Saturday, April 14, 2007

getting it out

its Saturday night.

A good time to reflect on certain things. Just finished with HPF anniversary. Amazing that Rev. Robert pointed out there're 366 "fear nots" in the Bible. One for each day.

My last lesson in school ever was yesterday. CS446. With a presentation. Ended with such a bang. What now? Out into the world... job hunt? Settle in teaching?

Rev Robert was busy chatting with me about his path to full-time ministry and how he intended to propose an internship programme for people considering entering ministry. But still, he recounted of how, for him at least, having worked substantially in the corporate world better equipped him to be a pastor as in he could relate directly to the people he was counselling...

Priorities. God as the ultimate priority. Serve God through the church. Through ministering to others. Serving others.

Seems things are gonna be quite busy. Monday is "the last hurrah" as Dr Cherian put it. FYP oral defence. Following week is exams on Monday and Tuesday. Friday is zao down to Taiwan with Weijian and parents.

Come back already, then is rest a few days then go back army camp for 3 wks to serve finish remnants of NSF. Come out in June. The REAL last hurrah. July go start contract teaching.

Wonder how things are on your side.

Jerry

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Temporality

Sometimes I wonder - it's probably much easier to die for Christ than to live.

It was Saturday and we had some personal sharing after some lessons on Ecclesiastes.

The context was about Solomon, the purported writer of that Book. God told Solomon He would grant him anything he desired, and he asked for wisdom. Thus he was the wisest man under heaven ever. And with wisdom the recognition of the futility and sadness of this world.

So our teacher asked us - "If God would grant you one wish, what would you ask for?"

I asked to go straight to heaven and people looked at me like I was talking funny. Somehow there's a sort of melancholy about the way I see life nowadays. What does it mean to be a sojourner on this earth? Is it possible to take joy and happiness in the things we have now? Can we honestly do that when we know everything will eventually come to nothing?

I've felt it before. When you get so attached to something that you throw everything else out the window... its dangerous what we fix our hearts on.

I want to keep my heart beyond the things of this world. The world is merely for getting by - by the grace of God. Can we boast any bit about our accomplishments, our achievements, our great legacies? It all comes to nothing. Nothing. Striving and labouring... in the end all comes to nothing.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Post-FYP

It's April.

Let's address the items from my previous post.

FYP came and went in a bang. So much for all that. Now it's about whether it's going to pull my grade down or not. But I had fun. The many overnights with Simon redoing and redoing the layout. Heh. Picked up quite a few more InDesign skills and improved efficiency. Somewhat. Have to learn to plan better ahead with more detailed master pages and use paragraph styles.

MOE is settled. Going in on July if nothing else comes up. So far, none of the resumes I sent out has had any sort of reply. *sigh*

Massage was fantastic. Had a sauna then some oil stuff then this mainland Chinese woman gave a very forceful effort with lots of strength. Especially on the calves. What made it really great was that I was having a little bit of leg aching after doing the treadmill the previous day at 2.4km speed for an extended period of time... So it was quite timely indeed...

Too bad its so ex or I'd go regularly. Heh.

Congrats to WJ on his new weekend car. Chevrolet Aveo Hatchback 1.4 with really spanking good looking 14inch rims.

Exams on 23rd and 24th Apr. I'm resuming the last 3 weeks of my NS in May after coming back from Taiwan with Weijian n folks.

Visited the dentist.... after a lapse of 4 years! He says I've been brushing off the enamel of my 2 front teeth... it won't be white anymore. LOL. I wonder if I should go for wisdom tooth extraction and time it with my NS ... HAHA... but its ex... at least $300

Watched "Phantom of the Opera" on Thursday night with my little bro (okay, JC1 is not little)... its just a term of reference. Just like how MTV means "music video" and hence it was ruled mtv.com.sg was not trademark infringement of MTV the company. So in the end MTV had to buy the address from that cybersquatter :)

Filling out some irritating accident report form... i tapped the bumper of someone's Camry the other night on the expressway in a traffic jam... and he was adamant that he was going to send it back to Borneo (motors) to get it checked although the most if could have been was a scratch. Nothing was visible as anyway his car's rear bumper is higher than mine. What could happen at 5km/h anyway?

Yes it's still my fault I know... but he went on complaining about how he just resprayed his whole car (did he just have an accident?) and all that. I said why not you try the reverse sensor but he refused. Anyway I got quite fed up and just told him to claim insurance. Then his wife make so much noise ask me to sign some statement saying its my fault. Really... try to bully me ah... I told her goodbye after exchanging drivers' particulars. So here I am filling this thing up in case he really finds something to repair... and I'm backed up by photos in case he tries to be funny...

I've let ppl who've bumped and scraped my car off at least 4 times when I knew I clearly would have been able to claim money or repair from them... because to me the car is meant to be functional for use... and such things are inevitable... as a daily driver I know things do happen and ppl have been nice to me before... as long as its not substantial or functional damage I just let it off

For the love of God, I don't find happiness in making ppl pay and bleed when its just a small mistake... we must learn not to attach ourselves too much to our precious objects... even our cars :P

But I guess other ppl value different things differently...

Been having talks with various ppl abt God, faith et al. About struggles and stuff. There's also been a lot of reflecting going on after the sober video on Calvinism. About rebirth and salvation. It's hard to be a Christian sometimes, especially when you lose sight of Jesus and heaven. And you get clogged up and muddled in all the confusion in between. But never give up. As long as we obey the Spirit rather than ourselves, it will be all so easy to experience what Jesus promised -

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:30

Till next time (which I suspect will be real soon)

Jerry, pest and recalcitrant.