Saturday, November 28, 2009

NATOF

Went to the office today to help out with the No Apologies Training of Facilitators (NATOF). Chloe asked me to evaluate one group of the newly trained facilitators, so, this time, instead of me having to present one subtopic within 5 minutes, I get to sit down and watch!

I don't know about other groups, but my group definitely had people who came up with new and refreshing ideas as activities/visual aids, to the point that Chloe forgot to put up the '0 minute' sign when their time was up! Hahaha!

She was talking about the topic on goals and I like how she got people to list down their dreams and goals on the majong paper, pasted the 'premarital sex' sign on them IF they were to get into a promiscuous lifestyle and then crumple up the entire mahjong paper to signify how their dreams and goals would go down the drain. I like analogies, so, I gave her really high marks for both content and presentation. Chloe was like "Whoa, you're so generous in giving marks" LOL!

Oh maaan, I forgot which topic he did - but it was something from Unit 2 on Healthy Relationships.

He did the topic on 'You can make a difference', but he didn't have the droplet thingy, so, he poured quite a lot of the coloring into the water. When he poured the bleacher in, he was like "I hope this works" HAHAHAHAHA! We were all laughing :P But seriously, it works - proofs how strong Clorox really is, but that's not the point of this activity :)

She did the part on "Lust, infatuation and love" and her visual aids were 'before-after' photos of artistes, perfume scent (for lust) and a story about real love :) The perfume scent was kinda strong though :(

He talked about the sexual progression chart

This woman can draw! She chose the topic on 'Responding to Peer Pressure' and we have 3 concepts in it. State it, Sell it, Move it - and she had a drawing for each of it. In fact, for the one on 'move it', she drew an animation. She actually pasted it, one paper on top of another, but I think if you were to put the paper together and flip it really fast, you'll get the image of someone walking away. I was amazed (I can't draw maa, of course I'm amazed and a lil envious of those who can!)

Mr. High-Tech guy talked about 'Creative Dates', with his pda/iphone as his notes. He told us something that made us all laugh cos' it is kinda sorta true, in a sense. He said that if you want to see the true color of a guy, don't just bring him to romantic dinners/movies, bring him to watch a sport event and you'll see his true color. And for girls, bring them shopping. LOL! Chloe and I both don't like shopping though...

Another analogy based activity on 'You can begin again'. She got a few people to act out a scenario whereby this guy, James accidentally cut and ate the jelly that his sister actually saved for a party later. He felt really bad about it and he told his mum. His mum took the jelly, put it in a pot, reheat it, put it in a mold and made the jelly whole again. So, it's like, it's okay even if you have had premarital sex before - you can start all over again. As you can already predict, I gave her quite high marks too, and I wrote this under the 'notes' section - "Jelly! =)" HAHAHA!!

Chloe and I both didn't know that it was possible to make a jelly whole again if you reheat it.


He ended it with the part on 'Pledge' - another very interesting activity. Usually this unit, we basically explain about how you can start over and make a commitment to yourself to abstain. The only activity we usually have here is the Pledge-taking ceremony itself. But he did it differently. He used Twisties instead - a packet of unopened twisties and another packet of opened twisties with some funny smelling seasoning. To illustrate his point, he got those two people in front and gave each of them a packet of opened and unopened twisties and they're suppose to give either one packet to the other person. So, his point is that we should give ourselves unopened to our partner cos virginity is a gift that can only be unwrapped once :)

Chloe commenting on their overall presentation and explaining some minor stuff on the preparation of props and why it is important to keep to the given time limit.


Another group at the lobby area with Chee Heng.

