Moment Musicaux

I just attended a one-and-a-half-day Presbyterian Synod Youth Leader’s camp. I found the reminder of my initial calling to leadership very, very refreshing and timely. All the ‘noise’, worries and activities that have captured me at the present moment may well have clouded my mind from the ministry that I once had so much passion in. The speaker, Rev. Jimmy Tan, was extremely clear, logical and organised. And humourous. He definitely knew what he was talking about and pretty much saved the day from the uh, rather redundant translation.

Anyway, this re-assessment also reminded me of how God has been faithfully present and working in my life, moulding and shaping my character for my future. It’s amazing, really, to think back on how my whole life has been led by Him, slowly unfolding His plans to prepare me for all the ups and downs, highs and lows — I’ve been so blessed.

Now that I’m almost done with school, I’m prepared to start work to help support the family. Dad’s going into full-time theological studies. No more DotA/LAN games or unmeritable activities (not that DotA is one lah) for me; time management is a must now. It’s a long (but amazing) story how things have unfolded, but I shall leave that for next time.

Here’s a Prayer of Serenity that Rev. Jimmy mentioned. It spoke to me immediately (read: dry creative spell for IMC), and I’d like to share with you.

Prayer of Serenity 

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;

that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

This is a fine example of abuse. Abuse of one’s education, social comfort and technology.

Watch the video.

Some of you would probably find the ‘video’ (delibrately subtitled with ‘POK’) very funny. But here are some questions I should raise:

Is the video real? Note the lack of ambient noise and the forced Indian accent. Granted it’s taken at 3am (as the person taking the video says) — the bigger question here is: if the video is fake, WHY create it? Even if it is real, what is it trying to prove?

Racial superiority? Dumbing down a religion’s sensitivities? To poke fun at people with a poor command of English and their lack of education? Or to prove that Singaporeans have a ’sense of humour’, like some contend?

More like to start the race wars all over again. So much for the Maria Hertog riots; this generation has seen too little to understand the potential of racial riots in a tiny country of 3.5 million.

None of the comments trying to ‘defend the video’ could substantiate themselves more than ’so funny!’, ‘hey it’s only a joke!’ or ‘go to hell’ (to those who slammed the video). Some laughed despite it being racist. I was even more amazed at this comment.

anodize wrote: "Come on! Loosen up man! This is obviously a prank. I guess the ppl who made this jus wanna entertain or make ppl laugh! No wonder ppl from other countries say we Singaporeans r dumb, sheltered, confined in our little controlled world, not being able to think out of the box & the list goes on….Be more open minded man!"

So ‘thinking out of the box’, being neither ‘dumb’ nor ’sheltered’ or ‘confined in our little controlled world’ means creating extremely insensitive videos to hurt the well-being of the society?

Wow, I sure didn’t think of it that way. Another classic example of how desperate we are to exhibit ‘creativity’. I pity.

There will probably be a spate of videos coming up to knock different races around, and watch Singaporeans get ugly and roll in the mud. So sit back, and watch the drama unfold: Only on Youtube.

Any semblence to any characters — dead, alive or fits the current situation is purely coincidental. I just happened to come across it. Don’t be sensitive, lah.

No matter how ‘inaccurate’ people may say Wikipedia is, the fact that they offer an amazing amount of information is undisputed. An investigation led by Nature has even stated that the accuracy of wikipedia (on natural sciences) to the Britiannica Encyclopaedia is rather on par.

"The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three."

There are scientists contributing to Wiki’s articles too. On the Nature.com page, there’s an interesting pop-up link with an interview with a scientist who’s been contributing to the schizoprenia page for 5 years, about his frustrations and learning experiences. You should read the whole article and its other links; it’s actually very interesting, this pedia-wars.

I agree that some Wiki articles that I’ve read are rather disorganised and even contain grammatical errors. But there are watchdogs on the site itself, flagging content that may contain biased-ness or factual inaccuracies. Also, I believe that the discerning of the information should really come from oneself’s wont to search for the right answers.

Plus the introduction of Copyright Laws that I’m being taught right now — a scientist’s testimony on how he has learnt from ‘un-qualified’ Wikipedians in discussion boards only goes to show that the copyleft does give the ‘incentive to create’. And in this case, ‘build upon’. With this ‘incentive to create’, such a vibrant public domain would surely inspire more people to take part in academic discussions and gain new insights, rather than sit back and be spoon-fed with information (accurate or not) all the time.

