LOL, stupid title, I know. But when I used to write stories, I used to call editing "murdering my babies." And I think that applies to my other hobbies too.

I was forced to pull out the skin I submitted yesterday because of copyright concerns. And it wasn't even my fault.


Not that it was Miranda's fault either.

I asked her permission to use that model's picture for a blogskin a few weeks ago, and she said it was no problem. I promised to send her a link when I finished it since she wanted to see it. So I send her the link yesterday...

...and found out a few minutes ago that she's having issues with the model lately, and the model won't let her photo out of deviantart. Sorry, I've got to pull it out.

I felt bitter. That thing took a lot of work (weeks of playing around, in fact). It was one of the most difficult skins because I didn't know what to do with it. I mean, I don't just credit; I go to the trouble of asking permission to use it. I decided to do the right thing and poof... it's Koko Krunch. Did that make sense? LOL.

But I guess that's how life goes, and I'm glad I learned it with something as inconsequential as a blogskin. I'll be glad when Jesus gets back; everything will be fair. Sigh.

I guess God's reminding me about what's really important. I mean, my hobbies are fun but there's lots more to the world (and what He wants me to do) than that. So lesson learned: I'll enjoy my blogskinning and keep it in perspective with other things. And I'll make sure pictures are really usable when I decide to use them before I do all the work.

***

LOL, I got this off Robyn's food blog (a.k.a. The Girl Who Ate Everything). It's a hilarious animated film. Or at least I thought it was.

If it's really strange, all I can say in my defense is that people have thought I'm strange too. After all, I wore mismatched shoes on purpose today. :D Enjoy!





I got to thinking about how people are so different because of their beliefs, quirky behavior, and other nonconsequential thingamajigs.

Then I wondered what made me different (or similar depending on who you are) to everyone else, and here are five things that popped into my brain:

1) I walk like a drunk.

the average walk	the way I walk

Really. My friends and acquaintances (or just anyone who walks with me for a period of time) will attest to this. Instead of walking in a straight line, I wind around in curves and ultimately hit unsuspecting passersby. Every time I hit my sister, she'll look at me in irritated disgust and I'm left with slight embarrassment.

Hazel's the exception though. She also does not walk in a straight line so we hardly hit each other. I guess we're too busy going in multiple directions.

2) "The Fox & The Hound" made me cry.


Anyone's ever heard of this movie? I think it wasn't a really popular one, considering it's a Disney classic. There's not much of a love story but it's a friendship flick. It's about how a fox and a hound are friends in their childhood, but when they grow up, they're supposed to be enemies. They're stubborn about it, at first. Eventually, they stop going near each other and are just friends from afar.... Sniff. LOL.

I'm pathetic. But it does make me cry. I watched it a few weeks ago, and I was already crying before five minutes of running time had passed. Sappy, huh? Yuck. :D

3) I get panic attacks.

Sometimes, I'd be sitting in front of my computer (or playing the piano, doing a project, something) when I'd get alarmed without anyone to provoke me. Seriously, it's like the way you'd react if there was a fire, but there isn't one. My heart would beat double-time and I'd get extremely alert that it hurt. It was so weird.

I had them a lot when I was a kid, but it rarely happens these days.

See Wikipedia for more details.

4) I don't drink soda.

I got into the habit of drinking water all the time when I was trying to lose weight. It really worked, by the way. I lost about five pounds, and that helped a lot. The problem was that when I tried to drink soda again, I'd get a bad stomachache. I think my mother said I'm just not used to the acid anymore.

I still drink occasionally, but it's almost negligible.

5) Jesus completes me.

Yes, He really does.

Before I became a Christian, I was too frank (ultimately rude), extremely antisocial, and proud that I was smart. I don't think I was very nice but I was seemingly happy.

I felt like something was missing though. Life wasn't as great as I thought it would be, and I couldn't believe that was all there was to it.

God really changed me. I learned to open up to people and care what they were doing. God punctured my pride, and made me a better person. Sometimes, I do things that seem so natural then think "Wow. I wouldn't be caught doing this (i.e. being nice to a teacher, laughing with people I would have thought were losers a long time ago) if I hadn't met Jesus."

And I think that's pretty cool. Jesus rules. :D

OK, so that ends my blathering post. Hope it made a little sense. :)



WARNING: Extremely long post with many pictures that may scare a few readers

But what can I say? After all that's been happening, this was bound to happen, wasn't it?

