Saturday, June 23, 2007, 2:24 PM
Friendship, something that one must treasure, something that one must take initiative in making it grow, something that I learnt not to forsake.
A week back, I had made the one of the most important decisions in my life.
Oli loved playing Command & Conquer 3 ever since we introduced it to her. And the decision I had made then was to get her the game, regardless of price. I felt this would be a small gift from me to her, for her friendship, for her forgiveness. Also, I felt she deserved something because of what I have done, causing her to get angry and all because of me.
I had organised a little dinner outing on wednesday this week. But it turned out that we headed to zion to get some C&C3 action. That wednesday I asked my friend, Dominic Ng from church choir to accompany me to Sim Lim Square where I would buy the gift. I searched a few stores, and found the game of price suitable for me to buy. I bought the gift, and awaited for the time to come.
After the zion outing, when we all were headed home, I moved over to sit with Oli in the bus, and I whispered, "I got a little something for you, which I feel you deserve from me and I know you'd love it." When I was taking out the game from my bag, Oli guessed if it was DJMax. But No! When she saw the orange plastic bag covering a box size bigger than a PSP game box size, she took out the box and was utterly suprised. It was............Command & Conquer 3!! Sadly when she told me that Furt and her bought Command & Conquer 3 Kane Edition, I grew a little depressed, thinking that I had lost the chance. But who'd knew that she was so happy with it, with me that she started strangling me, to the point where I couldn't breathe! Haha! I was glad, and satisfied, because I had accomplished something I had wanted to do before, and that was to make Oli happy.
Then just yesterday, right after archery camp, something happened to me that has changed my life in some ways. No it has nothing to do with the limbs of the bow getting a chance of killing me. I met Oli and Furt(Welcome back!) at macdonalds at Bedok. When we were leaving for zion, Oli whipped out a small little rectangular box from her bag, and passed it to me. When I noticed the words printed on the box "BURNOUT DOMINATOR", my heart practically jumped for joy. ZOMGWTFHBBQ!
I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. AHHH! THANK YOU SO MUCH OLI AND FURT FOR GETTING ME THIS GIFT! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO THANK YOU BOTH. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
It is in giving that we recieve. And this blog posts shows the exchange of love.
Ciao!
Friday, June 22, 2007, 11:52 PM
Archery camp just ended today. And I must say it was a blast! I made a lot of new friends, bonded more with friends I already knew, shot a lot of arrows etc etc. Overall archery camp was fun though it had its serious moments. PT was an example, where we had to train like mad to get our fitness up. And another serious moment would be during shooting training, to get our form right, stance correct, technique accurate, anchor position correct etc. But one serious moment happened today that made my day the scariest day of my life.
This is how it happened: Jared and I assembled a recurve bow up, but the bolts to secure the limbs to the reizer were missing. So we consulted one of the seniors to help find any other extra bolts that were suitable for the reizer. The senior couldn't find them so we had to use temporary bolts, that no one expected to be unusable.
After fixing the string to the bow, the recurve was all set for use. I then started drawing back the string of the bow to get a proper anchor point and to get my form correct. Oli and Jared stared at me, telling me how perfect my form is. I asked Jared to take a photo of me and he did. Then I did the same for Jared, helping him take a photo of his form. I took the bow from Jared to get my anchor point right. Then Oli, while complaining about how good my form is, took the bow from me and inspected it. And thankfully, I took the bow from her before she could draw back the string. Because when I took the bow from her again, and pulled back to string while Jared was telling me about my shoulder being too high, the limbs of the bow gave way, almost snapping. The bolts that held the limbs could not withstand the tension from the limbs and therefore, flew out. Immediately at that point of time, I felt the string lose tension, and I knew something was wrong. And in less than a spilt second, I prepared for the worse, when the limbs gave way and flew. The sound generated by the "snapping" of the bow shocked not just me but everyone. I stood frozen solid in front of Oli and Jared, in shock about what had happened.
I then felt pain in my left shoulder, where apparently one the limbs of the bow had swung and hit me. Oli, in shock, didn't register what had happened at that instance. She just stared. But then she regained her composure, and practically shouted, " Darryl, are you okay?" Jared immediately stood up and held me by my right arm to sit down. Then my whole left arm, especially where the limb had hit my shoulder, started throbbing in pain, the intensity of magnificent magnitude. It hurt so bad that I couldn't even talk properly, partly because of the shock I was experiencing. I just sat there, while the seniors came to ask what had happened, to ask if I was alright.
Jared started rubbing the point of impact and making my left arm move so as to get the blood circulating because he mentioned that he felt a blood clot. He rubbed hard, and I experienced short sharp stings of pain here and there whenever he rubbed a certain point. Oli and the rest of the team asked me if I was alright, and made sure I was okay to shoot. And thankfully, I was able to shoot even though holding up the bow gave me some difficulty.
