Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Early education and other random things
Okay, so I know I'm only 19,
going on... 20, but still, I think this is important to know! Just, you know, in case I have kids next time. IN CASE. Haha.
Basically, the video is about how watching (too much) TV at a young, developing age is not exactly a good thing. I CONCUR! IF I have kids next time, they're certainly not touching an iPhone, iPad, TV (remote) or computer till they're um, hm, 4 or 5? Or so. And there'll be lots of playtime for them! Because it builds interaction skills (if I'm using the right phrase), thinking skills and IMAGINATION! YAY~!
Anyway, I recommend the video, even though it's like 16 minutes long. It's got interesting facts ...and mice! Haha, okay, not very convincing.
Anyway, as for my life, I've been busy? I don't know. I'm not quite sure what I did with my January. It just flew by like that - I didn't even blog until today. Okay, but then again, I'm quite a lazy bum when it comes to blogging. I do think of stuff to blog about, but then sometimes I'm too lazy to go and write it down, since I dread the time that I spend on my blog (sometimes, too much time). Hm, but other than that, how does my time pass by each week?
I only meet people a few times a week (and those few times includes church on Sunday) and it's not like I've been busy with dance, since there is no dance thingy to be busy with, unfortunately. I think, though, that the main culprit is that I like to waste time. Between TV and facebook and K-pop and Youtube and being in my own world, I guess there's not a lot of time for me to do things like blog? Ah, I won't bother trying to find a reason. The main thing is that with this first month of 2012 dawdled away like that, I should make the rest of the months in 2012 count, so that I can say that I didn't waste my time away (at least, the months before I go to uni).
I've got stuff to do now, so I won't go on and on about life in this blog post.
Anyway, I don't have a lot of exciting things to post about?
Hm, I'll try to work on a better or several better blog posts in February, when I've finished what I need to do at the moment.
Till then, toodle-oo! ♥
Saturday, December 31, 2011
2011 - The Year Of Firsts
Every year, things happen - good things, bad things, boring things, exciting things. For me, 2011 was the most interesting year of my life. So, so, so, so, so many things happened to me that I can't even believe it myself. With every new year comes new experiences and for me, 2011 was an exceptional year with so many new experiences (what I call as 'firsts') that I felt that I must compile it all, as explicitly as possible! Okay, so explicit isn't a word with very positive connotations, but it's meaning is as close to the word I'm looking for as possible.
So, here goes nothing:
My List of Firsts (Things that I did/happened to me for the first time in 2011)1) First time I worked/had a paying job
2) First time I chose to have a meal by myself in a foreign land (Japan, when I wanted to eat stuff my family didn't want to eat - curry)
3) First time I signed up for a language course!!!!! :D (한국말!)
(That's my Korean teacher~!)
4) First time I went for a facial (haha)
5) First time I had a drum lesson! (It's been 6 years since I first wanted to learn drums, and I was glad to have learnt a wee bit this year!!!)
6) First time I was in charge of a whole comm (okay, not that I had people under me, but in YAWA comm, it was kinda like you had to take charge of the whole thing, which was sorta new to me, to conceptualise, plan and execute. Previously, I hadn't done the conceptualise part)
(No nice pictures of me at YAWA, so, yeah, no picture for this one)7) First year in a long while that I ....... didn't do ushering AT ALL. THE WHOLE YEAR. :O (Okay, this is a lousy one, but I just wanted to put it there for remembrance)
8) First time I went to China (did you know that 3 out of my 4 grandparents directly came from China to settle at their respective countries? No wonder people sometimes mistake me as being from China. T_T)
9) First time I travelled out of the country unsupervised (like, without my parents or school teachers. The feeling of freedom was exhilarating, I must say!)
10) First time I went on a mission trip (this is especially significant to me, because for so many years of my life, I didn't get a chance to/didn't want to go on a mission trip. So, finally, I got to go)
11) First experience of being a teacher/teaching dance (still a funny feeling to think of people calling me as "江老师")
12) First time I had to wash my own clothes - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (good experience, if I should say so myself!)
13) First time I travelled around on a mountain (really, really cool - although at times, nauseating. The scenery is SO good and it's totally a free roller-coaster ride, without the upside down bits. It was cool to be in the 凉山 Liangshan province!)
14) First time I made dumplings (饺子) / glutinous rice dumplings (粽子)
15) First time I took part/played a part in choreographing a dance item ^^
16) First time I took an aeroplane by myself!
