Long time ago (yesterday), Cheng Yee and Daniel went for youth fellowship.

The Game Master came and introduced a game. He told them to take six clothes pegs each.

So Daniel tool thirteen. Six for Cheng Yee, six for himself and one more so that Cheng Yee can laugh at him.

Then the Game Master explained that Cheng Yee and Daniel had to put the peg on each other.

Cheng Yee and Daniel did as we were told.

Suddenly, the Game Master said, “Start!”

Cheng Yee and Daniel gave each other blank stares. Then they took turns to give the Game Master blank stares. The Game Master, polite as he is, returned the blank stares with a blank stare also (Ah! The joy of sharing stares!).

Cheng Yee and Daniel both at the same time ask the Game Master, “What are we suppose to do?”

The Game Master said, “Put the pegs on your partner!”

“We did already!” the oblivious two replied.

“Huh?” exclaimed the Game Master, “You’re suppose to try ant put the pegs on your partner and who ever has the most peg loses.”

The two boys stood there dumbfounded. They looked at each other. Then they broke out in laughter.

“So who won?” asked Daniel.

“We both put all six pegs on each other,” said Cheng Yee bursting with laughter, “We lost even before we started!!”

“Oh dear! (Aiyoh)” sighed Daniel.

“The warrants a blog post!” said Cheng Yee excitedly.

With sadness in his eyes, Daniel responds, “No……!!”

Tip #2 Know How Your Brain Works
After you’ve figured out why you study, you have to figure out how you study. This is the planning part. In this part you have to decide where you would be studying (bedroom, study room, on the top of the car). And also how you’ll spend time studying.

A brief list of different kinds of students:

1. Those can understand concepts just by reading notes
2. Those that have to read notes first and then do exercises to understand a concept
3. Those that have to do exercises first and then read notes to understand a concept

Also, what is your learning curve? Here are some questions to help you:

1. Are you a fast/okay/slow learner?
2. When studying, do you aim to master / understand / know the concept?
3. After studying, do you remember completely / generally / partially / vaguely?

For fast learners:
Don’t spend too much time on theory, practice! Since you’re so fast, spend time to master the concept. And if your memory is not very good, practice and do drills.

For okay learners:
Takes a bit more time to learn, but make sure that you really master the subject matter or not it’s just too much time wasted. It’s a bit tricky because you have to balance between studying and practicing.

For slow learners:
Figuring things out on your own is best only when you have time. If you don’t have time, ask ask ask and ask. But don’t just ask and forget, ask and go home and understand. Try to master the subjects, but it’s ok if you can’t. Do lot’s of exercises.

You’ll notice there are basically 2 components to studying: Theory and Practice. You need to find your perfect balance, so trial and error.

For me, I’m the kind of guy who’d be doing questions first before I study. More on this method next time.

“Learning something is good. Learning how to learn, now that’s even better.”

With STPM results out, some (if not all) of you who are in exam years are starting to shudder at the thought of exams actually coming to pass. I have shared with few people how I studied, as I think that my style is just to erm… radical (for lack of a better word). But I’ll share some tips that I think are universal. I will give a tip and share how I went about it. So here goes:

Tip #1 – Purpose
Purpose is what drives you. It is what gets us started. Ask your self these two questions:

1. Do I want to study at all?
2. Who/What/Why am I studying for?

For me I didn’t want to study, who does? But when I thought of why/who/what I’m studying for, I changed my mine. I was in Pre-U last year and I quote Puan Woon’s words:

“The whole point of doing Pre-U is to go on to University, so you might as well do your best or why try in the first place?”

Which is true. I also thought of my family and my responsibility to love them by not burdening them with results that could have been better if I tried. I also thought about God, how I’d be cheating Him by saying that I’m just not that smart when I didn’t even try. I also thought about my future, I can’t depend on my parents forever and I need those ceeking-ceeking’s to survive, marry and etc. Basically your life is not your own, it’s your family’s, friends’ and even your future spouse’s and her/his family’s. So what ever you do, affects everyone. So choose wisely.

Studying for the sake of studying?
Might as well don’t you’re wasting your time. Go work.

Not trying because you just don’t think you’re the studying type/smart enough.
That’s the crappiest attitude one can have. It’s bad enough you don’t use what you have, it’s worst when you insult yourself by not giving yourself a chance.

You may think purpose is just some rubbish people use during pep-talks but the truth is, it is the thing you need most when you’re exhausted and don’t know why you even try so hard. From how I studied, God was the one that kept me going to actually sit down and study, if it weren’t for Him, I’d be drowned in boredom. Glory to God!

“Doing something without purpose is like playing football without goal posts.”

I just got a new guitar yesterday!! and a hardcase… and a guitar stand!! Woohoo!! =b

muahahaha… paid at Swee Lee in Bras Basah and collected at their warehouse in Sims drive…

By the way… Malaysia has no immigration. That’s right… i didn’t even have to open my passport at JB customs… haha… oh well… here’s a teaser of how my Ibanez PGM3 (no longer in production) looks like:

for more information/specs of the guitar… click here.

