My first football game

I went for my first football game on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. The thing I will take back the most from that experience will be the experience of tailgating. I know many drivers out there will tell you that following too closely behind someone is very dangerous but I'm not talking about that kind of tailgating. Tailgating is what happens before football games. Familes or friends will go down early for the games and set up a barbi and kegs or coolers full of beer. Some will come bringing tents and radios or even tvs all to enjoy the game at the stadium. Yes, not in the stadium but at the stadium. They never enter the stadium to watch the game but remain outside in the carpark roasting hotdogs or making burgers or something. And that something is known as getting very happily drunk...

Here are some pictures of my 1st game...



This is the Aloha stadium which is a sad stadium. it is sad because Hawaii has no NFL team. That is also why UH games are so huge here because it is the only thing that hawaiian can do together in terms of sport. It is also sad because it is painted rust brown. Really it's paint but everybody just thinks it's a rickety old stadium.



here's a picture of some very kind people who gave me a burger which was very tasty indeed. They gave it to me for nothing and the reason, that's the spirit of tailgating. to give and not to count the cost. they just give willingly. It's all about sharing the love that is the Aloha spirit!



here's a picture of my friend George playing beer pong which is a game in which you try to bounce a ping pong ball into a cup of beer. Just look at the concentration on his face...



here's a picture of the stadium from the inside. hawaii smashed Idaho 68-10. What can i say, these warriors rock. And yes Idaho that's right, U da HO...



Hawaii is in black and Idaho is in white...



these are two pictures from the halftime show which was hugely entertaining. The marching band got into costume and stuff because one, it's halloween and two, because it was the homecoming game. There were also these little girls who were dancing with their dad's which i though was super adorable. The dad's wore t-shirts saying Dads and they danced too and did cartwheels and stuff to boot. Hugely funny...



And yes, the obligatory picture of the uber-cure cheerleader... Uber, uber cute...

the other movie

I know I left you guys in a dirch with my last post and kept you in suspence for the last movie but I'd like you guys to know that this was for good reason. I felt that this movie needed a whole post all to itself. Heck, honestly, it needs way more than that but I can't afford to do that. Besides, it's pretty tough to talk about it at length without killing it for everybody.


The movie I want to talk about it called Rang De Basanti and it is pretty much the best film I've seen all year and just to continue my use of the hyperbole, pretty much the best film I've seen in a long time. It is a Hindi movie which if translated in Singaporeanish is a Hindustani movie. It is the 2nd highest grossing movie in Indian cinema in this past decade. It broke many box office records in India. And it did all this without Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachan. (If I spelt any of the aforementioned names wrongly you have my sincerest apologies. Make that a thousand apologies.)

Yes, I am a losy Indian boy who has never until this movie sat through an entire movie from India. (Gandhi does not count. It was made by Sir Richard Attenborough) The only time I managed to watch a large chunk of a movie from India is that Christmas at Auntie Michelle's where all the slackers were just watching some Shah Rukh Khan movie. I still needed help from Amrit to tell me what I had missed. Anyway, that was a pretty memorable Christmas. I don't think anything says Christmas like Indian cinema and curry. And by the way, I am serious about the curry part. If I do happen to stay in Hawaii for Christmas it will be the first Christmas for me ever with no curry. (I miss my mummy's tulang curry)

Back to the movie. Rang De Basanti means The Colour of Sacrifice and the only big name it has in the cast was Amir Khan. It was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and I shook his hand after the movie. Seriously. The first big time movie director I've ever had the pleasure of shaking hands with. Gosh I wish I took a picture of that. Besides that the cast was made up of smaller actors one of whom reminds me of one of the slackers, Mr Siddarth Khapur and another reminds me of my cousin Ashley. Ashley's a guy by the way. I'm not too sure about whether his name has an "e" but the rest of his siblings have the "e" so i'm guessing it does.

The movie, like any respectable Bollywood movie, had an intermission. As to why I would bring this up, the reason is simple. The said intermission was so well placed as to split the movie into 2 parts. The first part of the movie was merely an ordinary picture of college life with drunken nights and merry making. There were the obligatory love stories and the story of the father who wants the son to further his education. The furthering of education bit is such a stalwart of Indian cinema it's incredible. There was also a line which appears in many college films. The "In college I am somebody but once I leave and go into the real world, I am nobody" schpiel. The quintessential line for many college students who realise that college, in no way, reflects the world out there. This group of students is also known as everybody, ... hopefully.

