Tuesday, June 16
been sooooo busy.. so much i wanna blog about.. but no time.. if not, too tired.
a quick update:
fri-met wenqi to study chem together at bishan library. super long since we saw each other and havent catch up for ages. played badminton with her and daryl later in the evening..
sat-went for redcross cip thingy at jurong bird park. met all kinds of funny ppl and was super tired at the end.. studied at tca library again. crashed the backstage ppl's meeting and helped them do the flooring.. will probably post this proper if i have time.
sun-finally answered the call again. finally told someone tat i need to share (even though i havent fix an appointment date yet) no rehearsal but shamus good. nvr tell us. went for jam instead (cos didnt wanna study.. xP) but studied some later in hans.
mon-played badminton. went to see doctor/do ecg/do blood test cos of the stupid irritating weird heartbeat of mine. and just the wait for the doctor took like 2-3hrs!!! >< so whole afternn gone n nvr study. again shamus good. nvr tell us no rehearsal again. n we only know when we went down to chapel n eugene tell us... haix. so frm now onwards eugene will sms us instead (we give him our no, cos he frm adam we pl, so he dun have our contacts..) went home and slept. super tired.. feeling sooo drained and tired nowadays for no reason...
k,gotta go sleep.. ZZZzzzz
Friday, June 12
went down to SAVH again today. this time for DINING IN THE DARK!!!! xD
managed to change grp.. =) cos i signed up with my sis and her fren, so we in the same grp, but they 2 pull out last min and leave me by myself. so 13 of my classmates in one grp, and i was emo-ing by myself in the other... but they in the end got change me to the other grp. =) so was with ah pat, jor, sam and the others. too bad fy not there, if not the 五姐妹 be together.. lol.
the other grp went in to dine 1st while my grp went on a "tour". we watched a video about SAVH then learned how to help the visually impaired in various situations as well as about their white cane (NOT "WALKING STICK"!!!). then we had role play.
the role play was sooooo super funny!!!!! LOL. lance was like the expert "blind person" hahaha. then ah pat was so funny when she was trying to lead jj to the seat. oh! and yk go kick her "blind person"(SH) for some stupid remark. LOL! the role play was really hillarious.
then tried out several visual simulators to experience what its like to have several eye problems.. such as tunnel-vision (which so reminds me of the game binocular-soccer we played in tech last time [check my previous posts if u wanna read about tat]).
had a chance to see their assistive device centre, where they sell stuff to help the visually impaired (both low vision and blind ppl). they have stuff like portable magnifiers, (and other types of magnifiers), screen reading software, braille note takers, talking calculators and watches, watches with braille, games with braille, and so much more. all the stuff is really ex cos they're all imported frm overseas, but the visually impaired gets a large discount (esp since quite a no is frm the lower income grp)
got a chance to interact with the visually impaired people while they were having their lunch.. was really awkward.. cos didnt know wat to talk about plus i'm always awkward when put in a new environment and have to interact socially..... so ya. pei jor to talk to one of them in the end, but she did all the talking.. xP
and....... FINALLY! what we came here for. DINING IN THE DARK!!
it was a totally cool experience. really one you'll want to experience in your lifetime (at least for me.. xD)
went in pair by pair, our hands on our servers(who are visually handicapped), then they guide us to our seats.. IN TOTALLY DARKNESS!!!!!! followed the example they showed earlier b4 the role play on how to find the seat and sit down. =) my table got 6 of us. jor on my right, michelle on my left, liting beside her, then opp me is 2 more frm i-dunno-wat class.
even though i not scared of the dark, i'm scared of the stuff tat's hidden within it. but though tis is total darkness, no fear at all! prob cos like liting said we know our frens are right beside us, like we just reach out or hands then can feel them liao. then plus the classical music they play set the peaceful atmosphere..
got another table behind me. tat table got SH, joseph and i forgot who else. (obviously) can hear them behind me, and thought they were like at least one arm's length away. my impression on the room was that it was quite long and big. dunno why. figured the table was rectangular cos jor side only got her, but my side got me and michelle. the napkin and dessert spoon was at 12o'clock, fork at 9o'clock, knife and spoon at 3o'clock. the cup was above the knife and spoon roughly 1o'clock.