I haven't been able to blog about anything I've been doing (okay, so I haven't been able to turn on my computer, period) because of rats.

That's right, rats. Pesky rats that are sometimes the length of your forearm with big black beady eyes that jump around in your kitchen and make a lot of noise in passageways between your walls and eventually bite wires connecting electricity to your house until they get grounded and your computer doesn't turn on for a number of days.

That was a very long and incomplete sentence.

To make a long story short, our electricity was on the outs with us the past few days (read: since my birthday) and so I was having fun doing non-computer stuff while this was all happening. Thank you, rats.

I went to the beach for two days with forty-or-so members of my family. It was amazing.


Dinner that night was really great. We ate by the beach under a clear starry sky (really clear, by the way). There was candlelight and a little breeze. Then you looked up and could see all these constellations. :D


The food was, of course, hard to see with candlelight but I took the best picture I could.


So I had no idea this was all for my birthday. But it was. :D The waiters and everyone just came out with a cake and started singing.


The cake was delicious, by the way. Strawberry icing, and a slightly moist cake. It was so fragrant and tasty.

There were a lot of other pictures but the post would be too long. :) After dinner, we headed for the resort's cafe for coffee and (what do you know?) more food. Ken, Daphy, and I split dishes.


The mousse was good. We just kept digging into the glass; it was so chocolate-y, and the kahlua really gave it a bang.


I didn't know macapuno was synonymous to coconut (in baked goods, anyway). I don't like coconut, but this tasted good. It was creamy.

After getting so stuffed, everyone decided to work off (or play off?) the calories in the resort's game room. We played until past eleven (pretty late since we were supposed to get up early the next day).




Everyone had a lot of fun. My Dad injured his arm a little by lifting the whole soccer table up so he'd win, lol. There were other games of which I didn't get any good pictures. We returned to our cottage eventually, and had some fizzy champagne.


It was a nice end to a beautiful day. :D (Note: I don't believe in getting drunk but I think a glass of alcohol now and then doesn't hurt anyone.)

We got up early and went boating the next day. We were supposed to see some dolphins but all we ended up seeing was a lot of water. The waves were too rocky, I guess. It was still fun though.



We also swam in the sea. This is, of course, what is to be expected when one goes to the beach.


If you skipped over all those pictures, I just want to say that it was a lot of fun.

the next day...

If anyone has read my former post, they'll remember Adam, the guy whose blog I kind-of advertised. Anyway, he was one of my good friends in high school (in two of the three schools I went to, technically). Complicated, so I won't go into the sordid details.

He decided to treat me to lunch since we hadn't seen each other in almost two years, and he just had money to spend foolishly on me.


Treating me to a lunch of pizza ended up including a snack and even almost a dinner. We spoke six hours and moved from one restaurant to another. We were just hanging out. I mean, what do you expect when people haven't seen each other for almost two years? There's got to be a lot to say.

So we talked about school, family, friends, Jesus, memories, comics, food, church, and pretty much everything we could think of. It's lovely to keep in touch with old friends.

Then I came home... and my computer turned on again. So here ends my delightfully wordy and long post. I'm tired, and I bet you are too.



...with a bang. Or rather, a scream.

I woke up this morning two hours late, and proceeded to miss my first period.

What a way to start my birthday. Yup, I'm 19 now.

I did get to school eventually. I thank God no one really did anything during the first class. He really looked after me though I got myself into trouble.

Everyone greeted me and even sang. It was embarrassing and funny at the same time.

My friends gave me a cute pair of earrings. I laughed and said thank you. I seriously didn't expect anything from them. I mean, we're having exams at the moment and everyone's real busy.

Yep, I had absolutely no idea.

On the way home during a four-hour break a while ago, Paul handed me a little gift bag. I opened it and saw... car keys? MY car keys? What the hell is this? (Yes, that was my exact reaction). Hazel said "You'll see. Just go to your car."

So what do you think my friends made? A real mess, that's what.

The car was strewn with balloons, and post-it notes with sweet messages from everyone. There was even a cute dog on the wheel. I was just thinking... OK, so I wasn't thinking. I was really surprised. Happy surprised.