The second part of the movie is undescribable. Well, I lie. In actuality I could describe it but I just don't want to. This is because i really want everybody to go out and watch this movie. It is well worth whatever you need to pay to watch a Hindustani movie. The difficult part might be in finding the cinema that still shows it. If all else fails, just wait a while because from what I've heard, Rang De Basanti is the official entry from India for the Academy Awards. Thus, it might have a second showing closer to the awards. Or just get the DVD. Don't ask me where from but I'm guessing Mustafa Centre.

This movie will blow you away. It is a brilliant cinematic experience and an all round great movie. I am pretty good at predicting Oscar winning movies after watching movies just once. I am proud to say that I predicted Gladiator would win the Oscar on the opening night. I also predicted that Battlefield Earth would win the Razzies which it made a clean sweep of. One more reason to show that Scientology fries your brain. (The Razzies are the anti-Oscars) Anyway, I'm predicting that Rang De Basanti will take the Best Foreign Film Oscar. And when that happens it will mean that I am 2 degrees of Separation from the Oscar considering I shook the Director's hand.

Anyway, apart from awards and box office success, the film was also big in another way. It changed Indian society. It made students awake from their slumber and take to the streets like proper students to protest the injustices of the nation they lived in. This by the way is why we at NUS hardly have any time to do much. We are overworked so that we can't do anything crazy on the streets. The powers that be probably decided that the best thing to do was to give us so much work that the phrase idle time does not appear in our vocabulary. I think they should just make beer cheaper for students and thus achieve the same objectives. Of course maybe it just makes us smarter and I am just propogating insane conspiracy theories because conspiracy theories are cool. By the way, to any Government people reading this, I have a tendency to jest so do not take this seriously. Except the part about watching the movie. Go do that.

Yeah, since the movie came out there have been many protests in India, non-violent protests, trying to fight the machine of injustice that is so rampant in that country. Many people know that India has the potential to explode into a truly great nation and yet everybody also knows that the capacity for Indians to self-destruct is also boundless. (Ok, this might not be an appropriate time to make jokes about the bindi - the little red dot on the foreheads of many Indians) Anyway, many students who lead these candlelit procession quote the movie and claim that it was the movie that inspired them to try and change the world they live in.

On a more serious note, the movie inspired me. It showed me that my generation should be called the "Sleeping Beauty Generation". Forget the Gen-X ers or the Gen-Y - (I still think that Gen-Y is a retarded Euphemism). This generation I claim to belong to is full of potential but we all just need something to rouse us from our sleep. We are an enormous powder-keg just looking for something to ignite us to cause us to explode to our full potential. We have the power to change the world but we just need to know what we want to change it into. Once the initial point of inspiration is begotten then, I believe, this generation will show what it can really do. It will be an exciting time, just you wait and see. I see potential all around me hungering for something to convert them, from potential to Kinetic or Light or Heat or blooming Nuclear Energy. As the song goes, "It only takes a spark..."

Here is a sonnet I wrote about the movie. It is the first proper sonnet I've ever written. Proper as in it scans and it rhymes. I don't think my previous attempts were in iambic pentameter. hahaha, another thing this movie has inspired...

The peachiness of youth skips idly by
These are the carefree days of college life
With days of bloodshot eyes and Spidey's wife
And nights of Lucy and the Diamond Sky
'Tis wasted on the young they prophesy
And none will argue with truth so rife
Our life is rounded by a little trife
These Halcyon days we'll live until we die

But every now and then there comes along
Events that make a man out of the mice
Against the system shall we rise up strong
Our foes consume our youthful sacrifice
In truth it's us who are the fortunate
Our legacy will live indefinite

great movies

I've just spent too much money on films this week. But what am I supposed to do. It's the Hawaii International Film Festival. Sure the movies shown here cost more than normal commercially released films but that's usually because they're much better and three out of the four movies I've watched were.

The first movie I watched in this movie festival was 4:30 by Royston Tan. I know, watching a Singapore Movie in Hawaii? But in all honesty, it was free and I am Singaporean and so I went to watch it because of that mainly and also because I thought that Royston would be there and he was supposed to but didn't show in the end. That was good because if he did I'd be trying to market myself more than anything else. You know like, "Hey, if you need an handsome leading man to sweep the girls off their feet, here's my card. Or, if you need a really good actor for a really difficult role and you can't find the right guy, you could call me too."