two jugs were passing around. one contained orange juice, the other water. we had to pour the drink out BY OURSELVES!! so fun!! haha. xD to tell if the drink is near the brim, we had to out our finger at the rim of the cup and once we feel the water then stop. (for me i got do this b4 cos i too lazy to on the light when getting water at night.. xP) our table, NO SPILLAGE! (heard the other tables have. some spill on the table, jj spill on himself.. LOL)
soup came 1st. we had to place our hands on the table, palms up, then the server will feel our hands and place the bowl/plate/etc on them. the servers wore bells on their ankles to help them hear where their feet are. so i can also hear where they are. drinking the soup wasnt as easy as when we had sight. cos cant see the bowl, cant see the spoon. so have to go by touch and estimation. touch to find the bowl, and estimation to estimate the distance and position of the mouth from the spoon.. lol. its like the hand cant find the mouth. but after a while got the hang of drinking soup. =) it was mushroom soup (cooked by visually handicapped ppl too!!). super-whooper nice!! =D only thing was i didnt like mushrooms. so after eating some, i dun feel like eating any more mushrooms.. xP so tilted the bowl, pushed the mushrooms to the top part then drink the rest of the soup (without mushrooms!!) xD
the basket of garlic bread was also passed around. got to feel in the basket for the bread. my only regret was bcos cannot see, so cannot dip the bread into the soup and eat.. ='( bread and soup are so meant to be together!!
main course. mine and jor came 1st.. used my fingers to feel wats on the plate (like i saw the visually impaired ppl did when they were eating their lunch.. gd thing they got us to wash our hands b4 we came in!) but couldnt really tell wats excatly on my plate. most of the stuff was covered in sauce, and one bit was mushy. in the end me and jor figured out its black pepper chicken, salad, and the mushy thing was mashed potato. xD the others were like hearing our "discoveries" while waiting for theirs to come. lol. we all had the same thing, just tat liting had fries, and michelle had fish and chips instead of chicken. eating the main course was the hardest. turned my plate til the chicken was at 6o'clock, the potato at10o'clock, vege at 1o'clock. (ignored the veg part the whole meal. =)) the meal was quite nice. =) but was real hard to eat. esp the chicken! cutting chicken isnt easy when u cant see!!!! used the fork and knife to get the rough shape of the chicken, then position them where i wanna cut. then just keep slicing until the knife scrapes onto the plate. then (cos the fork in pierced thru the bigger piece when cutting) have to go hunt for the piece tat was cut with the fork. and they almost always seem to disappear after being cut! then the same prob as the soup, placing the meat into the mouth! only then then will realise whether the meat was cut too big or too small!! xP didnt have much prob with the potato.
oh! the funny thing about the main course. everyone gave the same answer when asked whether they had finished the food.. "i THINK so..." cos cannot see.. so not sure if finish the food liao or not. but since cannot feel anything left so should be finish le ba... i thought there was something left on my plate, but when i poke it, nothing. so.. *shrugs*
then dessert! =) had to push the plate further into the table to make way for the dessert.. which was ICE CREAM!! xD haha. ate the icecream but couldnt figure wat flavour it was. the more we ate, the more we couldnt tell! lol. some say it was chocolate, strawberry, raspberry... *shrugs* it was icecream! =) but could feel and taste the rainbow sprinkle thingy on the icecream. =)
after tat, the rest had either coffee or tea. (but i drink neither so i didnt want..) jor was telling me how when she pour the creamer in cannot tell how much she was pouring or whether she got pour it in, cos got no sound! not like the sugar, when pouring can hear sound one.. haha. xD
relaxed while the rest drank their coffee/tea. got slightly bored so fingered my visitor pass. (which i had fingered when i got it, including the previous time is was here) and i had a revelation! I COULD FEEL THE BRAILLE!!!!! lol. xD was super excited. cos the past few (many) times could feel the dots, but not sensitive enough to differentiate the position of the dots enough to read them! but now, in the dark, with my "heightened senses", i could read braille!! xD haha. so fun! =)
told jor, then she also go feel hers. haha. the loss of sight really heightened our other senses. told michelle too. and she also got excited. haha. then liting also wanna know wats going on, so we tell her. haha. xD
