Coolcat's Jottings

Corny Songs I Used To Like

1. Dying Inside To Hold You - Timmy Thomas

Why I Found It So Hot: The beat was groovy. I used to wait for the song to be aired over the radio so that I could record it on my blank tape of song compilations.

Why I Changed My Mind: Some songs are not meant for too many repeated listenings. This was one of them.

2. A Shoulder To Cry On - Tommy Page

Why I Found It So Hot: Man, I used to like, no, really dig into this guy who looked a little like Elvis. I even have thrilling dreams chatting him up on a radio call-in program... hee! I didn't quite like the tune but any song that shot my heart throb to stardom is automatically my favourite song.

Why I Changed My Mind: The more mature my tastes in music got, the cornier poor Tommy appeared to be. I woke up from my crush pretty quick and have mostly dreamless nights ever since.

My bezzie, my shoulder to cry on...

3. More Than Words - Extreme

Why I Found It So Hot: Aaah, the ultimate chick magnet back in those days. In every school society buffet I've been in, they would always have this band of students playing their guitars and belting out this song. It seemed to be the hippest song in town.

Why I Changed My Mind: It got overplayed by all the aspiring Ah Bengs in schools. 'Nuff said

4. Stranded in the Middle of Nowhere - Modern Talking

Why I Found It So Hot: When I first heard it, it sounded very mesmerising.

Why I Changed My Mind: After about three times of hearing it, the breathy voice started to gyrate on my nerves. Bleh bleh.

Corny Songs I Still Like

1. The Diary - Neil Sedaka

Why It's Still Hot To Me: Who could resist the soulful tune of a boy who longs to glimpse into his object of interest's diary? It's just so awwwwww....

2. All Out of Love - Air Supply

Why It's Still Hot To Me: It's one of few songs that I could sing with such gusto and still sound half decent in it. My evergreen karaoke signature song

3. Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler

Why It's Still Hot To Me: Cutesy song from one of my favourite movies ever - The Wedding Singer. Adam Sandler sounds so endearing in this. No girl in her right mind would cold heartedly reject someone (who is as endearing as Sandler) who croons that he wants to grow old with her. Mmmmmm...

Now, what's on your list of corny songs? Do share 'cos I'm dying inside to know you :P

I don't know whether I'm being biased but I feel that sms-es that do not contain do not contain smileys or hehe's or ...'s are usually rather impersonal.

Before the electronic messaging age where pen and paper rule and reign, girls would normally be the ones to dot their i's with heart shapes. But nowadays, contrary to what some people may think, it is not a girl thing to make full use of emoticons.

If I have to choose between an sms with smileys (tastefully peppered, of course. There is such a thing as overdoing a good thing!) and the one without, the one with the emoticons would warm my heart more. Written communication is tough enough to do, why not use a smiley or two to convey the emotions that accompany those lovely words?

Compare this:

Got my message? Wah, you drive me up the wall.

with this:

Got my message? Wah, you drive me up the wall

With just a , you would have diffused a possible heated argument. The conveys a host of friendly feelings. Of course, if the recipient has no clue what an emoticon is used for - which is a rare thing in this day and age - then it won't work lor.

Also, another case in point, I received an sms recently from someone whom I thought was stoic and lacked a sense of humour. This sms was special... because it had a ... hee. And just like that, the stoic image I had of him crumbled to dust and the first thought that came to mind was, "Hey, he's human after all! He feels!"

Yep, never underestimate the power of emoticons.

What a weekend. Started with a spa and culminating with a wedding dinner in KL which ended late. I am soo like a zombie now.

Had a very pleasant afternoon yesterday with my folks and rellies. As usual, my parents are my most supportive and loudest champions. And they would brag about their kids to rellies at any opportune moment.

"I used to teach my Ariel how to drive, but now her skills has far superceeded mine. She has a good sense of direction, too," bragged dad to whomever who bothered to listen in the van.

Errr... the last bit of that sentence was a gross fabrication but if I were to compare my navigation skills to dad, he wasn't really lying lar.

PG, who was driving under my directions soon found out how bad I was when it comes to directions. Let me emphasize that at any point in time we were not lost yesterday. We just took errr... longer routes to get to our eventual destination.

And when my folks and I asked him for the best way to get to my colleague's wedding dinner at a hotel in KL, we couldn't even agree on the name of the hotel.

"I think it's Marriott," said I.

"Eh, not Holiday Villa meh?" dad interjected.

"Holiday Villa is in Subang lar. I believe it's Concorde," mom said confidently.

To be safe, PG gave me directions on how to drive to both Marriott AND Concorde and where to park. He even gave an accurate estimate of the parking charges of the hotels. And made sure that I got to the right hotel safely. Heh heh.

Turns out that my mom was right. She actually read the wedding invite and the location map while I merely oooohed and aaaahed over the classy design without bothering to read the name of hotel.

Anyway, the hotel food was so-so but my bro and I loved the way the whole event went. Classy, simple and tasteful. No karaoke singers, thank God.

So that was how my busy weekend went. I think I need another weekend to recuperate from that weekend. Zzzzzzzz....

After a most relaxing spa session, I went for the second appointment at church yesterday - The Apprentice. Basically, every participant was not informed of the nature of the game. We were just told that it was something like The Apprentice lar. So, I was just expecting an afternoon of fun, completing some tasks with my team members.

But the minute that it was announced that the game was structured so that we can learn to be better Apprentices of Christ, I developed a sinking feeling in my stomach. Visions of me evangelising to total strangers and sharing my testimony that afternoon made my knees quake. Sure, I've shared the Good News to strangers before but I've always been told in advance and have ample time to prepare my heart and mind for it.

