Wednesday, December 26, 2007
It's time to tell a story again. Today it's about a boy, named Tom. Tom used to be a simple innocent boy. Brought up to be obedient to his parents and teachers, he was quiet when he had to be and participated when called on. Tom was a model student in school, and the child every parent wanted. Tom's friends were good, and supportive, and would not be classified as bad company. But Tom's life took a twist one day. It was a journey in its most literal sense. He saw a flyer about a competition. The objective was to build a race car which would then race against other cars made by other kids of the same age group. Tom was excited. He gathered his materials and drew up blue prints, and it wasn't long before he had his race car built and ready for the big day.
The race atmosphere was exhilarating. He started his engine and soon he was off down the course making turns and trying to take over the cars ahead of him. Tom however was in it only for the fun, but from the looks on the faces of the children in the other cars he saw something other than fun. It was not nice. Drivers were throwing stones at each other, hurling insults, banging cars at each other trying to force them into walls. It was not the sort of competition Tom had in mind. He wanted out before he got hurt, he wanted to stop now, but there was no stopping the race. Tom had to finish something he had now come to dread. Thank God he crossed the finish line safely, but not first. Sadness could be seen on his face but not one of defeat.
A year passed and once again Tom saw the flyer for the race car competition, but this time his innocent mind was innocent no longer. The evils of the world, and its mechanics had found a way to creep into his mind. His brother Jack saw the same flyer and was filled with excitement. Tom could recognize it straight away. He warned his brother, trying to protect him, but how could you convince someone that young lads like himself could cheat and hurt just to be first in a competition that would not be remembered 10 years later? Tom let go realizing that the only way to let his brother learn was to let him take part in the competition and see it for himself. But in his more discerning mind, Tom was preparing himself for the sacrifice he might have to make for his brother.
Dan
3:17 am
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas
Dan
3:57 am
Friday, December 21, 2007
Life is filled with challenges and sacrifices that have to be made. Sometimes they are easy, but usually they are very difficult to make. We wish that someone would just tell us what to do, and spare us from making those tough choices, but I've come to realize that making those tough choices is what makes us who we are.
Life will always be scattered with moments of "what if" and "if only". Regrets that make us want to stop living because we feel like it has become so hard to carry on. We share our problems with others but can they solve it for us? Can they truly sympathize? At the end of the day we feel like we're sinking so deep that the surface is beyond our sight.
But I've come to learn that God is always in control, and that whatever we do, whatever we choose he will always be there with us. A promise to be there till the very end of the age (Matt 28:20). My life has been littered with such moments, with such regrets, constantly wondering if the choices I made were the right one. But will I ever know then at that moment if they were the best? I guess not, until I've let things take their course.
I want to help people when these tough times come, but truth is I can only go as far as the human mind and heart can go, or will go, which sometimes isn't enough. But God will go all the way because there is nothing beyond him.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord," plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Dan
1:31 pm
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Today was a day where everything felt wrong. I blame it on staying home all day with nothing to do. But the night was a lot better after spending time with you, and chilling out with cell members just talking. I also got a watch for christmas today. Thank you. It felt weird putting it on, for a moment I couldn't remember which hand the watch is supposed to go on. But at least I guess that is better than not being able to tell the time on an analog watch. Cell retreat coming up, followed by christmas, and a host of party dinners. I can't wait. Though the new year brings work...
Dan
5:10 am
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
It's all over the news and media, taxi fares going up, which is always followed by drop in taxi demand of some sort. Yesterday was a decrease in taxi queues, and many thinking twice before hiring a cab. Today it was a decrease in demand for taxis. I guess this all fits the model of supply and demand, and the reasons used to justify the hike are all valid, such as increase in petrol, and increasing maintenance costs for cabs. Also, given the increase in inflation I guess it is all natural for prices to increase everywhere.
Personally I've grown to dislike cabs because of the drivers attitude. I've been taking a lot of cabs as part of my job, and often I see empty cabs just drive past totally ignoring me. Getting a cab along the street is so much harder now, and this seems strange since more taxi service providers have entered the market. Sometimes I wonder if a government controlled monopoly taxi market will be better than the semi monopolistic taxi market we have.
I was also thinking. Inflation, and oil prices are not constants, and there will come a time when they will decrease. But will the prices which have used these events to justify their increase decrease accordingly? I find it hard to believe that taxi companies will reduce their fares, if ever.
Dan
12:51 am
Sunday, December 16, 2007
I'm pissed, but should I say why?
Can a guy and a girl be best friends without having relationship issues get in the way? When trouble arises in our lives, we often turn to our friends for advice, and most of the time, it is not whichever friend that is free we share our problems to, but to the ones we feel the strongest connection with, our best, or close friends. But that does not solve our problem does it? Can our best friend wave his/her magic wand and make things better again? We all know that the only way to solve the problem is to share it with the one whom we have a grudge against, yet we all find it so hard to do, because we dislike the feeling of confrontation. We don't like things to be awkward, or to think that things will be awkward.