As for now, I'm alright. My left arm doesn't hurt a significant much anymore.
That's all for this post. Ciao!
Sunday, June 10, 2007, 11:59 PM
Today I headed out to meet up with my friends at zion, apparently, reliving the good old days of uncle's shop. Haha!
Met up with Sharon, her bro, Jonathan and Rod at 12noon at zion itself. Oli came in a few minutes after me, nevertheless to start playing warcraft3 with Sharon. Jonathan, Rod and I decided to play some Command&Conquer3, and we owned the computer so many times you couldn't even say "Ion Cannon Ready". =)
At about 1.40 plus, Oli left for her drum lessons at Tampines, and the rest of us headed to Roxy Square for lunch, but Sharon and Jonathan weren't eating as they would be going home soonafter to pack for their trip to Genting. *Hope you enjoy yourselves there! Take care and God bless!* So Rod and I, seeing that we had a lot more time till 4pm where we were supposed to meet up with the others again at zion, decided to send Sharon and Jonathan back to Bedok.
At about 4, Rod and I took the shuttle bus from Bedok Interchange to Parkway Parade, and we made our way to zion from there. Then a person came up to us, asking us to help him with a questionaire about christianity. We had a rather long conversation about Jesus Christ, Mother Mary etc. No sparks flew, but otherwise we exchanged views, even though Rod was a christian but had told the dude that he was a catholic. -_-" Oh well...didn't really know why he did that.
On to the biggest story of the day: Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
We had a small match in the game C&C3. Three on Three.
Furt, Oli and me VS Rod, Terrence and Ben
And I must say, even though Oli is totally new to the game, she played it excellently.
Match Player Races:
Furt - Scrin Rod - Scrin
Oli - GDI Ben - GDI
Me - NOD Terrence - NOD
Well this is how it basically went: We all started off almost the same style. Most of us built a crane for an extra construction panel, where we can build a tiberium refinery and a power plant at the same time. Then a Barracks. From there, I'd use the extra construction panel to my greatest advantage. Next two buildings were the War Factory and the Command Post. Next is Tech Centre then Ion Cannon Control Centre(GDI) or Temple of NOD(NOD's Nuke).
And that was where the other team got caught by surprise. I noticed that they were still building up their War Factory and/or base defenses and there they hear or see that a nuclear missle silo has been detected. Then I did what most NOD players would do to irritate and cause miscommunication among the enemy. Launch a radar-jamming missle, forcing them to scroll across the battlefield to observe areas for tiberium or enemy etc.
And indeed it did cause my enemies to get irritated. Ben practically started cursing at me when I kept jamming their radars. Oh and when all three of them threw all the air units on my base, I managed to jam their radars and built two SAM Sites and a stealth generator at the same time, which proved to be effective in wipping out some of their units together with my base defenses that were already up.
And because of my early dispatch of my nuke silo, they decided to completely destroy me. Rod brought 30 Planetary Assault Carriers, Terrence brought quite a large number of NOD Venoms and Ben bombarded me with his Firehawk bombers, which inevitably led to my defeat. So sad, only know how to gang up on me. But my defenses did hold out for quite a long time, SAM site here and a SAM site there, managing to reduce Rod's Carriers from 30 down to 24 with Oli helping to destroy another 4 carriers. Terrence lost quite a few number of Venoms, but they were deadly as they were meant to be. Ben lost almost no units because he did air strikes and an Ion Cannon on my Temple of Nod, disabling my Nuke for a second time after its first destruction.
And the game went on without my aid, leading to the defeat of my team and the victory of the enemy. And now, Oli is hoping that there can be another match like this again, because she really enjoyed that match though she didn't do as well as she thought she would do.
Until then, I'm off. Ciao!
*I plan on organising another outing to zion for the C&C3 group to enjoy a match against each other, since everyone, including me enjoyed it.*
Thursday, June 7, 2007, 3:13 PM
Woot! Engineering Fundamentals paper yesterday was so easy. The rest of my class were all cheering too! Haha!
And immediately after the paper came...THE HOLIDAYS!! Time to go wild!! *cheers*
Hmm...after the paper, me classmates went to watch Shrek 3 at Century Square. (Sorry guys that I didn't join you all. >_< ) Marcus and Lun Siong didn't join them too. We boarded a 10 since it took us to the place we all want to go; Home except LS who was going to meet the president, or so he says.
Anyway, when I reached home, I packed my laptop and drumsticks into my bag and headed down to Bugis with Rod. We were meeting up with some of our old friends that...well you could say that it was more than a year since we all met up. The two old friends that we met up with was Lynn and Crystal. I decided to invite Oli and Furt along too since they were inviting their friend too.
