Farewell...

It's another time when we hv to bear another departure.

This time it's Julee.

Julee...such a great servant of God

Sad la to see her go esp when she has left an impact in ur life.

I admired that dedication she has for God, the willingness she has to serve Him, the unrelentless heart to take up responsibility and the hope she has in a person. Like what one of the church members said, she will never give up on a person and she sees the best in a person. She's caring, selfless (I remember the time she lent me a jacket for the ball when I din hv one), she's sensitive to people's needs and she has the courage to go out and reach out to people.


Words are just simply hard to describe how much she has impacted our lives. It's just simply unthinkable to know that we won't be seeing Julee that soon anymore.

To me, she's a walking example and role model for everyone to follow.

I didn't get to know Julee until I went to NEEC and was placed in the same group as her. I really enjoyed the time she shared with me and was really encouraged by that. Thank you Lord for her and for everything she has done.

Like what the powerpoint presentation said, 'we are torn to let you go!'

All the best for ur future Julee! It's indeed a blessing to know u although it's only such a short time but I believe God knows what is best for you and He has a plan for you back home in M'sia.

God bless.

human anatomy website

My anatomy lecturer gave us a URL of a human anatomy website today. Tot I would post it here to share with u all esp the medical students.

link


There are dissection pictures as well as practical questions for each system. I haven't looked at it thoroughly yet. So dunno whether it's good

Kim's birthday party!

jz a final short post for this week and also before I hit the sack.

yesterday attended Kim's birthday party:

cute and petite girl. Can't believe she's 21 years old this year!

For 6 months plus ever since I came to UK, I've seen her around in church but never got the chance to know her personally until I became her roommate during NEEC.

Although she is shy and quiet (only to a certain extent) and is said to be afraid in public places, I'm amazed by the fact that she's quite opened and real to herself. Hmm..dun really know how to explain that. For example, she does not put on a mask pretending to be brave when she is in an unknown place filled with strangers. She will jz cling to a person she knows and probably annoys that person a lot. But anyways, I like that fact that she doesn't care about what people think of her and jz be what she is with people.

'God has brought the Kim out from me' - Kim giving her birthday speech

I found out that she can sing quite well too! Whoa, dun see her shy shy one, but she dare to sing karaoke in front of so many people! Aiks, I failed miserably when I sang. Haha. My singing is sooo terrible and soft. But I think karaoke is not abt singing only, it's also more about being sporting. Being able to do something out of the comfort zone.

Her living room is pretty big compared to my house and there's a small fish tank which reminded me of the three pitiful fish (which are aptly named Stephanie, Andrew and Kyle according to their size..but I think they might switch names soon if Steph continues to grow horizontally. HAHA *dodge punch from Steph*) in my room.

These fish are way luckier than my room's. There are only a few fish in the glass tank but there is adequate space for them to swim. Lucky them.

A glimpse of Kim's fish tank:

nice, clean, cosy...an ideal habitat for fish

And now a glimpse of the fish tank ( i dunno whether it should be called fish tank or not) in my room:

dirty, algae-coated fish tank. So little space and water too

Now u know why I said Kim's fish are lucky already eh?



******

exams coming

That's it. I've decided.

I will only blog once a week from now on.

I will not sign in MSN anymore.

I will not go online if I have the choice.

I must discipline myself!

It's high time for me to get back to books

or else I will be DOOMED.

PS: To my parents, Esther, Jon Jon, NH and other people who only hv urgent things to ask me, jz give me a buzz on my hp and I will call back. This month got quite a lot of minutes accumulated from last month so can call back to M'sia more often =)

Oh, Happy birthday to Darren and Kim! Both of them turning 21 today!

racism

I think I'm addicted to blogging.

Oh no...

Anyways, that's not the point I want to make.

source

Yeap. Racism. I always see posters of racism in the place where I worked. I never knew how bad it was until I experienced it myself.

I was walking back carrying all my shopping when suddenly I felt spatters of water on me. Astonished, I turned back and was only in time to see two people laughing in a moving car looking at my direction. Whoaman... It took me a few seconds to realised that it was did on purpose. Blur me.

This is not the first time I experienced this. Last time remember when Leeds snowed, I was posing for a photo on the ground when someone threw a snowball directly at me on purpose. One group of ang mo people. Sheeessshhh. If I had the guts, I would have yelled at them on the spot. But nah, that's not very wise.

