in-tern

I'd better make this post a fast one so the blogger won't crash on me.

Currently I'm grappling with internship selection. First stop is of course Reuters but then its the other two that will seem much more likely given how many excellent candidates will be applying there.

I'm toying with a few things.

MINDEF would be slack (hopefully) but I don't know if I can stomach all that nationalism. But I wonder... it could be a good time to learn how to be professionally detached from the subject matter of your work. (Is that really possible? Do I actually want to do that? - but there are no internships at car magazines)

Told EF how I wasn't interested in running around and hunting stories and all and she gave me a "oh you poor thing" look.

"Why did you go Journ then?"

Good question. Why? I like to write that's all. May not be best justification but I think journ's the lesser evil compared to the other stuff. Plus, the possibility of travel. And it exposes you to a lot of general things about the world too.

There's this really interesting children's magazine QUEST too but it'll probably have some events and stuff as well.

I might consider MDA's media literacy campaigns as well as that interesting TTSH event organization although that one seems more of event management.

There's a post for some golf mag. Why isn't there one for a car mag?

I'm whining over the cover letters and this really exciting feature on a China astronaut right now.

Btw, I really dig photojourn! It rocks! Walking about taking photos is fun... although... there's only so much a photo can say...

Let's see if I get any scoldings for the first sets of photos which should be coming back tomorrow.

Okay, time to scoot before the traffic gets heavy. Ciao.

"FASHION"

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Please vote in the tag board and tell me which photo suits the theme better! Thanks!

By the way Blogger ate my entry again. After typing in the article I clicked "publish" and it just said blog not found. Not funny.

image splash

Darkness & Light

The couple were quarreling over who was late more often for dates.

What could have been the problem in the first picture? I realise Auto-ISO is not necessarily a good thing... and probably a little camera shake too.

The second auto-shot was at a much faster speed and with flash too.

No, I'm not the chap next to her. Who's she by the way?

Indian tennis star

I was arrowed to do some saikang on some major event in some posh hotel concerning President Nathan. The whole building's cordoned off for the purpose of security and there were to be lots of guests and famous dignitaries and foreigners coming to visit. It felt like NDP or something with lots of soldiers, police and volunteers and people milling around wearing different kinds of uniforms doing various things from security to ushering. Of course, I couldn't even remember what I was supposed to be doing, the only thing being certain that I had some nice fancy pass which 1 security personnel reminded me to put on when I arrived there and I promptly did, and it allowed me to swagger around the different levels and sections of the hotel.

I remembered milling around and having various dignitaries and even a famous Indian tennis star ask me tough questions about Nathan (what was the score of Nathan's recent tennis game?) through their indecipherable and thick accents and I'd be providing plenty of politically correct replies lest I heard their questions wrongly.

Security was extremely tight.

Then, alas. I wasn't on armed detail, and then suddenly there were loud sirens from outside the huge glass wall. I was at that point in time having a most heart-wrenching conversation with the Indian tennis star - looking all hot and sweaty after a game of tennis. There was a huge panic. The staff and security, which outnumbered the foreign guests, all started rushing about in a mad panic - yes, even the children volunteers (I had absolutely no idea what they were doing there - crowd fillers or flag wavers for national events I guess) and the sirens got louder and louder. Finally, they reached their loudest and I thought - ok we'll know what's going on now but then the sirens just stayed on but nothing happened. Suddenly, we heard loud voices commanding get down and everyone got down, including me. And then I woke up.

The siren was still on and it was coming from the carpark downstairs 2 blocks away. Probably one of the many old folk in the neighbourhood had an emergency. I heard lots of children's voices - it was Eunos Primary School nearby.

Weird dream. Hah.

While waiting on earth

The difference between use and enjoyment - according to St. Augustine

For to enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake. To use, on the other hand, is to employ whatever means are at one's disposal to obtain what one desires, if it is a proper object of desire; for an unlawful use ought rather to be called an abuse. Suppose, then, we were wanderers in a strange country, and could not live happily away from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in our wandering, and wishing to put an end to our misery, determined to return home. We find, however, that we must make use of some mode of conveyance, either by land or water, in order to reach that fatherland where our enjoyment is to commence.

But the beauty of the country through which we pass, and the very pleasure of the motion, charm our hearts, and turning these things which we ought to use into objects of enjoyment, we become unwilling to hasten the end of our journey; and becoming engrossed in a factitious delight, our thoughts are diverted from that home whose delights would make us truly happy. Such is a picture of our condition in this life of mortality.

