ubërchîc

Re-entry to the Blogopshere

2008-06-03T06:42:00.004-04:00

In these jetlagged days (i.e. sleeping at 5pm and waking up at 3am) before I start working, I've taken to learning how to play the piano. After all, I taught myself the guitar, and my uncle taught himself the piano. I reckon I've got some musicality gene in me that should predispose me to learning instruments. So I've taken to learning how to play certain songs off youtube.

I've got Apologize more or less down after about 2 hours of continuous practice that has my right wrist aching every time I arch it away from me. Hey, guitarists don't face the risk of getting carpel tunnel.

Speaking of musical genes, I met up with the principal investigator of a lab I could be working in for the next year. He took me out to lunch and showed me around his 4-month-young lab. It's really interesting stuff - he's looking for a genetic basis of monozygotic twins, something I obviously have a vested interest in, despite my lack of experience in embryology and genetics. In between talking about armadillo quadruplets, double-headed tigers and consanguineous couples, the best piece of advice he gave me was to keep shopping for a lab, even though he correctly sensed that I was ready to jump on board.

I wonder how many times I've settled for something less simply because I didn't look further and longer and elsewhere.

2008-03-31T01:41:00.004-04:00

I am back from a week from Mexico. This marks a return to blogging after a 3 month hiatus. I wonder if anyone, apart from family and close friends, still reads my blog.

I went grocery shopping with Scott, Nasta and Deniece today, and apart from several $0.99 frozen dinners, I acquired 2 new DVDs - Broken Flowers and Gosford Park, both of which I have never had the opportunity to view.

I buy DVDs of movies that I have never watched. I find this practice runs contrary to how my peers purchase their DVDs. Unlike your average US college student, I find very little pleasure in bringing home from Blockbuster a film I've seen before, no matter how highly I view the movie.

Here's my reasoning. I usually buy DVDs of critically-acclaimed movies that are on sale and are heavily discounted. This restricts my choice to any major movie not released in the past 2 years. Such a long period of time allows a substantial amount of both professional and amateur criticism to consolidate online, allowing me to make a better decision about whether a movie is worth keeping.

I would like to continue to extend this principle to the ever-elusive matters of the heart, but I need to sleep. Perhaps tomorrow I shall do so.

2008-01-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

Metafiction (mā-tä-fik-shən) is a fictitious narrative that self-consciously deals with the nature and technique of fiction. Yes, it's a trippy subgenre of fiction where sometimes the characters are aware of being in a story, where the author is preoccupied with the act of writing, where there's a story-within-the-story.

It is by no means a new invention - Shakespeare himself flirted with it for dramatic effect in Hamlet when the titular manic-depressive male character puts on a play for his mother and stepfather-cum-uncle about how a man kills his brother and marries his sister-in-law. However, in these days of French post-structuralism and deconstruction, metafiction becomes a serious commentary on the nature of life itself.

Metafiction makes for interesting cinema too. I can think of 3 recent movies.

1. Adaptation. (2002)
This movie is done by the same team that gave us Being John Malkovich - director Spike Jonze (aka Adam Spigel) and writer Charlie Kaufman. It's an utterly self-referential, hyper-aware narrative about writer's block and the business of screenwriting. Nicholas Cage stars as Charlie Kaufman (yes, the writer himself) trying to adapt an actual real-life nonfiction book titled The Orchid Thief for a film. He drives himself crazy when, faced with studio pressure, he realizes the book simply cannot be adapted into a film.

This is one of Nicolas Cage's more memorable roles - he plays a pair of identical twins. Kaufman got awfully metatextual by throwing in a fictional twin brother into the mix, but it makes for good comedic acting for Cage. Furthermore, there are constant references to Kaufman's success as the screenwriter for Being John Malkovich. Apparently the plot was far from fictional (but of course hyper-self-referential), as Kaufman was actually hired to adapt The Orchid Thief but couldn't pull it off. Sadly, I thought the ending was rather contrived and weak, and the strong cast (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper and Catherine Keener) couldn't save it. Throw in full-frontal nudity, masturbation and crude language into the mix, and the movie becomes one writer's incoherent rant against writer's block.

2. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006)
There is a little-known satirical novel that was published in 1759 in Britain. It had the innocuous title of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Indeed, it's actually a book about nothing (think Seinfeld, but more self-referential, autobiographical and with a British accent) where the title character simply talks about his life. In fact he doesn't reach his own birth till one-third the way of the book.

How do you adapt such a book into a film? By weaving a cheeky narrative about a film production trying to adapt it. Lesser-known Brit funnyman Steve Coogan stars as an actor playing Tristram Shandy. It's less a philosophical musing on fiction than it is a wacky take on celebrity and filmstudio politics, although the actor's life does have interesting parallels with Shandy's one.

3. Stranger Than Fiction. (2006)
I saw this movie two nights ago, and it's the best metafictional movie of the three here. It's an amazingly simple story with layers of meaning and significance that'll take days to ponder and appreciate.

Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick, a neurotic IRS taxman who starts hearing a female voice with a British accent narrating his present activity and thoughts. Turns out he's a character in a famous author's latest book. Her name is Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson delivering a fantastic performance), and she is known for killing her main characters off in creative and compelling ways. So, Crick begins to enlist a literature professor's help (Dustin Hoffman playing a character called Jules Hilbert) to save his life.

There's a wickedly poignant and subtly layered twist as the movie nears the end, and there's a few Gospel allusions to unpack throughout the film. Besides, I think there's something significant in the characters' names. To top it off, the sexual themes and language aren't as offensively jarring as the other two.

In my next post I will explore the question: What does metafiction have to do with the Judeo-Christian Scripture?

2008-01-11T21:08:00.000-05:00

In my last post I talked about how Francis Collins' book 'The Language of God' got me thinking seriously about the ways in which we should approach Genesis 1 - 3.

First off, I am convinced that Adam and Eve are not figurative characters. That is to say, when the Scriptures refer to them, the author(s) had in mind two individuals who actually existed in the course of history. Here's two reasons why I say that.

Genesis records clearly the genealogy of Adam. It says that he fathered Seth at the age of 130, and died after having lived 900 years.

Luke traces Jesus' male lineage from Joseph (Mary's husband) straight back to Adam.

I think that's an important fact to consider as we think about whether an evolutionary account of origins is compatible with a Biblical anthropology. Here's a few more questions we need to think through.

Was 'God breathing life into man's nostrils' just a figurative statement? I think it could be.

What does Scripture mean when it says that man was 'formed from the dust'? If it's merely figurative, can it be harmonized with an evolutionary account of origins?

Your opinions and comments are much appreciated.

2008-01-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

I picked up Francis Collins' much-publicized 2006 book "The Language of God" on New Year's Day in New York City.

His first 2 chapters are basically a homage to C.S. Lewis. He reviews and reaffirms the arguments that this elder statesmen of apologetics put down in writing. I skimmed through chapters 3 - 5 because they are Biology 101 for your average football-crazed math-phobic American.

So I jumped straight to chapter 10, where Collins outlines how theistic evolution harmonizes both evolution and the Bible. His quote from Lewis' "The Problem of Pain" is highly compelling:

For long centuries, God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain suffciently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated. The creature may have been clever enough to make things which a modern archeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all its physical and psychical processes were directed to purely material and natural ends.

Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say "I" and "me", which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgements of truth, beauty and goodness, and which was so far above time it could perceive time flowing past... We do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state. But sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as gods... We have no idea in what particular act, or series of acts, the self-contradictory, impossible wish found expression... it might have concerned the literal eating of a fruit, but the question is of no consequence.

To be honest, I've never really struggled with the implications of reading Genesis 3 allegorically. Does this mean the Bible's (gasp) been wrong all this while?