Since he didn't show, I also did not have to pretend to enjoy his movie too much. I'm not saying that it wasn't a good movie. It was alright but I'm happy I didn't pay US$9 to watch it because if I did, I would have probably hated it. Also, I wrote in the introduction that 3 of the movies I caught were great and well, this one just wasn't one of them.

Somehow there is a new wave in Singapore theatre that seems like the next big film from home will be a silent movie. I mean "Be With Me" by Eric Khoo had very little words said but it more than made up for it by having a few great stories and very creative ways of telling the stories. 4:30 goes one better with a script probably consisting of about 300 words. I'm not kidding. In one scene, a teacher asks the protagonist to read an essay and that was 150 words long. That was half the script right there.

The visuals were pretty well done though. I'm a word-phile and I like words so that might be one reason I am judging this movie badly. The shots were well done and the emotional range of the actors was extraordinary. However, my major gripe with the movie is the fact that it comes off as a touch pretentious. It seems to think of itself as an arthouse movie and so it just spends a lot of time on still scenes where nothing happens. Yes, this does add to the artistic element of the film but in my opinion, it was way overdone. The pacing of the movie suffered greatly because of this. In all honesty, some people just walked out of the cinema after a while. My overall judgement of it was that it was a good effort but it really did become tedious very quickly.

The next movie I watched was called "Paper Dolls" and was a documentary about crossdressing Filipino caregivers in Israel. I watched it with my friend Yael from Kalo. She's a Filipino-Israeli hapa and so the movie caught her imagination. It really struck a chord with her because she could actually relate to the characters in the movie. It was great fun to watch and was warm and engaging all the way through. We get to see another view of life in Israel. It was not all violence and Arab-hating but just like any other country with it's own problems.

It focuses on a few caregivers who do really serve their employers really well. One of them gets so close to 'her' employers that 'she' says that 'she' is not a mere employer but more of a loyal daughter taking care of him. At night however, these caregivers don wigs and costumes and form a troupe of performers who call themselves the Paper Dolls. Their bad lip-synching reminds one of Ashley Simpson but the spirit and joy they attain from performing reminds one of Lisa Simpson. Their body shape unfortunately and dance mistakes are very like Homer Simpson crossdressed as Jessica and through it all, they had the spunk and rebeliousness of our dear Bart Simpson.

It was a great study of prejudices and how it is difficult to get rid of them especially in a place where tradition and decorum is so engrained like Israel. It speaks about judging people for what they look like on the outside and not for who they are on the inside. The thing I enjoyed most about the film was probably the film stock which was a documentary film stock which gives the whole thing a certain graininess that spoke so much about the harshness of life for these immigrants, strangers in a strange land.

After that movie, Yael and myself snuck into another movie called "Eve and the Fire-horse" and that was pretty sweet too. It was a movie about two young second generation Chinese girls in Canada. I think it was shot in Vancouver. It was such a sweet movie and the two young girls was fantastic actresses. It was a captivating movie about how children react to religion and how they understand such complex matters.

The scene of the movie is a shot where we see Jesus dance a waltz with Buddha. The director said after the movie that she was afraid that it would anger a lot of people but she said that all the comments about that scene bar one were positive. My gripe with that scene was the fact that Jesus had a belly. He was the fattest Jesus ever. Maybe it was intentional as maybe that's what the little girl might have thought since the family had placed the crucifix together with statues of Buddha and all the offerings. The little girls asks if Jesus and Buddha are friends and very wisely says that they should be since they say the same things pretty much. Reminded me of a little fact I heard once before that there was a period of time that Buddha was actually a Catholic Saint. Cool huh?

Anyway, the movie was full of wit and had many moments which left many members of the audience laughing out their popcorn. There were also many parts of the movie that just tugged at your heartstrings so had that you thought the cord might break. It made me think of home and how we manage a touch on syncretism in our beliefs because of our cultural understandings. It would probably not do very well in the US though it really took off in San Francisco (what a shocker! hahaha) but it might do well in Singapore although I doubt it will ever get to our shores. It was just really low budget so I really do hope it does well.

As for the last movie I want to talk about I think I shall save it for the next post because this one might just be a little too long. By the way, the last movie is also probably the best movie I've seen all year. It was also the first Hindi movie I've ever watched in a cinema. Probably one of the first Hindi movies I've seen all the way through too. I'll share more with you soon.

stolen from somewhere else, i'm sorry

I came across this really funny list of rules for every woman so as to help them live with men. Some of them I agree with, some of them I don't but almost all of them are true and funny... Yes, it is completely copied but sometimes other people say it better. and it's good that they do all the difficult work for you so that you can just sit back, relax and enjoy. I'm putting this on my blog because I know I'll forget the website I found this at and so it's easier if I just put it in a website i visit everyday.
Somebody should make t-shirts with these. I'd buy them...

Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present . . . . again!

Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

Sunday = sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

Don't cut your hair. Ever. Long hair is always more attractive than short hair. One of the big reasons guys fear getting married is that married women always cut their hair, and by then you're stuck with her.

Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

We don't remember dates. . . .Period!!

Most guys own three pairs of shoes - tops. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. We've been tricked before!!

If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

Let us ogle. We are going to look anyway; it's genetic.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

Christopher Columbus did not need directions, and neither do we.

The relationship is never going to be like it was the first two months we were going out. Get over it. And quit whining to your girlfriends.

ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

Foreign films are best left to foreigners. (Unless it's Bruce Lee or some war flick where it doesn't really matter what they're saying anyway.)

BEER is as exciting for us as handbags are for you.

Thank you for reading this; Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know, it's like camping.

I survived my 1st earthquake

Early on Sunday morning, at 7:07 local time to be precise, an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale occurred about 6 miles off from Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tremors could be felt all the way to Kauai, the furthest island on the island chain also known collectively as Hawaii. It was my first earthquake and I survived it. Well, here’s my sort of blow by blow of what happened that morning and after.




I was having sweet dreams as I normally do since before I sleep, msn friends always say “sweet dreams” when I felt my bed shaking. It was shaking pretty vigorously and I woke up with a pretty silly thought. In all honesty, I thought that my flatmates were playing a joke on me and were shaking my room. Yes, shaking my room. Look, I just woke up so rational thought hadn’t really begun yet. Anyway, after about a minute I realised that the earth was shaking and I sat up in my bed. At about the same time, my roommate Dick sat up as well. We looked at each other and he said, “Dude, what’s going on?” I was like, “Dude, I think it’s an earthquake.” And then Dick proved that I wasn’t the only one having weird irrational thoughts. He said, “Haha, I thought at first like why is Don Marcus shaking my bed.” We both laughed and then went back to sleep.

Yes, we went back to sleep. It seems so anti-climatic but that’s what happened. You would wonder why I was so calm about it and the reason was pretty simple. Nobody was panicking at all. There was nobody screaming and no mad running around. In all honesty it wasn’t really that bad since nothing fell off my messy desk and a light breeze could cause things to fall off my desk. Anyway, there was an after shock as well, that one was about a 5.4 I think but by that time, people were already going back to sleep and didn’t really care anymore.

Anyway, I eventually got out of bed at about 11 and went to make myself breakfast. I went to the kitchen cabinet and got a can of Campbell’s and put it into a microwavable container and then stuck it into the microwave. When I opened the door of the microwave however, the light didn’t come on and I began to panic. I then rushed to the fridge and opened it and the light in the fridge didn’t come on either. That spoilt my plan for the morning which was to have breakfast and watch the UH – Fresno State football game. (UH slaughtered Fresno by the way. Go Warriors!)

I was still pretty happy though because since I had a laptop, I could still be entertained by going on the internet and just surfing the net until my lappie batt died. So I turned on my laptop and then tried to log on but the wireless was down. Now I really began to worry. I went next door and asked if they had power and my neighbour said no. I asked how bad the power outage was still thinking it was only in Kalo that there was no power. I was wrong. Apparently, it was a State of Emergency declared throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In other words, there was no power in the whole state at all. As one of my friends said, we were thrown into the 3rd world.

There was no power at all and that was pretty tough because that meant that there was nothing to do. I thought that it was a good time to go for a run down to Waikiki but then I found out from other friends that there were a number of accidents already that day due to the fact that the traffic lights across the state were all down too. I decided to play it safe and to just chill at home and read before heading out to church in the evening.

Some of my friends thought that it would have been a great time to go surfing and theoretically, it would have been great for really big time surfers because the swells would have been great after the earthquake but luckily that decided not to since there might have still been a slight threat of a tsunami.


Also, for the first time in Hawaii, I heard the phrase, “poor tourists” since many of them were left pretty much stranded with no electricity. Think about it, no air-conditioning, no lights, and a fear of going to the beach. There were long lines for the ABC shops just so the tourists could buy snacks and water and stuff like flashlights. Convenience stores around the island were still open but they had people escorting the customers around so there would be no looting. There was no looting. Everything was pretty safe. Tourists even said that it made them like Hawaii more because people everywhere were really nice and helpful.

