Wednesday, March 29, 2006
A Promise that I Intend to Keep
I've been fagging close to about a decade now, and frankly, I'm kind of sick of it. I've resolved many a time to quit myself of the habit, but it seems to be fruitless, and with each attempt, it seems that the hill is a little harder to climb.
And I do want to give it up, but what I really need is encouragement and lots of patience. It's difficult. I hope that in time to come, I'll be able to serve as an inspiration to others when I finally rid myself of the nicotine cravings and habit.
Please keep me in your prayers.
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Of Philandering Men...
Is it true that it is inevitable for a husband (i.e. man) to be philandering or even turn out to be a womaniser? Hmmm... this was one of the questions that swirled through my head when I watched Jack Neo's That One No Enough. I just wonder... is it really inevitable?
I do know of people that are married yet find joy in extra-marital affairs. I also do know of those who claim that they 'love' their wives to bits, and clock in time with their 'co-curricular' activities.
This really gives a bad name to us men, and Men in general. Maybe it's a biological thing, that makes us unhappy/ dissatisfied with the things/ people that we already have (much like me changing my techno-gizmos). But then there are those that claim that if your eyes don't fleet, your measure of a man just went down a notch. Problem is, even if your eyes fleet, does it mean that you have to act on it? It just doesn't make sense.
And... I also know that there are men out there who have found the perfect woman to settle down with, and are thankful...
Much like the way I found Ling, and much like the way I'm thankful...
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Crash
I'm sold! I can see why Crash won Best Picture at the Oscars. It was just awesome! Maybe better even than Brokeback Mountain.
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Monday, March 20, 2006
The Usual...
Quite an uneventful week... Oh yes... forgot to mention: ELROY KOKO was in town! My cousin, was in town this weekend, and I must say, what a weekend it has been for Ling and myself. For those who have no idea who I'm talking about, this is my Elroy Koko from Kauai!
In anycase, it was a weekend filled with lots of drinking and even more eating... Hmmm... I can see that my tummy cannot take much more of this eating habit of mine. Getting kinda fat. Have to get back to my cardio regime. Wait a minute... WHAT CARDIO REGIME? This just ain't right. I should go easy on the weights a bit and do more running and cycling. Yeap... that's exactly what I'll do soon enough...
Manage to catch V for Vandetta last Thursday at Eng Wah up in Suntec City. I must say that apart from its fight scenes (which I must emphasize that it is so the Wachowski brothers!), it dwelves into the psyche of freedom and the subjective price of it. The highlight of the film isn't the film itself, but a sideshow emanating from some seats below us. Some lady was complaining about a Dick that was kicking her chair. To cut a long story short, she ended up spitting on the guy (don't ask me why) and the next thing I knew, a damn Big Gulp flew through the air! Talk about action cuts!
Bernice must learn more responsibility, especially when it involves someone else's property.
On a sidenote, Ling will be 22 soon (actually in about an hour's time), though she constantly reminds me that she is forever 18.
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Thursday, March 16, 2006
The best part...
You know what is the best part of watching art films? It sets you thinking about various social issues.
You know what is the best part of taking night walks? It allows you to appreciate nature and its beauty.
You know what is the best part of studying in the deathly still library? It forces you to focus at the task at hand.
You know what is the best part of working out in the gym? It permits you to sweat out all your frustrations.
You know what is the best part about eating without guilt? It entitles you to savor anything you want.
You know what is the best part about putting my hands around you? It makes me feel that much more special.
And what makes me that much more special, it just you...
-mbeki-
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Be Humbled
Wow... it really has been a long time since I last blogged! Hmmm... the last time I blogged was 6th Mar, which makes it close to 9 days since! This is an obvious testimony to how busy I've been in the past week and a half or so. I promise that I'll try and do better in the weeks to come, or however long this blog would survive.
I just realised that there are Christians out there that find abandoned by God when they are tested by some misfortune, be it a family disaster, relationship problems, etc etc... Are we fair-weather Christians that decide to stand by our faith only when things go right for us, and start questioning His awesomeness when things go outrageously wrong? Doesn't it then put our initial faith in Him into question? Do we go God 'hopping', choosing who and what to believe in only when it promises us of great things for us? Or are we just questioning God's ability to deliver His promises to us? All these questions prompted me to check it out. I just happened to stumble onto this article aptly titled, ' I'm a Good Christian. So Why Am I Sick and Poor?' (for those interested, please check it out here)
And I've come to a conclusion: it's not that God can't fulfill His promise to us (hey, didn't He promise us that we would sit with Him in Heaven?), but more of us not listening to God, tuning in to His subtleness, commanding us to submit to Him. And it's through total submission to Him that you can experience His awesomeness and power. For it is when we are humbled, do we truly seek Him.
Ask and it will be given to you;
Seek and you will find;
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7 (NIV)
May we all be humbled and find the true nature of God. To Him be the glory!
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Monday, March 06, 2006
My weekend...
