moving house
POSTED AT 03:46 PM

natanna

What's with tabulas and the fireBRANDS?
Aiks, so if you can't beat them, then join them! Now I gotta link this to my website. So... I'm gonna have two interlinked sites. How cool is that?
Bah, whatever.

I should be studying but...
POSTED AT 10:42 AM

natanna

Technically, I should be studying. Just feeling a little lazy. That's what breaks are for!

Anyway, I found out I have vitamin B2 and B12 deficiency. Just check out yesterdays' Star Two!
"People who feel depressed, less energetic, suffer sore tongue, tingling pain or numbness in feet..... could be attributed to vitamin B12"
"People who... often tearing and itching around the eyes may need more food rich in vitamin B2"
Unfortunately, I'm a little allergic to their recommended cure - yoghurt - because I'm slightly lactose intolerant. =/

Well, back to the books! Pray I can finish everything!
Reading: em. Ms Ooi?'s Basic Audit Notes
Listening to: Caedmon's Call's Love is Different
Feeling: lazy

where on earth...
POSTED AT 05:46 PM

natanna

I am trying to get that UserIcon to show up. How the heck do you do that?
Shucks. I shouldn't be playing around with this NOW!
Exams start Monday!
Listening to: ApologetiX's Look Yourself
Feeling: frustrated

stupiack...
POSTED AT 12:33 AM

natanna

I think Tabulas will go crazy with me around. I keep trying to change the colour scheme and fonts but it doesn't work! Ish, ish and triple ish.
Gah, better stop fooling around and go get some sleep. I will try again later! I will do this!

talk to me!

blurnya...
POSTED AT 05:53 PM

natanna

I came on with the purpose of doing something. But I forgot what. Oh well.
I've been laughing all afternoon at my mum (at home) chatting with my dad (at work). I think when you get old, your brain wanders. My dad's going to be 50 next Friday . His brain wanders a lot.

Excerpt
(after he explained something to my mum):
Mum: oic
Dad: APEC
Uhuh.

Another one:
Dad: You slow la
Mum: Why you insult me?
Dad: (does sheep icon from MSN)
Mum: Hey, you know the exchange rate is 2.972
Dad: That is a sheep
Mum: What does that have to do with the price of fish?
Dad: Is that higher?
Dad: The exchange rate I mean, not the price of fish

Either I've got the lamest dad in history... or... never mind.
Feeling: unproductive

lameness
POSTED AT 12:07 AM as a favorite post

natanna

David's lame quote for the day:
"You are not getting a response from the Digi dial you have numbered."

I have such an interesting family, don't I?

Hey, I'm looking for some new CDs to listen to. Some of them I read good reviews, some of them I heard songs I liked on CMradio.net. So if you have these, please lend to me; or if you know of anyone who has them could you please ask them to lend it to me?

"Sacred Revolution" from Passion
"Twilight" by Shaun Groves
"Who We Are Instead" by Jars of Clay
"Grace Like Rain" by Todd Agnew
anything Switchfoot
anything Relient K
Bebo Norman
Warren Barfield
"Inside Out" by Nate Salie sounded pretty interesting too.

On a side note, my sister fell off a ladder, did you know? While cherry picking. *sigh*

- 3 days to first paper
- 18 days to freedom
Listening to: Warren Barfield's My Heart Goes Out

another day, another entry
POSTED AT 05:46 PM

natanna

I think of everyone I know, I update my weblog the most often. Why? I can't tell. Maybe I'm nuts. Maybe I'm just addicted to the Internet. Maybe my love of writing counts. Whatever. And it's exam week too.

David's lame joke for the day:
Q: What uniform group was Aragorn in when he was young?
A: The Girl Scouts - because he was a ranger.

Happy Birthday Pauline! :birthday:
POSTED AT 11:09 PM

natanna

Today, Pauline turns 20! Happy Birthday, Pau! Hehe. Wish you were here.

I just came back from Pui Ling's 21st birthday party. We sat around and ate. I think she has loads of relatives. There were the really old and the really young. Her brothers and sisters are married with little kids. Woah.

