Live Life With No Regrets!« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »
His mother died when he was 10.
Two weeks later he was sent to boarding school.
Headmaster was clinically insane.
Bullied in school.
Wounded in World War I.
Once a staunch atheist.
Converted to Christianity at 33.
As Oxford tutor, chased one of his students with a sword.
Chain-smoker.
Beer drinker.
Friend and mentor to JRR Tolkien.
Literary and Christian apologetic genius.
C.S. Lewis.
(29/11/1898 - 22/11/1963)
Soccer Legend George Best Dies at Age 59 - Yahoo! News
George Best, one of Britains greatest footballers passed away this week.
It is a shame for someone who had the gift of playing football so naturally and able to charm almost any woman he met.
He had what the world offered, what people crave: Fame, glory, riches (though squandered away), women?
What was George Best running away from? What was it that he couldn't face? What was the meaninglessness that he faced? Shouldn't he have been happy and fulfilled? No, because there was a void inside of him that he was desperately trying to fill with drink. He tried desperately to deaden his senses with alcohol
What is it that makes alcoholics drink?
Why do some people classify alcoholism as an illness? It is classified as one because the person under that addiction cannot help but do what he doesn't want to do. It is termed "beyond his control".
So if it is beyond our control, we need a power beyond us to bring it under control.
Perhaps, we must ask the question, what is the poison that we drink? Be it alcohol, gambling, drugs, sex, TV, internet, computer games, news, anything that we use to get away from facing the realities of life.
Sin is a disease that infects us all. Only by turning our lives over to God, to Christ to can He turn our lives around.
One of the most successful programs to overcome alcoholism was started by a Christian, it is the 12 Step recovery program in Alcoholics Anonymous.
I sometimes wish that cell group would come together like an alcoholics anonymous group. Each knowing that we are sinners and accepting one another.
The 12 Steps are listed with a little tweaking. I have exchanged alcohol with sin, whatever it may be pride, lust, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth, greed or any other sin.
I think the 12 steps makes an excellent sinner's prayer, don't you think?
The verse of the week I chose asks, "What problem is there that God cannot solve?"
I am always mystified by why people divorce one another. I cannot see why after marriage, that someone would break his vows of marriage when he/she entered into it at the altar promising "till death do us part".
Since there is no problem that God cannot solve, where then lies the source of the problem? It is in the people involved who don't want to let God solve it for them.
Yet, in my naivete I realized that my background is like that of a fish swimming in water. I grew up living with godly Christians around me. LIke a fish, I assumed that there is water always around me. Until now, I only know personally 2 persons who are divorced. It came as a startling fact that for one of my friends about 30% - 40% of her friends were divorced!
Divorce is such a strange concept to me. I think I understand it, yet it is something that I don't really understand. I think a better phrase would be that divorce is like some disease.
I know that it exists yet to see it manifest itself in human beings is like seeing them afflicted with a strange horrible disease that shouldn't be there in the first place.
The irony for me is that I do come from a broken family.
I've talked to lawyers who've handled divorce cases, and divorce happens to both Christian and non-Christian couples alike.
But of course, as I pressed on my question "but what if both of them submitted to Christ?". The answer was "Of course not, if both submitted to Christ then there would be no divorce."
I really hope I do not personally get first hand experience in the pressures of this.
From observation, it seems to be stubbornness of one of the parties to change or shift position in attitude, behaviour, or values. LIke a dance partner who doesn't move in tandem with her partner, it doesn't make a good dance. (Maybe one of my tests for a good marriage partner is to see how well she dances.).
Perhaps another reason is that there is no respect in the marriage. The other partner isn't a person in the other's eys, but instead a sex object or security object that has lost its value. If that was the case there wasn't true and deep love in the relationship in the first place. Like what Martin Buber described, it was an "I-it" relationship and not an "I-Thou" relationship in the first place.
