random fumblings

The Magnificat

2007-06-21T20:47:00.000+08:00

The Magnificat is a beautiful prayer and we can learn so much from it. However, I’ll just keep this brief because I figure if I really do go in depth, it might take quite a while and I don’t have the patience so I’ll just try to keep this simple yet meaningful.

“My Soul glorifies the Lord,
My Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”

Thus begins Mary’s lovely song of praise that is witnessed by her kinswoman Elizabeth with both the unborn Jesus and the unborn John the Baptist in these women’s wombs. Notice, Elizabeth praises Mary and Mary in her immense humility turns the praises to God. That I guess is what happens when we pray the Hail Mary and echo some of Elizabeth’s words, she immediately glorifies the Lord.

Why does her soul and spirit glorify the Lord?

“For He has looked on His servant in Her lowliness,
Henceforth all ages will call me blessed.”

God has looked at His lowly handmaid, a young virgin girl of only 14 and has chosen her to be the mother of His Son. Mary knows that it is the Lord that makes her worthy of our praise and admiration and actually prophesizes that all generations will call her “blessed”. Thus, it could be said that those who do not praise Mary and give her due respect are actually not following the Word of God.

Mary actually here shows us that God in his immense love and wisdom can and will use anyone of us no matter how unworthy we feel we might be. It recalls the story of St Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. St Juan Diego was a simple man with no education or anything and Our Lady appeared to him and commissioned him to have a church built in her honour in Mexico. He said that he was not the right person for the job as he did not know how to talk to those in power but Our Lady gave him the strength and courage through his humility and his simple humble act together with the ultimate humility of Our Lady, together helped convert almost the entire population of Mexico in less than a single generation.

“The Almighty works marvels for me,
Holy is His name,
His mercy is from Age to Age,
On those who fear Him,”

Our Lady then talks about the amazing things that God has done for her and she actually tells us why or maybe how it is that she had won God’s favour. She says that He shows His mercy on all those who “fear” Him. What does this fear of God mean?

Most of us would rightly see fear as a bad thing and it is if it keeps us from being all that we could be. However, this fear that is being spoken of here and in many other places in the Bible is actually a fear of being apart from the presence of God. I think that could be more accurate than when people think that it is a fear of God’s wrath. Yes, that is important but for the loss of God is an even scarier thing. We should all have this fear of the loss of God within us and thus hope never to do anything that might cause that to happen. So the fear of God, this Holy Fear, would actually help keep us from sin. And when we have this Holy Fear, God’s mercy will be upon us and He will work marvels for us.

“He puts forth His arm in strength,
And scatters the proud-hearted,
He casts the mighty from their thrones,
And raises the lowly,
He fills the starving with good things,
Sends the rich away empty,”

This is quite simple and complex. I remember somebody, probably Bro. Mike, calling it an ecclesiastical revolution of something. That’s just a fancy way of saying that God will change everything and that what we expect to happen might not always happen. God changes everything and if you’re leading a comfortable life at the expense of others then we need to know that God might change that at any time. Same for the opposite.

“He protects Israel is servant,
Remembering his mercy,
The mercy promised to our fathers,
To Abraham and his sons forever.

I read something recently about how if Abraham is the father of faith, then Mary, is the mother of faith and the similarities between the two are astounding. Both we told about miracle births that involved them, Abraham about how Sarah, his wife who was super-old was going to conceive and Mary about how she would experience an immaculate conception. Also, how both their journeys of faith ended on a mountain. Abraham leads Isaac up to a mountain to sacrifice him for God and God stops it before anything and a ram is sacrificed instead. Mary follows Jesus up to Golgotha and witnesses how God has His own Son sacrificed for all mankind. So God remembers the mercy of Abraham by sacrificing His own dear Son not just for Abraham but for all of us, forever.

As I’m still trying out this blogging thing, I’m not sure about how to end and so I’ll just stop here and say something brief and simple.

Thank you God for your gift of Mary and Thank you for everything you have done for all of us. Thank you for your mercy and all your marvels.

The Annunciation

2007-06-19T22:35:00.000+08:00

The Youth In the Spirit Seminar has just come to a close and I was just looking at some stuff in the Bible and realising that what we did at the camp actually can be understood by looking at the mystery of the Annunciation.

Reflecting on this mystery is important for me because I remember telling a lot of people to be like Mary and to say “Yes” so that Jesus can come alive within them. It occurs to me now that in doing something like that, we, the ministers, are actually playing the role of the Archangel Gabriel. We are bringing the news that God wants to live inside all our participants.

It is interesting that the words said by the angel are similar to the words we sometimes use while undertaking the work of ministering. We tend to echo the angel’s words, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Now, as for the next bit of that line (Luke 1:35), the angel says, “therefore, the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” Do we say this? Does this apply?

(OK, I’m no expert so all I can give is my opinion. Hopefully it helps but if it is in anyway wrong, please do feel free to correct me. I really don’t want to tie a millstone around my neck for leading sheep astray.)

When we pray for the Holy Spirit to fall upon somebody, we should pray for a child to be born within that person. No. I do not mean literally. I mean that the Holy Spirit, when He first comes into contact with a person, would create a new person, a new Child of God. I guess that’s why I feel that the theme for this year, “All Things New” was a truly inspired theme. Anyway, we should thus pray for an awakening, within the person we pray over, of a new Child of God who will be holy, so holy that he/she will be called a Child of God. I guess that is what many people come to the camp seeking to achieve. Thus we need to be their angels and serve them in the same way the Archangel serves the Mother of God.

So if the ministers play the role of the Archangel Gabriel, it follows that the participants, those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit should play the role of Mary. Mary is given a mission by the angel and she carries out this mission even though it is rather difficult especially in her new state. She brings Jesus to her relative and there is no outward show of Him but rather, He is concealed within her. Do we who have received the Holy Spirit do such a thing?

Let’s examine this a little further. Do we carry Jesus around like Mary does, in such a way as to give joy to others even though they might not be able to outwardly see Him? I tend to not be a huge fan of extreme evangelists who keep preaching of fire and brimstone and how everybody must accept Jesus as Lord or they’ll go to hell or something. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it’s a sin or anything; I’m just saying that I just don’t think it’s effective. I think we should just follow Mary’s example and start with our own circle of friends and family and that we should carry Jesus to them such that it will give the joy that only He can give.

Let’s just embark on that mission then, all of us who have received new life after our YISS. Let us serve those around us with a spirit of Love and Joy such that those around us can see and even feel the Joy of Jesus within us. Let us start small, with our family and close friends and just spread His Love.

Right, I know I said I was going to reflect on the Annunciation but then went on to talk about the visitation and I apologise but I felt that putting them together might be a little clearer. I have a strange feeling my next post will continue on from here and look at the Magnificat, Mary’s beautiful song of praise to God.

Revival

2007-06-19T01:17:00.000+08:00

Aloha,

I've decided to revive my moribund blog and change it up a bit...

First, I will actually post stuff regularly...

Second, I will not post pictures of my holiday/exchange in Hawaii anymore... (You can just get those pictures by adding me on facebook). I might put other pictures up though.

Third, I will be using my blog as something to help me wih my quiet time and reflections.

In other words, this blog will be a *gasp* religious blog. I know last time it had some religious elements but now it will have a lot more. I think, knowing who I am and what I enjoy doing, this will also have reviews on movies, books and comic books probably. It might have some poetry I might write, if I actually start writing poetry again. It might have some advertising of events that might happen like upcoming plays that I think would be awesome or movies that I really want to watch and stuff.

Yup, that's it... The DNR has been removed from my blog and now like people who've had a near death experience, this blog is going to do things different. It will really start living now...

Mahalo for reading...

For Lou...

2006-11-29T13:39:00.000+08:00

I know I haven't posted anything since Halloween and there's a good reason for that. I'm lazy...

But today I need to post something because, well, just because...

Today my friend Lou took her life. It is a sad day. At times like these I always ask myself why. And guess what... I don't know why. Stuff just happens that we might never understand. It is unfair but well... nothing, it's just unfair.

I got my stuff from Amazon today and one of the books that I got is Richard Bach's "Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul". Several years ago, my friend Maxine recommended a book called "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah". It was not a Christian book but there were many wise sayings in there that can be applied to life. It was a book that changed my life and I hope I still have it somewhere at home.

Anyway, I picked up the new book and followed the instructions. Think of a question, close your eyes, flip through the pages of the book, stop at one of the pages, then choose, left page or right... I know it's funny but that's what the book really says. And this is the page I came to:

"You're the master of what you've lived,
artisan at what you're living,
amateur at what's next to live."

What does it all mean? Nothing. At the beginning of Messiah's Handbook, there's a disclaimer that's found at the end Illusions too. It says that when the person who "gave" this book to the "author" got killed by an angry mob, he asked himself why such a good man had to die such a senseless death. He flipped through the book and came to a page that said, "Everything is this book may be wrong." And that's it isn't it.

We can never have all the answers, but keep asking the questions anyway. There is no book that can tell you all you want to know or need to know, keep reading anyway. And I can't write anything smart to complete this paragraph but that's just like life. Seldom is there going to be a punchline to end it all. Who cares. Just sit back, enjoy the show and when the end comes... It just ends.

Lou, we'll miss you...

Halloween

2006-11-06T09:15:00.000+08:00

Here a picture of some of the Krazy Kalo people. That's me in the scary mask. And next to me are Jess "the pirate", Mary "the hot little mermaid", Cassius "the classic basketball guy", Ben "the rubber duckie', John "the Karate Kid", Jess "the lady bug", Hassan "the Indian Maharaja" and Kim "the Bumble Bee"...

That's Cheerleader Kristie, Scary Don and Batgirl Lou from Japan...

My housemates Dan and Dick as "undercover Narcotics officers who are corrupt and do whatever they confiscate"...

That's Aaron, "Tom Cruise from Dirty Money", Dan, Hannah "a leopard from down-under", Binh "the Japanese Schoolgirl from Vietnam" and Jenn "Helllloooo Nurse"...

That's me and the kind soul Justin who gave me the burger when I was tailgating last Saturday. He's Zorro, and I don't know who the other guy is. That's what the rest of the pictures are like. I really have no idea who these people are...

Oompa Loompas!!!

Makes you wanna go to heaven don't it? Angels like that make me wanna trade in my horns...

Captain Caveman!!!

Native Hawaiian Soccer Player... Yep, Sweeper...

japanese Bunnies...

Father Time...

Even those in wheelchairs are getting involved in Halloween! This dude is a Nascar Racer! Coolness!!!

With Zeus and Aphrodite...

Two pictures that sort of give you an Idea of how crazy crowded it gets in Waikiki during Halloween... It really was super fun... And I'm bringing back my mask so guys, it's time for some more fun in Central 6...

preparations for halloween

2006-11-06T08:59:00.000+08:00

I went for a little fall party last sunday and we played lots of fun games and had lots of good food too. Here are some pictures.

That's me and the pumpkin I helped to carve with my group. My groupmates were Hsinying from Taiwan and Marcus from Washington who is a member of YWAM as well...

Some of the Pumpkins that were carved...

That's Marcus with two guys from Kathmandu Nepal...

A picture of some of the girls at the party. Sumi from Malaysia, Laura from Minnesota (YWAM), Hiromi from Japan, Hsinying, and Ayaka from Japan...

Here's Agustinho from Timor Lieste, Laura and June from Yunnan China carving their pumpkin.

Yup, prep for halloween was fun but halloween it self was way nuts... pictures coming soon...

My first football game

2006-10-31T16:48:00.000+08:00

I went for my first football game on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. The thing I will take back the most from that experience will be the experience of tailgating. I know many drivers out there will tell you that following too closely behind someone is very dangerous but I'm not talking about that kind of tailgating. Tailgating is what happens before football games. Familes or friends will go down early for the games and set up a barbi and kegs or coolers full of beer. Some will come bringing tents and radios or even tvs all to enjoy the game at the stadium. Yes, not in the stadium but at the stadium. They never enter the stadium to watch the game but remain outside in the carpark roasting hotdogs or making burgers or something. And that something is known as getting very happily drunk...

Here are some pictures of my 1st game...

This is the Aloha stadium which is a sad stadium. it is sad because Hawaii has no NFL team. That is also why UH games are so huge here because it is the only thing that hawaiian can do together in terms of sport. It is also sad because it is painted rust brown. Really it's paint but everybody just thinks it's a rickety old stadium.

here's a picture of some very kind people who gave me a burger which was very tasty indeed. They gave it to me for nothing and the reason, that's the spirit of tailgating. to give and not to count the cost. they just give willingly. It's all about sharing the love that is the Aloha spirit!

here's a picture of my friend George playing beer pong which is a game in which you try to bounce a ping pong ball into a cup of beer. Just look at the concentration on his face...

here's a picture of the stadium from the inside. hawaii smashed Idaho 68-10. What can i say, these warriors rock. And yes Idaho that's right, U da HO...

Hawaii is in black and Idaho is in white...

these are two pictures from the halftime show which was hugely entertaining. The marching band got into costume and stuff because one, it's halloween and two, because it was the homecoming game. There were also these little girls who were dancing with their dad's which i though was super adorable. The dad's wore t-shirts saying Dads and they danced too and did cartwheels and stuff to boot. Hugely funny...

