BenLow's blog

Before I start on anything else... Here comes some BtD pics! First up... Guess where this is? Thats right its the newly constructed, really cool... Hodge Lodge at RJC! Equipped with a Wii, PS2or3?, Karaoke System, many many * boardgames and a theater system at the back. Cool or what? As you can see karaoke was the highlight of the day. They're even snatching the mic from each other. Lol. And a happy birthday to Tabby! Well, have a video of the class singing I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing by Aerosmith. But won't post it up. *** As some of you know my ops has been terminated (or at least scaled down) prematurely. As a result, I'm now freeeeee! One problem I have with that is... I'm not sure whether I'll be free on my birthday! Cos they'll recall me to 8 Sig any time. Ahh... After I had everything planned and ready. If the ops had gone on, I would've had a day of off on that special day. Oh wells. Suck thumb. My visits back to church have been really fruitful. ...

I've gotta cherish my friends much better than I do now. The fear is a lot bigger than I imagined... So I'm glad I'll get to go for 3H's final class outing. I... Just can't imagine how much more damage NS will do. Once I'm in the official duty system I'm gonna cherish the 5 day weekend. I can't just bum around and watch anime everyday. My new goal is to meet at least 3 different friends of mine every other week by any means possible. Anybody willing to take up my offer? Anyways I've posted the Youth Sunday vid on my multiply. Anyone interested please do go watch it to see what my youth group is like!

Aite so its gonna be over in about 4 days. I think its tough going off. Although we don't really like the monotony of the life in tekong, or the tekan sessions, or even the time taken to travel there I guess we'll all miss the place a bit, yeah? Was on the train with Wai Lun and Yan Han, two of my section buddies. I could feel the sadness in the air. Not just A level sadness (for them), but also some of the leaving our friends behind kind of sadness. Well the trip to the Singapore Discovery Centre was, in short, a waste. I enjoyed it, yes. But I felt it was pointless. Felt that I could've done something better within that time frame. Oh well, nothing I can do about that now. *** Army Highlights 1. 24km route march Had it in good weather, unlike the school 2 people. The first 12km was more challenging because of the uneven, rocky terrain, as well as the heat of the day. It was the night march (2nd 24km) that I enjoyed much more. More songs being sung, some encouragement goin...

You know the more I look at army life the more I see my schooling life. Every single week you dread monday, and look on in anticipation at the company of friends at the same time. Every single week you learn something new, you forge new bonds, you take tests. Nothing much has changed. And thats the surprising thing. I'm still me, I'm still doing the same things, I'm still learning. Highlights of the week: 1. 16km route march Didn't look forward to it at all cos 12km was a nightmare for me. (Thanks to those blisters) Took extra precaution against blisters just in case. (Which I didn't need actually) So no injuries sustained at all. The pace at the first and last 4km was crazy. We were practically fast marching. But the good thing was that we kept singing random well known boyband songs to keep our morale up. I was marching somewhere at the front, helping the weaker ones catch up. Kept having to lift bags for people to help them chiong to close up the gaps. I think I ...

Ok I'm kinda glad that I finally got some time alone to reflect and think about stuff. The month has been really busy, full of holidays, camps, outings, stuff to do and what not. Alright so here goes. Won't be blogging much about the details of the camp. Instead maybe a couple of things I've felt during the camp. Ok I shall include a couple of things from yesterday's outreach service as well. 1. Its really great that everyone in YE can just bond together almost instantaneously. 2. The camp comm did very well in my opinion. There were places that could be improved, but it was well done. 3. Those prayer sessions every night with my room mates made the camp extra special. 4. I'm glad that more people are willing to pick up an instrument and worship spontaneously, as well as sing along when they hear someone playing. 5. The spiritual aspect of the camp was not lacking. In my opinion it was a stonger ministering camp than last year. 6. Last year we saw God's divine i...