Now as i wake up every morning, I see God’s blessings in my exam results, laptop and guitar.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

A lot of people have observed that I dash off after church almost every Sunday. Some of you wonder : “What you going to do anyway? Stay and fellowship la… walao le… Sabbath ma… you very anti-social le…”

So far I can only remember one person having complained about me doing that. Worst thing about it is that I do want to stay! I do want to hang out. But there are other factors behind it that don’t permit me to. One for instance is the preservation of peace at home (some of you will know, but I’ll not elaborate here). Then more recently my brother has to rush to Muar.

“So what? You have another car right? If you made the effort you can.”

But it’s not about me. Remember the preservation of peace thing? If I stay out too late (even though I’m considered on ‘holiday’) it still affects things at home. Sad right? Plus this week I’m having a flu and am not in a condition to stand or sit for that matter. Sad. But I’m on my lappy now, how hypocritical. Sigh.

There’s more to say. But I don’t see the point. For in many words, sin is near.

This is so emo. As a pencuci mulut (mouth washer, looks like a side loading washing machine that you put in your mouth):

What kind of food makes you hallucinate about gambling?
Burnt food. Because they’re casino-genic.

another original by Cheng Yee, brought to you by Fuzzimuzzi.com

Post STPM life has been tough to me. No matter how many news articles you can read, you’d never be truly ready for the real world. Idealistic concepts are replaced by depressing but realistic “life” lessons. As Yoshua has shared last week in YF about Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) how Mary chose the better though the “working” people would be thinking her to be the least of them.

I’ve been running around a lot. As much as I’ve been planning my time, imperfections caused me delays and unpredicted circumstances caused me to compromise on my plans. Hectic is the word to describe it.

So I want to be Mary and do the better the thing. But as I prayed to God, calling on the everlasting Saviour, describing Him as Holy, Heavenly Father and so on, I felt a little voice asking: “Who do you say I am?” All my answers fell short of the intended answer. God is indescribable. I concur. But that’s not what I’m trying to get at.

In Peter’s Confession Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” then he asked: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That was Peter’s personal answer.

We can pray all sorts of prayer and say who God is with out as much as a blink of an eye. But most of it is what we have heard others call God. I’m still wondering who God is to me. What the name of Jesus means to me.

Is it a free ticket to Heaven? Is God an excuse for religion? Is He a means to be right in the eyes of men? Or is He God the Father, Son and Spirit?

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” -Matthew 16:15

What is the one undeniable difference between man and boy?

Gentleness

That is one attribute that separates a true man and a real boy.

Both boy and man have strength. Great strength. Both of them can change history and affect the lives of millions of people. Take Hitler for example. He was a boy. A big boy. A big shot big boy. One that killed many with literally with just words and commands. He had strength. Tremendous strength. He mustered it, applied it.

Martin Luther King Jr. on the other hand had the same power. But he was a man. Why? Not only did he resist the temptation to use violence but he made efforts to stop people from going over board. He tried to delay a protest march on 7th March 1965 to the next day. His supporters didn’t listen and that turned out to be Bloody Sunday. He then attempted to organize another march on the 9th. A judge issued an order blocking the march until after a hearing. King lead the marchers anyway on the 9th to the Edmund Pettus bridge, then held a short prayer session before turning the marchers around and asking them to disperse, so as not to violate the court order. His supporters were angry that he didn’t do a full march. One man, telling a crowd of people wanting to go all the way to stop and go home. That’s insane, that’s gentleness.

Gentleness is strength under control. All man are born with strength. But only a handful manages to control it.

All man (male) start as a boys and are destined to be men. But few are those that achieve manhood.

God help us man, to be gentle.

I am currently in a very painful situation. I’ve been through this before actually. I was less in control of my physical side then. Meaning that I tended to break down at the slightest thought of the matter. It’s a bit different now.

Now it still hurts. Deeper. Numb to some extent. But it doesn’t seem as bad. You know what’s the worst thing? The person that hurts me. Is myself. That’s foolish. Just so that you don’t think that this is some super profound abstract mambo-jumbo… there is a specific person that’s involved. Me and the person are pretty much okay. But, somehow everything the person does, causes me to be sad. So it can’t be the person’s fault. It’s my fault because of my perception(s).

Yes it’s confusing. It’s a feeling that can be describe as tearless and expressionless sorrow. It sticks like bubble gum on your shoe, it’s as dreadful as undercurrents in the sea and as subtle as a tap on your shoulder.

I call it pain. I can’t get rid of the person. In fact I don’t want to. It’s a mean thing to do that and besides I think that person’s a pretty nice person. So I want to get rid of myself. How do I get rid of my feelings while still not getting rid of my human side? Catch 22.

Pain. =’)