Technical Issues and updates

this is so boring..blogging on my mum's mac doesnt seem to allow change of fonts or colour from paragraph to paragraph..which takes a lot of character out of my posts..the colour thing and font thing is meant to actually allow greater readability since reading a long document in black and white in times new roman is so mundane and uninteresting..and u noe mi...i want to be both interesting and good at wat i do..i wonder if i shd hav a chat with a fren of mine who's a "self-confessed mac geek" about this issue with mac blogging..

you noe, i really would like to get to noe better some of these frens who are like between 24, which is my age, and 29..cos i think there is just so much in christian ministry that needs to be done for pple in our age bracket..and being the collectivizer that i am, i've always sought to meet with christians and pple at watever time in my life i'm at and grow as christians or share the gospel together..as good ol Proverbs would have it, "2 are better than 1" and Jesus does say that a church is "2 or 3 gathering together in His name"..so, we need churching at different periods of life with pple from similar periods..

and dats y i think that i would like to meet with some of the Foci members from Singapore back home for fellowship and ministry of the Word together..Collectivised Christian Action i call it...hmmmm...just as a side thought, when Jesus comes again, will the basic unit of government and administration at the local level be the church? so in socialism, the basic unit is the commune or soviet..wat about Christianity? The All Christian Communion of Churches...thats a thought..

Recently, i had a nap between doing work for an assignment which was really tough..and i had one of those half-awake, half asleep dreams dat are just so vivid cos u dunno if u're awake or asleep..and in it, i was reliving the last day of junior collecge at Serangoon JC..and talking to PW and Sabrina...u guys remember them don't ya..and i told them the things i'd always wanted to say to them..the youthful angst came rite back and hit mi in the face all over again..that great Anger that still drives my engine to this day over the great injustices that guys who are kind and generous and nice endure from pple who just look down on them and despise them deep down..when u receive the message from certain frens that you're just not good enough for them or not cool enough to be in their little clique thru their body language and their attitude..and i was an angry young man all over again..ready to throw my lot in with whoever allowed me to best strike back at these pple and show them how they're so wrong..and that anger of course, saw me thru NS and caused me to push higher and harder and faster..and to make the decision to come to Australia..so yeah..maybe dats wat my dream was about..a re-examination of my motives and whether its all ultimately worth it..and whether as a Christian, i should think and feel this Anger..and if so, how might it be directed so as not to sin? against sin and ungodliness and hypocrisy? against injustice and the oppression of the fatherless and widows as Malachi says?

Maybe its the ungodly attitudes that i saw in these frens that i hated so much and was the cause for my anger..maybe i should be angry at sin and ungodliness in Christians and in the world rather than my frens..maybe i shuld see sin and ungodliness as The Embodiment and Manifestation of those things i endured as a youth which drove me to anger..and thrust against them harder and more fiercely than against my frens..thats a thought..

Family

after getting a lift from a friend's mum yesterday to town to get some lovely and very affordable (bluidy sarcastic bloke i am) balsa wood for a model i'm making, we had to stop by Mater hopsital on the way back to pick up a frenli medical student who also needed a lift to the gym..and outside the gym i saw this kid who had finished his swimming classes and was clad only in his swimming trunks..waiting for his parents to come pick him up obviously...but in that late afternoon, the wind started to blow for a rough spell and it really was pretty chilly..

and i was reminded of my own little kindergarden days and early childhood years where i also would be found waiting outside class or school or kindergarden and good ol dad would be late by 45 minutes to an hour on average at least to pick mi up...or dear mum who bore me in her womb for 9 months and with whom i have an extremely close bond that just won't be broken (probably due to the fact that she shared her food and water with me through a tube the size of a garden hose for those nine months), dear mum who's blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh..she would often be held up by work for at least 15 minutes..i'm not complaining ..no i most definitely can't..but i did have to manage myself often during all those in-between periods growing up..