And yes, the obligatory picture of the uber-cure cheerleader... Uber, uber cute...

the other movie

2006-10-31T15:42:00.000+08:00

I know I left you guys in a dirch with my last post and kept you in suspence for the last movie but I'd like you guys to know that this was for good reason. I felt that this movie needed a whole post all to itself. Heck, honestly, it needs way more than that but I can't afford to do that. Besides, it's pretty tough to talk about it at length without killing it for everybody.

The movie I want to talk about it called Rang De Basanti and it is pretty much the best film I've seen all year and just to continue my use of the hyperbole, pretty much the best film I've seen in a long time. It is a Hindi movie which if translated in Singaporeanish is a Hindustani movie. It is the 2nd highest grossing movie in Indian cinema in this past decade. It broke many box office records in India. And it did all this without Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachan. (If I spelt any of the aforementioned names wrongly you have my sincerest apologies. Make that a thousand apologies.)

Yes, I am a losy Indian boy who has never until this movie sat through an entire movie from India. (Gandhi does not count. It was made by Sir Richard Attenborough) The only time I managed to watch a large chunk of a movie from India is that Christmas at Auntie Michelle's where all the slackers were just watching some Shah Rukh Khan movie. I still needed help from Amrit to tell me what I had missed. Anyway, that was a pretty memorable Christmas. I don't think anything says Christmas like Indian cinema and curry. And by the way, I am serious about the curry part. If I do happen to stay in Hawaii for Christmas it will be the first Christmas for me ever with no curry. (I miss my mummy's tulang curry)

Back to the movie. Rang De Basanti means The Colour of Sacrifice and the only big name it has in the cast was Amir Khan. It was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and I shook his hand after the movie. Seriously. The first big time movie director I've ever had the pleasure of shaking hands with. Gosh I wish I took a picture of that. Besides that the cast was made up of smaller actors one of whom reminds me of one of the slackers, Mr Siddarth Khapur and another reminds me of my cousin Ashley. Ashley's a guy by the way. I'm not too sure about whether his name has an "e" but the rest of his siblings have the "e" so i'm guessing it does.

The movie, like any respectable Bollywood movie, had an intermission. As to why I would bring this up, the reason is simple. The said intermission was so well placed as to split the movie into 2 parts. The first part of the movie was merely an ordinary picture of college life with drunken nights and merry making. There were the obligatory love stories and the story of the father who wants the son to further his education. The furthering of education bit is such a stalwart of Indian cinema it's incredible. There was also a line which appears in many college films. The "In college I am somebody but once I leave and go into the real world, I am nobody" schpiel. The quintessential line for many college students who realise that college, in no way, reflects the world out there. This group of students is also known as everybody, ... hopefully.

The second part of the movie is undescribable. Well, I lie. In actuality I could describe it but I just don't want to. This is because i really want everybody to go out and watch this movie. It is well worth whatever you need to pay to watch a Hindustani movie. The difficult part might be in finding the cinema that still shows it. If all else fails, just wait a while because from what I've heard, Rang De Basanti is the official entry from India for the Academy Awards. Thus, it might have a second showing closer to the awards. Or just get the DVD. Don't ask me where from but I'm guessing Mustafa Centre.

This movie will blow you away. It is a brilliant cinematic experience and an all round great movie. I am pretty good at predicting Oscar winning movies after watching movies just once. I am proud to say that I predicted Gladiator would win the Oscar on the opening night. I also predicted that Battlefield Earth would win the Razzies which it made a clean sweep of. One more reason to show that Scientology fries your brain. (The Razzies are the anti-Oscars) Anyway, I'm predicting that Rang De Basanti will take the Best Foreign Film Oscar. And when that happens it will mean that I am 2 degrees of Separation from the Oscar considering I shook the Director's hand.

Anyway, apart from awards and box office success, the film was also big in another way. It changed Indian society. It made students awake from their slumber and take to the streets like proper students to protest the injustices of the nation they lived in. This by the way is why we at NUS hardly have any time to do much. We are overworked so that we can't do anything crazy on the streets. The powers that be probably decided that the best thing to do was to give us so much work that the phrase idle time does not appear in our vocabulary. I think they should just make beer cheaper for students and thus achieve the same objectives. Of course maybe it just makes us smarter and I am just propogating insane conspiracy theories because conspiracy theories are cool. By the way, to any Government people reading this, I have a tendency to jest so do not take this seriously. Except the part about watching the movie. Go do that.

Yeah, since the movie came out there have been many protests in India, non-violent protests, trying to fight the machine of injustice that is so rampant in that country. Many people know that India has the potential to explode into a truly great nation and yet everybody also knows that the capacity for Indians to self-destruct is also boundless. (Ok, this might not be an appropriate time to make jokes about the bindi - the little red dot on the foreheads of many Indians) Anyway, many students who lead these candlelit procession quote the movie and claim that it was the movie that inspired them to try and change the world they live in.

On a more serious note, the movie inspired me. It showed me that my generation should be called the "Sleeping Beauty Generation". Forget the Gen-X ers or the Gen-Y - (I still think that Gen-Y is a retarded Euphemism). This generation I claim to belong to is full of potential but we all just need something to rouse us from our sleep. We are an enormous powder-keg just looking for something to ignite us to cause us to explode to our full potential. We have the power to change the world but we just need to know what we want to change it into. Once the initial point of inspiration is begotten then, I believe, this generation will show what it can really do. It will be an exciting time, just you wait and see. I see potential all around me hungering for something to convert them, from potential to Kinetic or Light or Heat or blooming Nuclear Energy. As the song goes, "It only takes a spark..."

Here is a sonnet I wrote about the movie. It is the first proper sonnet I've ever written. Proper as in it scans and it rhymes. I don't think my previous attempts were in iambic pentameter. hahaha, another thing this movie has inspired...

The peachiness of youth skips idly by
These are the carefree days of college life
With days of bloodshot eyes and Spidey's wife
And nights of Lucy and the Diamond Sky
'Tis wasted on the young they prophesy
And none will argue with truth so rife
Our life is rounded by a little trife
These Halcyon days we'll live until we die

But every now and then there comes along
Events that make a man out of the mice
Against the system shall we rise up strong
Our foes consume our youthful sacrifice
In truth it's us who are the fortunate
Our legacy will live indefinite

great movies

2006-10-25T17:47:00.000+08:00

I've just spent too much money on films this week. But what am I supposed to do. It's the Hawaii International Film Festival. Sure the movies shown here cost more than normal commercially released films but that's usually because they're much better and three out of the four movies I've watched were.

The first movie I watched in this movie festival was 4:30 by Royston Tan. I know, watching a Singapore Movie in Hawaii? But in all honesty, it was free and I am Singaporean and so I went to watch it because of that mainly and also because I thought that Royston would be there and he was supposed to but didn't show in the end. That was good because if he did I'd be trying to market myself more than anything else. You know like, "Hey, if you need an handsome leading man to sweep the girls off their feet, here's my card. Or, if you need a really good actor for a really difficult role and you can't find the right guy, you could call me too."

Since he didn't show, I also did not have to pretend to enjoy his movie too much. I'm not saying that it wasn't a good movie. It was alright but I'm happy I didn't pay US$9 to watch it because if I did, I would have probably hated it. Also, I wrote in the introduction that 3 of the movies I caught were great and well, this one just wasn't one of them.

Somehow there is a new wave in Singapore theatre that seems like the next big film from home will be a silent movie. I mean "Be With Me" by Eric Khoo had very little words said but it more than made up for it by having a few great stories and very creative ways of telling the stories. 4:30 goes one better with a script probably consisting of about 300 words. I'm not kidding. In one scene, a teacher asks the protagonist to read an essay and that was 150 words long. That was half the script right there.

The visuals were pretty well done though. I'm a word-phile and I like words so that might be one reason I am judging this movie badly. The shots were well done and the emotional range of the actors was extraordinary. However, my major gripe with the movie is the fact that it comes off as a touch pretentious. It seems to think of itself as an arthouse movie and so it just spends a lot of time on still scenes where nothing happens. Yes, this does add to the artistic element of the film but in my opinion, it was way overdone. The pacing of the movie suffered greatly because of this. In all honesty, some people just walked out of the cinema after a while. My overall judgement of it was that it was a good effort but it really did become tedious very quickly.

The next movie I watched was called "Paper Dolls" and was a documentary about crossdressing Filipino caregivers in Israel. I watched it with my friend Yael from Kalo. She's a Filipino-Israeli hapa and so the movie caught her imagination. It really struck a chord with her because she could actually relate to the characters in the movie. It was great fun to watch and was warm and engaging all the way through. We get to see another view of life in Israel. It was not all violence and Arab-hating but just like any other country with it's own problems.

It focuses on a few caregivers who do really serve their employers really well. One of them gets so close to 'her' employers that 'she' says that 'she' is not a mere employer but more of a loyal daughter taking care of him. At night however, these caregivers don wigs and costumes and form a troupe of performers who call themselves the Paper Dolls. Their bad lip-synching reminds one of Ashley Simpson but the spirit and joy they attain from performing reminds one of Lisa Simpson. Their body shape unfortunately and dance mistakes are very like Homer Simpson crossdressed as Jessica and through it all, they had the spunk and rebeliousness of our dear Bart Simpson.

It was a great study of prejudices and how it is difficult to get rid of them especially in a place where tradition and decorum is so engrained like Israel. It speaks about judging people for what they look like on the outside and not for who they are on the inside. The thing I enjoyed most about the film was probably the film stock which was a documentary film stock which gives the whole thing a certain graininess that spoke so much about the harshness of life for these immigrants, strangers in a strange land.

After that movie, Yael and myself snuck into another movie called "Eve and the Fire-horse" and that was pretty sweet too. It was a movie about two young second generation Chinese girls in Canada. I think it was shot in Vancouver. It was such a sweet movie and the two young girls was fantastic actresses. It was a captivating movie about how children react to religion and how they understand such complex matters.

The scene of the movie is a shot where we see Jesus dance a waltz with Buddha. The director said after the movie that she was afraid that it would anger a lot of people but she said that all the comments about that scene bar one were positive. My gripe with that scene was the fact that Jesus had a belly. He was the fattest Jesus ever. Maybe it was intentional as maybe that's what the little girl might have thought since the family had placed the crucifix together with statues of Buddha and all the offerings. The little girls asks if Jesus and Buddha are friends and very wisely says that they should be since they say the same things pretty much. Reminded me of a little fact I heard once before that there was a period of time that Buddha was actually a Catholic Saint. Cool huh?

Anyway, the movie was full of wit and had many moments which left many members of the audience laughing out their popcorn. There were also many parts of the movie that just tugged at your heartstrings so had that you thought the cord might break. It made me think of home and how we manage a touch on syncretism in our beliefs because of our cultural understandings. It would probably not do very well in the US though it really took off in San Francisco (what a shocker! hahaha) but it might do well in Singapore although I doubt it will ever get to our shores. It was just really low budget so I really do hope it does well.

As for the last movie I want to talk about I think I shall save it for the next post because this one might just be a little too long. By the way, the last movie is also probably the best movie I've seen all year. It was also the first Hindi movie I've ever watched in a cinema. Probably one of the first Hindi movies I've seen all the way through too. I'll share more with you soon.

stolen from somewhere else, i'm sorry

2006-10-21T16:28:00.000+08:00

I came across this really funny list of rules for every woman so as to help them live with men. Some of them I agree with, some of them I don't but almost all of them are true and funny... Yes, it is completely copied but sometimes other people say it better. and it's good that they do all the difficult work for you so that you can just sit back, relax and enjoy. I'm putting this on my blog because I know I'll forget the website I found this at and so it's easier if I just put it in a website i visit everyday.
Somebody should make t-shirts with these. I'd buy them...

Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present . . . . again!

Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

Sunday = sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

Don't cut your hair. Ever. Long hair is always more attractive than short hair. One of the big reasons guys fear getting married is that married women always cut their hair, and by then you're stuck with her.

Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

We don't remember dates. . . .Period!!

Most guys own three pairs of shoes - tops. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. We've been tricked before!!

If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

Let us ogle. We are going to look anyway; it's genetic.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

Christopher Columbus did not need directions, and neither do we.

The relationship is never going to be like it was the first two months we were going out. Get over it. And quit whining to your girlfriends.

ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

Foreign films are best left to foreigners. (Unless it's Bruce Lee or some war flick where it doesn't really matter what they're saying anyway.)

BEER is as exciting for us as handbags are for you.

Thank you for reading this; Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know, it's like camping.

I survived my 1st earthquake

2006-10-19T16:09:00.000+08:00

Early on Sunday morning, at 7:07 local time to be precise, an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale occurred about 6 miles off from Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tremors could be felt all the way to Kauai, the furthest island on the island chain also known collectively as Hawaii. It was my first earthquake and I survived it. Well, here’s my sort of blow by blow of what happened that morning and after.

