Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

2009's gone. 2010's here.

Do you ever get a strange feeling when New Year's Eve comes?

I do. It's like a half-sense of loss and regret. It's also like a very weird sense of awe and amazement, that the time can pass so quickly. In the beginning of the year, you think it can last forever.... and then, in a flash, a blink of an eye, it's gone.

Last night my mum and dad were staring at the TV, counting down the seconds to 2010. I was on the bed, staring at the radio clock, doing the same thing, but with the strange sad feeling.

Ten...

Nine...

Eight...

Seven...

Six...

Five...

Four...

Three...

Two...

I rolled over on the bed and groaned. A long, loud groan.

One...

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" my mum screamed, rushing in to me. She then slipped on her sandals and screamed it to the budgies. Then to the turtle. Then she grabbed the phone and started texting. My dad did too.

Guess what were my first words of greeting to 2010.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

I recall 2009 fondly. Memories of camp, Awards Night, photoshoot. My first day being a senior. When I pierced my ears. Laughter and tears, love and heartbreak. Loss and gain. Anger, anxiety, doubt, fear, exasperation.

Oh, and finally, faith and God.

Well, it's all over now. A new year has come, and I again must climb the ladder. The Ladder of Life. Well, so as I call it.

I have a birthday announcement to make.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!

Yeah, I know it's on December 28, and I'm almost a week late. Sorry.

Have a blessed 8th year, Ryan! I hope you enjoy yor Warrior Cats website hunting game (I never know how you only failed twice in WindClan and ShadowClan-you must have some secret tactic).

Love,

Your cousin, Zhao Yu a.k.a Blueshadow ;>

All of a sudden... the year passes so fast... it's Christmas.

It's not that I'm sad or anything. It's just that I'm having pretty mixed feelings. I love Christmas, it's second to my birthday, but I'm having really mixed feelings about saying farewell to 2009. All those who know me rather well know that I just like to remain where I am.

Enough talk about that now. This is Christmas, come on! We should spread on the cheer. Now what I'd really like to do now is wish you a

A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!

and

A JOYFUL NEW YEAR!!!!!

Thanks for the sms guys! ; )

Thank you God.

Thanks for making me as me. Thank you for the rainbow last Sunday. Thank you for bringing me to Vineyard. Thank you for answering my prayers. Thank you for Honey. Thank you for helping me achieve all my goals. Thank you for helping me through all of my predicaments and dilemmas. Thank you for not leaving me. Thank you for redeeming me.

Thank you....for everything.

I Can...

I can walk

I can run

I can jump

I can fly

I can talk

I can tell

I can read

I can write

I can go to school

I can learn

I can graduate

I can have a friend

I can be a friend

I can teach

I can correct

I can hear

I can listen

I can look

I can see

I can save lives

I can help the poor

I can feed the hungry

I can learn about Christ

I can preach the Word

I can bring others to God

I can bless hearts

I can console

I can.

A post with no logical sense

I was taking my drowsy-making flu and cough medicine a few days ago when this came into my mind, as a passing thought. Of course, it was all nonsense,(pleeeeaaaaase don't take this post for real)but I just decided to write it in here anyway.

If you have taken medicine with drowsy effects and got tired....

Go to sleep.

If you have taken medicine with drowsy effects and did NOT get tired....

CONGRATS!!!!! You struck off lucky.

If you have taken the medicine in right amounts and got tired....

Go to sleep.

If you have taken the medicine in too LITTLE amounts and got knocked out on the floor....

You have probably taken poison.

If you have taken the medicine in EXTRA amounts and DIDN'T feel anything....

You should start feeling worried.

If you have taken the medicine in right amounts and didn't feel a thing....

You have probably taken the wrong thing.

If you have NOT taken the medicine at all and got tired....

You are probably in bed.

If you have done ALL of the things above and felt TOTALLY NOTHING....

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heyyy.

I'm sooo bored...

: (

A Short Simple Story(hope you readers like it)

Once an old man taught his grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me." he told the boy. "It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This very same fight is going on inside you-and inside every other, too."

The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked, "Which wolf will win?"

The old man simply replied, "The one you feed."

Adapted from Wendy Mass's book, The Meaning Of Life

Awards night,birthdays,yearbooks,and a very pissed feeling

21 November 09.

Awards Night is over. So is my birthday, which was yesterday. The yearbook which I've been waiting for all along is now with me. But I am so pissed off. > (

Why, I hear you ask?

A few reasons are listed below:

1. It's end of school.
2. I'm all alone.
3. Bigger expectations are put on me 'cos I'm a year older now. 13, in fact. And bigger expectations means tougher responsibilities.
4. Most of my stuff have been dumped into the bin.
5. I'm having cramps, which all females should understand.
6. I miss school.
7. I hate office.