Hey guys back from Aussie land. It was fun, and updates about it come in the next post. For now... Grad night. Guess everyone has already blogged about it but I'm one of the slow ones who just got around to collecting pics. Won't say much about it, but will show some pics instead! Later. Pre grad night activities: 1. LAN - CS 2. Poool ftw! 3. Lunch at wanton mee stall. Went out for table people outing the day before grad night. My pool skills are improving! Especially positioning. Grad night table list: 1. Ben Zheng 2. Leonard Loh 3. Kevin Ho 4. Samuel Wong 5. Charissa Lu 6. Lawrence Wu 7. Yeo Yee Ying 8. Trixie Tang 9. Annabel 10. Jon Chua 11. Yu Jia Grad Night Pics Welcome to grad night 2007. Lol. Xavier the man. Guess whose shades. Sneaky pic. Go Eugene Lee wo men yong yuan zhi chi ni! Lol. Mam, the bassist and singing prodigy. Rach! Beautiful, mesmerising vocals! =) PW Power! Me and Sherine! The only guitar pic I've got so far. =( Where are the rest of you guys! Quic...

I think the title of the post speaks for itself. Thought I'd do a bit of reflection on my life as a Rafflesian. How its been an utter miracle, and a great joy and privilege. Not forgetting those encounters with God along the way as a Rafflesian. Lets go all the way back to P6 Prelims. At that point of time I was a total slacker. I was smart, yes. But not hardworking enough. I tried my best, and ended up with a 243 for prelims. I was preparing myself to go to AC for best case scenario, but even that seemed a little bleak. Then came a miracle. 4A*s. I was seriously doubtful about chinese, the maths papers was tough (thats what they say every year huh), and the english paper made me a little uneasy. But as always I was in slacker mode. I still don't know how it happened. I thought it was a conspiracy of sorts. Perhaps they were targeting half blood GEPs like me? I made it to RI. Life there was as slacky as ever. The occasional project, sheets of homework came in. Some were finishe...

Whee I've decided that A levels are officially over for me. Cos all that remains is H3 Bio, which is theoretically inconsequential. So today was the last day of As, and at the end of the exam a gigantic bubble of emotion rose up from within me. Couldn't help but praise the Lord for everything He's been doing, especially for keeping morale up throughout, and showing me His awesome presence each day. I love You from the depths of my heart And nothing here will tear us apart Everything's beautiful with You Everything's beautiful with You When You invade my life And I'm living just to say that I love You This song was ringing through my head today. "Stronger" by Delirious. *** NS Well an update on my NAPFA preps. I've made it to 8 pull ups, and everything else is looking pretty good. (Woot I've got nice abs now) The only concern is still sit and reach, and it seems stupid that I may fail just because of a station that isn't even included in the...

Just finished doing my GP Prelim Post Mortem (I know I should've done it earlier)... Heres what I found out. Essay I think it just boiled down to one thing. Choosing the right question. When I look back at the compre questions I suddenly realised that certain essays I thought were difficult were actually quite simple. Not like the one I wrote, after writing one or two paras I discovered that I'd ran out of examples to use. And I forgot to "unpack" the question. A simple strategy Mrs Toh taught us that I'd forgotten to use because I was extremely flustered by the paper. Been doing some trendspotting... And results have shown that the most common topic is on "Medicine and Health", with 7 appearances in the 8 previous A Level Exams, followed by "Technology" and "The Arts" with 6 Appearances. Other common topics include "Goods" (as in morality), "History", "Geopolitics" and "Public Policy". And the ...

Hey guys... Just ponned maths lecture to write this post. Well coming back to school has been great... And its all ending tomorrow. Seems like everything is finishing off pretty quickly. Posted quite a number of class pics on my multiply site. Really good memories are coming back. And I'm really glad that God's put me in such a great class with a bunch of great people. Dunno what I would've done without them all. As I'm typing I'm looking through the pics once again and at the bunch of 3H guys mugging at one of the tables to my left. Everyone's working hard... And I believe we'll all make it. Cos at 3H no one gets left behind. Oh and it looks like lots of people ponned maths lecture as well. I'll miss em for sure. So you guys all better shift to multiply or else. Results: BBBBC H3 Pass Really satisfied with my results. Nothing much else to say except gambatte everyone! *** Piano Well concert was great... And it all ended with a big bang. Got a few pics...