We have wandered far from God; and if we wish to return to our Father's home, this world must be used, not enjoyed, that so the invisible things of God may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, --that is, that by means of what is material and temporary we may lay hold upon that which is spiritual and eternal.

from Chapt. 4 "On Christian doctrine"

When the journey gets long and God seems so far away remember:

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." -Rev 22:20

For the person who thinks

1. According to the 10 commandments, all human beings are sinners. You may have never killed anyone - but hating is as good as that. You have never commited fornication - but looking is already enough. And I know we all have coveted something before. I think I should have covered everyone by now.

2. And mind you Christians do not suddenly become outwardly perfect - they just sincerely want to or try to.

3. You believe there is some form of a God or many Gods? Well, there is only God. To find out more about Him and also why He brought us here - go check the Bible.

4. You believe there is no God. So everything on earth is an accident. Everything is due to some environmental, cosmic or social causes. Who caused the first cause then? It was an accident. A freak of nature, physics, biology. Why do nature, physics and biology follow "laws" then? Things don't have to behave according in fixed laws. They just do. Why?

5. You throw your hands up and say "we can never know because we can never see or test for God and what He says (or we can't verify for sure 100%)"

That's why its called a faith.

6. "I don't care. I just refuse to believe anything I can't see or be sure of." So you'd prefer to leave all the answers to the questions in part 4 blank. You insist on denial or remaining ignorant. And you call people who have a faith unscientific.

7. Scientists will explain everything. We'll find the answer someday. Scientists explain phenomena of the physical world. Science does not answer questions on the meaning of life, on why we do things and what we ought to do. Only the Bible does. Philosophers take a shot too.

8. I'm perfectly fine I know how to behave and what to do. Yeap, so did I. Taking cues from TV, media, your friends, the latest fads, what other people do, what seems acceptable to the public. Don't ever believe in the media. They just want to sell you something. I should know. Even journalism is not truth or unbiased.

*insert other qns here*

I'll be back.

Dedications

PRAYER
All steps, all moves, each spoon lifted
to the mouth, every said word, all thought

Kevin Benzer

It's easy to be rude and say the wrong things when you're in a bad mood or when you're upset or uncomfortable or feeling tired. I apologise again to the various people who've been on the receiving end.

Sometimes it just feels as though all your negative thoughts, feelings and disillusionment with people is just lying dormant in your mind, ready to burst out and explode at any moment. It feels really awful to know you are capable of such thoughts.

Sounds very un-PR doesn't it? Well the facts first. Nobody's perfect. Hardly the case. The more you know people the more peeves and flaws you'd see about them. Universal truth that everyone agrees with. So, first of all, recognition of people's flaws is about being honest.

If you ask me, I think just smiling and shoving what you think under the carpet and pretending everything's okay is even worse. And I realise that I do that with people I don't care about. Which is a horrible shame that's even worse.

Secondly, is to remember you're in the same boat, only thing being is you can't see your flaws by yourself. You depend on your real friends to tell you.

Thirdly, is not to dwell on them for too long, to use them to feed or justify your anger or bitterness. That would be hatred. But forgive. Easy to say, hard to do. But try. Every effort you make brings you closer.

People are to be encouraged to be honest with their own flaws. And after all for fellow Christians the imperative is from Christ to self-examine our actions and our value system.

For the rest... well maybe just try to be a better person? Although I cannot understand from whom or what source can you learn how to strive to that goal of being more like...
something's amiss here...

You don't even know what you want to become.

Sometimes when non-Christian friends talk to me I wish I could give advice and sometimes I do, but I realise they won't be able to follow it or it would be pointless to them because they have no real reason to - unless of course just to please me. Which doesn't work because the basis isn't right and when it isn't right, it either won't last very long or will last until something else more attractive-sounding comes along.

So there is a fundamental difference in value system and world-view. But nevertheless constant encouragement is still good. Love thy neighbour. You have to start somewhere.

There's a poem that illustrates what I'm trying to say. This is the second half of the poem, and the "him" refers to the kidnapper who has abducted and held hostage the author of the poem.

...
I know too well the darker urges in myself,
the violence and selfishness.
I've seen little in him I can't recognize.
I also know my mind would shatter,
my soul would die if I did the things he does.
I'm tempted to believe there really is
a devil in him, some malefic,
independent force that makes him
less or other than a man.
That's too easy and too dangerous an answer;
it's how so many evils come to be.
I must reject, abhor and fight against
these acts, and acknowledge that
they're not inhuman - just the opposite.
We can't separate the things
we do from what we are;
Hate the sin and love the sinner is not
a concept I'll ever really understand.
I'll never love him - I'm not Christ.
But I'll try to achieve forgiveness
because I know that in the end,
as always, Christ was right.

from "Satan" by Terry Anderson

...how badly we need to be honest with ourselves sometimes...

It's the second time the blogger thing has eaten up my entry without posting it online. I finish my article and click publish and it disappears. But anyway here's a photo which my longtime readers will be able to recognize as its based on 1 of my previous articles.