Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Resource Management
Woken up by a phone call. Dawn, my unit coordinator, called me to submit my assignment cover sheet. My assignment was supposed to be submitted yesterday. I '出 pattern' + 'act blur' and submit it by email to Dawn this morning at 4 am instead. Although I always scream at my students not to procastinate and study early for their exams (Hui Ming get it get it?!), I always wait until the last minute (or maybe over the last minute!?) before I complete my assignments. You know wat? Although my students always call me an 'old freak' and say that we got generation gap (Leen Pork also say that ?!), I can understand when they say "we study best at the last moment". It seems that your hidden potential like creativity, intelligence and can-dun-sleep-for-days are unleashed during this period of time.Posted by Benjamin at 10:37 AM
Sunday, May 27, 2007
New Revelations
I received a new revelation during my cell group meeting. I need to start preparing for Emerge 2008. Vertical marathon, arm wrestling, preaching challenge, personal testimony, talentime. The key is to start my preparation now. Another revelation: once my businesses are up and running, I will use the extra time I have and return to my secondary school to preach to my juniors. The sermon shall be called The Real God. I will use my life story as an example to inspire these younger generations to live their life to the fullest, in accordance to God's perfect plan.Posted by Benjamin at 9:06 PM
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Testimony
I gave a testimony to the choir members about how God answered my prayers and raised me up to a choir vocal IC. It was five months ago in December. At that time, I knew I have a talent in singing. Talented does not mean gifted. I prayed to God that I want to use my talent to bless the people around me and also multiply it. Two weeks later, Silvia, my choir helper sent me a sms, informing me that the choir has organised a singing competition called TalentQuest! I was overjoyed because I didnt expect God to answer my prayers that quickly. I took part and won second place. Then Annabel asked the million dollar question: Do you want to serve the choir? I was dead worried that I couldn't focus on impacting the marketplace, but God told me that it was time to move from strength to strength. I can balance my work and ministry, through Christ who strengthens me! From then on my life is never the same. I become a vocal IC! I am taught how to read music notes and sing parts. I have to teach the tenors how to do all that too! I pray that I can be like Sofyan, the guy who won first place in TalentQuest. He is like the man with ten talents in the Bible, while I'm the one with only one. But I will not keep mine buried in the soil. I will multiply it!Posted by Benjamin at 10:51 PM
Friday, May 25, 2007
At World's End
I went to a Hong Kong cafe at around 12 midnight. Feeler, Hello Kitty, JJJJJJJ, Rainy Mountain, Sofierce, 无敌 and I. Once again I decided to order just a drink. The first reason is because I have eaten my dinner. The second reason is because these ladies have a strange habit: they always cannot finish their food! I ordered Hong Kong milk tea only, but ate two piece of Kaya + butter toasted bread and a bowl of soya bean curd. The bean curd bucket is huge! Sofierce revealed his funny habit: he do not like to waste food! In order to fulfill his calling, he ate two half-boiled eggs and two pieces of Kaya + butter toasted bread ordered by himself, a small plate of chicken spaghetti left by Feeler, a small bowl of char siew rice left by Idy and half a pineapple butter bread left by Rainy Mountain. God must be thinking: good and faithful servant! We watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The first hour is boring without Jack Sparrow. My friends burst into laughter everytime the pirate Sao Feng (starred by Chow Yun Fatt) said 'Singapore'.
Posted by Benjamin at 10:25 PM
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Burden
Helpless. It's as though you can only sit there and watch the devil does his destructive work. You have no weapon in your hand except God's words, prayers and the Holy Spirit. All you can do is to pray that you can defeat him. He is not strong, but I am simply too weak. Am I too proud? Can't I take criticisms? Why do I feel that the whole world owns me an explanation?Posted by Benjamin at 10:29 PM
After-Midnight Run
Feeling rather guilty for eating so many chicken wings for supper (thanks to Wei Liang). Went for my usual after-midnight run. I started this regime two months ago. At that time I needed to pass my IPPT, or else the army will make me go for a two-month remedial training. Two months! To me, time is money. I started to pray to God that I can pass my IPPT through Christ who strengthens me (amen!). God gave me an inspiration: exercise should be combine with a daily routine! I started to ponder what my daily routine is and eureka! Since I often receive cash or cheques from my employer (my student's mums or dads!), I can always run to the bank to deposit them! The next thing I did was to plan a route from my house in Serangoon Ave 3 to the bank in Serangoon Garden. Then I run to the bank every time I get the money (hope I don't get rob by anyone who reads my blog)! Like what Pastor Kong always says, nothing beats a God idea! Something weird happened tonight. I was on my way to the bank when a hooligan, sitting in the passenger seat of a car, hurled vulgarities at me and the car drove away. Funny things people do. Jesus' words came into my mind: forgive him, for he do not know what he is doing. I thank God for the sermon of the Mount and bless him. I reached the bank and deposited the cash. After the building fund I am left with $5. God has never left my pockets empty for too long. I prayed to God that this will be the beginning of the filling of a new wineskin.Posted by Benjamin at 5:06 AM