when everyone was finally done, they on the lights to let us see. and it was like WOAH! everything i thought about the room is sooo diff from wats its really like! (except for the shape of the table.. xP) the room was actually really small! like half the size of my room! (ok maybe not that small, but its definitely smaller than my room.) then the table behind me was actually really near. if i just stretched, or just swing my hands behind, i'll like whack SH on the head liao!!! lol. (imagine if i did whack him, he wouldnt know who hit him in the dark!! ahahahaha xD) realised i got disorientated when led into the room.. i thought the door would be in front of me, but it was on my left! xP
oh, then we got to see the "mess" we made when eating in the dark. lol. for my table, it wasnt really messy, except for the positions of the plates and stuff cos when the dessert came, we just pushed the plate inwards.. but there wasnt no spillage or such. =)
oh. and i realised wat i left behind on my plate. the chicken skin. xP
haha. should do this more often. so fun! for one, we get to save electricity. no lights. no tv. then the ppl will only be focus on the food and conversation. so good bonding and interacting time! and there's like so much advantages to this lar!! =)
all in all, it was a really enjoyable and unique experience. really get to experience what its like to lose all sight for like (what?) 1hr or so? ya. and really have to rely on all your other senses then. really makes one appreciates being able to see. words really cant describe wat its like. you'll just have to go there and experience it for yourself. but i can say this: this will be one experience you'll nvr forget!
~~~i sooooo wanna go back there again!!!~~~ =)
went down to tca library again to study yesterday. since rach studying in sch with her fren, i got ben ben to pei wo. =) ------------->
did math again. wasnt as distracted as the last round, but still was quite slow....
had dinner super early.. xP cos got rehearsal at 6pm.. (or so i thought)
suppose to go chapel.. but door lock. then hang around a bit, then brandon came. by then door open liao (dunno who open de) but inside is like no lights? no one? so we stayed outside. hang ard some more and jon came. plus some folks frm adam whose names i cant seem to rmb and match to the face.
broZC called, say rehearsal is at 7pm... we were like "wow... so we're here so early for..???" its like what the.. haix. so decided go study bio. cell bio. cant seem to absorb anything. but have to study anyways. so tried to study. then jon go take out his laptop and go youtube go watch movie. heck. dun need study liao. xP watch mr.deeds. but load super slow. but the little bit tat we watched was super funny xD
PDa came and brought us into the chapel. hang ard some more while everyone else came. 7+ had prayer. then rehearsal. =)
had two full runs. tech no need do anything (sort of) just take down notes etc etc.. 2nd run was with the band (ie live music) plus the main ppl have to sing their lines (with mic) then broZC go ask me go on stage to help take the mic etc etc.. and i'm like so weird on stage? like so awkward (for me) cos i also not sure wats going on. dunno who need the mic when. then everytime they finish using the mic liao they pass to PDa/BroKF/BroJer, so i'm like "what am i suppose to do?" then in the end i also no mic... so i'm like standing there taking up space being useless. dang. and its not like backstage got a lot of space.
hate it when i feel like i'm not doing anything or cant do anything. its like i'm so not needed or something. n i cant seem to do anything good enough. n its like everyone seems to be doing a better job than me. and.. oh dang it.
lots of the things in the drama is striking too close to home....
haiz.... heard tat got rehearsals on mon-wed next week too.. so have to cancel the movie plan... haiz. wanted to go out watch movie and stuff to celebrate jon's and janice's bday.. but all also not free.. then plus the additional rehearsals... so i cant go for the class bbq and outing liao. oh. and it clashes with my guitar lessons. dang. changed the guitar lesson to tues so it wont clash. (originally on mon will clash more at tat time) then plus mon is later.. so will miss the whole rehearsal (more/less) but tues is earlier so will just be late by 1hr+?
my whole hols is like gone liao. slacked the 1st week off. study and slack and had activities the past week.. next week mon-wed rehearsal, thur-fri LIFE conference, (sat-break), following sun-wed rehearsal, thur-sat actual event! then sun (usual service + strike set) and its back to sch and MID-YEARS!!! >< so its like this week is the only week left for me to really study, and there's like only tmr left? cos sat got redcross and sun (probably) rehearsal.. and i like hardly even started studying???!!!! so i'm like soooooooooooooooo dead for mid-years.
oh. and i cant find my MI tutorial. dang. havent tried a single MI question yet. sure die one. only reason why i survived the tests was bcos they covered tat topic in immersion, if not i even more lost.
i'm like lost, confused, tired out, burdened.............. emo-ing.. seem to be doing tat a lot nowadays... shucks.
anyways, so mid-years i confirm gg liao. haix.