S***** people. What's so fun bullying people? But my case is not as worse as what others experienced. Some had rotten food thrown at them and my roommate nearly got spitted on by a black boy.

It makes me appreciate the harmony between races in M'sia. At least for 18 yrs of living in M'sia, I've never got things thrown at me before, I've never got spitted on before...I've only come to UK for 6 months and I kena twice already!

sighhhh

sometimes the truth is so cruel to believe

sighhhhh....

I'm getting fatter

I feel so unhealthy now =(

I wish I could fill my stomach like a bottomless pit and never get fat.

step by step guide to put background song in ur blog

Some people hv asked me the way to put background music in a blog.

Here are some simple steps to follow and it's super easy. (I know some people may find background music annoying as there are some blogs which automatically play a song and there's no way to stop it. Fortunately for this, there's a 'pause' button for u to click)

Step 1:

Go to www.ripway.com which provides web hosting and online file sharing service. For a free account, it gives 30Mb which for me is sufficient as I only need one song in my blog.

Follow the step-by-step instruction there and after uploading ur music file, copy the music URL.

Step 2:
Log into ur account in blogspot. Click on the 'template' tab and a page like this will show:


Step 3:

Click on the 'add page element' tab at the right hand corner.

Step 4:

A small window will open and choose the one which says 'HTML/java script'


Step 5:

The window will open into another which is like this:

Copy the HTML code in the content box above and paste it in ur own page element tab.

width="200" src="http://h1.ripway.com/tingjanice/02BeautifulOne.mp3
" autostart="true" loop="true" height="45"

start the code with the word 'embed' in the <> and end it with a '/' inside. Just like the eg above.

I can't put the whole HTML code in this entry as blogger seems to automatically treat it as a real HTML code for background music so a media player appeared in the post.

Anyways, jz replace the http://h1.ripway.com/tingjanice/02BeautifulOne.mp3 to the URL of the song which u uploaded.

For those who are wondering what those 'autostart', 'true' and 'loop' means...

autostart means to automatically start the song
'true' means yes, and as u would see in other codes, 'false' means no
'loop' means replaying the song after it finishes

for some who want to change the size, jz play with the numbers beside the 'width' and 'height'.


Step 6:

save changes and bingo! u hv a song in ur blog.

Easy right?

PS: for those who are still using the old blogger...u hv to search for the right place in the classic template to paste the HTML code.

btw, those who want to put a playlist of songs in their blog, click here to read this website. I still hvnt gone thru the website yet so not sure how it works.

There are lots of very good HTML tutorials online. They basically teach u simple things to more complicated things like creating a simple table and changing the colour for it.

I used to hv a bookmark folder for all good HTML websites but all the bookmarks were gone with my laptop during the house break-in =(

Dun hv any websites to recommend but I think jz use google to search for these tutorials is enough to provide u with the basic knowledge of HTML. I owe all my HTML knowledge to all these online tutorials =)

mounting assignments each week,

one summative short answer qn in 3 weeks' time

SSC due in 4 weeks' time,

anatomy spot test in 5 weeks' time,

integrated summative exam in 6 weeks' time...

I'm starting to get all tensed up

Hhhheeeelllppp *gasp*

Thank God!

Thank God for His grace and mercy!

I thought I wouldn't do that well in my transport exam...

I saw the provisional result today and only 15 students out of 250 students got an A.

75 students got B.

29 students failed.

But, thank God that I've got a B!! All praises and glory to Him! Though it's jz the provisional result, I think it's more or less the same.

Hard work alone is enough to help a person get a B. (So YM, don't fret, u sure will pass one la)

Getting an A requires intelligence + hard work.

If average people like me wanna get an A, I think I would go siao by the end of this academic year.

$$

The love for money is the root of evil.

When people tend to cling on money too much, everything they do is money.

They eat, think of money,
they drink, also think of money,
they shit, also think of money.

*****

but anyways, I personally think money is not that important anymore. I realised that there are other things which are more valuable than money eg, experience, character development etc

And that's why there are conferences, church activities, eat-out...which help us in making new friends and strengthening friendship bonds.

True, some of these things are not cheap. But think of it this way, preventing urself from going out in order to save money is only helping u dig a hole in ur own world.

What good is there to sit at home?