But if verses from Psalms and Ecclesiastes were once used to falsely uphold a geocentric astronomy against Galileo's heliocentric one, maybe it's not the Bible that's wrong. It's just the way I've read it all this while that needs changing.

2008-01-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

As the Hew Hampshire primaries are in full swing, here's an excerpt from pastor Joel C. Hunter's latest book entitled "A New Kind of Conservative" - a thinly-veiled reference to Brian McLaren's hetrodox book?

God loves people. He loves us enough that He does not exclude government as a tool by which He can inspire us to help each other. Through our government we have the chance to profoundly influence the lives of people all over the world. No, we cannot convert them through government. Yes, their eternal salvation is most important. That does not mean that every other provision that could be made through government is unimportant. It doesn't mean that the stewardship of the earth is not a concern because conversion is. Our government has certain powers, minor next to God's, bit still rather potent. Our government can feed the hungry, relieve people from oppression and even model strength with integrity to the world. But without action from the Christ followers in our nation, that potential will be incomplete, unfulfilled or morally destructive.

I like his awareness of the United States' responsibility to the rest of the world in light of her power and status. At the risk of over-generalization, I'll say that few (college-age) Americans have that sense of global responsibility.

2008-01-07T13:38:00.001-05:00

Boston Winter Conference 2008 is finally over. And it's been refreshing, encouraging, and uncomfortably challenging.

I wish it had been longer. I would have loved to hear more from the life of John the Baptist, retold by an African-American pastor who preaches about suffering and brokenness in the same fashion as those prosperity-gospel peddlers - humourous and sobering and uplifting all at once, while acknowledging doubt and pain in all its inescapable reality.

And in between watching a preview of an upcoming documentary and hitting the dance floor, I found myself thinking about gay presidents, the true meaning of tolerance and a career in academia.

And over the week, as I told people that Blue Like Jazz was going to be made into a movie, I found the responses to be intriguingly ambivalent. Only one person said he could see it working out, and more than a few wondered how a semi-structured memoir could transition into film.

If anything, I would like to see how they pull off the confession booth episode that's found near the end of the book. And if you haven't read it, you should - I've found that Christians who have read it either love it or hate it, and I seem to be the only one who stays comfortable in the middle ground.

2008-01-03T13:01:00.000-05:00

I'm writing this blogpost from the 2008 Boston Winter Conference Internet Hub. It's Day 2, and in about an hour there'll be breakout seminars, with 18 different topics being covered. Sadly there's only time for students to check out 2 seminars.

After those seminars, there's going to be a preview screening of a brand-new documentary film called "Lord Save Us From Your Followers". From what I've heard, it's an edgy movie in the same vein as Michael Moore's work, and I believe the filmmakers want some audience feedback.

The kids from Brown University will be checking it out, and you should check this space again for my review of the film.

On another note, I was watching "The Sound Of Music" on ABC on the last Sunday of 2007, and something told me that (despite countless reruns) I had seen Captain Von Trapp before. A little Google research confirmed my suspicions that he is currently about 140 years old with a very successful news program on Comedy Central.

2007-12-30T01:34:00.000-05:00

I pre-ordered Mark Driscoll's newest book a couple months back. It's called 'Vintage Jesus' - a signed copy too, at that. For my enthusiasm, I got rewarded with an advance electronic PDF copy of the book a day before Christmas Day.

It's basically Driscoll's sermon series of the same name that he delivered at his church. So far I'm roughly 40 pages into this 258 book, and there's enough sound-bites to satisfy a quote-hungry blogger.

He opens Chapter Two (How Human was Jesus? - the answer being 'as much as you and me') with

Jesus was a dude. Like my drywaller dad, he was a construction worker who swung a hammer for a living...[He] did not look like so many of the drag-queen Jesus images that portray him with long, flowing, feathered hair, perfect teeth, and soft skin, draped in a comfortable dress accessorized by matching open-toed sandals and handbag...No, Jesus was not the kind of person who, if walking by you on the street, would require you to look for an Adam’s apple to determine the gender.

In keeping with the Yuletide season, he writes that

Some Christian worship songs have also tended to lean toward a denial of the full humanity of Jesus. For example, there is a well-known hymn about Jesus as a baby that says, “no crying he makes,” as if Jesus were not truly a human child that would cry to notify his mother when he was hungry, wet, or had an upset stomach.

If that isn't edgy enough for you, he immediately says that

the Orthodox and Catholic baby Jesus pictures are simply freakish, with him looking like a Mini-Me complete with a halo. Honestly, if I had a kid like that I would sleep with one eye open.

I think he has in mind such pictures as this.

But by no means is the book a lame and lurid attempt at humour by a pastor - that happens a little too often every Sunday across the world. It is a concise Christology that shows simply what the Bible says about Jesus, but with a holier-than-thou sense of humour that knows that the sin of being too serious is only second to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

In fact, Driscoll is convinced that

the apparent boring dourness of Jesus, the school wallflower who never got the punch line of any joke because he was too busy memorizing Lamentations while Herod’s kids gave him wedgies, is precisely the cause of so many people thinking that going to church and going to the dentist are virtually synonymous.

Let's all agree, shall we? The best learners are happy ones, and the best way to create happiness in others is to make them laugh. I think Jesus did that a lot.

2007-12-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

Today, I join bloggers and other web pundits in mourning the death of Benazir Bhutto.

As I wade through the whelming glut of newsfeeds about her life and her times, the irony scarcely evades me. A politically volatile Muslim nation in South Asia had an elected female prime minister - when today USA still has yet to put a female into the Oval Office.

Ms. Bhutto was well-educated and well-accomplished. She was cum laude in Harvard and later the first Asian woman to head the debating union at Oxford. And she has the (debatably dubious) honour of making it onto People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People' List in 1988, the same year she became the first and youngest female ever to be elected head of a Muslim-majority state.

I have to admit, Ms. Bhutto was quite the looker.

Here's a picture of her in 1976, as the head of Oxford Union, the university's debating society.

Her intellectual prowess and academic talent notwithstanding, I wonder if her photogenic features helped her advance in a patriarchal (at best, and misogynist as worst) world.

2007-12-26T23:37:00.000-05:00

It's Day No. 3 of my escapade here in Minnesota, and true to what some have said, I already have stories to tell.

1. Getting to Minneapolis. Flying out of JFK was a madhouse. I get to the gates just 3 minutes before boarding time, and then I hurry down the wrong gate (because the lady at the gate told me wrong) and almost board the wrong plane headed to Salt Lake City - which might have been a tale to tell the grandkids, in retrospect.

2. Transit Time. I met real interesting people who were waiting for the same delayed flight for me at Cincinnati. There was this guy who was a freelance film editor from NYC, and he is currently working on a documentary on Uganda. Yes, you heard me, Uganda.

Then there was another man who was a songwriter, and had written for such artists like Keith Urban, Amy Grant, Avalon and 'other CCM artists'. He wasn't willing to divulge too much about himself - I guess he was wary of being a celebrity - but I think I've enough clues to figure out his name.

3. Meeting the Unseths. I'm staying with Josh and Chris' family, and they have been extremely welcoming and friendly. I spent Christmas Eve sleeping over at their grandparents' new place, and I can't say it simply enough - they treated me like family.

I got a good number of Christmas gifts from them. Chris got me the DVDs for Seasons 2 and 3 of 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'. It might be the best Yuletide gift I've gotten so far.

They didn't just treat me like family, they wanted me to be family. When Grandpa Unseth found out I had 'no romantic life', all his sons and their spouses were more than excited to inform me that Josh had a cousin named Rachel. And Josh's grandpa even showed me her photo - once during that conversation, and one more time before I left their house.

