Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo Sakana No Ko!

i am absolutely ENCHANTED by this film:

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea.

such innocence and beauty have never before been expressed so wonderfully, be it through the song or the show.

it's showing in Singapore now isn't it!

AND I'VE GOT THE SONG! :D :D :D

Behold The Future!

in the future, i'm gonna be the uncle whom all my peers' kids know and love as "the trendy one".

i'll be the uncle who the kids will be proud of having and tell their friends about saying "uncle Ian's WAAAAAAAAAAAAY trendier than yo momma and poppa!".

i'll probably live alone (with neither wife nor kid given the current and probably future state of things) in a house full of books and toys which both the people who come over and i will enjoy.

the kids can be sent over for daycare while you fellas are off to work and they can play with the toys, but if your kid breaks it you gotta foot the bill.

:'( 

'nuff said.

Of Things Past And Life's Regrets

Of things past and life's regrets

of love lost and love that never was

might haves, could haves and should have beens

of many gains and greater loss

things come and go

only His Word still remains

and yet these scars prove

much of life's aches and pains

only eighteen and yet

already missing the past and its joys

of the tears and laughter

of the time when men were still boys

of the times when brothers were tight

and friendship still meant a thing

age shreds all semblance of it

the few fragments left futilely lingering

growing up rips childhoods from grasping hands

and yet inevitable to all who live

years and years slowly take sanity

until one has nothing left to give

people now don't live like they used to

most only exist and nothing more

progress and change come knocking

and they slam the door

Of things past and life's regrets

of love lost and love that has yet to pass

sometimes you look back

and really, really, REALLY

....

....

wanna kick yourself in the arse.

Sec 2 Boys Retreat & Baptism!

it's been an extremely fast year - but of course, life won't release the year so quickly; submission dates are looming round the corner.

Merry Christmas to all.

Congrats to wesley and aaron pang on their baptism! :D

Sec 2 Boys Retreat:

Christmas Service Baptism:

A Lonely Sunday Afternoon.

i was lying in bed at around 5pm today, wanting to sleep.

however a few thoughts plagued me, and i couldn't rest - instead, i simply stared at the ceiling as the thoughts ran their rounds in my brain.

they obviously got quite a bit of exercise.

this thought was especially prominent: "what am i doing at 5pm alone at home, lying on my bed and doing absolutely NOTHING on a beautiful sunday evening?"

some use sundays for family gatherings, others go out with their friends and those people who have a significant other have some time to enjoy each other's company..

.. and here i am lying awake in bed with nary a thing to occupy me, all alone.

i shifted, rolled and tossed and turned as i tried to throw the thought from my mind, but it clung on with claws that gripped my brain and minced it thoroughly.

i drifted off into an uneasy sleep..

...

and promptly dreamt about a Cloverfield-esque monster ripping through half of Singapore which included half of my block, the subsequent release of all the predators in the Singapore Zoo, and my family, friends and i fighting the animals for food and survival.

BOY, WHAT GIVES?!

wow, 6k views in 8 months!

Day 6, Fukuoka

the last day in fukuoka - i hate to admit it, but i miss singapore.. simply cuz i don't understand japanese. otherwise, i'd probably opt to stay here.

the Japanese society is EVER so gracious - thier mannerisms, attitudes and service standards are all top notch.. but the standard of living's pretty messed up though.

funnily enough, with the high standard of living i still haven't seen any beggars.

SINGAPORE HERE I COME!



Places:






Food:

Fukuoka, Day 5

Went to some garden and saw an entire school running.. there was a guy who looked like me. T_T

i found a toy shop which barely sold transformers - i didnt get anything much.
today had some pretty good food though - japanese curry rocks!


Places:






Food:

Fukuoka, Day 4

i went to hiroshima after countless hours of protesting and a SGD $1K train ride.
what i saw was interesting but nothing to sit up and look around with eyes wide..

unless you count the gruesome relics from the blast. (i did NOT take pics of them.)


i still have no idea why a train ride costs SGD $1K.


i caught the shoe-throwing-at-bush incident on the news a few days ago - and someone posted this:



Credits to uNrEaLiTy of EDMW.



Places






Food

Fukuoka, Day 3

Day in Fukuoka

nothing pretty much happened again - except that i had a ride down the river and went to the hot spring..