Anyway, mass was pretty fun because it was dubbed “Mass, Unplugged.” In all honesty, it was pretty fun and made the mass feel pretty special. There were no microphones but it was alright since the Newman Centre isn’t big at all and it was also lucky that Fr. Chris, the Parish Priest, has such a nice loud voice, A great singing voice too. Anyway, it was nice in the semi dark to look at the candles just being constant and not flickering at all.

After mass, I went for dinner with some of the folks at Kalo at a place called Magoos, which has its own generator. Just before I finished my food, power came back on in my area. It was cool and I was excited just to go back and watch the news to see how bad the quake was. It was also pretty terrible to see the damage and destruction caused on the big island. But the good thing and thank God for it was that nobody was killed and nobody was seriously injured either.

So, I’ve survived my 1st earthquake! I put that on my msn nick and I realised that it seemed like I ate a whole lot of ice cream from Swenson’s all by myself. That I survived many years ago by the way. Anyway, many people did lose their homes and stuff on the big island so if you guys can; spare a prayer for the victims of the earthquake. It would be dearly appreciated.

2 months

I've been in Hawaii for 2 months. I have 3 months left before I leave this place and head back for home. Time sure flies especially when you've got assignments after assignments followed by mid-terms after mid-terms. My week is such a Hellweek and having lived through the actual one, I can tell you that this is worse, much worse. 3 papers and 2 25% midterms are crazy man...

Anyway, in the US, I've gotten addicted to something very unhealthy. It is a disgusting and very expensive habit. Yes, you guessed it. I've become addicted to Amazon.com. But I can't help it. Shipping here is free...

Anyway, to celebrate my 2 month anniversary in Hawaii, here are my amazon purchases. And i have finally completed what I've been wanting to complete for years and at a fraction of the cost. I thought I was going to spend at least $280 on it but through looking for great deals at book sales etc., I managed to get everything for only about $225. Yup, I've got all 10 compiled issues of the Sandman. Oh, and the other thing on the photo is the new Barenaked Ladies CD. They're like my favourite band of all time. And by the way, if you google barenaked ladies, you won't get porn...



But anyway, I've got 3 months left. How time flies? And I really need to start doing stuff soon before I run out of time. On a side thought, people are always running out of time... but wouldn't it be weird to run into Time? That might be quite scary yah? and probably painful too... Imagine running over time or running past it... Yup you guessed it, I'm high on Amazon...

my route to school

This is going to be an entry about how I get to school every other day. Here is my favourite place in school, the Hamilton Library. Not exactly Central 6 but good enough. The difference between this place and Central 6? I actually get work done here. I miss Central 6...



Right, this is my room. As you can see, I knew I was going to take photos and so I actually made my bed. Then I get out of bed and get ready. I'll take my darling lappie and throw her into my bag and then check the mirror to confirm how handsome I am and then leave my room. Btw, I have no idea how i'm going to bring all those books back...





After that, I go to my fridge and get food. Look, that's my room number, 306. 306 guys rock...






And then i look out my lanai and see right in front of me, Diamond Head. What a sight...










And then i walk down the stairs and out of Kalo...










Yup, Kalo Terrace, my home away from home. The Blue Box. The K-Lo. It's a crazy place and oh so fun...









Now I head from Kalo up some huge parking structure and this is the lovely garden on top of the structure. Hawaii is more a green city than Singapore. Trees around everywhere and that's good because it helps me not miss home so much. And it makes an already lovely place, lovelier...




These are the weird people by the traffic light. Everybody gets freaked out by these guys at night when they first go to the University. They just stand there and talk all day. When i first got here, some kid tried to play a prank and placed a cap on the guy's head. It was actually pretty cool and even reminded me of the time when some guy placed a packet drink on St John Baptist De La Salle's outstretched hand in the old SJI...



For a school in a beautiful place, the buildings really are quite ugly. I was looking at Delphia's blog and saw that U of Toronto was really cool and looked super classic and as she described it, somewhat like a real life Hogwarts. The buildings in Hawaii come from Architecture's Hell. And they're weird also because there as such huge differences between buildings. Some aren't actually that bad but most are pretty icky. But there is a reason for this. Nobody really cares cos you're not supposed to be in school for long. You're not supposed to stay at home much either. This is Hawaii brah (the Hawaiian version of bro), you should be outside in the sun, on the beach, in the mountains. That's why everything looks so simple if not ugly.



