Quite literally it has been a rather wet and windy week. Yesterday I went to uni, relying on the weather forecast of cloudy, occasional sunshine, sans umbrella. The result? Look below for how it turned out.
I’m not a happy camper.
Just checked the graduation dates for 2009 and found out that I graduate on Valentine’s Day 2009 at 8pm, which is coincidentally a Saturday.
I guess having a final graduation date to look forward to is like a full stop to this chapter in life. After 12th December 2008, I would have finished my practicals and thus finished my 4 year OT degree. After that, I’m no longer classified as a student and will be either unemployed or waiting to start employment, depending on applications and stuff. No doubt it is exciting, after 4 long years to finally end up with a degree in my hand. But it is bittersweet in a way, starting off in the working world. No more 3 month summer breaks, no more winter breaks, no more hanging out between classes.
Ahhh…Only 7 more months of slogging it out and I’m done 
I was perusing through the online news just now and I found this story. I don’t believe it. School uniform is sexy it seems.
This is the school uniform they say is sexy due to the white blouse underneath.
That uniform has been around for ages and only now that they must complain.
“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.
“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it”
Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”
“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution”
Tell me that what she is trying to say is not that we, women, are a distraction to men because we are wearing uniforms which the education department told us to wear and that wearing said blouses can lead to babies born out of wedlock and prostitution.
Things that make headlines in the news today really amuse me actually. So now girls are supposed to cover up so we don’t become prostitutes? And cover up so we don’t have babies out of wedlock? Tell me, what the logic is behind that? So wearing a blouse with a different colour or wearing layers of clothes is going to fend off rape?
It all boils down to this: cover up girls cause we are responsible for the way men behave.
Are we living in a civilised society or the dark ages?
I drove to Gen and Glo’s apartment in the city yesterday. I tell you, that was probably one of my more educational driving trips. I had to try and get into the parking lot of the Sheraton, couldn’t really get in with the queue, cut a U-turn, try again and finally giving up and then parallel parking on the street. I think I might just stick to forwards parking for the time being. LOL
Drove Amanda home after that and I feel rather accomplished. Though I think I should send my car for another service…It is sounding a bit funny. It has just come back from a service 2 months ago….Oh well, I don’t really expect much from a Proton haha
Well, today I managed to slice my left thumb with a vege peeler while peeling a stupidly small potato. So now, my thumbs are sorta symmetrical in a sense that my right thumbnail was grated off while I was grating chocolate yesterday and today the skin on my left thumb is sliced while I was peeling potatoes.
Just goes to show my cooking prowess!
Don’t worry, I bake better than I cook. LOL
Speaking of food, we went to lunch today at Penang Hawker in Northbridge. Had yummy asam laksa and cendol. I miss food at home.
While walking to lunch today, I snapped these pictures. In between snapping both pictures, me and Elizabeth nearly got rolled over by 2 cars….Just prior to that, I was joking that since the 3 boys were in front and so engrossed in their conversation, they wouldn’t notice us screaming for help behind them. Usually its the girls that walk in front so the guys can keep a lookout for them.
But when they heard I think me screeching trying to avoid the car, they stopped and waited for us. Haha…so they do check for us girls once in a while.
That there was one of the cars that we had to avoid. We didn’t look to the left and nearly got hit. Twice LOL
I took the pictures cause they looked quite funny the 3 of them walking in a row with different dress styles and shoes LOL
Today at church we went around getting to know people better and it was quite amusing. Elder James Seow was reacquainting us with the church vision which is “A united people with passion and purpose: Loving God - Making Disciples”. So he was saying we should be united and get to know each others names and such. That’s when my brain went into Champion League mode and I thought, “Hey! We are men united!” Lame but yea.
That’s all for today. Got a ton of work to do
I grated my thumbnail today while grating chocolate. Not a pretty sight but oh well.
Kthnxbai.
Well, 2 pieces of really exciting news today! My family are visiting me in December and coming for my graduation in February! I so can’t wait to see them! They manage to get the free Air Asia tickets that were on sale at midnight and voila! I miss them so so so much! Almost 2 years of not seeing them, it will be so sweet to see them again
Another piece of news is that is recent is that our cell, Keypers, has multiplied and split into 2 groups for word and discussion time. Worship will still be together and then discussion will be separate in the smaller groups since its much more effective that way and that way we can help each other grow spiritually. Justin will be leading 1 group and Joe and I will be taking on the other since I have only just begun to take on more responsibilities in cell and can’t manage the cell by myself yet. We will officially be separating into 2 different venues on the 18th of July, in other words next semester. Since I do not usually run on a semester timetable, and I’m in my 2nd or 3rd week of prac then, I’m foreseeing it to be quite a challenging time. But I’ll keep pressing on and I believe we can make it happen without much trouble.
I see myself trying to bring up topics that are worthwhile discussing in cell and I’m definitely open to suggestions from anyone. What we are doing in cell is basically to sow into each others’ lives and to reap what we have sowed, to encourage one another and support each other in times of need and to grow spiritually together. Doing that in a smaller group is much more optimal than trying to shout across to the room to 20 people. I guess the task at hand for me now is to learn as much as possible as I can and prepare myself to take on the role and to also imbibe my passion for God into other people. I feel that it is important to reach out to others who do not know the Gospel but it is also important to make sure that your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are also growing spiritually and not lagging behind. Start with the people at home, then go outwards.