And so, like the first son in the parable in Matthew 21:28-31, I gave a bunch of excuses to Esther (my team leader) that I wasn't prepared for this and I most probably wouldn't do a good job at it, bla, bla, bla. But the minute the game started, my competitive side took over and I perked up. By darn, we are gonna make it to the top 3 teams of this game!

The rules of the game is very much like The Apprentice. Each team was given a sum of RM10k (fake currency, of course) on which we have to spend on getting permission to use our cars, handphones to make calls to find the answers to some of our tasks, and to get our new tasks when the previous ones have been successfully completed. If your team is the first to complete a task and is the first to reach the next station to get your next task, you would only pay RM500 for that new task. The second team would need to pay RM700. The third pays RM900 and so on.

The winning team is the one who successfully completes all the task at the most minimal cost.

We were all divided into 12 teams (after the 12 disciples of Jesus) with 3 members in each team. Esther was gung-ho about the disciples' names that start with J (ahem, I suspect it's because her sweetheart's name starts with a J mar... hehe!). But I chose Luke despite her protests and so, Luke it was.

And thus, the game organisers had us all racing all over PJ to collect our next assignments. Thank God for Esther's psycho speedy driving which always got The Lukers to the destination fast - always the first three to reach the stations. The first task was to call 6 people and get at least 3 to come for our Christmas musical. Fine, that was rather easy to do. The second task was to share our testimony to at least 3 people in a nearby hill. Each person must share to at least one other person. Now, this was the part that had me quaking in my knees. But this was also the part that The Lukers enjoyed the most. God led us to people who really wanted to know more about the Christian life and about the power of Christ in our lives.

I got to know this auntie who had kind eyes and nicely listened to my 3-sentence testimony. Her English was not that good but she opened up and asked for prayers for her son who was a drug addict. I was amazed that she was so open to a total stranger and my heart went out to her and her son. It reminded me that sharing the gospel is not merely by words alone, but more so compassion in action.

Which led us to the fourth task, which is to see a need and meet it. The third task was very simple - just filling up some blanks in a form. The fourth task had us combing the streets for beggars whom we can give some hot food to but the MPPJ has done a good job in cleaning up the streets and no beggars were to be found. So, I helped an old lady to cross the street and she was amused at our eagerness to help her. I felt rather embarrassed at the real motivation behind our eagerness to help but the good thing about this task is it has trained us to be on the lookout to see how we can help the people around us. That was what Jesus did and so should we, as His Apprentices.

One team did a lovely thing. They went to a Home for the needy and asked what their needs were. They were given a list of items that the Home direly needs but have no funds for. Basic stuff like garlic, oyster sauce, potatoes were lacking. The team took the list and bought what they could afford which amounted to over RM150. And they promised to visit the Home during Christmas to sing carols and play with the handicapped children residing there.

Another team bought some hardworking cobblers some soya bean drinks. At first they were met with suspicion but after a while, the cobblers accepted the drinks and they were speechless with gratitude. No stranger has ever treated them so nicely before, with no strings attached.

It's sad but our society has become such a place where kindness from strangers are often viewed with distrust and are normally rejected. Kids are trained not to speak to strangers and adults believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Crooks have used kindness to lure unsuspecting victims into their trap. So yeah, some of us did encounter difficulties in getting people to accept our kind favours.

And some teams were more interested in connecting with the people that they did not manage to finish the other tasks. But it was alright, because the intention of the game is not to win the gifts that were given to the first three winning teams, but to capture the heart and passion that Christ has for the world.

At the end of the day, J-son (the head organiser for this game) said that he hoped that The Apprentice has managed to instill some good things in us. In making us come out of our comfort zone and from being pre-occupied with our own needs and wants to actually noticing the needs of those around us, we would understand the heart of God and be His hands in loving and helping the needies around us. To share the reason behind the hope that we have to those who have lost hope.

It was a great and meaningful day despite the initial apprehension. I was glad that Esther made me do it.

Oh and by the way, The Lukers got third place. I got a Coolcat Wallet... hee!

A Wallet Made For Me??! Waah...

We celebrated Amanda and Nancy's bdays yesterday. Nancy was already anticipating in agony sheer joy the 'wonderful' treatment that we normally dish out to birthday people. So much so that she told her colleagues that 'she was going to really get it tonight'. Awwww... you can tell she was so looking forward to it, eh?

Anyway, I assigned the sabo' portion of the event to my very talented and evil sidekick Rina. She spent the better part of the afternoon dreaming up a unique game for the birthday girls to play. She came up with something called 'Telepathy'. Good job, girl

Basically, Nancy and Amanda were to take turns guessing how each other would react in a given situation. One would stand in front of the other and the gamemaster would say, "Nancy, how would you react when you feel angry towards Lim (her fiance)?" and the cute girl would act out her reactions, leaving Amanda who is standing in front to try to guess and imitate her actions. Sounds simple? Not really, not when the two have not observed each other in most situations in life. But the girls were such good sports and even tolerated having a star-like beauty mark drawn on their faces.

Telepathy is a tough job!

This is a unique tradition that all birthday girls have to go through in our cell. A rite of passage, so to speak.

Anyway, never much of a bystander, I thought the game was too much fun to be played by the birthday gals alone. So everyone had to join in the fun. Bezzie and I paired up, naturally. Wah, this telepathy thingy was so hard to do. I thought she was more expressive than she thought she was and she thought I was more sedate than I normally am. So we all got powder painted on our faces - the punishment for giving incorrect guesses.

Yaay, we all suck at telepathy!

The fun part came when we made Lim and Nancy guess each others' reactions. These two were hilarious together and overly exagerated their reactions to our merriment. And they even got some of the questions right! It's really fun ragging them together... hehehe.

Nancy peering to see if Lim guessed her reactions right

All in all we had great fun showing our heartfelt appreciation to the birthday girls. Happy birthday, you two! Hugs