Thinking Aloud

Finally managed to get the much sought after Cello Suite no. 1 in G major Prelude by Bach. It was played by Jian Wang. But this came in a two CD pack consisting of all 5 other suites and was tagged at $55.90. Gosh….

It’s another of those acquired taste music. Since these are cello solo pieces, its all melody. It takes repeated listening to glean the beauty out of it. I’ve just started listening and these sounds like good night music for chilling out.

Good that the cellist didn’t draw attention to himself, it was Bach who playing for us all to listen.

Today the most embarassing thing happened.

Not to me, but to the USP staff that organized the UK Universities Graduate talk.

The talk went well, the presenters introduced their respective institutions and then it was time for Q &A. Participants fielded questions until one old guy just had to stand up…

…and make a totally ‘off’ remark about gender equality!!??

He said, ” I have the dubious honour of being the oldest person here…”

Oh dear, I could sense trouble…

“…I’ve noticed that all the presenters were women.”

and he went on to blabber about lords and ladies, elephants and other TOTALLY NON-RELATED STUFF to the talk making everyone squirm uncomfortable in their seats.

I felt embarassed before the guests from the UK, who were so gracious to spare us their time. I feel for the organizers, having the morning spoiled just like that.

Haiyor…stupid fella got axe to grind, grind it somewhere else lar!

p/s it wasn’t a student, but a father. Who says maturity comes with age…

The title of this post says it all.

After you get your draft back from your supervisor, you feel like a total idiot, like a first year maths student who suddenly forgets how to count 1,2,3…

Red marks all over the place, broken arguments, I wonder if it was really me who wrote all that stuff.

Dr. Tan remarked, ” Your paper is really hard to read…”

OMG…I’m so dead!

Watched the first part of Irrediscience today. NUS Chinese dance performed four pieces all nice to watch on their own merits. But special mention for ‘A Woman’s Sentiments’-the music won half the performance itself. What powerful music…

If my posting is flagging, that’s because I have been rushing my thesis, as Marcus himself can identify, first draft submission is on the 3 March. Oh how time just passes…

…in 2 MONTHS TIME I’LL BE OUT OF HALL. Gosh!! and it feels like yesterday that I was staring at the Woodlands Checkpoint from the windows of the train carriage, entering Singapore as a 20 year old guy…

Amplitude 2006 did not fail to dissappoint!

Although I reached late, and missed KEvoices opening performance, (sorry Jiaen), the other halls were good as well.

Standout performances were undoubtedly KR and KE acappella. Everyone loved the closing, “Don’t worry, be Happy!”. A nice way to end the evening. KR Aca delivered! And really mean delivered. ” Crazy in Love” was absolutely entertaining.

Of course, another infamous performance was the EH choir’s botched rendition of some religious themed music. ‘Nuff said.

I swear I am so going to kill A/P Yang Yue…

Imagine having to check 27 x2=54 blardy cases. So utterly mechanical and uninspiring.

Ok…cool down.

But anyway, the start of the midsem break. Hopefully that this time will be a time of refreshing and a regeneration.

Almost everybody who is anybody is talking about the recent reshuffling of the Cabinet. The sentiment around the blogsphere is mixed. And as usual, Uncle Kit has the most to say-because he is a politician.

I observed that one cannot please anybody, and that there is a growing cynicism among M’sians that will ultimately make it hard for people to take them seriously.

Maybe its high time we stopped harping over the ‘integrity and transparency issue’ and the ‘jumbo sized’ cabinet.

Just let them do their work, and we do ours.

I can’t help but make an observation…

Every second semester is the ‘bad’ semester. I just don’t understand why. Feeling all out of sorts today.

Don’t know why. Don’t know how. Don’t even want to know…

S A F E I N A C R A Z Y W O R L D
Written by Corrinne May Ying Foo
Copyright 2003, Corrmay Gourmet Music (ASCAP)

I try to smile my tears away
I try to keep my cool
Oh but one more door gets in my way
I feel like such a fool
Trampled and bitter
My heart just wants to bleed and stop
Believing in me

It feels like nothing is for certain
and that nothing comes for free
When they’re lowering the curtain
to the theatre of my dreams
I stumble and I crumble and I’m
Sinking to my knees but you
You cradle me

You keep me flying
You keep me smiling
You keep me safe in a crazy world
You understand me
Embrace my fragility
You keep me safe in a crazy world
And in your arms I find the strength
to believe in me again

Noise keeps chasing me
No matter where I go
Oh and life likes pretending that it’s
On a TV show
When it’s hard to tell what’s real
From what the world just wants to preach
You are the voice I seek