Crap... didn't do much studying over the weekend, although Ling and myself managed to get alot of errands done.
Can I just tell you that the queue at Singtel over the weekend is just horrendous! Had to wait about an hour just to get to the counter, discounting the fact that we had to queue up for another 15mins just to get a number. I must say that I'm very pleased with my Motorola Slvr L7 which I can use now together with my Apple PowerBook. For those of my friends who are reading this and still have not received my new number, please email me (address is given on this page).
I'm sure that Ling enjoyed Godfather II, although she had some confusions over the Sicilian names used.
Will post more later...
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Blogging with a widget...
This is just a test... I repeat... This is a test!
To err is human; to forgive, divine...
What does it mean to forgive? In the literary sense, forgiveness is defined as 'the act of forgiving' with forgiving given as 'to cease to feel resentment against (an offender)' (source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).
And within forgiveness, there are 2 kinds.
1. Divine Forgiveness: the kind afforded by God to Man; and
2. Human Forgiveness: the kind afforded between 2 individuals
The above 2 concepts are expounded in here.
But all this extends to forgiveness of sorts between 2 entities, and not forgiveness from within directed to oneself. How do you really forgive yourself?
From a Christian perspective, I would suppose that forgiveness within oneself is to first acknowledge that you do not have the ability to forgive. Only through Him can you truly be reprieved of all sins (the notion of sin taking on a general meaning here). And once you realize that it's through God that makes all things possible, forgiveness included, then you would strive to maintain a right relationship with Him. And to establish a right relationship would mean to constantly seek and know Christ and then to follow His commandments and mandates. Therefore, the first and foremost issue at hand is to have faith. The concept of faith is discussed here.
For the more secular sort of personal forgiveness, I guess that the most validating way is to discover the baseline issues that are at hand that made you feel this way in the first place, and then to allow yourself to learn from the mistakes made (this is based on the assumption that a mistake has occurred and therefore needs forgiving). And then from learning from that mistake, make sure that it shouldn't happen again.
It takes a big person to forgive another, but it takes an even bigger person to forgive oneself. We must try to master the art of forgiving - for others' sake, and for our own.
And as Alexander Pope puts it: 'To err is human; to forgive, divine.'
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Sex in Heaven
Yet another article that I found pretty interesting on the net. Read it here. It suggests that there is a probability of us having a healthy sex life in our afterlife. It goes on further to suggest that sexual prohibitions in the past have been loosened to an extent that we are able to even 'lobby for it in the afterlife...
Therein lies the problem of the article. Are we that significant that we can actually lobby of sex in heaven (or hell for that matter)? Who died and made us gods?
I think that we need to take a serious look into this. Are we trivialising what sex is? Have sex become just any other thing that once over, becomes just merely the past? The institution of sex was made to be enjoyable no doubt, but between parties that are committed to one another to last for a lifetime, i.e. married couples.
This has become a worrying feature in society today. Just recently, sex videos of a teenager taken by a camera-phone was found circulating on the net after the phone was stolen. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that the videos were uploaded by the perpetrator. Many have laid blame on the perpetrator for infringing on the privacy of the teenager. I suppose the greater question would be: why the hell was the video made in the first place? Some say that it was for private use, for remembrance, as a sign of commitment etc etc... But is there a need to?
Sex used to be a sacred thing between two people. It was never intended as a gallery for others to peek in.
Bottomline is, if sex ceases to be a sacred sacrament between two individuals, we may see a new wave of debauchery and self-indulgence that would threaten the moral fabric of civilisation.
Take it easy, Keep it real...
Underworld: Evolution
So here we are again, Ling and me, stuffed in the library trying to make head and tails of the enormous amounts of readings that are being prescribed to us... I don't know... sometimes, I just feel that the damn administration is dumping heaps of journals on us just because they do not have enough articles or ideas of their own to teach us with... Then can I ask: Why the hell am I paying extra school fees for?
But on the flipside, reading journals ain't exactly a bad thing. It's interesting how studies are done to prove or disprove existing theories. What amazes me more than anything else is that the same themes keep popping up time and time again. The different theories used to explain the same perspectives just never ceases to take me by surprise...
Had a shitload of scares on Tuesday night. Ling called me in the gym saying that she broke out in rashes. Piang eh... on the contrary, it was more like bee stings all over her face! Luckily Singapore General Hospital was just nearby. After a jab, all was fine, 'cept for the lingering feeling of swellness. You have no idea how freaked out I was! Never really had that happen to me before... the worst medical episode for myself was only a suspected case of broken testicles which turned out to be nothing more than a muscle strain. You can imagine the panic in that one!
In anycase, managed to catch Underworld: Evolution just last night (catch the trailer here) Not too bad, though I enjoyed the first installment better. Reckon that Evolution was made just to bring everything to a full circle. Vampyres, Lycans... doesn't matter... I just love such shows that are mystical... not the Harry Porter kind, but those of a darker sort...
Going back to my readings... will try to blog more later...
Take it easy, Keep it real...