Conversation tended to turn towards exams. *sigh*

You know, I was just thinking, by the time David turns 21, Deb would probably be married and have kids... and I might probably by married too!

By the end of this year, I won't be a teenager anymore. I'll have to grow up!! Now that's a scary thought.
Feeling: old

POSTED AT 01:15 PM

natanna

I forgot to write what struck me most about yesterday's birthday party. :slaps myself:
It was just so sweet and I forgot to share it with you all! [Brain, where have you gone?]

Well, so there we were eating and talking. Relatives were watching TV, a group of her other friends (from school, I think) were all over the place and the about 7 of us from TARC went into a room just to talk. I think they're nuts. More than 50% of the conversation was about how to hide in the room and turn the lights off so that Pui Ling would think we've gone home. Sheesh. Yeah, and then they were talking tips for exams.

Then they called everyone out for the cutting of the cake. Her dad wore a necklace with a key for her. I don't know why, but I just found it so sweet. Then she blew the candles and cut the cake. And Chin Hing said "Haiya, the key so small... Should go to the locksmiths and get those BIG key they put outside for promotion."

First paper tomorrow: Tamadun at 2pm
Last paper in: 16 days
Listening to: Emissary's You Take My Breath Away

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID! :birthday:
POSTED AT 12:27 AM

natanna

David is now 14 years old! Woah. My little bro is not so little anymore! [Darn, he's even taller than me!]

Okay, so it's late at night and I gotta go to sleep, but just had to say this first. Heh.

We had US Pizza to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Clarene! :birthday:
POSTED AT 05:45 PM

natanna

I forgot that it was Clarene's birthday as well... :D But I sent her an SMS. I doubt she'll be online to read this anyway, because as far as I know, she doesn't really check her e-mail... and as far as that goes, I doubt she'll check during her exams. Heh.

Tamadun paper is over! Whoohoo! It was... ok. I think.

Thought of the day: why are so many people born in January?!
Second thought of the day: I find it rather interesting that I like the allegory (or is that metaphore?) of fields of mercy and fields of grace and fields but I hate grass?

Next paper: business economics on Thursday at 9am
Last paper in: 15 days
Feeling: giddy

Happy Birthday, Pui Ling & Wai Yi! :birthday:
POSTED AT 12:52 PM

natanna

Today's the actual day of Pui Ling's birthday, which she celebrated on Saturday.
Tomorrow's Wai Yi's birthday, and I don't feel like having another entry with just her name there... so :D
Listening to: Jeremy Camp's I still believe
Feeling: hungry

anna's economic theory
POSTED AT 06:52 PM

natanna

And today's economic theory is this:
A heat wave leads to a upward shift in the short-run aggregate demand.
How does this work, you ask? It's like this:
An increase in temperature induces more sweat which increases discomfort. This makes people take more baths and increases demand of water. Alternatively, the heat also increases the use of air-conditioning in houses, increasing the demand of electricity.
Altogether, this increase in demand in the water and electricity sectors increases the profits of these industries and increases the demand for labour. As incomes rise, consumption spending and investments also rise. With the multiplier and accelerator effects in place, demand will increase more times than the initial extra spending.
And this is what you get from too much econs. :D

I have listened to cmradio.net while studying and have come to a conclusion: I love Jeremy Camp! (This after listening to a meager 4 of his songs that they offer.)

I'm sure I wanted to say something else but I forgot. Ish. =/ Oh, never mind.
Feeling: nothing

keep this restless heart anchored down...
POSTED AT 11:22 PM

natanna

is the phrase of a song now stuck in my head. But I can't remember when I heard it. Not on cmradio.net. Grrr... can't even remember the artist or title of the song or anything else of the song! I remember it's a guy's voice though, and I had a sneaky suspicion that it's SCC, but I can't find it in any of the SCC songs I have.

I am currently 2 chapters behind on econs and 1/2 a chapter behind on audit.
Feeling: restless

two down, four to go!
POSTED AT 01:27 PM

natanna

Econs is over! :breathes a big sigh of relief:
It was... okay. Moderate... I think. I bought UTAR forms today.