You keep me flying
You keep me smiling
You keep me safe in a crazy world
You understand me
Embrace my fragility
You keep me safe in a crazy world

‘cause when I’m wrapped up in your arms
Nothing else can touch me
What a wonderful way to recharge
I feel like I can breathe again

You keep me flying
You keep me smiling
You keep me safe in a crazy world
You understand me
Embrace my fragility
You keep me safe in a crazy world
And in your arms I find the strength
to believe in me again

Call me outdated, but I’ve just discovered Corrine May. I love this song, which is why I put up the lyrics here. The bolded ones are the reason-personally-SIA used this song as the inflight music.

Day passes by like a placid stream.

The word turns on like it always has. Strange lights in the night, but that’s the only strangeness in the air.

Round and round the hands of the clock turns, not a end in sight, and the mellow bell chimes on….

…like it always has.

Returning to the subject of worship after a short break.

This is a good place to get a sense of what I’m driving at. I’ll admit this post got me stimulated on the theme of man as a worshipping being.

Yes, it is true that man is a worshipping being. I used to phrase the same idea is the more obscure form, ‘man is fundamentally religious.’ But yes, the former is a clearer way of putting things.

In one sense, the drama of the cross and resurrection is a story of God working to create for himself worshippers. He is loooking for worshippers who will “..worship Him in spirit and in truth”
but yet at the same time “…no one seeks God.” So we have the magnificent picture of God as the sheperd, who “…leaves the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

Here is the solution to the dilemma: That God demands our worship and will avenge the lack of it. But yet at the same time comes to our rescue to change us into a people that will worship Him as he desires it.

This is the mystery and beauty of redemption.

Dr. Farish A. Noor is perhaps one of the more important Muslim intellectuals Malaysia has produced. Read this and you’ll see why I say so.

Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite.

[Thus far much has been said and written about the global Muslim response to the controversy surrounding the caricatural cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in a Danish newspaper last year. Western observers in particular seem to be shocked by the extent of Muslim anger worldwide, and the level of organisation that has gone into the demonstrations that have erupted from Europe to Southeast Asia. Those who read this as an instance of the ‘revenge of God’ or a sudden display of emotional piety are missing the point: The demonstrations, global in scope and highly orchestrated in their execution, shows precisely how modern, developed and globalised the Muslim world has become. This was, in fact, a demonstration of a parallel form of globalisation at work: albeit one that is not capital-driven but rather based on a set of firmly shared values…]

God, being God seems to enjoy himself moulding Christlikeness out of my stubborn soul.

I swear that it is not funny from my perspective down here.

Perhaps, ‘enjoy’ is too frivolous a word to use to describe the immense satisfaction that my Father in heaven gets from seeing me grow.

Anyway, perhaps my readers can petition to God on my behalf to spare me the pain. Maybe He’ll listen to you cos He doesn’t seem to listen to me much these days.

Which means: “With the Holy Ghost”

And in context of

Quoniam tu solus sanctus,
tu solus Dominus,
tu solus Altissimus,
Jesu Christe;

Cum Sancto Spiritu
in gloria Dei Patris. Amen

which translated simply means:

For thou only art holy,
thou only art the Lord,
thou only art the most high,
Jesu Christ:

With the Holy Ghost
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

One aspect of Christian worship has always been the primacy of words.

Be it in song or psalm, liturgy or creed words are one way in which Christians worship God. Some Christians even consider prayer as a form of worship; indeed prayer is an act of speaking to God. And this involves words.

The use of words in worship gives focus, intentionality and personality to our worship. It is through words that worship becomes an offering that an individual brings to his God. When we worship God through our speech, we are giving concreteness to our prior meditations of Him. The proper use of words in worship forces us to cleanse our mind and heart. A heartfelt worship of God uses words that express adoration, and the shows that at once, Christian worship is a dialogue between a Lover and the beloved.

Indeed, there is a time to be silent before God, but joy expresses itself through words. Especially the exuberant, ” Hallelujah!”

God demands our worship, that much is clear.

The problem with us is that sin corrupts the heart that wants to worship God. Be it ridiculous unbelief, the proud knee that refuses to kneel or behaving frivolously before an angry God, all these attitudes birthed from a rebellious heart are extremely offensive before God’s eyes.

The Tabernacle Sacrificial system, the rituals and festivals followed by the Israelites were meant to instill a proper attitude of reverence before a Holy God.

Without starting from reverence, I believe that I cannot worship God as He wants me to.