There is also something else I learned. A term like "work hard to make the marriage last" objectifies the relationship, as if marriage is like a machine that needs tuning or oiling or repairing. It puts marriage as something that is outside of us. It paints some imaginary machine that both parties have to fix when in reality both parties are the machine and the only way to solve it is to fix themselves.
(Ah, the deficiencies of our natural language, despite all the richness of English it fails by far. Perhaps when we finally speak and know the language of angels would we change in our understanding and knowledge.)
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:27)
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" by Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus". Inscription found at the Statue of Liberty
The green card lottery. Yes, despite all the spam mail about it, it is a real lottery from the United States to bring in New Immigrants to the land of the free, the land of opportunity.
Unlike other countries that only want to bring in foreign talent, this lottery allows anyone with at least 12 years of education to enter and even if that isn't met, 2 years of work experience are enough.
This year's green card lottery is now purely internet based, no more last minute rushes to the post office or taking of that crazy 2 inch x 2 inch photo size. (Why couldn't they ask for standard passport size before?)
I was done like within 1/2 hour after reading the form, scanning in my photo and cropping it according to specifications.
The United States, the land where White Elephants are welcome, and pilot union heads don't get their PR revoked.
If you want to try, go to the official website. Any other emails sent to your inbox are just scams to get you your money. You wouldn't even know if these so called legal officers really did submit your application after paying their "processing fee" since it is a lottery. Just do it yourself. It's free, fast and no hassle.
After the last day of class at Two Left Feet. Some of us decided to go and check out Union Square at Amara Shopping Centre. It's one of two most frequented places in Singapore for salsa; the other being XenBar in Pagoda Street.
I tried dancing, but really, I need more practice. Just having only 4 sessions of lessons, I wasn't going to make the cut.
Though I did learn something new. You can actually know a persons character when you dance with her. Some get frustrated and complain, some are helpful and patient.
The most amusing thing to happen was some guy who asked me to dance, only to realize when he saw my face that I was a guy. Having long hair together with dim lighting can cause some confusion!
There is no such thing as no decision. Even no decision is a decision.
There is no such thing as no religion. Even atheism is a religion. If we say that religion is a set of beliefs. So atheism is a set of beliefs that there is no being that created the world.
There is no such thing as no style. Even 'no-style' is a style in itself.
It seems simple enough. But that means one thing. We are always choosing, we are always deciding at every moment. We cannot say at any time we did not choose anything. We choose something at all times. Even if we choose not to make an active decision, we then make a passive decision.
Perhaps to extend Jean Paul Satre's thoughts that men are condemned to be free, men are condemned to decide all the time.
Now, with this thought, what responsibility do we have? Unless we consciously choose the right thing, then time, circumstances and fortune does the choosing for us. And that isn't something that we like would we?
Sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better. It could really be called up-leveling. When a person has a vision that transcends himself, that focuses on an important cause or project that he is emotionally connected to, then the real course of least resistance is to put service above self. To such a person it is no sacrifice.To an outside observer it would appear to be a sacrifice because he is denying some present good. Happiness is essentially a by-product of subordinating what we want now for what we want eventually. Rather than being the course of most resistance, sacrifce is the course of least resistance to one who is deeply, spiritually and emotionally connected to a cause or a calling or the serving of another. Service above self is the ethic of all great religions and of all philosophy and psychology that has endured. Albert Schweitzer said, "I know not what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
What is sacrifice?
During entrepreneurship classes we were asked what we were prepared to sacrifice in order to achieve our goals. In order to achieve success, we sacrifice some TV, some social time, some leisures that we go without.
Some sacrifice sleep. But a sleep sacrifice needs to be repayed. But after learning about the consequences of inadequate sleep, I realize that sleep may not be a good sacrifice.
However, when it comes to success in the family life, the success of the material world then becomes the sacrifice. To have good relationships, it may mean postponing an important business meeting for a PTA or little league baseball meeting in order to support our kids. Other types of sacrifices may be "prestige", "being #1" (isn't #2 just as good?), "convenience", "ego".
