update

what i’ve been doing the past few days

- finished Twilight and New Moon within 3 days. or 2 and a half, to be more exact. (but i think i read too fast cos once you start you can’t stop! the story’s very rich with emotions, and i quite agree with althea that boys probably can’t take it cos it’s tooo emotional. but i’m planning to re-read to savour the story and experience slowly. i’m not crazy. i just think stephenie meyer writes the inner thoughts of bella really well.)

2. started with contemp class. i think after trying out quite a few dance styles, contemp is no doubt my favourite. although the most we did were a few simple exercises and conditioning (that got me panting like crap, man, time to start picking up pace okie chia), it kinda brought me back to the days at chungcheng (again, i know) i really love doing contemp. the lines are beautiful and at times it’s soft, at times it’s aggressive. sorry for the lack of better words. i love dance!

3. God’s grace is amazing! i kinda found a job through tzelin. (this girl is ultra uber sweet. went through all that trouble to get me a job. HEY GIRL IF U’RE READING THIS, you may think you did nothing, but in fact i’m really really really thankful. what did i do to deserve this. hahaha thanks!!)

well… next week work kick starts (hopefully) and its school opening for the dudes. exciting exciting exciting. lots of things coming up!

brain food

The way you think creates your attitudes; the way you think shapes your emotions; the way you think governs your behaviour; the way you think deeply influences your immune system and vulnerability to illness. Everything about you flows out of the way you think.

I believe this is one of those cases where we are simply coming to confirm what the writers of the Scripture knew quite clearly all along. Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

Jesus once said that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. He was making this observation in terms of the connection between our inward condition and outward behaviour. Over the long haul, good thinking – accurate perceptions, healthy emotions, wholesome desires, honorable intentions – cannot produce bad results; bad thinking cannot produce good results.

The second law might be called the law of exposure: Your mind will think most about what it is most exposed to. What repeatedly enters your mind occupies your mind, eventually shapes your mind, and will ultimately express itself in what you do and who you become. The law of exposure is as inviolable as the law of gravity. No one is rurprised by the law of gravity. No one says, “Hey, I dropped this priceless antique crystal vase on cement and it broke. What are the odds of that?” But amazingly enough, people react to the law of exposure in total shock. People are surprised that what their minds are constantly exposed to, attend to, and dwell on evenutally comes out in how they feel and what they do.

Children are exposed to thousands of acts of violence and murder on television and even more graphic forms in movies. They see it on video games and observe symbols and images associated with gang violence glorified in pop culture – then we act surprised when a fight breaks out in the bleachers at a football game, or when shootings at Columbine High School devastate an entire nation. The true is, we simply lack the national will and self-restraint to create a society that will produce minds that are not saturated with violence from the cradle on.

We are flooded with sexual images on television screens, computer terminals, magazine covers, and multiplex movie marquees. Sexually explicit images and emails are sent not just to teenagers, but to children who have virtually no chance to protect themselves from what they do not even know they are getting into – and then we profess to be shocked when promiscuity and sexual addiction levels go up and marital fidelity and stability go down.

It is amazing to me how often people think or live as if they could get away with violating the law of exposure. People will say, “I can read this material, watch these images, or listen to these twisted words – but it doesn’t really affect me. I’m not really paying attention. It goes in one ear and out the other.” Social scientists are coming to realise what writers of Scripture knew all along: Oh no, it doesn’t!

If enough teenage girls look at enough magazine covers featuring enough models who are paid outrageous sums of money to make themselves unnaturally thin and then interviewed and quoted as the experts on what makes life worth living, we will raise a generation of young women whose minds are constantly filled with such thoughts: You’re not thin enough, not pretty enough, not desirable enough to men. Their feelings of self-esteem will plummet. Hope will die. And the behavioural consequences will skyrocket – and it shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The events you attend, the material you read (or don’t), the music you hear, the images you watch, the conversations you hold, the daydreams you entertain – all are shaping your mind and, ultimately, your character and destiny. This is supremely true when it comes to hope.

- John Ortberg

 

Wow. with a capital W. i was reading this particular part of the book when waiting for my porridge to cook (i prepared dinner for myself btw!! and it was yummy. hehe) and it totally blew me away. it struck me at that moment. what have i been feeding my mind with? entertaining negative thoughts? i am a worrier. i worry alot. it gets me panicky. it gets me anxious. and then… i fall sick – with worry, that is. that’s why. you may know why i bolded the first paragraph.

what do you feed your mind and your soul with ? the world is warped, we all know that, just by looking at the things around us. emo music, hollywood culture, the constant rat race to the top… etc. so if you fill yourself with the world, it rots your soul and damages your mind. 

just as how we watch our diet, avoiding transfats, fats, sugar, carbs (whatever.) etc, all the more we should watch what we feed our mind with. your mind decides how you think, which decides how you act, which decides who you become.

that said, optimism and positivity just isn’t enough. that’s just keeping negativity away, it might come back some day. when you keep something away, you need to fill up the now empty space with something else solid, so that nothing can take its place anymore. i’m glad i found Jesus.

what’s your discontentment?

what’s mine?
I’ve been reading John Ortberg’s “If You Want To Walk On Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat”. (okay James, sorry, it’s been a long while since I borrowed it…. believe me I’m not sitting on it. haha)
He calls people who aren’t willing to step out of their boat (comfort zone) boat potatoes. aptly termed I say. it’s a waste of life, a waste of giftings and talents, and I’d be so sad if I’m God. I don’t want to create humans and watch them sit in their rocking boat all day man. that’s so purposeless. I don’t want to be a boat potato!!! which honestly, I still am in some areas of my life. getting a little way too comfortable. time to slap myself out of all that craaaap.

Even in the world today, it is often at the point where we are frustrated by the gap between fallen reality and our sense of God’s desires that we are moved to action in a cause greater than ourselves.
- John Ortberg

but before I can get frustrated, don’t I need to get out of my boat, and see the gap first?

go chia. haha.

 

 

anyway, some photos to share with you guys from a really long time ago!

the bestest cg of all time

with friends at esplanade!

favouritest girls with an extra weird guy

geee (: go chia, go school. tmr is a dreaded day. we’ll see if my results are good enough to be shared. haha. I. am. kidding. myself.

tataz!