but just a few nites ago i had an extremely good conversation with both of them over the phone..you see, Mum had very wisely told me to bring her unused Macbook back with me to Australia at the start of this year "in case anything happens"..n it so happened that the night before, my laptop decided to crash and dump the entire operating system..well the data was backed up thankfully..Praise and glory to God for that..but without Mum's Macbook i would have nothing to use and would be camping in the library 24-7 for the next 3 weeks..and since the library doesnt have the Archicad software i use for rendering and can't download it due to "university concerns over the illegal download of music and multiomedia"..yeah right...capitalist rhetoric straight out of an imperialist Telstra executive's mouth...Guillotine the bourgeois apparatchiks man!

anyway, at that point i remember how Mum was always the forward thinking and strategising one who had a great deal of foresight and vision plus untold reserves of pragmatism and patience..she's the steel spine of my family that makes the boys in the family (dad and me) be civilised and have some sort of routine..else we would all degenrate into a Lord of the Flies kinda existence..must be all that Chong blood from Grandma..man, those women sure were legendary...ever heard of 5 hour long tongue lashings? there we go..

and as my good fren and bro Kumu would say, the only woman who will ever stand by you unconditionally is your own mum..the only woman who truly loves you is mum..i learnt a lot about dogged persistence and the ability to take pressure without snapping from her..i sometimes wish that life had been a little easier on her and i would want her to truly retire and not have to keep thinking about the family finances and the like..but thats life..we make the best of what the Sovereign Lord has given, good or bad..no choice in that..her lesson to me also..

and there's Dad of course..if Mum's the steel spine, he's the element of fire.. i mean, there are times when he can be embarrassing due to his extremely outgoing nature (even though he always denies this, "i only have a few friends...dun bluff la pa, haha) and he is fiercely independent (if u wanna noe wat the meaning of "doing your own thing" really is, u have to meet my Dad) and he is fiercly hot-headed also..one of the traits i've inherited from him for better or worse..attack first, talk later..but during the conversation i found out that he had actually been talking to the owners of the shop downstairs of the premises our church back home is using..before our conversation..and he told how the owners were illiterate and din understand english and how they had received a letter from "govenment authorities" aka apparatchiks telling them that their grease trap inspection had failed and they needed to do something about it in 3 weeks or else..and how, my father, being the big kaypo, had decided to translate and explain the letter to them..

i told him, come on, these pple who share the rental of the building with us have never been very kind to us..in fact, they've been downright nasty..and they refuse to separate their utilities meters from us so we never really quite know how much it is we're using since we could be paying for their useage even if we split the bill according to percentages..and how they made so much noise when we wanted to rent the vacant space above them (and its not their building also).. and how much they disturb our peace..the fair thing to do would be to just ignore them and have nothing to do with them and dats wat i would do normally..but my Dad, being a pastor..and being generous and big-hearted, promptly helps them in their need..he even told me that we're all fellow tenants and neighbours and how Jesus said we should love our neighbours as ourselves..he's right of course..which doesnt make it any easier..i want to play power politics by nature rather than show mercy, generousity and kindness..

thats why i love that man whom i call my Dad..i've always defined myself by what he is Not..especially in my growing up years..because i saw his kindness as weakness and because i saw his temper as a contradiction of his kindness and generosity..but now i realise more and more the strength of character he often shows and how we're all equally hypocritical and contradictory at some point..n how all families are dysfunctional at some point..oh well, we're family and family is special..somehow, somewhere..it is..

Quotes

Over the past couple of weeks and days, i've been exposed to quite a few quotes that i've found inspirational or have reminded me of what God is like or what i should be like or why i perservere in the gospel and in my work..

The first is by Garage Hymnal in their album, Bring on the Day..I tell you ok, this Australian group is as good as Hillsongs or better...just that they're not known in Asia or anywhere else much...i delight in discovering lesser known bands like these and telling my closest friends about how good their music is..and of course, if u actually keep track of this blog then well, you're probably one of my close frens who gives a crap about my life..or mayb u're just nosy..anyways..
my quote from them is from their song, Promises...