Break time

Filling up the evaluation form. Oh, the lady in the purple colored cardigan is Lavin Seow (Christien New's wife). She attended the training together with Azah Yasmin (tv host) - actually, I didn't notice until Chloe told me when I went there in the morning (you know how blur I am lah). Halfway through the session, I turned to Chloe and said "I like her (Lavin) hairstyle" :P LOL

Group Photo :)

Friday, November 27, 2009

Laughing Gas Overdose

My mouth feels extremely tired after laughing so much during dinner and I'm pretty sure Sarah feels the same way too :P Had dinner in New Paris Restaurant with SarahJane, SarahTan, Alan, Benji and Mark earlier after braving through the crazy jam in SS2. I was telling Mark that I'd be late and he was even later than me! CHEHHHHHHH! =.=

After eating, everyone was just having their rounds of lame jokes and funny conversations. It started off with me asking them the 'Why can't Statisticians be trusted' question that Suzanne asked me the other day and I told them that I'd pay for the person's meal if they could give me the right answer. SarahTan was ALMOST there with her "normal distribution curve" answer, but oh well, they gave up in the end, so, I get to save my money! HAHAHA! And with the sound guy (Benji) around, it's quite hard to spend a long time in perfect silence!

We moved to McDs for dessert after that and I kinda noticed that we got a lot of stares from the other tables around us, probably cos' we were laughing too much. Goodness, I felt like I got extra dosage of laughing gas today.

Mark Teen, I'm still emo-ing with you for not joining us in McDs :'(

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Lyn's 21st Birthday Party

I went for Lyn's 21st birthday party in One World Hotel last Saturday, actually, it was more of like making my grand entrance there cos' I was 2 hours late BUT I had a valid excuse! I have church before that :)

As punishment, Lyn ordered these 3 glasses of chilled beer for me to drink - 1 glass for every 5 minutes I was late (I told them I'd be there at 9pm, but I was 15 minutes late). Chloe (Leow) suggested 1 glass for every 1 minute at first @__@ But no, I didn't drink all 3 glasses cos' I was the designated driver for myself that night. HAHAHA!

I told Lyn I'd drink finish all 3 glasses IF she drinks one glass - but, she only took a sip! All the more reason why I need not finish the 3 glasses! :)



Jeans and t-shirt ftw clique!

Group photo

My prawn stripper for the night :P


HELP students with one sesat guy :)

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa(x100) SENG
Emphasis on the YAAAAAAM part cos they went on really long.

The girls

Lyn spoils photos =.= Can you see her sticking her tongue out behind?

My darling with her other darling XD

Happy 21st birthday Lyn Lim Li Yee
=)

Friday, November 20, 2009

Christmas Mode: On

I love Fridays this semester cos' being in the office makes me forget (literally) about the workload in uni and all the stress, but today was extraordinarily awesome! I didn't get to do any No Apologies data entry today cos' Peter transferred my computer to another cubicle for the new staff, Joyce. So, I was like "Errr..I'm jobless?"

I started the day with quite a mundane and nerve wrecking task of having to photocopy previous years newspaper articles of Focus stuff because they wanted to have it framed up! The nerve-wrecking part was trying to figure out how to fit the freaking big piece of article into an A3 size and not have any advertisements in it! It felt like some kind of mentally challenging game at one point.

After lunch, I packed NA gifts, but that only took like, half an hour?

The red color badge is the new No Apologies badge design XD

So, Sue Lee asked me to get the Christmas tree from Andrew downstairs at the resource center and decorate the reception area instead! Woohoooo! It was SUPER fun - probably because it's my first time setting up a Christmas tree :) Mun Chun and Chloe volunteered to help set it up as well, so, that made it extra fun and meaningful for me!

The plain tree without any ornaments. Chloe and Ming were talking about how there's actually another bigger tree which they used last year and they went on about it for a good few minutes! Ming was thinking about where they put the bigger tree and I nonchalantly put a box underneath the current tree and voila! The tree is now exactly the same size as it was last year! Apparently, they thought they had a bigger tree because they had a mini table/box underneath the tree last year as well! HAHAHAHA!

Next, the ornaments come into play:

Chloe, decorating the tree with different colored ornamental balls

Putting the lights around the tree

End product - A beautifully lighted up Christmas tree!

We were so into the Christmas mood already that we decided to go the extra mile by making snowflakes! So, Ms.Designer (Mun Chun) got snowflakes template from some place, did some editions and printed out a few A3 pages for us to cut! It took FOUR people (Mun Chun, Chloe, Joyce and me) to cut out 20 snowflakes! Some parts are damn intricate and hard to cut okay! But it was really fun and it got everyone in the office really Christmassy cos' Mun Chun played some Christmas songs on her computer! Peter was clearly enjoying it since he was whistling to the tune and Sue Lee said "Where got mood to work with all the Christmas music playing lah?" (or something along those lines) HAHAHA..whoooops?