This concept of "sacrifice" is interesting.
What makes a good sacrifice then? It recalls to my mind images of Cain and Abel each sacrificing their offerings respectively. One sacrified the fruit of their own labours. Cain, the farmer, sacrificed vegetables and Abel the best of his flock.
It wasn't the type of sacrifice that mattered, vegetables or animal (or mineral) but rather whether it cost the person something.
It showed between Cain and Abel who valued God more. By sacrificing something that is not valuable, we show that God comes second in line.
To put God second best by giving him the lame and blind isn't a good sacrifice.
King David knew that sacrifice meant costing something. Araunah wanted to give his land away free for David to perform his sacrifice, but David knew better and still insisted on paying for the land. "I will not offer anything that costs me nothing."
Is Negaraku from a Hawaiian melody?
BY TEH ENG HOCK
KLUANG: Is the Negaraku adapted from a Hawaiian melody?
This question stirred in his mind when Mohd Zain Sahadan, 49, heard his son playing a record from his antique collection.
The song, entitled Mamula Moon by Felix Mendelssohn and His Hawaiian Serenaders, carried the melody of the national anthem but had a slower and more romantic beat.
ON RECORD: Mohd Zain showing the old record that contains the song 'Mamula Moon' which has the same melody as 'Negaraku' at his home in Kluang.
Zain, who works as a junior general administrator with the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan) here, said he felt excited when he heard the tune.
An avid antique collector, he said he had owned the record for more than 10 years without realising the significance of its content.
"I bought it together with 10 other records from an old man for RM500.
"Recently, my son rummaged through my antique collection and played the song on the gramophone.
"Only then did I notice the similarity," he said, adding that he believed the record dated back to the 1940s.
The record showed the name of song, the artiste and also indicated that it was made in England, but there was no mention of the year it was released.
Checks on music websites showed that Felix Mendelssohn and His Hawaiian Serenaders were artistes in the 1940s.
According to www.cduniverse.com, they played Hawaiian-style music, while www.musicweb-international.com described the band's music as "immediately recognisable by its swing, swooning, sensual ethnic style".
This Mendelssohn should not be confused with the 19th century German composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn.
History has it that the Negaraku was adapted from the state anthem of Perak, which had a similar melody to the keroncong-influenced Terang Bulan, a popular song in the 1930s in Indonesia and Malaya.
It was also a familiar tune in the island of Mahe in the Seychelles where a former Perak Sultan lived in exile. A French band used to play the tune when it performed on the island.
There is, however, no record of the exact origin of the melody.
Some historians believe that a well-known 19th century French poet and composer, Pierre Jean de Beranger, wrote the music.
But there is no reference on any link to the Hawaiian Mamula Moon.
Decision making can be shaped by our language.
We sometimes ignore huge warning signs, because we think that something so wrong could never happen and ignore the signs.
The picture in this post is that of Matt Costello, who wrote the story for Doom 3. But when I asked him whether he's seen "Doom" the movie, he said he didn't.
I am a game designer. We think alike!
2 of them even shared that they suffered from a dysfunctional family background.
The ideas for games and ideas for collaboration, the metagame, and ideas like metaphors behind the ideas were affirmations of things that I was thinking about games.
I really liked the encouragement given by a lot of people who said that they were excited by my 2 minute intro to my game and during workshop discussions. They wanted to play my game! And these are professional game designers.
"Through Heaven's Eyes" (Soundtrack from Prince Of Egypt)
We aren't thought often that life is a dance. We are taught what we must do, what we must contribute. How to behave.
But not many of us are thought that life is a dance. That there are rhythms and beats to life.
There are seasons in the year, there is the 24-hour rhythm to a day, there is the monthly lunar cycle.
It is reflected in our physiology, but also in our relationships.
