Taken from QDB: Top 100 Quotes:

<Cthon98> hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
<Cthon98> ********* see!
<AzureDiamond> hunter2
<AzureDiamond> doesnt look like stars to me
<Cthon98> <AzureDiamond> *******
<Cthon98> thats what I see
<AzureDiamond> oh, really?
<Cthon98> Absolutely
<AzureDiamond> you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
<AzureDiamond> haha, does that look funny to you?
<Cthon98> lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
<AzureDiamond> thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
<Cthon98> yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
<AzureDiamond> awesome!
<AzureDiamond> wait, how do you know my pw?
<Cthon98> er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
<AzureDiamond> oh, ok.

Gosh...

HCI idea... a "piles" metaphor?

Just in case you're wondering what in the world I'm talking abt, it's not something to do with haemorrhoids... :P

Actually, I was doing some research for my Human-Computer Interaction module, and came across this very interesting site for an interface metaphor, called "piles" because it arranges files in "piles", just like how papers are arranged in piles on a desktop.

Image-Based Information Access

Here's what the blurb says:

"One application of Dynapad is to explore image-based information access. Currently we are developing applications to provide multiscale visual organization and access to digital photo collections and personal libraries of PDF documents. The research objective is to explore a generalization of the notion of a “pile” as a foundation for a versatile suite of tools to provide unobtrusive assistance for organizational and other sensemaking activities. Our goals are to develop an architecture to facilitate design of multiscale image-based applications and abstract a set of principles for designing effective spatial tools."

Hmm... toying with the idea of writing a Flash interface for this idea in my free time... :)

Got report to finish... was due this morning...

Hah, here I am in S16 level 5, still gazing at my laptop... and what in the world am I posting a post for??? :P :P :P

Newton's Law of Inertia:
"An object at rest tends to stay at rest..."

How true... :P c'mon Yeu Ann... jiayou jiayou!!!

Struggling with impatience

Hmm... recently realised that I'm really impatient... (ok, so that's an old thing...)... hmm, but tink now I realise more the extent of my impatience...

1. I'm impatient with God - how I wish He'd quickly answer my questions, solve my problems, etc. etc... that's why sometimes I find "waiting on Him" a real chore... 'cos I'm REALLY impatient for Him to answer me...
   
   like, Lord, kuai dian lah... :P
   
   Hmm... really want to thank Him for helping me realise this... 'cos frankly, all God wants of me is more of me... and that means He just simply wants to spend time with me too.
   
   (Gosh, Lord, really ah? :))
   
   But really, sometimes I rather go and do my own things... oh dear... think this must hurt Daddy a lot at times... *sigh*... Yeu Ann is willing... but very impatient... help me, Lord! You invite me to come sit on Your lap and take time to listen to You, but I wanna jump off and run off to play and do my own things... not knowing that You take delight in me...
   
   Lord, help me, I'm really childish at times, not childlike as I should be...
   
   
2. I'm also very impatient in my relationships... think I really want to see relationships grow to where I want them to be... but gosh! that's not good... I think that's being self-centred, and definitely not pleasing to You, Lord.
   
   God, I find it very hard to sit down and simply enjoy other people's presence... this is one major difficulty I have in building strong friendships.
   
   Hmm... something that two dear bros shared with me recently(both separately)... that relationships (and fellowship) take TIME.
   
   Time... haiz... how I wish that relationships, both with God and with men, would instantly grow... in the twinkle of an eye, in a flash... but that isn't the way the world was made, nor life itself works...
   
   Hmm... actually, you know what? I think one reason our relationships, as humans, with God is so unique is simply because of TIME.
   
   I mean, without Time, a relationship simply would be... different. You'd never know what it meant to be apart from God, the sadness and lostness... and you'd never be able to know the joy of redemption, forgiveness... and you'd never be able to know the delight, the surprise of knowing something about the other person that you NEVER knew before...
   

YA

Note on fellowship

1:16 AM 14-Feb-05
Discussed this with Kin Wee abt tis after Sunday lunch...