Now, I have two subjects to catch up on by tomorrow. Bad exam schedule. >(

Tomorrow: Financial Accounting Practice at 9am
Basic Audit at 2pm
Last paper in: 12 days
Feeling: tired

Happy Birthday, Daddy! :birthday:
POSTED AT 05:43 PM

natanna

My dad has now reached the big FIVE-0
Oo... that's old. Hehe. I gave him the Cervantes book that I got the other time and I haven't touched since. Which brings me to remember that I haven't finished The Idiot or Poe either. And Oscar Wilde is still waiting. Oh well, I'll be having a three-week holiday soon. Oh, yeah, big dinner tonight! Hehe...

You know what, I suddenly feel like doing f2k again. But I have no idea when it starts again.

Exam update

FAP today was... bad. I mean, it was okay, but bad. I did the MASB 1 question for 45 minutes then gave up trying to balance it. Did the other compulsory question, then the 3 other questions and those ranged from pretty good to moderate. Found I had 45 minutes left and spent all of those on the MASB 1 question again and it still doesn't balance! Geramnya...

Audit was... moderately okay. I tembak-ed a lot I think. Do you know how frustrating it is to remember only 3 points when you just know there are 4 and the question is worth 4 marks proving you're right?

Next paper: Business Law on 26 Jan at 9am
Last paper in: 11 days

New CD, Nice CD!
POSTED AT 10:01 PM

natanna

I am proud of the fireBRANDS!
I am proud of the Fasollado Singers. Whoo hoo!! Just got the CD today, and it sounds so good! (If I may say so) The best RM2 CD I ever got. Heheh...

Ok, big question now
I'm gonna ask this once, k? As most of you know (or don't know) I haven't been writing by the fireplace for a while. And I'm thinking of starting again in February. (by the fireplace is a once-a-week devotional)
So...
should I continue?
I've decided to send to only those who mail or tag me and say "yes". So those on my old list... yeah, I'm going to mail you guys too, so please reply, ya.
Listening to: The Fasollado Singers's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

stupid HTML...
POSTED AT 03:44 PM

natanna

I've made some leetle changes to the template. So now we get tahoma font for the entries. Nice font (so I think). But I left the titles the way it was because I like it that way. Heh.

No, the two home buttons are not a mistake. I'm trying to link my webpage on the navigation bar, but unfortunately, editing the template for tabulas uses HTML, which I totally don't know... well, that's not quite right... which I know enough to add the link. Sadly, unlike the tripod html which I kaji-ed before, tabulas uses a .gif file to put the words on the nav bar. *sigh*

Anyways, as you can see if you hover your mouse over the nav bar, the fat home brings you to the webpage, and the thin home brings you back to this main tabulas page.

Confused? Don't ask me.

I FOUND THE SONG!

Sitting in a traffic jam 11:52 p.m.
Just a few miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio
I take my pen and start to write
The thoughts that fill my head tonight
Nothing terribly profound
Just these simple words
That keep my heart anchored down
That keep my restless heart anchored down

I do, I do, I do, I do believe
I know, I know, I know, I know it's true, yeah
I do, I do, I do, I do believe
Lord, I believe in You
I believe in You

(and yeah, its from SCC. These are not the full lyrics)
Listening to: steven curtis chapman's Whatever
Feeling: irritated

oh my...
POSTED AT 11:49 PM

natanna

SOMEONE JUST GAVE MY DAD A POCKET PC! *slobbering*

And for some stupid reason my computer is very slow tonight.
Feeling: shocked

I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it
POSTED AT 10:52 PM

natanna

Back to pocket PC. It's a Dell Axim X5. Like heck I know what that really means, but it just sounds so cool... and whoever out there who knows this stuff can then tell me if its really that cool or not.
Hah. I'm almost as computer illiterate as my big sis. But not quite.
Anyways, I have laid my hands on it once last night. I feel like the kid in the Malcolm In The Middle advert who goes round and round on the floor screaming "I wannit I wannit I wannit I wannit I wannit". sigh

I have just spent today listening to mp3s and trying to read Law. And replying mail. I tend to write mail when I can't study. Heh.
Feeling: apathetic