In dance, you can learn leadership. Especially in dances with pairs. We don't get taught how to dance in church, unless you believe that the "charismatic shuffle" is all you have to learn or jumping up and down to a disco rock beat.
In fact, there are many facets and subtleties that I'm learning from my salsa class that I'm taking.
For example, there is a leadership and follower role. You cannot have both the man and the woman doing the leading. One must be the leader and the other the follower. Having two independent beings wanting their own way cannot lead to harmonious dancing.
The man must for example be the strong one, he must provide the frame for the lady to lean back. He must lead the way and provide the cues for the lady to move in tandem with him, as well as watch out for other couples that may bump into him. But that does not mean the man doesn't follow the woman. At times, like when there is a spin or twirl he must follow the lady.
In dance, there are also subtle feedback given through thumb signals and the like. That is also a part of leading either in a group or in a marriage. Both must give each other feedback in order to dance well.
The couple must also not knock their knees into each other or step on one another's toes. When one wants to move forward, the other move backwards. The guys arms must be lifted high enough to prevent his elbows blocking her when she wants to spin, yet not too high that it is tiring for her arm.
The author is now currently taking salsa classes at Two Left Feet Dance Studio.
I've learned that you can't really work longer one day and hope to be alert the next day.
If you keep on doing that on an ongoing basis, you're depriving yourself of much needed sleep.
And you'll pay for it. There will be such thing as microsleep, where you doze of for 5-8 seconds at a go when your body tries to compensate for lack of sleep.
The real solution if you find you have too much work is really to manage your time and if you really have too much work that you find yourself staying longer and longer at work is the following
Once the meaning of suffering had been revealed to us, we refused to minimize or alleviate the camp's tortures by ignoring them or harboring false illusions and entertaining artificial optimism. Suffering had become a task on which we did not want to turn our backs. We had realized its hidden opportunities for achievement, the opportunities which caused the poet Rilke to write, "Wie viel ist aufzuleiden!" (How much suffering there is to get through!) Rilke spoke of "getting through suffering" as others would talk of "getting through work." There was plenty of suffering for us to get through. Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. Only very few realized that. -- Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search For Meaning"
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. -- Romans 5:3-5
What kind of suffering do we have? We are almost all too familiar with the physical, but in this world we often disregard the reality of emotional, mental, even spiritual suffering.
In contrast to the prosperity gospel, Romans 5:3-5 talks of rejoicing in suffering. James exhorts us to be joyful when trials and tribulations come (James 1:2-4). Peter tells us that suffering is not unsurprising, but expected in life. (1 Peter 4:12-13)
In fact to have 3 different people, Paul, James and Peter talk of suffering means that suffering was an essential part of the gospel of Christ. Yes, healing and God's blessing was part of it too. And the desire to alleviate ourselves and to take active measures to do so is the right thing to do. The action is to alleviate. But the attitude to take is to rejoice. It is not some kind of masochistic desire. No, it is the noble courage to face reality, but a firm confident faith in God, which some may mistake faith fo Polyanna-like or delusional optimism.
But does it mean we are doomed? No, because Romans 8 talks of the promises:
And that is the true reason why Christians can be optimistic. But not a delusional optimism that would be "irritating during times of pain" but one that recognizes that truth and sees it for what it is, yet faces it head on secure in the confidence that "his rod and his staff" comfort hims in the valley of the shadow of death.
It seems that life is like a Rubik's cube. There are so many facets to life. And trying to keep them all in balance is frustrating. If you turn one face to get the reds together you unbalance the other sides of blue, yellow, white, etc.