Ok, also, because of the ugliness of the buildings, there's a lot of artwork all around to make things not so ugly. Here are some...





















Oh, and here's the art building that is actually quite cool. They've got a gallery there and my apartment mate Dan works there. Apparently now they're trying to rebuild one of the zero bombers that attacked Pearl Harbour and then crash landed on Kauai. They're going to build it completely out of photographs. Way cool...

please read previous entries to make sense of this one

Now, I’ll write more about the conversation with Laura and Uriah. Well, we talked about many things like what YWAM is all about and how missionary work is conducted and their experiences and lots more. Uriah also had a cool quote about conversion to share with me and I thought that it would be fun to start of with that quote.

We got into the topic of conversion and he said that a lot of times, people might get a little ahead of themselves when it came to the understanding of that word. He used a very interesting and relevant analogy to describe the idea of conversion though. He said he had just gotten an Ipod and he wanted to put his videos on the Ipod but he couldn’t because they weren’t the right kind of file. Anybody who’s done this before will know that this isn’t really a problem because all you need to do to make the file compatible with the Ipod is to CONVERT it. You see, when you convert somebody, all that you are doing is making him or her compatible with the Heavenly Ipod. And any file can be converted although some files are more difficult to convert than others. I think I could really expand on this analogy but I’ll save it for another time.

About the YWAM, it’s a non-denominational, non-profit organisation with a huge network. Apparently, the largest YWAM base is located in the Singaporean city of Perth. And there’s even one on the Singaporean heartland itself. (For those of you who don’t already know, Perth is an unofficial colony of Singapore but I think we’re in negotiations to make it official soon. And by Singaporean heartland, I mean Geylang. In all honesty, I can’t think of a better place in Singapore to have a mission, can you?)

Nobody in YWAM drives a fancy car or earns an elaborate salary. To me, that was a big selling point. I guess some of you might know what I’m getting at but if you don’t then let me tell you briefly. You see, when I just entered NUS I went for a camp conducted by Youth Challenge for a new club they wanted to set up in NUS called Club Exchange. That camp has the best group of participants I’ve ever encountered in all my experiences in camps. Everybody was leading and everybody was cooperating and it was just mondo impressive. The reason for that was because they said that the camp was a way of deciding whom to allow to join the club and stuff.

You see, Club Exchange was prestigious because you could really do a lot through it. You could represent Singapore for festivals in Barcelona or a mock UN Conference in New York and all that. Also, they had many Youth Expedition Programs to other countries that students could join. It all seemed good until you found out that they had a very dubious accounting system with the Youth Challenge members telling you that you had to sell CDs or something and only a small percentage of the money you earn goes to the trip. The fact that the founder of the Youth Challenge drove a nice, flashy sports car did not do much to boost your confidence in them much either. Down with Lammy! – Funnily enough, I just read that he’s under investigations or something. $13,000 a month for a charity organisation? What the what?


So that attracted me to YWAM. I could easily just go down and join the one in Singapore and not have to go to any other places and stuff. However, in all their good works and general coolness, there were turn-offs as well. The main turn-off was that I thought they felt it was Christianity or Hell. They were very old school about the whole thing. This was demonstrated when Uriah was telling me how impressed he was by St. Francis Xavier and how radical he was with like blowing up Buddhist statues in Korea or Japan or something. I guess this might be because he comes from a more religiously homogenous area the US. But I can’t believe in that because I’m Singaporean. (and mighty proud of it)

I believe in the Brother Mike form of conversion. As long as you fed Jesus when He was hungry, clothed Him when He was naked, befriended Him when He was in prison, then you were allowed into Heaven. Uriah quoted the Bible that He is the Way and that to get to the Father you must go through the Son. Good quotes but a very narrow understanding of them. I think that you could follow Jesus without knowing that you were following Him. I remember in SJI, we were told early on that we did not strive in SJI to make everybody a Catholic but we strive to make everybody better whatever they are. If you are Buddhist, at the end of 4 years, we hope that you become a better Buddhist. If you’re Muslim, then hopefully, you’d be a better Muslim. Didn’t always happen but we tried. But, it must be said that this might be an overreaction on my part. Maybe it was just that I read too much into things the way I usually do.

There was also the point that the Discipleship Training School costs about SGD$2000 over to enrol in but that wasn’t really a big turn-off. Nor was the fact that you had to stay away from home at their base for about 3 to 4 months. I mean I wouldn’t like it but if I had to do it I would.