Waited for Oli and Furt to arrive, which took sometime. Lynn and her friend, Wilbert played an IQ game on Rod and me. And trust me, its soooooo stupid that I just ignored them. Haha! Eg. You know the word [whatever]? Spell it. Answer: I-T
*wacks head* So stupid =P
But it had its laughs too.
The seven of us, Oli, Furt, Lynn, Crystal, Wilbert, Rod and me headed to Burger King for lunch. And me being random, whipped out my laptop and decided to give Furt an insider to the gameplay of Starcraft II. (ZOMG STARCRAFT II IS GONNA PWN SO MUCH! ITS GONNA ROCK LIKE MAD! xD ) Furt immediately got interested in the video as they showed a demo of Starcraft II, showing new units of the Protoss, showing classic units from the first Starcraft with new abilities. Oli, though sleepy because of studying the whole morning without getting any good sleep, got so interested with the gameplay video that she wanted me to send her the video. Haha!
The other group, Lynn, Crystal and Wilbert took another table and grabbed food while our group, Furt, Oli, Rod and me were watching the video. When I got my food and ate, it turned out that the other group were just about to head to Orchard for some other stuff. And it turns out that an outing with old friends reverted to an outing with the same ol' friends. Well, at least we met up for lunch, the thought counts.
Sharon met up with us almost immediately when they left. Oh well... =/ We headed to Sim Lim Square as I wanted to get a new mouse for my laptop. We entered a shop, found so many mouses, and guess what, I thought I saw a mouse trap on the floor. o_O okay...lame haha. I inspected certain mouses, while Oli told me that that mouse is my type, and oh that mouse will look good with your laptop. Jeez! Haha I just want a mouse that works perfectly with my laptop, no need too fanciful haha!
Was in a big dilema about some of the mouses I spotted. Sharon asked me over to another store that she and Rod had been in. She motioned me to inspect some of the mouses she found. "Oh this is nice!" I mentioned, but I was still in a dilema, about what now? $$Budget$$ I could only spare enough cash for a mouse below ten bucks. So I took a $9.50 mouse from the shelf and bought it. And so far, its working as much as I want it to. =)
Oli, Furt and I headed over to the arcade in Bugis Junction while Rod and Sharon decided to grab some food since Sharon hadn't eaten lunch. Played drummania as usual, but sadly the bass pedal wasn't working well. So I wasted my first credit, but played a second time with auto-bass. Haha! Oli so pro, played with the bass even though it was spoilt.
Then afterthat I really did not know what the hell happened. We took a seat at the marble seats outside kinokuniya, and my chest started hurting like hell. I bent over abit, not letting the rest see me in pain but rather think I'm sleeping. (Oh well, at least now you all know. =/ ) I tried to withstand the pain, which was effective for a short period. The pain felt like a great lot of weight was pressed onto my chest, and when I tried to breathe in, I felt my lungs were going to explode due to too much pressure acting on it. It hurt so much that I nearly started tearing. ='(
I tugged at Rod's sleeve, motioning him to help me, which he did. He got me to sit up straight, breathe in and out, take a walk around, and of all things! Get a medical checkup. -_-" I ain't needing no medical checkup. Oli and Furt, a little oblivious to what was happening headed to the ticketing office to see if we could get tickets to watch Shrek 3. 'Maybe I need some food.' I told myself. So we headed down, and yum yum! Good ol' Old Chang Kee Curry Puffs did the job once more! Haha. Delicious!
Matthew met up with us for dinner at Bugis, and so we went to Kopitiam. After dinner, Rod and Sharon decided to take the train to Dhoby Ghaut and take a bus from there. Oli, Furt, Matthew and I decided to take a bus from Bugis home. And somehow it turns out that we decided to drop off at Katong to enjoy about a hour of zion...(jeez...haha)
When we dropped off the bus, I jumped off the bus and my bag sling with my laptop inside the bag hit me on the chest, which apparently caused my whole chest to hurt once again. This time it got worse as the pain was so unbearable that I had to ask Furt to support me as we walked. I stumbled for a bit, but nevertheless I managed to regain my balance and walk on my own. The stairs to zion got difficult as I climbed, but with Oli holding my bag and Furt watching my movements, I was at ease while climbing.
(This is getting a little long-winded don't you think? Haha!)
Skipping to end of the story...
I missed my bus-stop even though Oli had woken me up just when the bus reached. I was tired and fatigue generated from withstanding the pain made it worse. I could barely recognise the surroundings. I decided to drop off at Tanah Merah interchange and walk down Bedok South Ave 3 home, and grab a good ol' packet of beef fried rice along the way.
Guess that'll be all for this post. And don't worry, after a good rest, my chest doesn't hurt anymore.
Ciao!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 11:59 PM
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I never knew I look so...so happy in this picture. Don't you think so? Haha!
