Closer
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
It's just this close to freedom.
After this week's over and another 2 more days, I will be totally free for the first time in about 2 years?
Last year every one just thought, "Hey, Os is next year. Nothing much to worry about, we got about 2 years to prepare for it ".
And now, we're in the midst of it. My mum would always nag at me saying that, Os is not over, Os is not over, now's not the time to relax but to concentrate. Nagged and yelled at me for spending time outside with friends or at church, HOWEVER, in another week's time, she's got no more reason to do that. No more.
You see, that's what happens when you're in Poly and you know, exam dates are not so public like how Os and As are. Haha, at least I won't have to suffer the same amount of nagging I got.
I just hate it when I have to stare at the computer screen on how good the new Mac OS X Leopard is and knowing that I don't have the money to get my hands on one. Damn.
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 6:16 PM,
Gearing up
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Package yourself for where you're going, not for where you are.
I'm ready for overflowing anointing, I'm ready for Ministry.
When God says I'm ready, He'll prepare the way for me.
When He says "Go", I will go, for He has already planned it all out for me.
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 9:35 PM,
Craze
Saturday, October 27, 2007
There are many things which I did people didn't quit approve or at least agree with me. Becoming a Christian is one of them.
There are many crazy things which I did, but becoming a Christian was certainly a great one. Crazy for Him back then, still crazy for Him now.
Crazy for Jesus always!
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 7:45 PM,
Ghost Whispering
Friday, October 26, 2007
It seem kind of weird after watching so many episodes of Ghost Whisperer on Channel 5 and only today did I feel something about the show, as in having thoughts about it, thinking deep, even though it's only just a show.
One thing that Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) said during today's episode was that she helped many strangers, people whom she don't even know a single bit, but she felt helpless cause she couldn't help the people that she loved.
Sometimes I wish that I could see ghosts and then help people along the way. Haha, I guess that kind of remark would probably freak you out. Asian perspectives of ghosts are like woman dressed all in white, long hair and then drifting. If not would be some guy whose body's rotting and you know, Frankenstein kind of thing.
I don't know what ghosts really look like cause I've never seen one before, but logging on to SPI would give you some samples of how they look like and boy, they are really creepy. Haha, I would rather stick to how the show Ghost Whisperer portrays ghosts.
Spirits who are unable to cross over because of things that they have yet to accomplish when they were alive, people whom they loved a lot and want to protect, all these things preventing them from crossing over and here comes a lady who uses her talent to help them. From what I heard there would be a sad ending to the whole show, probably Melinda's husband ending up dead (I guess) cause there were like clues of losing her loved ones in previous episodes. I don't know and I'm going to find out.
It really got me thinking and there's this thought in my head: Why do people always have to wait till they lose everything and then regret not telling their loved ones that they love them?
There's something which Phil Pringle said when he preached at the National Indoor Stadium during this year's Festival Of Praise:
" I do not want to say good things about people only during their funeral and send flowers to them when they pass away. "
I feel the same way too. Why only wait till you lose people close to you and then say all the good things that they have done during their funeral and send them wreathes only when you realise that you have lost somebody you know?
Another issue which brought to my mind would be rather surprising for myself, seeing separation from a different & another perspective.
Yes, everyone would feel the same way: After spending 4 years in TK and the next step in life falls in the hands of 3 weeks of papers. Every single one of us will surely miss our time spent in TK, if you don't then I feel sorry for you cause it shows that you clearly don't enjoy your time on Planet Earth.
Separate ways after that, with people going into the same school as an exception. Separation, why not let this be a test/trial of how strong the bond is? When you made a remark that you will miss people whom you know, let this be concrete and solid evidence and proof, not to show other people, but rather to yourself. Perhaps to see if you're cheating yourself.
Sometimes you can really think a long way when you're trained to think deeply and think far all the time. Haha, just as I was studying, kind of took a book to read and it's titled " A love worth giving " A book about God's love and also applies to life, which what Pastor Lia said was so true: Spirituality must be translated into practical living.
What I actually did, which was about a few months back, trying to type out everything onto my Multiply site, and my purpose for doing so was to allow people to have an online reference about what love is all about, although you can find that out from reading love novels and logging on to websites, however, those resources only see love for a limited perspective - you cannot understand something fully only when you have experienced it yourself. So, why not read and understand about love from an infinite perspective?
All the chapters talk about God, or rather I should say, it's entirely about God. I tried to take out those lines which mention about God so that at least you won't feel uncomfortable reading it, cause like, I would be forcing my religion on you. I tried, but I can't.
I realised that I can't. And if I successfully did so, it would not be a reference, but rather fragments which don't link and flow with the other fragments. Conclusion? I'm being discipled here, by God Himself. If you try to take the element of God away from the things which actually is all about Him, you will find that there's nothing left, just fragments which don't make sense.
God, I'm hanging on to You forever
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 11:15 PM,
Yearning
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Haha, so today's the end of the first week of Os and I'm already rejoicing. Haha, rejoicing early cause I won't allow the stress and pressure to score well for Os to affect my usual mood. Haha.
