Tis the season to be merry!

This is so thrilling, I get to blog this often now! =D

I've been surfing through some friends blogs and reading all them pre/post-exam posts can be pretty amusing. Haha, like 'oh I screwed this paper and that paper!'...'last minute studying doesn't work!'...'I missed an A by 1 mark!..'...'Pn so-and-so is the lousiest BM paper marker.' Amusing...and saddening. To be honest, I probably also did say something like the above at some point. XD Really, you can't blame us Chinese-school goers, 'kiasu-ness' is inherently us! Sometimes when we get our papers and everyone's comparing their result, you could smell the the air thick with competition, gosh, the disbelief at someone else's extraordinary performances, the discontentment from missing an A1 by a few marks, the disappointment of hardwork yielding less than expected. *shakes head* Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, in my class, many of those who failed any subject seemed pretty happy, haha, like literally they were announcing their results to the whole world...thank God for them flippant guys to lighten up the mood! They fail yet no one ever doubts their genius'es. XD

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, to those who sees these kind of situations and finds it rather a turn-off, bear with us. We (referring to kiasu's) have been taught since kindergarten that exams is everything, it is the rock-bottom! There is no future without them straight A's. Most of us has this subconscious underlying assumption that not acing a subject means that we're stupid. Of course, such assumption is verily (got such word ar?) wrong but it doesn't help that some parents actually do seem to agree to that! In primary school, academic achievement was probably the only goal we had and that was further weighed upon by teachers offering rewards or worse, punishments for not meeting their standards. So really, we're the victims here, don't hate us for being such nerds. (I hear the nerd sitting at the front row of class saying 'amen' to this! XD) Really, it's time to be more gracious and try understanding. The fact is most people don't get to choose what to think and what exactly would they like to do, they're just told to do so. And it's downright mean of them to get us all-out for exams, tell us to work our asses off to get an A, but nobody told us what do we do when we fail... What do we do when we fall short? Yeah yeah, 'keep working', 'keep trying'...how far do they expect us to go? Literally, I see girls in tears walking down the corridor, probably after getting their results and it's just...you know just so...sigh. XD Pressure giler.


I always love to tell myself this, (you know, just to downplay the 'kiasu' spirit...), when you get to heaven, it's quite unlikely that God will ask you how many A's did you get. Haha! XD Chill la people, chill, must pasrah a bit. Next year we 'piah' again! =D

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-Bryan, I'll do the tag! In due time. =P
-You! I've got a hundred and one questions to ask you, starting from...'how are you!?'
-Sleepover with girlfriends this Friday! YIPPY!! 'I'm bringing PINK nailpolish, you leh?'

Cows of Bashan

Sooo..there's this MAJOR 'issue' that's been bugging me, probably for the past one month. It's something my sister told me, which is something her friend told me, which I'm gonna tell you and you ARE gonna tell somebody. Generally we all know that in restaurants or shops or any sort of labour jobs out there, foreign workers usually get a lower pay than local citizens, right? How much lesser, we do not know, but probably good enough to keep them flocking into our countries. But what I'm gonna tell you, people, is so shocking, so outrageous, so piss-ifying, it's just plain wrong. Wait, I haven't even mention the perpetrators. It's this particular Japanese restaurant in this particular mall in Klang lah okay. (can I make it any more obvious?)

THEY PAY THEIR FOREIGN WORKERS RM 1.00 per hour.

Do the Math people, say they work for 10 hours per day, they earn RM 10.00 per day. That's barely enough to cover food and rent in Klang or KL or any city for a day! Plus, some of them aren't just any foreign worker, they're graduates from their home country. The currency exchange rate is so high they'd rather go for laborious jobs than settle for white-collar jobs in their own country. It doesn't take an economist of sociologist to know that it's an unhealthy system that will break down eventually. Gosh, consider their living conditions (barely livable, ask me next time...), the money they have to sent back to their children and wives at home, the fact that they're engineering graduates doing the mopping and cleaning up in a restaurant, in a foreign land that accuses foreigners for every little crime commited. The exploitation and prejudices held up against them is big enough to spark riots. (and there goes the self-fulfilling prophecy of an increased crime rate!)


We are seriously bringing judgement upon ourselves.