Anyway, I came to the decision that I didn’t want to join YWAM. I was still going to learn all that I could learn from them by going for their Thursday meetings but when I got back I decided that I’d just go do what I feel I should do and that is to teach. So I will go back to Singapore and get my honours and then work on my PGDE for a year in NIE and then go to a neighbouring country that needs teachers for a year before coming back to Singapore to complete my bond.

As for what organisation I would go with, I figure that being Catholic, I could find many Catholic groups who do missionary work in the region. My first choice would of course be to go through the La Salle networks. I mean SJI was founded as a missionary school in a backwater little island after all. We all owe so much to those missionary brothers who arrived here all those years ago and maybe other countries need people like that too. Besides, the Christian Brothers have some schools in Myanmar and Northern Thailand and all. The really cool thing is that since I’ve decided to do this so early before I can actually leave, it gives me ample time to learn a new language. Considering it took me about 12 years to have an elementary grasp of Malay, I’ll need all the time I can get.



So to my parents who might be afraid that I’m going to break my bond, there’s no need to worry. In fact I think this might even sweeten the deal because it means that I’ll actually be able to gain a deeper understanding of the world and also it’ll give me more stories to tell. The coolest teachers always have the coolest stories to tell because they’ve done so much outside of academia. And you know what? I want to be the coolest teacher!

slackers

this was supposed to be another post but i just got off talking to joel and i really felt like writing something down. i love the slackers. i feel like an idiot for missing joel's and king k's birthdays but i think it's just been happening lately yah. come on, i even missed my own mum's birthday. that should tell you how bad i am at dates.

anyway, the slackers. the best group of friends money can't ever buy. i think besides my family, you guys are the folks i miss the most. the funny thing is, in all probability, you guys would live up to our group name and never read this. but i will write on anyway.

honestly, i get very annoyed when people say that their group of friends are slackers cos they don't know what that means. we were the original slackers and we'll always be the slackers, formed at the back of 3A4 while i was taking a nap in 3A3. the posts in the government might be meaningless now but i'll always remember that i was the minister without portfolio or as amritpal "the king" singh called it, minister "boh" portfolio, just because you guys thought i was the slackest of the lot.

the sad thing is that we've all gone our own separate ways and are all over the world now. by that i mean in the greater pacific rim. you know, i wanted to stay in hawaii for a while and so when i found out that i could stay until the 7th of jan i was pretty happy. the only thing that made me sad was missing new year's eve at joel's place. that was it. it was not even christmas with my family.

i like tradition and i like our tradition. it's a small tradition but it's a great tradition. oh man, i actually feel like calling up northwest just to see if i can get an earlier ticket out so i can spend new year's eve at thompson. hahaha. but just sitting together drinking whatever the drink of the day is and then just talking and talking and talking the year away and ushering the new year in with stories.


i am saddened by the fact that the huge group that we were are no more but i am always delighted by the fact that we all survive in small pockets. i love the fact that we all go and visit wayne's dad just because we love him so much and miss him. haha, i remember telling my other friends that i was going to visit my friend's dad and they were all like, what's wrong with him and in all honesty, we go to visit him because he's alright and alright by us. in all our parties, i enjoy most the time when we're all tired and just sit down like the slackers that we are and just talk. we talk until all the girlfriends get bored and do something else and we're all still there talking.

i think this is the most meaningful post i've ever posted in my blog because my brain isn't in the equation at all. this is all heart. i really can't wait til all of us are all back home together. everybody. just slacking and being ourselves and you guessed it, talking story. (new hawaiian phrase i've learnt, same meaning as talking cock but it sounds much better and somehow i think it actually describes what we do better)

so here's a shout out to everybody... i'm not going to mention names cos i know i'll miss a few... i love all you guys and can't wait to see you all in a couple of months time...



This was all caused by something joel got me to read. it was a conversation that happened between him and kudus. it reminded me how much the slackers mean to me. i looked at the photos i was going to post and i was pretty close to tearing. i just started to remember all our glory days and memories are beautiful and painful at the same time yah. i also realised how few photos i have of the slackers but how many photos i have of random inconsequential people. but don't worry, the most important photos i've ever taken have not been taken by a camera but by my eyes and stored in my head and heart. i will never forget you guys no matter what happens. you are my closest friends and will always stay that way.


the best thing about the slackers is that we are a growing group and there are always new members who will come into the slackers and will remain slackers for life because we all share the same life motto... "sometimes we might drink to forget but never will we forget to drink..." - (taken from the Sandhu family credo.) this goes out to all you guys as well...

to all those people reading this, here's hoping that all of you have found your own group of slackers who you hold close to your hearts just like how i hold close this bunch of jokers i call my closest friends...

reason for no new posts

I know it’s been a while since my last post and my excuse is that something happened to occupy a lot of space in my head and I just did not know whether to write in down or not. And as for writing down other things, that might work if not for the fact that that one thought has been occupying too much space in my mind.