There are so many things that I can think of now, things which I want to do after Os. I can like, write out one whole list of it and it's going to exceed more than 2 pages. To be able to be back on Ministry the very day my last paper ends is the best thing that will happen to me after Os.
Brother Sky gave me a hell of a beating and he thrashed me till kingdom come. Haha. Don't you just love church? My street credit of 4.28/5 can't even bit the slightest 299.49 street credit of Brother Sky's. You should have looked at how many people supported Brother Sky in this fight. Haha, I'm just so excited to be back on Ministry!
As such, Graduation Night follows, Amirul's TLP, 4C's chalet, church camp, Parachute Band, Vacation Bible School, Christmas.. Haha, I'm sure to get busy busy, not to mention I will be able to stay till late for Worship Prac, something which I have been longing to experience for a very very long time.
I have been thinking lately, just those usual random thoughts. Besides, you can never expect someone to study every single minute he/she is awake. What kind of thoughts?
I downloaded an album yesterday, Parachute Band's latest album, Roadmaps and Revelations and it's one of the best album I've ever heard throughout my years of listening to Christian Music. Back to foundation, every single expresses love and gratitude to The Highest One and I'm again reminded the purpose of my existence on this planet.
Parachute Band had a change of its band members and it's now 5 young male adults in the band. I'm unable get hold of the lyrics and the album was only released during September and I guess it has yet to do so in Singapore.
Now, it got me thinking about the future, of how you people would be living your lives and progressing and advancing forward. I've thought about my own life already, my next step; Now that I've got my DPA, I will get my diploma, serve NS for 2 years, if I'm able to do well I will study in NTU and obtain a degree. I'm going to be in the line of engineering so most of you won't be able to meet me. I can see that most of you would be businessmen and businesswomen. Lawyers, doctors, other professions and so on.
And it's left with me, equipped with an engineering degree and entering a market with no increasing demand for engineers. You can walk down the street now and you can pluck out engineers who are doing other jobs like sales and everything. Haha, this degree isn't going to help me much in the future, but heck, I'm only taking this as a back-up.
What am I going to do then? Serve in church would probably be the most concrete answer for now. I'm blessed with parents who actually respect my decision, just that not for now; presently. My dad just went: " I will send you through university and what you want to do with your life is up to you already. "
Well said ain't it? Even pastor is aware of current affairs and even my spiritual father is worried about my future. Education is the only way out of poverty, it is so damn true. In order to increase Singapore's population to help solve the problem of an ageing population, Singapore is attracting foreign expats, people from India who specialises in IT, people who are top executives of big companies and big lawyers would be moving to Singapore in the next couple of years and by the time we're ready for the workforce, we would be facing really strong competition.
Are you feeling worried now? Are you feeling worried that you would not be able to find a job in the future and would not be able to support a family? You would be facing stress both from work, parents and yourself cause you're too busy with your career and that you don't have time for social activities and you don't have time to find yourself a life partner. You will be pestered by your ISP, PUB, SP, CCC to pay your outstanding bills, you will worry about paying taxes. You get a car, worry about COE, insurance, maintenance.
Haha, all the troubles in life, gets more and more as you get older. What can I say, just do this shit, just like what Amirul says.
Geog Elect: I want high quality of living, besides high standard of living. Singapore's standard of living is rather there already, safe country, no natural disasters, most people live comfortably in flats or private property, most people having buying power.
Quality of living? Count the number of hair you drop each day as your age grows older and a cumulative frequency curve graph will tell you. (:
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 8:31 PM,
Connection
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Alright, 3 more days to the start of Os, everything that we have done for 4 years all boils down to just this 3 week period of papers.
Haha, how about a suggestion? Everyone in 4C (or rather, every single on in TK) creates a blog of their own, may it be blogger, livejournal, multiply, wordpress and so on and just keep it going? I don't care whether you have or don't have experience in blogging, just create one.
To hell with the layout and everything. Haha, this is just a step taken so that each and everyone of us know how every single one is doing and what's going on in your lives.
I've thought about it and I don't plan to change my url or switch to another host cause of the archive that I have accumulated since the very first day I started blogging 2 years ago.
Like keep the fire of 4C burning?!
Haha, there's no extent to the gratefulness I have for everyone in 4C, for all the times of laughter, joy, teasing, embarrassment, disappointment, encouragement and so on.
It's like how fast 4 years can just fly past this fast and for all you know you leave everyone behind.
It's so easy to say, " Hey, friends forever! We will keep in contact! We will meet up every fortnight and hang out together! " I'm sure every single one of us said that to our primary school friends after we left, on the very last day when we had to go back to collect our results. Cheers to those who still managed to do so, but I'm sure you will realise that it's not that easy as it is being said.
Every single one of us moves on in life, progresses and advances, taking steps and steps in life and if 4 years can just fly past like that, what about 10 years, 20 years, 30 years?
Who knows, you would own a car in the future. Who knows, you might be the next CEO of some MNC company?
I just hope that at least everyone still keeps in touch. Even if it's just a simple sms of " How are you doing? Hope you're doing fine/great. " - it might seem to be a very small, significant gesture, but believe me.