Choir Practice
It's the second time I sang parts for the tenors. I didn't do as well as last week. Got a couple of notes sang sharp or flat. Belle got a little upset as the tenors got confused and kept singing the wrong notes. So she asked the tenors to stand up and sing. I felt that it's my fault as I didn't impart the parts correctly and got them into a mess. It's time for me to learn how to write and read numbers so that I won't get them wrong next time. I want to grow a level of independence so that I can encourage the choir members to be independent as well. I believe that in order for the choir to grow in spiritual tenacity, they must continue to multiply their talents in order to serve God with a new level of annointing. After the choir pratice, some of the choir ICs and helpers went to a coffeeshop somewhere in Jurong West to eat supper. It was extremely noisy as there was some construction work going on beside the coffee shop. At 11 pm! How did the people living nearby manage to sleep? Wei Liang recommended the coffee shop's homemade ice lemon tea... super nice leh! I drank a total of three cups... like a water bucket. One of the stalls sell tasty fishballs. The fishball is larger than my eyeball and can bounce on the floor like a ping pong ball. We started crapping on what we are going to do on Andrea's birthday next Wednesday. Funny thing is we find ourselves choosing those places that are not too high-class because we expect ourselves to create a scene of loud laughter and a birthday-girl-drowning incident. Someone suggested that the zoo will be a great place for us to hang out because we can either mix around with our old 'friends' in the zoo or the animals will 'observe' us instead! In the end we decided to go Marina Square for the most obvious reason: centre of Singapore.Posted by Benjamin at 4:26 AM
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuition
Today's tuition with Weeping Mann, Dying Ant, Emo Ming and Rubber Biakky was fun! It was pouring a little when I fetched them from school. On our way to Emo Ming's house, they screamed as they struggled to balance on the back of the slippery pickup. I sticked out my camera phone and took a random shot of this scene. They thought I was waving at the taxi driver! During tuition, we had McDonald's ice Milo, nuggets and french fries for lunch. Rubber Biakky suddenly screamed and as usual, it was a harmless, tiny little ant that appeared out of the blue. She was so traumatised that she hid behind the curtain. We took a video of this 'classic moment'. I also took a video of them bitching about the guys in their class. Let me tell you this: when girls bitch, they really bitch! Tuition was a disaster because we only completed two pages of Chemistry notes. Chung Cheng 'kids'! Examinations around the corner! Let's focus!
Posted by Benjamin at 10:35 PM
Monday, May 21, 2007
I Cross My 'Bridge'!
Our vocal cords is made up of two long piece of muscles that vibrates when we sing. In order to sing a higher note, most people will switch to 'falseto' aka false voice. The middle portion of the vocal cords is tensed up, causing the only the top part of the vocal cords to vibrate at a high frequency. As a result, a 'bridge' is created in the vocal cords, causing the muscle where the bridge is to tense up everytime a high note is sang. The bad news is due to muscle memory, your brain will automatically tense up when you are singing a high note, where the bridge is. This means that you are restricted access to the high notes except through falseto, which cause your voice to be weak, airy and sometimes hard to control. For the last four months, I have tried not to use falseto. Instead I blow more air through the vocal cords as I sing high notes. Although this has caused my high notes to be weak, it relaxes my vocal cords and slowly allow the muscles near the bridge to 'forget' about tensing up when I sing the high notes. The next thing I did is to strengthen my vocal cords to support the high note as the muscles controlling the high notes has not been used for a very long time. It is so weak that it sounds as though I am born yesterday! I continue this exercise, constantly reminding myself to support the notes using my diaphram and control my vocal cords, until a miracle happened!Posted by Benjamin at 4:34 PM
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Mum's Birthday
What a tiring day! Overslept my first tuition (sorry Emo Ming =p) and struggled through the second. Slept a little during cell group too (sorry God =p). Crawled through the third tuition and finally it's time for my mum's birthday dinner! We had giant shark fin soup and lots of crabs and duck's feet! It's been a long time our whole family sat together to eat dinner, including my brothers' girlfriends. A little funny on the part when the brothers don't talk to each other. I guess we can't put down our old grievances and grudges completely. I believe that one day we will learn to love and treasure each other like before.Posted by Benjamin at 10:30 PM
Friday, May 18, 2007
My Prayer List
I just started a prayer list! I believe in prayers simply because it has worked before. I still remember 3 years ago when I made my first prayer: "I ask for trials and tribulations to come into my life!" Wait! I'm not crazy. Maybe asking for trouble lah. I was in my comfort zone for too long and was awaiting for a breakthrough to happen. Indeed, it came within weeks. My mum called me to inform that my dad went to jail because he broke a business law. I was devastated after that. The next thing I found myself doing is to kneel down and pray that God would savage all that was happening: to protect my dad's health and well-being when he was 'away', to provide support for my mum and to continue supporting our family's finances. The next moment my eldest brother came into my room and brought me into the real world. Now my dad is back, I am earning on average S$6 000 a month, give a tithe to my parents and church, and contributing S$14 000 into the building fund!Posted by Benjamin at 11:23 PM
