i Don't Know What This is Either

15

2009-03-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Last week, one of my big dreams came through. i performed in the Esplanade Theatre! Admittedly, not a big role in Les Contes d'Hoffman (The Tales of Hoffman) put up by the Singapore Lyric Opera. i just walked around on stage a bit and did a few handstands. But hey, it was the Esplanade and i got paid for that job.

Aside from that, Ben, Lester and i got through the auditions for Evoke Your Dreams! (evokeyourdreams.blogspot.com), a competition put up by Living Sanctuary Brethren Church, from which Darryl Elvis Lim hails; he was the dude who told me 'bout the comp. Finals are on the 10th of April, so if you're my friend, you'll be in Singapore and you're free and you actually read this blog, gimme a holler and i'll get you a ticket so you can come down and lend your support. grin.

14

2009-01-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Advertising for me friend, Sam. He custom builds computers. Some pretty nice ones too, i must say. It's an art student thing. grin.

13

2008-08-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, i left me hard disk in the computer lab in school. When i went back to get it the day after, it weren't there no more and it hadn't been surrendered to anyone in charge of lost and found. So i was kinda bummed out, 'cause in it i had a lot of photos that were important to me. All my music and videos and documents were in there too, but the lost photos were what really bothered me.

Then on Friday, i left me stuff outside the school's Performance Theatre - which i do quite often - and when i came back from class, wonder of wonders, there was me hard disk lounging comfortably next to me backpack. i found a note in me hard disk. This is it:

Hey wei an!
I've got a confession: I stole your hard disk.
You kinda left it in the com lab, and I kinda took it after no one claimed it for a while. Sorry man. Hope it didn't cause you too much worry and stuff.
But well, they always say things happen for a reason. I've been kinda confused and stressed out recently. School and life just taking their tolls, you know.
Then, I saw your hard disk. It seemed like a really good idea to take it. Finders keepers! hahaha I am so lucky, I got me a nice fat hard drive to store all my music and rubbish. I didn't get the whyon thing. You must admit, its rather far from weian.
So I got home after a really crappy day and decided to avoid some work by going through “my” new hard drive. It was then I realised it was yours.
Things kinda changed, then. Somehow, I just couldn't take something from someone I knew. All the lies about 'Finder's Keepers' just dissolved.
But maybe there was a meaning to all this. Something in those pictures of orientation, of VJ life, just reminded me what our whole culture and spirit is about. Small problems and things may beset us and try to pull us down, but in the end we'll come out tops. And we'd be better for it.
So I guess there really was a purpose to me finding the drive. And if it didn't cause you too much grief, then you can be happy in the fact that your hard drive saved a life. Thank you, weian(:
god really works through some of us.

Pretty cool, huh? i still have no idea who it is, but i'm guessing that it's a guy from the way the note is written.

Thank you God, that you can work through an idiot like me, leaving around me stuff to be stolen.

What makes it even more strange is that people in VJ don't normally take home other people's stuff that they find. They put it in the lost and found or something like that.

To whoever it was that took me hard disk, glad it was of help!

God bless!

12

2008-08-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Ah ha! i'm back. Amazing, ain't it?

Recently discovered TEDtalks, this wickedly cool conference like thing where people come together and give talks about anything under the sun, apparently. It's really informative, learning stuff 'bout things i'd never have been bothered about, like architecture and origami. Go Youtube 'TEDtalksdirector' and you'll find lots of videos.

The other thing i've been Youtubing a lot is spoken word, a kind of poetry. Dunno why i started watching it, really. There's this guy called Rives, he's really good. Some others too. The lyricism and the verbal agility of these people is really cool. Even on shows like Yo Momma, there's the articulation to appreciate, even if you don't like the jokes.

i'm not gonna talk 'bout me life now. But this stuff is interesting.

God bless!

11

2007-12-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well now. Haven't put anything up here for a long time. How goes life everyone? If anyone reads this, that is.

Am currently back in Malaysia now. Bentong. Will be leaving for Singapore on the 26th, finally. grin. Rhythm, me friend's crew, has a performance coming up real soon and i'm missing all the rehearsals! Argh.

i broke one of my teeth last night. While going into crickets from a standing position. Wasn't paying attention, so i didn't land right. Check out the tooth. Wait, nevermind. Either me com is acting up, or blogspot is. The add image function don't seem to be working.

