catch up: transitions

Previously, on ¿wat?…

• Catch up Episodes
• more catch up

Gonna leave for Singapore on the 17th night. I guess it’s about time for this.

Season 9 (Transitions)
Jan – July 2007, Super 6

Transitions indeed. From Sitiawan into JS: minor transition. From JS, Sitiawan into Taiping… And soon, from Taiping to Singapore.

JS was cool. I guess one of the major things I experienced there is being a little more expressive with God, and other people to a lesser extent. Not the practical things learnt, it’s the relationships formed that makes JS special. Even with Mark and Josh.

Then there’s the “re-entry” straight into Taiping. Taiping ain’t a bad place… but it’s still a big change from my hometown. I coped simply by not letting my roots go down deep. I figured since I’ll be “moving” again it’ll be alright. Doesn’t mean I didn’t make any friends, though. But even in this comparatively short span of time, I see the proof again… there ain’t such a thing as a flawless/problem-less church.

Other things… Sieh Jin got married! It’s still a bit weird… cause in my mind Sieh Jin is almost like “one of us” (age-wise) and then suddenly he’s married… dang. Then went to Kuantan to ‘train people to produce a musical evangelistic event’… (iConnect… a chinese event no less…) A nice last chance to work with Alvin & Co and Uncle Herbert, although at least josh and I felt totally inadequate. (It’s really disconcerting to hear them call us ‘teacher’)  After that, the Taiping MYF camp… got to see Daniel Singh again.

Last thing was the last (proper) trip to Sitiawan… As I already said, at least I got to meet all my close friends sans those already in Singapore.

The future should be interesting. Cats* and Ducks…

* formerly cockroach or kacuak

more catch up

Season 6 (Modern Dystopian Age)
2003-2004, Form 4 – Form 5

I would call this “age” something of a spiritual desert. Started to have lots of doubts… not actually doubts about God, but more like doubts about my relation with God. Doubts about some Christian “personalities.” I had many questions and all the “usual” answers just seemed inadequate.

But in the middle of all that, I still managed to get to know MYF at a national level through YLDP. (which is a historical event – Sitiawan MYF had almost no relations with MYF national level for ages before this YLDP) And somehow I also managed to put myself through a mission exposure trip to Long Lamai. I even joined dr. herbert, alvin & co to melaka straits baptist church to conduct a worship workshop and even give a testimony…

As for the academic side, somehow, by God’s grace, I also managed to walk away from from SPM with a B3 for Sejarah and only a C5 for Moral. I have not been able to come up with any reasonable explanation as to how I didn’t get worse marks for those subjects except God’s grace…

Season 7 & 8 (Post-Modern Age – Post Modern Information Age)
2005 – 2006, Lower 6 – Upper 6

Finally God helped to pick up the pieces of my spirituality… although it’s never perfect, but at least the confusion has cleared.

In another arena, that is school, I started spending lots and lots of time in koko room… doing lots of stuff. Messing with the networks. Fixing one or two teacher’s computer/laptop. Even one house call.

But the biggest challenge I had to face was being a leader… (as in masctech) I found it a bit disconcenting to discover that the buck ends with me. Before, I could always “refer to someone higher.” Suddenly, I had to make the final decisions… But I guess you learn as you go… even though you might end up frustrating other people along the way… sorry…

There were a couple of other significant events… but I won’t write about it.

And so I finally arrive here… leave school, leave Sitiawan…

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There were huge chunks of history I left out… either because it’s too personal and/or confidential or because I thought it was too boring… but that’s that.

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Catch up episodes

[caution: super long post]

Have you ever seen those “catch-up marathons” on AXN? Those where they show episode after episode of some show for you to catch up with what’s going on before the season finale?

I’ve noticed several kinds of blogs. Some just write whatever comes to mind. Some keep a log of their lives. Others write opinions. And some write about their life history. So, this is my attempt to write about my life history…

Why? well, I felt like doing it… and I was restless… and not to mention a chapter of my life is closing forever… as we like to say, next year there’s no more “-teen.” It’s “-ty” next year…

so… Presenting… Catch-up episodes of Season 1 through Season 8… well, more like season walkthroughs, but nevermind.

This might take a while.