When I picked my jaw off the ground, I snapped the pictures. :D But the real shocker is finding out how everyone ganged up on me. My sister gave my friends my extra car keys, and her gift was on the front seat too.

Oh, wow. Thanks, guys!

I dearly love my friends (and sister too). And parents while we're at it. And everyone who greeted me, lol.

The day's not over yet though. But I've got class soon so I've got to go. Bye!

*****

Yay, my midterm grade in one of my classes is really good. Now if only the others went the same way...

I spent the rest of the day visiting old friends with the people from church. I can't believe a lot of people actually remembered my birthday when I didn't even really remember it until the day showed up.

New layout, by the way. Yup, drew that myself with another base image. It's on blogskins right now. It took a lot of work (300 layers, lol), so I figured with that much effort, I might as well use it. :D Take care, everyone!



First, if you have the time and enjoy reading beautifully funny and (almost) perfectly worded English, please visit my friend Adam on his blog. He draws on it a lot, lol, and his posts are really entertaining. So check it, yeah?

So guess what my aunt got me from Manila (our country's capital)?


Yes! Yes! Egg tarts (and my Chemistry notes in the back, but that's another story). It's lovely and creamy to the bite. Isn't it beautiful?


I love these things so much. Well, after Jesus, my family, my friends, church, my Photoshop... :D

OK, so that's enough about it. I've already posted enough about this particular pastry in a recent entry, and I don't want to bore you more than you already are, dear Reader.

Anyway, anyone remember that Calculus exam? It's over. I did my best. And it was just terrible.

The exam was two problems, and we were given one hour. We took an hour and a half, and we didn't even finish. We passed, like, two or three pieces of yellow pad paper with scribbles on both sides.

And almost everyone failed (no, I don't know if I did). It was so bad that the teacher decided to give us a retest. Yeah! Another chance to crack my skull!

Seriously, I'll have to go over what I studied again. I've also got a long Chemistry test this Saturday. But it's still days away, and I've started studying. So it's not such a big deal.

I guess that's about it for now. This post's starting to get too long. Hope everyone's doing okay!



I met Wee Kim Wee once.

OK, so you're probably thinking "Who the heck is that?" unless you're Singaporean. :D Wee Kim Wee was a former president of Singapore.

Anyway, he was a nice guy in a grandfatherly kind-of way. He gave me a signed autobiography, and said we should never forget to be humble. I never forgot that.

So I suddenly got curious last week and googled him. And I just found out he died last year. I know, a year has passed, but all I can say is I don't live in Singapore so this was not a headline in my daily newspaper.

It's just strange. I met him a few years back and now, he's dead. I don't know. It just gave me a queer feeling.

Anyway, Samantha asked me to put up clearer pictures of my overly decorated Physics book from the last post. So here they are.


I like the back better than the front, lol.

Oh, and while I was gone, I got SOTD. Twice. :D


Nothing really. It didn't change the world or anything. But it was just fun.

OK, so I have to go now. The post ends here.

Gah, Calculus exam tomorrow. I've studied until my brains fried up. I'll be praying hard.



I just came from a debut (or 18th birthday party if you're not familiar with the term). It was cool. I (and about 35 other people) had to speak about the celebrant, and me being me, I forgot to prepare a speech. Suffice to say I didn't get very good pictures while my hands were shaking with the trauma.


I got a picture with April (classmate through kinder, primary, and secondary --- FIVE schools in all). We haven't really talked lately; I guess we're getting so busy. If you're reading this, Pril, yes, I shall call when we have less tests. :D


I told the celebrant "Welcome to the club!" In other words, you're 18 now, you're legal. But I'm turning 19 in two weeks, LOL. The curse of being older than almost all your classmates.

On other breaking news, I'm leaving. For about a week, anyway.

I have big midterm exams coming up, and they've scared me into turning off my computer and studying like my life depended on it. I mean, look at some of my books:


Those are actually just two books about 1500-2000 pages long. I used to get muscle pain lugging them around so I sliced one of the books into three and decorated them myself. :)


Maybe I'll be inspired to study with such pretty covers. Then again, maybe not.

Calculus is also making me nervous.


Yes, that's only one problem. One problem on three blackboards in small writing. I couldn't even get a picture of all the blackboards. This is the class where we all applaud when the problem's finished because one takes an HOUR to do.

This is what nightmares are made of. I came home and slept after this class; I was that dizzy. WHY CHEMICAL ENGINEERING?

