BenLow's blog

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...

I can't believe its ending. And the feeling is different from when guitar ended. At that point of time it was a mixture of feelings, joy, emptiness, relief and sadness. But now all I feel is pure sorrow. It just dawned on me that after today I'd never have the chance to take the train to Yew Tee, get on bus service 302, travel to Choa Chu Kang Crescent, take the lift to the 16th floor, get into my teacher's house, wash my hands and feet, seat myself down at the piano and play for all that I was worth again. The memories... They're just too wonderful. The fun destressing times I'd have listening to classical music from my teacher's CD player. The stressful class performances that would keep me full of adrenaline. The insightful lessons that would keep me wanting more music in my life. Gone. The periods after class when I'd stroll into the 7-11 at the void deck of my teacher's house and buy myself a bottle Pink Dolphin, Green Tea, Pepsi Twist or Lemon Tea....

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...

Lots of things to talk about... But the house is too noisy, the rooms are too dusty, there are a lot more things to do, I'm busy, and I'm lazy. Ok so a short summary should suffice. Happenings in chronological order: 1. Piano Results Merit. 83/100. Good. 2. Bros are back Distractions! But yay they're safe. 3. Schedule change Bye to PSing, bye to gymming. Hello to more mugging and youtubing instead. One day behind for maths practise. Shouldn't be a problem though. 4. Planetshakers Awesome. Nice rainbow. Great worship. People usually go for the experience of large scale band worship. I choose to go for God. Some things I disagree with in the sermon. Prosperity gospel? Not telling new believers the whole picture of what to expect? Isn't suffering one of the parts to Christianity? Lots more reflecting to do about this one. Supper. His song is still in my heart. 5. Worship meeting Songs are more than lyrics and music. They are a combination of a person's heart, soul ...

Kinda happy cos I've been following my schedule and been on task (most of it). Some things to gripe about include my laziness = not going to gym most of the time, and instead replacing it with home done exercises. (Push ups, inclined push ups, sit ups, crunches, stretching etc etc) And the time I spend on PS tends to exceed the expected 2hrs. Other than that, everything's going along great. I should really take some time off to meet some of my friends though. Feeling a bit socially deprived. Planetshakers!!! *** Family Renovations are almost underway... Just a few preparations here and there, shifting furniture and packing my bro's belongings to do before we welcome the contractors in to do the work. The hall's super messy now, and looks like I've got a couple of additions to my room heh. Wondering where I can go to study once it begins next week. Maybe the reading room at the clubhouse? JE library? BB library? We'll see. Twins are coming back tomorrow 6pm, flig...

S03H Everything's getting normal in and around school... Lots more breaks, lots more free time, lots more interesting things to do. Participated in Interhouse Championship Chinese Chess today. Haha first time playing CChess in a major tournament. A bit rusty, ever since the class craze for CChess ended a term ago. Still had most of my skills though. The previous times I'd participated in an IHC for Morrison I played IChess, which I wasn't that successful at. This time CChess was pretty decent. Final results: MR 3rd, 44 points. Result Tally: 4 wins 1 loss Reached B48 at around 2pm with Kevin. And we teamed up with Yong Sheng to form a 3 person team. Each house is allowed only 4 teams of 3. So 4 teams from BB and BW competed, as well as 3 teams from MT and 2 teams from HH. Total matches all of us had to play = 5. And it was 1 point for win, 0.5 points for draw and 0 points for a loss. Did ok I guess. It was fun while it lasted. So my team ended up with 9 points out of a possi...

Hey guys... Apologies for not blogging the past week. Have been busy with you know what. Yup piano. I'm kinda glad that this week was over, cos its been super hectic, stressful and draining. It feels great to have the burden of piano stuff off my back. This week has been a total blessing, and I couldn't have done it without God. Lets start from last Sunday shall we? *** YE Well Sunday was the the final day our dear pastor Rev Soon was joining us for service. He was transfered to St Hildas. The YE people made a nice card for him, his wife, and his daughter Amanda Soon. Rev Soon is a pretty nice guy. I'll miss him. Can't forget all the discipleship lay reader's training he gave me, and all the times he's talked to me about serving in worship and stuff. He's been a great blessing and encouragement to me... Fast forward to Thursday... YE gathering for the older guys. Paul, Jon, Kenneth, Gerald and I met up just to have a long chat. We met at some secret venue ...

Haha I'm wondering why I'm still here considering the amount of homework that came in over the past week. Got hit by two tutorials on Friday, and until now have absolutely no time to do any of them. Oh well. Plus the Chem Test, GP CT, and H3 Bio Tests next week, its gonna be one deadly last week of school. *** Eden-Sol Some pretty exciting stuff last friday... Woot Eden-Sol was featured on the New Paper. Before having our weekly bout of jamming we went to some nearby mama shop to get the paper. And Guoren kinda remembered something. It was kinda this time of the year last year when he had another photo shoot but the photos didn't get printed. Kinda nostalgic yes? After looking at the photos we gathered in the deserted alley behind the jamming studio and prayed... Giving thanks for everything that God had given us... Praying for the strength to keep the band going no matter what... Committing the future of the band to Him yet again. I really do hope Eden-Sol stays together t...

Piano I can't believe it! Its only 10 days left to piano exam... Its gonna be one tough battle... But I'm not gonna give up. Time to mug piano. So before I start I'll make an apology in advance. If I ignore you please forgive me. I'm probably mugging hard. Diminished 7ths, Augmented 6ths, Dominant 7ths, Neapolitan 6ths here I come! *** S03H Well... It was a kinda gloomy saturday afternoon spent cooped up at home finishing up stuff and playing DW4. Left my MSN on... And guess what? Ben Zheng popped me a message. (PM 6:44) [ ben ] .. an: yo (PM 6:44) (BenLow) {soccer: hey yo (PM 6:45) [ ben ] .. an: let's all have a clan name like [3HownH] (benlow)...... (PM 6:45) (BenLow) {soccer: haha sure sounds cool to me And guess what... Now 16 people in class have the very same clan name attached to their MSN nicks! Good job Zheng for thinking of it. For those who don't know... [3HownH] = [3Hownage] Pretty cool huh. *** YE Awww man. I miss YE so much! The feeling was quit...