The Bible's standard for f/ship - very simple (but not easy, nor instant):
"They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts..."

Glad = appreciating one another (i.e. delighting in the other person, simply bcos that person is himself/herself...

Sincere = being real with one another (i.e. open, sharing abt our joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and struggles...) 1 Thess 5:18

It's not easy though... it doesn't come naturally... but it's genuine, that's for sure...

So it gotta be bcos of Christ... "He is our peace, Who has broken down every wall..."

He is all I need

Wow... SUPER long time i nvr blogged... haha... sorry, but i've been posting... it's just tt I posted most of my blogs at NUS East's blog...

So many things... but just to update y'all... changed shepherds already... had a very fun n 'romantic' high-tea wif my old shep, Guo Qiang, at Checkers cafe at Somerset after service... very blessed n encouraged by the letter that he gave me.

And my new shep is ... Weizhu! :D

haha... lots more to share, but in a nutshell, God did some really wonderful stuff, including the way that He brought Weizhu and me tog last wk... haha...
and the new brothers that He's been adding to our CG... so happy! :D

Think some of you saw me crying yesterday during church service...
it's bcos God spoke to me a phrase that went really deep into my heart...

"You're all I need." [You = God]

Why so powerful?

'cos as some of you guys know, I'm struggling wif insecurity, and especially, I tend to be very worried abt what others think of me... and my putting on a mask before others...

All these issues, God really addressed very simply with this:
God is ALL I need. Really.

It's one thing to know it in the head, but when He speaks it into your heart - it really shatters, really pierces, really shakes, really humbles...

So that's why I was crying after service... it's like, you feel totally rotten and helpless, feel totally foolish, like a total idiot, totally ashamed... and yet, you wish this would go on; it's SO healing... and you sense His mercy and grace even deeper than you ever felt before...

Then I felt someone sit next to me and put his hand around me. I didn't open my eyes; but I really appreciated his presence... Nothing was said - just this brother's presence during this time.

Think this was God's way of showing me His love and forgiveness to me... thru this brother's presence.

Isn't it so sweet, His forgiveness?

I remember what this brother told me after tt: "Now THIS is the real spiritual Yeu Ann. Remember this experience... this is TRULY the Kingdom come."

He is all I need, He is all I need
In times of war
In times of peace
He is all I need

He is all I need, He is all I need
My heart shall say
My heart shall know
He is all I need

Firing up Firefox...

Ha, just downloaded Mozilla.org's Firefox. Seems it's getting really popular... I tried it on my lab's computer just now, and I really like the interface. So here we go... hello FF, bye-bye IE... :)



(Hey, Weizhu, u trying it out too?)

Song: I Will Follow Him

Wah... it's 4 am already... I've been taking the past 2 hrs reading and writing blogs... ha... been trying to understand lambda calculus in preparation for my test...



(Actually, I have three tests on 30 Sep... and they are all my famous 'killer' modules... haha... but seriously, I'm not scared... and I really want to thank God for His presence that gives me peace in my heart... 'cos something I've been learning is to "practise the presence of God" as what Hanhui shared during CG this week.)



Ha, back to the point... right now I'm alone in S16 level 5 (East's famous "study room"), so was feeling a bit alone... played some songs, and I remember this song that our dear sister from Mexico (Ana Bonilla) taught the Uni district during our church camp 2000 - A Visionary Church:



"I Will Follow Him"



¡Lo amo! ¡lo amo! ¡lo amo!

(I love Him! I love Him! I love Him!)

Y donde vaya yo voy, yo voy, yo voy...

(And where He goes, I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow...)

Siempre mi amor sincero, sincero, sincero

(He'll always be my true love, my true love, my true love...)

Ahora y por siempre, por siempre, por siempre...

(Now and forever, forever, forever...)



No han oceano tan profundo

(There isn't an ocean too deep)

Ni cima tan alta que

(A mountain so high it can't keep)

Que he majenga, lejos de he... [can't remember the Spanish for this...]