We'll see what anecdotes come my way before I depart in 2008.

2007-12-21T02:06:00.000-05:00

I trudged home tonight, one hour past midnight, watching my breath make itself visible in the icy air. I liked the sound my sneakers made as I stepped over the freshly-fallen snow - a gentle crunch as your bodyweight sinks into a thin layer of new-fallen powdered snow. Looking up, each individual snowflake shimmered subtly as it descended beneath yellowed roadlights.

I wondered if it snows in heaven.

I turned onto the street I live on, waving a winter-break farewell to my friends, enjoying the "crunch-crunch-crunch" of the footsteps that were leading me back home. Glancing down, I followed the footsteps along, telltale signs of city-dwellers navigating snow and sidewalk.

Nearing my driveway, I see the layer of snow blanketing it, and realize, "I guess I have to shovel it off tomorrow morning."

The only Christmases I've know are sunny and humid. This year will be the first time the snow-saturated Christmas enshrined in carols, cartoons, commercials and church bulletins becomes a reality for me.

If I had grown up in a place that got four seasons, and snowed (just as it's supposed to) at the end of the calendar year, I think I would have hated snow. I can only imagine being forced by my parents to grab a spade and shovel the driveway clean of snow, and I shudder. To not have to wake up every morning and undo the weather is, in more than one way, a blessing indeed.

I now wonder, do angels shovel snow in heaven?

2007-12-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

I have one more paper left. 12-point font, double-spaced, approximately 12 pages long.

The title: "On the Possibility of Knowing God."

It's slightly frustrating, because the texts that I'm writing on don't seem to push the question far enough.

If our all our intellectual faculties and reasoning powers cannot, by themselves, paint for us an adequate picture of God, then we can only wait for God to reveal Himself.

So then, the real question becomes, "How do we know when God has truly revealed Himself?"

Come to think of it, there's no better question to ask during this Advent Season.

Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.'

2007-12-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a conversation I found off a blog by a Christian male. A, B and C are talking about dating, while I (JH) will insert italicized comments.

A: "So how much does Christian faith play a role in starting a relationship?"

B: "Well, my mom's concerned that I have too many non-Christian friends, but I don't think I should filter my friends out just based on whether or not they're Christian. That just seems really superficial."

A: "I agree, I don't think there's anything wrong with having non-Christian friends. It's a great opportunity to spread the gospel. I mean, it shouldn't be the only reason why you're friends with them, but we are called to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We're not just supposed to live in our own little Christian bubbles. But in terms of dating relationships, how important is faith?"

JH: Amen. Isolationist Christianity is not true Christianity at all.

B: "What do you mean?"

A: "Well, speaking for myself, I think it's highly important to know whether or not the girl is a Christian. That would be like the first "filter" for me. If she doesn't share my faith, that's it. She's out. We're done."

C: "Wait, what do you mean by 'Christian'? Do you mean 'baptized'?"

A: "No, she doesn't have to be baptized, but at the very least, she has to be someone who acknowledges that she's a sinner and is saved by Jesus."

B: "But there are a lot of non-Christian girls who share many of the same moral and ethical values that we do. Are you going to automatically exclude them just because they aren't Christian? Conversely, there are a lot of Christians out there who don't share those same morals, those same values. In fact, some of them don't even seem to really be living the 'Christian life'...they just seem to be going through the motions. Are you saying that you would rather date these people?"

A: "Absoutely not. It's not enough that someone's a nominal Christian. She needs to show moe than that. Is she growing in her walk? Is she growing in her faith? Is she growing in her understanding of grace?"

B: "But why wouldn't you date a non-Christian who shares those similar values?"

JH: B, you equate being a Christian with simply holding a certain set of beliefs. While that is true on one level, the Bible makes it clear that being a "Christian" is to live life righteously not simply because 'good deeds' and 'right beliefs' get you good standing with God, but because Christ's sacrifice empowers and renews us, calling us to obey God's perfect law.

A: "Well, for starters, I think the Bible makes it abundantly clear that believers shouldn't be yoked with non-believers. More than that, a relationship between a husband and wife is supposed to mirror the relationship between Jesus and the church. If one of the people in the relationship doesn't believe that Jesus died for our sins, she can't possibly grasp that concept."

JH: So A is quoting from the 6th chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and the fifth chapter of his letter to the Ephesian church. While the Ephesian quote is apt and deserves more blogspace than this post, some clarification is needed about the first reference. Paul's specific frame of reference in that passage is a striking rebuke against certain individuals who approved of sex with temple prostitutes. That passage is taken (ever so slightly) out of context too often to argue for an isolationist Christian faith (which, A, you denounce very lovingly) and to warn young Christian youth not to date non-Christians.

B: "Say the girl wasn't a Christian, but was interested in the Christian faith. Couldn't you use dating as opportunity to share the gospel with her and hope that she eventually comes around?"

A: "Sure, I would certainly share the gospel with her...as a friend. I don't believe in 'missionary dating'. I think you're going down a slippery slope if you do that."

JH: Missionary dating isn't just a slippery slope, it's plain selfish - you're dating a girl/guy so that you might convert them, and you want to convert them so you can continue dating them. We'll revisit selfishness later...

B: "So even if the non-Christian girl was totally compatible with you, you would have absolutely nothing to do with her just because she isn't Christian?"

A: "No, I'd still be friends with her. Just because she doesn't share my faith doesn't exclude us from being friends. I just wouldn't date her."

B: "Well, if you had to choose, which one would you date? The girl with a totally compatible personality who isn't a Christian now, but shares all your moral values and could potentially become a Christian later on; or the girl who claims to be a Christian, but doesn't really live a life that's consistent with her faith?"

A: "I would continue to be friends with the non-Christian girl and continue to share the gospel with her in hopes that she'd eventually come to faith, but I wouldn't date her. As for the other girl, I'm not sure I'd even be friends with her in the first place. So yeah, I don't think I'd date either one."

JH: Wow, A, you're walking the high road. I guess singleness is closer than cleanliness, no?

B: "So you're telling me that if there was this girl who had everything you could want: looks, personality, all your values...but she wasn't a Christian, you would just walk away from all that?

A: "[sigh] Pretty much. Look, I've met plenty of non-Christians who I get along with just great. But I wouldn't ever consider dating any of them because they don't share in my faith. Really, it comes down to someone having the complete 'package': do I find her physically attractive, do our personalities mesh, does she get my sense of humor? And being a Christian also plays a large part in that package.

B: "That sounds like a really tough standard. I think it would be really hard to find someone who fit all that criteria."

JH: See, A and B, here's the fundamental problem. You are approaching dating from the wrong angle - the "me" angle. So much of modern dating is infected with the notion of satisfying my desires and expectations. A, your Ephesians 5 shoutout should be more than that - it's an entire dating manifesto wrapped up in 10 lines. The whole point of marriage is a reflection of Trinitarian unity and Christ's love for His body - the church. And the hallmark of that kind of love is sacrifice, sacrifice that seeks the best of the other person. That kind of love drove Jesus to tears in Gethsemane and kept the legions of angels at bay when He hung dying on Golgotha.

Marriage, then, isn't simply about 'compatability' or 'meeting my expectations'. It's all about learning to love, not falling in love. And dating has to be a precursor to marriage, because dating without marriage in mind is again simply selfish.

That's not to say you should marry the next person you date, but I think that all that emotional euphoria and tender words and held hands that come with dating doesn't seem to make sense if the two of you aren't seriously taking into consideration a life spent together.

