Went to NJC today for College Day to receive a Student Council contribution award. Met up with some pals again, as well as some teachers. Parents came along all the way to Singapore even though the award was no biggie. Of course, I am nonetheless thankful to be even invited for this event. But then again I remembered reading in a book that awards are given to acknowledge that you have been doing things conventionally, the way the world sees success. By getting an award you have proven to be good in the eyes of the world, nothing creative, nothing special, just conventional. Somehow awards don’t really matter to me anymore. I think I would respect the person who has not received any award or praise but has served others whole-heartedly, quietly behind the scenes. I want to be that kind of person. Perhaps the many school awards that I have garnered since primary have made me numb to this fact until now: it is all meaningless in the end. The greatest prize is not an award and I think that we should not be aiming for awards as our goal.

Then it dawned on me also that in NJC today all I uttered were the superficial “Hi Bye” remarks with people whom I have gone to school with for 2 years. Occasionally, I would press in a little and enquire more about their current endeavours, future plans and aspirations, say some lame jokes etc. But it always ends there, and after that the conversation gets tense and then there is the urge to say “Hey, I’ll catch up with you later. Keep in touch OK?” just to part, move on, and bump into another “friend” and repeat the same process.

I mean, one can have so many acquaintances but does it matter? What? Is it supposed to make you feel popular and thus happy? I have 700+ “friends” in Facebook, but does it mean that I am constantly surrounded by friends whom I can care and share everything with? I can tell you honestly that the answer is a flat NO from my life’s reality. I can also tell you for sure that “real friends” account for less than 1% of that figure. I went to look at my “Top Friends” (a Facebook app) list today and realised that I have not really spoken to most of them for weeks if not months. If I were to filter everyone from that list based on the rule of constant and recent communication, I would have a number of “Top Friends” that is lower than the number of fingers on my right hand. (I had since cleared this list. Deciding whether someone is a Top Friend or not really gives me a headache. Sometime in your life someone becomes your “top friend”, and then he or she drifts away as time and distance sets in. Now that I am heading to Berkeley, it would be inevitable that the list would need major amendments again. How sad.)

I remember a friend asking me this in the past: “If you had something bothering you and you would like to share your deepest and toughest problems, who would you go to?” I think I was stumped at that question at that time. I simply could not answer. The truthful answer would be “Me, Myself and I.” I would also be absolutely trumped by the question “Who is your best friend?” I think that until today in all my 19 years of life, I never had a best friend, at least not one that lasted until now.

Can someone define what a true friend is? But if you gave me too honest an answer, i.e. one that is too clear cut and deep, I’m afraid that based on your profound definition I may not have a single true friend. Maybe I was too busy running around building a stupid “empire” of studies and activities and bloody awards but neglected to cultivate close friendships. I end up with countless “Hi Bye” friends.

I don’t want ten thousand “friends”. I just want one or two or maybe three real friends. Wherever I go to in this world, these few friends can be relied on to lend you a shoulder.

It’s high time that I put friendships first. And of course, even if you who are reading this are my fellow “Hi Bye” friend, I love you too and am very grateful to have you as a friend, even though there are many things I do not know about you and vice versa. I would very gladly go out of my way to help you if you just asked. I guess that the reality is not everyone can know everything about myself and be a really close friend, and ironically I think that it is better this way. Thus “Hi Bye” friends are good too. So to the majority out there, Ern Sheong still cares for you as a friend!

And of course, thank God that He sent us a Friend named Jesus Christ to come down to this earth and be true friends with all mankind. But it never hurts to have a true human friend that I can call “best.”

OK so Ern Sheong has gotten himself rid of that sales job with iZZi Wireless Broadband which required him to work all weekend and practically 9 hours a day in a shopping center trying to sell people one thousand ringgit broadband packages. (I actually got a promotion to booth supervisor, but when I realised that the basic pay did not change and the working hours were still that gruelling, I quit anyway =P)

Well I was enjoying my days off after 31st of March (the day I quit) and spent my days hanging out or sleeping late and getting up even later. Nothing in store for me. No plans to do anything. But then before the week was up my mum obtained for me an internship with her friend’s company, i.e. a telco company in Malaysia (no not Telekom, much smaller private company called Telshine Telecommunication) (Somehow it’s weird how things are always planned nicely before me. It just comes. I did not even have to search for both of the jobs I landed since coming back from Singapore. I have to thank God for that.)

I started my job on the 7th of April, and for the past week I have been following an engineer around the entire Klang Valley changing the gateway number for the dialer used to connect to the call server at Telshine (discounted call service). I went to the semiconductor factory StatsChipPac in Shah Alam, Gardenia in Shah Alam, Transwater Api in Bandar Sri Damansara, Aker Solutions at Wisma Hong Leong … bla bla bla so so many companies and so so many factories that I cannot remember anymore. But of course, the pay is lousy. But I can claim petrol and make money out of the petrol allowance! XD

This week I expect to be be driving out on my own to meet clients and do the required maintainance since I have learnt how to deal with most of the troubleshooting needed to fix faulty dialers and how to reprogramme the gateway via plugging in a handset.