(Keep me away, away from His love...)



I will follow Him

Follow Him wherever He may go

And near Him I always will be

For nothing can keep us apart

He is my destiny...



I will follow Him

Follow Him wherever He may go

Ever since He touched my heart I know

There isn't an ocean too deep

A mountain so high it can't keep

Keep me away, away from His love....



(Ha... think Sijia knows this song too... I've checked Google, and found this link.)

A visit to NUH...

Yesterday, Jan and I visited Kangwei in hospital. We had a great time chatting together. Really so glad to see this dear bro recover... =)

Really thank God for Kangwei... 'cos it wasn't easy for him, but he hung on and has made it through.

Throughout this experience, my heart really goes out with thanksgiving to God, seeing how this time of crisis has deepened our hearts in love, and has brought out the finest in our bros and sisters...

I remember that Thursday afternoon, when we found out that KW had been transferred into the ICU due to an infection. I recall Sijia rushing down to comfort Kangwei's mum, who was crying, and how Fengqi, upon seeing KW's father weeping, silently put his arm around his shoulder...

Kin Wee, when he heard about Kangwei's hospitalisation, went down to visit him. We saw that Kangwei couldn't talk much, so we sat down, put our hands on Kangwei's hand and simply prayed for him silently.

Something wonderful about this is that when we walked out of the ward, Kin Wee and I found out from each other that we had prayed the same thing for Kangwei even though we hadn't told each other what we had prayed for!

Wow... really got to thank God for His grace and power!

So many things to write about... but in a nutshell, thank God, on the same day that we fasted and prayed for Kangwei's recovery, God answered our prayers, and we heard from his parents that he would be moved out of the ICU the next day, and Kangwei himself said that he would be discharged at the end of this week, if nothing goes wrong.

When Benaiah heard this good news, he SMSed back, "Wow... God really answers prayer fast! To God be the glory!"

Thank God so much... think through this time, God has deepened many of our hearts and affections for one another as a family, and I'm so glad that the church of Christ, can really be Christ's witness on earth through the way it shows such love, care and concern for its members and even for those who don't know Him yet.

And I don't have enough time to write about all the other bros and sisters who rallied so readily around Kangwei and his family, when we heard about the crisis...

Sijia, Fengqi, Zewei, Claramae, Shirley, Benaiah, Li Siong, Peter, Hanhui, Jiexian, Meiyan (haha... remember the heart monitor, sis? ;) hen3 funny...), Marcus, Robert, Kim Chun, Ellson, Su San, Jiayan, June, Huiqi, Doreen (ah yes! she lent her MP3 player to Kangwei... earphones included!), Kin Wee, Mich (her reminding Kangwei to eat more and put on more weight... haha... really thank God for this dear sis...), Jan, Chi Yen, Sukfern, Yuhui (our radio man), Shiming and the USM bros and sisters... really sorry if I left any names out, but God knows who you are... =)

Thought about Global Awareness...

Just a personal thought related to yesterday... Shirley shared with some of us before service about her feelings over the recent terrorist attacks... e.g. the Russian hostage crisis, and the extremely cruel things that some terrorists did to the children...



Was very touched by her heartfelt sharing, and something that she shared with us made me think... that after 9/11, we start getting more and more de-sentitised (sic?) to a crying world that is dying.



Help me, Lord, look beyond my own little world, and renew in me a heart of love and compassion for the lost...



To think about what I do to my fellow brothers and sisters... to my neighbour, the person next to me... and to do what is good in Your eyes, Lord... I know this is the starting point...



Mmm... also, was thinking, not just local awareness, but to start having a global awareness. We can't deny that increasingly, we are becoming more and more a part of a global community, and for us young Singaporeans, we tend to be pretty apathetic to what's going on with the outside world.



I remember what my church loves to say: "Think Globally, Act Locally!"



And it's a good slogan, 'cos God Himself is God of the whole wide world... frankly, globalisation was on His mind even before the world began - He who gave us the Great Commission: "...and you will be My witnesses... to the ends of the earth."