There are analogies that the simple method to solving a Rubik's cube can be applied to life.
| First you start out with a simple cross on one of the faces. | Start out with Christ taking control of one of a part of your life. Don't expect Him to get your life all perfect in one day. |
| Then slowly build up the parts that can be moved to make one layer. | Solve one area of priority first in your life. |
| Remember that the center cubes do not actually move; only the corners and the edges. Some people get confused by this. | Learn to recognize and accept the things that you cannot change, and the things that you can change. The Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." |
| Certain moves require you to memorize the moves. Follow the directions from people who have done it before. Professor Rubik took 1 month to solve his own invention. You can do it in 1 week by learning it from others instead. | Get expert help when in trouble. You don't have time to work it out on your own. |
"What would it take for me to feel good about ending work on time today?"Stating exactly what you'll need to accomplish to feel good about leaving on time that day.
mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore: Sneaky
One of my favourite Singapore bloggers is Mr. Brown. I used to like reading his Singapore National Education Series.
He shares in this post about the travails he has as a father, taking care of his children, and in the latter part, the experiences he has with taking care of his autistic child Faith.
It reminds me something of God's relationship with us.
There are people who complain about God not doing anything. And there are people who know God is doing everything.
Perhaps we, the human race are like Faith, his autistic child. We get attracted to things that actually endanger us. And he has patience enough to lead us and to guide us and to protect us in spite of all the inconvenience to Him.
Turning the tables around, why should God love us, his children so imperfect?
I think that we the human race are like autistic children, full of joy and potential yet limited by a deficiency we are born with. But in spite of that, He loves us very much. (Matthew 18:1-6; Matthew 19:14)
There are some things that I'm realizing now in life are far more important than schoolbooks, I'm amazed that they don't teach these things in school.
Perhaps some of these things are learned through extra curriculur activities, but the idea that they are "extra" implies that it isn't important when it is the obverse.
One sad fact I learned while working as a relief teacher was that the principal refused to start a football team because it would attract the "wrong" type of students. (Fill in the blanks on what you may think as "wrong"). And that by doing so would lower the grade point average.
1) Leadership skills and Teamwork.
I've realized that once an individual has gained competency in a certain vocation or skill, he/she needs to work with others.
Man is not an island, he works with people. Relationships are a necessary part of living in life. We relate to people from young, with our family, our peers, our teachers, our superiors, our government, people in authority and those under our authority.
In fact, as I have progressed in my career, the technical skills are easy to gain but the more and more higher you go, leadership and people skills become the most important. The CEO of General Motors doesn't know how to build a car, neither does the CEO of Coca-Cola know how to manufacture Coke but it was their leadership, motivational and people skills that was paramount.
Unfortunately, these leadership skills are almost haphazardly gained in the school playground. The movie "Sky High" illustrates this caricaturely, where students are either labelled "Heros" or "Side Kicks" on admission to school.
Does a person lose out on the chance to develop his relational and leadership skills based on a 5 minute impression made in high-school?
They do encourage students to take leadership positions, but do they teach leadership to all students?
I believe that everyone is capable of leadership, but they have to break out of the mold that they may have been given by their parents or teachers.
Every human being is a Leonardo da Vinci. The only problem is that he doesn't know it. His parents didn't know it, and they didn't treat him like a Leonardo. Therefore he didn't become like a Leonardo. That's my basic theory. -- Öystein Skalleberg.
2) The Will To Meaning. (Spiritual)
The one hole that is in everyone is the need for meaning in their lives. Frankl disagrees with the other 2 schools of psychology that man either has a will to pleasure (Freud) or the will to power (Adler). Frankl claims that the will to pleasure or power arises when the will to meaning is blocked.
However, the will to meaning is also not taught. In fact, the underlying idea in life that is sometimes thought (I would not know since I am not in school) is that we are economic units. We are designed to fill jobs in the economy. The message that we get from the government is that we are either to defend the economy and to be competitive or to protect our rice-bowl.
True, power and pleasure are there and necessary. But they are only tools and side effects on the true goal of meaningful existence.
What happens then? When people are told that the meaning of their lives is just to make money, they are losing out on their true purpose of life.
Another side effect is that their self worth is tied to the economic value. A person who is a bus driver would think that he is of less worth than a president's scholar that earns tons of money.