(I have a hypothesis that Copyright Laws are really existent for economic protection’s sakes. I’ll definitely try to research on that one day.)

I’m glad that Mr. S is touching on this topic because I’ve always been all for copyleft (than right), ever since I came across the topic — on Wikipedia.

Hear ye, hear ye. The U.S. Embassy in Athens Is Attacked.

So it’s Greece’s turn to take the spotlight from Iraq and Israel.

At this day and age, terrorism is everywhere. But why do news websites carry terrorism reports most often when they have something to do with the US of A?

It seems to me as though anyone who attacks anything American are dismissed as left-winged, militant and immediate terrorists.

Just a straw poll here: How many of you are also eyeing this (insert descriptive word here)?

(The Genius of the century.) 

It’s about the same size as my O2 XDA II mini, but probably a hundred times more desirable than the latex-enclaved iBulk. Or oBulk. Whatever it is, I’ve promised myself to grab it as soon as it hits the Singapore shelves. I’ve got my money on the second-quarter of 2008, and hopefully Mac would have bridged the phone’s current technology gap deficiencies (it’s currently a 2G phone etc.) when it arrives.

So much for ‘bridging the technology gap’; it’s just excavated another one for all the other tech companies to try throwing a tightrope to the other ledge where they sit comfortably.

Edit: Cisco Systems Inc. (not the auxiliary police force here) has sued Apple Inc. over the use of the iPhone name. Apparently they’ve been holding the trademark for that phone for 6 years now, but Apple may use the rights of that ‘I’ family (iPod, iMac) to battle that. Read more about it here.

Edit Edit: A good article on the iPhone’s features to chew on. Perhaps it’s a good thing to not get too caught up with its aesthetics yet.

On a side note to Christina (the band Senior): Thanks for dinner and dessert! I’ll definitely miss you. But we’ll be keeping in touch, no? I’m glad for friends like you whom always sets me at that same, familiar ease despite the rarity of which we meet up. Here’s to your dreams! I’ll be your fan when your works become famous. Heck, I’ll be the first — already!

No Logo:

"The book focuses on branding, and often makes connections with the anti-globalization movement. Throughout the four parts (No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, and No Logo), Klein writes about issues such as sweatshops in the Americas and Asia, culture jamming, corporate censorship, and Reclaim the Streets. She pays special attention to the deeds (and alleged misdeeds) of Nike, The Gap, McDonalds, Shell, and Microsoft and their lawyers, contractors, and advertising agencies."

- Excerpt from No Logo, Wikipedia.org, extracted 5 Jan, 2006. 

QT of the day (which I sorely needed).

Phil 4:6-7

6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Plus action taken on my part, of course. I will pull through!

I must say, 2006 was a relatively good year compared to the previous few.

Like I mentioned in a recent post — it’s been a year of many firsts. Firsts that have impacted my life greatly, and thank God, positively.

I found my job interest in copywriting and had my first ads published; had my first ever gig with You and Whose Army?; declared and comfirmed my faith in Christ through baptism; went to Aussie for the first time; became a coach (adult helper) with the YF’s music ministry; ran the StanChart Marathon’s 10km at a timing of 1:23:45 (I know it’s not fantastic, but I kid you not!)…

Of course, how can I forget Adam? (: Yes, I’m two months into my first serious relationship and I’m very happy.

2007 holds much more challenges, and I’m looking forward to what God has in store for me. Ah, yes. Resolution time!

1. Have a strong, regular walk with God.
2. Serve God with all my heart, mind and strength.
3. Manage all my responsibilities well and effectively.
4. Be more driven and have more self-discipline.
5. Be a good daughter, a good coach to the youths, mentor, friend and girlfriend (I’m still getting used to that tag).
6. Work hard on my portfolio, English, music and drums.
7. Finish things that I start.

I’d like to attempt a mini-triathlon (swim 400m, run 5km, cycle 20km) too this year. Provided I train up, of course.

Finally, with inspiration from today’s New Year service, this will be my theme passage of the year:

Philippians 2

Imitating Christ’s Humility

 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
 6Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 7but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
 8And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!
 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above every name,
 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.

Amen! Have a good 2007, all!