Help me, God, get out of my own little sandbox, my immaturity and to start acting upon what I know of You, Lord...



In Jesus' name,

Amen!

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.



O, Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

(St. Francis of Assisi)

Revamping Gen-Blogs

Had a mtg abt 2 wks ago. The Cucumber, the Ant, Red Medicine and Joy and Yicheng and Kelvin and who else - we knocked our heads together to discuss how we wanna improve the Gen-blogs.



Main problem is that the WordPress interface for the blog is SUPER-scary to the first-time blogger, though Joy, being the prolific blogger tt she is, managed to get something going... haha...



Some features are so powerful that even yours truly doesn't know what they're for. (And I'm a computer science student liao... haha... win already liao!)



Still super-bz, have to help my mum make some amendments to some documents now...



Will try to blog again soon abt my semester, new friends, and especially what God's been doing in my life... hen3 excited! :D



Haha... sorry... I know this blog is super oldie-moldie... as Robert pointed out, my blog is ancient blogistry... haha...

Double Birthdays!

Yesterday, we celebrated Doreen's and Michelle's bdays. Haha... :D Kudos to Yufen n Sijia for helping organise n run the event... =D they did a fantastic job... haha... Could see Michelle super-touched... Doreen too... :D



For more details on the bday celebration, http://yfworld.blogspot.com (Wed Aug 18 2004 entry) Gosh, linking to other blogs is fun... saves on typing time! :D

Luke 9:23-27

Mmm... am feeling rather melancholic at this moment... So I'm penning down this favourite Bible verse of mine:



(Jesús) Dirigiéndose a todos, declaró:

"Si alguien quiere ser mi discípulo, que se niegue a sí mismo, lleve su

cruz cada día y me siga. Porque el que quiera salvar su vida, la

perderá; pero el que pierda su vida por mi causa, la salvará.



¿De qué le sirve a uno ganar el mundo entero si se pierde o se destruye a

sí mismo?



Si alguien se avergüenza de mí y de mis palabras, el Hijo del hombre se avergonzará de él cuando venga en su gloria y en la gloria del Padre y de los

santos ángeles.

Además, les aseguro que algunos de los aquí presentes no sufrirán la muerte

sin antes haber visto el reino de Dios. "

For those who're wondering what kind of language I'm writing in, it's Spanish... I tend to write things down in Spanish when I feel especially melancholic. Think Spanish has that kind of beautiful lilt and feel to it that helps express the words of your heart... :)



No wonder they call Spanish a Romantic language... hahaha... :( ok ok so it's a linguistic joke... think only Weizhu will understand... :P

Gen-Blog is finally up! :D

Hi people, it's been ages since I last posted a meaningful entry here... Reason is because I was helping do some programming for a blogging system for Gen-ACTS Club...



www.gen-acts.org/tertiary/gen-blogs.php



BTW the website is known as Gen-Blog, but our blogs are known as Gen-Blogs (plural) and we are Gen-Bloggers. Get it? Haha...



Hop over to my Gen-Blog at www.gen-acts.org/tertiary/blogs/yeuann now! :)



(But that doesn't mean that I won't be posting any more entries here... I'll still update more stuff here... the Gen-Blog is more for Gen-ACTS stuff, whereas this one is meant more for personal stuff. :))

Lame Joke #3

Qn: Which side of a chicken has the most feathers?

(scroll down for the answer!)



























































Ans: The outside!

(ok ok!!! put that feather duster down!!!)

Do I see the Value of things, not just do them?

On Tuesday night, Hanhui asked me to pass the rest of our care group some forms to process, as it was urgent. Yesterday night, he asked me whether I had done so. I realised that I had forgotten to do so.



So, Hanhui called me around later on at midnight, and asked me to think NOT about what I should have done, but what were the attitudes in my heart that caused this to happen.



After thinking, I told him, "Laziness and fear of rejection." I elaborated further with him on these two.