Bored, stayed at home the whole day, studying my engineering fundamentals, and played a little to keep my mind off studies. Hate to be stressed out with boolean's algebra, de mogran's theorem blah blah blah.
Sigh, I shall go and sleep, and pray I'll do better than expected for my engineering fundamentals term test tomorrow. =D
Ciao!!
Monday, June 4, 2007, 7:50 PM
I'm sorry for the times that I've let you down, sorry for the times I've caused anger in everyone, sorry for making everyone upset because I was feeling upset, sorry for acting in ways that seemed inappropiate, sorry for doubting everyone including myself, sorry for my foolishness and selfishness, sorry for making it seem that problems I had always seemed to happen because of you but never was and, sorry for anything and everything.
I headed down to Bugis today with one of my classmates after our Engineering Maths term test. We were bored and we decided to enjoy a long but otherwise enjoyable bus ride from school to Bugis. We were so bored that we practically didn't know what to do once we reached Bugis. I mentioned that I wanted to grab some food and head home, and I did. Or rather, we did. Some good ol' Old Chang Kee curry puffs did the job. Yum Yum! Hehe!
We reached the bus stop and waited for our buses, and I forgot to mentioned that we were talking to each other, about the maths paper, about school, about problems at home. But they were shared so that we could help each other in any way possible.
When my classmate boarded a 80 to go home, a elderly man walked up to me and asked me if I would like to join a Bible Correspondence Course, with a yellow card in his hand which he motioned me to take. He also mentioned about the 9-11 crisis, which apparently a prophet 100 years ago predicted that it would happen. It striked me that I haven't confronted God once during this period of problems which I have been going through.
Though my faith as a catholic remained, I disregarded it and didn't pray to God. And I realised that I shouldn't take everything in life for granted, and how I should cherish everyone; family, friends etc.
When I boarded a 12 home, I found that the long lonely trip home was the most company I had ever had in my life. I reflected about everything I did and said, and I've never felt so much regret before, so much...remorse and anguish for what I've done. As the song Valentine's Day by Linkin Park resonated through my head, the lyrics striked me not once, but many times. "I used to be my own protection, but not now. Cause my path has lost direction, somehow." "So now you're gone, and I was wrong. I never knew what it was like, to be alone..."
Maybe I need a little more time, to reflect, to let things uneasy within me to settle down. I'll pray, for myself, for everyone, and to you, the one reading this right now. I'll pray that I'll have the guidance from God and that I'll find the courage within myself to face up to my wrongdoings, to face up to reality. I will never forget the good times, but I'll throw away all the bad times, and from there I will build a foundation where I will be able to grow, not just maturely but spiritually and physcologically.
A burden I have carried, a mistake I have made, a fate I must accept, a path I have chosen, and a disease I must cure.
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
, 12:20 AM
As time passed, everything around me changed. From friends, to family, to the environment etc. That would be something I will have to face up to: Reality.
On spirit's wings, I slowly glided down to earth and I got used to the surroundings and I regained my composure. As I got my footing and balance, I moved to one corner, and from a third person's perspective, I came to realise that everything became so lonely, when I made a huge mistake, doubting not only my friends, but myself. I got smacked full force in the face with problems that arose along the way, and I took the problem off my chest and threw it away as far as possible.
But thankfully, the friends who I have doubted never doubted me. They guided me, helped me, protected me. But I fail to realise it, only when everything fell apart did I realise how selfish I am. Sounds familiar eh? Yeah I know...
BOO! HAHA! I was just kidding! No more emotional blog posts!! At least not too emotional eh? I still have to have a place to reveal my flower vocabulary to don't you think? Haha alright I shall end this post for now. GOTTA MUG FOR ENGINEERING MATHS!! and Engineering Fundamentals too. GAH term test is finally here!
At least I've got something to keep my spirits up: I've been topping the class for most, or rather, all the quizzes. xD (Oli wants to kill me for this... =P )
But oh heck, I screwed up java. Stupid public static void main(String[]args), System.out.println("I HATE JAVA!");
Erm...Yeah haha! KKAE GOT TO GO! CIAO!
p.s. Thanks guys and gals for always being there for me, for always helping me, you guys rock!
Sunday, June 3, 2007, 10:39 PM
Well, it has been some time since I blogged, and I guess the time in between then when I stopped till now has been the best time out ever, though problems came in one by one but were solved one by one as they came.
Only now then I've come to realise how easily friendships can break apart, and how it depends on each and every person to make the foundation of the friendship and how it will stand firmly.
Well that's not the main idea of this post isn't it? Just a few words before I do start blogging normally again : I will change the way I write my posts, as I've realised that my emo posts have too much flowery language, and it did cause some people to hurt because of the way my posts in some way or another affected them. But I will promise and will do my best to make every post happy. Okay? ^-^
Jeremiah signing off...for now.