Woo piles of music homework to do. Should be enough to last through the trip to HK. Yup FYI I'm going to HK for 4-5 days. Should be back by next friday... I'll bring my phone along but try not to message or call if you don't want extra charges to your phone bill. I may or may not reply depending on the importance of the message. *** Piano Back to the piano homework. The thing I can't believe is that I'm actually taking a break from outings just to complete it within the deadline and not vice versa. Really quite scary how big a part piano has become in my life. It may even become a probable career for extra expenditure. My grade 8 theory exam is coming somewhere next year if February or March. But I'm kinda confident of my theory. The papers I do I get about 18-22 out of 25 for questions 4-5, which I must say is quite impressive considering that I just learnt a lot of the concepts such as diminished 7th, augmented 6th, Secondary Chords and such. Trying to continu...

Heya guys... In school now waiting for jamming to begin. Well today (Tuesday) we ended lessons at 12pm and jamming's at 4pm. So... I'm now in com lab watching (probably more like listening to) people playing DOTA while I'm blogging. Oh well... How to concentrate while everyone around is DOTA crazy? Maybe I'll BLOG at home instead... ***At Home*** Ok thats much better... K lets start BLOGging... This post might be long... So if you wanna skip a section go to the next portion with an asterisk to read something different. New system to make reading this BLOG a better experience (I've been implementing this for the past few posts though...)! Haha. Now thats good service lol. *** Friday! Recovered slightly from sickness to go to school and have pe! First form of physical activity in a long long time, especially since previous pe lessons were all talks and other stuff involving no exercise of any sort. It was frisbee, and I joined in evern though I was sick. My group cons...

Hey guys... Sorry for the longgggg break in posting. My two bros are having exams one after another, and well, my parents don't really let us use the com during exam periods. Thus the long break. Forgive me haha. Hmmm... Feel like having a longer break from blogging actually. I started blogging with a purpose, but I guess since that purpose is already fufilled, the only reason I'm blogging now is to let you guys know how I'm doing. Some of you guys see me only once a week, some of you guys seldom have the chance to talk to me. So yup. Another reason why I wanna stop is cos I realised that I've been making promises on my blog which I never keep. Like when I promised to post photos, promised to create a song chooser thingy, promised to blog about my class. Oh well I'm kinda disappointed in myself for not keeping those promises to all my awesome friends out there. Well forgive me again haha. From here on... I'll just give weekly updates when it comes to a few aspec...

Haha... Finally got the oppotunity to go for a pool session with some of the YE people, though most of them were preparing for Easter. Would you believe it if I said that I lost every match cos of the black ball? Haha. Must be hitting my shots too hard. Those I won I got the black ball in. Me 1 Benedict 1 Me 0 Shaun 2 Me 1 Kenneth 0 Got my first assignment as finance in charge! Refunding Shirley's $2 for aluminium foil for props. Oh yeah... FYI, my church is holding a small scale Easter celebration thing that involves quite a thought provoking play. "The Courtroom" by Carmen Licciardello makes people think about their belief in Christianity, especially those who have backslided... Wanna come or bring anyone? Its on the 16th April, Easter Sunday. Felt quite off colour on Monday, dunno why. Guitar prac went by in a flash, my songs are mastered, my stuff is all done except for the banner that we'll be putting up as publicity, as well as one of the ahem... *secret stuff*....

Well, today's the day of my grade 6 piano exam and I can't wait to get it over and done with. The past few days were so hectic, ferrying myself to and fro from my teacher's house, staying until 7:30pm... I'm going to have along break from music after this... We're going on the holiday to China on Sunday morning, so see you guys when I come back on Friday the 5th. I guess its pretty cold there now. (Ben HO's been broadcasting the weather everyday on MSN) Well, looking forward to it. And, the RISE concert is coming next Sunday and...surprise! Its at YMS. Sure brings back memories of piano concerts there. We'll be playing Brazil and Summer Wind, hope the guys there like it. The audience won't be too much, so I guess we won't feel that much pressure. Who knows, I might be going back there to perform the IF WE HOLD ON TOGETHER solo at the end of the month (Because of piano concert). Too bad, I'll miss the later part of church...

Reached home at 7:30 on Tuesday. In school, I lost my lock once I'd cleared my locker... Then I had to go to piano teacher's house to study... I stayed for 3 and a half hours... Once I reached home, I was pretty tired, so I slept early and woke up early. Well, some good news.. I thrashed Hao Jin 4-0 in chinese chess, 3 times using both my cannons, and once I made him resign. And, Wednesday's the last day of school...

Wow!!! Finally, our school does something cool like organise a singing and entertainment competition on a large scale. The RAFFLESIAN SPOTLIGHT wasn't that spectecular, but kudos to those who organised it. The Deputy Head Prefect sang really well, and I'm beginning to think that the next Singapore idol should be him instead... Well, piano exams coming on the 30th, and I can't afford to slack... Have been muggin piano ever since the CT ended. Speaking of CT, I was really surprised at my results, I finally got an A1 for my Chinese!!!! The rest of the subjects were A2 and above. I'll be advancing to next year, thats for sure... I step nearer to RJC and a mixed school... Got trashed 10-1 in handball, should have been more aggresive and pressed for the ball. Maybe I'd better stick to soccer.