A lot has happened the past six months. i've failed my econs promo paper, so i've gotta take a re-paper on the second day of school next year....bummer. But a lot of good stuff too. Started dancing with Rhythm again (performed with them last year), hung out with friends a lot, met a lot of interesting people. i've left LADC, cause of the time and monetary commitment. That was pretty heavy, actually. Now i can kick back and chill a bit more, a bit less responsibility to think bout. The time with LADC was good though, a lot of training, learnt a lot of technique and control. Also learning that in school, i guess, but ballet techniques are pretty far off from hip-hop. grin. Pirouette or pop?

Too lazy to write anymore now. Buhbye for now

God bless!

10

2007-06-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hostel is kinda annoying. Due to the fact that there is a majority of a certain nationality in Victoria Hall, Internet Explorer has been set to a Chinese language medium and since i am quite IT unsavvy, i dunno how to change the language back to English. i got to this page to type this message by checking links one by one to see where they led to.

Anyway, life's been really tiring the whole year round. Dance very frequently, almost every day, actually. Not that i mind. My breaking is finally getting somewhere, which i am very happy about. A lot of performances lined up for VJ Dance, which is good, cause it'll also give us a chance to diversify, getting more people into hip-hop. Ok, so maybe it's not really diversification for me. We're also planning to start learning more styles of dance that involve a lot of partner work. Ballroom, latin, other stuff as well.

Being in the Phunk Patrol, LADC's hip-hop crew, involves one compulsory class a week. For me it's on Saturday afternoon. Hip-hop II. There's also training pretty much every Sunday evening, which is fun but pretty tiring.

Till the beginning of August, my weekend's are pretty much wiped out,, cause i'll have practice for Singapore Youth for Christ's 50th anniversary thanksgiving concert from 0900 to 1400 hours, then dance class from 1530 to 1630 hours. Hoping to come back to hostel to study. This Saturday at least, cause mid-year examinations are this coming week. On other Saturdays, i have absolutely no idea what i'll do.

The Singapore B-boy Championship was held last weekend at the Heeren. Unico, Mr. Wiggles' son, and B-boy Mouse came to judge. Got to eat dinner with them on Saturday, 'cause a bunch of the LADC people were there and Lionel, the guy who founded LADC, decided to go for dinner with the two guest judges, so i tagged along. Was pretty cool. They're both really cool people in real life, and not just in terms of dance. Very thankful to God for that opportunity of meeting them. Really wasn't even hoping for it when i went to watch the competition, which itself was really good.

What else has been going on in my life? Obviously i'm not gonna post really personal stuff up here. Hmm. i guess that's about it right now. i haven't really been thinking up practical life philosophies lately, just cause i haven't really had time to sit down and think much. And i've been too lazy. Will try to start again soon. i kinda miss my Philosophical Meanderings blog. i think i deleted it. Will go and check.

Au revoir.

God bless all!

9

2007-03-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Bout a month back, Lex asked me if i still updated my blog. No, i haven't been. So i might as well do it now, since i'm having a free period now and i'm done with all the other stuff that i wanna do online.

i've been studying in VJ for the past three months or so. Rocks here. Really fun. My class is a bunch of whacked out, noisy people, which makes things pretty interesting at times. More than half the class disappears pretty often, though, cause we're a TSD class but not all of us take TSD. It's alright though.

Am in arts stream in VJ. Which to a certain extent doesn't make any sense, from a pragmatic point of view, that is, cause i did a whole lot better for my sciences in the O levels. i like studying science a lot too, but the thing that really puts me off studying science is the calculations. i'm taking lower level maths and am already hating that. Grin. Plus, i fall asleep in every class, cause the morning slot is a really bad period. On other days i'm either free during that time slot or on weekends in hostel i fall asleep again at that time after breakfast.

i'm one of the two guys in VJ's dance ensemble, which is fun and interesting, but trying at times. Imagine being one of two guys among 40-odd girls. As nice as it can be, it's still grossly disproportionate.

Auditioned for LADC's amateur hip-hop crew and got in. That's cool. Very happy bout that. Will cost bout 11 bucks a week or so to go for classes, but i don't really mind. Dance for life!

Anyway, i got a go now. Econs lecture is starting in about two minutes. Sigh.

God bless all!

8

2006-12-31T07:51:00.000-08:00

Am back in Singapore now. Staying in Victoria Hall for the next three months at least. Am contemplating trying to change JC (i'm in VJ now) after my O Level results come out, 'cause living this far in the east just doesn't make sense when SJSM is in the west and i'm planning to get more involved in church this coming year.

