The sem is ending soon... :)

The semester will be ending soon! This blog seems to be dying already...

Break or not a break? That is the question

Once again, the June break is here. The 2 months of the new semester was crazily packed with group projects and individual assignments. There is a 10 people group project implementation to conduct a workshop for the seniors at Wesley Seniors Activity Centre, a research project to work on and individual work to do. But still, I'm SO thankful for this 3 weeks break. A time when I can take a breather for awhile.

Meanwhile, there is nav farewell for 2 sisters in the team. The changes have been sudden and I feel mostly sad but at the same time happy that they can help out in another ministry. I'm looking forward to the break training programme coming soon which will be on meditating God's Word; exciting! :)

Anyway, here is what happens when I'm doing an essay that I took a long time on because I wasn't sure what to write... Learning in organisations is a really broad topic. Somehow, broad topics are harder because one has to narrow down on the specifics, otherwise, you will never get done with the essay, as I've realised.

I guess, animal tabs like these make marking chapters more fun! haha :)

Holidays are here!!! :)

It's the holidays now. I've been stale at blogging. Well, a whole year has passed and it's really by God's Grace and strength that has enabled me to go through the whole of my first year at NP. Today marks the last day; finished my statistics paper. I'm quite excited for the holidays and especially looking forward to the coming Youth Expedition Trip (YEP) to Cambodia to help in the area of disability. There will be lots of preparation to do. Nav camp is also coming up. As usual, I think my holiday will be quite packed but it's a "good" kind of  busy, one that is enjoyable.:) Meanwhile, I've been listening to different violinists playing Wieniawski's Legende on You tube. It sounds beautiful, sad and full of expression but the difficulty of the piece intimidates me. Actually, the whole thought of taking violin exam next march is intimidating. Well, well, sigh... I have to practice very very hard. I just hope that Wieniawski doesn't 'flip in his grave' (as Miss T. used to mention in music class) haha. 

Chinese New Year

It doesn't seem very long ago that I've posted for Chinese New Year. A year has passed and another has come. This year's CNY was filled with food, events, cousins, relatives and laughter. There were lots of catching up and my cousins are all a year older. It was a first for me also to attend a memorial service when Mdm T. went home to the LORD. Her life testimony is inspiring. On Chinese New Year eve, we had our last lecture for lifespan psych. Our lecture was on "Death & Dying". At the end of the lecture, we were asked to think of 3 things we would like to be remembered for when we die. When I attended the memorial service, I thought to myself that I want to be remembered for the LORD just as Mdm T.'s life testimony shone brightly for HIM.

Helping

E-learning for social psych has been about helping. How altruistic can people be? I find it interesting that there are ways to increase helping as stated in my textbook such as alerting people to the bystander effect which is when people do not feel a responsibility to help in a group and that inhibits helping. Another way to increase helping is to tell the person that the smallest contribution will do, such as in asking for donations. One can simply say, "Just 10 cents can help a child" and one would be likely to donate more than that just because it seems selfish on your own part. Compared with asking for "$10", asking for 10 cents would result in a more positive response. :) Such is the nature of humans...hahaha

I wonder how far would I actually go to help someone? Or do I even dare to intentionally help someone? Also part of e-learning, I watched the movie, "Pay It Forward" which is about how a young boy comes up with a brilliant idea to "change the world" for his social studies assignment. His idea was to help 3 people and when he had successfully helped them, they were each to help another 3 people and so on. I was inspired by that movie and thought the idea was really novel; simple, yet effective. Actually, not really simple because it requires people to help when it's difficult to but still, it can really change the world, if people do make the effort to help. I think help comes from the heart.

My friend H. made this and gave one to me for Christmas. I think it's cute...:)

 

It's a New Year!

It's the 2nd day of the new year! :) I'm excited for what lies in 2011... I pray that it'll be a year when I can hang on in faith and that it'll be a year that's pleasing to God. Well, that said, next week is e-learning week and when school starts in full swing it's going to be busy again. I know that I've used the words, "busy" and "tired" quite often last year and though true, I think they're rather negative words...so I'll try not to use them so much this year. Maybe more words like, "joyful" and "glad" and "energetic" and "thankful". Hahahaha. :) Today is thanksgiving for the new year and I'm looking forward to hear from people in church later! :D

Tuesday

I love the cool weather. Singapore's "snow" for the December season... hahaha. The wind's been blowing all day and it feels like about 24 degrees celsius. The colourful windmill that Elaine gave me for Christmas has come in handy. Actually, it's meant to be stuck in the plant pots but it makes do as a nice decoration as well. :) Looking forward to the New Year. I like this year much better than last year, well... mostly. :) The experiential learning in NP has made learning new subjects interesting, applicable and fun. I remember that I didn't want to go to NP initially because of the stereotypes about poly and all but I'm SO thankful and glad that God placed me in NP, if not I wouldn't have joined the Navs also. :)