I was having sweet dreams as I normally do since before I sleep, msn friends always say “sweet dreams” when I felt my bed shaking. It was shaking pretty vigorously and I woke up with a pretty silly thought. In all honesty, I thought that my flatmates were playing a joke on me and were shaking my room. Yes, shaking my room. Look, I just woke up so rational thought hadn’t really begun yet. Anyway, after about a minute I realised that the earth was shaking and I sat up in my bed. At about the same time, my roommate Dick sat up as well. We looked at each other and he said, “Dude, what’s going on?” I was like, “Dude, I think it’s an earthquake.” And then Dick proved that I wasn’t the only one having weird irrational thoughts. He said, “Haha, I thought at first like why is Don Marcus shaking my bed.” We both laughed and then went back to sleep.

Yes, we went back to sleep. It seems so anti-climatic but that’s what happened. You would wonder why I was so calm about it and the reason was pretty simple. Nobody was panicking at all. There was nobody screaming and no mad running around. In all honesty it wasn’t really that bad since nothing fell off my messy desk and a light breeze could cause things to fall off my desk. Anyway, there was an after shock as well, that one was about a 5.4 I think but by that time, people were already going back to sleep and didn’t really care anymore.

Anyway, I eventually got out of bed at about 11 and went to make myself breakfast. I went to the kitchen cabinet and got a can of Campbell’s and put it into a microwavable container and then stuck it into the microwave. When I opened the door of the microwave however, the light didn’t come on and I began to panic. I then rushed to the fridge and opened it and the light in the fridge didn’t come on either. That spoilt my plan for the morning which was to have breakfast and watch the UH – Fresno State football game. (UH slaughtered Fresno by the way. Go Warriors!)

I was still pretty happy though because since I had a laptop, I could still be entertained by going on the internet and just surfing the net until my lappie batt died. So I turned on my laptop and then tried to log on but the wireless was down. Now I really began to worry. I went next door and asked if they had power and my neighbour said no. I asked how bad the power outage was still thinking it was only in Kalo that there was no power. I was wrong. Apparently, it was a State of Emergency declared throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In other words, there was no power in the whole state at all. As one of my friends said, we were thrown into the 3rd world.

There was no power at all and that was pretty tough because that meant that there was nothing to do. I thought that it was a good time to go for a run down to Waikiki but then I found out from other friends that there were a number of accidents already that day due to the fact that the traffic lights across the state were all down too. I decided to play it safe and to just chill at home and read before heading out to church in the evening.

Some of my friends thought that it would have been a great time to go surfing and theoretically, it would have been great for really big time surfers because the swells would have been great after the earthquake but luckily that decided not to since there might have still been a slight threat of a tsunami.

Also, for the first time in Hawaii, I heard the phrase, “poor tourists” since many of them were left pretty much stranded with no electricity. Think about it, no air-conditioning, no lights, and a fear of going to the beach. There were long lines for the ABC shops just so the tourists could buy snacks and water and stuff like flashlights. Convenience stores around the island were still open but they had people escorting the customers around so there would be no looting. There was no looting. Everything was pretty safe. Tourists even said that it made them like Hawaii more because people everywhere were really nice and helpful.

Anyway, mass was pretty fun because it was dubbed “Mass, Unplugged.” In all honesty, it was pretty fun and made the mass feel pretty special. There were no microphones but it was alright since the Newman Centre isn’t big at all and it was also lucky that Fr. Chris, the Parish Priest, has such a nice loud voice, A great singing voice too. Anyway, it was nice in the semi dark to look at the candles just being constant and not flickering at all.

After mass, I went for dinner with some of the folks at Kalo at a place called Magoos, which has its own generator. Just before I finished my food, power came back on in my area. It was cool and I was excited just to go back and watch the news to see how bad the quake was. It was also pretty terrible to see the damage and destruction caused on the big island. But the good thing and thank God for it was that nobody was killed and nobody was seriously injured either.

So, I’ve survived my 1st earthquake! I put that on my msn nick and I realised that it seemed like I ate a whole lot of ice cream from Swenson’s all by myself. That I survived many years ago by the way. Anyway, many people did lose their homes and stuff on the big island so if you guys can; spare a prayer for the victims of the earthquake. It would be dearly appreciated.

2 months

2006-10-11T15:11:00.000+08:00

I've been in Hawaii for 2 months. I have 3 months left before I leave this place and head back for home. Time sure flies especially when you've got assignments after assignments followed by mid-terms after mid-terms. My week is such a Hellweek and having lived through the actual one, I can tell you that this is worse, much worse. 3 papers and 2 25% midterms are crazy man...

Anyway, in the US, I've gotten addicted to something very unhealthy. It is a disgusting and very expensive habit. Yes, you guessed it. I've become addicted to Amazon.com. But I can't help it. Shipping here is free...

Anyway, to celebrate my 2 month anniversary in Hawaii, here are my amazon purchases. And i have finally completed what I've been wanting to complete for years and at a fraction of the cost. I thought I was going to spend at least $280 on it but through looking for great deals at book sales etc., I managed to get everything for only about $225. Yup, I've got all 10 compiled issues of the Sandman. Oh, and the other thing on the photo is the new Barenaked Ladies CD. They're like my favourite band of all time. And by the way, if you google barenaked ladies, you won't get porn...

But anyway, I've got 3 months left. How time flies? And I really need to start doing stuff soon before I run out of time. On a side thought, people are always running out of time... but wouldn't it be weird to run into Time? That might be quite scary yah? and probably painful too... Imagine running over time or running past it... Yup you guessed it, I'm high on Amazon...

my route to school

2006-10-11T14:21:00.000+08:00

This is going to be an entry about how I get to school every other day. Here is my favourite place in school, the Hamilton Library. Not exactly Central 6 but good enough. The difference between this place and Central 6? I actually get work done here. I miss Central 6...

Right, this is my room. As you can see, I knew I was going to take photos and so I actually made my bed. Then I get out of bed and get ready. I'll take my darling lappie and throw her into my bag and then check the mirror to confirm how handsome I am and then leave my room. Btw, I have no idea how i'm going to bring all those books back...

After that, I go to my fridge and get food. Look, that's my room number, 306. 306 guys rock...

And then i look out my lanai and see right in front of me, Diamond Head. What a sight...

And then i walk down the stairs and out of Kalo...

Yup, Kalo Terrace, my home away from home. The Blue Box. The K-Lo. It's a crazy place and oh so fun...

Now I head from Kalo up some huge parking structure and this is the lovely garden on top of the structure. Hawaii is more a green city than Singapore. Trees around everywhere and that's good because it helps me not miss home so much. And it makes an already lovely place, lovelier...

These are the weird people by the traffic light. Everybody gets freaked out by these guys at night when they first go to the University. They just stand there and talk all day. When i first got here, some kid tried to play a prank and placed a cap on the guy's head. It was actually pretty cool and even reminded me of the time when some guy placed a packet drink on St John Baptist De La Salle's outstretched hand in the old SJI...

For a school in a beautiful place, the buildings really are quite ugly. I was looking at Delphia's blog and saw that U of Toronto was really cool and looked super classic and as she described it, somewhat like a real life Hogwarts. The buildings in Hawaii come from Architecture's Hell. And they're weird also because there as such huge differences between buildings. Some aren't actually that bad but most are pretty icky. But there is a reason for this. Nobody really cares cos you're not supposed to be in school for long. You're not supposed to stay at home much either. This is Hawaii brah (the Hawaiian version of bro), you should be outside in the sun, on the beach, in the mountains. That's why everything looks so simple if not ugly.

Ok, also, because of the ugliness of the buildings, there's a lot of artwork all around to make things not so ugly. Here are some...

Oh, and here's the art building that is actually quite cool. They've got a gallery there and my apartment mate Dan works there. Apparently now they're trying to rebuild one of the zero bombers that attacked Pearl Harbour and then crash landed on Kauai. They're going to build it completely out of photographs. Way cool...

please read previous entries to make sense of this one

2006-10-08T22:09:00.000+08:00

Now, I’ll write more about the conversation with Laura and Uriah. Well, we talked about many things like what YWAM is all about and how missionary work is conducted and their experiences and lots more. Uriah also had a cool quote about conversion to share with me and I thought that it would be fun to start of with that quote.

We got into the topic of conversion and he said that a lot of times, people might get a little ahead of themselves when it came to the understanding of that word. He used a very interesting and relevant analogy to describe the idea of conversion though. He said he had just gotten an Ipod and he wanted to put his videos on the Ipod but he couldn’t because they weren’t the right kind of file. Anybody who’s done this before will know that this isn’t really a problem because all you need to do to make the file compatible with the Ipod is to CONVERT it. You see, when you convert somebody, all that you are doing is making him or her compatible with the Heavenly Ipod. And any file can be converted although some files are more difficult to convert than others. I think I could really expand on this analogy but I’ll save it for another time.

About the YWAM, it’s a non-denominational, non-profit organisation with a huge network. Apparently, the largest YWAM base is located in the Singaporean city of Perth. And there’s even one on the Singaporean heartland itself. (For those of you who don’t already know, Perth is an unofficial colony of Singapore but I think we’re in negotiations to make it official soon. And by Singaporean heartland, I mean Geylang. In all honesty, I can’t think of a better place in Singapore to have a mission, can you?)

Nobody in YWAM drives a fancy car or earns an elaborate salary. To me, that was a big selling point. I guess some of you might know what I’m getting at but if you don’t then let me tell you briefly. You see, when I just entered NUS I went for a camp conducted by Youth Challenge for a new club they wanted to set up in NUS called Club Exchange. That camp has the best group of participants I’ve ever encountered in all my experiences in camps. Everybody was leading and everybody was cooperating and it was just mondo impressive. The reason for that was because they said that the camp was a way of deciding whom to allow to join the club and stuff.

You see, Club Exchange was prestigious because you could really do a lot through it. You could represent Singapore for festivals in Barcelona or a mock UN Conference in New York and all that. Also, they had many Youth Expedition Programs to other countries that students could join. It all seemed good until you found out that they had a very dubious accounting system with the Youth Challenge members telling you that you had to sell CDs or something and only a small percentage of the money you earn goes to the trip. The fact that the founder of the Youth Challenge drove a nice, flashy sports car did not do much to boost your confidence in them much either. Down with Lammy! – Funnily enough, I just read that he’s under investigations or something. $13,000 a month for a charity organisation? What the what?

So that attracted me to YWAM. I could easily just go down and join the one in Singapore and not have to go to any other places and stuff. However, in all their good works and general coolness, there were turn-offs as well. The main turn-off was that I thought they felt it was Christianity or Hell. They were very old school about the whole thing. This was demonstrated when Uriah was telling me how impressed he was by St. Francis Xavier and how radical he was with like blowing up Buddhist statues in Korea or Japan or something. I guess this might be because he comes from a more religiously homogenous area the US. But I can’t believe in that because I’m Singaporean. (and mighty proud of it)

I believe in the Brother Mike form of conversion. As long as you fed Jesus when He was hungry, clothed Him when He was naked, befriended Him when He was in prison, then you were allowed into Heaven. Uriah quoted the Bible that He is the Way and that to get to the Father you must go through the Son. Good quotes but a very narrow understanding of them. I think that you could follow Jesus without knowing that you were following Him. I remember in SJI, we were told early on that we did not strive in SJI to make everybody a Catholic but we strive to make everybody better whatever they are. If you are Buddhist, at the end of 4 years, we hope that you become a better Buddhist. If you’re Muslim, then hopefully, you’d be a better Muslim. Didn’t always happen but we tried. But, it must be said that this might be an overreaction on my part. Maybe it was just that I read too much into things the way I usually do.

There was also the point that the Discipleship Training School costs about SGD$2000 over to enrol in but that wasn’t really a big turn-off. Nor was the fact that you had to stay away from home at their base for about 3 to 4 months. I mean I wouldn’t like it but if I had to do it I would.

Anyway, I came to the decision that I didn’t want to join YWAM. I was still going to learn all that I could learn from them by going for their Thursday meetings but when I got back I decided that I’d just go do what I feel I should do and that is to teach. So I will go back to Singapore and get my honours and then work on my PGDE for a year in NIE and then go to a neighbouring country that needs teachers for a year before coming back to Singapore to complete my bond.

As for what organisation I would go with, I figure that being Catholic, I could find many Catholic groups who do missionary work in the region. My first choice would of course be to go through the La Salle networks. I mean SJI was founded as a missionary school in a backwater little island after all. We all owe so much to those missionary brothers who arrived here all those years ago and maybe other countries need people like that too. Besides, the Christian Brothers have some schools in Myanmar and Northern Thailand and all. The really cool thing is that since I’ve decided to do this so early before I can actually leave, it gives me ample time to learn a new language. Considering it took me about 12 years to have an elementary grasp of Malay, I’ll need all the time I can get.