Went to New Creation's New Year's Eve service today. It was in the Singapore Indoor Stadium due to the special occasion. Went there 'cause some friends from Malaysia were down in Singapore and they were attending that service with their relatives. It was interesting. The worship was much less 'rock concert-esque' than i expected it to be and there was really a sense of real worship, with the leaders really praising God and singing songs that focus us on God. i must admit, i was pretty skeptical 'bout the church. A lot of things there really are good, such as believing and calling on God to heal people of various diseases and injuries during service. It's a bit charismatic to me, but then i realised that maybe i was trying to limit God's power to what i imagined him to be like or expecting God to act in a certain way. Don't agree with everything that Pastor Prince said though. For example, he said something 'bout resting in God and letting him do all the work, let him do all the worrying about our lives and stuff. i don't really think that's right. Like the pastor said, God gives us righteousness as a gift. But isn't this more the appearance of righteousness before God, because of Jesus' sacrifice? i believe that we still need to work to become righteous people, not only when we stand before God but in the way that we live and in every aspect of our lives. For example, striving to keep ourselves from vulgarities and things like that. We should expect help from God for things like this, but we still need to work. Isn't work and carrying our crosses a major part of our Christian lives? Still, the pastor did raise a lot of good points, like learning to trust in God and surrender things too him, especially when they become worries so that Satan won't be able to attack us through these worries. i guess that was one of the main points, learning how to rest in God and let him take control. i still believe that we gotta work and do our part as well and not just leave absolutely everything to God.

There was also something 'bout the Sabbath, which is stressed a lot upon in the Old Testament, as i'm finding out. The Sabbath, which is on the 7th day. The pastor was saying how 2007 is kinda like the Sabbath year, being the 7th year of the 21st century (if you count 2000 as part of the old one) and how we should really rest in God and trust him to watch over us and keep us from evil throughout this year. And to trust that God will prosper us. Hopefully, far more than just materially, but also spiritually, mentally, physically and socially as well. i guess it's a lot more than resting in God, but also actively pursuing him, growing deeper in faith and knowledge of God's word, both of which are things that i need to work on a lot as well. i hope i don't sound holier-than-thou in this post.

That's 'bout it. Not gonna write about every little detail of my life anymore. That's tiresome, for me, that is.

God bless all.
Blessed New Year

7

2006-12-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings, friends.

Miscellaneous story from the last night of YouthQuake. A girl comes up to the circle i'm sitting it and asks for contacts. When it gets to my turn, i suddenly realise that i don't remember my name, so i turn to my friend and ask for it. i'm pretty amazed at how blur and stupid i can get when i'm really high after fooling around with friends for a few hours.

Anyway, the Monday after YouthQuake, i travelled to Penang with my family to visit my grandparents on my mother's side. Tuesday was spent walking around Penang buying stuff. Wednesday we travelled to KL where i was dropped off and i took the train to Seremban to spend a couple of days with my cousin Yi Zheng. A bunch of his friends were staying over. Interesting people. We spent a good bit of time spouting intellectual nonsense and insulting each other using our intellectual nonsense. Was pretty fun.

Thursday, after Zheng's friends went home, Andrew Ong came over and we went to DOTA for awhile. First time i've played in months, so i'm pretty lousy. Kept dying. Bleag. Oh well.

Friday we went to KL to look at Methodist College where we met En Ning, then met my sister, Yue-Yi, and KL Sentral, after which we went to Sunway Pyramid. Met some of the Ipoh Wesley Methodist Church (IWMC) youth there. Hung out with them till the Planet Shakers concert at night.

The concert was fun. i went there primarily to meet friends and have fun, not to praise and worship God. i know i didn't have the best motives, but i guess God can still come in and work in a person regardless. i found myself really enjoying the worship, allowing myself to just praise God, revelling in his grace and love together with my friends. It's something i think i don't do often enough, 'cause i'm normally feeling too judgemental when i go to this kind of thing. Here's why.

i think a lot of the time we fail as people to truly mean what we say, especially when we're 'praising' God. We sing songs, get really high, have an emotional rush and enjoy ourselves like crazy, but do we, as a generation, truly mean what we say and live out what we sing in our lives? Do we 'Tell the World' that Jesus lives and let our actions proclaim that 'God is Great'? Do we cast aside the cross Jesus chose for us to bear or do we 'Pick it Up'? i think it's something that we all need to work on, having integrity and truly taking to heart the things we say with out lips. We don't wanna be what God calls lukewarm, do we? In Revelations, God says he spits such people out of his mouth, 'cause he doesn't know what to do with them, wishing instead that we were either hot or cold so that he'd have a definite idea of what to do with us. Would really be lousy, being abandoned and spat out of God's mouth, losing all the good things that he's blessed us with, like room and board in comfortable homes, internet access (grin) and friends.

The last paragraph is definitely the most important one, for me at least.
Please, criticise and debate if you don't agree with something. i know there are still flaws in what i say, or at least the way i'm presenting my thoughts.