Preacher Deborah
POSTED AT 04:12 PM

natanna

Our dear Deb Tan spoke in church last Sunday. Here's what she said about the experience:

... actually quite freaked because usually in OCF or convention, like I'm not scared at all.. but apparently people said I didn't look frightened. I was frightened before I went up, but when I got up there, I felt confident.. it went well, and I'm relieved.
Did I tell you before that last year 2nd sem I really felt suddenly that God was asking me to be His spokeswoman? I remember this verse from Ezekiel that talked about God making Ezekiel's tongue cling to the roof of his mouth and that he'd be dumb for the rest of his life but when God told him to speak, God would open his mouth. And that Ezekiel would speak whether or not the ppl listened. I remember the time I read that, I just cried because I felt God saying that that is what He wanted me to do: to be His spokeswoman and to speak only when He said so, and that even if people didn't listen, that God wanted me to speak anyway, so that there was a prophet who spoke His words and ppl did not have an excuse.
During the Energiser conference, at one altar call there was this specific call for people who felt they should preach (and for those who are already preaching) and I felt God asking me to go but I was so embarrased, but went anyway. Did not expect things to happen so quickly, that God would suddenly give this opportunity for me to speak and to learn.
I am very excited!!! and freaked at the same time

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! And may your angpow multiply!
Feeling: hot

Happy Chinese New Year!
POSTED AT 11:21 PM

natanna

It's Chinese New Year! And its super HOT.
Visited relatives today and collected angpow.
Nothing much to say now except... I have totally NO mood to study anymore! Argh...
2 more papers...

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Ben! :birthday:
POSTED AT 03:50 PM

natanna

No, not Benjamin Khor our "Bender"... but Benedict Kok! How's it feel to be 21? I was intending to post this yesterday, but I forgot.
Gah... Why must we grow old? Why, why, why? I'd love if we were able to celebrate birthdays without growing older. sigh

A CNY Write-Up
Had reunion dinner on CNY Eve at Uncle Michael's place. I think Samuel is super tall and super dysfunctional. He's even more antisocial than me, and I thought I was the one who liked to play the loner. Eeks.
Eunice Tan is also growing up to be irritating. Attention-seeking? She refuses to eat and then stomps off to play with her half-naked Barbie, which she carries around by the hair. I can't say I've managed to catch a proper well-spoken sentence from her and she's nearing 5!
Watched some strange Chinese serial on Wah Lai Toi while dad banged on the piano.

On the first day we visited relatives on both sides and collected angpow. Spent time watching videos of CNY past (extremely funny and noisy we were) and then went to Uncle Eng Hong's for gubak kuay teow. Talked computers.

Second day brought a whole horde (please excuse the word) of visitors from Uncle Thean Kee's cell - Victory I & II or something like that. Mom invited Uncle Peng Hooi and family as well as Uncle David Yeap for lunch - tomyam soup and steamed fish. The kid is so sweet and adorable!
Went to k-pa's at night (that's Uncle Andy to the lot of you) for (yum!) Hokkien Mee. Which I ate no matter what.

And today is Saturday. I have 2 chapters to go for Law, and 1 tutorial more to read for Management Accounting. Dinner tonight will be gubak kuay teow at Lim Photo.

Next Paper: Business Law on Monday at 9 am
Las Paper: Management Accounting on Tuesday at 9 am

p/s to those whom I promised to update Aloof by Tuesday, you may have to wait till Wed because... I'm going to see The Last Samurai on Tuesday! Hehe...

Ramble...
POSTED AT 11:06 PM

natanna

I did something rather unusual today. I put on my own make-up. Adding to the feeling of weirdness was the sensitivity towards comments. And those were not in short order.
Thanks to those who said I looked nice. I thought so too. Hehe. Is it an "image" [as someone put it] that I should follow up on? Eeks... I'm growing up too fast! I don't half feel that I'm old enough for make-up yet... =/

I have a feeling the shirt I was wearing needs an explanation. It's something I don't think I've ever worn in a fireBRANDS setting before.
My sis bought that and sent it over. End of story. You don't have to hear the rest. I thought it was nice. My mum thought it was nice. My dad thought it was nice. So... wear lah! Only David said it was too 'sexy' for his sis!