After all the cutting, came the sticking part. I didn't know there was such thing as spray glue - it's really quite good! It sticks and it doesn't leave any stain, only flaw is the smell of it! Ergh. Anyway, we sticked all 20 snowflakes on the main entrance of the office! It actually looks quite nice! I thought the cut-out snowflakes looked really ordinary, but when they're pasted on a see through glass, whoaaaaaaa :)

I was telling Mun Chun about it and she said never to judge something or give up on it until you have seen the end product! hahaha! Man, it gave us such a strong sense of satisfaction when we were done decorating and stood outside the office to take a look at it! Lights on the Christmas tree blinking, snowflakes on the glass, good lighting, ah, just perfect :P

And to add to my already awesome day, Nuffnang just gave me 2 free tickets to watch the premier of New Moon next Wednesday! YAY! I guess my previous blog post about what I like about the Twilight Saga isn't that bad afterall! XD

ps: Didn't bring my camera today, so, I had to resort to using my Nokia 5610 camera which don't really produce good photos under low lighting :(
Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display - so much tinsel and decoration. For it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow. It isn't the tree nor the firelight's glow. It's the warmth that comes to the heart - Anonymous

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Christmas Carol 3D

I got 2 tickets to watch the premier of 'A Christmas Carol 3D' from Nuffnang, much to my own surprise since I came up with a rather lame crappy slogan about the ghost of Christmas past, present and future. The screening was on Monday night in The Curve and yes, I still went despite the fact that I have a Biopsych class test worth 20% on Tuesday :)

Managed to get Yin Mei to go with me since Peggy didn't wanna go cos' of the Biopsych test.


The ticket collection counter

We had about half an hour before the movie starts, so we went and get Lecka Lecka ice-cream! Yin Mei said her mint-flavored ice cream tasted like plasticine and my tropical fruit flavored ice cream tasted like soap =.=





The crowd

I like the 3D glasses - it looks so cool, like the guy in Xmen. Gah, I keep on forgetting his name. Oh yeah! Cyclops! I only had my 3D glasses on 1/4 of the time cos' it was giving me a headache. I'm not a fan of 3D movies; I prefer them the way they usually are :)

The movie was okay; I actually expected more from it since there was so much hype. The concept was pretty much similar to that of Ghost of Girlfriend's past (which was a really good movie) but I don't think 'A Christmas Carol' is meant for kids cos' the ghosts sure do look freaking scary with their ability to distort their faces and mouth! o_O The middle part of the movie was a bit slow, but the ending made up for it since there were lots of funny scenes at the end. Hmmm, if I have to rate this show, I'd give it a 7/10 - mostly for the values behind it xD

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

What If She's An Angel - Tommy Shane Steiner




There's a man standing on the corner
With a sign sayin "will work for food"
You know the man
You see him every morning
The one you never give your money to
You can sit there with your window rolled up
Wondering when the lights going to turn green
Never knowing what a couple more bucks
In his pocket might mean

What if he's an angel sent here from Heaven
And he's making certain that you're doing your best
To take the time to help one another
Brother are you going to pass that test
You can go on with your day to day
Trying to forget what you saw in his face
Knowing deep down it could have been his saving grace
What if he's an angel

There's a man
There's a woman
Living right above you in apartment G
There's alot of noise coming from the ceiling
And it don't sound like harmony
You can sit there with your TV turned up
While the words and his anger fly
Come tomorrow when you see her with her shades on
Can you look her in the eye

What if she's sent here from heaven
And she's making certain that you're doing your best
To take the time to help one another
Brother are you going to pass that test
You can go on with your day to day
Trying to forget what you saw in her face
Knowing deep down it could have been her saving grace
What if she's an angel

A little girl on daddy's lap
Hiding her disease with a baseball cap
You can turn the channel
Most people do
But what if you were sitting in her daddy's shoes

Maybe she's an angel
Sent here from Heaven
And she's making certain you're doing your best
To take the time to help one another
Brother are you going to pass that test
You can go on with your day to day
Trying to forget what you saw in her face
Knowing deep down it could have been her