In February, I had the chance to visit Astro, head down to Penang and KL for short vacations. =)

In March, I joined Kedah SU Camp as a helper, and thus, after that, my National Service life began... until now.

I must say, God has blessed me with activities to keep me occupied. And I must say, I've never found my life after Form 5 boring, although many of friends are complaining that the period of 3 ~ 4 months after SPM was a rather boring time for them.

Thank you God!... and my parents too! =D

PLKN CASE 4: The Keeping of Handphones.

CASE 4: The Keeping of Our Handphones! For the whole list of cases, click here. Out of the 5 cases, I think I'll blog about 4, one of them seems inappropriate to be blogged about (only those who know, will know). =D

11/04/2010

Today was the day the camp commanders decided to confiscate our phones, for the time being. This camp had a known history of not keeping the handphones of the NS trainees, compared to the other camps.

Reason? There were many speculations made by the trainees on why our handphones were taken back. One of the many theories formed were one of the trainees were playing with their phones and did not call out a greeting of respect to the jurulatihs and tuans. Another speculation that was going around was the camp commanders wanted to stop the smuggling in of cigarettes. And from now, our phones would be with us from Thursday night to Saturday night (which was sadly changed to Friday afternoon to Saturday night later on). And, that's why our phones were taken. =(

And because of that, we Christians were late going to church! Earlier on, Jared, Benjamin and I had negotiated for the change of church; from Wesley Methodist Church Chinese Service to Wesley Methodist Church English Service, with the Timbalan Commandant, and he had given us green light. And today, when we asked the Urus Setia whether we were going to the English Service today, she said she hadn't any news, and the Timbalan Commandant was not around, and you know what she said? She said "Never mind larh, if this week cannot go church, no need go, next week only go pray." (Translated from BM) I was like, "WHAT? Just yesterday the Timbalan Commandant was talking about our haks sebagai pelatih PLKN, and now you talk like this?" I was so PISSED!

Finally, we managed to get to church, but we were a whole hour late, which was a pity. There was an invited speaker from out-of-town, and I think his talk would have been a rather interesting one. And guess what, the bus came and pick us a whole hour late! Come also late, go back also late! ARGH!

Interesting? Come to PLKN, and experience weird experiences. And you'll learn to stand up for your rights. =)

PLKN Kuala Nerang "Special" Events! =D

There were a few "unusual" events that happened in throughout the period when I was in National Service. =D

Let me see...

CASE 1: The Missing Person.
CASE 2: The Spot Check Till 2 a.m.
CASE 3: The Locker That Was Punched.
CASE 4: The Keeping of Handphones.
CASE 5: Scandal.

I think there are much much more, but I can't seem to recall others at the moment... =D

So, which case do you wanna hear first? Keep checking my blog for the full story! =)

A Note I Wrote on the First Day of NS...

29/03/2010

First Day of National Service.

At 8 o'clock, the sun shining. There was I, lugging my bag and pail along, to the stadium, where the buses to NS would be, waiting for the unlucky trainees who got selected.

I went. I saw. Buses. Loads of them. Zhean Wei was already there. He had already registered. And his was the first bus, leaving me and Poh Khoon behind on the second bus.

I arrived at Kem Dusun Minda Resort, Kuala Nerang an hour later. My first thought. Doomsday. I'm like a fish out of water here. I was surpised to see trainees there already. It seems that the Ipoh, Sungai Petani, Kulim trainees had already arrived. Oh, I thought, the Alor Setar group was the last to arrive.

Thank goodness I had friends from my ex-school, Zhean Wei and Poh Khoon. Without them, I think life for me here would be more miserable. And the other trainees seemed to have their own cliques already. :S Ah... making friends was never easy, especially when you are an introverted person.

Life sucks here. The toilet is dirty (probably because it has not been cleaned or used since the last batch of NS), the water in the kolam is yellow... How can one survive? Home... is a MUCH MUCH better place! =[ I guess I just have to pull through till NS ends? Just another 70 days. :S

I can't wait for form 6 to start! (And I seriously can't believe I'm saying this) Studying seems so much more FUN than this.

Going on to food. It's okay I guess? Fish, meat, veggies and fruit? And, that's what I'll be eating for the next 70 days of my life. :S

After lunch, my hair!... that took so long to grow after SPM, has been cut! T.T Anyway, the rest of the day basically was free time. And tomorrow, all activities shall start. :S

And now, I have completed 1 month of NS, and I must say, my views of PLKN has changed COMPLETELY from the first day I stepped in it. I'm actually beginning to enjoy it. The fun activities will be starting after semester break, and I am looking forward to some of it.

But alas, decisions have to be made to. To study or not to? And, I've decided to get out by May 10th to study. A right decision? I hope.

I'm Back from NS!

I'm BACK! And thanks to Joseph and Tim, I was able to get home! xD Thanks for picking me up! =]

I shall be back for about 6 days, till 1st of May. After that, back to the daily grind of that hectic schedule of NS. Anyway, I'll blog more about NS later! =)

My to do list!