Long time no see! Hope everyones doing fine... *** S03H Prelims have just ended on a high note thanks to MCQ Papers. The journey hasn't been too rough for me... Finishing the last of the 13 papers I have to do was a relief, and I guess everyone else can say the same. 13 more left to freedom! Well... Won't discuss how I felt each paper went, cos I think it won't do much good to anyone. Throughout the past two weeks, each and every day was a brand new journey with God, and I am glad I could experience Him in different wonderful and beautiful ways during the course of the exams. Right now... His presence is very very real to me. I have learnt not to dwell so much on success, failure and the uncertain future, but just on experiencing Him in my life on a daily basis. Because of this, I am satisfied, and I am not afraid. No stress man! Played soccer today to celebrate! Scored 2 sweet goals. One was poached and the other was a one v one against the keeper (Eugene Lee YX). Should...

Its starting to get very very monotonous. School that is. The same thing week in, week out really gets to you yeah? As my last post, I got quite a couple of things to say before I go on hiatus. *** Announcement RIGE concert! 31st Aug 2007 7:30pm New RI Auditorium I doubt I'll be going, but those who're interested may fancy a chance to get entertained and relieve some stress. If enough guitar people commit themselves to going I may succumb to peer pressure and go along too. Ah I miss guitar peoples. The only people I see regularly are Chin Heng, Jon Chua and Shu Hui. Where are the rest of you guys? Hope your mugging's going well. *** Random The YE teaching by Shirley made me think of a nice song. Hungry by Kathyrn Scott. If you want the song you can let me know. Here are the lyrics. Hungry Verse 1 Hungry, I come to You for I know You satisfy I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry So I wait for You So I wait for You Verse 2 Broken, I run to You for Your arms are ope...

Well guys... 1 more week and a couple more days left to the first few papers of the Prelims. Oddly, I feel no stress at all. Everything is in His hands. *** S03H This week's civics was about career choice. My choice is really obvious, and I've already planned for it, as well as the alternatives should I fail or should God choose for me to go somewhere else. Medicine, here I come. Pathology here I come. PSC Open Med Scholarship here I come. God bless this path I have chosen. May He see my desire and work through me for His own glory. One thing I was exceptionally glad about the lesson was the Mr Wong sat with me and Chris and asked us about our aspirations. Chris's desire to be in banking seems pretty good for him I think. And Mr Wong asked me a couple of questions any interviewer would ask an interviewee for med. And I was really glad that I could answer from the depths of my heart. It just showed me that I was prepared enough to answer anything that the panel of interviewe...

Happy birthday mom! Hope you liked the Ajisen dinner we went for. And thanks Gerald for buying that cheese cake for my mom. She liked it a lot. I think she's gonna make lots more yummy stuff for you to eat in future. *** YE Well, I'm 18 now... So went clubbing to just get the general feel of things. Some of you guys may have gasped... But I assure you that I didn't drink, and I just went to see something new! I'll never go again though, its not my cup of tea. So some of of us went down to the Butter Factory, which is quite a small club. Me, Rach, Gerald, Paul and his gf. Nothing much to do there except see people dance (well they at least try to) and look at all the strobe lights whirling around and stuff like that. Jon and Eugene joined us later after booking out of camp for the nat day holidays. The thing that surprised me was that there was a small region in Singapore just dedicated to clubs. All the hoo-hah about Singapore being a conservative society isn't tota...

Here's a bible verse that I wanna quote... Seems relevant for everyone today! " Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts . Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice . Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always ." ~ Psalm 105:1-4 Self explanatory, don't you think? Its both a blessing , and a command . *** Soccer Charity Shield! Man U 1 Chelsea 1 Man U wins 3-0 on penalties. Its soccermugger time! First real matches come during the incoming weekend. Look out for it! *** S03H Joanne! Nice meeting you. Its quite surprising that I still can make new friends at a time like this. The circumstances in which we met were really surprising. I think she's the friendliest person I've ever met. Talking to me even though we've never spoken before. ! Suddenly I realise where I've seen you before. You went to Hann...