God bless all
buhbye
whyon

6

2006-12-10T01:39:00.000-08:00

Just got back from YouthQuake IV. Wasn't really what i expected, but it was good and fun. Tiring though and quite painful for me for the last two days of camp. Started on Thursday, the 7th. A lot of time was spent hanging out with old friends, which isn't really a bad thing although not meeting many new people isn't really great either. Didn't even meet most of my tribe members (12 tribes, each with four families). Met a few of them, but am still oblivious to many of their names despite having spent pretty much the whole of yesterday playing team-building games. That's pretty bad, i guess. Don't really regret it though. i love my friends. They rock.

Sean Mcdowell was the speaker, talking bout how we must walk humbly before God, allowing him to work in us, enabling us to forgive others and ourselves and being humble in the face of God's greatness that God's plan for us may be carried out to the full. That was pretty much the gist of the message, i guess. It was good, but not particularly deep, due to the nature of the camp, appealing to the masses and not just the 'leaders' of the various MYF communities across the country, like YLDP.

i'm tired and in pain. Yesterday, a lot of time was spent lifting and carrying people so my arms and neck are sore. Since it was under the sun, my neck really aches from sunburn as well. It's not pleasant to have your neck hurt every time you move it. Plus, i was fooling around and tried to jump over a rope that i should have crawled under. The first time i caught the second toe of my left foot on the rope, ripping out my toenail in the process. Didn't realise till i started lifting people up the eight foot wall, when i saw a huge mclot of blood on my toe. i still finished all the games, but my toe was really disgusting after. It kinda hurts now, but in general it's ok.

Last night was pretty fun. After the session, the sound guy was playing suitable music, so i started dancing, mainly to show my friends but in the full knowledge that the hall was filled with people. As was pretty much expected, everyone started crowding around to watch, which was cool. i went out and did my thing periodically, in between guys embarrassing themselves. i wanted it to go on and give the others a taste of clubbing, sort of. Then the worship leader of the band for camp decided that they should have a 'jamming session' which was pretty much the band playing Christian music while the others pretended to be clubbing under the pretense of praising God. i went to sit down soon after and spent till 0200 hours laughing like mad and losing my voice. It was a really fun night, but now i'm really tired. Technically, i should go and sleep but i don't feel likeit right now. i ache a lot now. This is not so nice. But it was worth it, so i guess i should stop complaining, right?

God bless all
buhbye
whyon

5

2006-12-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

i was in a church that i used to be amember of last Sunday but hadn't seen the whole year, 'cause i've been in Singapore. After service, my friend comes up to me and asks me if i can lead worship for the youth group meeting which is starting in twenty minutes or so. In the end, i end up playing guitar 'cause no one else knew the songs that i chose. Someone else worhsip leads. Needless to say, it didn't go all that great. At the end, the guy who was worship leading prays, " Thank you God, that you accept our worship which reflects the condition of our hearts," and i'm thinking, "Oh yeah, man!" That guy really got it down real pat. The people don't go to the youth meeting to meet God, they go to enjoy themselves and meet friends. The girls? Some of 'em dress as much as white kids in movies as they dare. The guys act cool, 'cause that's what guys do. God? He's not really in the picture all that much. Yeah, that worship session reflected the state of their hearts really well.

i hadn't been to that church since the end of last year when the pastor changed. It was messed up and now it's worse. i'm not blaming the pastor. The people play a really big role in the condition of the church as well. But it's just really sad. Yesterday, i was reading Ezekiel 13, in which Ezekiel says "Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in battle on the day of the Lord." Man, is that applicable in that church that i'm talking about.

i hope no one who reads this takes it personally. If you check the date and you're from the church i'm talking about you'll know i'm talking about your church. i hope that this isn't taken as condemnation, but as constructive criticism. i guess you might take offence. Can't really help that with my big mouth.

God bless all
buhbye whyon

4

2006-11-28T00:23:00.000-08:00

For a skin whitening product advertisement, a famous Chinese actress claims that the product has made her skin " glow from within." Is she a subterranean or deep-sea creature or something? Maybe that kinda animal is just really in now. Let's get Jack Sparrow to introduce her to the Kraken. That would be a movie i wouldn't mind watching.

