Big Brother watching

What is the use of putting survellence cameras in lifts? Okay i get the security part, but having a monitor? I do not get it. It is like making everyone a peeping tom legally.

This is a picture taken when i was on my piano lesson at Nancy's house. The town council had it for a couple of weeks already. The monitor show the views of 3 lifts from time to time and i do not get it why you need a monitor outside the lift. it is just too much already, i feel my privacy is been intruded by this.

TAFEP Recent Advertisment

The picture above is the advertisment put up by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices. (TAFEP)

One of the 5 principles that TAFEP advocates includes: "Recruit and select employees on the basis of merit, such as skills, experience and ability, regardless of age, race, gender, religion or family status. "

I was reading the advertisement and was amused by the human formation of the word "skill". Notice the letter "K", which was formed by 2 man butt touch each other. Seems like TAFEP should also include in their 5 principles, regardless of their sexual orientation as well.

Not that i support the gay right movement, but just that i find this advertisement amusing and i wondered how does the 2 men felt when they are forming the letter K. Also, if the advertiser had no intention of promoting gay rights, then he (or she) should be more sensitive in forming the letter K since their more ways to form than this.

I had to admit that my faith is shaken badly after Linda left. Not that i had made her the ultimate thing in my life, but it is just that I felt I should not have done that onto myself.
Constantly, I felt God's wrath and anger to me than his love. I see no hope in my life, no direction that motivates me to live on. And i know i really cannot die because i will be heading to hell. if there is no life after death, then death may be very attractive to me.
i know should have said this. Everyday, i see the hypocrisy of Man doing things in the name of God, and i am sick by it. News coming in talking about self righteous Christians commiting various hideous crimes while the waywards group like the gay and lesbians appear to be more moral than them, just makes me sick.
why is this world turning this way? why can't i be a Bible beliving, rational, believe in micro evolution, support empirical scientific truth, support abortion due to medical reasons both on the baby and the mother, that allow gays and lesbians so long as they are no Christians, love the environment, recycle, drive an electric car? why do Christians have to subscribe to package of beliefs? can they pick and choose?
In this era, i find it very difficult to identify myself as a rational Christians.

Felt very far away from God. I cannot felt His presence, I cannot felt His love and protection. Circumstances did not improve, I still cannot find a permanent job, I still have not found a girl that i love. I am still finacially not independent enough. I am still feel that i am under the care of my parent. very tired.....

If Times are bad, go full time (as from sunday's sermon)

Speaking of which, i am grateful of today message. i learn that

- you do not end up doing the very thing that you study
- resumes are the most inefficient way of securing a job, networking is.
- asking God about my mission, master and my mate.
- knowing who God is and what is his purpose for my life.

His purpose? I really do not know. I do feel alive when i am teaching guitar to the people who are learning from me. But i am faced with the issues:

- do i really want to teach?
- i do not have the qualifications to teach guitar.

there are times where i really want to be a teacher and organise a guitar club within the school and hopefully come out with a band somewhat like the movie "School of Rock" where you make youngsters know their dreams and aspirations and use their energies to something useful. i envision that as something exciting and exhilarating. but so many times, i heard of stories about school disciplines and how bad their students are and how many teachers got into depression and stuffs like that. i have work in a school before and i also tell myself before not to be a teacher. but there is a inner prompting in my heart that keep on nagging me to go to teaching.

then again i ask myself do i have the moral capacity to guide and lead the students? Do i have the drive to motivate them to study and improve their grades? Do i have the energies to keep up with them? Do i have the wisdom to outsmart them? Do i have the humility to learn from them?

i really confused.... seeing my friends dealing with unreasonable parents scolding them, hearing them complaining about their workload and unreasonable time schedules and also seeing them bringing papers to mark here and that, i really wonder whether it is worth while plunging in the field. but i am really afraid that i might not make it and i am really scared.

side issues
was reading Ruth this week because i told someone to read it, was asking God what i supposed to do. maybe we got into it to early, i have not consider her feelings enough that got us into this. i should have waited and believe that if this is God's will, then He will not fail me. Just like in the book of Ruth, where providence of God take the centre stage in this story. I should have believe that God will carve a way out, whenBoaz did not take Ruth immediately but instead confronted the rightful kinsman Redeemer before he takes Ruth, knowing full well that he might lose Ruth in the process if the kinsman decide to redeem her. i should have done that, placing that kind of trust and faith in God that He will make a way for me in this area and also other aspects of my life like my career.