So to my parents who might be afraid that I’m going to break my bond, there’s no need to worry. In fact I think this might even sweeten the deal because it means that I’ll actually be able to gain a deeper understanding of the world and also it’ll give me more stories to tell. The coolest teachers always have the coolest stories to tell because they’ve done so much outside of academia. And you know what? I want to be the coolest teacher!

slackers

2006-10-08T18:49:00.000+08:00

this was supposed to be another post but i just got off talking to joel and i really felt like writing something down. i love the slackers. i feel like an idiot for missing joel's and king k's birthdays but i think it's just been happening lately yah. come on, i even missed my own mum's birthday. that should tell you how bad i am at dates.

anyway, the slackers. the best group of friends money can't ever buy. i think besides my family, you guys are the folks i miss the most. the funny thing is, in all probability, you guys would live up to our group name and never read this. but i will write on anyway.

honestly, i get very annoyed when people say that their group of friends are slackers cos they don't know what that means. we were the original slackers and we'll always be the slackers, formed at the back of 3A4 while i was taking a nap in 3A3. the posts in the government might be meaningless now but i'll always remember that i was the minister without portfolio or as amritpal "the king" singh called it, minister "boh" portfolio, just because you guys thought i was the slackest of the lot.

the sad thing is that we've all gone our own separate ways and are all over the world now. by that i mean in the greater pacific rim. you know, i wanted to stay in hawaii for a while and so when i found out that i could stay until the 7th of jan i was pretty happy. the only thing that made me sad was missing new year's eve at joel's place. that was it. it was not even christmas with my family.

i like tradition and i like our tradition. it's a small tradition but it's a great tradition. oh man, i actually feel like calling up northwest just to see if i can get an earlier ticket out so i can spend new year's eve at thompson. hahaha. but just sitting together drinking whatever the drink of the day is and then just talking and talking and talking the year away and ushering the new year in with stories.

i am saddened by the fact that the huge group that we were are no more but i am always delighted by the fact that we all survive in small pockets. i love the fact that we all go and visit wayne's dad just because we love him so much and miss him. haha, i remember telling my other friends that i was going to visit my friend's dad and they were all like, what's wrong with him and in all honesty, we go to visit him because he's alright and alright by us. in all our parties, i enjoy most the time when we're all tired and just sit down like the slackers that we are and just talk. we talk until all the girlfriends get bored and do something else and we're all still there talking.

i think this is the most meaningful post i've ever posted in my blog because my brain isn't in the equation at all. this is all heart. i really can't wait til all of us are all back home together. everybody. just slacking and being ourselves and you guessed it, talking story. (new hawaiian phrase i've learnt, same meaning as talking cock but it sounds much better and somehow i think it actually describes what we do better)

so here's a shout out to everybody... i'm not going to mention names cos i know i'll miss a few... i love all you guys and can't wait to see you all in a couple of months time...

This was all caused by something joel got me to read. it was a conversation that happened between him and kudus. it reminded me how much the slackers mean to me. i looked at the photos i was going to post and i was pretty close to tearing. i just started to remember all our glory days and memories are beautiful and painful at the same time yah. i also realised how few photos i have of the slackers but how many photos i have of random inconsequential people. but don't worry, the most important photos i've ever taken have not been taken by a camera but by my eyes and stored in my head and heart. i will never forget you guys no matter what happens. you are my closest friends and will always stay that way.

the best thing about the slackers is that we are a growing group and there are always new members who will come into the slackers and will remain slackers for life because we all share the same life motto... "sometimes we might drink to forget but never will we forget to drink..." - (taken from the Sandhu family credo.) this goes out to all you guys as well...

to all those people reading this, here's hoping that all of you have found your own group of slackers who you hold close to your hearts just like how i hold close this bunch of jokers i call my closest friends...

reason for no new posts

2006-10-06T11:13:00.000+08:00

I know it’s been a while since my last post and my excuse is that something happened to occupy a lot of space in my head and I just did not know whether to write in down or not. And as for writing down other things, that might work if not for the fact that that one thought has been occupying too much space in my mind.

I guess I’ve decided to write it down so that I can get my thoughts straight and so that I can go on to write about other things. I guess I’ll go against my history student nature and not put what I’m talking about in the opening few paragraphs but just let it develop as it goes along. I’m doing this just because I’m bored and wish to entertain and inform more than to reveal my innermost thoughts and feelings.

Well, it all started a couple of weeks ago when I went for the Light Up UH thing, which I wrote here sometime back. During the event, we were sort of randomly split up into groups to go and pray over different places in the university. I say sort of because being the college student I am, I decided to cheat and join a group with the rest of the Catholic Campus Ministry people.
(A small disclaimer here, College students don’t always cheat and in all honesty, I’ve never cheated in my life. That has got more to do with my pride than any integrity thing.)

Anyway, along with the CCM people there were 2 other prayer-thletes, (pronounced pr-athletes) from other groups within the UH community. One girl was from the Baptist Ministry I think and the other girl was from an organisation called YWAM. (pronounced why wam) She told us that she wasn’t a student at UH but she was just attached to the YWAM base that’s situated just outside the UH campus.

In exercising my mind-reading abilities I know that you might be asking what is a prayer-thlete? Well, it’s something I just came up with that I thought was pretty cool. Nobody refers to themselves as prayer-thletes but I just think that they could if they wanted to. The second reading I’m getting is what on earth is YWAM? I know that this might be the question in your minds because while you were sleeping, I secretly infiltrated your brains and placed that question inside.

OK, back to reality now, what is YWAM? YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission. How awesome is that? Most of the youth I know have no idea about what they should do with their lives and I’m pretty sure many adults don’t really know either. And here, in the middle of an island paradise, I find young people with a MISSION. Think about it. It’s like being in NS, you’re always training and waiting for something to happen and hoping that nothing does. And then suddenly, YOU get a mission. You’re scared out of your wits but then, now you know what it’s all about.

I always meet people who ask me what they are doing here or what we are doing here. I don’t know why they ask me but apparently, they trust my opinions. Here’s the thing; my opinions don’t count. In all honesty, if you know why you’re on this planet, you don’t need to ask somebody else and if you don’t know yet, you really need not bother about it until you know. These people in YWAM knew what they were doing on earth; they got their Ops Orders. (I can’t remember if this is the correct step. I think I missed a few. If any guys actually read this blog, please correct me if I’m wrong)

Anyway, I got to speaking to Laura, (that’s her name) and as we were speaking I told her that I’m Singaporean (and bloody proud of it) and she was excited because she’s been to Singapore once and would love to go there again. I also found out that she’s in love with Southeast Asia and that she really wants to go and do missionary work in Thailand. Also, she had just come back from doing about half a year in Timor Lieste and that she was born in Irian Jaya. (that’s the Indonesian side of Papua New Guinea)

For those guys who think they know me well, yes, she’s cute but that really doesn’t matter at all. I told her about the free movies I watch every Wednesday at the Korean Centre and asked her if she was interested in watching Southeast Asian movies for free. Needless to say that being a SEA-phile she was really excited and so I got her email and forwarded the messages I got about the movies to her. I also asked her if she’d like to grab a coffee or something sometime so I could talk to her about the mission stuff and all.

She was only too happy to talk to me about missionary work and we met on Sunday to talk about it over a cup of green tea latte at Starbucks. She also brought a friend of hers named Uriah who had just come back from doing a mission Cambodia. And I as I talked to them, I began contemplating about my own purpose in life and as we each shared our own stories, I just felt more and more enriched with each passing minute. It was a great experience.

I think that meeting them and engaging them in conversation was very important and so I’ll write more about that in another post. For now, I’ll just conclude because I think that this might be just going for a tad too long already. I’m almost hitting a thousand words and I know that your attention is starting to wane now. So I’ll continue this thread in my next post.

As for the thought, I’m thinking of doing some missionary work. Yup, that’s it…

i went skydiving

2006-09-26T13:23:00.000+08:00

Skydiving is the most electrifying rush in the world. Take all your roller-coaster experiences and add them together and multiply that value by infinity and you might understand the rush of skydiving. Anyway, as to why there aren't any pictures of me really skydiving, it's because i would have had to pay $100 extra for that and I was not going to do that. Photos spoil the memory. Here are some photographs...

Here's a picture of the name of the place where I went for the skydiving experience. If you guys want to skydive, come here...

One reason to do it here in Hawaii is because of the beautiful scenery. You get to see the mountains from a completely different angle. From way above them. The most stunning visual experience of my life. I managed to see Waikiki and Diamond Head all the way from the North Shore. I need to repeat myself, BEAUTIFUL...

Random person falling...

That's my Tandem Master Jim coming down with some random person. I think he did several dives that day.

This is a picture of me and Jim. This guy technically saved my life. And he was really cool too. Before we jumped, he asked me how strong my stomach was. My reply, "Let's find out". And we did. It was a lot stronger than I imagined. I think we did countless 360s during the freefall before he finally pulled the cord. After that he allowed me to grab the reins and control our descent and he gave me a sky tour by directing my attention to all parts of the island. It was AWESOME...

christian fellowship

2006-09-19T16:15:00.000+08:00

Today I went for something organised by the campus ministries of UH called Light Up UH. It was a prayer meet comprising all the campus ministries in UH like the Baptist, Episcopal and Catholic Campus Ministries. I think that this is something that I should bring home.

There are many groups in NUS like the Campus Crusade and Varsity Christian Fellowship and the Catholic Students' Society. Wouldn't it be cool if everybody could just come together for one night and pray for the school? God knows we weould need the prayers. I mean we all believe in the same God and so we should all just put our differences aside for one night and just pray for the greater good of our university.

The prayer session was as follows. It began with about half an hour of Praise and Worship followed by a talk by the Lt. Governor of Hawaii who talked about the benefits of prayer to school life. He shared about how a particular high school had benefitted a great deal from having a prayer session in their school. Then we had another short talk by a fellow student about Love, Forgiveness and peace and how if we prayed for these gifts for the university the place would be a better place overall. Next, we were sent out in groups to pray for different parts of the school. These groups were made up of random people and so you got to meet new people. I prayed over the car-park, the law school and the university's tennis courts. Hey, who else is gonna pray for these places if not my group and I?

So yeah, it was a good night and a real educational experience for me. Apparently there were more people at this prayer gathering than there were at last week's Bush Bashing Rally. Yeah, there was an anti-Bush rally held in school last wednesday and so this shows that there are more people here who love God than hate Bush. That's a heckuva lot of people there.

Anyway, I just think that maybe NUS as well as other institutions of educations could use this as an example and have a similar united prayer rally. Just forget our differences like St. Paul urges us to do in the first reading of today and come together to proclaim God's name and make the world a better place by first starting with what's closest to us.

sorrowful mystery

2006-09-16T16:47:00.000+08:00

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I don’t really like the sound of that. I mean I understand it but it just sounds erm, bad. I’d prefer Our Lady of Faith in the Face of Sorrow. But I’m long winded like that.

Whenever Mary was confronted with sorrow, she responded with faith. Maybe that is something we can all try. When we are feeling sad and dejected, let us have Faith in the Will of God. Let us remember that His wisdom might seem foolishness to man because we lack understanding and what we lack in understanding, we can make up for with Faith.

Faith is committing to our words we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. We need to tell our Father in Heaven that His Will is being done. We do not say that His Will will be done, we say Your Will be done. This is directly echoing Mary’s words at the Conception and Jesus’ words at the Garden of Gethsemane. Interesting when you put those 2 occasions together ya? When Jesus’ life is about to start and when it is about to end. They speak of the idea that His Life comes full circle.

And these are also two points where Faith is seen to be the response to extreme sorrow and confusion. So let us try to respond with faith the next time we are faced with confusion and sorrow in our lives. Let us trust in The Lord and allow Him to work through us.

i went for a luau

2006-09-15T10:11:00.000+08:00

A luau is a traditional Hawaiian party. You get to experience many aspects of traditional Hawaiian life and get to make stuff too. The girls made stuff like bracelets and anklets and i threw spears and stuff. We all got lei'd too but it has to be said that I think they lei'd us wrongly or maybe there is a difference between the way you lei a person with a flower lei and a shell lei.

Anyway, I realise the place where I truly let my inner Singaporean out is, surprise, surprise, in a buffet line. Hahaha. Really, it's like I hadn't eaten for days, just piling food onto my plate. My excuse was that it was just super expensive lah. The thing is I guess we were paying for a lot more than an all-you-can-eat buffet, we were paying for a whole cultural experience. They really did go out of their ways to make everybody feel like part of the ohana. (that reminds me, i need to watch lilo & stitch soon)

I've been told recently by several different groups of people that I think too much and so I shall over-analyse this. Firstly, sometime, we overlook the purpose of doing what we are doing and only concentrate on some small insignificant thing. For me, it was like I forgot about the whole experience and just concentrated on the food. (being Singaporean again) I think oftentimes we tend to dwell on the not so special instead of really partaking in the once in a lifetime. This is extremely true in relationships.

In relationships of any kind, family, friends, lovers, we tend to look at what we can get out of them. The gifts they give us or the attention they shower upon us. We tend to miss out the once in the lifetime opportunity, that is, just to be there. Like most people, I only realised that when I started missing my friends and family being away for so long. Sometimes we just need to appreciate the people who are there for us and the people we are there for. Being there is what matters.

