Goodbye, 2006!

Another year came and went, and now it’s finally the last day and into the final hours. As a recollection, here are the things that I’ve done that meant something to me, chronologically order:

Jan 21 – Baptism in Christ
Declaring my faith, trust and love in Christ was a huge way to start the year of 2006. Not to mention the fact that 21 January is also my birthday!

Apr 3 – Driving Test
After long and hard hours were being spent at the driving lessons at Singapore Safety Driving Centre, 3 April was the faithful day I took my test. I can never forget how edgy I was on that day, and it had been 50% skill and 50% luck I will say. The cut-off point that I need to get was below 20, if not it will result as a failure. Well, I got 10. Haha…

May 6 – SAT Test
Since the beginning of the year, I had wanted to get into the renowned university, Digipen Institute of Technology. One of their criteria though, is the SAT. Wanting to pursue my dreams, I went ahead and register for one. May 6 was the faithful day, if I remember correctly. Well, it was a most grueling session that I had, and I got my results at June 2. I did fairly, mainly because English language was never strong.

My results are as follows:
Critical Reading 580
Math 660
Writing 490

May 6 – Singapore Government Voting Day
At the age of 22, I was legal to vote for who will be taking on over the Singapore Government for the next 5 years. Is it the People Action Party (PAP), or other parties, such as Working Party. As I stay in the area where I was legible to vote, I went ahead after my SAT test that day. It was a good experience though, seeing how the things are set up, the entire process as well. I never knew that I will actually be interested in the political scene until I needed to vote. =D

Jun 12 & 26 – Wisdom Tooth Operation
These are the 2 most traumatizing day of the year 2006. Had my wisdom tooth extraction operation on both dates, a pair on each side at one time. During the operation, though I don’t really feel anything, the pulling and pushing action that the dentists were doing will stay with me vividly. Post operation, it was bleeding so much from the wounds that I cannot even open my mouth at first, as when the gauze moves, the bleeding will be gushing. It took me 5 days to recover from side.

Jul 13 – Canada Trip
The long waited holiday! It was a great trip and I’ve experienced so many things. Travelled to Edmonton, Banff, Drumheller, Vancouver and Victoria Island during the tour, and it was such an eye opener. Spent a good 2 weeks to visit the area, eat great food, and enjoy the summer sun of Canada before returning back to Singapore on the 27 July. 2 weeks was not enough, and I really wished for a longer stay, but being restraint as I’m still a National Service man (NSMan), I had no choice.

Sep 29 – ORD Lo!
After serving 2 years to the nation, I’ve finally ORD lo! I’ve been looking forward to this day every day ever since I entered service. I believe this should be a mentality that most Singaporean guys will have. Nevertheless, these 2 years had been an excellent experience as I learnt the ways of a soldier. It is the kind of thing whereby you will not be able to experience it anywhere else.

Oct 16 – Found my dream job!
After several weeks of job-hunting followed by a couple of interviews, I’ve finally found my a great job with the dream scope that I had in mind at Radixs Pte Ltd. I am employed as a Flash engineer, and it has ever since been a great joy, working on my favourite program and programming language. My skills are still green though, and there’s so much more to learn on a daily basis.

Nov 7 & 8 – Adobe Max 2006 Singapore
With Adobe Max 2006 being the first conference that I had officially attended, I must say that it was a most enriching and invaluable source of experience. I had definitely learnt a lot during that 2 days, and I totally enjoyed myself, not to mention the food as well that Grand Hyatt provided. =D I learnt more about the upcoming Flash 9, codename Blaze, Flex 2, Actionscript 3, Apollo, the new products’ integrated workflow since Adobe bought Macromedia over, and especially the inspirational Flash presentation by Erik Natzke.

Dec 17 – Christmas Comes Early
Another first as well, this was an event organized by my Church that was about distributing food to the less fortunate so that they may experience the love of Christ. It was a heartwarming session when we brought food to them, and seeing their expression of gratitude. It was a win-win situation, as the families are being touched by us, and I personally, touched by God. My faith definitely thickens.

To the new year!

A Lovely Christmas

This had been a very meaningful Christmas for me this year, and I really want to thank God for it.

God said that we are the light of the earth, so our purpose as Christians is to bring the light to as many people as we can, dispelling the darkness that the devil so loved, so that people around us may see and experience the love of God themselves.

I finally answered to God’s calling a few days ago, and called up my God-mom and brother and invited them to church, since there’s an evangelistic drama that’ll be staged by the drama department of our church. Thank God that both of them responded positively. Indeed, our Lord answers if you knock on his door! I need to emphasize though, that both of them are non-Christians.

Hence this early morning, on the 25th of December, we set off to church and for the first time, I feel this happiness that was overflowing overwhelmingly in me. This Christmas drama unfolds God’s greatest present, especially when a person is going through an adversity. Three angels are sent to three distraught families as they go through their respective sorrowful trials. Through it all, each family discovers that God’s greatest present is really His presence.