When we are asked to do something we don't really fancy doing, do we give a definite no? No, we say something like maybe, or see how first, or we come up with excuses, and give people false hope that we might do what we don't want to do. Is it wrong?
Personally, I would still like to believe that a guy and a girl can be best friends without emotions getting in the way. I would like to believe that when someone has a problem with me, they would come and tell me, instead of telling their best friends. I'm not saying they can't, but I'm saying, don't tell your friend you don't like the way I dress, and then never tell me about it because you think it's petty and that I will just laugh it off. I would like to believe that when people say maybe or see how first, they really mean it, with the intention of doing what was asked of them, instead of those being used as excuses to avoid awkward confrontations. What happened to the days of definite yes and no?
I'm pissed, but yet I know that tomorrow this won't matter, and no one will care about what I believe in.
Dan
2:00 am
Friday, December 14, 2007
I GOT MY MAC!!! Thanks to my mum. The mac is just so so cool. I don't understand why so many people are so afraid to use it. I mean it does take time to adjust to the new functions, but they are so much more convenient, and clean... its like finding a renewable energy source. I've been having fun exploring mac. I guess it is true once you go mac, you don't go back.
Its been about a week at my job now, and today was the first time I had to take public transport there on my own. Reminded me of my school days when I had to take the train all the way home. I almost got lost too. But I'm proud to say my street-smartness saved me, and I wasn't too late for work.
CSD is this Sunday!! Anybody interested in coming???It's this carnival like thing my church is organizing. I think it's going to be pretty cool.
Dan
11:54 pm
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Started my first day of work today. Was quite fun to see what the working life was like. Not very political like I imagined it to be. Watch too much TV already I think. Anyway now it gives me something to do for the holidays, so it won't be sit home all day anymore. Got to start saving up to buy the things I want, and top on my to-buy list is the new macbook.
Actually I'm not very fussy about the macbook, but I definitely want a macbook. Not because Mac is attractive, though its slick design, and very cool desktop layout were additional bonuses, but because all other laptops, which have a windows OS are terrible. First was my Fujitsu laptop. I had to reinstall windows 3 or 4 times in one year, then the screen spoils and it spends a couple months in the workshop. OK granted that I contributed partly to that one, since I downloaded a fair bit during that year. So lesson learnt, the next laptop, my Acer, which is also my current laptop, strictly no downloads. Well thats not really possible, more like very very strict regime of downloading. Like only school material, or files from OCFers in e-mails. I didn't need to reinstall windows as much, only once. But I had the cursed blue screen of death. If you don't know what that is, that's when the computer screen just goes blue for no reason and restarts itself. Not so irritating when I'm not doing important things, but super scary, and frustrating when doing essays.
So get a new laptop, you say. Why must it be a Mac? Because on top of all the problems my stupid windows laptops have given me, my friends who are Mac users have no problems at all. No virus hits, no blue screens of death, and they are all major downloaders. Not that I'm going to go back to downloading when I get a Mac, but point being if anyone's laptop is to screw up it should be their's before mine.
I hate windows not because Mac is good, but because windows is that bad.
Dan
1:29 am
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Back from Paris!!! I know I wanted a new camera to replace my uber old 3 mega pixel one, but I realised during this trip that I'm not a very photographic person and getting a new cam would just be a waste of money. Paris was exciting I guess. The architecture was incredible, but shopping was an utter disappointment.
Let's start with the hotel I was checked into. The internet pictures were so deceiving, and when we got there we realised that it was a old hotel. To give you a rough idea of how old it was, it had the olden day lift where you had to open the door with your hand. I guess that was cool in a way. We visited the usual tourists sites, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, the museum mentioned in the Da Vinci book, not sure of its name, but we saw the Mona Lisa, and personally I expected more. The picture was so small. I guess I'll never truly appreciate the arts. To be honest all the pictures looked the same to me I had no idea why the Mona Lisa was so special.
My mum visited the LV shop. It was an entire building!! And it was not too bad I guess. The service was really good, according to my mum. They would serve you and only you until you left the shop. Other than that, the shopping wasn't really very great. Perhaps I just had very high expectations. We didn't get much of a chance to try the french food, because we spent most of our lunches in the tour sites. For dinner we went round hunting for Jap or Chinese food. I know it's sad, but we did find a good small Chinese eatery. We also spent most of our nights playing scrabble as a family. Lucky I bought that before the flight or I have no idea how we would spend our nights. French TV is so boring. Partly because I don't understand french.
OK, that's a very short summary of my trip, but I will post more when I get the pictures up. Currently I'm still suffering from jet lag. I hate that feeling, and now I hate long flights. Glad to be back.
Dan
11:49 pm