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Teaching Parts For The First Time In My Life
It's the first time I have to hold a microphone and sing parts in front of the choir! I realise I'm more confident singing in KTV with loud music as the loud music cover up my flaws! I feel so bare, as though someone is ready to laugh at any flat or off note that I sang. Despite having many experiences singing on stage or in public, I am still nervous when I am singing in a big crowd. Thank God everything turns out better than I expected. Besides all that, I have to teach the tenors during sectionals how to sing the Handel's' Messiah (aka the Hallelujah Chorus). I find that God always plans unexpected things in my life. I don't know how to read scores, yet I'm tasked to teach the tenors how to read scores. I guess that's how God brings out our hidden potential and use it to serve the people around us. How did I do it? I bought this Sony Ericsson Walkman phone a couple of weeks ago and realise that it was an application called Music Mate. I changed the notes on the scores to the numbers on my keypad and eureka! Now I play the notes as though I'm playing the piano. Isn't God great!?Posted by Benjamin at 1:46 AM
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
First Love
It's a funny feeling. I used to think that you choose to like someone. You can't judge your own feelings, as it can decieved you. But when it comes, you just know that she's the right one. So all the rumours about love is true. Your heart will pump faster. You will suffer a mind block. You will try to be someone you are not. You will think of her all the time. You will check your mobile phone to see whether she has drop you a sms. You can't sleep. You will scroll the name list and stop at her name, wanting to call her yet don't know what to say. Even love songs pose a different meaning to you now that she's in your life. You can feel real good about yourself, thinking that you are the best man for her. On the other hand you can feel real lousy about yourself, thinking that she may not even take notice of you. It's funny how you can feel like a king with everything in your palms, and at the same time a beggar with nothing by your strides.Posted by Benjamin at 3:31 PM
Monday, May 14, 2007
Reconciliation
Yesterday was Mother's Day. Bow Wow came over to my house and stay, and it was then time to send her home. When I was at her doorstep looking for her key (cause they sort of hide it in a shoe or something), my second brother opened the door. We used to have a misunderstanding between us and haven't been looking at each other eye to eye since then. He looked at me and invited me into his house. But I wasn't feeling comfortable with that offer, plus I was about to meet my friends soon, so I turned it down. While I was driving, I thought since he was kind enough to make the first step to reconcile with me, I should return the favor. I dropped him a sms, telling him to take good care of his health, cause my niece said he got more white hair than me. He thanked me for my concern, and asked whether we can let bygones be bygones. Guess what I said. =) Thank you God for your forgiveness, that we may learn to forgive!Posted by Benjamin at 3:41 PM
Friday, May 11, 2007
Family Issue
My third brother called me this morning to talk about my niece. He was sending her to school when she started asking about his financial status. For a primary two kid like her it juz seems inappropriate. He wonders whether anything has gone wrong with our family education. I defended my mum, as I believe that she is the best mum in the world. I have witnessed her sufferings, her struggles, her dilemma, her difficulties, her tears and her joys for being a mother, and I know it is difficult to be a perfect one.Posted by Benjamin at 12:39 PM
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Best Or Bestial
Superman and Wonder Woman. Notice that Superman wears his underwear inside for once.
Took a picture with Ribena and KKKKKKKKK. Superman is getting married today! I am supposed to wake up at 5 am and fetch his camerawoman Shopping to the scene of action. But I overslept! Big trouble. I left my house at 6:30 am, flew to her house at 7am and reached Superman's house at 8 am. Considering that her house is at Woodlands, I still give myself a pat at the back for a job well done. Superman is not in a rush of time. Surprisingly. He really thinks he can move faster than the speed of light. I gan jiong for nothing de leh. His mum then put a flower on my suit. Don't know why. I thought only the bridegroom and the best man need them. Suspicious. We reach Wonder Woman's house at 10 am. We are made to do Indian dance, eat wasabi biscuit and swallow Strepsils baptised in sugar syrup. Yuck. We then drive down to SMU. I ask Superman's cousin who the best man is. He says he don't know. This is bad. He is the only guy other than me who is not married. If he is not the best man then... Suspicious. At last I pick up the courage to ask Superman. He looks at me with a blank look on his face and says," B, you are the best man." Suddenly dark clouds creep across the sky and thunder roars. Icy cold rain drops bombard my astonished face as I tries to relish the hard truth. k lah not so exaggerated but about there loh. I'm the best man and I do not know. Stupid me. No wonder Superman wants me to prepare a speech as well. I'm the biggest joke of the day. Turn from best man to bestial man leh =p. I always feel that being the best man means that you are one of the most important people to the bridegroom. I don't know Superman actually place me in such regard. I feel so honoured.