Tuesday, June 9
for the 3rd time in two years i was late for tech.. but only for like 5min? lol. bro ZC and shamus was there by then. shamus was there to help touch up on my (lousy) eq. xP did everything but the drums. still cant rmb wat excatly the drums sound like.... so dun dare eq it. might try the next time.. *shrugs* so shamus did the drums, i did everything else. had trouble with the eq.. ever since the death of my beloved mp3, i havent listened to music.. esp when travelling.. without the sound in my head, its harder to eq..
kevin didnt turn up AGAIN. like i cant even rmb when was the last time he came early enough to serve....
had tenet course on the new testament for cell. i was the "scholar" in my cell.. (but only for the gospels..) we had to match the desciption of the book with its name.. and it was like REALLY hard!! but i matched all the gospels perfectly. =) but tats bcos i recently read books (fiction) on the author of the gospels, the background of wat had been happening then, the purpose of writing it, the audience, etc etc. so naturally it helped. =) we did really well for like the front half of the new testament. but the second half got a lot of mistakes.. xP but anyways, we didnt do too badly. =)
service ran quite great. no hiccups (only prob was i almost forgot who was suppose to lead one of the songs, but broZC reminded me =)) lights did something totally awesome. it was like totally nice and cool. like everyone was commenting on it. rgb did a great job as well. inez helped out this week.
but the service was different.. if not a bit weird. for one, communion. usually got 2 ppl serving the communion trays to the adult leaders, yesterday,only got broKF. but probably cos bro Titus moved to adam, and P Da was probably there too. so sis Gwen on stage and Bro KF in front.. but still.. it was weird seeing only one person there...
then the sermon wasnt really a sermon... it was like (i dunnno) something to commemorate the leaders or something. bro KF was super funny when he was recording the whole thing. lol. the lower sec thanked their leaders verbally at the front, upper sec gave out "awards" to their leaders, the "old folks from Z2" made a video for them... it was really nice and touching (some of the leaders teared) i best liked the part when the song went "i was a life that was changed" in the video and all the names of the folks in Z2 started appearing on the screen.. =) but really, the leaders had made such an impact in sooooo many lifes.
sis jas por is the one and only leader who really probed about my life to see whether there's more to me than just the happy-go-lucky girl on the surface. she was the first tat i really felt who truely cared about me and really wanted to know more.
bro zhi chao is the one who always pressured me (bully me xP) and pushed me to grow in the ministry. without him, i wont be where i am in tech today.
there's so much to thank the leaders for. bro chiang wee for teaching me almost all i know about sound, sis serena my leader for like 2 years, sharing with me so much, sis serene who's so open and ready to listen and help any time of the day (or night), bro Darren, sis Gwen, bro Samuel, Sis Qiuyan, Sis Jas Choe, Bro Kah Fei, Bro Titus, Bro Yong Heng, Bro Jeremy, sis Yvette, sis Mad... so many leaders, impacting my life in so many different ways.. i'm really so glad you gave...
for once, instead of the youths go to the altar and the leaders pray for them, the leaders went to the altar, and their youths prayed for them.
bro ZC commented after the end of service tat my eq is improving! =) cos apparently shamus didnt really change my eq much, and when he came in again later he found it ok, which means my eq is ok and is almost up to standard. =) plus he say my hearing is improving =) and the mix was good. (which was harder for me cos of the same reason as eq - the death of my mp3) plus he say he received good feedback from other leaders about sound. =D
oh, and bro jer also commented that the sound was good when we bumped into each other. =) and its like so surprising cos i've nvr received comments from leaders tat are not in tech (let alone sound).