Secondly, this experience at the luau made me remember Sheri's family because they made me feel like a part of their family. I truly appreciate what they did for me when I was a stranger in this new land. But, you know what? Apparently, it might just be the land. This land is such a lovely place because most of the people you will meet will readily welcome you into their ohana (family). Now let us reflect upon ourselves, do we welcome strangers and make them feel like part of our families?

You know I think that's what makes people come back to Hawaii so often. There are beautiful beaches in many other places in the world and Hawaii is most probably one of the more expensive and probably the most inaccessible of those places. But people just keep on coming back because of the Aloha spirit. Aloha is a spirit of love and thus when one is greeted with Aloha, one is told that one is loved just for being there. Aloha is what people say when ways are parted as well meaning that even though you might leave, there is still love for you. That is what makes Hawaii such a LOVELY place. (sorry about the pun but I just had to do it.)

I wrote recently about openness and I guess this just adds on to that. Let us strive to be open and welcoming even to strangers but let us start by practising with our family and friends first. If this Aloha spirit is spread around the world, the world might be a much better place to live in.

i am an idiot

2006-09-13T06:50:00.000+08:00

I am an idiot because i missed my mum's birthday... and there is no excuse for that... but eventhough there is no excuse i'd like to try and come up with one... i've lost all track of time i think... i hadn't even realised that i've already spent a month in Hawaii... Anyway, I'm really sorry mummy... Happy Belated Birthday!!!

openness

2006-09-12T16:12:00.000+08:00

I was just reflecting on the Gospel reading for Sunday where Jesus heals the man who is deaf by saying “Ephphatha”, in English, “Be Open”. It is interesting that He uses those words isn’t it?

In the hymn “Amazing Grace”, there is a line that goes, “(I) was blind but now I see”. For me, I feel that oftentimes I am blinded by my own close-mindedness and hence I fail to see all the beauty that’s around me. Sometimes when I’m not as open as I should be, I am deaf to the beautiful music that plays around me all the time.

I think that being here, a foreign land that’s foreign even to the majority of the people here is a great place to let that openness flourish. Everybody is open to diversity because everybody you meet is different. It’s very much like Singapore because of that. I actually am very thankful for being Singaporean because of that. I feel that it has made me a very open person in terms of my views.

I am writing this on September the 11th, 5 years after the horrible tragedy that happened not only in New York, but all over the world. What has changed after that fateful day. The world started to close in on itself. But then again, in another way, the world began opening up. Closed for a while because of fear and suspicion, but after a while open because people began to realise that there’s just so much out there that we tend to pass judgement on without really knowing anything about the history of whatever happened.

This is why history is important, because it helps us understand our world now. Here’s something that I learnt rather recently. Sometimes when we learn about the history of a place that is completely different from the place we hail from, we understand more of our own history and culture. It is often overlooked but it is true. We always think that all we need to know is ourselves but when we learn about other people, we begin to understand aspects of ourselves we have never thought about before.

So let us be open and let other people into our lives for they can affect us more when their in our lives than when they are just on the outside. And when they are in our lives, we can make a difference in their lives too and really, isn’t that all that really matters?

Oh, some word play i just thought of... The more open we are, the closer we get... Food for thought eh?

more people

2006-09-12T15:55:00.000+08:00

This is my group doing something called a cinnamon roll hug... very fun and provides great photo opportunities... and by the way, the yellow colours, (my group name) rock!!! yeah...

here's some people being pirates cos pirates rock too... erm, yeah...

Here are the 2 angelas. angela rubang and angela gonsalves i think... probably got the spellings wrong but i guess they'll correct me... maybe...

Here's mike and his girlfriend wendy... awfully cute couple and they're really into extreme sports, how cool is that... mike's a diver too and he's got lobangs for good scuda diving deals... a new best friend because of that... hahaha...

And here's a picture of ryan the campus minister and michelle, mickey mouse from the previous post... two super cool jobs... a campus minister who looks after the flock of college students is something i can really see myself doing just because i know i can do it and i know i can be good at it. and mickey mouse, who doesn't want to be mickey mouse?
and yes, ryan needs to go to the beach more...

retreat at camp homelani

2006-09-12T14:42:00.000+08:00

This weekend I went for a retreat with the Catholic Campus Ministry and it was a really good experience. I was a little disappointed though because I wanted to hear more cool songs during the retreat but there was no praise and worship element in the retreat. But it was a good Vacation with God. I got to meet more people and try new things. I had my first taste of s’mores and a game called psychiatrist, which I will definitely bring back home and share with everybody. (the game not the s’mores)

It was enjoyable because there was a lot of games and free time to do what you wanted. And it was really cool to meet all the new people that I met. All with so many stories to share and if there’s one thing I’m passionate about, it’s stories. Anyway, here are some pictures to share.

Oh and I finally figured out how to use the macro function on my camera. Haha…

Yup, a good camp with beautiful mountains, beautiful seas and most importantly...

Beautiful people...

people

2006-09-06T16:24:00.000+08:00

Ok, That's Angel from Spain, (pronounced like Juan Pablo Angel), Diego from Colombia, and Mieu from Thailand...

That's Don, Jess, Esther and Fairoza... All from Singapore...
It's amazing how excited one gets when one meets people who can speak singlish...
Singlish Rocks!!!

Diamond Head

2006-09-06T16:13:00.000+08:00

Diamond Head is beautiful. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Yup, everything in Diamond Head is beautiful...

i went camping

2006-09-06T15:07:00.000+08:00

This post is rather late but i really wanted to post something about my reflections while i was camping somewhere near sea-life park. (oh, by the way, i heard that sea life park has a wholphin, half whale, half dolphin. How cool is that?)

Anyway, my roomies and I decided on the spur of the moment to join fellow roomie Dan on a camping trip. It was the most I've ever spent waiting for buses and other forms of transportation in my life. It beats my walmart experience by a mile. But, that's not what's important.

When we arrived at the place, we were all singing praises of the natural beauty of the place. There was the beautiful open ocean on one side and stunning mountains on the other side. However, by the end of the trip, we were all complaining about nature and one aspect of nature in particular. The rain.

The wisdom of going camping without a tent baffles me. But in all honesty, most Hawaiians will tell you that rain is nothing, It usually just sprinkles for a while and then it goes away so it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time and plus, when i first started sleeping on the tarp and i looked up at the sky, I was just so happy to be sleeping under the stars. It was a truly beautiful sight. But then the rain came and everything changed.

So here's my reflection about my camping trip. When you go camping, bring a tent. In other words, be prepared for all experiences that you might be likely to encounter before you start any new phase of your life so as not to ruin your experience. Everything can be a whole lot more fun if you're prepared and sometimes, even if you've had a bad experience, don't choose to harp on that but just reflect on all the positives, like these pictures...

i went surfing

2006-09-02T20:27:00.000+08:00

Today I went surfing and it wasn’t the best experience of my life. But I learnt a lot from going out there.

Firstly, I need practice. I am not a natural born surfer even if I have all the clothes. Most of my own faults make me a lousy surfer. I have no sense of balance. My arches are too high. Lots of physical problems but you know what… I’ll keep on trying… I’m in Hawaii, dammit…

Secondly, surfing is all about choosing the right wave and riding it. That is something I’m not great at too. It means waiting for what is right for you and taking full advantage of it. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s letting opportunity slip through my fingers. And the other thing I’m good at is choosing the wrong thing to jump onto. I’m the only one I know who jumped on Star Trek cards when everybody else was doing Magic™. Yeah, making the wrong decision is like my ™.

You see, everybody here looks for the perfect wave and from what I gather from my lit class, perfect means complete. In other words, we are all looking for the wave that completes us. Let’s now apply this to life…

We are all looking for something perfect. Some of us are looking for the perfect guy or girl or the perfect religion. Well, if it completes you then it is complete. I’ve been looking for the perfect girl since like forever and you know what, I have yet to find her. Maybe I have yet to find a girl to complete me.

I guess the best thing I can compare it would be a jigsaw puzzle. If you were one half of a jigsaw then when you meet your other half, he or she would complete it. The problem here is, what does it mean to complete yourself. The funny thing for me is that today, my lit lecturer told us a story about a guy name Aristophanes and his theory of love from Plato’s Symposium.

The story goes like human beings were all made with four arms and four legs and two faces and we were all very powerful and wanted to overthrow the Gods on Mount Olympus. But the Gods figured out the plan and Zeus decided that instead of destroying his beloved creation, he would just split us into two. So we were all split into 2 which is why we often refer to spouses as our better half.

I guess we all just need to ask ourselves constantly what completes us. My answer is I don’t know but I will when I feel it and I guess that’s it. I once told some people that I had a list in my head of the Perfect person and in reality the person who completes me is the person who throws that list right out.

Same as in surfing. There are many waves out there and the perfect wave for all of us is the wave that compliments our level of surfing. The perfect wave for a novice like me would be different from the perfect wave for a seasoned pro. Thus, whatever is perfect for us is what completes us and nobody else but us.

So, Let us go and search for whatever is perfect for us. Whatever completes us and makes us whole. Like Jerry McGuire, Let’s search for that one thing that makes us go, “You complete me.”

Damien

2006-09-01T16:09:00.000+08:00

Today was just a normal day until just a couple of hours ago. Then it became a pretty good day. You see, I went to a place that combined many of my loves into a single package for nothing but an hour of my not so precious time. I went to watch Damien. For Free.

I realised when I came back to my apartment that I should just tell everyone that no, I did not watch The Omen. I would not make the same mistake twice. It was a horrible movie and left me sick to my stomach because it was just a pain to behold. No, no, I went to watch a one-man play about the life of Fr. Damien of Molokai.

I think many people already know the story of Fr. Damien or to be more accurate, Blessed Damien but for those who do not then here’s the News, in brief. Damien was born and raised in Belgium and I think from what I gathered in Leuven to be more exact. Why did I include that? Because it was the birthplace of one of the loves of my life that I did not partake in tonight. Those of you who know me well know who I’m talking about. For the rest, google it…

Anyway, from Belgium, he went to do missionary work in Hawaii and while doing his pastoral work here, he noticed that the lepers in the community were expelled and forced to live on another island called Molokai. When the lepers asked the bishop for a priest to be stationed on the island on a more permanent basis, Damien volunteered. He faced much persecution from all over especially from the Department of Health but he persevered and served there for 16 years until he passed away from Leprosy.

The show was awesome. The actor was so good that I actually let myself get so immersed in the story that I could feel the emotions that Damien would have gone through during those periods of his life. That was love number 1, Theatre and good acting.

Second love, it was a great story. It was a story about heroism and sacrifice. It was a gripping account of fighting not against a disease of the skin like leprosy but a disease of the heart, discrimination. It was a story one could easily get lost in and therefore, a great story. (Side note: I was thinking about history and how it could actually be easily and maybe a little oversimply defined as His Story. Just a thought…)

Third love, cookies. After the show, the Newman Centre and the Catholic Campus Ministry gave out free chocolate chip cookies and soft ones at that, the ones I really love. Yum… If they gave milk as well I’d be uber-happy but ah whatever.

And then, God. The show talked about God’s love and had very good quotes about His love for us. Here are a few…

“Sometimes God gives us flaws to keep us humble.”

“Just trust in His prodigious Love.”

“Sometimes, people get called but for a few very lucky ones, we receive a call within a call when God tells us more specifically what He needs us to do for Him.”

I think I remembered these ones specifically because they all touched some parts of my heart. Kinda the same for most of the quotes I remember. I like quotes because they just put everything so succinctly and make you think about think you never thought of thinking off before.

Anyway, remember I said it was a free performance. Well, it was a free performance that cost me ten bucks but it was the easiest ten bucks I’ve paid for anything since I’ve gotten here. The performance was free but anyone who wanted to donate to the Damien Centre was welcome to do so. In all honesty, I did not treat it like a donation but more of a fair payment for a good show.

Upon conversion, it cost me twice as much as watching the Omen but I had an infinitely better time and so the math made perfect sense. It was well worth it.

john the baptist

2006-08-30T18:32:00.000+08:00

today's gospel reading is about some guy called John the Baptist... what's so important about him?

well, he is important to me... as a teacher, he tells me that some people who will end up learning from me will be greater than me. he tells me that i am not worthy to undo their sandal straps but they will allow me to annoint them with whatever i can teach them and i will hence try to teach them the best i can...

Anyway, we should all be like John the Baptist... we should all go and try to be like John the Baptist... not that we should go and baptise the world. that would be great, but difficult yeah... no. we should go out and make our lives point towards Jesus. We should go out and make sure that when people view our lives, they will be guided towards the direction of Jesus...

I did a module recently which taught me about the importance of the northern star, plus I was in the navy for a bit and thus know how important the stars are for navigation... well, there are many people out there who are sailing on this sea of life and need direction... let us then be the stars for Jesus and lead them to the right path... I think that is what we are all called to do, to lead the lost back to God... So let's all raise our fingers and point to the God who will save us all, so that other people know where he's at, ya...

hypocrisy

2006-08-29T16:48:00.000+08:00

today's reading tells us, hypocrites suck...

if you believe in something enough, i think you should do what it tells you to do...