Read the original post here: http://www.xanga.com/thebigwang/628731096/item.html

2007-09-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, I was walking along Waterman St., heading towards my last class of the week. As I waved to a casual acquaintance spotted amidst the undergraduate ebb, my left foot stubbed itself against the summer-warmed sidewalk slab. A tiny silver of flesh on my big toe was ripped off, along with the abrasion of a large portion of skin.

The pain never did subside for an hour, after which the injured area became numb. All throughout the 80 minute class, and the hobble back to my apartment to attend to it, no-one noticed that my entire left slipper was soaking with warm blood. Neither did any of the people I managed to greet along the way after class notice my slight limp.

So many people have a gaping wound on their left big toe. It's been there as long as they can remember, but no-one but themselves ever see the slow loss of lifeblood. Everyday they try to dress it up with bandage, and they've learned how to walk so that their limp doesn't show. They have gotten used to the slick moistness in their shoes. Most of all, they have become accustomed to the pain. Every step they take hurts.

Everyone walks with a limp. You don't even have to look in the mirror for an example. Just wriggle your left big toe.

And go ahead; it's O.K. to let a friend dress up the wound for you.

2007-09-23T19:52:00.001-04:00

Possibly one of the best songs ever recorded. By a man who has now fallen from grace.

2007-09-09T21:29:00.000-04:00

So we've had quite a number of people store their stuff in our apartment. There's been a couple of random items that have been left unclaimed. Among them is this velvety scarlet red blanket with a snow tiger glaring out.

Now you're jealous, no?

2007-09-03T11:24:00.000-04:00

It's been a very long week, one of those that takes her time to move the sun across the sky, her hours lingering in the cool summer night a little too long, one that makes you itching for friends & family, while I'm drinking deep of a pleasurable solitude.

I always love meeting freshmen, juggling names, faces and smiles in my head. But this year, I find myself bogged down with a new orientation schedule that's crammed in with the first 2 days of class, long nights bearing another's burdens. There's also an unwritten proposal for a partly-unwanted unwritten thesis, delivery due in 2 weeks.

And the lack of internet access, a blessing in disguise, the nakedness and procrastination not a problem for the past 7 days. But the absence of any unsecured wireless network means my laptop stays powered off, meaning Over the Rhine's new album hasn't intoxicated me fully yet.

But this new album's not hard to get into at all. Their title track takes Isaiah from Heaven, and rescues John from exile on Patmos, sits them down in a cabaret bar somewhere in the South, chatting about eschatology while jamming with the best horn players the church has never known.

This might be their best song yet.

the Trumpet Child
The trumpet child will blow his horn
Will blast the sky till it’s reborn
With Gabriel’s power and Satchmo’s grace
He will surprise the human race

The trumpet he will use to blow
Is being fashioned out of fire
The mouthpiece is a glowing coal
The bell a burst of wild desire

The trumpet child will riff on love
Thelonious notes from up above
He’ll improvise a kingdom come
Accompanied by a different drum

The trumpet child will banquet here
Until the lost are truly found
A thousand days, a thousand years
Nobody knows for sure how long

The rich forget about their gold
The meek and mild are strangely bold
A lion lies beside a lamb
And licks a murderer’s outstretched hand

The trumpet child will lift a glass
His bride now leaning in at last
His final aim to fill with joy
The earth that man all but destroyed

2007-08-24T14:18:00.001-04:00

So I'm finally back in Providence. A couple of pictures of my apartment in the early morning (thanks to jetlag) to whet your appetite.

One of my crazy housemates was still sleeping, while the other was rolling in the mud.

2007-08-15T23:30:00.000-04:00

So I decided to rearrange my Bookmarks Folder in Safari today. I don't heavily use bookmarks, and rely fully on URL completion to complete my internet itinerary.

I like giving my folders techno-slick, poly-syllabic names. Wanna guess what they hold inside them?

2007-08-10T09:52:00.000-04:00

Here's killing three birds with that lone proverbial stone.

Hot on the heels of the international release of Gibson's latest novel Spook Country (see the last post on Aug 1), a day after Singapore's 42nd year of independence, and on the day I turn 23, I dig up a gem from the vaults of Wired.com - what if a cyberpunk guru did a travel diary on Singapore?

Hit it up here. Like my brother quipped, Singapore's come a long way from 1993, but Gibson's smuggled some kickass phrases past the MICA censors that make me chuckle.

He complains that music stores have been "vetted by Mormon missionaries", and shudders to report that Singapore is "all infrastructure". Gibson acutally gets a pretty good (albiet truncated) angle on the pervasive government control from dating to outdoor dining, and (in a pleasant surprise) for an angmoh baby boomer, he actually manages to wield Singlish with the seh of any government-educated middle-class kid.

Now 10 years on, as I type this blogpost via the high-speed government-sanctioned broadband pipeline that Gibson himself cast a typically dystopian doubt upon, I'll finish with this: yes, it is possible to "flourish through the active repression of free expression", because man doesn't live on bread (or free expression) alone.

Sadly, man doesn't live on peace, progress, or prosperity, either.

2007-08-01T07:17:00.000-04:00

William Gibson has a new novel coming out next month. I have to admit, he's one of my favourite writers still living. I am rather miffed that I miss his book tour in the US, but that's OK - I'll probably get my hands on the new book here in Singapore. Eat that, Harry Potter.

Watch the embedded QuickTime clip on Gibson's website till the end. Isn't it oddly ironic that a man who's made his living creating literary universes whose inhabitants wouldn't survive a day without a keyboard - isn't it odd that he can barely hit 40 WPM?

2007-07-13T21:13:00.000-04:00

One question: Where does this French electronica duo come from, spiritually speaking?

I ask, because their record seems to be burning up the charts on iTunes, and rightfully so. They sound like Daft Punk at their best - digitally funked-up loops, synth squeals and phat basslines, but throw in a huge shining cross that they flash during their live sets.

Looking at their track titles, I wonder - are they Christian??

2007-06-15T22:42:00.001-04:00

Part Two of Woody Allen's interview with Billy Graham.

Thanks to Pastor Scott from Renaissance Church for the heads-up on this YouTube gem.

2007-06-15T22:31:00.000-04:00

I wonder if we could do this again for a Veritas Forum.

Who'd have thought this would have ever taken place?!
(Part Two of the interview is in the post above.)

2007-06-07T12:01:00.001-04:00

A re-discovery.

2007-05-07T10:10:00.000-04:00

I can't think of a better way to finish the year.

2007-03-11T21:37:00.000-04:00

I'm betting you're gonna hear about these these guys very soon. But remember, you heard them here first.

What am I doing for Spring Break? I'm heading to Mexico!

I still need to raise quite a bit to fund the trip; if you're willing to bless someone in Mexico City, email me!

2007-02-06T10:38:00.001-05:00

This song is now on repeat on my Ruckus Player.

2007-01-12T11:33:00.000-05:00

There seems to a belief [in some quarters of Christianity] that once someone makes the initial connection with Jesus Christ, he has arrived. Immediately, a watertight box of solutions is handed to him. No more questions need to be asked - Jesus is the answer! Everything is now explained; there is nothing left to search for.

This view is built on a need for precision and perfection, which have always been enemies of art, which is all about colouring outside the lines. It is also an enemy of the reality that following Jesus is a journey, not an arrival.

- Steve Stockman in his book "Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2"

2006-12-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

A fitting end to four months' of poetry writing and undergraduate fun, masquerading as a Literary Arts class.

Now it's back to the real studying. Sigh.

2006-12-03T23:56:00.000-05:00

I found this online.