Movie Review: Transformers 2

A terrible show of plain fireworks and metal crushing. Thank for the sexy sultry Megan Fox, i may have just fell asleep. i have absolutely no idea what the show is all about. i think is something to do with the all spark that can re power the machine that will harvest the sun.
i cannot believe that the weak story can even make into a movie. you have been told that the transformers had been ard for millions of years but there were no cars or planes to transformed, what do they transform to?
Also i had totally clueless about how they ressurect Megatron from the sea.
There is no story, there is no plot, there is nothing in this show.....

If possible, dun watch, and also dun support Micheal bay films. They sucks

After attending GL&S's wedding, i was thinking to myself; can i ever have a relationship and a life that is as meaningful as their or even better?

Am i able to be the one that is able to take care and protect the one that God gives?

The Aware that i could not care less about

An excerpt from someone on Facebook (my reply in colour):

I was saddened by the outcome of the AWARE EGM....

...it was the death of civility....the triumph of hooliganism....
Hooliganism? what about the politicking that was going on by the new guard to the old guard? what about the lack of transparency on the motive and agenda. it is not really ethnical, so i do not really care that the new guard failed.

...it was the demonising of faith-based values (particularly Christianity)...the triumph of the pawns of the Lawless One...

it is kind of a disgrace on Chrisitianity. what the new guard done is sneaky and un- Christian.

...it was the distortion of facts....the deception by the press, betraying the ethical professional values of journalism...

Are those Christians having a victimised issue on themselves? Look we are not yet perscuted to the point of death.

...it was the decaying of our society...the disease has just taken root through an organisation that seeks to protect women and families...

There are other issues within Christianity that we have to deal with. Propserity gospel, Christianity liberalism, new age movement. To say homosexual is the ultimate sin is incredibly a waste of time and resources. I rather hope Christians focused more on the social justice, helping the poor and the widows and the underprivilage in the society. Please stop wasting time on homosexuals.

...it was the demolition of freedom and justice in our society...the desecraation of the foundational values enshrined in our Constitution...

As Christians, we should not be homosexuals. but for a non Christian, it is meaningless to talk about homosexuality. living in a pluristic society, we should realised that certain values are not applicable to the general society.

...it was the day where decency is not a virtue.....but vulgarity was celebrated!

shouting to the audience that you should respect elders, shouting the audience to shut up and sit down. vulgarity is on both sides not just the side on the old guards.

Friends, this is not the end, trust me, more to come as our country are opened up to the world, our political leaders will be pressured to persuade us to believe that secular means "souless" involvement in community service and inclusiveness means "mindlessness"

yeah, we need more of rational Chrisitians to serve the society. Maybe all the Chrisitian women who are involved in AWARE saga should read 1 Tim 2: 11.

I am so disappointed by the Christian women who are involved here and their husbands too....

X-Men Origin - Wolvervine

Just watch the show X-men Origin. Great show. go see it. answered a lot of questions from the X men series 1.5 and 2. Notice i did not mention 3 because that was crap that was not done by Bryant Singer.

Crisis in Christianity

The crisis within Christianity is no longer comes from prosperity gospel or even Charismatics vs conservative. But i think the crisis comes from relativeness. That all paths leads to the same destinations and all religions are the same, there is no right or wrong

For prosperity gospel, people will soon find out when life take a down turn to them. but for relativativism is not that simple, because it is not something that can be proven wrong. it is diplomatically correct to be a relativist so the society encourage that kind of behaviour. however this would make the sharing of gospel difficult because gospel is an offense to many; telling people that Jesus is the only way and whoever do not believe is going to hell. That is not only perceive by many as arrogant, it is downright outrageous because they cannot conceive in their minds a loving God would send people to hell.

Unless the church takes an active role in addressing the issue of post modernism. The church would be seen by non Christians as a bunch of conservative moralist who judge the world by their own standards, hypocrites at best. Just fear that the church that i am seeing still battling with so call the prosperity teaching rather than not seeing the real crisis from the outside.

I have heard so many times this statement:

You must be a good testimony to other
OR
Don't stumble others.