PS: btw, i wana know why is that people make assumption that I've been playing a lot. Based on what I write in my blog? Do you want me to write that I study hard everyday until my hair turns white or until I siao already?

Sometimes I just wonder the purpose of blogging

why do we blog?

I started out blogging only with the pure intention to record my hospital attachment experience so that I could refer back to it for my medical interview. But slowly slowly I dunno how I started writing about personal experiences and events happening.

No one knows about ur blog at first. But deep down in ur heart, u wish someone could read it and that's when u start publishing ur blog URL on msn nick, friendster etc.

And everyday, u visit ur blog not to read back what u hv wrote but to see whether anyone left any comments in ur blog or not.

Do we blog to feel good? To seek attention? To seek praises? To record events happening (but we do not read back what we wrote)? To show people how great we are? or to tell people about our weaknesses and seek their sympathy? I dunno.

Why can't we write it on paper instead?

PS: oh, about the Middle Child Syndrome (MCS) thingy, I think it's not about the parents not giving equal love to each child but it's the mindset of the middle child who thinks he/she is not receiving enough attention & love. So yea, whether it's true or not, it doesn't bother me now =)

NEEC

Back from NEEC (North England Easter Conference).

This is my first time going to NEEC.

It was a conference in which I became part of the organizing team, a time where I truly learned a lot and experienced a lot.

I would say I din regret going.

It's a place where we once again truly worship our Lord...

where we can forget about uni work and assignments and just simply run with joy in God's creation...


a place where we enjoy, appreciate and value each other in a group...

my group --> olive tree...love them all. Great people to be with

the small, chilly playground where we had our group discussion

a place where we meet other people from other fellowships and make new friends...

me and Jonathan...a 4th yr medical student studying in Liverpool

A place where we are inspired by great Christians who are truly dedicated to God...

my group leader, Grace...I'm impressed and amazed by the love she has for God

It's also a place where we do not care about what people think of us, a place where we can truly be ourselves and a place where our identity is in Christ.

'I'm who I'm by the grace of God'. That's one of the lessons which I took back home from NEEC. We have the choice to choose how we define ourselves. We can either be defined by what we wear, what we speak...or we can define ourselves in Christ.

I was rather touched by what a few people shared with me during one of the group discussion and bedroom talk. They used to be really quiet and insignificant people, but when I looked at them now, standing before me are people of great self-esteem and great dedication to God. I'm amazed at how much God has done in their lives. If they can rise up and soar high like wings of eagle, why can't I?

I came back from NEEC with a renewed sense of determination to change myself better, to be willing to accept my weaknesses, to climb out from the shell I hide in and to get out of my comfort zone.

NEEC will be the point of life transformation for me.

This blog entry will be a reminder where I've made my promise to God that I will rise up and glorify Him.

This was the first time I took my own initiative to share my testimony. I'm pretty surprised that I shared too..hehe

Spring

It's spring...



the weather is so good that not only people lie on grass sun-basking...



but ducks too!

finally!

YAY! Finally NEEC name tags done!!!

I'm so happy!

Jz a simple design and job but it took me days to finished it.

Learned a lot of things tho. The most important thing is that I now know how to use adobe photoshop (it's such a great tool for designing!) and I know where the media services (where we can load our own paper into the printer) and paper cutter are in Leeds uni. I didn't go to the media services department in the end as the place was closed due to the easter hols. So had to print the names on a piece of paper and paste it on a hard paper.

I wonder how I ended up making name tags. I was only assigned to help out during the meeting but someone else was in charge of it. Can't remember who was that..argh...but anyways...

the feeling of accomplishing something is great! I was very much annoyed and frustrated with many things as I had to do most of things on my own but I'm glad things turned out right in the end!

When I see a participant wearing the name tag during NEEC, I'm going to point and say, 'that was made by me.' Ha! haha...No lar..I won't brag until like that. All the things which I do is for God and all glory to Him.

Many thanks to Lynda, my only helper for typing in the names of the participants and for punching holes as well as tying strings for the name tags!

stress management

Someone posted this article on friendster and thought would like to share with you all:


A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers that were called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance."

"In each case, it's the same weight,but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. "

"So, before you return home tonight,put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax, pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short.

Enjoy it!

name badge

Finally...

media coordinator...but my computer knowledge is so shallow. Lol

The finalized design for the name tags NEEC 2007. Suddenly Ju Lee said we could use colour to print the name badges so had to do some editing on the design.