John Ashbery's Teaching Advice

My advice to younger poets is to read as much poetry of the 20th and 21st century as possible. In writing workshops I assign books of poems, but there’s never time enough to do that and attend to thestudents' poetry, which is all they’re interested in. They never take my advice. I was once telling somebody that if you don’t read what’s been written, you may end up sounding like some poet you’ve never read. This has happened. I had a student once who reminded me quite a bit of Hart Crane. He had never heard of him, of course. I suggested that he read him. Some time later, he turned in another poem that reminded me of Crane. I asked him if he’d taken my advice, and he said, ‘No, but I’m going to.’ [laughs]

I just don’t think young poets today read enough poetry. They’re more into expressing themselves and their personal dramas. Sometimes the workshops turn into group therapy. I think sometimes the students are even communicating with other people in the class that they may have designs on. [laughs] I try to get them to be more objective, and I sort of propel them into the further reaches of consciousness by using assignments designed to derail their first instincts. My old favorite is the sestina. You’re interrupted at every line. What you want to say is derailed. Somehow, at the end, the students write the poem they were going to write anyway, but it turns out more satisfying because their attention was deflected from themselves for a little while. Sometimes I ask them to translate a poem from a language that I assume they don’t know, which is practically any foreign language, it turns out. Something like Finnish. I even tried Egyptian hieroglyphics once, but then I was getting a lot of eyes and fish. Sometimes I use pictures, like Max Ernst’s collages.

Ashbery's latest collection, Where Shall I Wander is so good it's scary. This guy's almost 90, and he still manages to get under my skin.

2006-12-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

the first time you opened up
Your eyes, did you know realise
You would be my saviour

the first breath that left
Your lips, did you know,
that it would change this world forever?

- "I Celebrate The Day", Relient K

2006-11-20T17:25:00.000-05:00

College Hill for Christ seeks to expand discussion - Campus News

2006-11-06T22:36:00.000-05:00

2006-11-06T22:21:00.000-05:00

"I cried to my
Daddy on the telephone
How long now?
until the clouds unroll and
You come home
the line went

But the shadows still remain since

Your descent
Your descent"

- The Saints Are Coming, U2 and Green Day

2006-10-19T13:29:00.001-04:00

Call it marketing, or call it providence. Sooner or later, there would have to be a bunch of young adult males who'll turn Coldplay and other Brit neo-piano rockers into a Sound of Melodies to Jesus.

2006-09-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

I think I know what I want for Christmas.

2006-09-22T09:58:00.000-04:00

The Fray brings piano rock to the Yankees.

I think I'm getting comfortable in this poet's t-shirt.

But I don't believe I'm alone. Proton chemical shifts and Nyquist frequecies have to be memorised, so I'm happy to sacrifice the Saturday game where we faceoff Harvard.

Hopefully I can survive that to report about my lunch in Boston with the A*GA people.

2006-09-11T22:21:00.000-04:00

I didn't really do much work this weekend. But then again, there wasn't (past-tense, noted) much stuff to study for in the first weekend of the semester.

So my guitar strap brought sand from Scarborough Beach back to my dorm, while the extra spacetime shoved itself onto Miller's mileage. (sorry I totally missed the 108 South junction.)

And my conscience got slightly (can I stress the slightness?) intoxicated with a bottle of beer as I watched She's the Man with a couple of (underaged, but sober) freshmen, post saltwater bathing and cafeteria dining.

But to hear our Crusade campus director say he got teary-eyed when he saw how the first-years (and the rest of us) were 'getting it' ("it" being the Great Commission), that reminded me of how church is bigger than a brickwalled building, so much more than Sunday, stretching farther than four-hour Friday-night gatherings.

Today, I realised my professor threw upon us 109 pages of 'required reading' for tomorrow's lecture. To which I say, "C'mon, it's stuff I should already know, with more than enough detail that your powerpoint refuses to cover." Besides, it's actually an uncorrected proof of another vision text.. with missing pictures and chapter references...

But between "spatial-temporal resolution of retinal neurons" and good 'ole Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons (see last post), my mind finds both right at the edges of enjoyable comprehension.

2006-09-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

So on the first day of class, I went to my first poetry-writing class.

It was intriguing. The graduate student in charge threw upon us Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons.

I thought she was plain pretentious. Of course you can imagine my distaste when another guy/girl pipes up, "I find her compelling...I like her agenda...." I think only 2 other people admitted that they'd want someone to explain what the heck was going on.

Yes, I think I'm not going to do Ancient Greek this semester.

2006-08-12T11:41:00.000-04:00

Check these out.

2006-08-08T03:52:00.000-04:00

Just for fun... haha...

But yes, it's true! We're strapping on our guitars and amping up them keyboards for the third 100% concert! Come on down and bring your art to His heart!

2006-08-01T01:19:00.000-04:00

Asking some hard questions.

2006-07-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

As kingfishes catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
   As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
   Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same;
   Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
   Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me, for that I came.

I say more; the just man justices;
   Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
   Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
   To the Father through the feature of men's faces.

By G. M. Hopkins

For a man of God now fully in God, a man I knew and respected from afar, now faraway, yet closer than I know, his poetry unknown to my myopic; for him, who knows where Christ plays better than I do.

2006-07-23T22:16:00.000-04:00

Give a talented European illustrator a pencil, and he will tell you the Tale of All Tales.

2006-07-10T05:13:00.000-04:00

Placentophage sounds like a great name for a heavy metal rock group.

And from our seventh-story vantage point my lab's been watching smoke billow from somewhere near Newton... When I get home I'm gonna post pics. Does someone out there have any clue on what's going on there?

2006-07-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

I've finished the third week of my required attachment at IBN, with 5 more to go. While it seems I've come up with a closed door so far in my efforts, I'm learning to accept the fact that 2 months is barely a blink in the calender of a researcher, so I'm happy to contribute whatever I can, shedding light on deadends.

I do wish I could set aside more time to sit down and read. I'm stuck on the second chapter of The Divine Conspiracy, and I just got one of Polkinghorne's little volumes.

2006-06-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

This update's been a long time coming eh?

Before I go off for my lab meeting, check out this video (also a long time coming too.)

2006-06-14T08:30:00.000-04:00

C. S. Lewis told us in the Screwtape Letters that one of the devil's schemes against us was to make the [Christian] "faith privately engaging but socially irrelevant".

He was horribly, disgustingly, prophetic.

No wonder Jesus Himself reminds us that a "prophet is not without honour except in his hometown." I suppose that means any proper prophet should not be accepted in the Church.

2006-06-12T11:45:00.000-04:00

While checking out the podcasts on Apple's Music Store, I stumbled onto some interesting ones like Club Worship and UrbanWorship.net. A search for podcasts from Singapore turned this one up.

2006-06-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

This is courtesy of Jovian.

This is courtesy of Rob Bell.

2006-05-25T23:50:00.000-04:00

"There are plenty of things that are true that don't make any sense.... [God] doesn't. He will make no more sense to me than I will to an ant."

- Donald Miller, in Blue Like Jazz

2006-05-13T16:32:00.000-04:00

So Vicky Beeching's new CD came in the mail today.

That's what you get when you give an amped-up Les Paul and a Master's of Theology from Oxford to a Brit gal who's amazingly talented at songwriting.

2006-05-09T12:34:00.000-04:00

I think these kids are from Columbia.
Check them out here and there.

2006-05-09T12:04:00.000-04:00

After a rather gruelling organic chemistry midterm, I sat down in my room to watch Crash.

It becomes obvious very quickly how this movie won Best Movie at this year's Oscars.

Writer/director Paul Haggis has crafted a modern-day tragi-moral play revolving around the ugly face of racism - especially the reversed form of it. The tale is compelling not because of the dramatic pace and narrative twist, but because every incident could possibly happen right on the streets of LA: police harrassment, car-jacking, violent gun shootings, alongside self-sacrifice and redemption.

