theartinlife's Xanga

Goodbye Xanga!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:54:21 GMT

Dear All,

As I've said in my previous entry, I'll be changing to blogger.
Lo and behold! This is my new site - http://topherkoh.blogspot.com
Xanga.com has been good to me but it's time for a change...
Well, hope to see you guys at my new spot.
Take care!

Love,
Chris

P/S: Thanks xanga!

Changing lane

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:46:52 GMT

I know I haven't been blogging.
There seem to be some loading problem with xanga.com.
Crap.
I'm definitely going to change back to blogspot.com real soon.
In the process of renovating the html for my blogspot site now.
Xanga.com has been alright up till now... Been having problems with it for the past week.
Maybe it's just me.
Oh well...
Will let you guys know once my blogspot is ready for viewing!

Graduating in The Making

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:18:39 GMT

Quite a while back I went for a camp organized by PKA for graduating seniors.
It's called GSR.

G raduating
S enior's
R etreat

It's a 3 days, 2 nights camp at Christian Convention Centre (CCC), Batu Feringgi, organized my PKA solely for old farts final year students, like me.
The camp pretty much focuses on helping us to digest the fact that we're moving on from university life after this semester. Also, it helped us reflect on our past 2 1/2 years as university students and how to close this chapter of our life, which will end in the coming 7-8 weeks.

Keeping to the traditional FES style, there were loads of reflection time... Hehe.
Some of the questions were good and some a bit susah... Required a lot of reminiscing on our part.
A few times my mind went into "standby" mode.

But one of the questions got me thinking. It was about how do we want to spend the next final 7-8 weeks as university student.

"What do you want to do?"

It really got me thinking.
And I've been asking a lot of my friends about it as well.
These are just some of the things that came to mind.

(1). Go for a joy ride with the Tekunites, first year style baby.
(2). Whack all the famous Penang food in one day (Breakfast, lunch & dinner).
(3). Take the bus to Prangin (Something I've not done since my first year).
(4). Go to the beach after midnight.
(5). Watch the sunrise/sunset.
(6). Go for movies with friends/people that I'm not so close with.
(7). Carve my name somewhere in USM. (hehe.. )
(8). Feed the biawaks.
(9). Go Feringgi to try paragliding as much as I've fear for heights.
(10.) Swim in USM Swimming Pool (Squat Shelby doesn't want to go with Kev and I).

Yup, that's pretty much my check-list for now.
I know the lists may seem very superficial but it holds a lot of value when you do these things with friends you've grown with in the past three years.

I've got approximately 5 weeks left to fulfil my check-list.
Man, so depressing to think about moving on when you're having this much fun.

A new journey is on the horizon. Mannn...

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:15:27 GMT

First and foremost (though a little late), I just want to wish you guys a Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai and all that. I'm sure most of you people had fun baliking kampong and whacking bak kua.

Me?
My family did the usual stuff we do every chinese new year -
Drive down to Malacca, spent 3 days, 2 nights there and went through the same routine; visitations, makan, and more visitations.
Well... Er... It's was super duper fun WEEEEI... (*sense the sarcasm?.. hehe...)

Ok, that's all for the chinese new year part.
I've celebrated my fair share of CNY and am now back in Penang. Arrived just about an hour ago.
Boy oh boy, it turned out to be a really good trip.

You see, I left KL around 4pm and picked Shelby up along the way.
We drove up and made a pit stop at Ipoh to pick Kevin up. But we also came to Ipoh with the sole purpose of whacking the chicken wings we ate the last time we were there.
DARN GOOD CHICKEN WINGS OKAYYYY... *salivating*
Buuuuuut, to our disappointment, that particular shop was closed. Being the smart alec that we are, we totally forgot to take into account that people were still on Chinese New Year break and practically half of the existing coffee shops or restaurants were closed.
Crap.
Thus, we had to settle for something else.
And that something else really wasn't too bad at all.
Kevin brought us to this noodle stall that was located literally in a morning wet market!
And the noodles were really goooooood... One word sums it up - STIM.
The shocker was this - One normal bowl of noodle only costs not RM3, not RM2 but only RM1!!!
RM1 per bowl man!! You go all around Penang also cannot find food as cheap as this!!...
Shel was saying if she was a beggar and if she managed to get RM1 a day, she would go there and whack that bowl of noodles everyday. hehe...
I think I would too.