1. Sleep!
2. Watch a movie in AS Mall...!
3. Bowling.
4. Play drums in MYF this friday!
5. Meet Joyce!
6. Online! xD

That should be all for now...? I guess there are more, but I'm too lazy to think... xD

This is "How" A Post Box Should Be... =D

I was at the post office the other day, to renew my "L" licence before it expires. And guess what I saw.... the post box OPEN wide! (Now we know why letters go missing! =D)

As I took out my phone to take a picture of it, there were people dropping letters into the box from outside, and the letter would just swish out onto the floor. I guess "someone" didn't close it properly after taking out the letters... =D

Youth Seminar in KT (SUSOM =D)... [Part 1]

Notice: This is going to be a super long post! =D In my book that I used to record what happened from day to day, it was 9 pages long! =O Happy reading. =)

23 January 2010
Ah! Everyone woke up early today! Why? Because we're going to KUANTAN! And we need to put our bags into the cars.

Breakfast, was at the market. And oh, there is one thing you shouldn't order in Kuala Terengganu, and that's their "char kuey teow". It was just horrible! =S

We headed to St. Andrew's Anglican Church for a youth seminar after breakfast. But we were early and the church was locked. So, guess what we did...We lepaked in the store right next to the church that was selling bathroom stuffs! =D (And who said Jing wasn't photogenic =P)

St. Andrew's Church.

At 10:15 a.m. sharp, the seminar started with a time of prayer and worship. It was a little impromptu though, because the youth of the St. Andrew's Church wasn't told that they were to lead in worship. In the end, they used the worship songs from previous Friday Church Service.

The youth... leading in worship! =)

Worship ended exactly as scheduled! O.O The first session out of five was led by Sieh Jin. All the sessions were based on the theme "Reach Out!". His session was entitled "Intro into Evangelism". He taught us about the methods of evangelism, through events, friendship, power, care, personal and media. That got me thinking about MYF. MYF has tried reaching out to people through events (MYF Christmas Party 2009), and I must say, it was a great success, and this Easter 2010 (it has passed though! XP It was a thought at that moment), we must try it again, REACH OUT! =D He also gave us examples in the bible where he asked us to act out the character out based on the passage. It was quite fun! I think it really set the mood of the youths attending the seminar.

After Sieh Jin's short sharing, we, SUSOMites did a short skit entitled "Heaven and Hell". =D

After the skit, Daniel Koo took the next session entitled "Understanding the Gospel of God".Before he started, he broke us up to groups and asked us to think of questions non-believers would ask about Jesus. In only 5 minutes, surprisingly, we came up with tons of questions. And surprisingly, most groups had jolted down Trinity of Christ (something I did not expect) in one of the questions most asked by non-Christians. My friends in school usually ask about the restrictions of what a Christian can eat or do, or what is church service about,... etc. But through the years, I have never encountered a friend of mine asking about the Trinity of Christ.

So, the first common question asked by non-believers; "Is there a God?". I think if I were a person looking for answers about God, this is the first question I would ask. Logical, right? So, as a Christian, how would you answer such a question?

Daniel Koo thought us 4 different methods; causality, rationality, morality and purpose.

The first method, causality. A method I think I would most use to answer such a question. First, ask yourself, if there was not a God, nothing created everything around us. Every single thing around us is a result of random occurrences, including yourself. Doesn't make sense right? So, if there was a God, everything is created by Him, for He is the Prefect Designer. Logical? Yes, I think so.

The second way, rationality. Using this method, if everything was not created by God, everything is an accident? Do you think this is a valid explanation? No, right? How can everything be created through accidents? Surely there is a smart designer and inventor behind it. If your rationality is randomly established, do you think your rationality is rational enough to judge the rationality about the existence of God?

Coming to the third method, morality! If there is no God, there is no moral consciousness within us, right? Because we are the results of random genetic exchange which to me, doesn't make sense, because we have morale, if we don't have moral consciousness, why are we learning Pendidikan Moral in schools? So, if there is a God, we are made in the image of God, with a moral consciousness.

The last method, purpose. If there is no God, we are purposeless, we are born just to live and die. We are just like hungry animals looking for food, merely just to pass time. But! If there is a God, we are created in His image and we have a purpose in life, to live for Him and try to lead a life according to Him.

Anyway, the next question a non-believer might ask would be "Aren't all Gods the same?". My personal opinion would be no, each religion has different moral principles and different restrictions. Do they look the same? Do they teach the same teaching? Many tend to think religion equals to moral education and tend to think they need not teach their kids anymore moral values because they have a religion, which is untrue, right? Because to have anything involves learning.

So, after asking that question and looking at the many religions of the world, which religion is the religion with the true God? Most religions have the tendency to claim a negative perspective on other religions. No religion supports another religion, because it is just merely impossible with different moral principles and all. And to determine which religion's God is the real God is also quite hard, because, if there is a God that is proven to be real, no other religions could exist. But, among all the religions, I find Christianity the most logical of them all.