And U2's Vertigo05 tour in Chicago has come to my mailbox in DVD.

The rendition of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has me questioning too.

2006-05-06T11:08:00.000-04:00

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT)

You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas.

You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy!

Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people.

In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally.

You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought.

Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals.

In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent.

At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia.

With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well.

As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly.

On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

I think you think that I'm bored on a Saturday morning. Which is true.... in between waiting for Celine to calm down from WP victories in Hougang to waiting for my lunch treat...

2006-05-06T10:51:00.000-04:00

Your Ideal Relationship is Polyamory

You want to have your cake... and everyone else's.

Which isn't a bad thing, if everyone else gets to eat too!

You're too much of a free spirit to be tied down by a traditional relationship.

You think relationships should be open and free, with few restrictions.

What's Your Ideal Relationship?

Celine is going to kill me.....

2006-05-06T10:43:00.000-04:00

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:

You have high extroversion.

You are outgoing and engaging, with both strangers and friends.

You truly enjoy being with people and bring energy into any situation.

Enthusiastic and fun, you're the first to say "let's go!"

Conscientiousness:

You have medium conscientiousness.

You're generally good at balancing work and play.

When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done.

But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it.

Agreeableness:

You have high agreeableness.

You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.

Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.

You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance.

Neuroticism:

You have low neuroticism.

You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.

Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.

Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is high.

In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas.

You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits.

A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

What do you think?

2006-05-03T17:10:00.000-04:00

How much would you pay someone to go to church?

2006-04-30T14:47:00.000-04:00

2 surprises this Saturday.

I went shopping and bought myself a full suit (with pleatless pants!!!), a sports jacket, and a red baggy shirt.

It cost a grand total of 8 USD. Where else but the Wheeler School Clothes Sale!!!

During that shopping extravaganza, I was propositioned to head up to Wellesley in Massachusetts for the annual Gospel Jam concert.

So I decided to slip into my new suit and head up there for a night of inspired acapella.

For those of you who don't know, Wellesley is a small all-girls college tucked away in an affluent New England suburb. It's voted one of the 10 colleges with the most beautiful campuses in the USA. You can easily see why.

Nice suit eh?

2006-04-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Interesting how sheer boredom drives you back to the blog.

A shot of me from last night's inter Christian fellowship dinner. It was a simple dinner with little fanfare, except for all the Brown kids who found an excuse to wear something nice this spring weekend. The Christian acapella group performed (and nick poon didn't screw up! Yay), and it was just one of those warm-and-fuzzy things you come to enjoy when you're getting on a bit.

(Although I found out later the hall we used in the Unitarian Church - not-so-good-idea to begin with - was also used by Wiccans for their 'activities'...)

Newsflash. Brown accepted FORTY-ONE freshmen next year. THAT'S CRAZY. We thought this year's intake was bumper to begin with. Besides figuring out what the Admissions Office is up to, we're mourning the loss of Brown being one of those exclusive Ivies....

2006-04-07T14:14:00.000-04:00

Peter McElroy '09: A religious awakening - Columns

I'm thinking about responding.

2006-04-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

This past week has in fact been the longest week in the US for me.

Going down to New Orleans for Spring Break is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me this year.

It has been a week of ripping waterlogged walls out from devastated homes, of trawling through flood-ravaged phonographs and wedding cards and graduation certificates and Star Wars memorabilia.

Seven days of crazy fellowship, stuck with friends that I had grown close to this past year and now are mandatory lunch partners. Seven days that turned strangers into bedfellows and the best of friends.

Morning after morning of the craziest sermons I've ever heard, from a sorcerer-turned-preacher, a gangster/murderer-turned-relief camp manager and many a pastor who've seen miracles every day since they've been here right after Katrina struck.

When I thought I was going down to help out, I was the one being helped out of myself.

I found God everywhere I looked.

I'll try to continue to post a blow-by-blow account of the past week this week.

Oh, and when I came back, I discovered a gem of an album on Napster.

2006-03-19T15:35:00.000-05:00

I am always living in cultural confluxion.

Like how I only discovered this heartachingly sad korean MTV last night through a chinese-american.

And I discovered my Filipino-American neighbour from san francisco has also seen it before.

And I, who's lived closest to the K-pop craze in Asia, has never stumbled upon this gem .

OK. 4 midterms this week. I've learnt that it's all about working the system at the tertiary level. It's not how much you know. It all depends whether you know what the prof's gonna test.

This just might be the longest week of 2006.

2006-03-15T21:49:00.000-05:00

What the heck.

2006-03-12T16:13:00.000-05:00

Spring is here!

OK, its more like 8 more days to the official equinox, but I'm all for pulling on a jacket over your T-shirt and heading out into the sun, versus bundling oneself in goretex and wool and a beanie.

I've pretty much done near to nothing this whole week. I guess it's a knee-jerk reaction to the nightmare of 5-midterms-in-7-days the week before. But it's all good.

I saw a grand total of four films this week.

1. Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, one long tale about the samurai's code of ethics with attention paid to the psychosexual tensions and class inequality in feudal Japan. Kurosawa drives the tale to a bitterly painful ending indeed, as Chuck astutely pointed out the way some of the samurai died (no plot spoilers yet, I assure). The reason I could watch this was because I burned thru orgo lab in under 90 minutes. This week's lab, however, promises to hole me up for at least 150 minutes. *shivers*

2. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Director's Cut. Carlos, Cory and I could not get our heads round the crazily choppy final fight scene, and that pretty much dampened the entire movie for me. While Scott gets the backgrounds right in tune with the bleak neon-coloured anime stylistics, his action-scene sensibilities utterly falls short of fluid, understated poetry we all love anime for. I had to run the DVD back so that Carlos and Cory could catch the twist three-quarters of the way thru.

3. Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium. Another one of those post-apocalyptic techno-soundtracked films that attempt to mix existential philosophy with a high body count. The gun fight scenes are uberkool and hypersmooth. Chuch kept reminding us that this was filmed for a dirt-cheap budget and before the Matrix invaded celluloid consciousness. While plotholes were many and gaping, the action was top notch.

4. Invisible Children. This church-affliated group is going to screen this documentary about Ugandan children being abducted by rebels and forced to fight against the government in the civil war tomorrow. However, I managed to pick up a loose copy of the DVD from Judson House that Liz said had been there for 'six months'.

When I popped it into my laptop, the documentary shocked and inspired me.

The film's made by these 3 Californian college grads who head over to Uganda to find a story worthy of being recorded and they uncover a society powerless to fend for itself in a war that takes no prisoners. Their uncensored interviews with boys who have escaped the rebel army forced me to ask, "Why are we not doing anything about this?"

And, as they dig deeper, the whole thing has more to do with God than they'd ever imagine.

So much for a wholly unproductive Saturday.

But hey, Spring is almost here.

2006-02-26T22:36:00.000-05:00

So it's organic chemistry tomorrow night and maths the night after.

Yeah. I realise I got a crazy schedule.

And it seems the church here has simply become that. the church. nothing more.

Just a brief respite from yufu, but I'm still wondering what happened to all the roaring lambs.

2006-02-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

So it's Presidents' Day today, and we have an ultralong weekend. It's all great, but I have 3 midterms next week (OK, so Biblical Hebrew is a pass/fail course, so it doesn't count), which means that I cannot go skiing with Courtney and gang. Bleah.

It is bitterly cold out, even though the sun is beaming through my window.

I am desperately waiting for spring.

2006-02-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

what has Joses been up to this week??

He's been in the lab, doing thin layer chromatography.
Pretty, eh?

I remember that night he scurried off to study Paul's letter to the Galatians with his Bible Study group.