Being catholic, do i believe in catholicism enough to be a good catholic? do i do what is required of me to be a good catholic? well, do i? do u?
And, do i turn others away from catholicism? do i make life difficult for other catholics? do i place burdens on the backs of good catholics and put them on trial in an earthly court?

freedom is...

2006-08-28T18:00:00.000+08:00

freedom is...

the ability to choose,
with one's own will,
what to be enslaved under...

working in the fields

2006-08-24T17:59:00.000+08:00

Whenever I read today’s Gospel, I feel for the workers who have been working right from the start. It seems like they put in so much more work than the rest of the workers and yet get the same thing. It just isn’t fair.

But we need to know what it is they are working for and what they are working for is God’s Kingdom. Thus those of us who have been working hard for it would hate it if somebody who just doesn’t work as hard gets exactly the same as we do. That is normal when we talk about work in a normal sense but this is about God’s work, which is very different.

In my opinion, when we do God’s work, we actually help ourselves more than we help God. We should delight in doing His work and so we shouldn’t complain about the results since we are going to get what we were promised anyway. You see, we have had the good fortune to spend all that time in the presence of the God we love and who loves us. We should just enjoy working for Him.

Another thing is that all we hear about the work was that they had to do it in the heat but what was the work? Maybe the work was playing soccer or singing or dancing around? Maybe it was painting a wall. You see, some people might paint a wall for money and those people would hate that other people get the same money as them who didn’t do the same amount of painting. Let us be the other group who knew what we would get for painting the wall but do it also because we want the wall to be pretty and colourful and because we just like expressing ourselves through painting walls.

quotable quotes

2006-08-24T11:53:00.000+08:00

This is a quote from the movie Akeelah and the Bee and I just wanted to share it with you guys cos I don’t think anybody’s gonna watch the movie. It’s a good movie but it isn’t a blockbuster and if I wasn’t held hostage by boredom on the plane, I probably would not have watched it. I thought about sending it to the rag people but I kinda figured it was too late cos by the time I landed it was like in the late night of Friday Singapore time so it would not have been useful. I think it illustrates one of my core beliefs in that nothing is as important as facing our fears and living our dreams.

"Our Deepest Fear"
by Marianne Williamson from "A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles"

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

shortest post

2006-08-23T16:44:00.000+08:00

reflection for today,

Impossible is nothing... for God

my brevity shocks me... :)

2006-08-22T16:59:00.000+08:00

Aug 21st

Ok, I really cannot relate to the first reading of today. I think that this is because it is a very Old Testament reading. The God that is represented in the Old Testament is a very different God than is represented in the New Testament. He is shown as an angry God and a jealous God. So what changed? Why the one God at the start and another God after that?

I don’t know. But it does seem strange does it not? I keep wondering if I am reading everything out of context but I read a little before and a little after the passage and what I am struck by is how God judges us. Did God have to be so cruel to show us how merciful He can be?

Well, I think He probably had to. I think that He had to show us how much we did not deserve it but that He did it anyway. The New Testament completes the Old Testament in that the OT shows how man in general continued to disappoint Him and how He in general continued to show us how much He loved us.

I guess the best way to describe it in my own terms and in my own experience is by comparing it to, big surprise, my own father. When I was young and I did foolish stuff, I would get punished by my dad. But as I got older, I learnt from all the silly things I did in my past and I endeavoured not to do them again. But you know what, it was when I really understood the extent of his love for me that I began really understanding why the crazy things I did hurt him so much. Only when I learnt how much my own father sacrificed for me, did I really know how much I disappointed Him.

I guess in a similar way, God behaves just like a father to all of us. When I was watching “The Passion” and I saw how much Jesus was suffering, the thought that was ever present in my mind was how much hurt and pain I had caused Him. Every lash of the whip was a representation of the sins I had committed. Every Nail that pierced His flesh represented the good acts that I chose not to do. God sacrificed Himself for me. I don’t think anybody else believes that their God sacrificed themselves for normal ordinary human beings.

But we are different. We believed that God sacrificed Himself for us. The thing is, He did not sacrifice Himself for any ordinary human beings, He sacrificed Himself for us. We are His chosen people, His royal priesthood, a people set apart. Set apart from what? Set apart from everybody else. God did not sacrifice Himself for anybody. He did it for us. So why did he choose us?

I don’t know. Seems like that’s a common thread today yah? Let’s see, so I don’t know and I am lazy, sounds just like me. Anyway, I don’t know because I think only you and God know why you’re chosen. I remember someone, I think it was Leo, who said that the two most important days of our lives were, firstly, the day you came into this earth and second, the day you discovered why.

How true is that? In my last reflection, I wrote about how we are all searching for the Way. So it is very understandable that I think that the day we figured out where we are going to be one of the two most important days of our lives. It sucks to not know where we are going because it feels like we are doing all this work for nothing. When we figure out our direction then everything begins to have meaning. And when everything starts to have meaning then we will look forward to everyday.

When I was helping out with the Rag presentation thing for my hall, (we lost by the way. I am sad.) I remember coming up with the catchphrase that everyday was not just another day. I felt that that was a very important idea to bring across. Everyday brings opportunities for us to take advantage of and we need to realise that. We tend to get caught up in the routine of everyday and so “everyday” becomes a bad word synonymous with being boring and mundane.

Everyday is so much more than that. Everyday becomes mundane only because we make it so. (Oh yes, another theme you will see a lot in my writing apart from the facts that I don’t know and that I am lazy is my staunch belief that everything is a choice.) We have to choose to make everyday special and do that.

In every good relationship, the partners have to make each other feel that everyday is special because they are with the ones they love. That is why one of the most important tips in men’s magazines, (I’m just guessing ‘cause I don’t read such trash, bah.) is to surprise your loved ones on ordinary days. Yes, anniversaries are important but it’s the everyday that is most important.

Yes, Sundays and Days of Obligation are important but it is serving God everyday that is most important. There is a need for all of us to delight in the everyday because everyday is another day spent with the Lord. When Belinda Carlisle sang about Heaven being a place on Earth, she probably did not know how right she was. Heaven becomes a place on Earth when we spend it in God’s presence because a simple understanding of Heaven is a place where our souls live in unison with God.

So, when we read in the Gospel of the day that Jesus tells the rich man’s son that the only way to heaven is to give up all his riches, this might be what he means. The man in question had to give up the everyday and live the Everyday. He had to give up the life he was living and start living with God as his sole focus. It was not enough that he kept the commandments and it would do us well to remember that. Keeping the commandments means nothing if God is not the centre of our lives.

I was once told by a wise teacher of mine that it is not the sins we commit that we will be judged on but the good works we omit that will decide our fate. When our lives revolve around God, we will do the good work we are given a chance to because we are told that whatever we do to the least of the brethren is done unto God. Joan Osbourne said it best when she sang “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on a bus? Tryin’ to make His way home…”

Well, forget “what if” because he is in our midst. Every time we give somebody what he or she does not deserve, we must remember that our God has given us what we do not deserve. He sees beyond our faults and our transgressions and sees instead who we really are and what we really need. He is truly our father and he treats us like any good father would treat their children.

foolishness

2006-08-22T02:10:00.000+08:00

Aug 20th

Today’s first reading contains a line that I should use as my life’s maxim. “Forsake foolishness (immaturity) and live, and walk in the way of insight (understanding).” And that is the line running through the readings of today.

So, what is foolishness? To answer that it is important to ask another question, that is, what is insight or understanding? Insight or understanding is the comprehension of God’s will for us. Thus, foolishness is acting against that comprehension. Funnily, following the wisdom of God would be associated to following foolishness to most other people. This is because we as human beings cannot fathom the depths of the wisdom of God.

When we are told to forsake foolishness, we are in fact told to follow God’s way. In Buddhism, the Way is the Middle Path. In Taoism, the Way is the Tao. In Christianity, The Way, along with the Truth and the Life is Jesus. And this triple threat actually completes another of Christ’s teachings, the teaching on “Seek and you shall find”.

You see, many people doing are searching for something and how do we know that? Because many people would describe themselves as lost. Many people live their lives one day at a time with no sense of direction. They can’t see where they are heading and they think that this is because they just do not know the way. It now comes to be our task to go up to the lost sheep and reintroduce them to the way again. That is so much easier said than done.

But why, if there are so many people lost and looking for direction would they not go towards The Way. I think Jack Nicholson said it best when he said, “The Truth? You can’t handle The Truth!” Yes, many of us are looking for The Way but we just can’t handle The Truth. This is because The Truth is also our truth. When we look at Jesus, we cannot but see ourselves. We feel inadequate next to him and feel like we aren’t worthy. So what are we to do now? We want to know the way but we are afraid of the truth.

For this, we need to realise that there is a third aspect to Jesus. He is The Life. When Adam and Eve first sinned against God, they were forbidden from eating from the Tree of Life again. When Jesus came down, He was hung on an ordinary tree that became the Tree of Life for on the tree hung Life itself. And the new Tree of Life re-establishes the situation of the Garden.

So in other words, God has already forgiven us. He’s given us back the Tree of Life and so now all we have to do is to eat from it. And now we come to the Gospel. The people in the reading just could not accept that Jesus would give his flesh for us to eat but we have to eat it because He is The Life. If we do not eat of Him then we have no life within us.

Now, what does it mean to eat of His flesh? Whenever we eat, we process our food in different parts of our body, and when everything is finally digested the nutrients we obtain flows to the parts of our body that need them the most. We need to put our food through a process of digestion because the morsels are too big to enter our bloodstream. Now, when we eat of Jesus do we do likewise? We need to spend time to break down Jesus so that we can understand Him better. He is beyond the understanding of our finite minds because He is infinite. After breaking Him down and understanding Him, we need to put Jesus into the parts of our lives that need Him most. And the parts that need Jesus the most are the parts of us that are dead and need The Life.

Now that The Life is fully working within us, The Truth becomes easier to bear and The Way becomes much clearer. We are no longer lost because Jesus our Good Shepherd has found us. And we have found Him. We now know the Way and thus should follow The Way. And when we choose not to follow The Way then that is foolishness indeed.

reflection for 19 Aug

2006-08-22T02:07:00.000+08:00

I was just reading the readings for today and I decided to write a little about what I thought about them. I like to try and find common denominators so that I can understand what the day’s readings are about and I think today, we should reflect of judgements.

The first reading deals with an ancient Jewish belief that a father’s sin is automatically imposed upon the son. This means that whatever judgement is put upon the father passes on to the son. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that this is not so and possibly pre-empts the statement from Jesus about whose sins had caused God to take away the sight of the man born blind. That’s what I know about the reading.

This is what I feel about the reading. I feel that the reading tells us not to blame others for our own wrongdoings. In this modern day, people too often blame things beyond their control for whatever wrongs they committed. This is just pushing the blame and the first reading today says that we can not just shift the blame like that.

There are many instances in our lives when we do something wrong and blame it on the circumstances. Yes, peer pressure is a problem and it can influence our decisions. But we must remember that we have a choice and many times, the choice we know will please God tends to be the unpopular choice and so that is the reason we give in to temptation.

This desire to be popular is inherent in all of us but I think more so in the youths. Adults tend to be more secure in their positions and so do not give in as easily to peer pressure. However, the youths and teenagers just do not have it as easy. As a young person, everybody wants to fit in and be part of a group. The problem here is that there are more groups doing the wrong things than there are doing the right. For every youth division of the Legion of Mary, there are probably about 50 cliques meeting on the very same days to do things that are or could be harmful to the spiritual or even physical wellbeing of the youths.

Maybe one way to counter this would be to have more youth groups catered to the youths looking to further their spiritual lives. This would be a good idea but it does seem like something that needs something else to work. I think that having more youth groups is a good thing but the more important thing that needs to be done is to encourage the development of the characters in the youths who join the groups.

I know that in many churches, there is a boom in the numbers in youth groups just before confirmation and that this boom lasts about a year at the most and then tends to fade. This needs to be addressed because it seems most people leave with a bad impression of these groups and this starts their falling away from the church. This is the first snowball per se. I know because that was the excuse I used when I was falling away from the church.

I was very active as a teenager in youth groups in the church. One day however, I just stopped because I felt there were other better things to do. I also felt that the group was getting too cliquish and I just did not feel a part of it anymore. There was also that wonderful catholic youth group thing that kills many catholic youth groups, politics. I shall write my views on that some other time but suffice to say, it made me leave that group.

That was not the end of it though. When I left the group, I started becoming what I swore I would never be, a Sunday Catholic. I had been serving the church since I was about 10 and without anything to do in church I suddenly felt lost. I went to mass every Sunday but it just did not mean anything to me anymore. I was falling away from the church and what did I do? I blamed the catholic youth groups.

No, I did not blame the group I had been in, I blamed every group out there. I was convinced that every Catholic group was the same and I wanted no part in them. The sad thing was, I knew that joining a group would be good for me. I knew that to stop the rot I needed to join a group but I just could not because I did not take responsibility for what I had done on my own accord. The group did not force me to leave, I did that on my own.