NOTE: I am not shifting, just amusing myself by waxing poetic over my choice of course. :D

Anyway, see you all around some time. When I have the time. Take care!



I got Skin Of The Day on Blogskins! Whee... LOL, it happened when the day was almost over though. There must have been a lot of really good skins and that automatic derivative thing Blogskins uses got confused.

Anyway, here it is!



It's just that I've been working on skins for fun. I never even think about SOTD and such since I always thought it was for extremely talented designers like Anne & Wang Guan anyway, LOL. So it was just a pleasant surprise... :)

On other breaking news, Christian Music Today did a really cool interview with Aaron Shust here.

I don't know if he's really familiar to any of you, but his song "My Savior, My God" is such a great song. It's the first song he ever recorded and it became a hit in the US. He talks about the song (and his fear over being a one-hit wonder), how he got into music, and about fame not being the most important thing.

It just reminded me that we've got to bloom where we're planted. All of us are in so many different places; some of you are from Singapore, US, and the Philippines (like me). And instead of being discontented, we could just do the best where we are. For all we know, we could end up doing better things because we did great with what we have now.

Oh well, so that's it about Aaron Shust.

Last week, my family went out for dinner in a hotel to bid farewell to my Dad & my sister (who were going on separate trips) with good food. They're back, by the way. It just goes to show that I don't blog what's been happening lately.

Anyway, it was a nice hotel.


The pictures aren't that great though because I was caught without a camera once again. My phone's camera may have a lot of pixels but it can only do so much.

The food was good. I had this.


And this.


And this.


And a plate of fruit that I forgot to take shots of. Yes, I know. I ate too much. So here's a picture of me feeling full. Yeah, this was after the meal. I look pretty normal though, don't you think?


And here's my parents. This took a long time to take, by the way. It was all candid and they made the funniest faces. :)


My sister enjoyed it all, but I think she was worried about school and homework. I mean, she brought it with her.


Poor girl. I would be doing the same thing in her shoes. There's so much to do sometimes.

It was a break though, and a cool way to say goodbye to my family members.

Really long post, isn't it? I'll stop now. :)

LOL, stupid title, I know. But when I used to write stories, I used to call editing "murdering my babies." And I think that applies to my other hobbies too.

I was forced to pull out the skin I submitted yesterday because of copyright concerns. And it wasn't even my fault.


Not that it was Miranda's fault either.

I asked her permission to use that model's picture for a blogskin a few weeks ago, and she said it was no problem. I promised to send her a link when I finished it since she wanted to see it. So I send her the link yesterday...

...and found out a few minutes ago that she's having issues with the model lately, and the model won't let her photo out of deviantart. Sorry, I've got to pull it out.

I felt bitter. That thing took a lot of work (weeks of playing around, in fact). It was one of the most difficult skins because I didn't know what to do with it. I mean, I don't just credit; I go to the trouble of asking permission to use it. I decided to do the right thing and poof... it's Koko Krunch. Did that make sense? LOL.

But I guess that's how life goes, and I'm glad I learned it with something as inconsequential as a blogskin. I'll be glad when Jesus gets back; everything will be fair. Sigh.

I guess God's reminding me about what's really important. I mean, my hobbies are fun but there's lots more to the world (and what He wants me to do) than that. So lesson learned: I'll enjoy my blogskinning and keep it in perspective with other things. And I'll make sure pictures are really usable when I decide to use them before I do all the work.

***

LOL, I got this off Robyn's food blog (a.k.a. The Girl Who Ate Everything). It's a hilarious animated film. Or at least I thought it was.

If it's really strange, all I can say in my defense is that people have thought I'm strange too. After all, I wore mismatched shoes on purpose today. :D Enjoy!





I got to thinking about how people are so different because of their beliefs, quirky behavior, and other nonconsequential thingamajigs.

Then I wondered what made me different (or similar depending on who you are) to everyone else, and here are five things that popped into my brain:

1) I walk like a drunk.

the average walk	the way I walk

Really. My friends and acquaintances (or just anyone who walks with me for a period of time) will attest to this. Instead of walking in a straight line, I wind around in curves and ultimately hit unsuspecting passersby. Every time I hit my sister, she'll look at me in irritated disgust and I'm left with slight embarrassment.