I believe my part to play in all this is to minister to my fellow brothers and sister in Christ. Not to say that missions and outreach and evangelism isn’t important, I feel that my role in the Body is to grow my brothers and sisters. Who knows, maybe in the near future I might have different roles in take on in the Body. The main thing I believe to to follow what the Lord leads me to do. Doing it might sometimes be hard and challenging at times, but to put it in a bigger picture, it is not about me but what God intends to do with me in His plan. I look at it this way, God, the great and almighty who created the heavens, the earth, the stars, the universe and everything it, is using little old me to go forth and makes disciples of people. Yes, it is unnerving but at the same time, I feel honoured to be playing my little role in the Body.
There are many more things I need to learn and study about but life is all about learning and it is a journey. I believe that learning doesn’t end at tertiary education, but that is just part of a lifelong learning journey. I learn new things everyday and I don’t think I want to stop learning. There are so many things in the bible that I learn each time I open it; a new lesson, a new verse, a new revelation and glimpses of God’s plan. It is so amazing that I can’t contain it, I want to tell the world! Yes, it is the line of the song.
Well, from here we shall keep growing, in numbers and spiritually with our walk with God. When Pastor Jason told us that we’d be multiplying again after 6 months (this was 6 months ago), I didn’t really believe it was possible. After we split from Finders, we were 8 people only. Now, we’ve grown to 23 people in cell. That is nearly 3 times the size of what we were in August last year. It is just amazing. Well, we can sit on our butts and still have cell with 23 people in 1 location or we can go forth and multiply and bring more people into cell.
Well, we shall go forth and GROW!
Just got home from bible study and dim sum lunch. Been studying about the sequence of the prophetic events of Revelation and some of the Old Testament. It is scary to watch all these events in play at the moment. It is prophesied in Revelation that there will be earthquakes and worldwide famine happening prior to the Great Tribulation and with the earthquake in China, price of food (especially rice) and petrol climbing each day, it all ties in now.
Reading something in the Bible and then seeing it happen according to what this book says that was written such a long time ago, it is hard not to believe that God is in the world and that Jesus is the Messiah. I read and study about how tough time is going to be in the Great Tribulation and I’m thanking God for revealing this to me in time for me to believe.
Doing all this and the Masterlife series with church, just reaffirms what God has said, “Go and make disciples”. I have felt God speaking to me to tell people all about Him and how great He is. Funny how I would wind up in this position as an associate cell leader and preparing word some weeks. Just makes me explore further my understanding of the Bible and what God’s plans are.
Things happen for a reason and I do not think me being in this church, in this Friday morning bible study group or being associate cell leader happened by chance. It is all God’s work behind everything I do. It is definitely amazing to see where I have come since last year. I came to NLCC, not sure where I was and not feeling too comfortable but slowly but surely I fit in. It feels like I belong. A year ago, if someone had asked me to go tell people about the Gospel (which is the Just Walk Across the Room program), I just shrivel up and shrink into my shell. I enjoyed my comfort zone and didn’t think it was important to tell people about God, I was comfortable with life. I just wasn’t brave enough to say hi to new people or just to strike up conversations with visitors at church.
I think I’ve come a long way since then, sure I still have my comfort zone but I think I’ve become braver and more willing to step out of it to do things that are unexpected. I could not have done this without God’s guidance and definitely not without fellowship with believers. I think now, I’ve become more open to the idea of witnessing to people and talking to people about God and their beliefs. Sure, it isn’t always easy to tell people that my God is the omnipotent God and the omnipresent God, there is rejection to be expected. It is written in the bible that Jesus told his disciples, expect rejection because they come in His name. But fret not, for He has given the resources to go spread the gospel and He will always be there.
At the end of it, I take it this way: Tell as many people about Jesus as possible, I don’t care if I look like a fool. People ridiculed Jesus when He walked on the face of the earth, what makes me think that I won’t get ridiculed, even if the Messiah was called a liar by the nation of Israel? I’m out there to tell people and nothing can stop me from that.
On a lighter note, it is Michelle Tang’s birthday today. Happy birthday dear!
Came home from Amanda’s prize giving ceremony last night and had dinner with her parents and her brother. Man, the stories they told made me laugh till I cried last night. Being at the ceremony last night made me miss the times I had my prize giving ceremonies in Malaysia. Which then reminded me of my family back home.
See, Amanda won the most prestigious award of the night, the Ken Hall medal for the best overall graduating honours student in Curtin Business school. Then her dad went to go talk to Emeritus Professor Ken Hall after the ceremony, which reminded me of the time that dad went up to the press and got me in the newspaper after PMR.
She told me of the story where the defining moment in her life was where once her dad chucked her bag into this big rubbish bin. There was one day she didn’t do her homework and her parents found out and then her dad chucked her bag in this big rubbish bin far away. So Amanda had to go get her bag from her bin in the dark, groping around a smelly bin for her bag and trudged home. When she got home, her dad said, “Don’t want to study, that is what you are going to do. Pick up rubbish for a living”. That pretty much drove the point home.
I guess upon hearing that, it really does make sense: if you don’t put in the effort, you’ll end up like that, without much of a career. That really got me thinking, if I put in the effort now and do well for my pracs, there is going to be employment opportunities along the track. The next 21 weeks at prac will be gruelling but I think I’ve prepared myself mentally for it. I expect a lot of blood (not mine), sweat and tears along the way but I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end to see a degree and a resource package for Royal Perth Hospital which can add to my CV.
You only get one chance to live life, and life is too short to let go of these opportunities. From now on, I’m grabbing every opportunity in life I can get my hands on and living the way God wants me to live.
These 2 weeks haven’t been the best for me health wise. I’ve had 3 day headaches, bouts of diarrhoea and now I’m down with a mild runny nose.
I had a 4 hour nap today and I feel marginally better.
Well I should really go get some work done. Hello 50 pages of strategies for cognitive and perceptual deficits and exam paper!
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