A few days later he went into the physics lab, to deconstruct the A note into it's constituient sinusoidal representations. It seems the electronic keyboard he's using has it's A note off by 5 Hz. Or maybe they've boo-booed. Just maybe.

Then he went round taking trash out for 90 minutes. It's not that long a story, but one best told away from the pages of this blog.

After that he went round to the Interfaith House on campus to check out if it's a viable option for housing in the next academic year.

And I think now, he's just finished his 2nd online organic chemistry quiz and is going to head out for the tsunami benefit 'pasar malam' to help out all the Singaporeans who decided to join in.

He's been trying to read the book of Romans too.

If you really want to talk to him, I think you simply have to ring his cellphone. He just might pick up, eager to chat, though nonetheless genuinely stunned by your unsolicited favour.

2006-02-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

So the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Pittsburg Steelers at the 40th SuperBowl. There were a few great moments of 30 yard gains and crazy interceptions, and one bad call, I think.

And I really don't see why the SuperBowl ads are so greatly adored. THey are smart and funny, but I guess the hype fermenting for 20-30 years gets an entire nation hot and bothered about a couple of product placements. Especially the Gillette Fusion Razor. with 5 blades. Plus one more.

Oh well. This is America for you.

2006-02-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

An interesting article.

2006-01-31T19:32:00.000-05:00

Where have I been this past week of school?

Last Saturday night (CNY eve, of course) all of us Singaporeans gathered at Lemi's to pig out on good 'ole Chinese food. Heh.

The carnage, post-lou hei.

And yesterday, my Bible study group headed to Trinity Brewhouse for Monday Night Wings. That means you order one item off the menu, you get grilled wings for $0.20. For those of us mathematically-challenged, that means you get 20 wings for 5 bucks.

Which is what I got.

Doin' the damage.

After the battle.

Which explains why I fell asleep at 10pm, barely 2 hours after I came back from dinner.

2006-01-27T16:42:00.000-05:00

Charlie Hall's new album Flying into Daybreak sounds like David*Crowder Band, with slightly lesser electronic additions, but no less rawky and reverent.

Considering both have really long gotees and hail from the south (Hall from Oklahoma, Crowder from Texas), we can easily understand the ethreal/earthy lyricism and songs crafted for modern congregational singing. In fact, I believe Mr. Hall's songs wax more easily lyrical in a large group.

Avalon's latest offering Stand, on the other hand, is straight-up power piano ballads and nicely partitioned vocal performamces, what they have come to be loved for. There are a few songs with heartfelt lyrics, but I still like Mr. Hall better.

I *heart* Napster!!!

2006-01-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

Well well. So the first week of school is over.

OK. To be fair, it was only 3 days. And there was barely any homework. It felt just like the holiday.

But I do believe my life will rev up to terminal velocity very quickly (especially once labs start and tests come). I have 5 classes, of which 2 of them have labs totaling 7 hours a week. I think I'm just innately (in other words, overly) optimistic: I hope I can get through them.

But we've managed to meet up for prayer at 8am every morning for this week. It's a real good start to the day, I tell you.

And my handphones finally back up! Not so for my webcam...

2006-01-23T18:04:00.000-05:00

...and so i'm finally back in Providence. I'm typing this from the comforts of Zhihao's room as we wait for our chinese takeout dinner.

More updates soon, after jetlag and hunger have been settled with.

Oh. I lost my bak kwa. sob....

2006-01-20T23:19:00.000-05:00

So I fly off in about 36 hours, back to lazy/dreary Providence, back to 9am lectures, back to nightly Daily Show parties, back to homecooked dinners on Fridays nights at Judson.

Last year caffeine got me thru Biostatistics and Biblical Hebrew.

This year it has to drag me through quantum mechanics and organic chemistry.

And I can't believe I actually wanted to bone up on chiral enantiomers and Lorentz transformations over this break.

(hey, I got as far as Lorentz. which, admittedly, isn't a lot.)

But you understand what it means to be 'back home': nothing foreign, everything familiar, no seismic changes in sea level.

"For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

The ever-inspiration Apostle known as Paul.

2006-01-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

What would you have God do? Would you have Him force those who reject Him to seek Him? Weren't you just complaining that a loving God would honor our free will instead of jerking our strings? ....
To force us to seek Him, God would have to destroy free will. That means He would have to destroy His own image in us.

Henceforth we would be whats, not whos — things, not persons. Because our seeking of Him would have nothing to do with our wills, it would not actually be our seeking of Him. That means it wouldn't be love, because love is by nature voluntary. ...
Are you so sure that a God who loved us would destroy the very possibility of human love?...

Let us not pretend that we are serious about love if we cannot be serious about justice....

Read the entire exchange here.

2006-01-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

A thought to start and travel with in 2006:

"God is the one being in the universe for whom self exaltation is the most loving act. Anyone else who exalts himself distracts us from what we need, namely, God. But if God exalts Himself, he calls attention to the very thing we need most for our joy....in the same way no child [should] complain, "I am being used." when his father delights to make the child happy with his presence."

from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life

2005-12-20T18:36:00.000-05:00

So the NYC train and bus drivers decided to go through with their threatened strike, and I'd say NYC is pretty much crippled.

For real.

Cab drivers now have an 'emergency plan' that demands they carry at least 2 passengers into Manhattan. I had to walk for at least 2 km before I managed to hail a cab into downtown. Then it was an hour's ride into JFK.

Which explains why I'm here in Terminal Four at 6:40pm, when my flight is not for another 17 hours. I'm not going to leave anything to chance.

Thank God I've managed to skive off some free Wifi to kill off the aimless boredom that nearly got me after a Subway dinner.

I suppose I have to come back to NYC some other time to finish up the sightseeing and shopping. Gah.

2005-12-16T11:48:00.000-05:00

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!

OVER!!!!

and we just got a second-hand fridge in our dorm. FOR FREE!!!

WHOO HOO!

and I'm gonna catch narnia in about 2 hours' time.

DOUBLE WOOT!

And I'll be in NY tomorrow afternoon!

OH YEAH!

And I'll be back in Singapore for Christmas!

THE HUMIDITY! THE HORRENDOUS HUMIDITY!

2005-12-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

Don’t stop your crying on my account
A frightening lion, no doubt
He’s not safe no, he’s not safe
Are you tempted now to run away?
The King above all kings is coming down

But he won’t say the words you wish that he would
Oh he don’t do the deeds you know that he could
He won’t think the thoughts you think that he should
But He is good, He is good.

I know you’re thirsty the water is free
But I should warn you- it’ costs everything
Well, he’s not fair no, he’s not fair
When he fixes what’s beyond repair
And graces everyone that don’t deserve

No-one knows him whom eyes never seen
No, I don’t know him but he knows me
He knows me. He knows me.

Lay down your layers, shed off your skin
But without his incision you can’t enter in
He cuts deep, yeah he cuts deep
When the risk is great and the talk is cheap
But never leaves a wounded one behind

2005-12-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

If you take a thunderstorm, but shove it into the freezer, what do you get?
thundersnow, that's what.

More reason to stay indoors. And study. :o

(when will I walk through the wardrobe to rescue Narnia from the wicked Witch?)

2005-11-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

Check this out.

Ladies. You will never view any conversation with a guy the same way again.

2005-11-28T00:23:00.000-05:00

my fave site for wallpapers these days:

CameraToss

2005-11-24T10:37:00.000-05:00

It snowed last night.

happy thanksgiving!

2005-11-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

By the Newport shore, overlooking the Atlantic waters.

The fantastic mansions lining the cliff coasts. A portal to England.

2005-11-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

So I went to catch the premier Harry Potter's 4th cinematic installment at midnight this past Thursday.