I think it looks better than the previous design =)

NEEC

Today spent the whole day photoshopping and designing stuff for the upcoming NEEC (North England Easter Conference). phew...finally finished

Can't do much coz the budget for NEEC is limited so can't put a lot of colours in the name badge

sien ar...

In the end I came out with a simple design. Can anyone give me comments or not? Is the font suitable or not? I will greatly appreciate any comments given.

NEEC name badge

the computer wallpaper..I think the logo is a bit out of place

Editted: I previously posted up a wallpaper for NEEC but I was given comments that it was too devilish (maybe because the colour was too dark) so I've uploaded a new one here...it's quite girly coz it's pink..haha. Again the logo seems out of place. Should I put the logo in or not?

A round-up of the trip

Finally the last post for the trip!

phew...a relief to finally finish writing about my Holland trip. I actually finished writing all the entries on Thurs. Spent my whole day finding pictures and thinking of what to write. Don't think I will be updating for quite some time as I have to finish my assignment and have to write my cv for my summer job.

so here goes...

from Leeds to Holland, we used the bus which took us 20 hours to reach there! On the way, we sat in a ferry which was a torturous journey to me as I felt quite sea-sick.

during my first 6 days stay in Holland...

we spent it in Groningen, a rather small city up north of Amsterdam. For that whole six days, we drank instant cereal for breakfast, ate bread with cheese spread, lettuce and ham for lunch and dinner and an apple every day for fibre intake. We watched tv a lot. During that time, the world ice-skating competition was on so my sis and I had our eyes glued on the tv.

The hotel was a rather small hotel with only 62 rooms. I thought there wasn't any gym or swimming pool but it turned out there was *rub hands with glee*

So I swam and exercised a lot for the remaining days in the hotel. I've never felt so healthy ever since I came to UK.

I really missed swimming...the one thing which I couldn't do in Leeds

I've never used a gym before but fortunately the gym was vacant all the time so I could take my sweet time experimenting with all the equipments. Sadly the instructions on the equipment were all in Dutch

my mum also brought kuih momo all the way from M'sia for us to eat! yummy yummy

bought this fried fillet in the market. Oily.

After my mum finished her one-week course in Groningen, we went to Voorschoten to stay at a friend's house. Whoa, I really like the house man. So nice and the design is so unique and simple. I was kinda inspired to decorate my room like that..haha.

Hope to have a house like this next time

From Voorschoten, we went to

Den Haag (where the miniature village is)

Leiden (where we had to use a bus to Keukenhof Garden but we took the opportunity to visit the city)

Amsterdam

and Delft (where it's famous for it's ceramics)

Holland is very famous for its ceramics. The handpainted ones are more expensive

In Delft, we walked 1 hour plus to a ceramic factory for an only 15-minute guide around the factory. But we didn't go home empty-handed. Bought some cheap delftware back.

We left Voorschoten for Schiphol airport early in the morning as mum's flight was at 12. But our flight was at 8.45pm. We initially planned to visit the cheese farm and clog factory which was nearby Schiphol but was too lazy to move.

Used jet2 which was a cheap airline back. I was quite surprised that the plane left at 8.45pm without any delay and arrived at Leeds even before the scheduled time!

The flight only took 50 minutes.

*sweat*

and I took 20 hours to go from Leeds to Amsterdam!!! so geram. I thought all the airtickets were all gone when I checked the website before I booked the bus ticket but I didn't know that a few days later, there were cheap airtickets on sale. lol. Fortunately I only bought a one way bus ticket as my mum couldn't confirm the return date. Can't imagine sitting in that ferry again.

Goodbye Holland. Dunno whether I will ever return again or not. Many thanks to our gracious host aunty Patricia and uncle John for allowing us to stay at their cosy house and also providing us the useful maps which enabled us to move about in Holland.

Oh btw, the guide book which I brought along to Holland had really good maps. It can be borrowed at the central library in Leeds.

Now am back to Leeds=(

but...in another 10 weeks' time...it's summer holiday!!! yay

PS: after all those walking and reduced food intake in Holland, I realised that I've lost 1kg! haha..yay. Still need to lose 2 more kilos then I reach my target

Oh, these days so many people birthday coming. I know 3 people whose birthday fall on 2nd April and 2 people on 4th. Happy birthday to them!