AHHH once again, it's so much work but so little time.
Somehow, I have many things squeezed in my mind, waiting for me to complete.

Why can't I just do things one day at a time?

Post-it reminders - I need them.

On Wednesday, I saw a rainbow, a calm and beautiful rainbow set against the grey skies after the rain.
I wouldn't have seen this beauty if I didn't lift my head up and look heavenward.

Here's one intelligent and wealthy man who knows how to be a good person and to give to people the money they deserve.
And we need more of such people.

His name is Leonard Abess, the President of City National Bancshares (It's a bank but I've never heard of it. But that's besides the point).

I read in the newspaper that he donated US$60 million from his own money and shared it among 471 current and even former members of staff.
How generous!

What's even more admirable was that he did it discreetly without any publicity. But good news are meant to be shared. In no time, the news of him distributing the money to his staff leaked to the press.

That's a lot of money.
US$60 million is SGD$100 million. In other words, on average, each person gets SGD$212, 314! Whoa.

He is quoted as saying, "I saw that if the president doesn't come to work, it's not a big deal. But if the tellers don't show up, it's a serious problem".

So bosses, you know what to do.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Don't mistreat the hand that ensures your organisation is steady and stable.

There's a fine line separating something from another.

Say, there's a fine line between protective and possessive.
Between confidence and pride.
Humility and inferiority.
Determination and stubbornness.
Innocent longing and insatiable lust.

In this blog post, I am treading on a very thin line between innocent longing and insatiable lust.
There are some things I really wish to do - things that make me all tingly and excited over. Things that, when I think of them, my heart would race and my soul deep within would be stirred.

Of course, an irrational obsession with these things would lead to insatiable lust but I'll be careful and stick to just an innocent longing.

Here, I present to you the 3 things I long to do. (And hopefully I can!)

#1 To go on a long backpack graduation trip to Europe with my Lumix LX3 camera (soon to be mine!) by my side and snap, snap, snap at everything beautiful and quaint.

#2 To go to Kinokuniya or Borders and buy up the countless books that I want to read. Even if I don't have the time to read, I just want to buy and keep them and put them on a huge shelf for my own library.
For starters, I would grab Anne Rice's "Christ the Lord - The Road to Cana" (I was captivated by the way Rice wrote of Jesus being tempted by Satan), JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jodi Piccoult's "My Sister's Keeper", Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things", Paulo Coelho's "Veronika Decides to Die" and Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture".

#3 To be able to buy a house that has a quiet and breezy prayer room, a really sleek entertainment room, a spacious kitchen with a long island table in the middle (so that Mom and Godma can come over and cook up a storm. I wouldn't mind being Jamie Oliver if I had a nice kitchen) and of course, a room dedicated as my personal library, complete with huge wooden shelves.
Maybe I can go to Thailand to build this house. Hee.

Dreams are free.
I long for them but I will not allow them to be the main reasons I live my life.
I probably wish for beautiful things because I am (and all of us are) created to love all things beautiful, just like God.

But I know that ultimately, these things will not be able to satisfy me even if I got them.

Why?
Because we are made to desire something much more, something that is forever, something that will never die, a promise that we can hold on to - returning to our eternal home in heaven.

***
I feel silly worrying about little episodes in my life, and in the end, miss out on the greater story that God is slowly weaving in the world.

But well, thank you God for giving me a good time today teaching the little ones, Bliss and Zest for their mission trip. Bliss was surprisingly absorbent. Thanks to God (and also to the sweets I brought)!

I had an interesting conversation with Mummy last night.

Mummy: What can melt the Snow Queen in you? ... Or is it because you talk too much? I realise you tend to talk a lot when you're outside with others. Remember "silence is golden"!
Me: Silence can be plain yellow. Nowadays, silence is only golden in the library.
Mummy: Yes, yes... true. Maybe. You know in primary school, my teacher used to paste many of these things behind my class.
Me: Idioms you mean.
Mummy: Ya idioms... "Silence is golden", "spare the rod and spoil the child", and what else eh? (and she goes in a rambling, deep-in-thought mode)
Me: (tries hard to think of idioms)

Funny how she can change the subject so quickly.

I don't like the idiom "Silence is golden". It encourages apathy and passivity. What sort of idiom is this? It's like a disciplinary tool that tells you to shut up and don't speak up.

It is useful to discipline a class in the past, but now, in certain circumstances, I say no. Students need to be encouraged to be inquisitive. As I said, silence can be plain yellow sometimes.

Hmm, on a random thought, PAP probably is a huge fan of this idiom.

For once, in a tutorial, I could grab a 2-minute nap, surf Youtube for interviews and read blogs with Denise and Vanessa! We were made to surf the net for BBC Hardtalk and that interviewer dude was so trenchant when interviewing Mahathir.
Zai.

Well, today's Basic Media Writing tutorial was so slack, it made a snail look hardworking.

After my 2 minute eyeshut, the substitute tutor (Where's Jimmy??) got us to think of interview questions for a celebrity.
So we thought hard... Which celebrity had a big scandal recently??

Michael Phelps caught smoking BONG**!
**Bong is the street name for marijuana

So Denise, Van and I came up with 8 interview questions to trash him until he feels like the greatest sinner in the world. Ok, any tabloids want to hire us?
After looking through the questions, I still feel our interview questions were too kind...

Our substitute tutor also requested us to anticipate the possible answers (or rather excuses) our celebrity interviewee would give once we give the interview. The three of us were really amused by our rich imagination about Phelps' answers.

Here is the interview which we have meticulously planned and the answers we predict Phelps would give during our slack tutorial.

Us: Do you admit that you were that person in the picture who was smoking bong?
Phelps: Yes

Us: Why did you do it?
Phelps: It was a moment of foolishness. (This is cliche but we thought most celebrities would give such a reason)

Us: You are very close to your mother. How is your mother reacting to this incident?
Phelps: She is being very supportive.

Us: As a celebrity sportsman, don't you know you're supposed to be a role model to the young?
Phelps: Yes I know. But as a human, I also make mistakes.

Us: But being a role model, you have little capacity to make mistakes. This is not your first time committing a mistake. You were caught drunk-driving in 2006 and now, for bong. What do you have to say?
Phelps: Well, you know. I'm still young. It's inevitable to make mistakes. I will learn from all these and make myself a stronger person.

Us: What would you want to say to your supporters?
Phelps: Sorry I made a mistake. Please continue to support me.

Us: How are you going to make up for your mistakes?
Phelps: I will be doing community work and training harder so as to not let my supporters, friends and family down.

Us: What are your plans for the next 3 months when you are suspended from swimming?
Phelps: I will be involved in an anti-drug campaign and share about my experience with people who are struggling with bong. I will encourage them through my sharing.

Like real. Hahaha

Can you imagine the joy of meeting a very good friend after a long, long time?
The anticipation to see how she is..
The desire to give her a big warm, friendly hug...

But when you see her, she is across the road, waving hello to you, and the both of you are separated by a traffic light which took forever to turn green.

WAH LAU EH. It's the only good word that can express one's feeling at that time.

But once you cross the road, the tight hug from your friend was indescribably good.


THE BIG REUNION
Today, I finally met up with all of my jc girlfriends. Last year in August, I was lamenting how long it was going to take before I can meet all of them. And now, in February 2009, we're all reunited! Wheeeee.

It was gifts galore when we met! Prisci gave me a boho top (which I like!), a heartwarming handmade Christmas card and a stack of pretty scrapbooking papers which she bought from Aussie :)

Yueli got me a reaaaaallly nice pencil case from Strasbourg in France. It's my belated 21st birthday gift. How do I describe it?
It's like a tube. It's aquamarine in colour, with two buckles, like a long tube schoolbag.
I love it! Just what I need since my old pencil case is beginning to turn mouldy. Heh.

Char got me a cute Mickey Mouse-shaped pencil from Hong Kong Disneyland which we said we would use to scribble furiously during our examination.

We lunched at Sun with Moon and stayed for hours before we left for some shopping.




We are meeting again before Prisci flies back to Perth for her last semester!
Now we are wrecking our brains hard thinking of where to eat.
Ideas?
No more Japanese food!

I was talking to Angie and Hui Lin today about childhood ambitions when I realised what mine used to be.
It isn't being a doctor, or lawyer, or businesswoman.

I wanted to be a criminal psychologist. I wanted to work in the police force, to understand the psyche of those(some psychotic) criminals and to prevent them from harming others again. It looked fun on TV. Interrogating the criminals made the psychologists so focused and cool.

This was my primary/lower secondary ambition until I reached upper secondary and realised that I enjoyed reading (mostly magazines!) and writing.
Then I told myself I would like to work in a magazine publishing house or to be a journalist.

This ambition lasted me till my early years of university.
After taking Sociology, I discovered that I could combine my ability to write and analyse why societies are the way they are, and give an alternative voice our society needs.
I learned why people acted the way they did in different cultural settings, why people would dig their nose if everyone did it together as a sort of ritual, why we have emotions, why suicide rates were higher in certain places... oh the sorts.

In a year's time, I'll be wearing my graduation gown.
What am I going to be? I don't know.

But one thing is for sure, with faith, I am going to do the thing I am passionate in, make full use of the gifts God has given me through education and allow me to shine as a testimony for our Lord wherever I am.

Give me the faith just like what (King) David had, Lord.