The drive for entrepreneurship currently is a necessary move to keep Singapore going in the face of international competition but I fear that it again emphasises the esteem given to people making money far more than those that aren't.
3) Self Esteem and Responsibility.
Keep quiet. Behave yourself.
All these are reactive behaviour from teachers and parents to their children. They are taught that they cannot make wise decision for themselves.
"Keeping quiet". Also teaches them not to have a voice, or that their thoughts and ideas are not valued.
Perhaps not all, but I believe that responsibility can be taught from an early age. Unfortunately, I see in poly that there is this sense of helplessness in some of them that they can't change their future, that the course given to them wasn't their first choice, etc.
One of the most important habits of effective people is being pro-active. And pro-active people are pro-active because they know that they can have an effect. That their words and actions are responsible for consequences that follow. The only way that can happen is when they are response-able. I think that a lot of students are capable of a lot more than they are capable of, except that we don't give them enough credit for it.
4) Ethics and Morality.
Ethics and morality are one of the most important fibres of society. However, in school it was considered the non-examinable subject. The "sure-pass" subject. If it "easy and sure-pass", why are there people going to prison for crimes? Scholars and white-collar crimes are in the news. Enron, WorldCom, China Aviation, Slim-10. All these were committed by educated people.
The fact is, an idea like "separation of church and state" must not imply "separation of morality and skills". Especially in classes like political science, ethics and morality plays a huge role.
Ethics and morality are in fact the most difficult things to pass in life. In fact, doing the right thing is sometimes the most difficult thing to do against the choice of the easy wrong.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
What good is there to have smart and clever scholars that are corrupt, immoral and unethical?
Electronic paper moves from sci-fi to marketplace - Yahoo! News
Updated:
You can order your e-ink prototype kit from www.eink.com. Any aspiring 17 year old future Bill Gates should order theirs one now! Well to do schools or polytechnics should order one for their student labs. Only US$3000.
Mobile is still the technology to go for. With more and more wireless and mobile applications, a foldable and lightweight technology will bring even more flexibility and new ideas to the market place.
Mobile is the next Internet frontier.
Imagine, picture frames holding updatable images. You could have the Mona Lisa on it one day, Van Gogh's Sunflowers the next, or a live cam view of the Eiffel Tower the next.
Or even bigger, things like dynamic wallpapers on your home.
Since it is bendable, how about camouflage or stealth vehicles that can actually change colour as and when needed. A chameleon vehicle as you may call it.
What about fashion accessories? Watch straps or clothes that change pattern?
The great thing about it is that the pattern holds even when power is turned off.
'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." (Mark 9:23)
Kelvin Soh is an ex-drug addict who turned out right because he turned to God.
How did he come to know God, in today's Strait's Times it said:
"He credits his turnaround to a prison warden, who introduced him to Christianity while he was serving a 5 1/2-year sentence for possession of drugs in 1998. That was his last brush with the law."
Another famous person you might know is Nelson Mandela.
I would quote from "Prisoners Of Our Thoughts", pp 40-41:
"The day that Mandela was being released from prison on Robben Island, Bill Clinton, then Governor of Arkansas, was watching the news. He quickly called his wife and daughter and said, "You must see this, it is historical." As Mandela stepped out, Clinton saw a flush of anger on his face as he looked at the people watching; then it disappeared.Later, when Clinton was president of the United States and Mandela was president of South Africa, the two leaders met and Clinton told about his observation during Mandela's release from prison. And, because Mandela had always been a model of reconciliation with no spirit of revenge or negativism, President Clinton candidly asked him for an explanation of what seemed to have occurred on that historic day.
President Mandela replied, "Yes, you are right. When I was in prison, the son of a guard started a Bible Study and I attended;... and that day when I stepped out of prison and looked at the people observing, a flush of anger hit me with the thought that they had robbed me of 27 years.