I just find that this statement is an exucse for people to practice religion in a worldly sense. I just do not really feel that people who made these statement really mean what they say. I think what they say is, "I got to earn it for God." or "See how superior I am compared to you, O non-Christians"

I love this guy. He is smart, handsome, passionate about his job and a wick sense of humour. He would stab at the chicken chop cursing and swearing at his opponent. He had a foul mouth and swears profusely when he is angry.Perhaps that is the very thing that i do not want to emanulate.

Discipleship

Nietzsche Friedrich once said," All truth claims are power play."

I agree 99%. This is what happen if we keep pushing people to evangelise and make disciples when in the first place they have not fully grasp, experienced God's love and grace. How is it difference from other religions. This is somewhat akin to MLM. For responsible distributors, they would use the product, convinced of its effectiveness and then recommend other to purchase the products. For the profit hunters, they would simply take the words of the trainers and then regurgitate to their friends without much thinking. For the latter, profit is what they are looking for. This is the same for Christians who do not fully experienced God's grace, they repeat scripted lines and verses, hoping to convert people, it is really what Nietzsche claimed to be,"power play", the desire to exert control and dominance over others.

Real truth surrenders that exact control and dominance to others and subject himself to others like what Jesus done on the cross, where he laid down his life for his friends on the cross. Which religion in this world have its leader died for its believers?

This is what Jesus say to the pharisees:

¹⁵"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

¹⁶"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' -Matthew 23:14-16 (NIV)

It is really not a matter of how long he is a Christian or not. It is the issue of whether he had experience or understand the difference of God's grace in his life. So don't tell me the disciple anyone in the future unless I am totally experience God's grace and mercy in my life, otherwise it would just be a case of power play and struggle.

The difference between animals and humans

One question was asked whether animals have feelings or not. To this, i tend to side with the atheist stance and say NO. Animals have no feelings because they are not moral creatures. Their so call emotions is a manifestation of complex neural activity that we humans perceived as emotions.

Does that make me an animal hater? No. To me, we still need to show love and compassion to animal as they are God's creation. His creations are far more perfect than ours and our love towards the animals should be an expression of the love for God's creation. However, to say that animals have emotions, I would not agree. This would unequivocally make animal having the same status as humans. This is so stupid because when Johnny the kid and Johnny the puppy stand in the middle of the road and you are driving the car. As what Mark Driscoll would say, the puppy goes. That just too bad. But I would save the kid first.

Humans are the only creatures that had God breathed into his nostrils and are created in His image. We are higher than the animals but lower than God. We are moral creatures and have emotions. Please do not tell me that animals have feelings and emotions.

Certain Habits

i like to drink soft drink from a straw
i like to sit directly in front of the person when dining
i will sit outside the seat in the bus
i will walk on pave that is near the road when i am walking with someone

Some of these things is because of you. You leave a mark in my life that certain habits i will not change.

Much as I want to move on. I still have not found someone as nice as you, as beautiful as you. I am a fool to lose you just like that.

made an office plunder and it backfired at me this week. anyway, i know i am not able to stay for long so i will just learn what ever i can before i leave

Someone once told me that she is looking for a relationship where the other party would love her more than she.

I disagree at first. But after much thought, she just sprouted some truth in this statement that I must admit that I had to agree. I mean as guys we should love more than the girls than the other way round. I had to agree with her.

Timothy J Keller

I love his sermons, his free ones cos his sermons in his church is charging for any download.

T3 Airport urinal

One of the most ingenious solution to solve the man's problem in toilet was actually thought up by this German.
He (i presume is a he) drew a fly on the urinal so that there is something for him to take aim as he pisses off. That actually help to reduce the spillage experience as now there is something to take aim at.
How about that? This shows something about man's psychology 101. There is a need something concrete to get himself motivated. Even the littlest thing like urinating, he needs to take aim at the fly in order for him to get motivated to aim properly.

p/s: i think that is so true because it actually works for me. it is so fun to take a piss in that place. =)

Shoe Throwing Fiscal Again

Today, there is a shoe being thrown at China Premier Wen Jiabao... You think people will show admiration to the shoe thrower again? I do not think so. Firstly, Premier Wen is a respectable man unlike President Bush. Secondly, Tibet is part of China and foreigner should not interfere with the nation's affairs in the name of human rights.

Throwing shoe in the episode is simply barbaric and uncouth. The person should be severly punished for doing such an act. But I would not have said the same to that guy who threw at Bush. In fact, Bush should deserve a knife or a bullet more than a shoe.