There are probably countless more, but I'm too tired and lazy to write in any longer. Ha ha ha.

Well, I can't do anything about my miserable problems now. The most I can do is grin and bear it, and wish y'all a Happy and Blessed Holiday. = )

P.S. I tend to get a little lonely sometimes. Please write in my Cbox to show that you have not forgotten me. Thanks.

Happy Birthday!!!

First, I would make two birthday announcements.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHER-MAYNE!!!!!

(actually it was two days belated)

and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARL!!!!!!

Right. I forgot to put the date.

Well, today it's 1st November. It's my birthday month. And also Awards Night month.

I can't wait.

;)

17th October 09. Sunday.

I didn't write in for 2 weeks again because-you guess it. However, most of my worries are cleared because

MY TEAM GOT FIRST FOR THE THE ADS!!!

But I still suffered embarrassments because of my informal dressing. So whenever I walk past anyone(it doesn't matter whom) they stare at me, open their mouths and ask:

"Aren't you going to change for your ad presentation later?"

And I act moody and answer "no". Then I tell them to sit their butts on the chair and do their work or else they are in for it to hide my embarrassed feelings.

This week was pretty good 'cos I passed for all of my Science self tests and passed with flying colors in my LIFEPAC Test. Plus, once and for all, I skipped my level 8 in HG. Thanks to Sam and Charis for urging me to do so.

I'm stopping here for now. I'll try to write next week (or later) if I can. Goodbye.

Ads(who's gonna win????)

4th October, 09. Sunday morn.

The Big Day's tomorrow. The Juniors will be the judges for our(and their team's) ad.

But they're Juniors. What if they become one-sided?

Well.. Sher says she's going to try her best to prevent that, but then, will that help?

And there are the two LPTs. Plus the HG Alternate Test.

I'm so worried. God, help me. =(

Here's a joke my mum told me. It takes place in a mental hospital.

Sooo... a doctor goes for a chat with his patient.

Doctor: How are you?

Patient: Good.

Doctor: Can I ask you a question?

Patient: No problem.

Doctor: What's going to happen if I cut off one of your ears?

Patient: I can't hear.

Impressed doctor: Good! Now what happens if I cut off your other ear?

Patient: I can't see.

Confused doctor: Huh?! Why?

Patient: Because then I can't put on my glasses.

LOL!

My mum's full of these weird jokes. If you need some come to my mum (or me). Haha. If you want to. ;)

3rd October 09. Time runs so fast... sigh.

Yep. I watched the show on DVD just now. With my mum. I actually had the choice to watch with my dad, only that I didn't. I'm more used to watching with my mum...

Anyway, the movie was cool. Sort of. It talks about a dad trying to retrieve his kidnapped daughter from being sold to prostitution. For those of you who hasn't watched it yet, WATCH IT NOW!

I didn't write(or go to comp at all) for the last two weeks because I was er.. banned. I won't go into why I was grounded, though. I'll just fill you in on what happened the times I didn't write(and that's a lot of things) and I'm outta here. Here they are...

a) Honey's death.

b) Playing hooky from school. Actually, I had to, 'cos Dad made me.

c) Inpromptu speech (topic was "Is it better to have loved and lost better to have never

loved at all?" and it was sooo freaking hard.)

d) Mum's new "unique" roses.

Okay. I was exaggerating when I said that there were a lot of new things. It was only four.

I have nothing else to write... guess I'll just go online again tomorrow. Byeee.

Just a Picture

13 September 09. Sunday.

6th September 09. Time runs soo darn fast. Boo hoo. T-T

It's Sunday. 9-something a.m. I have to get up early to go to the comp because it's Sunday and we're always going out and returning late. I wish I could write in the weekdays because all the interesting things happen in school.

Last Friday we had an inpromptu speech from Uncle Chris, Pastor Leslie's brother. Like all of us, he had to pick out a topic written on a little piece of paper in a Cadburys' container.

His topic read, "Why do all teens want to be gangsters?"

Whoa. I was wondering, "Who on earth wrote that??"

Uncle Chris was obviously wondering too because he kept on asking stuff like "Which smart kid wrote this?"

And Karlyn reckons that guy who wrote that was at home sick. So it probably was Brandon.

Anyway, Uncle Chris spun something really interesting+ funny out of that topic. He also had a good point too. His point was that the reason some teens want to be gangsters, i.e. mean and strong, is that they want to hide something from the others. Something that proves that proves that they are not what they seem to be.

Which kinda explains me, too.

In my family, that is.

After Science period, where I did a LIFEPAC test and passed (yipeeee!! thank God!!!) we went to Mcdonalds for lunch. So I sat with Claudia and Carmen and Michelle (who, like me, is a senior)
chatting about stuff like songs and (me excluded) hot actors and who will act in Stephenie Meyer's book, New Moon.