Oldness... makes young people look grown-up.
Oldness... gives young people license to look old.
Oldness... makes me feel old.
Feeling: strange

I'm free...
POSTED AT 01:06 PM

natanna

Yeah!
Whee!
I'm gonna go shopping today. (Wow! Anna? Shopping?) Yeah. Shopping. For books and CDs

Will write more later. hehe...

p/s I edited chapter 23... chapter 24 MAY be up tonight... if I have the time.
Feeling: happy

a looong looong day.
POSTED AT 06:56 PM

natanna

As far as this journal goes...
Yesterday's paper (Business Law) was ok. I think. Got hungry doing it. Ended early. I somehow managed to do 3 questions in 1 hour and the other 2 questions in the second hour, even while thinking slowly and staring at the ceiling. Spent the last hour dreaming and occasionally reading through again. And drawing on the back of my question paper. I also ran out of water [brain lubricant.. haha..]
Today's paper (Management Accounting was a bit of a toughie. I was having the sniffles while doing it. Come to think of it, I'm coughing a little.
So there I was struggling with a question and I just leaned on my hand and looked up at the stage. Mr Bernard was standing there. He saw me and made some obscure gestures about "cannot do?" or something. I don't know. I'm not a mind reader. So I just shrugged and shook my head.
Later in the paper, I had an itchy nose and scratched it, managing to scratch the skin off my pimple as well. Ouchie!
And SO... there I was bleeding, without any tissues. [Argh! Blood drain! Cannot think!] I stuck my hand up for assistance, and who should come but Mr Bernard? Sigh. I asked for tissues... and he said he'd tell Mdm Lee (the Management Accounting lecturer) that her paper made me cry. I said "No, I'm bleeding!"
Anyway, after lunch I went to One Stop. Dead place. There was totally nothing nice in Salvation.
I went to MPH Gurney Tower next and bought...
1) Nineteen (Silverfish books)
2) Stay by Jeremy Camp :D
Whoo hoo!
Listening to: Jeremy Camp's Stay
Feeling: crazy

Stay...
POSTED AT 11:03 AM

natanna

The miser in me is emerging.
I was thinking RM39.90 for a CD I really wanted is worth it.
Until another voice told me RM39.90 for 12 tracks... is a tad expensive.
And then another voice chipped in and saidbut RM39.90 for only 45 minutes worth of music is so not worth it!
And then I come back to the thought RM39.90 for 12 songs that I really really wanted is not that bad, but he could have made them a little longer.
:D
Come to think of it, if you count how many times I've heard the CD since I got it yesterday, it's pretty worth it.
I'm thinking of charging RM2 to anyone who wants to borrow and burn. Hahahah...
Listening to: Jeremy Camp's Right Here

Community...
POSTED AT 09:42 PM

natanna

Do we want to have a fireBRANDS community in tabulas? Since so many of us are here anyway... it'll be a shared journal kind of thing. I think. I'm still experimenting. :D
So... if you guys think you want to, in your Join Community panel... type in fireBRANDS and click to join! We'll see what happens then...
Feeling: too free

30,000 words! Whoo hoo!
POSTED AT 04:20 PM

natanna

I am... so... not on a roll. Sigh.
Hoping to finish chapter 25 by today, but I'm only halfway through. The happy side is, my word count is now... [drum roll please] 30,013 words! This is definitely the longest story I've written so far. :D
Happiness
Feeling: artsy

mountains out of molehills
POSTED AT 08:25 PM

natanna

Funny how one person can say something and imply that other people say it too... and make the whole world think that everybody else thinks that.
Never mind.
I am so tired of hearing "so and so can't serve in this area because he/she does this and that."
I'm also so tired of writing to people and not getting any replies.
Somehow in the end, no matter how hard we try to suggest the right people to serve in the youth... they're never good enough. They're never "right" enough. Ok, maybe I don't really know the youth that well. I'm the type that drifts in and watches. Try as I might, I can't go in and really get to know these people. Maybe the people I think can handle the job isn't really that good.