Then the Spirit of Jesus said to me, 'Nelson, while you were in prison you were free, now that you are free, don't become their prisoner.'"
In both cases, it was become of some unnamed person who had managed to start a Bible Study in prison.
We will never know their names until we stand in heaven. It goes to show that Christ does change lives through ordinary people like you and I. We may never get credit for it, but its effect can change a person, a group, a company, and in Nelson Mandela's case, even an entire country.
The next thought that comes to mind are schools. Recently there has been a brouhaha about proselytizing Christianity in schools and in hospitals. I have not come to an opinion yet on this issue.
However I do have a question:
Do we have to wait until children are of legal age and in prison before we can tell them of Christ?
I hope not.
Some parents think that "religion" should not be taught to children until they are adults. They want them to make the decision themselves. I agree. Everyone must make their own decision to follow Christ. God has no grandchildren.
However, as CS Lewis said, do we wait until the weeds have grown all over our garden before pulling them out?
Introduce them to Christ, don't let the weeds grow in their hearts. It's easier to prevent them from growing in the first place than to pull them out when the roots have taken ground in their hearts.
No matter what a government rules however, I do know this: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)
I want to marry a Miss USA.
Now, wouldn't any hot-bloded male want to do that?
I will have to explain that it isn't what it seems.
After watching Fear Factor:Miss USA edition, I learned to admire these women a lot more. Watching the episode on TV yesterday, I had this niggling feeling there was something different in the show than other Fear Factors.
I realized then halfway through that it was the tone of the contestants and the way they conducted themselves.
They were smiling all the way, there wasn't much fear on their faces and they were gracious before and after the stunts that they participated in.
Though of course there was apprehension they still gamely took on the challenges like walking on a suspended steel framework, being drenched in fish, fish oil and worms and clambering around a climbing net carried by a helicopter.
There wasn't trash talk, putdowns and empty boasts by the Miss America contestants. They were actually cheering their own fellow competitors on.
It's such a refreshing change from the culture of women that we read now. The "liberated" woman of today doesn't seem to mind to bitch, moan, rant and rave about people around them. Perhap's I'm reading too much of Xiaxue's blog. But I hope that the ladies of today and tomorrow not find that saying things like WTF, KNN and CCB acceptable. I shudder to think that the media attention is now on bloggers like Xiaxue and Sarong Party Girl. They may be honest, but they sure don't make good role models.
Instead of the stereotype of a dumb, vacuous beauty contestant (though the youngest competitor did ask, "Fish have oil?", Fear Factor showed that these women were independence, fearlessness, sportsmanslike and this combined with beauty, poise, grace, dignity into one package make the women to truly admire.
Though of course I do understand that it may all be good PR and that it may be part of the organizers orders for them to keep up a good image and it is realistic to believe that some in private they may have their own foibles. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and realize that women don't have to be b****** . Let's believe in the best of humanity. At the very least it is an image to can prove to be a better role model and ideal that humanity should strive for.
If there are more such women around, perhaps world peace may be possible.
Most American children begin watching television before they can talk. A child by age 6 will have invested more hours watching television than in speaking with his or her father over an entire lifetime. -- Dr. James B. Twitchell
I was watching a TV program on Arts Central this very day when I read that quote above. It said that in the UK on average children watch 3 hours and 58 minutes of TV a day, and more on weekends. I.e. On average 1677 minutes a week watching TV vs. 39 minutes with parents. That's a ratio of 43:1.
It makes me think I'll have to put the plasma TV in my home under lock and key when I have children.
Even though we'd like to think that TV is meant to inform or even entertain, as James Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series said, "TV does not exist to entertain you. TV exists to sell you things." (Or ideas and propoganda as he later added.)
Look what I got from a contest I entered. A new mobile phone! Isn't God good? (And no, it isn't a spam mail, it's legit).
I stopped getting presents or angpows since I was 8 years old. My family doesn't have any tradition of giving gifts on birthdays, Christmas or Chinese New Year. But God is the father of the fatherless. And he gives gifts to those he loves.
