An Odd Sounding Poem, Even To Me

Okay I wrote it, but even when I read it I'm like.....what? So bear with me.

Ah, the inexplicability of the ties that bind us to each other;
Some made of steel chains, some made of thread.
The idea that a hushed word could break the strongest bond;
The sad truth that even chains have tears to dread.

How is it that ties made of fragile thread dues to years and years of friction;
Still won’t set the people they struggle to bind free?
Why hang on, not letting go before it is threadbare and rough?
Why do they hang on, and let problems and hurts be?

What about bonds made of paper, not yet wrapped in years of friendship?
Why bother when a single gust of wind could destroy it?
Isn’t it odd that these bonds that mostly don’t endure their first attack;
Are still formed even though it’s so easy to be toyed with?

Then there are connections made of wire, deceptively strong as can be;
That is, until an extraordinarily sharp enough weapon can be found.
Oh how it hurts when things thought to be so solidly unbreakable;
Are so easily mangled and tossed aside without so much as a sound.

There are also unions untested by time, made wholly of glass;
That can crack or even shatter at the first sign of trouble.
These are the ties that people wonder at if it lasts;
These are the ones that only survive in a trouble-proof bubble.

But amidst all these, the rarest of them all;
Are ties so terribly unexplainable.
They do not seem to be of this world, yet they just have to be;
And once formed, they are priceless and unmistakeable.

These are ties formed not by man made substance;
But by an otherworldly glue called grace.
These are the connections people live for, fight for and die for;
These are the unions people turn to when they need a warm embrace.

So we fight for the bonds we have, we hope for the ones we don’t;
We strive to be worthy as someone else’s bond.
For without these ties, good or bad, could we really be human?
And if we’re lucky, by God given grace, others respond.

Yeah I know it's a little weird. I'm working on my oddness, I promise :)

A Wasted Two Days

I'm making it official, right here, right now so everyone get out your notepads and pencils and take this down. UTAR sucks.


I thought it couldn't possibly suck any more than it already does. Really. I thought that this was just about as bad as it gets. But yet again, they surpassed the lowest of my lowest expectations of them. 


Yesterday I stood in line close to TWO HOURS trying to register for my subjects for my current semester. Interested in why standing in line was even necessary? Let me tell you.


Supposedly we register for our subjects online during a certain period of time before our semester starts (usually during study break when we're supposed to be studying for finals but let's get back to that later). But the truth is there are not enough slots provided for all the students. For example, in a certain lecture there was only space for 175 students. How can this be when we have to share this class with my juniors and in my batch alone we have more than 200 students? So anyway, when I attempted to register for my subjects I found that the only subjects available (which I hadn't already taken in previous semesters) were all full. Yes, all of them. It was crazy. 


And so to avoid the chaos that is Week 1 in the Faculty General Office, some students tend to go to the office during our sem break. But guess what? No one in the office was accepting any forms or any responsibility for anything that was remotely about timetables for the following semester. And so, my only alternative came in the form of standing in line for TWO HOURS yesterday. I didn't even get to do my timetable, by the way. I was so tired and hungry that I just decided to come back another day. 


Which was today. And I still have one subject to register for because I didn't copy the two possible subject codes for it and just copied one instead. And that's another thing. Why the hell does one subject have 2 subject codes when it is the same damn thing? *sigh*

Oh well at least I got to register for Actuarial Modelling. My timetable still sucks though. And at least when I went for Actuarial Maths class today, I saw that it was still Dr. Chua teaching the subject. He's so funny, I missed him. 


Well that's about it for now. Nothing interesting happening yet, except for Mom and Dad's impending visit this Chinese New Year. Yay :D

A Much Needed Update

Whoa. The last time I posted was in October. Of last year. Damn.