"Not one of the promises
of God has ever failed
Not one, Not one"

God does not fail, especially in what He has promised in His Word..no, it is us, ungrateful and unfaithful human beings, who fail...and then we want to bring God down to our level by claiming that He has failed or is dead or does not exist...ridiculous arrogance..

my second quote is from today's lesson at Introduction to the Bible, Course 1 of the part-time, distance learning Certificate of Theology from Moore Theological College ..i tell you ok, i struggled to get out of bed at 8 am this morning after coming back from Sydney around 12 last nite with my frens (u noe who u are)..and after i finished class at 11am i came back n collapsed on my bed till 4 pm..
anyway, the quote is from my textbook, "those who receive God's gracious gift of redemption must respond in obedience. This is not only gratitude. It is the nature of redemption." Redeemed to obey? How interesting...

and my third quote is from Spain Rodriguez' Graphic Novel about the life of Che Guevarra (thats rite, it not a comic..comics are for children..men and artists read Graphic Novels..whatever) if you think that i'm influenced by Christian teaching on obedience and the life of the great rebel, radical and revolutionary Che Guevarra and find that a contradiction in terms i'll say that obedience to God can and should be displayed in radical, revolutionary ways that shake the established order of things..but of course, only in so far as it is led by God's Spirit and Grace and not human strength...incidentally, the only 3 Socialists i've ever respected are Leon Trotsky, Che Guevarra and Wang Min, the CCP's representative to Comintern in the 1930s-40s, who was the last true chinese Marxist and the only Chinese Bolshevik who ever lived..
i have a few Guevarra quotes:
"i believe that the division of Latin America into unstable and illusory nations is completely fictional. We constitute a single mestizo race which from Mexico to the Magellan Strait bears ethnographic similarities. And so, in an attempt to rid myself of the weight of small minded provincialism, i propose a toast to a United Latin America!"

"To label 'communist' all those who refuse to bow down is an old dictator's trick."

"I believe that revolution can be created in any country by a determined vanguard"

"The dift towards Market Economies (in the former Soviet Bloc) is an error. After the closing of unprofitable factories in Yugoslavia, thousands of those workers were forced to leave their homes and look for work abroad."

don't get me worng..i'm no communist..but i like Guevarra, his courage to the end and his firm conictions in the face of all opposition..

A Spider Story, Or The Revenge Of The Underdog

I'm gonna tell ya a story abridged and adapted from Neil Gaiman's American Gods..about the little trickster spider god Anansi, or Compe Anansi as they call him..i hope Mr Gaiman won't sue me for copyright infringement for re-telling his little story (he shouldn't if he's a good self respecting post-modernist who's skeptical of human efforts to control the world through such ridiculous nonsense as copyrighting)..so here goes..

One day Mr Spider, who is small and weak and not very imposing, decides to have a bath in the River. (now this is a Jungian archetype of all rivers thats why i'm calling it, or rather her, River) Now in those days when the world was young and the gods still lived amongst men in the physical world (wait a minute, did they ever stop living amongst us?), during those days, Crocodile, well, she lived in the River, waiting silently for unheeding passersby to drink or swim or bathe in the River. And so, she would wait, still as a log, floating on the surface, watching, watching...and Mr Spider knew this. And being Mr Spider, he decided to play it shrewd. Now wat was the most important part of a person that one could absolutely not lose to Crocodile, he thought..That i shall leave on the shore with my spider spindle and spider sense and spider bite...and of course, what should it be but Mr Spider's balls..yes thats right, dun wanna have ugly old Crocodile biting off and stealling my balls..

so he leaves his balls on the River bank with his Spider Spindle, Spider Sense and Spider Bite..and he has a bath..but lo, today is his lucky day and Crocodile is nowhere to be found..and so, after an age of bathing (i exaggerate, or do i?), Mr Spider comes out of the water all refreshed and ready to go his way..now it is the supreme state of affairs in this world that when a man escapes one misfortune he falls immediately into another..so it happens that upon collecting his possessions, Mr Spider is met immediately (and not too happily) by Tiger (yes, another Jungian Archetype..are u not sick of them by now) who growls and threatens Mr Spider to tell him where he has just come from and what he has just done and why he is looking so refreshed and happy...or else!! So Mr Spider tells Tiger very shrewdly about his bath in the River and how he had the fortune of not meeting Crocodile today, and if, Tiger should decide to have a bath as well, he was sure Crocodile would not turn up also..besides, he was Tiger and if small, weak, unimposing Mr Spider could get away with bathing in the River, why should Tiger be afraid even if he did meet Crocodile..he was Tiger the fierce, the bloodthirsty, the powerful..was he not? But alas, if he should meet Crocodile, one should not do battle with her and lose his most precious possessions..so Mr Spider offered to guard Tiger's Balls for him on the River bank and keep them safe.and this of course, was exactly the arrangement Tiger made with Spider.