Thank you, Lord.
As yet unproven.
Superstring theory.
"You see, our universe is kind of like a finely tuned machine. Scientists have found that there are about 20 numbers, 20 fundamental constants of nature that give the universe the characteristics we see today. These are numbers like how much an electron weighs, the strength of gravity, the electromagnetic force and the strong and weak forces. Now, as long as we set the dials on our universe machine to precisely the right values for each of these 20 numbers, the machine produces the universe we know and love."
Superstring theory reminds me of CS Lewis words when he said that the physical laws may just be the stroke of God's paintbrush. Basically the universe is composed of superstrings. Strings of energy that vibrate at different frequencies to produce the different particles in our world, alpha, beta, gamma, omega etc. which in turn form electrons, neutrons, protons and ultimately atoms.
"Just as the strings of a cello can give rise to a rich variety of musical notes, the tiny strings in string theory vibrate in a multitude of different ways making up all the constituents of nature. In other words, the universe is like a grand cosmic symphony resonating with all the various notes these tiny vibrating strands of energy can play."
I say, symphony for whom? But God. "... the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:12), "'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'" (Luke 19:40)
In other universes, the frequences set may be entirely different, producing an unimaginable universe, things that we cannot even conceive in our minds.
In Genesis we read that we are made in God's image. But what is an image? In secondary school we learn of the term "image" when we deal with light and reflections. An image of us in the mirror looks and behaves just like us, but doesn't exist in the 3D world. It is a purely 2-dimensional representation of a 3D object.
According to string theory, we live on a 3D brane in the 11 dimensional world. And because we are trapped in this 3D world, our eyes and sense of touch only perceives the 3D world, can we know the 5th, 6th, all the way to the 11th dimensions? (Or even more? That God is beyond even just 11 dimensions to the n'th degree?)
We are 3 + 1 dimensional beings. Able to move within 3 dimensions and flowing forward within the 4th, time. With extra dimensions, things can easily be explained on how God can see eternally, how he can remain undetected yet always observing us.
An illustration of this concept is listed here.
In the DVD "The Elegant Universe" superstring theory is on the forefront of unprovability. Yet there are scientists who believe in it.
Interesting that there are scientists that believe in an unproveable theory, what about intelligent design? An unproveable theory as well? Yet there are people who fight creationism with religious zeal.
So, if people can believe in an unproveable theory like string theory, cannot we believe intuitively in intelligent design, i.e. God?
Craziest thing done since my last birthday?
Returning my NKF donation envelope filled with peanuts, and adding extra postage to make sure it will reach them.
For today, I give my faithful audience a flashback to the past, 1990 to be exact...
I still keep with me an old exercise book from my Form 6 days in Maxwell Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur.
And it is one of the only exercise books I keep because it's contents are more meaningful than Science or Mathematics could be.
One of the most interesting assignments that we had was to answer several questions about love. And reading those answers which I wrote in 1990, I realize that I haven't changed in my expectations and perceptions of love.
I share with you some of the pages in that exercise book:
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Today's Straits Times talks about Wigan, a newly promoted team that is now sitting 2nd place in the English Premier League, right behind Chelsea.
It is a fairy tale because at the beginning of the season, many people expected Wigan to be in the bottom drop-zone.
Instead, they are confounding pundits with their good luck and form winning their last 7 matches.
What is the reason for this? How does it happen? Some clues can be gotten from the match reports that we read:
They are:
I suppose that I should add a couple more points gleaned from other articles written about Wigan:
Another team that has managed to break the Chelsea domination, is surprisingly Everton who were bottom of the league just only 2 weeks ago.
Everton was in crisis, propping up the table with only 3 points managed to hold the mighty Chelsea to a draw.
What were the reasons for their revival?
A clue can be gotten from the report that the team went for a white water rafting team building exercise prior to that.