Needless to say, a lot has happened since then. Let's see, Dad got consecrated and became Assistant Bishop, Mom turned 50, Mom and Dad celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, I celebrated my 21st birthday Mafia style, Christmas in KL, Mom and Dad moved to Melaka, New Year in Melaka and 2 weeks of (well, sort of) freedom from parental supervision. I think that just about sums things up :)


Anyway it's a new year, full of old dreams and new hopes and a fresh new positive attitude which hopefully lasts til the end of the semester. And yes, yes it's 2012, supposedly the last year of our existence, big whoop. It'll be a big downer if it is though, cause I'll kinda be spending the next year stuck (yes, still) at UTAR. Bleh.


But Joanna did make me start rethinking my stint at being a magna cum laude UTARian, namely wearing huge baggy t-shirts and baggy jeans with holes in them and not bothering to comb my hair, and of course the magna cum laude UTARian signature, wearing slippers. I started thinking, wait a minute here, I do not wanna remember my college years this way, no matter the crappy location. I want to care about how I look, whether or not people look at me. So yes, I'm going to start taking pride in my appearance again. Thank you, Joanna Saunters Bam.


About Mom and Dad being away and not getting to see them as often as usual, yeah it does kinda suck. I didn't expect to be this bummed about it though. When I got back from Melaka after New Year's, I think everyone kinda expected me to be all 'WOOHOOO THEY'RE GONE!!!' about it and instead I was more into rolling my eyes and saying 'not now, I'm so depressed'. But we're doing pretty all right so far. My siblings and I do the grocery shopping and cooking ourselves, and the house is seriously in okay condition seeing as Mom isn't here to bug us about chores. So yeah, we're doing okay. I do miss them obviously. And they haven't completely moved out cause the vicarage at Melaka is under renovation so they just took a few necessities. Lots of boxes still around here at the apartment and there's still a fair amount of packing to be done. Then they'll be coming back during Chinese New Year and taking it back to Melaka with them on the 27th when they officially move in to the vicarage. Oh and Melaka's pretty all right. I mean I personally found it a bit depressing and Joash and I wouldn't stop bitching about everything in sight but maybe we were just upset cause Mom and Dad weren't coming back to KL with us.


Anyway my break has been pretty productive. I didn't get much studying done, but I didn't completely waste my time. Heading back to UTAR tomorrow for the beginning of yet another depressing semester in the depressing wasteland that is Setapak. Okay fine it's not that bad, I'm just really not looking forward to it. Got a lot of work to do on the first day; fixing the hell that is my timetable, dropping subjects, adding subjects, surviving the horrors of the Faculty General Office with people clamouring to change their timetables *sigh*. It won't be pleasant. 


Today at church was nice though. And so was this whole week actually. Got new shoes last Sunday as a late birthday present. Ah that reminds me, thank you Chris Kumar for my awesome new shoes :D Went on a hike on Monday with Qades and Larry and Shu and Joanna. It was pretty cool. Extremely tiring to the point that I thought I was going to die, but pretty cool. The waterfall at the end fell just short of making the hike worth it lol. Then on Wednesday just before meeting my precious Lisa for dinner, I found a splinter that had been lurking in my finger since the hike. And going out with Lisa, as always, was great fun. Then on Friday Larry and Joanna and Shu came over and we made last minute plans to head out and sleepover at Shu's place. Saturday was uneventful except for my trip to do some grocery shopping with Joash :) And today Bryan and Lisa and Chris and Nygel and Joshua and I hung out til almost 2pm at church. It was nice, I wish every week was like this :) 


So there's my update. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something but seeing as no one's life depends on it, I'm sure it's fine :) I'm hoping that this semester I will be able to be a model student and study hard and do well. For the whole semester and not just the beginning when I feel all semangat-ed about it. I'm also hoping I'll be a bit more faithful with my blogging; an outlet for my grief and frustration will most definitely be necessary once my semester starts. I promise I'll post about something fun soon that isn't related to JC Chasez, who by the way I'm still crazy about :)


Laters!!