Now, I shall go into the point of that long spiel. Firstly, we as catholic youth groups need to keep onto our members. This is something we need to learn from the protestant churches. We tend to think that our church is so great that we don’t need to do that. Well, we’re right, we don’t need to. But we should anyway. We need to show concern about everybody who joins us. Yes, people might abuse this but do it anyway. We need to show that although the head of the Catholic church is in Rome, the heart of the Catholic church is in each and every one of us. We need to start caring.

If, when I had just started to fall away from the group, someone from the group had called me to see what was going on, I don’t know what the result would have been. But, nobody called and thus I am writing this. Maybe if in our groups, we don’t see somebody for a while, we should just call them and see if anything is the matter. We need to take the initiative and go out and help without others needing to come and ask us for help. Somehow, we are all good being reactive, a little too good maybe, but not really good at being proactive.

So that’s the first thing, be proactive when we see a fellow brother or sister start falling away. Oh, and in order to do that, we need to notice people. That is not usually done in most cases. We always tend to notice the prominent people but those guys don’t need to be noticed. We need to start noticing the quiet ones. These are the ones who won’t ask for help and the ones we won’t notice when they leave. We need to note their presence and approach them. As mechanical as this might be, we need to take down when they are there and when they are not. This will make them feel special and make it seem like the group really cares for their individual well being.

Besides keeping onto our members, we need to encourage them to participate more in ways in which they can contribute to the group. By giving them tasks to do that they’re good at, they might start to feel a stronger sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is important as if you read up on gangs and other entities of their ilk, you would realise that that is what keeps youths from leaving the gangs.

I realised I got a little sidetracked. I was talking about judgements and pushing the blame. Well, the parts above are like how to avoid getting the blame pushed upon youth groups but they seem to have nothing much to do with judgements. No worries, I shall touch on that now.

The Psalm for today tells about what kind of sacrifices God desires from us. From the psalm, we are told that the best sacrifice to offer God is a contrite heart. Why is this so? Well, a contrite heart is malleable and it tells God that we accept him as our Lord and God and commit all that we do to his hands. He does not need anything we give Him. He needs us. So by going to God with a contrite heart, we are in fact offering him ourselves.

Lastly, we reach the Gospel. The Gospel today was really short and talks about little children. Jesus accepts the little children because of what we are told in the Psalm. Little children admit that they are weak and thus give themselves fully to Jesus. As children we allow others to lead because we know that we do not know. We acknowledge or fallings and realise that there is someone else who can help us. When we get older, pride tends to get in our way but as children, this pride is not a major consideration at all. Thus, when we are told to be like little children, we need to understand that we need to chuck our pride by the door and let God lead our lives.

That was my convoluted way of reflecting on the bible verses for today. I hope this was beneficial. If not, I will promise you that I will practice until it becomes beneficial.

Mahalo

awesome blossom

2006-08-19T15:32:00.000+08:00

This is the AWESOME BLOSSOM from chilli's...

shopping

2006-08-18T10:11:00.000+08:00

Hello people,

Well, on Tuesday I went out with Ruth and Fai after orientation. We wanted to go to a club called the Pipeline Café. I thought I was underdressed cos I was wearing boardshorts and slippers but the 2 of them assured me that this is Hawaii and that is the dresscode. They were wrong. I got thrown out of the club. But it’s ok, Ruth got thrown out too cos she didn’t bring her ID.

So we ended up going to Ward to catch a movie. We watched You, Me and Dupree. It was quite interesting cos the first part of the movie was in Hawaii and we were like we need to go to wherever the plane landed cos it was a stunning location. And the movies here are really expensive.

Anyway, yesterday we decided to embark on that all too Singaporean activity, bargain hunting. We went to a collection of outlet stores and spent just way too much money. The problem of outlet shopping in the states is the need to do mental calculations whenever you buy anything, which of course is not good for me considering my allergy to numbers. But some of the things here are mondo cheap man. Well, everything but the food of course.

Let’s see what I bought. I bought 2 pairs of levi’s and a pair of dockers berms and that came out to about $100 Singapore dollars. And one of those was a pair of 501s that costs way more in Levi’s Singapore. I almost bought a pair of Van’s shoes but decided against it after considering how I was going to bring them back home. I also bought a couple of t-shirts. One was for me and the other was something which made me think of Kudus. It read “It’s good to be the king” and had a picture of a guy lounging with people serving him beer. How can someone look at that and not think Kudus?

Then we went to chili’s to eat. Damn was the food there good. The best thing about the meal was something called awesome blossom. It’s just this enormous onion deep fried in batter and served with some sort of sauce. It was the best onion I’ve ever tasted cos it was just so sweet.

Oh, I got a message form my friend Leonard asking me to try krispy kremes. Well, I asked Sheri where the nearest Krispy Kremes was and she said that Hawaii only has 1 in the entire state and it happens to be on Maui. But Leo, rest assured that I will try those super donuts. Now I have even more reason to want to go visit Maui. And no, do not think that’s where Maui and Sons comes from and even if it was, big deal cos I don’t really like their stuff.

I visited Borders here and I almost bought a book called Da Jesus Book. Da Jesus Book is a version of the New Testament written entirely in pidgin, which is like the Hawaiian version of Singlish. It was pretty funny and interesting but I did not buy it because I saw Da Jesus Story which was a CD. I figured this would be better cos now people can actually get to hear what pidgin sounds like. I will definitely bring them down to the Friday Prayer Meets when I get back.

I think that’s all for the moment. I will blog more soon.

some really cool photos

2006-08-16T19:55:00.000+08:00

OK, spent a whole day in school just now. had orientation and met lots of exchange students. for some strange reason, even though everybody is on exchange, everybody still clings to the people they're most familiar with. the Aussies hung with the kiwis, the europeans with the europeans and we the singaporean hung with the thai people. they were actually very nice and were from thamassat if i spelt that properly. they also had cool nicknames like benz and top and mas which is good cos probably nobody can pronounce their names.

met very interesting people at orientation like the hot russian girl who speaks about as much english as i could when i was 7 months old. guess what, she even has the most russian name on the planet, tatiana. and there was also the german guy who translated everything for her, oskar. now that guy was interesting. he can speak russian fluently because he lived in kazakhstan for 10 years. this is because he is totally ethnically german and hihs family used to live in russia. confused yet? anyway, during world war 2, his family was considered enemies of that state and hence got kicked out of russia and had to live in kazakhstan because if they went back to germany, they'd probably be considered traitors too. so that means that oskar is cool cos he's probably got lots of stories to tell. i need to get to know him better cos i like stories.

joel told me to put more pictures of birds on my blog but i figure, look, there are lots of birds everywhere you look and you know what, the birds in hawaii are pretty much very similar to the birds in singapore. i mean if i have pictures of birds then i'll put them here but i won't go and purposely take bird photos. i like scenery. i wish i could master my camera so i can take really good shots but then again, the place is so pretty, even my crap skills can't spoil it.

Here are the uber cool photos...

OK, these are pictures of the sunset taken at the lookout point on waikiki beach. waikiki is super touristy but its also the safest beach on which to learn how to surf. there's lots to do there and it faces west so it's got the best view of sunsets. i like the fact that there is a mountain right next to the sunset. SO PRETTY...

OK, these are the photos or the sheri's place. the top one if of her super steep driveway. i climbed up the driveway last night and i almost died. i climbed down the driveway in the afternoon and i knew that one wrong step and i'd be humpty dumptying all the way down. the one with the bright red plant is at the top of the driveway. she calls that the shower plant cos when the flowers fall, it's like a shower of pretty red petals. And the last one is the view of the mountain next to sheri's place taken from the busstop.

newspaper

2006-08-16T19:54:00.000+08:00

I some how managed to get myself into the Hawaiian papers after being here for only 4 days. not bad eh? i've been in Singapore for 23 years and haven't even made an appearance on anything...

anyway, this is the newspaper cutout for those who wanna check it out...

http://starbulletin.com/2006/08/14/news/story02.html

it's kinda annoying cos it says that places are opening up. they should have told me that before i signed my lease payment but ah well, c'est la vie no?

sunday morning

2006-08-14T12:20:00.000+08:00

As for today, we went to church. it was really different from attending mass in singapore. firstly, there is no procession. the priest just walks in and straight onto the altar. then, before the processional hymn, which is strange cos there is no procession, the priest asks if there are any visitors or first timers in the congregation that day. i stood up and they asked where i was from and then they gave me an aloha welcoming lei. also, the wardens for the mass were all youths and were all Sheri's friends. so at least it isn't as bad as the state of the church in australia since there were a few youths there. it was a really small church though. it was about maybe three times the size of the SJI chapel.

Next, when the mass began everything was normal until the Eucharistic prayer. they don't kneel. they stand through the parts that we kneel through in Singapore. Even after communion they stand and wait until everybody is done and then they sit. OK, some people do kneel during that part but not many. they also sing a version of the lamb of God which is about 5 or 6 stanzas long and doesn't say lamb of God til the last one. and for communion, they don't use the host but actual brown bread. i wasn't sure if i could bite the bread but it was really dry and so i felt like i had to. sorry Jesus.

After communion they had a family prayer where a family would go up and receive a blessing for the whole community. i thought that that was nice. that was the thing about mass here in hawaii. it was just so comfortable and family oriented and everybody smiles. widely.

anyway, after mass, sheri and i went to meet up with her friends for lunch. we ate at a place called jack in the box which was like burger king just slightly different. we bought the paper but didn't see the article or our pictures on it. oh thinking about the article reminds me of the photographer who was really friendly and told us of like his life story and how he spent 10 years in UH and was studying for his masters in zoology but realised that he was making too much money taking pictures and so he quit school and began working as a photographer. he also told us that within walking distance was a place called mcgoo's which serves the cheapest beers on the island. i know now where i'll be spending just a little bit too much of my time in the future. he said the most expensive thing there was a pitcher of guiness which goes for about 8 bucks. my eyes lit up and i was happy. hahaha...

after the lunch, we went back to sheri's and she took a nap cos she's not feeling well. she showed me the soccer channel and they were showing the community shield. i am worried that jose has spent so much on attack that he has neglected his defence. i hope gallas changes his attitude. we need him bad. after watching the match i just decided to start writing my blogs for this past week so i have nothing left to clear when tomorrow begins.

oh, remember in a previous post i talked about going to a christian bookstore? well, Sheri's friend Clyde works there and can give me a discount on the books there. so if anybody wants a book u can tell me and i'll tell you how much it is and you can wait til january to get it. deal?

Oh yeah, talk about localisation... Mother Mary's wearing a lei...

alright, i'll sign off now...
tata

stuff i did yesterday

2006-08-14T11:57:00.000+08:00

Ok, I’ve been told to keep my blogs short cos it’s difficult to process so much stuff without really getting bored. Also I think there was way too much detail in the last posting.

Fai asked me if I was loving Hawaii yet and in all honesty, I really wasn’t. Maybe it’s cos I just had like way too much on my mind. Trying to find a place and all has been rather tough and I thought that school would be easy but I can’t get most of my modules. In fact, the only module I got easily was the theatre module. All the history modules were closed cos they were popular but luckily the history professors were really nice and they said they’d see what they could do to squeeze me into their classes. For lit, which they call English here, the literature of jazz was closed but I kinda felt like taking the one on the history of poetic form instead. The problem with that one was that I could not register for it because I didn’t meet the pre-req so I emailed the guy to tell him that I did and he went to have a check and said I had to see him again on Monday to check it out again. So that’s the module thing.

Next is the housing thing. I was very worried that I might not find a place to stay for the semester and the fears got even worse when I checked out craig’s list which is some sort of an advertising website thing. The places were all way over my budget and they weren’t really near the school at all. So on Saturday, me and Fai and Sheri went to check out a place called Kalo Terrace which is about as near to the uni as sheares is to arts. So the location was good. As for the facilities, they seemed alright. I mean they weren’t up to the nus hall standards but apparently they were pretty high on the UH dorm standard. But I didn’t mind. They have wireless in every room and a tv with cable in the main hall of the apartment and a laundry room with washer and dryer which I don’t think you can cheat (damn). They even have a swimming pool. Ok, in my mind I was thinking like why would you need a pool in Hawaii then I saw some hot European chicks sunbathing at the pool and I became enlightened. I signed up for a room right there and then. Hahaha… well, this was also because Sheri’s sister is in real estate and she said that the price I was getting it for was very decent for the location and I let the Singaporean in me take over cos it was a good deal and WE don’t let good deals go by easily. Ooh, they gave us free pizza too cos it was like their open house that day and the R.A.s were nice. RAs are like block com back home but they get to stay for free cos they take care of everything. Think Block com with twice as much work though.

We then hung out at Jason’s place. Jason is Sheri’s boyfriend. Anyway, he let all of us crash at his place and we waited for Ruth. Ruth came after having a horrible time cos of some asshole who was a total bastard to her when she went to diamond head. When she came, we cruised for a while before we went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, which served the best miso soup I’ve ever tasted. And the rest of the food there was pretty superb too. I think I’ll never go to Japan now that I know you can get really great stuff in Hawaii too.