Timothy Loves the Charismatics

I love the charismatics. They are so bubbly and filled with faith for God that you really wished they could have passed some of their faith to you.

Visitation to CS house

Thanks for the hospitality that your family had shown when you are hosting the cell group. Your mom is really a friendly person to interact with. =)

Christian criticising Religion

Recently, a Christian couple were charged for distributing anti-Islam materials. In a way, I agreed with the couples' desires to "spread the Gospel responsibly" but the defination on responsibly should be defined. You do not go round stuffing other people's mailbox with tracts. You do not harass people with your faith. Jesus at the very least, do not publish tract and go round pedaling the materials.

Christians win coverts through their love for sinners. Their willingness to accept and love them because they know God love them and they want the love they experienced to be shared with others. But sharing means taking time to know that person, spend time, share their lives, rather than distributing materials, hoping some miracles in the middle of the night to covert those who might read the tracts when half the time, these tracts end up in the wastebaskets.

Such incidents only potrays Christians as narrow minded, unloving, arrogent. This is very disappointing....

The need of a Saviour

In this time of era, I am beginning to appreciate the need for a Saviour. A Saviour that would uphold justice and to bring sanity back to this world. A world that is corrupted by greed, covet and selfishness by people who thinks only for themselves.

I need someone who is able to come in and do something positive rather than doing evil. I need someone who is able to rally people to do something good in common. To bring hope and direction that will do good. The ability to utilise the energy to bring about a change.

I need a God that is good and just, loving and mercy, I need a God that give me hope and direction....

Paper steamboat at Compasspoint Shopping Centre

Today I went to Compasspoint to eat the Japanese paper steamboat at its Kopitiam. A bit expensive; $6.18 (after 10% discount). I just wanted to see how come the paper does not get burn by the solid fuel. I realised that this is a simple concept of heat dissipation principle. The wire mesh conduct away much of the heat to prevent the paper from reaching its flash point. Also the paper is thicker so that it is waterproof.

Having said that, how is the taste? A big let down, the miso taste like MSG, the salmon get stuck together like a frozen lump of meat. Only served me cabbage, mushroom and tofu and spring onion. I was very thirsty after the experience. Would I try again? I do not think so.

Ok so this is my verdict for Japanese paper steamboat at Compasspoint. Very gimmick, check out the lady who is taking the orders. Do not ask me why, go find out yourself. I just find her a bit weird.

14 Feb 2009

尽然忘了14 Feb 是情人节。
是自己老了，认了宿命，还是人生的忙碌令人迷失了那种烂漫。
咳....

突然间，感慨良多。。。太多过去的痛无法释怀。

Faith

In life you have to ask 2 questions:
Is there a God?
Is that God the Christian one?

The main argument for the existent of a God mainly rest on the observed orderliness in the universe. The complexity that involved in the creation of life. The famous argument was actually proposed by a Christian thinker William Paley. He suggested that if we found a watch along the way, we would naturally wondered its creator rather than inferring from the possibility that it "happens" to be there. Likewise as we observed the universe, we would wonder its creator and not inferred that it happened to be there.

Opponent to this arguement include the famous Carl Sargen and Richard Dawkins who wrote the book, The Blind watchmaker to counter the watchmaker arguement. You can read it if you are interested, bearing in mind that his main argument rest on computer model that he generated and argue that orderliness can indeed arise from intense chaos. However, he forgot the fact that there required a maker for the rules in his computer model and still he cannot escape the need for a maker.

Now if you have no problem with the first question, the second one is a more difficult one; mainly, how do you know Jesus is the one true God?

Few areas for you to consider:

- The apostles (except John) died as a marty, many of them are either crucified, drown, saw into two because they refused to reject their faith. Of course you can say that many people of other faith died for their belief, but not many would die without bringing others down, if you know what i mean.

- The sheer amount of ancient manuscripts found compare to the rest of the world.

- How recent the manuscript was written after Jesus' death until the author can claim that you can ask those witnesses who are still around during that time.
The frankness of the bible, it does not potray anyone as a hero except Jesus. In fact, it just did the opposite; kings commit adultry, murder, Apostle betraying Jesus, denied him three times .

-Religous leaders cried out to crucify Jesus because he is seen by them as a glutton, friend of sinner. Family rejected him. I mean, if you are going to fabricate a religion, you might as well write him having an extraordinary character perfoming heroic acts and saving the world.

