jeudi, mars 31, 2011 Could you just tell people the Gospel, Rob Bell? Utter complete illogical dissembling by Rob Bell - in response to the question: does God care about the Japan tragedy? "It's a paradox" - COME ON Rob Bell, God is love. 1 Jn 4:8. Talk about God's will of decree vs will of desire vs will of direction. But I suppose it's too difficult to discuss theology, when you're discussing God. In response to questions on his book "Love Wins", Bell says that it's about how God will win everybody over in the end through his love, even after we die without accepting Him. OH FOR THE LOVE OF....you can't have it both ways - that we reject God, and that we still get to go to heaven cos "God wins" POSTMORTEM. Bell, the critique by MSNBC host Martin Bashir is right: "you're amending the gospel so it's palatable to contemporary people..." Gospel=Good News of Salvation [see 2ways2live gospel presentation here] Libellés : christian [Could you just tell people the Gospel, Rob Bell?] |
lundi, mars 28, 2011 Life's been a bit bumpy recently, and it's recently been a little difficult to breathe. Nouns and adjectives: adolescent, pawn, invisible. Libellés : personal [Hard to breathe/Goodnight] |
mercredi, mars 23, 2011 Food for thought (too long for fb status) Jesus told His followers, "If you abide in my Word then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32 NIV). Abide means to continue in, to tarry, to dwell, to remain. It is not reading the Scripture for information, but for transformation.Libellés : christian [Food for thought (too long for fb status)] |
dimanche, mars 20, 2011 Singapore Meritocracy vs Foot in the Door  To all the talk recently about how underprivileged children can move up in the social ladder, I say - bullshit. There will always be old boys' networks, and who your parents are (and your parents' parents are) will ALWAYS matter. Ceteris paribus meritocracy means you have your foot in the door thanks to your connections - which will always be an ace up your sleeve after meritocracy has its say. I have intimate experience with this since I am the person who manages our internship programme in my workplace. I've had at least three interns whose parents sort of know my boss in some way, who basically shot a personal email to my boss requesting for internships for their children, and of course my boss subtly/not-so-subtly nudges me to take them. How can I not capitulate under such pressure? Now, are these kids idiots? No, far from it - they're bright young things... with the exceptional exception of one total airhead bimbo who seemed to be very poor - she couldn't seem to buy enough cloth to wear to work. Are these kids particularly exceptional? Nope, not anymore than the next candidate. So meritocracy does demand that I give them a chance (it would be bad to discriminate against these lucky kids who get born with silver spoons in their mouths) - but after all is said and done, and the cards are revealed... it's always the ones with the family connections who win the game. Is it meritocratic? I suppose so, if you want to consider "family connections" as something which should be considered. But is this fair? Not really. The solution is total transparency about who gets what job and why. Enough about meritocracy being alive and well, and look closer into what exactly you're putting on the table when you're interviewing people. People with a familial foot in the door should be declared loudly and clearly, for transparency's sake. This way, we'll always know who's in (figurative) bed with whom. And we'll know who the good guys are. Libellés : personal, singapore, working life [Singapore Meritocracy vs Foot in the Door] |
jeudi, mars 17, 2011  Ronnie looking glum at being kidnapped  and yet strangely happy at turning 31  the new and improved card now can "unstick" to choose locations for dinner, movie and supper  Ronnie choosing carefully  and peeling carefully (cos I used lousy glue)  ... and the winner goes to....  dinner: abalone mushroom noodles movie: nex supper: hans@sembawang  Ron: I hope nobody notices that I'm being forced to take a photo with this signboard  I told them to flip around the card cos it read "HELP ME I'M BEING KIDNAPPED" in my car (like, hello?!)  this is nexxxxxxxxxx where dogs may poop in the lift  uob ladies card means $6 per ticket to watch....  I AM NUMBER FOUR  NUMBER FOUR IS MISSING (Cheryl Koh!!!)  The theatre... we couldn't get a heads-in shot cos it was so dark  we ended up at rochor beancurd eating tauhui cos my battery was going flat at 12mn getting old.... Happy birthday Ronnie! Libellés : birthday, singapore [Year 4: Annual Kidnapping] |
lundi, mars 14, 2011 Stuck between a Rock, surrounded with Water, and a Railway While I'm no pro-LKY lackey (he's definitely a hard-headed son of a gun), I respect the guy for putting in so much effort into the idea of Singapore. Historically, we've definitely got a ways to go, and honestly speaking, most of us are so comfortable and take things for granted that I doubt there will be another strong push for patriotism and the idea of Singapore - unless something comes along to threaten it. Could the other MM be it? His recently published memoirs sound a little ... illogical, to the extent of being incoherent. Let's take the excerpt from the Sunday Times today for a test-drive: On Water: "Why should Malaysia have to subsidise the Singapore Government? And it really is the Government that we are subsidising, not the people of Singapore who are paying $17 (well over RM40) for 1,000 gallons of treated water. "  I say kudos to smart Singaporean patriots who looked ahead to our future, securing a long-term contract for themselves, their children, and their children's children. I'm sorry that Malaysians didn't have good negotiators, but I count myself blessed to have hard-nosed negotiators who are looking out for my welfare when dealing with international negotiations. For national security purposes (in Malaysia's pov), a smart move would be to reduce Malaysia's reliance on imported treated water through R&D. Though honestly I think they'd probably turn around and complain that Hyflux owns all the patents to water treatment/desalination. But I hardly think it's fair that you blame us from investing in R&D - and thus getting ahead of the race. It was always there for you to run, and again, I'm blessed to be living in a country with these thinkers. This is Rail-ly annoying  "The status of the POA is now murky, with Singapore demanding that we move our Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities to Woodlands, which is near the Singapore end of the Causeway. Meanwhile, Singapore began to claim that the land to compensate Malaysia for Tanjong Pagar and the railway line was not to be developed by us alone, but jointly." This just degenerated in to a "he said/she said" situation. Given Singapore's penchant for paperwork, I highly doubt we changed anything. Plus the Pulau Batu Puteh principles (see below), and you have a strong case of suspecting that Malaysia may have shifted the goalposts somewhere. Standing on the Rock
