My answer’s 10. Can you find the tenth?
Answer: The question asks for amount (combined block potential), not the number of blocks.
Can you find the Tenth?
Spaceship Earth
“We are all in a certain sense, lost in space, on spaceship Earth.”
~ loosely quoting from Dick Bolles
Good Coffee
”Somehow, when you pay good money for coffee, it tastes good even when it gets cold.”
~ © Esmond Ng
Plank in your Own Eye
“Now, if only you are half as great as you think you are; you wouldn’t have to harrow with your own insecurities, would you?”
~ © Esmond Ng 19/12/12
“Inundate”
“Inundate” by Esmond Ng 31/08/12 © Copyright
I am dry and warm,
Yet I feel drenched and thoroughly soaked.
I hear the platters my window against,
But somehow they deluge against my face.
Hours later the sun will peek its gleams again,
Still, stay I dank in my dingy state.
“My Pseudo Lover”
“My Pseudo Lover” by Esmond Ng 30/08/12 © Copyright
We met, the unlikeliest of places in,
Over periwinkles and happily ever-afters.
You laughed initially, at the girl of dreams my,
But soon you saw, what really meant I.
We coupled, our fixations shared,
Remote and absurd but our inhibitions bared.
You suggested we chat and did we,
A bee to flower it soon daily be.
We dreamt of each other funny,
For never met had we.
And we heard each other’s soul acutely,
Though our voices, too had not we.
I became your morning addiction,
And you, I didn’t make known, became mine.
I wrote you poems and messages sweet,
Some that made you tingled, multiply.
We made Love, cuddled and caressed,
Through our thoughts and words unclad.
We made Love on our minds’ ends,
The longings we couldn’t repress.
I had thought we should have next stepped,
I had thought we both were ready.
But guesses me over Sunday no not maybe,
That sure, my Pseudo Lover isn’t yet she.
Now she distanced seems,
My fault, I keep blaming me.
Why the haste so,
Why stupidly did I do, what did me.
She dilemmas over us,
And rightly so should she.
As in her mind reruns our memories,
So I too, her pinky promises to me.
Rereading our writings umpteenly,
Unknowingly attached have become me.
And all this while I tried to steal pieces of your heart,
You had already taken mine completely.
I miss you
“I was trying to steal a part of your heart. But you ended taking all of mine.”
~ © Esmond Ng 30/08/12
“My Pearl to Bed”
“My Pearl to Bed” by Esmond Ng 18/08/12 © Copyright
To sleep I haste,
For there my Pearl awaits.
And for longer in slumber i stay,
Endearing our cuddles till day.
My Pearl to Bed
“One Lone Sheen”
“One Lone Sheen” by Esmond Ng 28/07/12 © Copyright
Lustering up over heads,
Brightest only in the pitchiest dark nights.
You are like them, then again not,
As none near dazzling as Thee.
And though today be gayly bliss’d,
I’m sure a day aphotic and inky it is.
For I see as my head I lift,
Just one lovely, one lone sheen.
“Tiffany Believes InMiracles”
“Tiffany Believes InMiracles” by Esmond Ng 17/07/12 © Copyright
Tiffany Choo Yong Li (04/09/1987 – 13/07/2012)
You’re gone, yet you’re here,
You’ve left, yet in our lives inhabit.
Beautiful times they abide in our hearts,
Etched sorely in each every mind.
Love a word too faint describe,
All your friends of you surely none’d deny.
Fixedly you brought smiles and joy,
Typed boldly in our pages of life.
I’m sure I for many say this,
That I should have spent a bit, just a bit more time.
To catch up over coffee,
To have caught you in your prime.
Your luster flamed away fleetly,
The candle jealous’d of your shine.
But you lit up all of our nights,
And shone’d brightly in our darkest times.
Black of a Different Hue
“If you went where I did, you’d have acquaint that black is of a different hue there.”
~ © Esmond Ng 11/07/12
Hyperopia
“Most men are innately hyperopic. Everybody sees dreams, but most are unwilling to go on a present limb to realize them.”
~ © Esmond Ng 10/05/12
In its Place & Time
“Everything has its place and time, ascribe to it.”
~ © Esmond Ng 22/04/12
Oblivious
“There’s always this one person who makes the world around you oblivious when you’re together; this is also often the same person who can easily make you seem totally oblivious in their world.”
~ © Esmond Ng 10/04/12
Henry Ng (08/08/1947 – 03/04/2012)
Dad and I
We had a few scares quite before this,
Nurses call’d to quick, come him see quick.
The alert, this time, follows through,
His breath last, my Dad into Heaven pass’d.
I thought prepar’d was I was,
For he’d defi’d death 3 years elong.
When all had predict’d life of year half in him,
What more, how longer much could we have entreat?
But I was wrong.
Whether foreknown or abrupt it comes,
Nothing prepares you for a kin’s repose,
Nothing gets you ready for your blood’s loss.
I didn’t cry; not then.
I told myself a relationship we hadn’t had.
Maybe he was never there, or maybe Love I had never felt,
Maybe it was something I had conjur’d, had made up.
But he was there when I was born,
Beaming ear to other, holding me in his arms.