What is stopping people from believing?
- New age movement: The thought of relativism, nothing is absolute. The only counter argue to this should anyone tell me this would be: your statement is an absolute statement, so your statement is not true and i would believe that.

-No one is holding the truth. We are like the blind men feeling for the elephant. For that person who make this statement did not realise that in order to know that the blind are feeling for the elephant there is a need to have a man that is not blind. So you are trying to say that you are the only holding the truth which is not true because you just claim that no one is holding the truth.

Christians: sometimes, it is us who is making people fail to believe because we make the belief looked so silly. Either we make it too spiritual, we sprout words and statements that sound supersitous like other religions, or we cannot intelligent communicate to identify that Christianity is unique, that we are sinners saved by grace to do good works.

Christians family: not living by example. Make going to church a chore, make the faith like a painful experience.

Church: not engaging to the youths, rest and content with the existing people.

Of course, this is a personal opinion and I am presumptous in making these observations, you can disagree with me.

一房半厅

突然间心中起了一丝震撼。
一房半厅的日子犹如被世人遗忘的感觉。
一点伤心，一点感慨。

Jan 20 2009 Here we come...

I cannot wait for the next US president to take office on Jan 20 even though I am a Singaporean. The world has become a more chaotic place because of the lameduck leaders in US. Finally, there is someone who can articulate clearly what he wants and displayed much intelligence on his nation. There is someone who give speeches that is intelligent and inspiring.

Prawning Experience

Went prawning last Sunday with some of my church friends at Bishan. I like the experience of prawning, just traumatic with the skewing of the prawns alive. Actually the satifaction comes from being able to fish the prawns up the pond and how huge the prawns will be.

Some of the things to note when going prawning:

- small bait: do not use a huge bait since prawns do not have a huge mouth.
-cast the line near to the pond since there is not much difference casting far or near the pond
- maintain a suitable tension between the weight and the rod so that you can feel when the prawn got hook
-do not reel in once the prawn is hooked. gently pull the rod so that the prawn and eat the bait even more and secure the prawn
-tie the prawns' claws using the line before taking out the bait
-just skew the prawns alive
-bring other food along when prawning. You do not want to end up just eating the prawns and wasting the charcoal right?

And also remember to take a picture of your achievement:

More pictures are available on my facebook.

Interesting Places in 2008

Pior to the visit to the Soong sister's mansion on the new year eve, K and I went to a few interesting places to take photos.

Matilda's House (Punggol Rd)

A hundred year old house owned by a lawyer family as a getaway place in the previous centuries. This house stay overlook the developement of Punggol all these years as it rots away in time. The house is now planked up with CCTV and heavily fenced up, so we cannot go inside that day which is a letdown since my friend went inside the previous time...

Changi hospital (The old one)
This is the most scariest trip I have went. We set off at 8.20 in the morning and I can simply feel the eerieness of the building that it breathe. I did not went up the fifth floor we just walk around the compound and inside the mountury where they keep the dead bodies of their patients.

Buangkok Village
Technically, it is not abandoned. But it is one of the most interesting places that we have went exploring. The picture here is supposely to be an indian funded home for the mentally illed patients. Initially, I thought it was abandoned from the look of it. I was a bit surprise in fact when I first stumbled this place by its stone lions. This area is also Singapore last kampong in mainland.

National StadiumSingapore first stadium waiting to be torn down, making its way for the new one. We went there to take some of its abandone looks and did some goofy stuffs there as you can see. It is quite small surprisingly as we went in to have a look.

Abandoned House at Grange Road

We went to this dilapidated house at Grange Road recently to take pictures of it. It was nicknamed "Soong Sisters' Mansion" by the SPI (Singapore Paranormal Investigators), even though there were no relations whatsoever with the Soong sisters.

Risking our necks and backs (since we have a crawl and climb like dogs and ninjas) just to get this shot of beautiful staircase makes the effort worthwhile...I was mesmerized by the sight of stairway. Time had just stand for that moment as I imagine those Shanghai ladies wearing cheongsams walking down the stairway leading to the hall, attending their dinner functions. Just what stories happened in this house, who owns this house, is a mystery.

We stayed for quite a while since there are so many rooms and corridors to cover. Although it is a bit eerie since the window was green in colour and it made the whole place green when sunlight penetrate through the window.



Well, it did make my face look green with envy!

More pictures can be found at my facebook