Anyway, more about this seminar in my next post! =D

Tony Roma's @ The Curve! :)

Ahh.... Blogging about this makes me wish that I was back there @ The Curve @ Tony Roma's! :)

Tony Roma's! I went there the week after SUSOM (quite long time ago =S). My dad had a conference in Putrajaya. Therefore, during one of his breaks, we headed to the curve to hunt for food! =D
Tony Roma's is a well known chain for steaks and ribs? I don't know about their seafood though. A quick Google search will give you the reviews of their food by the people who have eaten there.
Well, everything that is sold here is... rather pricey? What to do, for good food, there is a certain price you have to pay.

We decided on trying their steak, ribs and buffalo wings! All my favourites! =D (I have an expensive taste for food, I know...)

Steak with corn and baked beans?

The superb buffalo wings! Mmmm...And! Ribs! Yeah!

Well, I think the ribs were a little overdone that day. I could taste more of the burnt meat than the actual meat. Nothing really spectacular about the steak though. I think the one served here in my taman itself can do a better job (cheap some more...) But, the buffalo wings were nice!

Tony Roma's or T.G.I. Fridays?

T.G.I. Fridays anytime!

Name: Tony Roma's.
Location: @ The Curve!
Type of Food: Steak, Ribs, Seafood.
Food Presentation: 8/10.
Delicious-O-Meter: 7/10.
Service-O-Meter: 10/10.
Ambiance-O-Meter: 9/10.

And oh, before I end...
Do you think the pink leaf-ed tree is real? =P

Rose Valley @ Cameron Highlands! =)

Continuation of Outings of Kedah SU Camp @ Cameron Highlands 2010! =)

After visiting Cactus Valley, we headed of to Rose Valley. It is said that there are black roses here (which while we were there, only super dark red roses were seen).

I think the pictures will speak the words I would write...?

White rose...

Can you see an eye? =D

I somehow like the bottom picture the best among all the pictures I've taken. Can you see the spider web? This flower is very small, smaller in real life compared to the picture.Hope you have enjoyed them! :)

SUSOM @ Kuala Terengganu Continuation...

I know SUSOM has ended long time ago... But I must keep my promise to myself and the other SUSOMites, that I'll blog about SUSOM till the very end. =)

Let's see, where did I stop in the last post? Oh yes... Kuala Terengganu!

22 January 2010
We're still in Kuala Terengganu! =D

We were pretty busy today. The 6 of us were going to be split into 3 teams, and in each team, they will be either 1 or 2 Scripture Union officers. I was paired with Deborah Y, and we were to go to Lifeline AOG (again!) English Service. Sieh Jin and Daniel Koo would be following us.

Daniel Koo sharing about Scripture Union.

And, I'll always remember this service, it's the first time I've ever stood in front of the church and shared something that was about me.
Anyway, we had lunch at McDonald's. And did you notice that there is a Jawi signboard for McD? The first time I ever saw one in Malaysia.

After lunch, we had free time till at night. We had an invitation for dinner by the priest of St. Andrew Anglicans' Church. =) So.... during the free time, we played cards and at about 5, we headed to the beach! =D

Having tea below the place we stayed before heading off to the beach...

It's also my first time at Kuala Terengganu's beach. And mind you, the waves here are much stronger than the Batu Feringgi beach in Penang. Mainly because it's facing the open sea and the beach in Penang is rather protected.

Tong playing with his "electric guitar".

SUSOM 2010!

Ah, posing at the beach.

Important fact:
Do you know why there was a nickname called KooLai?

This picture says it all.. =D

Koo->Lai, inseparable. =P

Anyway, that night, we had a dinner invitation by the priest (not pastor) of St. Andrew Anglican's Church. The dinner was fantastic, the best dinner in the past two weeks (that's what I wrote down...) =D

One for the album!

SUSOM 2010! It ROCKED! =DMiss You Guys! =)

Up Cactus Valley @ Cameron Highlands! =)

Cactus Valley! One of the Kedah SU Camp 2010 @ Cameron Highlands' outings...

For a nature lover and photographer-crazy person, it's like on cloud nine! =)

Welcome to Cactus Valley! =D
Look at all the cactus! If you fall down in cactus valley, the probability of you hitting or sitting on a cactus is about 90%? =D

Some star-shaped cactus?

I can't remember the name of this flower though...

In cactus valley, they not only have cactus, but also flowers! I guess flowers grow there quite easily due to the cool weather...?

The purple seeds look like miniature grapes?

Hibiscus!

A cactus bearing a flower! (My current desktop background! =) )

A close shot of a cactus plant...?

From afar, it looks like apples right...?

So, if you do happen to stop by Cameron Highlands, and you have an interest in cactus and flowers, this is one of the places you must visit! :) And of course, bring along your camera! =)

The entrance fee is quite cheap, I think...? It's RM 3 per person if I'm not mistaken. And they sell potted cactus and flowers too!

Happy Looking!