Since we’re on the topic of food, let’s talk about Hawaiian food. And if kudus is reading this, no, I’m not just talking about Hawaiian pizza although the pizza we had at Kalo, none of them were Hawaiian come to think about it. Anywho, I’m talking about real Hawaiian food. Poi, which is sort of like a yam paste is the staple for the Hawaiians. It’s bad. Really. I’m not kidding. I stuck my spoon in it and when I took it out I knew I wasn’t in for a treat. It’s cold and sour and icky. Sorry if I have insulted anyone out there but I have one thing to say in my defence. I had it at Poi Bowl at Ala Moana centre so it was bound to suck. This I had been told by Sheri’s friends after I told them that I went there. Everything else though was alright, just a little salty. There was kalua pig, which is just strips of pork in some broth thing and Laulau which is pork cooked with spinach and tea leaves. There was also some salmon thing and chicken long rice which was all pretty ok. And the best part of it was a hapua dessert which is this coconut jelly thing. That was yum.

That was Saturday. I kinda forgot to take more shots of Kalo Terrace but I’ll definitely get a chance to again soon. And I’ll try and get a newspaper report that I’m apparently on as well. Some reporter came and interviewed me and Sheri and Fai about housing in UH or the lack thereof and was asking us questions and taking pictures of us. Cool huh? I might get into the papers in Hawaii before I get into them in Singapore.

Oh, here's a bottle of belgian beer i drank at Ryan's when i went there with Sheri's friends after Ala Moana. They were having a beer fest there and had beer from all over the world. This one that i had was very heavy at about 10.5% alc and was dark with a fruity aftertaste. it was no stella for sure. i'm thinkin about heading off to Ryan's for more before beer fest ends...

more words now

2006-08-14T10:49:00.000+08:00

Hey people, this is don here trying to get a blog up and running. This blog has been set up as a way to keep connected to the rest of the world that’s not in paradise at the moment. For those who are in paradise with me, what are you guys doing here? Don’t you have better things to do?

Anyway, time to tell you how things went. Oh by the way, I’m not writing this on Hawaii Day 1 but Hawaii Day 2. The thing is, I had realised that when I arrived at Sheri’s place last night, I had been awake for about 48 hours with only fleeting sleep on the plane on my way to Hawaii and a short nap when I was in Narita.

Firstly, Northwest is not exactly the best way to fly. The journey from Singapore to Narita was not a very comfortable one. I am very ashamed to say that I got air sick in the plane and that it was the first time in years. I didn’t even get airsick when I was travelling on the flying coffins of Eva and China Airlines. (I didn’t really like Eva but I thought China Air was pretty decent.) Heck, I didn’t even get sick when I was on the Charlie 130 to erm, I think it’s an open national secret but a national secret nonetheless so I shall not say where I travelled to on the Charlie. In fact on the flight to Narita, they served food barely better than the SFI food served on the Charlie 130. The one good thing though was the personal TVs. I was really afraid of having to sit through a super long journey without a personal TV and my friend Chris had told me that Northwest didn’t have personal TVs, so I was really relieved to see a TV behind every seat. And they had pretty decent programs too. I watched “Thank you for smoking” but I fell asleep halfway because I wasn’t feeling too well. Oh, and I just remembered that it took me a bloody long time to find the freaking earphone jack for my seat. If anybody from Northwest reads this, or anybody who works with airplane companies for that matter, please have something telling patrons where the bleeting earphone jack thing is. After taking an uncomfortable nap, I decided to watch “Over the Hedge”. That went pretty good at first but then, they stopped the movie halfway to say that we were about to land. By about to land, I mean 30 minutes from actually landing. And then, they didn’t continue it at all. OK, well, they did but without the sound. Genius.

Next was the adventure in Narita. Thank God for travelling companions. I was travelling with Fairoza who is also going to be studying in Manoa with me and Ruth who’s gonna study in Austin but came to Hawaii for a weeklong break. So we decided to hang together in Narita while we served our time there, which was a pretty impressive 6 hours. First off, we decided to be Singaporean and look for food. Being in Japan, we decided to look for sushi. Guess what? There’s no sushi in Narita when you’re on transit. So we decided to settle for Macs. But we compromised for our own dignities and got burgers unavailable in Singapore. Then we headed to one of the lounges that had Internet connections and decided to hang there for a bit. After finishing our food, Ruth went online at a rate or 100 yen for every ten minutes and Fairoza went online at a rate of 100 yen for like ever. Apparently there was something wrong with that terminal but who cares. Anyway, while they were online, I decided to take a nap on the desk. Only after I woke up did I realise that I could have just as easily gotten to sleep on the seats there that could accommodate me lying down. Anyway, about an hour before we had to board the plane, we decided to go around Narita one last time just in case we missed anything and guess what? Yes, there is sushi in Narita, in a Food court behind the FaSoLa duty free thingie. And there was a Starbucks there too and a really cool place that sold really nice bags. Unfortunately, I could find anything that sold “Hard Gay” stuff so sorry guys.

Soon after that we had to board the plane. Fairoza grabbed a coffee from Starbucks cos she wanted to stay awake so she could watch Thank you for Smoking. Well, we got on the plane and then I noticed something very troubling. THERE WERE NO PERSONAL TV SETS!!! ARGH!!! There wasn’t even any music for much of the journey. They played Akeelah and the Bee on the shared TV and that’s a pretty good movie. I strongly encourage people to catch it. There was a pretty good quote on it about Fear that I can’t remember word for word and even if I did I would share it cos I want you guys to go watch it. But this time, the flight was a lot more comfortable and the food was much better. I didn’t get sick on this flight. However, the best thing on this flight was the landing. As we were about to land the lady next to me opened the shutter for the window to reveal the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen from an aeroplane. I think it was Maui or the Big Island we were flying over but it was Gorgeous. I got off the plane really excited cos I just wanted to see more of the beauty of Paradise. And then I had to pass through immigration, which was a rather pleasant experience. The Border and Immigration Control officer was very nice and made things very easy for me. The shite part came when I had to go get my luggage. I waited and waited and waited. And then I saw my bags by the side of the carousel which was just too packed with people and so after about 25 minutes of waited for my luggage I was finally able to pass through customs and out into the bright Hawaiian sun!

By this time, I had already lost Ruth and Fairoza. And that was pretty bad cos we had no way of getting in touch. I decided that I should get a pre-paid card and then tell Fai my number through email or something. But that is another adventure I’ll get to later. First I had to find Sheri. I was pretty worried cos it was already about 930 when I cleared everything and I told her my flight was arriving at 850. But my worries were unfounded. As I approached the arrivals area she just ran up to me and gave me a huge Aloha hug. It felt good to see her after all these months. We tried looking for Fai and Ruth but then just decided to give up since Fai was probably with her host family and Ruth was probably on her way to her hotel room. Then Sheri and I walked over to her car. She had to rush off to class and I was afraid that picking me up would make her late but apparently, she just made her class. So she went for class and left me to explore the university on my own.

My first stop was to see the exchange coordinator and on the way there, a lady stopped me and asked me for directions. That so made my day. Hahaha. Anyway, after that I went to the Health Centre and the Student services centre. There I found out that I still could not register until I could break my holds but that would have to wait for day 2. After that, I met up with Sheri and we went for lunch at L and L’s Drive Inn. We had a boxed lunch, the first one ever for me in that way. Dr Barnard recommended that I try one and so I did. It was pretty good but I still wasn’t feeling too well from my plane ride and stuff so I could not finish everything. After lunch, Sheri had to go to work and so she asked if I wanted to hang around Ward for like about 5 hours before she picked me up again. I said I didn’t mind and thus my Ward adventure began.
The adventure was because I had to get a pre-paid line for my phone. This is something we probably take for granted in Singapore cos there’s always a singtel or m1 or starhub somewhere around. Over here, nobody really knows where T-mobile and Cingular are and they all say it’s pretty near but their near is kinda far. Anyway it started of by a lady telling me to walk to someplace called CompUSA cos she said there was a T-mobile there. It took me about 20 minutes to walk there and when I got there and asked where the T-mobile was, I was told that the nearest one was in the downtown area about a 45 minute walk away in “thata” way. So I walked in thata way until I reached ward again and I just gave up. I went into another shop in the ward warehouse and asked where the nearest T-mobile or Cingular was and this really nice lady gave me pretty clear and accurate directions to get to a Cingular which was just a ten minute walk away. So I happily walked there and got me a pre-paid line. The charges there are pretty interesting going at $1 a day on the days you use your phone, so if you don’t use your phone, you don’t have to pay. And calls are at $0.10 a minute but the best thing is that calls from Cingular to Cingular are completely free. And that is really cool cos Sheri and Fai are both on Cingular too. I do realise that this is not much of an adventure but you have to remember that by this time, I had been awake for about 36+ hours with only fleeting sleep on the plane and the nap in Narita so there were times when I just had to take about 30 minutes to rest and just gather my wits. I was very tempted to just co to the ward Cineplex and pay about US$6.50 to sit down in a cinema and sleep but then decided it was against my principles. So I just went shopping. I bought a pair of boardshorts and got a free t-shirt so I thought it was a pretty decent deal. I also bought lotsa stuff to drink cos I was just so thirsty that afternoon. I mean it doesn’t feel as yucky as the weather back home but it is awfully dry and so you really need to hydrate yourself. I also went to check out a Christian bookshop and it was pretty good. The books there I have never seen in Singapore and I think they are pretty cheap comparatively too. There was a book called Grace Gone Wild which I picked up because of the catchy title and it was about how we tend to misunderstand and take for granted God’s graces. After that, I took some pretty random photos and then decided to wait for Sheri at the L and L’s.

So at about 5 in the afternoon after being awake for about 40 hours, Sheri picked me up. Then she asked my whether I’d like to join her boyfriend and his friends in a game of soccer to which I replied that I probably couldn’t play without dying but I didn’t mind watching. She told me it was a real sort of game so I decided to check it out. So we went to Jason’s apartment, which was a pretty nice place and then went down to the field. The field was very close to diamond head and so I just had to take some photos of the beautiful promontory instead of watching the game. The fun thing was that next to the guys playing soccer was a bunch of guys playing touch and I think they were all kiwi or something. The public fields there are free and have lighting at night. How different is that from back home where sometimes you have to pay for fields and then bring your own lights. Anyway, after the game I finally had a chance to go to Sheri’s place and have a good rest.

When we got to Sheri’s, I found out that it was on top of a super steep hill. And I mean super steep. When we got in I met Sheri’s sisters Cari and Christina and her parents and nieces and brother-in-law too. Her mum cooked for us and we had nice Asian food for dinner. In all honesty, the food here was a lot better than at L and L’s. Sheri then showed me to where I’d be putting up for the rest of the week and then I took a shower and prepared for bed. I checked my email and stuff and sent an online sms to my dad telling him that I was doing well and then I just fell asleep. Sleep felt so good especially after the Longest Day Of My Life. Officially I think the day lasted for about 42 hours of which 20 were spent in Limbo. Anyway, I think that the 10th of Aug 2006 will go down as the longest day and probably will never be beat. And I figure that the 9th of Jan 2007 will be the shortest as I leave Honolulu on the 8th and arrive in Singapore on the 10th of Jan.

Anyway here are more photos.

this is a picture of the view from the university. It's called the University of Hawaii at Manoa and it's in Manoa Valley. Since it's a valley, ergo, there are 2 mountains it's in between. here's one of the mountains. I don't know what it's called but i'll try to find out and tell you guys some other time yeah?

ok, here's the thing... the palm trees here are pretty sweet so there will be quite a lot of photos of palm trees. they really are pretty aren't they...

here's a picture i took while i was in sheri's car. yup, there sure are lots of mountains here. kinda feel strange though. it's like i'm more interested in going to the mountains than going to the beach. I mean, the beach seems blah compared to the mountains...

alrighty and these are pictures of the view from sheri's place. you know, it would be so cool waking up to this every morning. anyway, i just took these photos today cos it's like the first time i've really had the time in the day to take pictures since i'm normally rushing off somewhere in the early morning and only return like way at night. i kinda want to climb further up the mountain she lives on and then take more photos. damn i like my camera and i think he likes me lots now cos he can take really power shots and live up to his billing as a powershot...
ok, forgive the corn...

1st attempt at blogging

2006-08-12T20:32:00.000+08:00

hey people... How you all doing? anyway, i'm just trying out this whole blog thing and seeing how it goes... i've taken some nice photos and these here are done with my phone... the one's on my camera will be uploaded some other time when i really do figure out how to exactly use this thing... anyway, i hoe you enjoy these shots...

here's a shot of palm trees... there are lots of them in Hawaii and they're all taller than the buildings man... but they really are very pretty and building deserve to be dwarfed by them...

this is a random picture of where i went to watch the soccer game with diamond head overlooking the field. i really wanna scale diamond head but everything in its time yah...

ok, this one is diamond head again but closer to sunset now...

and this is the super long Hawaiian twilight... for those who took heavenly math last year, longer sunsets rock man!!!

Ok, this is my first entry... later entries will have more pictures and more of me thinking too... it's getting kinda late now so i think i'll say goodnight to you peeps now and i'll try to post more when i can...

MAHALO

ALOHA