haha. i always fret after service when i run the board, cos dunno whether the sound was ok or not. so its nice to hear positive comments about it. =) esp since i've been serving for 2years now. my sound should be at this standard long time ago. (esp eq) still rmb bro CW wanted me to be eq-ing at the end of the year when i first joined (i started in june, tat means only half a year..) and i only started touching eq like last dec during camp (and only bcos bro sam challenged and forced me to)
was not needed for the rehearsal tat day (and was only informed tat morning xP), so was supposed to go with rach to just acia to study.. but didnt feel like studying... plus heard tat the worship min having jam.... so since staying back liao, might as well go for jam. =) ask bro ZC if tat was ok, and he made it sound like "of course there's no prob!" but i feel its like really weird if i just pop up for their jam without "permission" in some sense...
but the jam was really good. (picked up some stuff on chord progression during their sharing time b4 they jammed) me and yi jie was at the board. finally got a chance to play around with the eq. (cant play with eq during serving cos have to get it done asap and cannot mess up, then the last round i went for jam had too many ppl, so didnt bother to qiang with them to eq, plus i get stress when there's so many ppl around..) so anyways, me and yj took turns to eq whoever and watever we liked, and we listened and commented on each other's eq. he's like me when i first started eq..really had fun and it really helped in my eq-ing..
after the jam finish, we helped shut down everything, but we didnt know wat to do with the lights, cos we do sound mar, so know zilch about the lighting board system. so ask bro jon (cos he was the one at the booth when we came) but he only know rgb (which=computer) lol. so bro jon was like running the mouse across the screen, and he asked me "which one do you think looks like it'll lead to the lighting console?" lol. haha. we totally dun know wat to do. then another guy came into the LT. bro jon was like "eh! maybe he's using the LT! then we dun need to off the lights!" haha. =D and the guy was supposed to use the LT after us, so we (happily) zhao. xD
really had a good time yesterday, and really learned a lot! =)
went down to TCA library to study today with my sis. (like FINALLY i started studying..!!!) was really quiet there. but its quite a good place to study. think i shall go there and study more often. =)
went there to study cos thought got rehearsal, but received a msg (when i was there) tat we dun need to go for this rehearsal as well.. lol. oh well. can study til later then.
met valerie when i was walking back from 7/11 after buying dinner. (she came for rehearsal, she's in dance) she was early so she joined us for a while. =)
met bro KF and P Da during one of my breaks too. =)
got distracted later in the evening, so didnt absorb much then. but was quite efficient in the afternn. =) so overall, i'd got work done. =)
ok. should be sleeping now. got tuition in the morning, dining-in-the-dark briefing right after tat, plus guitar lesson at night. hopefully can squeeze in some time to study in between... xP
Thursday, June 4
went to SAVH, Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped, today. redcross cip. was quite fun.. had to do some computer work.. helped type the info of like dunno how many clinics and doctors until my eyes wanna pop out of the socket liao.. xP then have to make sure tat all the letters tat follow after any numbers have to have spacing, if not when the com translates it to braille then will have lots of problems.. (esp for those reading it..)
then when finally finish, went to try typing braille, which is soo fun..!! =) typed random stuff out.. xP hope no one sees what i wrote.. lol. the guy i wrote about just added me on facebook! xD
even though didnt really get to interact with the ppl there, but it was really fun. and the ppl there are very nice. hope to go back there and maybe help them type more braille.. xD
cant wait to go there again for the dining in the dark thingy.. =)
got a super high record for guitar geek!! xD 18000000+++++ hahaha. XD sam is gonna freak. haha. my score is way more than trice hers!whahaha. xD
bones not loading properly today again.. =(
have yet to scan and upload the drawings done by ah pat. sam is gonna freak again when she sees it. i'll probably upload tmr or the day after..
got tuition tmr.. forgot wat time.. havent done any work yet.. xP
heard sam woke up at 3+pm yesterday.. which explains why she nvr go for math tutorial... lol.
i so should be studying man.. playing too much facebook and watching too much bones... mid-years coming and the time i have to study grows less each day.. the nearer the end of june, the busier i'll be.. dang. but so cant motivate myself to study... xP
and i so should be sleeping now.
good night.
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
Adobe Photoshop Elements for supernatural abilities