It's like global warming. The superpowers like US, China, Japan are the ones with the highest carbon dioxide emission, yet when the glacial ice melts and the sea level rises, is it not the little islands and shore-lined countries that suffer? In India, whole villages would be swallowed by the rising waters. Already third-world countries are experiencing flood and droughs and tycoons brought by climatic change. Yes, we can 'cuci tangan' and say that we're not directly involved with any of these, but here's the fact, we will suffer the consequences together. Already, we are. Thanks to that stupid manager in the sushi restaurant, we now have a bunch of very angry and repressed foreign workers in our midst, try multiplying that by every factory and restaurants in Malaysia that underpays their foreign worker and we get a Malaysia on very 'good' terms with it's neighbouring country. Oversimplified but you gotta admit there's some truth in it...

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Hope, nevertheless.


But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! -Amos 5: 24

My personal favourite: Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that man gets justice. Proverbs 29: 16


For references: Isaiah 56, 58-61; Amos 4-6

Modes of Perception

Let's say A put on a pair of blue sunnies, and then A looks at a yellow object which A didn't know was yellow, it would appear blue to A right? Then, let's say B, who has on a pair of red sunnies then looks at another object, which is really blue, it would appear to B as dark red instead. So here goes the conversation,

A : Hey, nice shirt! It's so blue.
B: Blue? Haha, a bit bluish lah, but it's actually red. I like your red shirt too.
A: Red meh? Where got, it's blue lah. And hello! I'm wearing blue too.
B: Huh? I'm in red..yada ya da yadaa..
A: yada yadaa

and then they started raising their voices, grabbing each other's collars, wrestling on the ground and so on, each sure that they were the right one. Considering their condition, each was being perfectly logical but still both were wrong and the sunnies impaired their judgement. Haha, ponder. =D

P.S. By the way, A was actually wearing a pink shirt, and B in yellow.

Almost slipped up.

Aha! Baby faces! XD

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And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3: 17-19

Ahh, the highlights speaks volumes. =)

Bingo, Bangle, Bungle!

Aww man, this is totally my heart's cry! XD Anyway, if you decide to enter it's YouTube page, don't read the comments, lest you spoil the pleasure of enjoying some good music. Seriously, the mere mention of the word black or white could spark a World War 3 on the Internet. Freedom of speech konon. Play an innocent song inversely and it becomes demonic music. So duh, -_-''. Humans do have a knack for manipulating and ruining good things. 'Steal! Kill and Destroy!' (John 10:10)-the devil would cheer them on.

There's a verse in Ecclesiastes 6 that says that the man who fears God will avoid all extremes. Now, that's a good piece of advise. Eating, sleeping, working, making love, etc., they're good stuff instituted by God. But overdo or thwart any of these and it turns harmful. You know, like overeating or dieting, insomnia, workaholism (sp?), sex orgies---they're all TWISTED! Tsk tsk. It's good to live simply. I mean simple lah, not cin-cai. XD So long!

Stressed inversed =Desserts

I don't remember praying for patience. But 'things' has been happening, so I've been snapping at people a lot lately. Probably the only person who can laugh at my agitation is Sue-Ann. Tee Hee. She's such a joy.

I remembered when me and another two girls were practicing our poetry recital behind the staffroom, we were at this spot facing some bushes and small trees, and then I got distracted by THE chicks, AGAIN. I think God has appointed these chicks to be wonderful reminders. First, I saw them taking flight from a roof when I was walking by the balcony. This time they were playing around with red flowers that grew on the small trees. (or were they feeding on it? XD) Each time I spot them while I was busy being worrying. And each time they never fail to bring to mind His assuring Words.

''Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?'' Matthew 6:26, 27.

I have to insist though God, I don't think so birds have these many projects to go about with and such impossible people to work it. Hehe, just being a cheek. XD

Tear me from myself.

I've been walking strong yet I carry unnecessary weights. I am freed yet burdened by my choices. Light peeks into this darkness but rationale shuts it. The ground on my feet feels solid, but there seems to be a slant to it. I've increased in religiousity yet my Faith quivers still. I've caught the bug of indifference, forgone flying kites, sharing ice-creams and counting pennies. I've mistook Time as mine, forgetting that I own nothing. I'm such an expert, I forgot to learn. I've willed myself so hard, silencing the heart that cringes inside.

Yucks.

Am I lost or just less found?

On the straight or on the roundabout
of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me
is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
'Cos my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth
of who I was born to become

C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser