Tuesday 31 July 2007

Reminiscing My Army Days


My friend Geri sent me a link to this video and my oh my... how it reminded me of the days in army! I'm not lying over here, but I actually kinda miss it. :D

This video reminded me of my own BMT (Basic Military Training), my own weight plus the layers of fats before army (72kg?? I'm 62kg now!), and my "wife"! haha.. What's featured in the video, SAR-21, is a more advanced rifle that belong to those lucky infantry units (I'm not envious! Their training is way tougher!). For me, I had a M16-S1, which is a Singapore modified version of the older M16. Still my first wife though. :P

Nevertheless, it brings back some really good memories. Day in day out all we had to do is to focus on not signing any extras (extra duties), throw smoke bombs (escape from superiors), "delegating" duties to junior soldiers, trying our best to make up reasons to get out of camp, and faking the innocent face (kiam pa bin) to show that whatever that screwed up had absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH ME! *istroke*

In short, CAO GENG! (trying to escape from anything and everything.)

Don't you think it's exciting? :P But yeah.. I also miss the not-so-exciting-but-rather-good times of that kind of life. Regular and routine lifestyle, daily exercises that keeps you really super fit, regular meals that you don't have any say (but yet still taste good!), and the kind of bonding between all of us who shared in the same bunk (including whatever nonsense that occurred during the night!).

To those of my friends who are going in, it's not all that bad! It brings a certain level of maturity into you that is needed to go through this working life ahead of you. Teaches me to be humble for an instance. :) To those who are in midst of it, trust me, you're going to come out a much better person than before you go in. To those who are out, I have no advice you need! :P

Oh well, I don't have to wait too long myself. Two and half more months and I'm going back for reservist. Wonder if I'll see any of my old time buddies. haha...

Tuesday 17 July 2007

An Awakening Nightmare

~ 4:00am
I was starting to have consciousness of the dream I was having. It was a weird dream, though nothing that I've never had.

A usual game of run and hide away from people who are trying to find you in a treacherously designed place. I was pretty good with the surroundings, jumping through holes, across buildings, running around.

The stunts that I did in the game became routine, and soon enough I wanted to try something different. While I was jumping off from a ground higher than usual, I kinda slipped, and crying out through the air.

What followed was flashes of passing light, with medical sounds (you know the regular beeping with gas pumping kind of sounds), with lots of weird numberings fluttering in front of me. Everything was blur.

The next thing is that when I woke up in the dream (not I wake up FROM the dream), I realised that it was already 10 years later. Straightaway, an immediate notion came to me, almost as if God spoke to me.

"Life is but a fleeting moment."

A terrible sense of lostness overwhelmed me. I dint know what to do. What can I do? 10 years had passed and Flash must have already moved to dunno which version! (This thought really came in my dream, not an afterthought.)


~ 4:05am
I was awaken, startled by the nightmare and how things turned out to be. Hyper-palpitating just like any usual person will suffer from after a bad dream.

My lines of thoughts were strange, confusing and interlacing. I was still lost. Kind of like I'm trying to figure a way to recover from it, and hopefully go back to sleep.


~ 4:06am

At the other end of my room, something big fell on the floor with a huge thud, and along with it was the crashing plastic sounds.

I got startled twice in a row! I mean it was already so late in the middle of night, I just woke up from a bad dream, and some loud noises have to echo through the soundless night.

Took me a while to get back to my senses to realise that it was actually my guitar that fell, and brought along with it my toothbrush holder to the ground.

Immediately I knew something isn't right. Nothing was moving in my room, how could things just fall? And this fall seems to be targeted to get me out of bed, it nearly seems intended.


~ 4:11am

I can no longer sleep. Switched on my computer, and started to blog about this series of weird happenings. I was obviously shaken up for a reason, and the only reason that I felt compellingly important was to blog about the dream.

4:39am
"Life is but a fleeting moment."

Our life is fragile. It was given to us by God because it was His love and pleasure to create us. Yet it can be taken away from us just as easily. There's no guarantee that You are going to wake up tomorrow. Don't take life for granted.

The fact that Flash itself was shown to me in my dream meant another thing on a different level altogether. Was I too caught up in chasing technology? Yes I survived the fall, but hey! All that I was chasing then (which is exactly what I'm doing now), is not of any significance any more!

The codes that I write, the news/blogs that I read (probably more religiously than my bible), the time spent on Flash, will all be for nothing when life/time is taken away from me. What's Flash in 10 years? Will there still be a Flash? What will the world be like? That scene of wandering in the hospital is scary.

What I think God was telling me is this. Spend my time on earth on something that'll last forever, and not on something so ephemeral. Yes, compared with God's promised eternity, life on earth IS but a fleeting moment.


4:49am

How are you using your time? Are you running about in circles daily, concentrating ONLY on things that will not last forever? Should it be time that you start doing something about it? Should it be time that you start investing your time on lives, rather than self-centered desires?

Living is not your right. Your life was bought at a price, a price that Jesus paid on the cross. Are you acknowledging Him? Or are you still resisting your one true salvation? If all comes to an end today, what will be your biggest regret?

For me, it will probably be that I did not share enough testimony to my close friends and families. The fact that though I was saved, yet I did not save people close to me, to ensure that I will have them for eternity, is a sense of loneliness lingering in the air.



"Life is but a fleeting moment."

Are you getting this?

Saturday 7 July 2007

Live Earth 2007

Today is 7th July 2007, Live Earth Day. I'm not gonna act like an environmentalist and preach all about what humans have done, the ignorance and negligence of their actions that have caused global warming, animal extinction, blah blah blah...

What I wish to bring across is just simple.

Earth is a place we all live in. We have to be responsible and at least do a little part on our side. If each of us does a small bit, the impact will be great when it's consolidated.

We probably just have to do a little bit of adjustment here and there in our life, small sacrifices like taking public transport instead of driving, switching off appliances when not in use and using environmental friendly appliances. Who knows, if everyone acts in faith, the entire world's population can make a HUGE drastic change!

I'm writing in faith. A faith that will possibly give a better tomorrow. :)

Will you join me?

Monday 2 July 2007

iPhone Stressed



Under this kind of stress tests, don't expect your iPhone to survive. These guys are nuts. They must be either filthy rich, or they stole it. Oh my gosh...

iPhone Stress Tests



Well, what more need I say? My worries are all extraneous! :D