17) First time I allowed more than one person (in a sitting) to hear one of my songs (memory-jogger: at YA, when Kim lead worship on one Sunday, after we'd both come back from our respective mission trips, we sang a song I had written after I came back from YAWA in Malaysia and before I left for China, i.e. within those few hours I had)
18) First time I went for an actual dance class (not school-based)
19) First time I performed a hip hop dance item without a school context (at PlayMax)
20) First time I put on make-up for other people (I still remember when I was in dance club, the seniors/other people would always be the ones putting on make-up for me. So, at PlayMax, when I was putting on my own make-up, and even going around helping the dancers to put on make-up, the feeling sure was a refreshing one)
(Have posted this picture before - sorry, no other picture)
21) First time I sang as a support singer in worship at main service (ooooh~)
22) First time I helped out at a Cornerstone event (for Children's Day)
(The letters below were designed by yours truly! :D)
23) First time I tried out puppetry (same event as above)
24) First time I helped out at a children's day camp (Saddle Ridge Ranch, KPC's first Vacation Bible School, where I helped Auntie Mui Hong with the worship session, teaching the kids how to dance to the songs taught) (Never have I imagined that I would do something like that, because for the longest time, I couldn't stand kids - especially the ones that screamed, but wow, I did it!)
25) First time I did a session (or rather, four sessions) for kids (at Saddle Ridge Ranch, where I was at the Missions room, and I had to share with the children about missions in South America and Africa. This took me a lot of courage, because firstly, this was a subject that I wasn't familiar with, and secondly, I had never done this sorta "teaching" before)
[No pictures from Saddle Ridge Ranch too, 'cause Tate didn't post any pictures online...]26) First time I went to Punggol (okay, in all honesty, I've never been to many parts of Singapore before. I'm ashamed to say that, as a Singaporean)
27) First time I was THE choreographer of an item (whoot whoot!!!!)
I'd always wanted to choreograph my own item while I was in dance club - okay the latter part of my time there. However, I never got the chance to, because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it. I mean, I could freestyle at home, but I could never remember my own steps. So, I thought that I would never be able to do it, to put up a full-fledged item. The chance to be a choreographer - the main one, not the one contributing a few sets of "8s" here and there - at Celebrating Christmas In Singapore (CCIS) was truly a dream come true for me. The best part, was dancing for God, not for my own glory. And I'm truly thankful for that opportunity.
28) First time I was a group leader at youth camp (scary scary, but I'm glad God gave me the courage to take it on)
29) First time performing my own song - not just singing, but playing the piano too - in "public" (well, it was at camp, but it was quite a big crowd to me, okay!)
This last one is my favourite - you know, save the best for last! ;D
30) First time a guy
(I thought was cute) has
ever told me that I was
pretty
(I know I look crap here, but the fact is, I woke up at 5.55am that day, having slept at 3am+, so not enough sleep + just woke up + just showered = unglamorous)Frivolous? Yes. Important? YES.
Judge me for all you want, but yes, I admit that I am an insecure person and that things like that make me happy. DEAL WITH IT.
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If you actually read all 30 of them, GOOOOOOD JOB! I salute you, soldier!! :D
If you read the first one and just skipped to the end, well, thanks for visiting my blog anyway. :)
Okay, it is too early in the morning to state. I should get to sleep now!
(Pictures were limited, some of these special moments weren't captured, but oh well, it's as good as it gets!) (And yes, I did take some off facebook)
♥ Out!
Friday, December 23, 2011
요즈음 (Recently)
So, I was using my tablet the other day, uploading the songs from the Korean albums Dawney & Cass (from the YFC dance team) brought back from Korea for me into my iPod (which is synced to my tablet, fyi). Since I was bored and had nothing else to do, I thought I'd draw!
So this first picture you see is how I've been feeling this past month or so:
(Yes, I was inspired by the 2NE1 song of the same title)
With the youth camp and CCIS being so close together, I felt like as if I was up to my neck in "work". It was just me being pure busy busy busy busy busy! Which was kinda bad for me, 'cause it affected my relationship with God :( But, well, lesson learnt...don't say "Yes" so easily? Haha, nah. I'll still make decisions based on feeeeelings (and not my schedule - somewhat). ;D
This second picture is well, what I've been feeling a lot this year. This feeling of course, has been escalated recently. I'll leave it for you guys to interpret. (After all, I did put the 3 full stops there for a dramatic-ish effect):
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CCIS is finally over, as with almost all the other projects I've been busy with this year end period, and it's great to feel free. Well, sorta. I mean, it IS sad that after all these months of training...BAM! It's over, just like that! (This feeling hit me on the bus ride home!) However, it's great to feel that sense of relief that I no longer have a project with the deadline creeping nearer and nearer.
I've enjoyed myself these past 3 months, working with Kim & the team. As choreographer, the feeling is so different from just being a dancer, because you kinda have to make all the final decisions and a huge responsibility is placed on your shoulders. But, I'm happy to say that this was certainly a challenge that I was thankful to have taken up! ㅋㅋㅋ
Well, now, my current challenge is settling Christmas presents. After that, it's time to look forward to the new year and see what new challenges God puts in my way, as well as which direction He wants me to go.