He was there when took I my steps first,
And words utter’d in such random firsts.
He held me up to God at the Baptism service,
He’d probably too was first, to for me tears shed.
He was there to help with all my childhood cake candles,
And he was there when mom came cane-charging choler.
Dad was there, how not manag’d to see I it?
Heck, he was there at my first dental visit!
He was the first to put a hanky in my pocket, something which I still do carry,
He had even taught me to ride my red bicycle at our very first picnic.
You should have seen him when topp’d I my class,
Or when he boast’d to others my horrid guitar strums.
All would know if I did anything well, relatives and neighbors,
Why didn’t I make him more proud, just a little more proud?
When I bought my bike verboten, he shook his head and got me a car,
When I bump’d it, he never once accomplish’d a single sound.
He sav’d on everything but not on me did,
Flight’d me away to Aussie for studies, Crikey! Indeed.
Even when we fought and shout’d at other each,
Nothing ever stay’d sour’d for very long.
He provid’d and gave but never asked for return anything,
He gave me his Love, how could I not have notic’d?
We did a number of things together, together,
From karaoke to washing the car to hitting the gym strong.
How did we end up like this, distanc’d and dissociat’d?
Why hadn’t I, had not effort put in enough?
Retrospect, surely our relationship, not estrang’d,
I seem mistaken, he was there no doubting it.
His actions ensu’d no reason other but Love,
Least I forget, Dad was Dad all along.
I bet there’s way more he did than I can here in speech,
And now he’s gone, I cried eventually, what good is it?
Perhaps in another decade half him I’ll again see,
Perhaps then we could redo what we’d miss’d.
Why should it you?
“It doesn’t even bother me, why should it you?”
~ © Esmond Ng 16/03/12
Sand maketh the Beach
“No matter how minute each grain of sand, without they, there’ll be no beach.”
~ © Esmond Ng 05/03/12
He who not locked his door
“Let us for a second focus on he who not locked his door, rather than he who had burglar’d through it.”
~ © Esmond Ng 29/02/12
“Take her in the wind”
“Take her in the wind” by Esmond Ng 25/02/12 © Copyright
You get not what you want, but want what you can’t.
You hurt the shes whom heart you,
Yet are hurt by she you gave yours to.
Wouldn’t it just a mystery be, if Life kindly treats,
Us for once what we would like be treat.
What’s gone is best perhaps left in the wind,
For thoughts that return within carry its chills, its pins.
And with each whispering rustle kiss,
It cuts bone deep, really so deep.
Never will I leave u; never will I forsake u.
This passage brought a tear (or maybe a few more) while I was reading it on the bus last Friday. Excerpt from Adam Hamilton’s “Why?”:
This last Christmas our church delivered Christmas baskets to all of our worshipers who are currently unemployed. Each of our pastors and a number of our laypeople committed to deliver baskets. On Sunday after our 10:45 A.M. service, I sat down at m desk and began calling the list of persons I was delivering to. The first call was to a woman name “Carrie.” When she answered I said, “Carrie, this is Pastor Adam Hamilton from the Church of the Resurrection, and I was wondering if I could stop by to drop off a Christmas gift basket from the church. It is a small reminder that God has not forgotten you, and that God loves you. Would it be okay if I stopped by this afternoon to drop the basket off for you?” There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then I heard Carrie begin to cry.
I sought to console her, and after a few minutes, she pulled herself together, thanked me, and said she’d love for me to stop by. An hour later I stopped by her apartment. I presented her the basket, gave her a hug, and told her once again that my visit was a small reminder of God’s continued love for her. She said, “Can I tell you why I was crying when you called earlier?” She had a piece of paper in her hand. She said, “I was so discouraged this morning I could not even bring myself to go to church. I watched the service online today. As the service was ending I wrote this prayer,
Where and why? These are my questions. I looked around and see the ugly afteraffects of what God has given us. I am not blaming God, but I am asking, Where are you? I need you! I need help! And no matter how hard I try, I am not getting better. I say your will be done, but it is so hard. I’m not Jesus. I am so weak. I need a break. I need love, I need you Lord. Please, wrap your arms around me and give me your peace. Give me your strength, give me your hope. Let me want to believe and not fear.
She continued, “I had just finished writing this prayer asking for God to show me he still loved me and to wrap his arms around me when the phone rang. I was astounded when I heard your voice on the other end of the line! And then, the first words out of your mouth were ‘I’m calling to bring a gift from the church – a sign that God loves you and has not forgotten you.’ I was speechless; I have never had a prayer answered so quickly before.” I did not know I was answering her prayer. I was just dropping off a Christmas basket. But God had something more in mind.
I had the opportunity to be a messenger of God, Carrie found strength and encouragement, and I was blessed. We can’t always see God’s mysterious ways of working. We can’t always see what God is up to or how many people God prompts before finally someone says yes. But I believe God is constantly working like this. The task for us is to make ourselves available to God each day and to pay attention. By doing this we become the hands and voice of God for others and in this way God answers prayer and works in our world.
To: Whoever may be reading this,
Perhaps me re-posting this excerpt after it touched me is God’s way of using me to tell you that God has not forotten you and that He loves you very much. “Never will I leave u; never will I forsake u.”