Hazel's the exception though. She also does not walk in a straight line so we hardly hit each other. I guess we're too busy going in multiple directions.

2) "The Fox & The Hound" made me cry.


Anyone's ever heard of this movie? I think it wasn't a really popular one, considering it's a Disney classic. There's not much of a love story but it's a friendship flick. It's about how a fox and a hound are friends in their childhood, but when they grow up, they're supposed to be enemies. They're stubborn about it, at first. Eventually, they stop going near each other and are just friends from afar.... Sniff. LOL.

I'm pathetic. But it does make me cry. I watched it a few weeks ago, and I was already crying before five minutes of running time had passed. Sappy, huh? Yuck. :D

3) I get panic attacks.

Sometimes, I'd be sitting in front of my computer (or playing the piano, doing a project, something) when I'd get alarmed without anyone to provoke me. Seriously, it's like the way you'd react if there was a fire, but there isn't one. My heart would beat double-time and I'd get extremely alert that it hurt. It was so weird.

I had them a lot when I was a kid, but it rarely happens these days.

See Wikipedia for more details.

4) I don't drink soda.

I got into the habit of drinking water all the time when I was trying to lose weight. It really worked, by the way. I lost about five pounds, and that helped a lot. The problem was that when I tried to drink soda again, I'd get a bad stomachache. I think my mother said I'm just not used to the acid anymore.

I still drink occasionally, but it's almost negligible.

5) Jesus completes me.

Yes, He really does.

Before I became a Christian, I was too frank (ultimately rude), extremely antisocial, and proud that I was smart. I don't think I was very nice but I was seemingly happy.

I felt like something was missing though. Life wasn't as great as I thought it would be, and I couldn't believe that was all there was to it.

God really changed me. I learned to open up to people and care what they were doing. God punctured my pride, and made me a better person. Sometimes, I do things that seem so natural then think "Wow. I wouldn't be caught doing this (i.e. being nice to a teacher, laughing with people I would have thought were losers a long time ago) if I hadn't met Jesus."

And I think that's pretty cool. Jesus rules. :D

OK, so that ends my blathering post. Hope it made a little sense. :)



WARNING: Extremely long post with many pictures that may scare a few readers

But what can I say? After all that's been happening, this was bound to happen, wasn't it?

I haven't been able to blog about anything I've been doing (okay, so I haven't been able to turn on my computer, period) because of rats.

That's right, rats. Pesky rats that are sometimes the length of your forearm with big black beady eyes that jump around in your kitchen and make a lot of noise in passageways between your walls and eventually bite wires connecting electricity to your house until they get grounded and your computer doesn't turn on for a number of days.

That was a very long and incomplete sentence.

To make a long story short, our electricity was on the outs with us the past few days (read: since my birthday) and so I was having fun doing non-computer stuff while this was all happening. Thank you, rats.

I went to the beach for two days with forty-or-so members of my family. It was amazing.


Dinner that night was really great. We ate by the beach under a clear starry sky (really clear, by the way). There was candlelight and a little breeze. Then you looked up and could see all these constellations. :D


The food was, of course, hard to see with candlelight but I took the best picture I could.


So I had no idea this was all for my birthday. But it was. :D The waiters and everyone just came out with a cake and started singing.


The cake was delicious, by the way. Strawberry icing, and a slightly moist cake. It was so fragrant and tasty.

There were a lot of other pictures but the post would be too long. :) After dinner, we headed for the resort's cafe for coffee and (what do you know?) more food. Ken, Daphy, and I split dishes.


The mousse was good. We just kept digging into the glass; it was so chocolate-y, and the kahlua really gave it a bang.


I didn't know macapuno was synonymous to coconut (in baked goods, anyway). I don't like coconut, but this tasted good. It was creamy.

After getting so stuffed, everyone decided to work off (or play off?) the calories in the resort's game room. We played until past eleven (pretty late since we were supposed to get up early the next day).




Everyone had a lot of fun. My Dad injured his arm a little by lifting the whole soccer table up so he'd win, lol. There were other games of which I didn't get any good pictures. We returned to our cottage eventually, and had some fizzy champagne.


It was a nice end to a beautiful day. :D (Note: I don't believe in getting drunk but I think a glass of alcohol now and then doesn't hurt anyone.)