The question I'm struggling with at the moment is this:

Who's better? The one who's irresponsible but doesn't gossip; or the one who is responsible but gossips?

Sometimes, I'd prefer the latter. At least the job gets done.
See who has the anointing would be a better way... but I'm afraid I don't have the "talent" necessary to do that. See who has the heart I can handle... but I'm not close enough with the youth to read hearts. I'm growing old. Old and tired. Old and jaded.
At least it's out of my hands now.
May the new hands produce better fruit. God bless those hands.
Reading: Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot
Listening to: Hillsong's Everything to me

Par-Tie
POSTED AT 11:00 PM

natanna

The highlight of today was... ISCA's Par-Tie! Which I enjoyed more as a spectator and a critic than a participant. I knew I should have asked what it was all about before deciding to go. Though I had a fair worry that it would be just that.
It's stupid, but I go out of my way to avoid games in the fireBRANDS and then I gate-crash a youth meeting full of games. Sheer idiocy.
They seemed to have something against lights, but that's usual in a all-youth setting. I was hoping the band would have some worship or something because they sounded good. But all they did was jam a bit and play sounds for the games. Yeesh.
The dance was pretty good (as usual) but lacked some coordination. It would have been much much much prettier if they'd practiced enough to actually move in sync. Costumes were the usual - white shirt and black bottoms for girls with tie (par-TIE.. sheesh), long sleeved t-shirts (those double sleeved kinds) for the guys. I was thinking of like importing Oliver to do a 'seminar' or something on choreography for our d2. But I think I've been asking him for enough favours.
Interesting thought for the day: Pastor Isaac was at the meeting. Hm.
I meet Ivan there. Thought he had gone back to Taiping, but no. He was helping Zurene (read: gf) with the refreshments and stuff. He brought Dyi Wei - some guy from TARC which I remember seeing many times, but never knew his name. Ok, so now I know. I think he's the guy with bright blue eyes and pretty good English that I tried to persuade to join Spelling Bee last year - but I didn't talk that much with him and it was too dark to see the colour of his eyes. Ivan introduced me to some Nick fellow from PCC who's studying in IPG.
Muahaha... whoever's going to go through the visitor slips is gonna have a hard time reading mine. I was writing with my left hand. I think I need to find some other sort of amusement.
Writing's been going fine. I'm up to 32,000 words! Happiness... uploaded a chapter today.

Things To Do

1. Call Benedict to make sure they start planning for CF next sem, book the rooms, and tell us when they're starting!
2. Call Khay Xin (request of Ivan) to remind him to get a worship schedule out... and to the musicians before CF starts.
3. Call Steven to remind him to make sure that he finishes as much of the paperwork as possible for claiming credit hours before the holiday ends.
4. Try to clean my room.
5. Prepare for tomorrow's d2 heads meeting

Reading: Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot
Listening to: Jeremy Camp's Walk By Faith
Feeling: content

Wah....
POSTED AT 10:48 AM

natanna

No more MGS Hokkien Mee! That's so... so... depressing. No more reason for me to go back to school then. Sadness.

Frailty of Life
It's been a while and I always wanted to post this up... but I never got round to it... I mean, I was always finding other things to write and all that, but I guess this needs to be written.
My ex-classmate Losheni was found unconscious about 2 months ago (approximately) in her room in India where she was studying medicine. Suspected overdose on the inhaler thingy for asthma.
She's now in Island Hospital, still in coma. Her parents are not allowing anyone to visit her. She's not a Christian. I've been trying to pray for her, (when I remember) but sometimes I just don't know what to pray. It's like "God... heal Losh... and... uh... let her hear the Gospel before she goes."
What's interesting is, I'm discovering more people in 5 Science actually are Christians than I realised.
And makes me think: What kind of impact have I been in MGS and TARC?
Not much, I think.

This journey is much harder than I thought
Too much to learn, much to think about
Now here I am quite left behind
Spying ahead these friends of mine
Somehow I've stopped moving
While far ahead they're running
In comparison it seems to me
I'm standing still.

Listening to: Jeremy Camp's I Still Believe
Feeling: down