Hanhui listened, and then explained to me that he had, in a sense, delegated authority to me regarding the passing on of the forms to the others, and also, responsibility, because my forgetting to pass the forms to the others yesterday affected not just myself, but the ENTIRE group.



And he was looking not for the what-I-should-have-dones, but what-are-the-reasons-that-I-did-what-I-dids. We're not perfect, after all, but we can understand what are the attitudes factors that cause us to do things wrongly.



To paraphrase:

"Remember what I told you last time about godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow? Worldly sorrow merely says 'sorry' to make the other party feel better, like if you accidentally step on his shoes, but godly sorrow makes you look at yourself to really understand why you do what you do, and to consider the results of your attitudes."

Shared more with me on this, that for me, I need to discipline my mind to focus not so much on the what-I-should-have-dones, but on my personal attitudes and values, because I have a tendency to think in terms of 'do this' and 'do that'.



And this tendency makes my mind tend to degrade into doing things for the sake of doing them, without seeing the value of what I'm doing.



That's one reason why he doesn't usually address the issue of ill-discipline so much as the issue of seeing the VALUE of what I do, because ill-discipline is simply a behavioural flaw, a symptom of an attitude.

And that attitude is whether I see the value of what I'm doing or not.

He talked with me for a few more minutes, and then he told me he had to answer a second call, and eat his dinner.



"Dinner? At midnight?" I thought. So I asked him, "Are you feeling hungry?"



He chortled, and said, "Super."

A Blogged Mind

*Sigh*



He looks at the LCD screen before him, tapping thoughtfully.



"Nucleus or WordPress? Which blog to install on the server?"



"The REAL problem is," he thinks, "just how do you enable multiple user accounts on a server-side script for a Content Management System a la Blogger.com using PHP 4.1 and MySQL 3.23?"



*Sigh*

Lame Joke #2: "It's nice having a blog, but not a blogged nose."

Haha... I used the above title as my MSN nickname yesterday, and got 3 (I think) replies:



Huichoon: "Wah, that is super lame liao..."



Dominic: "ertz"



and Kim Chun's reply is the best:

1st msg: L



2nd msg: A



3rd msg: M



4th msg: E



5th msg: ;P



(And you know how MSN plays that funny sound after every message? Go figure... It really sounds like a cheer... hahaha... thanks KC!)

Trying to set up a Content Management System...

Right now, I'm busy trying to set up a blog management system for my volunteer club, Generation ACTS International. If you want to know more about this club, check out http://www.gen-acts.org.

Just to add a note: I joined this club back in 2001 and haven't looked back since. Got to know and network with lots of friends from different universities and faculties, and even countries - you tried Mexican "mole" before? haha... ¡es muy shiok! and also I got to learn Spanish from a very lively Mexican lady, Sofia Montejo.

(I still remember her Mexican-esque cheer... how did it go? "¡A LA VIO! ¡A LA VA! ¡A LA VIM-VOM-VAAA!" Wah, VERY powerful, especially when she yelled it in front of our class to demonstrate... haha...



When we asked her what that meant, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh, it means nothing." *gosh*... but still, that cheer SOUNDS very impressive! :D )

And I also got to help out with matriculation activities... the first time I tried leading a matriculation group, I felt terribly insecure. But I'm glad to God for that experience, because this helped me learn so much more about myself.



This year, Generation ACTS Club will be launching its Project ACTS groups for incoming university freshmen. Essentially it's about service-learning methodology... hmm, I need to find out more about what this "service-learning" thingy is about... heard it originated in the US... very powerful way of helping develop your leadership skills, that's what I understand.

Gosh, that was one LONG note. So far, I tried WordPress (http://wordpress.org), and it was really easy to install, BUT it doesn't support multiple blogs. :( So sad! Because I love its pretty user interface and ease of use.



So I'm investigating b2evolution (http://b2evolution.net/index.php) and NucleusCMS (http://nucleuscms.org/).



Will let you guys know more about my quest for the Ultimate Blog (TM). :) TTFN...