We got up early and went boating the next day. We were supposed to see some dolphins but all we ended up seeing was a lot of water. The waves were too rocky, I guess. It was still fun though.



We also swam in the sea. This is, of course, what is to be expected when one goes to the beach.


If you skipped over all those pictures, I just want to say that it was a lot of fun.

the next day...

If anyone has read my former post, they'll remember Adam, the guy whose blog I kind-of advertised. Anyway, he was one of my good friends in high school (in two of the three schools I went to, technically). Complicated, so I won't go into the sordid details.

He decided to treat me to lunch since we hadn't seen each other in almost two years, and he just had money to spend foolishly on me.


Treating me to a lunch of pizza ended up including a snack and even almost a dinner. We spoke six hours and moved from one restaurant to another. We were just hanging out. I mean, what do you expect when people haven't seen each other for almost two years? There's got to be a lot to say.

So we talked about school, family, friends, Jesus, memories, comics, food, church, and pretty much everything we could think of. It's lovely to keep in touch with old friends.

Then I came home... and my computer turned on again. So here ends my delightfully wordy and long post. I'm tired, and I bet you are too.



...with a bang. Or rather, a scream.

I woke up this morning two hours late, and proceeded to miss my first period.

What a way to start my birthday. Yup, I'm 19 now.

I did get to school eventually. I thank God no one really did anything during the first class. He really looked after me though I got myself into trouble.

Everyone greeted me and even sang. It was embarrassing and funny at the same time.

My friends gave me a cute pair of earrings. I laughed and said thank you. I seriously didn't expect anything from them. I mean, we're having exams at the moment and everyone's real busy.

Yep, I had absolutely no idea.

On the way home during a four-hour break a while ago, Paul handed me a little gift bag. I opened it and saw... car keys? MY car keys? What the hell is this? (Yes, that was my exact reaction). Hazel said "You'll see. Just go to your car."

So what do you think my friends made? A real mess, that's what.

The car was strewn with balloons, and post-it notes with sweet messages from everyone. There was even a cute dog on the wheel. I was just thinking... OK, so I wasn't thinking. I was really surprised. Happy surprised.

When I picked my jaw off the ground, I snapped the pictures. :D But the real shocker is finding out how everyone ganged up on me. My sister gave my friends my extra car keys, and her gift was on the front seat too.

Oh, wow. Thanks, guys!

I dearly love my friends (and sister too). And parents while we're at it. And everyone who greeted me, lol.

The day's not over yet though. But I've got class soon so I've got to go. Bye!

*****

Yay, my midterm grade in one of my classes is really good. Now if only the others went the same way...

I spent the rest of the day visiting old friends with the people from church. I can't believe a lot of people actually remembered my birthday when I didn't even really remember it until the day showed up.

New layout, by the way. Yup, drew that myself with another base image. It's on blogskins right now. It took a lot of work (300 layers, lol), so I figured with that much effort, I might as well use it. :D Take care, everyone!



First, if you have the time and enjoy reading beautifully funny and (almost) perfectly worded English, please visit my friend Adam on his blog. He draws on it a lot, lol, and his posts are really entertaining. So check it, yeah?

So guess what my aunt got me from Manila (our country's capital)?


Yes! Yes! Egg tarts (and my Chemistry notes in the back, but that's another story). It's lovely and creamy to the bite. Isn't it beautiful?


I love these things so much. Well, after Jesus, my family, my friends, church, my Photoshop... :D

OK, so that's enough about it. I've already posted enough about this particular pastry in a recent entry, and I don't want to bore you more than you already are, dear Reader.

Anyway, anyone remember that Calculus exam? It's over. I did my best. And it was just terrible.

The exam was two problems, and we were given one hour. We took an hour and a half, and we didn't even finish. We passed, like, two or three pieces of yellow pad paper with scribbles on both sides.

And almost everyone failed (no, I don't know if I did). It was so bad that the teacher decided to give us a retest. Yeah! Another chance to crack my skull!

Seriously, I'll have to go over what I studied again. I've also got a long Chemistry test this Saturday. But it's still days away, and I've started studying. So it's not such a big deal.

I guess that's about it for now. This post's starting to get too long. Hope everyone's doing okay!



I met Wee Kim Wee once.

OK, so you're probably thinking "Who the heck is that?" unless you're Singaporean. :D Wee Kim Wee was a former president of Singapore.

