vendredi, mai 28, 2004 Well then. I'm busy this weekend with some stupid conference or other my boss agreed to host, and which I have to work the weekend for, and then I'm off for two weeks to the Philippines, and then for another 4 days for church camp in Desaru, Malaysia.Wanna pray for me? Here are my prayer requests: - Safety and protection for my parents and younger brother that they be safe from harm; - Peace of mind for my parents; - For an especially close walk with God during the mission trip; - Team unity; that we will respond to each other in love and understanding; - That my church and supporters will be blessed by their involvement in this trip; - Good health for all my team members; - That my boss will be understanding about the extended time away and not be unreasonable. Thanks to everyone who's ordered t-shirts - you have no idea how great you guys are being. And if you haven't already bought a t-shirt, what are you waiting for? Email or SMS me now! [Flying off soon] |
lundi, mai 24, 2004 If you see me anywhere, and I have a very pleased smile on my face, it's because of this:
[I Live A Fulfilling TV Life] |
mardi, mai 18, 2004 I've had a number of discussions about "situational humanity" with my parents and Adeline, due to the torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The talk always led back to that one experiment by some top college in the USA, where researchers conducted a large-scale experiment on human behaviour in prison.After psychological testing and elimination, the researchers rounded up (paid) volunteers and put them in "jail", arbitrarily assigning volunteers to be guards or prisoners. After just SIX DAYS, the planned 2-week experiment had to be called off, because of terrible abuses being heaped upon the "prisoners" by the "guards". These "guards" were picked at random from the original volunteer group, and had not displayed any particular predisposition to behave in such a manner. Talking to Adeline about it, the topic took a natural turn to the notion of evil. We were discussing the notion that Man is evil - not even a newborn babe is free from sin. I guess the experiment by Stanford supports this idea. It is rather scary, the idea that something so new to the world could be considered evil, but it is true that we never have to teach kids to lie, or to steal, or to do bad things - it seems to just come to them. Instead, you end up having to teach kids NOT to lie; to tell the truth instead, NOT to steal; to be honest. It's an uphill battle all the way. [Stanford Prison Experiment] |
lundi, mai 17, 2004 Remembering an exchange: in her car, talking in French while driving from one spot in Orchard to another, she asked incredulously:"Did you just VOUS me? Do you know how RUDE that is?!" And me just sitting there with a blank look on my face. I miss Cheryl. And Ron's not talking to me. [Vous et Tu] |
vendredi, mai 14, 2004 I'll be headed to the Philippines from 1-10 June 2004 to build part of a house with Habitat for Humanity & Campus Crusade for Christ. We're selling t-shirts to raise money for the trip, and here's the shirt you can get for S$15.00: How Habitat works is that they build the houses with volunteers (the WHOLE HOUSE), (after it's been designed by professionals of course.) Then they sell it back to the people AT COST PRICE. Each team normally has to raise about S$700-800 for building material (per team). On top of that, we've got to pay for airfare and accomodation and food, so mail me at old-address-since-been-deleted dot com if you want to buy the tee. Support us please! To find out more about our project, take a look here. [Please help!] |
jeudi, mai 13, 2004 Okay, so I'm in a quandary right now. For those of you who don't know, I've been sort of re-assigned a job - I used to do graphic design and website management, and now, I'm the Ft. Manager. Granted, it's a better title than plain old "Administrative Officer", but now, instead of doing graphic design, I'm talking to contractors, getting quotations to buy lockers, getting the sofas cleaned - basically, I'm a high-paid maid. Should I leave, or should I stay? If I stay,++ Pros ++ + I get that 80% discount on my masters (which they haven't offered me yet, but which they should because I'm GREAT) + I work in a pretty cushy environment + I've got neat colleagues (some of them anyway) + I don't have to be at work on-the-dot, so long that I get my work done + I'm familiar with the environment in school + I get time on the job to study + I have time to do my church stuff, which is a lot of stuff -- Con -- - I am not really enjoying the work. I can do it, and I think I'm handling it pretty well, but I'm doing it with disinterest. Lights in the toilet blown? Just get someone to fix them, what do I care? Only now, I'm supposed to care, cos it's my damned JOB to do so. Who cares about a stupid tile on the floor? - What does a Ft. Manager have got to do with any of the following fields: Public Relations, Corporate Communications, Literature, Poetry, Drama, the arts in general, Marketing, Teaching (yes, don't laugh)? This list is definitely weighted - just cos there's 2 points in the Con column doesn't mean that I should stay. My colleague told me I was stupid for not leaving the Cons for Republic Poly - "You wanted to work here when you could have been a teacher in Poly?!" was her incredulous response, in fact. On hindsight, perhaps the loyalty to stay at the Cons was a little misplaced (RP only called me with an offer after I had worked two months at the Cons), but everything is always 20/20 on hindsight, so I'm not going to beat myself up over this decision already made. Now the question is - am I making a bigger mistake staying with the Cons even though I'm doing something which is absolutely bizarro and totally out of what I want to do with my life? I may not know what I WANT, but this really doesn't feel like it. I don't doubt that the stuff I'm doing now isn't teaching me things - but are the lessons I want to learn? Are they things I want to spend my only 23rd year of life learning? They'll come in handy in terms of extraneous knowledge (like, how to ask for three quotations, how to buy a large number of student lockers, where to get upholstery cleaned, how to handle and scold contractors etc), but it seems to me that it's really far away from what I thought I'd be doing when I came in. Graphic design to estate management? Does any of this make sense? To add to the confusion, today, while reading TPDL,: Servants remember that God owns it all. In the Bible, a steward was a servant entrusted to manage an estate. ... they willingly accept jobs that... people would consider "beneath" them. Say it with me: quandary. [Quandary] |
mercredi, mai 12, 2004 I'm off sick today - I had an MC for two days, but I was already in NUS, and had to go to French in the evening so I spent yesterday (one of my MCs) filing stupid stuff.Anyway - I'm home today, with a stuffed head and stuffed nose, and I have discovered that, contrary to popular belief, antidisestablishmentarianism isn't the longest word in the English language - but it's a popular contender. [antidisestablishmentarianism] |
vendredi, mai 07, 2004 I wrote this some time ago, when I was on my way to Merlyn's church (Charis Methodist Church) to watch her play:I am sitting in the 163, hearing a boy singing off-key, and a mother trying to teach him (one of the many) facts of life. "You know ah, now in school you got kids selling pornographic VCDs. You know what that is?" she asks. Her son ignores her, and starts singing another song off-key. She tries again, though the connection between the two subjects is far-fetched, to say the least. "You don't want to be poor, do you? You know Auntie so-and-so, you don't want to live like them, right?" [Overheard] |
lundi, mai 03, 2004 Servant's Heart: Serving God by Serving Others Real servants make themselves available to serve.Real servants pay attention to needs. Real servants do their best with what they have. Real servants do every task with equal dedication. Real servants are faithful to their ministry. Real servants maintain a low profile. I thank God that Bixia gave me this copy of the Purpose Driven Life - reading it every morning at work grounds me better than any coffee I could ever drink to wake up each day. I find that I lose perspective, especially when I listen to my colleagues complain and b*tch about other colleagues, and how they do this or do that or play politics. I don't think I've been actively drawn into the game just yet, and I'm a little worried that once I get drawn into the game (especially now with more responsibilities as "Facilities Manager"), I'll become one of those types who starts meetings with people by going kiss-kiss on each cheek but really hates the other person's guts to death. Christianity (and all the literature I have on my office table) really reminds me that I am answerable to a higher power, and I shorten my life by being bugged out by power-hungry, politicking mad people. [Servant's Heart: Serving God by Serving Others] |
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