Then we went to the candy shop to wait for the little kids to finish buying their stuff. Then Pastor Jackie touched me on the shoulder.

"You are nominated to be sitting with Sher-Lynn in the car with the small girls for the return trip later." she said, smiling.

OHH NOO!!!

Sitting with Sher-Lynn, okay, not bad. Sitting with little kids, well, sooo not okay!

I felt like a little kid myself when I waited for the whole school to leave first. Jon threw a look at us before following the rest.

Now I'm on my own. :(

To be fair, the trip was fine. The girls were good, although they were shouting about alligators(actually elevators) and all.

I was supposed to learn a lesson from this car-ride, I guess. And I have.

Look before you cross the road!

30th August 2009.


Today we brought Honey to the vet.

















When we carried the bird into the clinic, I saw the vet's pets, a dog and a cat. The dog doesn't bark like crazy anymore when it sees us, 'cause we're practically regulars. In fact, I've made friends with them. <3

So Mum carried the yellow birdcage in the checkup area, and Dr Li (that's the vet) carried the dog away, 'cause it was making a lot of noise. So it was just us and that cat.

Things went fine until the cat saw Honey.

First the cat walked into the checkup area, closely followed by me. It looked up on the cold metal table and saw Honey.

It bunched up its leg muscles, ready to spring. And I knew Honey was in trouble.

"Mum." I said. "Mum. Mum!"

Too late. The cat had already jumped.

I said, "No!"

Both Mum and Dr Li turned. Mum screamed as Dr Li took the cat off the table and apologized. Then she carried the cat away.

Then Mum shouted at me.

"Why didn't you take the cat off the table?!"

"Hey!" I said. " I called you but you didn't take any notice!"

"And how did you call me?" my mum asked witheringly."Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!"

We were still quarrelling when Dr Li came back in. She laughed and said sorry again and we all calmed down.

After checkup was finished we took Honey home. My dad took Honey out of the car and set him on the parking lot balcony(we live in a condominium that overlooks a farm so it's quite a nice view) then started whistling to him.

Honey chirped then made one of those awful raspy noises he makes when he wants attention.

Then we heard a magpie sing from one of the tall farm plants. As if it was a command, more magpie birdsong began to rise out from the trees.

Then a wild magpie flew out of the tree. One,two,three, four, then more followed. Some of them flew right inside the parking lot and started to sing. Soon the car park was filled with a cacophony of birdsong.

All of us could only stand and stare in wonder.

When Honey didn't make anymore raspy noise(or any other noise, for that matter) the wild birds flew off. Dad tried to bring them back by imitating the raspy noise, but it was horrible and all the magpies ran off in the other direction.

Well.

This is a very long post. I guess I'll have to say goodbye.

30th August 2009. I think.



I've just come home from my cousin Callie's house yesterday from a sleepover. I could have stayed until today, but then I had tuition.



Today's Callie's birthday. Too bad I can't be there to celebrate with her. But at least I can still say happy birthday.



It's almost the end of school holiday. I'm glad, because now I don't have to go to my dad's shop, which just has to be the World's Most Boring Place on Earth(don't tell my dad I wrote this) every morning, and do my LIFEPACs.


Anyway, here are the photos I took at Callie's.
















Callie the birthday girl. :)

Ok, photo. Since this is the only photo I could upload.

I'll have to write next time. I'm right now also logging onto the online Cartoon Network games. Going to play Camp Lazlo (if I can).

Bye.

Saturday, 15 August, 2009.

Nothing much to write AGAIN. Then why am I writing in? For fun and just to fill up this freakin' blog. :( Though actually I like it.

I removed the M-rated warning that everyone encounters when they want to read CornerSpot because (to me) it's scaring everyone away. Even Pastor Jackie my once-was teacher was slightly hesitant when she saw the warning. And Mishie my friend over Pet Society commented on it.

I actually didn't mean to write this late. It's 7:39 pm now, and I'm still logged on to the comp. So what though. I got stuck on the computer on last Saturday for more than 5 whole hours. Get past two on a normal boring day and my eyes hurt like hell and for bonus I get a monster headache. God's miracle I got past 5.

Quick stop here. There is a proverb that I found in the book Nineteen Minutes ( not hours) that I would like to put here.

Before you go on the journey of revenge, start by digging two graves, one for your enemy, one for yourself. - Chinese Proverb

This is pretty good advice for those who want to get revenge for something. Like me, for example. That absent-minded cousin of mine from my dad's side went and killed my pet mynah called- of all names- Mynah. I had bawled my head off and plotted revenge for the whole day afterwards. I actually still do think about revenge although that eventful day was on last January, a year before. Sher-Mayne says I have to let things go.

I wish it was as easy as that. And I wonder why the Lord made man's brains to be like steel traps-remembering all the bad stuff that ever happened to them.

