Chiangmai, Imm Eco hotel

Beautiful place for a retreat. Lush greenery all around, beautiful inviting pool, cosy bedrooms. perfect for people needing a break from work. And Thai food is decent and incredibly inexpensive. Can’t wait to start work on the house. day one

loving my ipod touch

Testing, testing.

I’m actually typing this on my touch.

blogging on the move.

and I found out I can make notes and email them to myself. Just synced my mail app to my gmail. Whee!

of brokenness and blueberry blizzards

after a long break from writing, i reckon that if i stopped blogging my writing skills might just degenerate into zilch. so here i am.

its going to be a long week ahead. i long for a getaway, a holiday, a retreat. i think the word is jaded. especially when we’re stepping up training for exercise purposes. can’t wait for the arrival of june.

i feel as though i have two personas, one for home, one for camp. i pack my bags and leave life at home for the weekdays, and pick it up again friday nights. i disconnect from all matters regarding the weekend world in camp, and get lost in the paradigm shift. or maybe its just an excuse for my intractable amnesia that occurs more frequently than i desire for it to.

dairy queens is fantastic. regretfully i only had my first taste of it today. somehow on my list of happy foods there are a number that contain blueberry. i.e. blueberry blizzard (of which i tried today… oh what bliss), plain yoghurt with blueberry toppings, blueberry cheesecake, etc. a spoonful of any of these guarantees 5-10 minutes of glee and instant happiness, the catalyst to an immediate smile on one’s face. trust me. during the course of the week i have discovered that the one thing better than an oreo is an oreo generously dipped in thick, gooey nutella. not ideal for indulgence though. just one. provided you can resist the temptation. me? i flee after the first.

Psalms 51:17

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are ^[a] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

the most important thing in worship. to me, i think. or what i’ve learnt. before we can enter the presence of God, we need to clothe ourselves in brokenness. a heart that is emptied, free of worldly associations, seeking justification from the blood of Christ, the redemptive sacrifice displayed on the Cross. i recall lyrics from a song which goes something like ‘You and I were made to worship’, and i think to myself how true that is. what does God require of us? only our hearts and obedience. what do we have that we can give, that is not already His? instead all that we have comes from the Heavenly Father, who gives good gifts to His children.

to my blog’s readership, if any still, this week as you go about your life, do consider the importance of worship in our daily lives in prayer and reflection, and remember to practice the presence of Jesus (:

ignorance

most of the time we are more ignorant than we give ourselves credit for.

jap anime

for a lover of ender’s game/japanese sci fi anime

loved it.

http://www.animepile.net/anime/Hoshi_No_Koe.html

untitled

so long for now

will be back somehow

a hiatus

no status

till then it seems

silence already reigns

unless for good reason

a post for the season

tata.

a lesson in perspective

humans are such hypocrites. i can’t deny being one myself sometimes.

on the road, we curse and swear/think angry thoughts about silly pedestrians dashing out on the road with a flickering green man, causing the driver of a vehicle intending to make a turn and cross that particular crossing a sudden burst of panic as he jams his brake and steps his clutch, his instructor a few steps to eruption, hand on the handbrake. who’s to blame? the pedestrian for being in a hurry? or the driver who failed to check the edges of the crossing before making that turn?

when walking, we jaywalk as though we own the road, despite the constant whizzing of accelerated cars in rush hour traffic, just for convenience’s/laziness’ sake, often to the rage of drivers who would sound their horn incessantly as they pass, with good reason too.

we do unto others what we do not want to be done to ourselves. enough said.
i have learned my lesson.

therapy.

am reminded of how therapeutic john mayer’s music can be after a long day of driving, in a week of tests.

happy birthday friend! thanks for the cake (:

on course.

never thought it’ll come to a day where i’ll say something like this:

i really miss 39. missing mostly the friends, the platoonmates not on course. the guys whom i’ve bunked and lived with for the past 4 months. learning to drive is not as great as i had anticipated it to be. Save for the stayout, i really wouldn’t have minded not being on course, in retrospect. how we take our acclaimed best cookhouse for granted. my vote goes to 39 cookhouse anyday. i dread the practical driving lessons daily, partly because it is human to make mistakes and instructors don’t like you making mistakes, and honestly, i’m kinda intimidated by my instructor. lastly, i’d rather get tekaned by my commanders than scolded by my instructors. enough said.

i foresee the hassle of university applications. but i know i’m going to have to plough through anyway.

these few weeks ahead are going to be a very busy and tiring few weeks. yes, course can be quite hard on you when they keep telling you that chances of passing the tests are frightfully slim. it doesnt help that practical lessons are more tiring than i had expected, especially on a hot afternoon.

i want to be studying. i want to be enrolled in a university and have the relief of knowing i am starting school next month. but that would be lying to myself.

its always harder than you think it is. emotionally, spiritually, its taking a toll on me, whatever it is that i’m going through. this culmination of seemingly insurmountable yet unfounded fears, of hopes and dreams, of expectations to live up to, of living a life that is holy and acceptable. but nobody said it was easy.

but i take heart in James 1:2-4.

Thank you Lord.

kl, msia.

night in chinatown,

malaysia, kuala lumpur

sleazy night hotels

buyers bargaining,

sellers shoulder tapping

first degree price discrimination,

a semblance of perfect competition?

knockoffs are for sale

Gucci, LV, Timberland

Road stalls with food too

taxi driver with cool accent

perhaps he learnt from Anglo-Saxons

insistent uncle peddling bus fares

better than sold out tickets at Times Square(s)

end of the first day

Ramly burgers are real fat

watching the ‘Secret’