Monday, November 2, 2009
at
12:22 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Day 13:
I thank God for giving us dreams that we can pursue what we are passionate in. Including those weird non-sensical dreams when we are sleeping. Gives us something funny to talk about.
I was actually quite surprised that nothing rowdy (relatively speaking) on Halloween night. I had the "misfortune" to clean church at midnight on a Halloween night. Not a smart move. But yeah, nothing happened.
The weather has been crazy lately with the appearance of thunderstorms for the first in a very very long time. Followed by hot days and so the humidity built up. Anywhere indoors is just absurdly humid. Then today, after a few days of hot sunny humid days, the temperature decided to take a dive in the morning. Plus fog. When I woke up from my 2 hour sleep last night, I felt like I entered the twilight zone. So I proceeded to have my usual "coffee" hit, two cups of Milo. As I was drinking and peering towards the balcony with the blinds down, all of the sudden my neighbour's head just peered slowly at the corner of my eye. That was scary given the current weather of fog and cold temperatures and I didn't flinch.
I think at that time my brain was trying to decide on whether to pee in my pants, drop my cup of Milo or scream. But given the indecisiveness of my brain, the adrenaline had time to drop to normal levels and rational thinking took over the helm. So no matter how scary the incident is like, the most you get is a slight jolt but nothing more. And I've noticed that this has always been the case for as far as I can remember. When I was in London in 1996, we visited Sega City, everything and all things Sega in one building. So there was this attraction called the House of Grandish where people go into this pitch dark room and to sit in chairs with headphones over your head and you place your hands on the globes at the armrests. They take in about a group of 12 people at any one time so obviously some group dynamics will contribute to the scare factor. So they play this ghoulish sadistic scenario over the headphones and they record your heartbeat through your hands placed on the globes as you progress through the scenario. This was more than most of my family and extended family can handle and so you'd hear them screaming around me but I was still unphased. So at the end of it all, they print the recorded heart rate and have a short psychoanalysis based on the readings. Mine was just like a normal heart reading while the rest had serious reactions to the scenario. The staff handling the attraction was also very surprised at my results to see it so steady.
I think maybe I have a very fast cooldown period for scares or events and maybe I'm just unable to respond to external factors. Which may explain a lot of things in my life. I don't respond to a lot of things when the time comes. I don't respond to assignments (who hasn't had this problem?), feelings, people and sometimes even God. Being able to respond to something or someone will get you results, both positive or negative, but not responding is probably the worst thing to be in. Not only will you have missed opportunities but you will sometimes end up losing more than you bargained for. I think I have mentioned before that I am not a gambling kind of man (gambling in the general sense of the word) and because of that I lose out on more. I think it's just me being unresponsive. The only time you will get some sort of an immediate response from me is by poking me with a stick. And even that is not guaranteed. Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any injuries when poking me with a stick or any poking of sorts.
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
at
3:10 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
Day 12:
I thank God for giving intellect, that we may understand the things that you have placed in this world but more importantly to also understand your salvation plan through the Bible.
And so for the other extreme. I also like to indulge in most and all things intellectually stimulating. Anything and almost everything under the sun. Topics ranging from the hardcore theoretical physics and maths and to history and to apologetics. Artistic interpretations, psychological impacts on various areas are among some of my weaker subjects but still something I like talking or at the very least, listening.
It's quite funny that sometimes with certain people, they don't take me seriously when I'm in the intellectual mode. Also sometimes I feel unsatisfied that I'm not challenged intellectually. I guess that was one of the primary reasons that I stopped my PhD topic. It has stagnated to the point where I don't learn anything anymore. Having to come back to study something else, it a breath of fresh intellectual air. With a twist of mindless coding.
With a liking towards intellectual talk, there is a price for me to pay. There are things where I feel intellectual, having contributed to the conversation, and yet I feel like I don't know what I'm talking about. Like I don't know the deeper truths of the topic. Those times its when I feel, ironically, stupid. It's a slow learning process for me, trying to pick myself up every time I think I have made a fool of myself. But I guess with things like these, I don't have the necessary experience to talk about such things. Perhaps I should learn to shut up more and listen while mentally taking notes.
On a different note, the drums on the Wicked soundtrack is epic.
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Friday, October 30, 2009
at
4:23 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
I should post something before I go out later and somehow painting the town red.
Day 11:
I thank God for laughter. Best way to feel like there isn't a worry in the world.
2 weeks to go. Not easy this 25 day challenge.