Or maybe that only happened when the devil interfered.

Well. *sighs*

I might have a bit more to say, like apologizing for the absence of pics lately (the comp's fault, not mine) but Mum's been nagging at me to get off the comp and everything so I'd think I'd better. I'll talk tomorrow, when I have the time. <3 size="4">

Hi. Many things happened the last 2 weeks, but I'll tell the most amazing(NOT) one.

Two Saturdays ago, as I was preparing to bathe, I heard a cry and a lot of fluttering. I quickly stuck my head out of the private room(or so my parents call it) door and looked outside.

Mum was sitting on the living room floor, looking at the balcony. Dad was outside on the balcony. He was looking down on the ground(we live in a condominium) and whistling.

Hastily I checked the magpie cage. I checked that particular cage because I knew Mom always let Honey the magpie out to feed him with some protein-rich foods(in this case raw pork), because he wasn't faring very well.

The bird cage was empty.

"Where's Honey?" I demanded to know. "Where is he?"

"He flew out of the balcony." my mum said. "He escaped."

"Why didn't you shut the balcony door?"

"He was sick!" my dad said, coming into the living room. "We didn't expect him to run off like that!"

So Mum went down to look for Honey,and I went to shower. I was upset, but I wasn't surprised. Even though Honey was just a juvenile, he should not be underestimated. All magpies shouldn't.

The next day when I woke up, I saw their hopeless faces, and I immediately checked the birdcage. It was still empty.

I knew it, I thought.

"So." I said. "Honey escaped."

"We searched everywhere." they said.

So we went out for the day. Dad got cross because we were supposed to meet Grandma today, and I was wasting time.

Well...so the day went by. We got home. I had to unlock and padlock the gate, for punishment for being so slow earlier.

Then when I was locking the gate, I hurt myself.

"OW!"

I heard a scream from the balcony. Then Mom came running to me with news.

"Honey's back!"

Till this day I still wonder, what made Honey choose us instead of freedom in the skies. Here was this big chance, to live like a true bird, instead of some horrid human toy, to soar in the great skies and die wild. But he forsook this Big Chance, and came flying back to us.

This is one big mystery that I will ponder all my life. That Honey choose us, instead of freedom.

26 July 09. Not much of a remarkable day to go recording it down in CornerSpot, but I'm just doing it for fun.



We went to Midvalley today. But before that, Dad brought us over to a townhouse near our home. One of the houses there were for sale. He and Mum wanted to inspect it. I keep on asking them about this ( Dad keeps on looking up on the "houses for sale" section) and their answer is "Why do we want to buy it? We don't have money anyway."



Then why do they keep on looking at houses, I wonder?



The owner of a house was a tall, gangly man with a slight mustache. He wasn't very old. That guy guided us through the house, pointing at stuff and saying things that I didn't care to listen about. I didn't really like the house because there were long cracks everywhere and there was a hole in one of the windows. ( I have to admit that the hole wasn't big enough to go sticking my finger through it. But it was still a hole.)



After a lot of dillying and dallying we finally got into the car and drove away for lunch. I wasn't very hungry, despite my very meagre dinner at PappaRich yesterday. So I gave half my rice to Dad, who wasn't very pleased.



I did NOT enjoy it at Midvalley. The worst part of it was when I was buying white shoes for the school shooting on Friday. I had to queue up for ages at the cashier.



We wentto Pets Wonderland, where I spent half the time looking at cats. And most of the time they were fast asleep. Sometimes I wonder how it is to be a cat, when you have a long silky pelt and spend half your life snoring away.

After that we went to MPH Bookstores, where I finally bought ( and could read!) the book Nineteen Hours, by Jodi Picoult.

23 July 2009. The first time I have written in CornerSpot.

Although I made this blog 2 weeks ago.

Actually, I STILL do not exactly know what to write. OK. Let me introduce myself.

I'm Zhao Yu, 13, and I go to Vineyard Resources, a home-schooling center. My dad wanted me to create a blog by the end of this year, but being me, I created it on the day he said that. Now he wants me to teach him how to create a blog.

I might have stopped here,but since my dad wants me to add something more, I'll do it.

This morning, when I was at tuition, Dad and Mom ran off to MPH to get me a book. Now this is pretty weird because I was banned from reading books for not doing enough LIFEPACs. The book was called Yesterday's Weather, a bestseller br Anne Enright. Dad chose the book because it had won an award.

Very well then. As soon as I got home, I immediately threw myself down on the sofa to read it. I had assumed that it would be good for me.

How wrong I was.

Obviously this was not a book for my age.There were words such as "f---" and "s---" and the characters-uuuuuurgh. I'm not going to say.

Obviously this book was for adults, not for me.

I'm running out of time and I would have to write in again when I have the time. Bye.