Seeing how it touched my heart and how my God-mom cried (if I’m not mistaken, as it was pretty dark), I really felt that God used me to bring His word and light to them. Feeling used by God is such a wonderful feeling. Maybe I’ve procrastinated for far too long myself, but today, is definitely a good start.

It had been a long while since the last occasion I spent time with my God-mom. It was great. I have always hoped that being a lighter for Christ, I may one day bring my entire Buddhist family to Him. There’s this message that I will always remember in my heart, which was given by my pastor, “If you are saved by Christ but do not bring the good news of salvation to your family members, you’ll be all alone when God’s kingdom comes.”

With no intention of allowing that to happen, one of my new year’s resolutions this coming year will be to bring my family to church as often as I can. I know for sure that since I ask, God will provide, in His infinite ways for our ultimate good, for His love transients all understanding.
If you know me, and read this blog today, and one fine day I come and ask you to come to church with me, please do not be surprised. For it is out of my love for you that I want you to know of my God’s love for you.

Happy 2006th birthday to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thank you God for loving us, for You first loved us, so we can learn to love you. For it is You who found us, when we are like lost sheep without our shepherd. I will praise Your name forever and always.

Isaiah 9:6
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

2 Months @ Work

How time flies!

It still almost seems like it is yesterday when I had just ORDed (Operational Ready Date, when we have officially served the duration for our nation) from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), looking and seeking for my first job. I went to several interviews, trying to find the perfect working environment that has both the combination of opportunities to learn and grow.

Viola! It is 2 months at my current company already! What a joy ride it has since been. I have come into contact with so many people, people with distinct leadership qualities, people with exceptional skills and knowledge, and I find myself in a huge industrial university where there is so much to gain knowledge of.

Being a flash engineer, I get in touch with what I love best, pure ActionScript. It always seems strange to me as I started out learning flash on a self-taught basis. I never expected it will blossom into a full-time career. My diploma in digital media design seems to be on the road to rust though. But I'm not complaining, yet! =P

What make me even more excited are the things that are lined up for me in the months to come. One of them is this. Although the official reason for the purchase of Swift3D is for the company’s production purpose, they are designating me to be the one to create the contents! I've always wanted to learn Swift3D since a couple of years back, so this is really an adrenaline rush to me when I heard the news.

I guess I'll not be able to have such great opportunities anywhere else, and so, I really want to thank God for all of these. =)

Over The Hedge

Over The Hedge focuses on how a group of animals, after hibernating from winter, found that the forest that they used to know is no longer as it had been. We see things from the animals point of view as we saw their fear when a long wall of bush (hedge) was been erected ever since they had hibernated.

Being the usual forest-type animals, they had no idea what this "hedge" is, and upon walking over, discovered a whole new whole, the world of humans. Humans had cleared away their only source of food with their settlement, and survival became a problem. Right at this time, another character, the raccoon, came into the picture to "educate" them the new way to survive, by stealing food from the humans.

What the others do not know though, was that the stash that they stole from the humans was actually for the raccoon's own survival. Because of this, they ended up in a lot of intense stealing and escaping schemes that often put you to the edge.

Personally, I think partly the reason is that the animals are so cute and you just feel for them and hope nothing wrong happens (they are really cute!). The humans being portrayed in the movie are of an evil nature and it certainly contributes to us siding with the animals.

Storyline aside, the movie was very well animated. There were several instances whereby they exaggerated things, like when a packet of nachos was opened, they portrayed it as an atom bomb explosion of senses. It was so funny but I can definitely relate to the fact that forest animals had never tasted snacks like nachos before. =P

Seeing from the animals' perspective is really unique. It is both realistic and hilarious, especially on the way we handle food and our way of life. You'll be guaranteed to have a good fun-and-laugh session.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned here though.

• Humans' acts of deforestation are affecting the survival of forest animals.
• To accomplish big things, cooperation is essential.
• Being in a family means looking out for one another.

The Descent

This film is scary. But that sounds like a serious understatement. This should be a better fit.

Extreme horror.

It's no wonder why the movie was rated R. For the amount of scare I got, if I had high blood pressure, I would have died. I almost fell off my chair throughout so many scenes! My hands found their way to covering my ears to prevent any more sudden burst of bloodcurdling sounds from getting in for more than half of the movie.

This movie answers to the question that I always have. Why did I never like the idea of adventuring? I know it's either of these 2 things. Either I watch too much of such movies, or that I'm really just a non-adventurous kind of guy.

My point of view of the former was affirmed, and I'm not going for any sort of "adventuring". Ever. I have no idea why but I seem to believe that in deep caves, there will be another life form. Something unknown, something that had evolved specially for survival in the darkness. Be it either animals or human, it's just too much for me.

I'm even wondering now if I'll be able to sleep tonight. The scenes are still so fresh in my head it sends chill down my spine.

This IS, 1st class horror.