Just how stupid can our world get anyway? i was watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' Last night. i got nothing against that show. It's pretty much the only TV show that i still watch. What i found stupid was Ne-Yo's performance of his song 'Sexy Love' on last night's episode. (i know this is a bit out of date, but i can't help when local TV starts showing shows from the US of A.) It's stupid, cause you see this guy singing bout loving someone and he's grinding with four separate women in that performance. What kinda love is that? i guess 'Sexy Love' is the new term for 'lust,' huh? How stupid can our world get? Maybe i'm just a loudmouthed, conservative young punk, but stupid and immoral is still stupid and immoral no matter what. Gravity still exists even if you believe it doesn't, don't it?

Not a world that really catches my fancy.

God bless all.
buhbye
whyon

3

2006-11-26T03:23:00.000-08:00

i was walking down Orchard today, when all of a sudden a very pretty girl jumps in front of me, trying to get my attention. i keep walking and she keeps jumping to stay in front of me, trying to talk to me to get my attention. Finally i stop and tell her that i don't know Chinese and then obviously, she asks me for a donation for some charity. Sigh. Don't pretty girls ever jump in front of you when you're walking down the road 'cause they wanna be friends?

Anyway, yesterday almost all of my batch mates left hostel. The only two left are leaving tomorrow, then i'm gonna be pretty lonely, left alone with a handful of JC people and a whole load of juniors who (or is it whom?) i don't know and don't talk to. The word i used most yesterday was probably 'sucks,' and believe me it does. i've never seen hostel this quiet, when it's always been a place where i can hang out with friends and stuff throughout the past two years. The fact that there are a few cute juniors in hostel doesn't make up much for the lack of friends, 'cause i don't know the juniors as stated earlier. i'll be here more or less alone for Tuesday and Wednesday after my remaining friends leave tomorrow night. Oh well. It's only two days. i'll survive somehow.

God bless all. buhbye
whyon

2

2006-11-17T00:49:00.000-08:00

Yeah, i'm weird. i wonder if anyone read the original post of this same title. Have fun with whatever food for thought that you found.

my GCE 'O' Level Examinations. Two years worth of study and in three months or so i'll have a piece of paper which is worth how much?

Still, i've had lotsa fun these past two years, with friends and performances (Indonesian Arts Festival 2005, Kindred Spirits 2006, The Taming Game) and church. It's been a learning and growing experience. i dunno how much i've changed, but life has been good and God has been better.

So i was feeling a bit depressed after O's ended. What is now the point of my life? i thought. Which is just whack, cause there's just so much that i wanna do that is completely unrelated to studies. i guess one of the best gifts God has given me through coming to study in Singapore is a really deep love for dance which i probably wouldn't have if i stayed in Malaysia. So yeah, i wanna dance and just spend my life doing what i love (which also includes reading and writing and spending time with my friends).

i don't really feel weird and depressed anymore though. Yesterday i watched 'Step Up,' courtesy of my friend. i ate at 'New York New York,' courtesy of the same friend and at 'Seoul Garden,' courtesy of another. i spent a whole day out with good food and a cool dance movie without spending money except 50 cents on an MRT ride and 10 bucks which i lent to my cousin. Thank you, friends. Thank you God, for blessing me with such friends.

Today i played ball with a bunch of friends after church on a hardwood court for the first time in something like 8 years. It was really hot cause it was an indoor court and the air-conditioning was off, but it was great exercise and it was really fun. Now i've got a week or so with nothing to do, really, except what i want to. Things are just looking better and better. i definitely don't feel weird and depressed anymore. i am sick though. i think too much fried stuff and salt at 'Seoul Garden' mixed with really nice ice-cream has given me a sore throat and a slight fever, which i made worse by playing ball. But life is great. Thank you, God.

That's about it i guess. God bless all.
buhbye
whyon

1

2006-11-03T23:57:00.000-08:00

Haha. i've had an almost empty blog for more than a month. Beat that!

Saturday afternoon and i'm sitting in front of the computer semi-wasting time even though i should be studying for my O Levels. But hey, i've already done bout three hours of work today. That's very little.

i'm sick of studying. i just want O Levels to be over. i am bordering on the point where i stop caring about my results. i still do though. Would suck to get into a good JC then get kicked out. It would suck to get into any JC then get kicked out.

The first literature paper was last Thursday. i honestly don't know how i did. i don't get this subject anymore. i still like it though.

Higher Malay is over. Joy. Everything will be over by the afternoon of the 17th.

Technically, i should get off the computer now and go and study. i think i'll just waste a bit more time.

If anyone knows any good Christian hip-hop music could you leave me a reply? Music that you can use for dance. Any good hip-hop can do, but must be free from profanity and sexual innuendos. This is for church, so figure out why the pickiness.

Watch breakdance videos and go 'wow.' It's fun. Maybe you'll be inspired to get off your bum and start learning how to dance.

God bless all
buhbye
whyon