We were sitting smack in the middle of a market place whacking the noodles... Quite an experience I must say.

The noodle that only cost us RM1!

So that was our food escapade in Ipoh.
The plan was to head back to Penang after our dinner but we got... er.. distracted... hehe.
By what you asked?
By this...

YEA, BABY! We went to an old school funfair!!
It was along the way and we were like, "What the heck, let's go just for the fun of it!".
And so we did.
Hehe.
In total, we sat 3 rides.
First, being a super duper fast ferris wheel (No seriously, it was super fast).
Second, I don't know whatcha call it but it's this thing where we seat in and it goes round in circle really fast.
Third, we went for a 30 seconds haunted house ride .
It was hilariously scary!

Old school tokens baby!

The Haunted House

Let me tell you this for a FACT, no matter how much people trash talk and say that haunted house ride doesn't spook them out, they eventually will be afraid once the ride begins.
I mean I was spooked out.
Shel and I sat in the same cart whereas Kevin sat alone in the cart before ours.
Our cart entered the house first, followed by Kev's.
Then halfway through the ride we heard someone screamed really loud... I mean like really LOUD.
Shel and I looked at each other, then we burst out in laughter cause that person was actually Kevin Ho Siang Chuan!!! Hahahaha...
Super hilariousssss!!!
But it was really good fun... The ride was lasted for like 30 seconds or so.
So people, don't need la to control macho... It's ok to be scared.
You're suppose to be scared anyways... hehe...

Yup, after reliving our childhood funfair experience we finally left Ipoh for good.
No other distractions along the way.
The ride back to Penang was good as well.
We made up stupid and nonsensical questions like,
If you can sleep with one person in the world, who would it be? *jeng*jeng*jeng*
That kept me awake for the rest of the journey... hehe.
Good stuff.

P/S: The next time I'm going down to KL, I MUST stop by Ipoh to whack those chicken wings again. It's so good!! I WANT MY CHICKEN WINGSS!!

ChiangTongTongChiangTongChiang

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:17:58 GMT

Wedding is one of the most beautiful thing to witness in life.
About a week back, a really close friend of mine, a mentor of sort to me, got married!
It was simply splendid.
Everything was perfect.

She was my Cell group leader last year and back then, I was under her guidance as the assistant cell group leader.
Even then, there were talks about marriage already...
Mana tau, this year she really did finally tie the knot!
Anyway, it was a simple wedding but yet entertaining... Largely due to the speaker's amusing sermon that was at the same time, thoughtful... Mr. Lian Mun Yee... What do you expect.
Good stuff ler...

**************************************************************************************
Ok, so that's last week.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner!!!
NOOOoooooooo!
Chinese new year means gotta balik Malacca.... Oh maaaan....
Those who know me will know why I dread going back Malacca...
Oh well... There's always "bak kua" and "ang paus" to compensate I guess... hehehe...
I'm so terrible, I know...
I'll be leaving Penang to KL on Monday morning, if everything goes as planned.
As for now, I'm packing for the 2 night stay at Batu Feringi!
Going for the "Graduating Senior Retreat" camp!
Yup, I'm an old fart who needs to be equipped to move on to the working world... *bleh*... Crap....
I'm looking forward for the Pantai Kerachut hike though...
Yea, baby!
See you KL folks real soon!

Nauseatingly Interesting

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:45:32 GMT

Watched Cloverfield yesterday.

This is basically the juice of the movie:

It's about a "raksasa" attacking New York city, minus Ultraman.
Seriously, it's about some Godzilla-monster looking thing that's attacking New York.
I never liked movies with monsters in it, films like Godzilla or King Kong never appealed to me.
However, this movie appealed to me for one reason alone - The concept of the movie.

It was a very Fahrenheit 11/The Blair Witch Project concept using the first person point of view shot.
The movie was done in such that the entire monster-attacked-city experience was shot through the eyes of a group of survivors, which I must say, was pretty neat.
Unlike Godzilla or King Kong, this movie really has that "real" factor to it...
The way they shot the movie somehow managed to blur the line between fictional and reality.