Brains full of econs stuff... Can't think straight! Just realised today the consumption function doesn't equal to AE. Its a wonder how I managed to get past so many weeks of econs lessons without realising. And after the latest session of money I finally know what 'hot money' and 'capital inflow' is and its due to an increase in interest rate. I think. Oh well. *** S03H Grad night stuff is settled! Really glad about the people in my table. Its a mixture of 3H and 6S people... And I know most of em from random places. Out of 12 people 8 are from 3H (which I feel a bit guilty about) the rest of them are Jon Chua from GE, Trixie from Leonard's OG, Bel from Glimpse of Glory and SV. Looking forward to meeting the last person! Wondering what I'm gonna be wearing. Definitely not something formal. Maybe the same thing I wore for the Christmas celebration with YE last year? We'll see. Exciting! *** YE Whoa... Here we come! Here we come! FOP was great. That w...

Feeling quite blessed now, thanks to a couple of things that have happened over the past few days. Its a mixture of many things from many sources, but its made me feel really needed, and really happy. *** S03H Situation #1 On Friday Chris brought his guitar down to school to practise for his shooting 'graduation'... There were a couple of songs that he and his friends from shooting wanted to perform, and he asked me for help. These were the songs: Flying Without Wings ~ Westlife Best In Me ~ Blue My Wish ~ Rascal Flatts We went to the mini canteen for lunch after classes had ended, and he let me listen to the MP3s and I figured them out for him. Spent quite some time, and eventually finished at about 3 something. I felt real happy cos I was able to use the skills I've been given to contribute wherever I can. As a result I felt needed, I felt that God had used me in a great way for the sake of my dear friends. *** YE Situation #2 Worship practise was on the next day in the m...

I've been in an awfully pensieve mood lately... Thinking about the future and things like that. Its not doing much good brooding about the future, wondering whether your arrow will ever make it to what you're currently aiming for. A couple of things got me thinking really hard... *** Event #1 ~ Amanda's Birthday Surprise! Well, it was really fun getting up earlier than usual on a Sunday morning and going to somebody's house to surprise her for her birthday. So me and my bros turned up at her doorstep. Late. By the time we came the surprise was sorta over, and everyone was sitting round the TV watching Pirate Master. We cut the cake, played taboo and had lots of fun. But it being a birthday and all, we were writing stuff on Amanda's card. Thats when it struck me. The curiousity of what the future would hold for me. My birthday was coming soon as well, and it made me wonder, what would I be like in years to come? How much would I change? I came to a conclusion that it...

Next post is post 300! *** Family Went to watch Harry Potter on friday with my parents at Jurong Point. The movie was fine... If I didn't read the book before I think I would have been less excited about the movie. One major problem was that the final action sequences didn't do justice to the book. There was a lot more happening, and the final action sequence only lasted 15 mins. That part was disappointing. Well, can't wait for the last book! Those who want to borrow from me (yes, I've pre-ordered), please let me know. So far the borrowing list is as such: Daryl/Darren *** My mom went off to Batam the day after the movie (yesterday morning), leaving the rest of us guys at home. Dad did most of the housework such as washing cups, folding clothes etc. He is quite the perfectionist haha. And of course, we ate out. Just one day in and I'm kinda missing the home cooked food. Instead we had KFC in the afternoon, and Ajisen in the evening. Good, filling meals, but noth...

3 posts to 400! *** Family Today I had to do something I never did before: sneak into my own house heh. My parents were out, and Daryl was supposedly at home. I went to the front door and rang the bell a couple of times, but it turns out that Daryl was asleep. Its a good thing I live on the ground floor. So I climbed the fence surrounding the patio and infiltrated my own house. The sliding doors were shut, but thankfully, not locked, and I made it in without anybody seeing me. (I hope.) Wanted to strangle him but seeing that he was so peacefully asleep, I spared him. He is quite adorable when asleep. Lesson: Always bring a key. Or make sure your brother sleeps early at night. *** S03H Results: BCCDD While I'm kinda glad I finally upped my econs grade from E to C, the rest of the grades dropped haha. Well, if I said the papers were super mega bomb hard, I'd be lying. But its true that they weren't easy. GP Maintained it at a B. Can't seem to break the A barrier, and it s...