Anyway, he was a nice guy in a grandfatherly kind-of way. He gave me a signed autobiography, and said we should never forget to be humble. I never forgot that.

So I suddenly got curious last week and googled him. And I just found out he died last year. I know, a year has passed, but all I can say is I don't live in Singapore so this was not a headline in my daily newspaper.

It's just strange. I met him a few years back and now, he's dead. I don't know. It just gave me a queer feeling.

Anyway, Samantha asked me to put up clearer pictures of my overly decorated Physics book from the last post. So here they are.


I like the back better than the front, lol.

Oh, and while I was gone, I got SOTD. Twice. :D


Nothing really. It didn't change the world or anything. But it was just fun.

OK, so I have to go now. The post ends here.

Gah, Calculus exam tomorrow. I've studied until my brains fried up. I'll be praying hard.



I just came from a debut (or 18th birthday party if you're not familiar with the term). It was cool. I (and about 35 other people) had to speak about the celebrant, and me being me, I forgot to prepare a speech. Suffice to say I didn't get very good pictures while my hands were shaking with the trauma.


I got a picture with April (classmate through kinder, primary, and secondary --- FIVE schools in all). We haven't really talked lately; I guess we're getting so busy. If you're reading this, Pril, yes, I shall call when we have less tests. :D


I told the celebrant "Welcome to the club!" In other words, you're 18 now, you're legal. But I'm turning 19 in two weeks, LOL. The curse of being older than almost all your classmates.

On other breaking news, I'm leaving. For about a week, anyway.

I have big midterm exams coming up, and they've scared me into turning off my computer and studying like my life depended on it. I mean, look at some of my books:


Those are actually just two books about 1500-2000 pages long. I used to get muscle pain lugging them around so I sliced one of the books into three and decorated them myself. :)


Maybe I'll be inspired to study with such pretty covers. Then again, maybe not.

Calculus is also making me nervous.


Yes, that's only one problem. One problem on three blackboards in small writing. I couldn't even get a picture of all the blackboards. This is the class where we all applaud when the problem's finished because one takes an HOUR to do.

This is what nightmares are made of. I came home and slept after this class; I was that dizzy. WHY CHEMICAL ENGINEERING?

NOTE: I am not shifting, just amusing myself by waxing poetic over my choice of course. :D

Anyway, see you all around some time. When I have the time. Take care!



I got Skin Of The Day on Blogskins! Whee... LOL, it happened when the day was almost over though. There must have been a lot of really good skins and that automatic derivative thing Blogskins uses got confused.

Anyway, here it is!



It's just that I've been working on skins for fun. I never even think about SOTD and such since I always thought it was for extremely talented designers like Anne & Wang Guan anyway, LOL. So it was just a pleasant surprise... :)

On other breaking news, Christian Music Today did a really cool interview with Aaron Shust here.

I don't know if he's really familiar to any of you, but his song "My Savior, My God" is such a great song. It's the first song he ever recorded and it became a hit in the US. He talks about the song (and his fear over being a one-hit wonder), how he got into music, and about fame not being the most important thing.

It just reminded me that we've got to bloom where we're planted. All of us are in so many different places; some of you are from Singapore, US, and the Philippines (like me). And instead of being discontented, we could just do the best where we are. For all we know, we could end up doing better things because we did great with what we have now.

Oh well, so that's it about Aaron Shust.

Last week, my family went out for dinner in a hotel to bid farewell to my Dad & my sister (who were going on separate trips) with good food. They're back, by the way. It just goes to show that I don't blog what's been happening lately.

Anyway, it was a nice hotel.


The pictures aren't that great though because I was caught without a camera once again. My phone's camera may have a lot of pixels but it can only do so much.

The food was good. I had this.


And this.


And this.


And a plate of fruit that I forgot to take shots of. Yes, I know. I ate too much. So here's a picture of me feeling full. Yeah, this was after the meal. I look pretty normal though, don't you think?


And here's my parents. This took a long time to take, by the way. It was all candid and they made the funniest faces. :)


My sister enjoyed it all, but I think she was worried about school and homework. I mean, she brought it with her.


Poor girl. I would be doing the same thing in her shoes. There's so much to do sometimes.

It was a break though, and a cool way to say goodbye to my family members.

Really long post, isn't it? I'll stop now. :)