It makes a big difference and a great impact.
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 5:39 PM,
Hopefully ain't the last
Friday, October 12, 2007
Click the above picture to arrive at the album preview page.
I will be updating the album from time to time, depending on other photos if I have. The link to it might change as well so I suggest you do not bookmark it.
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 7:27 PM,
Pace
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Everything's going so fast that hey, the next thing you know it you're taking the first Os paper on Monday and with a span across 2 weeks or so, and you're done with it.
All that 4 years in secondary school life has just passed just like that. I was just talking to Amirul last night and we realised how things are going so fast, in actual fact, too fast and it's hard to keep up actually.
How about studying the whole of next week and you take papers day after day while having periods of breaks in between and then boom, it's over? I mean, like wow. I spent 4 years of my life in TK and it's all over like that.
What's more, tomorrow's the last day of school. Last day I'm ever going to spend in a classroom with fans above and it gets stuffy and hot in the afternoon.
Haha, just a few shots before school really ends. I'm so gonna have a shooting spree tomorrow.
The Chicken Rice Gang of 4C just made a suggestion today that we're going to wear school shirts next year and make trips to TK just to eat TK canteen's food. Haha, what a deal to make. Still, it's quite a great deal cause it's like we might get to meet up often and also, I didn't expect myself to miss canteen food after 4 years eating the same thing every single school day.
Chicken Rice, Western food, Nasi Lemak, Fried Rice, Drink stall, Siew Mai.
Haha, 4C really went crazy today. (:
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 5:44 PM,
Quotations
Saturday, October 06, 2007
In the midst of preparing for Os, how about doing English exercises?
I have made up my mind to tackle argumentative essays rather than rather a story based on a single word for Os, something which I can't really do well, so I rather not take the risk.
Well, that means I need to increase my general knowledge in order to score for that component, damn, I feel like I'm doing a General Paper.
Wikiquote is sure helpful when it comes to searching for quotes, rather than searching blindly using Search Engines.
Mere Christianity
Imagine yourself as a living house.
God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.
He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.
You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.
He intends to come and live in it Himself.
The Four Loves
Need-love cries to God from our poverty; Gift-love longs to serve, or even to suffer for, God; Appreciative love says: "We give thanks to thee for thy great glory."
Need-love says of a woman "I cannot live without her"; Gift-love longs to give her happiness, comfort, protection — if possible, wealth; Appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent, rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him, will not be wholly dejected by losing her, would rather have it so than never to have seen her at all.
C.S Lewis
Ain't that cool? Hearing those words from a Man of God, hearing those words of wisdom, those knowledge, those understanding.
These words are not something said to wow people and show off how much they know and understand, it was meant to convey messages to the people out there. These words said are meant to teach the people out there.
Sometimes it's really hard to define the true meaning of love. Every one has their own interpretation of this most commonly used word.
What happened to all those marriages where they vowed to love each other till death do them apart and ended up in divorce? What happened to all those relationships where they claimed that they would love each other forever and ever, and ended up breaking up, ended up drowning themselves in sorrow and tears? What is true love?
How exactly should we define love? Is it something which makes you you or something which breaks you? The success of love is in the loving- it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what they have done.
No one can define love, for only God can. He first loved us, and there is no other place best to learn about love other than the bible, the Word of God. [ 1 Corinthians 13 ]
The lines between true love, infatuation, puppy-love, crush, have all been blurred throughout the generations. What can be done to restore them that the lines may become thick and visible? Seriously, nothing on a large scale, but effective on to an individual.
Go and think about it: What is love to you? How do you define love? Is there any difference between love, crushes and infatuation?
My my, studying puts me in the thinking mode.
Labels: Daily rant
posted by Rod @ 6:19 PM,
Cost
Thursday, October 04, 2007
"The economy of the Kingdom of God is quite simple.
Every new step in the Kingdom costs us everything we have gained to date.
Every time we cross a new threshold, it costs us everything we now have.
Every new step may cost us all the reputation and security we have accumulated up to that point.
It costs us our life.
A disciple is always ready to take the next step.
If there is anything that characterizes Christian maturity, it is the willingness to become a beginner again for Jesus Christ.
It is the willingness to put our hand in His and say, "'I'm scared to death, but I'll go with you. You're the Pearl of great price.'"
- John Wimber
Haha, got this from Ming Rong's blog, something Pastor How talked about during service and as I was reading his blog, I knew why I had this feeling: The feeling of looking forward for Os to end, not because of Grad Night or others, but because if the freedom that I long to have since 2 years ago.
After Os, I can finally go for service without any chains of holding me back. I can loudly declare that I will no longer face PO anymore. I can shout back at the enemy that he has been defeated, for after Os I will go full force into ministry and receive what the Lord has been preparing for me.
I'm ever ready to take steps after steps, I'm ready for discipleship.
I will put my hand in His and yes, there are things in life that is absolutely scary, like our future; how unpredictable it would be. However, I will go with Him.
Os might seem scary and unpredictable, but I'll put my hands in His, and I will go with Him.
Labels: Revelation
posted by Rod @ 7:27 PM,