A reverent heart is not proud; neither is it decietful. Above all, reverence is an expression of love proper to how a creature relates to his Creator. And finally, birthed from reverence and worship is joy. And then a deep strength that flows from a joyful heart is one that will enable us to face uncertainty and trails.

Since I’m reading through Leviticus, it would be appropiate to do a little post on worship.

I would take there is little disagreement on what worship is. Indeed, the tabernacle and the daily sacrifice and the regulations all point towards the centrality of worship in the Israelite cultural life. Worship encompassed all of life. A Jew during the Exodus time was ‘made’ profoundly aware that he/she was a member of a saved and chosen community from Sunday to Saturday.

Translated into contemporary terms, whether or not we are constantly aware that we are a chosen people, an individual saved from certain death, set free from bondage is a moot point.

Living in the wilderness, the Israelites had little distractions during the Exodus period. Their focus would solely be on God.

But once in Canaan, they fell away pretty soon. What more today, with the constant bombardment of a materialistic culture. It is easy to forget who we once were, who we are now and the One that set us free.

So it would be worth to set the rule straight from the top, to understand worship, we would need to understand who we are first of all and remember Who was the one that saved us in the first place.

There is no perfect ministry. There is no ideal church, nor cell group and certainly not leaders. There is no perfect movement, there is no realization of perfect Christian unity on this side of eternity.

There is no perfect system, or church governance or way of doing things.

All these come and go, like the cycle of the seasons.

I came across a website of a church and read through some portions of its history. What caught my attention was that the leaders saw it fit to publish the portion of an internal struggle within the church. I guess it was a sad time for the leaders as they saw members leave the church because of disagreements.

Again I am reminded of the split between Paul and Barnabas. I believe both men were deeply hurt, but the point is that both of them felt that the reasons for their decisions were sound and reasonable. Certainly this was no petty squabble, and I believe both handled the conflict in a mature way.

But disagreements are deep seated, especially when they concern the very core of our beliefs.

I believe then that this is were we must ‘let people go their separate ways’ and trust in the sovereignity of God. The worst thing we can do in such a situation is to continually justify ourselves and create an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ situation.

This is the cycle.

If there are speeches one needs to hear, this is one of them.

Listen to it!

Had the curried soft shell crab. My, my…it was so rich.

It was at Thai Express,Holland V. Met a bunch of interesting people. Jonathan, houseman, Yaling and Shuling and Evangeline who just came back from US. I might be joining their group for PCM. The age spread isn’t terribly wide and all of them seem strong Christians. Terror wan leh…

In any case, the lunch went reasonable well. No thanks to my sore throat, which forced me to be ’soft-spoken’.

I discovered something, people who studied in US take on the confidence and ease among people that is uncommon among Asians.

Is it a common practise to raise the price for a normal haircut during the New Year season? My barber decided to charge an extra dollar for the same service. Am thinking of changing barber now. Between a $10 haircut and $9 haircut, how would you decide?

I got a call from this guy from church, Jonathan Yeo. Inviting me to his PCM lunch gathering after church. Hope it will be a great time of meeting new people.

Does it take the whole day to do one tutorial. #$!%…

My blogging turns one year old now. I still remember starting on blogger.com before switching over to blogsome.com

(I was away from the comp at home for the New Year. The official birthday was 29th Jan)

Suffer me one highly opinionated thought, (you can stone me afterwards) concerning the subject of blogging.

Blogging is a hobby, and like many hobbies requires commitment to reap its satisfactions. I’m saying the blogging requires commitment. Simply that.

Ok….let the disagreements pour in now.

4 jobs you’ve had in your life: a. Piano teacher b. Cashier a.k.a store attendant c. Bummer d. Even more bummer 4 movies you could watch over and over: a. LOTR b. Star Wars III, IV, V, VI c. Shrek 1,2 d. Ghost in the Shell 4 TV shows you love(d) to watch: a. Thundercats b. Gummi Bears c. ER d. Star Trek: The next generation 4 places you’ve been on vacation to : (These are the more memorable ones) a. Kuching, Sarawak. b. Penang c. Singapore? d. Camerons 4 places you would rather be : a. Cambridge b. Sipadan c. On top of Mt. Kinabalu d. At home 4 of your favourite foods a. Chocolate b. Asam Laksa c. A good steak d. Sweet and Sour pork 4 websites you visit daily : a. IVLE b. my blog c. sivinkit.net d. gamespot.com 4 tagged: no-lar…not so evil lar yah. (Actually cos this is a very popular meme, so almost everyone has done this liao)