I'm a man with two extremes. Or I'd like to think of myself that way. On one hand, I like to dwell in all things nonsensical. To those who know me for awhile know this pretty much the hard way. Cartoons like Spongebob, Dexter's Lab, Fairly Odd Parents, Rocko's Modern Life and more form the basis of my nonsense. Lemme break it down for you starting with Spongebob. This is almost literally the epitome of randomness. It's so random that it's funny. Who knew that yellow sponge would be such a great hit? Randomness is the answer. I mean you have to be pretty random to envision a sea creature living in a pineapple. And Mr Krabbs has a whale for a daughter. Patrick who's not the sharpest tool in the shed. And a squirrel who lives in a tree under water with a Texan upbringing. Actually come to think of it, sounds like this whole cartoon has somewhat Southern influences. If there is an epitome of randomness, there must be a pioneer. That would be Rocko's Modern Life. This is sort of like Ren and Stimpy grossness mixed with shear randomness. Everything is so exaggerated about everyday living that it just becomes random. A lone wallaby with a bull named Heffer (funny that name was chosen) and a obsessive compulsive nerdy turtle Filbert having annoying neighbours of frogs. Oh, and the ever adorable yet kinda gross dog Spunky.
Dexter's Lab. Which kid who doesn't want to be an evil genius equipped with a lab and coat? Ok, Dexter's not evil but you get the idea. More mellowed nonsense with a touch of evil-genius type humour. Maybe that's why my social skills aren't exactly top notch. And now my favourite, Fairly Odd Parents. Not only is it random but it has some of the best execution of recurring jokes/nonsense in an episode. At some stage I would be in stitches laughing my head off thanks to the brilliance of the recurring jokes. I'd sometimes laugh to myself just even remembering the scene but of course try to suppress that in public. Again, my social skills needs more work.
Bottom line is there is an art to randomness and recurring jokes in stir up humour and/or nonsense. Some of the best comedians know this art and even then few know how to execute it well. I heart randomness.
Tune it tomorrow for the other extreme...
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
at
1:25 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Aiyah, late again.
Day 9:
I thank God for giving us creativity to not make our lives so monotonous and dull. Vibrant indeed.
I'm sure quite a few of you have read about a baby born on the flight from Penang to Kuching on Air Asia. I'm quite puzzled as to why was she flying so close to the labour period. But no matter, the baby was born and both of them are doing good. Then, news came up on what she named the child. Asia Liew Ya Hang. Asia for very obvious reasons and apparently Ya Hang for very obvious reasons. A bit extra, don't you think? But who cares when you have lifetime flights? Unless they go bust. That will be awkward.
First paper in under 8 hours. Still vomiting blood and shivering from a friend's Facebook status. Not helping me sleep. Not cool.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
at
2:38 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Tad bit late but here it is anyway...
Day 8:
I thank God for the simple pleasures (aka. food) to be enjoyed with friends
I'm being pressed for time as the first exam in nearly 2 years is about to start on Thursday. I felt like I've not done enough especially that this being a very study intensive subject. Call me irresponsible. Most of the lost time that will never be recovered are spent hanging out. With awesome food. And good wine. And, for some odd reason, recurring statements about soap.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
at
6:45 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
Due to the absence of yesterday's post on my thanksgiving roll, there shall be two now.
Day 6:
I thank God that I can learn from my mistakes that I've made, some of which I am still paying dearly for it, and to come to Him for forgiveness.
Day 7:
I thank God for the hard lessons in life that makes me learn endurance, humility and wisdom
I wonder if there is a male version of the emotional side of a PMS.
Just came back from watching 500 Days of Summer. This is the first movie in years that I have decided to watch alone and definitely I have not regretted doing so. The other movies that I have ended up watching alone I've regretted to some degree. This movie is different. It gave me a lot to think about myself. I went in having some expectation that I will be able to identify with the characters in the movie, having read the background and synopsis. That expectation was fulfilled but not in the way that I was expecting (kinda contradictory, I know). Anyway, I enjoyed the movie very much. The visuals in the movie were very striking, some with hand-drawn graphics and others with the interplay between neutral and dull-ish colours with the cast's expressions. But the thing that really got me was that I "get" the characters. I understood so much of what is going on with them that it feels like I know them. Strange feeling at first but somewhat comforting. Like I said, it gave me so much to think about myself which is part of the reason why I would like to watch it alone. It's almost like a safety blanket of sorts. If you haven't watch it, please do. What you make of it is up to you but the very least I can say is that it's not some cheesy happy ending romantic movie you see most of the time.
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