However, the downside of the movie is this.
About 1 hour plus into the movie, you actually do feel like puking or at least don't feel "sober" any longer.
Why?
Because of the way the movie was taken - The camera always shakes horribly fast.
I don't usually get nauseated, I don't get motion sickness and I can play CS for goodness sakes, but this one really got my stomach going crazy and my head spinning round.
So, if you're the kind who can't take this kind of pounding, so to speak, don't watch.
You will not enjoy it.
But if you can, then go ahead.
It'll be something interesting as compared to the rest of the movies in cinemas today.

P/S: It's seriously like Ultraman... Got raksasa and every other element, just lacking ULTRAMAN only. hehe...

Convicted

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:01:07 GMT

My cell group had bible study tonight and it was rather interesting.
The reading was taken from Romans 14, 15:1-13, which basically talks about our convictions on certain "disputable" matters and how we should handle it.

I've always struggled to understand how God can put different convictions on different people.
I mean, if both are strong grounded Christians, how can one be convicted so strongly, for instance, that drinking is alright whereas the other person totally disagrees.
And there, begins the dispute that could eventually split a church.
Also, very often I struggled to fully understand and to know my convictions from God.
I know it's a very subjective and spiritual matter that differs from each individual but I just feel like blogging about it.

Then when you have that conviction, there's the whole other issue of owning that conviction.
Meaning to say, to stay firm and rooted on what you're convicted.
That's even harder, I think.
Many times when I have a conviction, confusion and obligation comes into the picture and messes things up.
Confusion because I don't exactly know what to do next or how should I do it and obligation because I may feel obligated to do something that I'm convicted I shouldn't be doing.
How?

It's 4.01am now, so just excuse me if I'm not making any sense here.
Brain juice's running out.
Those were just thoughts that were running in my head that I'm convicted to blog about.

Still Minute

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:49:57 GMT

I've always felt a little smaller.
That was the problem.
There, I said it.

It was a me-problem and I know it but thing is, I never could overcome it because I perceived things the way I see it.
The way you react, what you talk about and your expression falls heavily on what I feared most.
The things I perceived made me see me as nothing but a minute creature amongst the giant.

Your demeanour betrays my optimism.

Maybe I didn't make it clear enough... I don't know.
I thought I did; my mood swings, cold silence, etc.
Wasn't it clear that I was somewhat upset? disappointed? jealous?

It's weird.
As much as I think I understand people, I can never truly understand myself.

World Gone Wrong

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:03:18 GMT

Man, what's wrong with the freaking world??
Today's front page reads:

SEARCH FOR SHARLINIE

It's just insane to see what people could do these days.
Kidnap a 5 years old girl??? Whatever for???
That's just sick and inhumane.
It's really sad how people, fellow Malaysians for that matter, would do these to one another.
What more to an innocent 5 years old girl who's at this moment, frightened and confused.
And so the search has begun for Sharlinie...
Let us all keep a look out for her.
Though it happened in KL, there's no telling where these "animals" would take her.
For all you know, they could be in Penang.
Keep your eyes open for her,
and yourself.
It's a bloody dangerous world out there.

Law: Rendition

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:57:40 GMT

This is one cekap movie.

It's very rare for me to buy a movie ticket without knowing what's the plot about.
I'd rather know the plot FIRST, then watch the movie.
But I didn't this time around because two of my other friends wanted to watch it.
Oh well...
No expectation, just sit back and relax.
Whoa...
Turns out the movie was an eye-opener on how governments can unjustly "mishandle" their powers in order to uphold what's to them, "justice".
It was so darn real that it got me real scared just thinking about being El-Ibrahimi, the character who was mistakenly taken into captive by the U.S government as a terrorist.
But what's fascinating about this movie technically is the way the flow of the movie was shot.
Damn, it's good.
So unexpected.
If you've watched it, you'll know what I mean.
It's a freaking flashback!
They shot it in a way you wouldn't even realize that it's a flashback of the beginning.
Just go watch the movie.