Hint: you may want to just skip to the end of season 3… the begining isn’t much to read about…

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Season 1 (Pilot / Stone Age)
1987-1993

Obviously, I don’t really remember much from this age. But I do know I came to know Christ from Sunday School’s kindergarden class… I also remember praying for my mum who was really ill at that time. There’s also bits and piecies of memories of Jordan and Krystal Kay. (They used to stay somewhere behind my house)

Season 2 (Classical Age)
1994-1999, Std 1 – Std 6

Nothing much interesting here either… Had a couple of friends, but I haven’t seen them in ages… except Elisha Hong, maybe. There was also this guy I know in standard 1 and 2, supposedly my good friend. Good thing we eventually split classes… Let’s just say he eventually got thrown out of school a few years ago for some racial fighting…

I also remember visiting the computer room a lot in Standard 5. I also remember starting to do programming towards the end of primary school… but never actually made anything worthwhile. Ah, yes, there was also this paper and pencil game I used to play… We’d play it whenever we were free, during recess, when teacher was out… and even a few times when teacher was in.

Season 3 (Enlightment Age)
1999-2000, Std 6 – Form 1

Only reason this “season” is seperate from season 2 is because a lot of things that I couldn’t understand earlier suddently started to make sense… I started experimenting with a lot of electronics around this time. wasted a lot of money there too… only one project ever worked…

But besides that, this is time where I joined band. Met Jordan again… only this time he was way taller than me… I think he was the Discipline Quatermaster… took Tenor Drum because I eventually wanted to take Bass Drum, like my brother long long ago. Got to know folks like Hai Chuan, Anwar and a cockroach. (If you’re reading this, =P) And speaking of music, I think I started learning guitar around the end of this year. Never regreted that decision.

I also remember meeting (Big) Bau for the first time. I vaguely remember my mom telling me something like, “He’s new. Why don’t you sit with him and keep him company?” At that time I would never have thought he would turn into one of my best friends. He got to know Christ at the end of the year… Pangkor Seagull Beach Resort, along with Dillion.

Another fella I met at this time was Darren… and this is my first memory of him -
“Have you wondered what it might be like to have s** with a tree?”

I’m not really sure whether I should laugh or cry…

Season 4 (Medival Age)
2001-2002, Form 2 – Form 3

Finally it starts to get a bit more interesting… I finally get what looks like a social life. And I also got to know Sieh Jin. There’s this one night I came to church and suddently, out of nowhere he goes,

“Come, I’ll teach you piano.”
“But I never took any piano lessons…”
“Nevermind, I’ll teach you.”
“uh… but why?”
“Because I’m bored.”

That’s Sieh Jin… He also did some teaching in ACS before he went to university… Filling in for Mr. Ravi… taught moral and PJ. All I remember is that on his last day he arm wrestled with Wen Han… The teacher’s table fell over.

Around this time Dr. Lee Boon Hua came to the school… He did the school a lot of good. Really nice guy too. There was once after our PMR exams, we were playing “golf” with joanne’s tennis racquet and a tennis ball… Dr. Lee then happened to pass by. He stopped, and tried a shot. Can’t remember whether he managed to hit the ball in or not…

Got to know a lot of people during this time… j-mes, bau, jofiho, otter, josh, evelyn chen, carol, ash…

Of course, it wasn’t nice all the way… I remember going nuts about studying… going nuts as in being unable to study and behaving strangely when I’m alone in my room… (a kind of depression?)

Season 5 (Industrial Age)
2002-2003, Form 3 – Form 4

By industrial age, I really mean I made myself too busy for my own good. There was one month where I skipped all my classes… Add math really became tough after that…

There were a few significant events and people during this period – someone with uncle visits resulting in big fights, a kind of fish, penguins, otters, ducks, and the musical. Got to know Philip, Benny and Teik Seng better around this time as well. We even chased an ambulance from Manjung Hospital untill a trafic light just to get the video footage.

About the musical, I didn’t know it then, but now I know that the rest of the MYF council, especially james and joanne, were a part of God’s answer to the prayers for the musical. Without their support, I wouldn’t have been able to lead squat till the point where Philip took the helm. And in the end, it’s God alone who made the whole thing work. That seems to be the musical tradition now…

Ah yes, another significant thing was the Youth Evengelism Explosion. My first OJT – Tze. Finding his house was a real pain at that time… My trainer (he’s not local) said something about how house numbering makes so much sense in Malaysia – start at 20, go to 30, skip to 70, then return to 40… And when we finally did arrive, the whole thing was so awkward I was sure tze would just brush us off… Of course, now tze is ex-council, EE trained and a good friend. Sometimes I think God has a funny sense of humour…

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I wanted to finish the last 3 seasons as well, but I think I better leave it for another day… it’s 2.46… in the morning.

[If you're wondering where I get the "seasons", actually I have a file full of key words from different times in my life...]

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