and of course, while Tiger is bathing, Mr Spider puts on Tiger's Balls and leaves his two tiny, spider balls on the River bank and heads off into Town...but thats not the end of the story..for, you see, on reaching Town, Mr Spider promptly hides Tiger's Balls in a safe place before singing out loud enough for Monkey (who sits nearby waiting for fruits to fall from the grocer's cart) to hear,

Tiger's Balls, Tiger's Balls,
I stole Tiger's Balls,
And there ain't nothing he could do about it,

Yes, I stole Tiger's Balls

and of course, Monkey comes jumping down from a nearby tree wanting to learn the song..and of course, Mr Spider teaches it to him and gives him free reign to sing it all over town and in the jungles...and then Mr Spider goes back to the River bank and waits for Tiger to finish his bath..and when Tiger does come out of the water, he sees Mr Spider and his Tiger Balls missing...and in a great uproar, Tiger pounces on Mr Spider and pins him to the ground..and Mr Spider screams out in fear and agony, pleeeease, Tiger, don't hurt meeee...i tried to keep your Tiger Balls safe, but Monkey, he came swooping down from the trees and stole them right before my eyes...and you know how fast and agile and nimble he is and how small and weak and unimposing i am..how could i stop him...all i can do is offer you my own tiny Spider balls in exchange for what you've lost..jussst don't killll me.." and right that moment, Monkey comes swinging through the trees, singing "Tiger's Balls, Tiger's Balls, I sole Tiger's Balls, and there ain't nothing he could do about it, Yes, i stole Tiger's Balls"..

and Tiger in great fury and anger, puts on Spider's balls, leaps up and starts chasing Monkey noisily through the Jungle.. and Mr Spider smiles...that is why, to this day, Tiger still chases Monkey and if you look between his legs, you will see the 2 smallest balls inside an oversized ball sac...and what about Mr Spider? well, he's still got Tiger's Balls...

Abridged and Adapted from Neil Gaiman's American Gods

2days and a night

i'm really feeling like i've got lead in my legs and iron arms that refuse to flex or bend no matter how much u act on them or will them..and all this due to 2 consecutive days at the gym doing my 2.4 km running again, my chin ups and weights..from pec fly-in to bicep curls..and body attack today (such an apt name) and crunch which really should be Crunch!!....but it feels really good with all those endorphins and adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream and into my brain..man..such an organic drug shot..

its good to be back at the gym after an absence of around about 6 weeks..and the feeling of accumulated fat around the waistline drippin away under the intense stress of a good reverse crunch (its definitely psychological) is so good..n connectin with gym mates that i've not seen for around 6? weeks..oh boy, sorry for the long absence dudes..

and yeah..i think more clearly these days after hittin the gym..great for work and assignments and everything else actualli..haha..man, maybe i'll even get started on that bottle of weight-gainer that Chris passed me back in March..na...i dun think so..too much effort and i'm not dat serious..

and i thank God for that great bonding session with Cyril, Junsheng and Ben at the movies on Monday nite.. unfortunately, we watched the latest installment of The Mummy returns which really has succeeded in insulting all cultures involved..from Egyptian to Chinese to English...and such bloody shallow storylines that have a wooden cast n flimsy plot..which will never fail to offend any normal human sensibilities..such a crappy show..n Jet Li never spoke more than 3 sentences at a time..in fact, he appeared for no more than 20 minutes throughout the entire movie..discounting the poor computer generated versions of him of course..n did ya noe that they change some of the main characters every installment of the movie? the last time, Mad-Dog the pilot was a black man..the time before that he was an old white man..this time he's a gin-slining rough neck Scottsman(or possibly Irish)..thats just unbelievably ridiculous man..n the poor choreography of the few fight scenes was appalling..its a shame to even call the show an action movie..

enough complaining..it was good friendship, mixing and bonding that helped me get to noe the guys better..the movie was a sideshow..oh yes..3 more days till Singapore Day in Melbourne..i really need to get a good lounge suit man..where got time?