The trip today was rather packed. We managed to arrive half an hour early though, keeping up with our good track record. Entry into SIMTech was not a problem, and would not be for the rest of the month, if we keep doing out thing. Today was more of independent work and it was fun in a lab-work kind of way.

The other people around are rather stone-y throughout. Anyway, read that SingPost did a campaign for YOG by spray painting their own mailboxes. How clever.

The first day was more of an introduction to the place than anything else. Spent most of the time reading the safety manual. Today was morning reading of the program we were to use and a tutorial from our mentor. Yesterday, we had our lunch at a canteen, today we had lunch at Mac. We decided to catch Alvin and the Chipmunks at Boon Lay Mall after the day ended and I enjoyed myself save for the smoke. The attachment is going fine so far, it's just the travelling time that makes it all dreary.

Keith reflected on this year quite early in a post which was peppered with his resolutions for the new year. In a post recounting the major events of the year, Kai Wen reflected on how much she has grown through the trials and tribulations of 2009. Jing Wen listed the highlights of 2009 with photos that captured many memorable moments. Like everyone else, Jamie expressed the widely shared fear and anxiety of what lies ahead, but with hope and promise for the new year too. So then, with these and many other friends of mine sharing how 2009 has changed them, what do I have to share?

I've thought long and hard about how to go about writing this. I contemplated making a neat list of the achievements I've made in the year, but then I thought about how trivial it would be and that it would gloss over the intangible. Soon I arrived at a road block and decided to put aside the idea of posting a thanksgiving for a while. I can say without a doubt that 2009 was a pivotal point in my life. In terms of education, I would have completed my secondary school term and half of my IP education. In other areas, I was given various opportunities to host school events. 2009 was also the first time in which I travelled to the overseas, US in particular for a long 2 week period. An extensive and most complete collection of photos and videos I made can be found here. These are among many first-time experiences which I never regret going for. SCMUN and OBM were some great experiences. LA Night was an unforgettable time where I delved into film making. The Drama Club put up Paper Boats this year and I was appointed Production Manager as part of the Exco. In lessons and classes, I juggled 3 science subjects and history along with my Chinese language. 2009 was also the year I took my Higher Chinese O Level paper - my first and only brush with O Level fever - and went through intensive practice leading up to the day.

School has undoubtedly taken up a very large portion of my time and life, but I'm glad I did take out time to attend cell group week after week as much as I could. There was a loose thread between my cell group and I for most of the year, but the holidays brought about change. With more time on my hands, I was able to salvage what was left and come back to church regularly.

Besides these events throughout the year, I invested more time into my hobbies including video making and working on Photoshop. I'm proud that even with busy schedules and tight deadlines, I could still make time to maintain these outside interests of mine.

Now that half of my TA journey is over, I am completely satisfied with the path I chose and how everything has turned out to be. My life became more exciting and risky with the multitudes of assignments, friendship problems, school stresses and the like. Through it all, I was blessed with the ability to make things work and everything would turn out for the best.

I'm at a point in my life where change has become the norm for me and I'm getting better each time at adjusting faster and easier without the awkwardness of it all. (Like how awkward would it be to meet my primary school friends next year?) While life can still be better right now, I'm grateful for all that God has blessed me with and couldn't ask for more.

Thank you to everyone for making my 2009 so bright and full of excitement, for the new friendships I've forged, the lasting memories I've made and for sharing a common zest for life.

I started my journey through the messes I've collected this year by packing up my room first. There I found a box of letters and cards I've accumulated over the years and spent some time reading through all of them. After a bout of sneezing fits and dust clearing, I got rid of clutter I never touched over the years and proceeded to pack the huge amounts of paper work from school.

I was once a scout judging from this page in a book I found in my stash.

The files and table area went through extensive reorganization and I cleaned up a whole lot of dust as well. My worksheets in the various subject folders were put into binders and packed into boxes. I tidied my workspace and decided to use those folder containers for the year ahead just to make things easier when collecting documents.

The entire process wasn't as difficult as I made it out to be. Once I got into the momentum of sorting stuff to keep and trash, it became systematic and easy. I went to organize my own shelf of books and got rid of magazines I've collected over the years. I've been an avid reader of FiRST before it went out of publication.

That's a lot of magazines!

So after hours of sifting through year's of memories and piling rubbish, I'm officially ready for the new year

I went for my first night cycling event 2 days ago with my beloved cell group. It was a one-of-a-kind experience. I was quite apprehensive at first only because I didn't know what to expect but I'm glad I was allowed to go.

We had lunch at the ECP hawker centre before walking further up to the bike shop. For $8 we each got a bike and we then cycled down to the end of ECP before heading into the city. At one of the shelters before reaching the end of ECP, David led us in a variation of the Crossing River game. It was a good ice breaker to keep us alert as well. I had fun playing golf commentator on the event. We stopped on Nicoll Highway to take some photos and cycled near Kallang area. We went to various places and I updated my twitter as we reached various landmarks. We stopped by the fountain of wealth where it was dead quiet and spent some time taking extreme jump shots. Dion's jumps were the best. They looked like their own Nike/Adidas print ads.

We cycled past Clarke Quay, Padang, the empty 4-way at Suntec, esplanade and One Fullerton where the merlion is. At One fullerton, we were in the centre of the entire bay area. We saw the many wishing balls along the bay light up in colourful lights as rehearsals for the countdown event wore through the night. We played a few silly games while seated on the floor till about 2am when we decided to have an early supper-breakfast thing at Kallang McDonald's.

It was at around 4am when we had our break at McDonald's and had small talk over the food. We were all talking with our eyes half-closed and started talking crap at the special time Evan described. I began by pointing out how funny it is that the fries box has a peeling potato printed on it.

The ride back to ECP went by without a hitch and we arrived at the beach while the sky was still dark. We stayed till about 9 when the sun rose. In that 2 hours, we split into our little groups and had out Heart to Heart Talk (HTHT) at different spots. I had mine with Leon by a jetty while looking on at a guy trying to fish. The talk we had was honest and unrestrained, something I've not had with a cell member in quite a while. We were all getting super restless as we contemplated why the owners of the bike shop were taking forever to open. When it did, we rejoiced and later walked our way to the bus stop and home.

I enjoyed everyone's company and it being a small group made it very cozy too. I won't mind doing it again, it really did bond us closer together.

I've been reading the newspapers closely for interesting news pieces, just to see if anything hilarious can come out of it. Well, here is my attempt at making the news funny. And please, don't read the following if you feel you might get offended. This was all done in the name of fun. Oh and I made the following up myself, don't take them too seriously.

The Straits Times ran an article covering the many tragic events that have taken place over the past 10 years. The list of disasters in the first decade of the new millennium include the drama series Polo Boys.

In a bid to fight against global warming, SBS recently unveiled a fourth fully air-conditioned bus depot.

The world's oceans are becoming noisier due to pollution and this may cause marine mammals to change their vocalisations to be head over the noise. Scientists are describing it as a process called puberty.

A 12-year old child wrote an essay that was selected for a book featuring good writing. The child was later found to have copied the work of a Canadian writer from the internet. When asked for further comment, the child promptly cried and wet his pants.

In recent killer litter news, a cleaner was struck on the head by a potted plant while cleaning a broken potted plant on the ground.

Again, none of the above was meant to offend anyone. The intent here is to point out the humor/irony in the news. And if you enjoyed it/want to say something about it, leave a tag!