1. Why was it administered from Singapore? (if Msia wanted it so much, why didn't its negotiators insist on administration in Sg?) 2. MM also said that "The decision to go to the ICJ was made while I was still prime minister" - so the decision to move away from "subtleties" to the "books of rule" was overseen by him. 3. Are "books of rule" different from "how the world works"? I thought the world works based on these books of rule. 4. Why is this even linked with an ethnicity issue? Stuck "At one stage, we had agreed that all our unresolved issues be settled together as a package. But because Singapore would never agree to a revision of the price of water, all other issues could not be resolved, making a package solution impossible." Haiz. Another "he said/she said" situation, since we were told by our authorities that the Msians were the one who kept dragging the water issue in. As a patriot, and as someone who looks at the track record of governments and how they function longitudinally, I read this statement, then I take a look at the news caricature in bad taste - ultraman outrunning a tsunami ... and I think - it's a little of "no contest" for logical thought and human decency actually. Libellés : humanitarian, singapore, thinking [Stuck between a Rock, surrounded with Water, and a Railway] |
mercredi, mars 09, 2011 Nasi Lemak Kukus is a nice little place which opens from 6pm-3am each day, except Mondays.It serves awesome Vietnamese drip coffee (hot or cold)...  ... and is a nice place to play Angry Birds.  Libellés : singapore [Nasi Lemak Kukus] |
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Enough already - let's talk about things that matter  I attended a "business and social enterprise" discussion today, and thankfully missed most of it. Every time I sit through one of these things, it just makes me feel like I'm sitting in a room full of idealists (which is good) who want businesses to behave responsibly to their stakeholders (which is unrealistic.) I keep wanting to say - enough already about "Social Enterprise", and stop embracing it like it's the thing that will save the world. It's just Corporate Social Responsibility/CSR repackaged into a more "sustainable" and "holistic" form, and even that is just good public relations. Instead, let's talk about character. Ethics. Morals and virtues. Integrity. Authenticity. Let's talk about the thing which drives you and I. Let's talk about motivations, and whys. Let's talk about the Golden Rule (or God's commandments), and then let's build these intangible things... then see how enterprising a social spirit innate can be. 2 Timothy 1:7 - For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. Libellés : christian, personal, thinking, working life [Enough already - let's talk about things that matter] |
mardi, mars 08, 2011 Papering the kitchen cupboards (day 2) Technically day 2, but in reality it's almost 2 wks later. Just thought I'd finish showing how I finished the job. Total time on this project (including buying stuff) was approx. 7hrs.The breakdown: Measuring and re-measuring: 1hr Buying the sticker and plotting the cuts: 1hr Cleaning the cupboards: 2hrs Sticking the paper: 3 hrs TOTAL: 7hrs Huifen, this post is dedicated to you. May your next d.h. be more trustworthy!  Pasting underneath was a HUGE pain - I enlisted my brother's help to hold one end of it while I laid on the kitchen counter... dunking my hair in the oil dishpan in the process unfortunately :P  Thanks to some math magic, I managed to lay out the cut-marks for minimum wastage of the stickers... so this was leftover from the first sticker roll which was used to paper the front of the cupboards.  Nearly done! I overlaid the borders with black photographer tape, just to make it look a little bit more finished. It's less sticky than masking tape, and looks/feels more friendly than duct tape. But as with all things, only time will tell if it can hold up to kitchen wear.  Papering the side and the edges. Libellés : diy [Papering the kitchen cupboards (day 2)] |
jeudi, mars 03, 2011 I was just commenting to BYM that no two days are the same in the office - it's good, and it's bad. It's good because there's no real boredom that sets in (my ennui is a different matter). It's bad because the "different" things are mostly trivialities - like yesterday night, when my phone rang at 1130pm because someone had accidentally set off the office alarm. Today was one of the more interesting different days - we're test-driving the new Toyota Camry Hybrid 2.4l because the boss wants to buy an office car (hopefully heavily discounted). So yay, to driving around Orchard Rd with this baby for about half an hour.  Libellés : working life [No day like today] |
mercredi, mars 02, 2011 What to do when you have a $50 budget for making a bouquet for a colleague who's leaving? 1. Roses $12 2. Carnations $3 3. Gerberas $6 4. Leaves $3 5. Baby's Breath $5 6. small purple bush (dunno the name) $3 7. String = $4 8. Purple paper-cloth roll $4 --> all from Far East Flora 9. Square airtight kitchen container $3 10. Masking tape $1 --> from AMK central ValuDollar FTW! Total cost= $44 Time taken: 30mins  Put all the stuff you have on the table  Unpack the flowers Start to de-thorn if necessary  Chuck everything into the container make sure it has water first!  Make sure you clean up as you go Or else later you'll pay  Start to arrange the whole thing avoid tweak-freaking out  Lay the paper out diagonally will give you more volume  Stick and tie your way to victory Libellés : art [Flower Assembly] |
mardi, mars 01, 2011  Libellés : personal [sigh.] |
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