Saturday went to the PIKOM PC Fair at KL Convention Centre and got myself a pair of SonicGear earphones for RM 45 (bad publicity for this company, but sorry have to announce it: Your earphones are lousy!!!). Got home and realised that the sound quality was way inferior to that of the original iPod’s =.=

Then I went to church later part of my Saturday and found out that there was some audition for dancers to perform in a special church musical production.

The weird thing about this was that I signed up for the audition:

ES: Hi, I would like to try out for the dance production.
Girl:  Sure, just fill in your particulars here on this form.

While I was filling up the form…

Girl: So, what kind of dance are you currently in? Hip hop?
ES: er…. uh…. ar…. no experience
Girl: It’s okay just come for the try-outs…

Thanks. Phew.

Sweat.

Sunday I was paid to go to a volunteer training session for the World Congress of IT happening this May. I was even given free lunch and three complimentary tea breaks. (There is such thing as a free lunch!) Well I signed up to volunteer for the event months ago (I blogged about it before) so here I was at the training session for one entire day along with 300 other people. Not bad, rather fun. (Paid RM 80 a day for volunteering, training days included) I was allocated to Sales (aka PR) and was posted at the KL Convention Center IT Exhibition during the conference (May 18-22, 2008). Maybe you guys can visit me there! And owh I was also very fortunate to make some great new friends there at the training… hi Aaron from Monash and Peng from APIIT!

Yeah so came back home, had dinner… and decided to drag my father to the DVD shop (whoops! shhhh. hope the police do not read my blog XD). Bought 6 DVDs and watched Step Up (yeah I know I am slow…) at night. Great movie. Makes me feel like dancing too! =) And the girl’s hot =P

So that sums up my week. Not to mention Cell Group, 2 birthday outings, and well, the sad part earlier in the week at Andrew’s wake. Rest in peace, bro.

OK now back to my “How Dell Does It” book before I retire to bed. I really respect and admire Dell.

Good night people. God Bless.

*Andrew Yap passed away on 6 April 2008, leaving behind his beloved family and his whole lot of friends. Thank you to all for the prayers, but God is the Boss and He makes all decisions. Andrew has been called to be with the Lord. I bet Andrew is in a much better place right now. See ya, Andrew.*

Through MSN, Kevin Chan and a few other DJ friends related to me the message they received through SMS on Monday:

Andrew Yap, SMKDJ Class of 2005:

“Andrew Yap from DJ is in ICU. He fell and hit his head and his brain shifted. He’s still unconscious even after the surgery. Docs say he’s not recovering, please pray for him.” -Ee Fei

He added that this was not an April Fool’s joke.

Indeed it wasn’t.

So please pray for him for a speedy recovery. We need a miracle here. He is still unconscious.

Stefanie Lip wrote a prayer so please pray it or pray your own prayer:

In the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit

Dear Lord,

Omnipotent and eternal God, the everlasting Salvation of those who believe, hear us on behalf of Thy sick servant, AndrewYap, for whom we beg the aid of Thy pitying mercy, that, with his bodily health restored, May he be healed by the Holy Spirit and May You Shower Him with your utmost love and mercy. May he wake up from his surgery as he has not waken up since then.

Jesus, Your array of miracles, A true manifestation of Your Divinity, Draws the admiration of searching souls. Never let it be said, “Miracles do not exist!”. You are the living example of such actions. Bless us with the faith to always believe, To affirm the Supreme Power of Your miracles, Be they of a physical or spiritual nature. We believe that our friend Andrew will wake up and be healed by your healing hand.

In your most precious name, Christ Our Lord 

Amen.

Even if you do not know Andrew, God hears your prayer. Praying for him is the least we can do.

I have been writing too much in the past few posts. A random picture would be good!

It was another long night working at Giant Kelana Jaya last week but then some ex-DJ Prefects came to light up my day half an hour before Giant closed it doors! Thanks for visiting guys!

From left, John, Suh Ming, Kevin and myself.

If Suh Ming had not pointed it out, I would not have realised that the picture also featured, from left to right: KP 2005/2006, PKP II 2005/2006, PKP II 2004/2005 and KP 2004/2005. Lol

Oh and I plan to work until 31st March before quitting. I want my weekends back. And I want to be more involved in church, which is hard to do when I work crazy hours.

I know I haven’t.

But a close friend of mine has. My former classmate, good friend and fellow prefect Daphne Chua was featured in the Star Metro on Monday 28 January 2008 with her beloved pet Cookie. It was The Malaysia K9 Day 2008 organized by Puppy.com.my.

Daphne Chua, who had attended the dog carnival for two years in a row, finally decided that she and her pretty pooch Cookie were finally ready to take part in the activities. “It’s good that Puppy.com.my organizes such events for dog lovers as it is an opportunity to create and awareness on animal cruelty and responsibility. Such events should be organized more often.”

Perhaps it would be light years before my first ever The Star feature. =)