I hope I can post a "round-up of the year" post before the year ends, because this year was certainly a very exciting and interesting year for me. Till, then...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(because I know I'm too lazy to post on the day itself :D)
♥ Out!
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Prayer
I've been keeping the
blog of Leslie Ludy, author of "Authentic Beauty", as one of the tabs I always have open in my Firefox sessions. Because I figured, if I get bored and want to read something, I might as well read something that's related to God than something that's not/meaningless.
And today, it's worked.
I read
THIS entry (random side note: posted on 제 생일 2 years ago) and felt spoken to. Titled "Spiritual Determination", it talked about how our determination to always make God our number one priority should never wane.
To quote a quote from Andrew Bonar in the post:
O brothers and sisters, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper – and sleep too – than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber.
What a quote! This is one of the stupid excuses I give myself lately ("Oh, it's too late, I need to sleep. I'm sure God knows that I need to sleep.") so that I don't feel so bad about slacking off in spending time with God. Sure, God knows that I need to sleep. But I should've thought of spending time with Him, before wasting away the other hours of the day.
Sigh, still plenty many things for me to work on!!! But, I'm glad that the Lord reminded me of this!!! Came at an appropriate juncture in life! I must remember this now and apply it to my life!
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Of course, life isn't all frolicking around the internet, lately. Been really busy with all those things that I mentioned in the previous blog post. Yes, I still waste time on the internet & at the TV, but I am doing a wee bit more now, such that I can't say I'm loafing around at home all day. Hah!
Am still too lazy to dig up pictures to post... Okay, how about I post a cute wombat picture?
Awww.. I ♥ wombats!
Okay, I have to get back to work. T_T
Bye! ♥
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Creativity & Perseverance
I was gonna title this post as "Creativity & Success", but then today's speaker mentioned that we shouldn't be focused on attaining success in the sense of the world, which I agree with. Anyway, I'm having trouble trying to explain what I mean by my sense of success, which I assure you, isn't similar to what the world defines success as. Hence, I changed the title.
So, anyway, I find these 2 videos really encouraging to me.
The first one is for people who are pursuing stuff in creative industries! For me, I'm not a story-writer, but I write songs - so when the video talks about writing stories, I sub it with writing songs... Hope this encourages those who are pursuing creative careers! :D
As for the second second video, I only like the first part ('cause the second part doesn't apply to me, lol). I've been so busy lately & I'm feeling kinda tired & drained (ironic for a gap year slacker like me, eh?), so I feel lazy (or burdened) to do some things that I'd previously enjoyed doing a lot. And this reminds me to enjoy everything I'm doing, especially if it's related to what I love, which is singing and dancing. Don't be lazy & get going with the stuff you need to do, Angeline!
So, if you're wondering why I'm so busy here's a breakdown of the things on my plate at the moment:
1) Am choreographing for a Youth For Christ (YFC) Celebrating Christmas In Singapore (CCIS) dance item. I didn't struggle as much in the beginning, when it first started, but as time passed, the need to constantly squeeze out choreography has been making me feel very drained. But I'm encouraged by Steve Jobs, so I will remember to enjoy this & be thankful for this opportunity to choreograph!
2) Am studying Grade 6 music theory, because the school I'm planning to apply to requires that qualification for music students. Anyway, I'm so glad that I'm studying it now, because it has been a LONG, LONG time since I last touched theory (of which I stopped at Grade 5, thankfully). Gosh, the first lesson was SUPER embarrassing, realising the extent to which I'd forgotten my basic theory concepts!! Haha, thankfully my piano teacher is nice ^^
3) Other random miscellaneous things, including preparing for Saddle Ridge Ranch and starting work on the Youth Camp (Camp Justice) Camp Booklet.
The former is the Vacation Bible School for kids that KPC is holding. GOSH, my FIRST TIME "working with" kids! I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I SAID YES TO IT. Haha. Can you imagine? All those years of my life, saying that I hated small kids & never wanted to do anything related to them - AND HERE I AM NOW! 정말!!! (Okay, I stopped hating kids recently, as a first step, 'cause I figured, IF I'm gonna be a mother next time, I'll need to love my kids. So, best to start loving/liking kids now!) Fortunately, I'm doing Worship, which is singing & dancing and teaching the kids the songs & dance moves - my safe zone. One baby step at a time yeah!
The latter is self-explanatory, no? Anyway, initially, I thought that this would be the first year that I wouldn't attend Youth Camp. I was so wrong. Guess God wants to continue pushing me to do more things that I wouldn't normally do, to help me to grow more! 'Cause, I decided to agree to being a group leader. Gosh. Cannot believe I'm doing this as well! Sigh, hopefully things go okay & I won't lead the group astray (from the Truth)...
Okay, gonna end this off here and get to sleep! No pictures this time as I'm toooooo lazy to dig 'em out and post 'em! More proper updates soon? Keke
♥
Angeline♥
Awww.. I ♥ wombats!