Until hither time, I was a Potter virgin. I had never felt the enchantment of the boy-wizard tug at my artistic sensibilities, and my worldview definitely biased me against the frivolous use of witchcraft in mass entertainment. I trudged out into the 1 deg cold to the cineplex simply because most of my dorm went.

Well, Harry Potter 4 wasn't that bad at all. I liked the Russian Sub references, although there was considerable time spent documenting the hot and heavy glances between the adolescent boys and girls.

Rowling's tale is well-written and carefully plotted, though its immense popularity belies a greater truth, that we have treated matters of the occult lightly, nothing more than mere moviestoff and popcorn entertainment.

I could have done without Potter IV. (Although a midnight show was a nice break from school.)

Friday night after CHC I got to see My Sassy Girl. What a screwball (but ultimately touching) comedy. In a swanky condo-ful of 8 Brown students, 6 of them (all Asians) had seen it multiple times, leaving me and the sole Caucasian (from good 'ole Georgia) to experience the humour for the first time.

That late-night movie sent me to bed at 2a.m., but I still struggled up at 8am this morning to run over to Newport and explore the Rhode Island coast. Pictures, I hope, will be up before Thanksgiving.

One heckuva weekend. And I haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet.

2005-11-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

legends of the fall.

2005-11-09T11:01:00.000-05:00

David Crowder*Band live in Worcester. It rawked.

They shared the stage with Shane and Shane (who seems to be rather hot this side of the ocean) and Robbie Seay Band (who the heck are they?)

That's David with a keytar. Seriously. It even spat out a "phat beat".

Katrina and Victoria standing with me for 3 hours. Kat instigated the push forward from lousy balcony seating to standing room squeeze.

Post-concert picture-taking.

2005-11-02T15:23:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I got another package in the mail. Ravi Zacharias' new book, The Lamb and The Fuhrer. He imagines this conversation between Christ and a post-suicide Hitler in the Judgement court of heaven, and somewhere halfway he throws Dietrich Bonhoeffer into the fray, among other witnesses like Albert Speer, a German soldier, and a concentration camp inmate.

I burned through the 86-page book in 90 minutes. Ravi goes through quite a few issues here, making it by far the most ambitious of his Great Conversations series.

Among other things, Jesus and Hitler talk about the separation of church and state (where I think Ravi fills in his own interpretation), the mechanics of deathbed forgiveness, the grounds for anti-Semitism, justification for taking a life, and of course, the true value of human life itself.

After diving into such a heady pool of philosophy, I rushed out for a lecture by Nobel laureate Sir Harold Kroto, famous for discovering buckyballs, otherwise known as C-60.

He was intelligently humourous, and made creative use of Powerpoint's paltry sound and animation features to explain his discovery of buckminsterfullerene. Apparently the younger Sir Kroto was an aspiring artist, and he took the time to present some of his artwork.

This man is passionate about scientific illiteracy and environmental causes, and he obviously still has a passion for his work. It is always an experience to hear about a great discovery from the one who discovered.

And I got to shake his hand. So there, I've shaken the hand of a Nobel laureate.

2005-10-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

So my roomie and I get up at 8:30am to go to church. It's a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, pure sunlight streaming through the crisp air into my dorm. We make ourselves breakfast and dress up. He applies his aftershave and I do up my hair. Sunday best, no less.

And so we trudge out into the cool fall morning, soaking in the sun, a wondrous respite from the rainy, dreary weekend. 0855 am, just on time for our ride....

... but my handphone tells me it's 7:55am.

"Wait. The service is at 8:30am or 9am?"

"It's at 9."

"Uh, it's only 5 minutes to 7 now."

"Wait. We got up at 8:30am...."

And then, short of concluding that we have entered the twilight zone, we realise daylight saving is in effect.

Least that didn't happend on a weekday with classes.

2005-10-27T19:54:00.000-04:00

It's only Thursday.

And I've already participated in no less than 3 surprise birthday celebrations for 2 people in the past week.

Firstly, how is it that so many Singaporeans are born in October?
Secondly, how big can a surprise actually be?

But hey, I'm all but too easily astounded.

2005-10-20T10:40:00.000-04:00

It is my coldest morning in Providence today. 9 degress. Brrr. Thank God the heating in my room got turned on.

But it's still a beautiful day! The sun in the clear-blue sky is beaming into my room!

Again, I'll be away this weekend. There's this Fall Conference by the CHC guys, so I'm chipping in and playing the guitar for them too! It'll be good.

The liberal curriculum here is now working against me. There's too many classes I wanna take next semester. Arggh.

2005-10-17T19:16:00.000-04:00

Michio Kaku's lecture wasn't that great after all.

Although it was nice to come 1 hour early to the lecture hall to get a seat; the whole place was practically filled by 3.45pm (the lecture was supposed to begin at 4:30pm). I have no idea why they served refreshments BEFORE the lecture began.

Anyway, Prof. Kaku did what he apparently does very well: speak to a large group of people about the cutting-edge of theoretical physics.

The theme of the lecture series being Einstein's legacy 100 years after he formulated his theory of special relativity, there was considerable stress on Einstein's life, his pattern of thinking, and his groundbreaking thought-experiments.

To my disappointment, he fudged over the hard scientific theorizing and mathematical elegancy of string theory as birthed from Einstein's equations and favoured jokes and dazzling diagrams (much to the delight of several students).

It was nice to attend to lecture with, of all people, 2 fellow students from my Biblical Hebrew class. You can imagine our response when, while answering a question from a guy who asked about the rising tide of anti-evolutionary educational syllabi, the good Prof. stated in his characteristically cocky tone that "science is the mother of prosperity" and that "economic progress didn't come from some 'holy book'!"

The other question that a smartypants college kid asked was, "Do you think atoms are, like, conscious?"

Go Figure.

2005-10-14T14:10:00.000-04:00

After having missed Jerry Katzenberg's lecture because of a midterm, I've decided to become more dogged in noting down and scheduling all the funky lectures they have on down here at Brown.

Like this one:

Michio Kaku,
Professor Of Physics,
City College of New York (CCNY)
"Einstein's Legacy: black holes, worm holes, time machines, and higher dimensions "

2005-10-12T15:10:00.000-04:00

Check out this album for the rest of the pictures of New England!

OK, after I'm done with this physics lab report, my week will seriously cool off into a lull.

Speaking of cooling off, it is getting pretty darn cold and rainy here in Providence. I tried to go running yesterday afternoon while it was 10 deg celsius. The only problem was that I only wore a t-shirt and shorts.

Nothing else. Talk about being wise.

I had to turn back after 15 minutes of torturous jogging.

2005-10-11T11:07:00.000-04:00

The house where we stayed. the cars are parked beside the barn, which is directly connected to the house.

Shots from Ellis Falls, in New Hampshire, a good 3 hours' drive from our abode.

2005-10-10T17:43:00.000-04:00

OK. So here's some shots from our New England Trip.

Before we start out!

The New England Fall. The trees just started turning colour. And the rain never stops falling.

But that doesn't stop me from exploring the forest in fall.

And finally, back to my bed in the barn. It got friggin cold in the night. Brrr. And there were sqirrels hoarding nuts into the barn. We saw some scurrying about the beams and heard the sound of wood-on-nut.

2005-10-07T15:47:00.000-04:00

and so the week has gone and the weekend has come!

I'm off to maine. I'm still deciding whether to load up on the assignments or just go there, relax, and then work on Monday. Considering that we're leaving in less than 2 hours, I think I'll eventually lug 'em along.

The weather forecast says its going to be freeeeeezing in Maine this saturday.

I'm not afraid. I'm looking forward to the hot-tub.