I guess I’ve decided to write it down so that I can get my thoughts straight and so that I can go on to write about other things. I guess I’ll go against my history student nature and not put what I’m talking about in the opening few paragraphs but just let it develop as it goes along. I’m doing this just because I’m bored and wish to entertain and inform more than to reveal my innermost thoughts and feelings.

Well, it all started a couple of weeks ago when I went for the Light Up UH thing, which I wrote here sometime back. During the event, we were sort of randomly split up into groups to go and pray over different places in the university. I say sort of because being the college student I am, I decided to cheat and join a group with the rest of the Catholic Campus Ministry people.
(A small disclaimer here, College students don’t always cheat and in all honesty, I’ve never cheated in my life. That has got more to do with my pride than any integrity thing.)

Anyway, along with the CCM people there were 2 other prayer-thletes, (pronounced pr-athletes) from other groups within the UH community. One girl was from the Baptist Ministry I think and the other girl was from an organisation called YWAM. (pronounced why wam) She told us that she wasn’t a student at UH but she was just attached to the YWAM base that’s situated just outside the UH campus.

In exercising my mind-reading abilities I know that you might be asking what is a prayer-thlete? Well, it’s something I just came up with that I thought was pretty cool. Nobody refers to themselves as prayer-thletes but I just think that they could if they wanted to. The second reading I’m getting is what on earth is YWAM? I know that this might be the question in your minds because while you were sleeping, I secretly infiltrated your brains and placed that question inside.


OK, back to reality now, what is YWAM? YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission. How awesome is that? Most of the youth I know have no idea about what they should do with their lives and I’m pretty sure many adults don’t really know either. And here, in the middle of an island paradise, I find young people with a MISSION. Think about it. It’s like being in NS, you’re always training and waiting for something to happen and hoping that nothing does. And then suddenly, YOU get a mission. You’re scared out of your wits but then, now you know what it’s all about.

I always meet people who ask me what they are doing here or what we are doing here. I don’t know why they ask me but apparently, they trust my opinions. Here’s the thing; my opinions don’t count. In all honesty, if you know why you’re on this planet, you don’t need to ask somebody else and if you don’t know yet, you really need not bother about it until you know. These people in YWAM knew what they were doing on earth; they got their Ops Orders. (I can’t remember if this is the correct step. I think I missed a few. If any guys actually read this blog, please correct me if I’m wrong)

Anyway, I got to speaking to Laura, (that’s her name) and as we were speaking I told her that I’m Singaporean (and bloody proud of it) and she was excited because she’s been to Singapore once and would love to go there again. I also found out that she’s in love with Southeast Asia and that she really wants to go and do missionary work in Thailand. Also, she had just come back from doing about half a year in Timor Lieste and that she was born in Irian Jaya. (that’s the Indonesian side of Papua New Guinea)

For those guys who think they know me well, yes, she’s cute but that really doesn’t matter at all. I told her about the free movies I watch every Wednesday at the Korean Centre and asked her if she was interested in watching Southeast Asian movies for free. Needless to say that being a SEA-phile she was really excited and so I got her email and forwarded the messages I got about the movies to her. I also asked her if she’d like to grab a coffee or something sometime so I could talk to her about the mission stuff and all.

She was only too happy to talk to me about missionary work and we met on Sunday to talk about it over a cup of green tea latte at Starbucks. She also brought a friend of hers named Uriah who had just come back from doing a mission Cambodia. And I as I talked to them, I began contemplating about my own purpose in life and as we each shared our own stories, I just felt more and more enriched with each passing minute. It was a great experience.

I think that meeting them and engaging them in conversation was very important and so I’ll write more about that in another post. For now, I’ll just conclude because I think that this might be just going for a tad too long already. I’m almost hitting a thousand words and I know that your attention is starting to wane now. So I’ll continue this thread in my next post.

As for the thought, I’m thinking of doing some missionary work. Yup, that’s it…