AND ate totally awesome sashimi.. which costed like 50 bucks. T_T

Places:

\



Food:

Fukuoka, Day 2

day 2 in fukuoka.

nothing much happened (again) except that i bought a melon cocktail drink thinking it was melon soda.. and i was reminded again that i'm ALLERGIC TO ALCOHOL in the most painful way. (it's my mother's fault! she passed her genes to me!)

suffice to say, i missed dinner and am still having a HORRIBLE headache. the drink was pretty shiok.. i have pics! :D

the kids here are awesomely cute though - i will try getting pictures soon. ;)


A few other places.




MORE FOOD. :D

Fukuoka, Day 1

Day 1 in Fukuoka:

nothing much happened - the usual business of arriving and taking a taxi to the hotel.
there's a shopping centre called Canal City behind my hotel, the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka.. but there's nothing much there except food, clothes and a Pokemon Store.

the girls in japan aren't all that the media makes them out to be - however, majority of them are still WOOHOO.

a few pics i took from the Land of the Rising Sun:

Before Flying:

On The Plane:

Some Pics of the Sky (and Ground)






Places:






GLORIOUS FOOD:

The Unfinished Jigsaw Puzzle.

can every piece of a jigsaw puzzle really fall into place?

granted, there's a complementing piece for nearly every puzzle piece - two pieces that fill the void in each other. 

somehow, somewhere, there's a piece which matches another.. or so they say.

however, in the process of matching the pieces and bringing them all together to form one complete picture, some pieces are inadvertantly lost - pieces fall off the table into the pit, other pieces that are simply not there to begin with, and even pieces that are torn and tattered.

obviously, these jigsaw pieces can't fit in.

how, then, are the voids ever going to be filled in every piece?

there is no answer.

sure, there are those pieces which seem to be able to fit in with any other piece of their choice - such is their compatibility; their edges were crafted with slightly more finess, their finish slightly glossier and the colours that much brighter than the lesser pieces of the jigsaw - those are the pieces that were always meant to be noticed and fawned upon.

these pieces have every right and reason to scoff and riducule those lesser pieces - after all, the pieces were meant to fit in right smack in the middle of the jigsaw puzzle with every other piece wanting to complement their void.

those pieces are in essence, near perfect.

and then there are the pieces which were made lesser than perfect.

some voids are never gonna be filled, some pieces destined never to be matched.

some jigsaw pieces attempt to fit in with another - it's a clean fit at the start, but something just doesn't click, and the pieces pop out after some time.

some pieces hope and long to be able to fit with another piece - but the intricacies of the puzzle, down to the very way the said pieces were formed, will never allow that union.

other pieces settle for a less-than-perfect fit, and the jigsaw puzzle seems complete - until a piece that better complements the other comes along, and one is abandoned in favour of the better match.

certain pieces will forever be forgotten, swept under the carpet, and others lie in the dark and dank corners of the packaging from whence they came..

..such is the imperfection of the jigsaw puzzle we call Life.

the jigsaw puzzle lies unfinished still.

Cheng Cheng Cheng *Hong Mao Dan* Cheng Cheng Cheng.

i lost my voice due to 3 days of camp.. and i have to record my Piece-To-Camera tomorrow.

somehow, losing my voice let me learn something - for a singer to lose his/her voice is a terrible feeling (being unable to sing for God and all that), but God helped me realise that sometimes one can worship with song and music even without words.

 
i went to the worship team retreat today (with my voice almost totally gone) and yet during the worship segments, i praised the Lord - by mouthing the words and singing with my heart. this silent worship was one of the best instances of corporate worship i have ever experienced. there was a tangible presence of God in the chapel and i just enjoyed it; my mouth was silent but yet i sang to the Lord.
 
i probably looked ridiculous, but it was an extremely important reaffirmation to me that worship indeed comes from the heart and nowhere else..
and most importantly, my voice was restored a little after worship..

the Lord is great indeed.

Cheng Cheng Cheng *Hong Mao Dan* Cheng Cheng Cheng!

ZOMBIES!

a few pics from filming the trailer for the group's proposed zombie movie.

NON-GORY.

Fun With Cardboard.

Quote from Hobbes the Stuffed Tiger (Calvin and Hobbes):

"The things people do with corrugated cardboard nowadays..."

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand my inspiration: his name is DANBOARD! :D :D :D

i do not own him, sadly.

my friend elias drew this in class today (i have no idea why).

"Yan" was purposely misspelled.. or so he said.

apparently it looks a lot like me.