What would Jesus do?

Life isn't always easy
It isn't always fun
When you lose direction
Your world can come undone
When you're in need of guidiance
And help is overdue
You might ask yourself this question
What Would Jesus Do?

If you were at a party
And the host ran out of wine
He'd make some more with magic
And bring on back good times
But in this situation
You couldn't see it through
He's the son of God
And he shits all over you

You can't do what Jesus can do
You're the King of Nothing, and he's the King of Jews
He knows every magic trick, you only know a few
Don't even bother asking
What Would Jesus Do?

Can you heal a leper?
Or feed the crowd with fish and bread?
Can you walk on water?
Did you rise from the dead?
And did you give your life up
To save humans from bad luck?
Were you born on virgin birth,
Or did your parents... have sex?

You can't do what Jesus can do
He had twelve apostles and no one follows you
When facing a dilemma
Let logic guide you through
What kind of dickhead wonders
What Would Jesus Do?

When Jesus was betrayed
And wrapped up all his trust
He used His laser vision
And turned Judas into dust
When Lois Lane was dying
Jesus held her in His arms
He flew backwards round the world
To keep her save from harm
When Jesus tours the country
In His Rock 'n' Roll band Kiss
A thousands cheer his music
Even tough it's hit the miss

You can't do what Jesus can do
(Jesus shits all over you)
There are three of Him, and there's only one of you
(And Jesus can fly)
He can cure a blind man, you can't cure the flu
He's a zombie wizard who also knows kung-fu

So next time you're in trouble
Thinking What Would Jesus do
Try not to forget
He's a million, billion, trillion times
Better than you

God gave Rock 'n' Roll to you,
Gave Rock 'n' Roll to you,
Gave Rock 'n' Roll to everyone,
God gave Rock 'n' Roll to you,
Gave Rock 'n' Roll to you,
Put it in the soul of everyone.

能够爱你就已经没什么委屈了

如有何委屈 也是我的爱带给你的

the law and subjectivity

does a murder become acceptable when the perpetrator has been abused physically and psychologically by the victim?

say, a stepson who has suffered for years.

even if it's premeditated, even if it's violent, even if psychiatrists conclude he's mentally sound.

i had a dream of an exact such scenario and it finally dawned on me that emotions are a very powerful driving force. rage and violence may not be considered human values, but they're nevertheless very natural and instinctive to humans. i got to be in those shoes, albeit in a dream, and the general public would cry "irrational". but it wasnt irrational from my perspective. and why should it be rational in the first place? society may be passing judgment on me from a neutral, rational standpoint, but they arent in my shoes and haven't been abused for years.

what are the parameters?

Tiny Mistakes That Led To Huge Catastrophes - The Fatal Four Microns in the Hubble Telescope

Source: Cracked.com

A lot of you are probably reading this at work and despite that, a lot of you are probably also drunk. That's because most of us have jobs where, if you maybe screw up here and there, it's not the end of the world.

Or at least that's what we'd like to think. It turns out some of the biggest, costliest disasters have resulted from some random employee making a single tiny mistake. Such as...

The Hubble Telescope was initially conceived and budgeted for in the '70s and planned for launch in 1983. Various mishaps, not the least of which being the Challenger disaster, delayed the project for years. When it launched in 1990, scientists expected the Hubble to take its place among NASA's "great observatories," placing it in the company of, among others, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

The Hubble was expected to deliver some pretty kick-ass images thanks to its ability to capture those images with little to no back light (as you'd get with an earthbound telescope). Sounds like a huge task, but the Hubble was equipped with one of the most powerful mirrors ever built.

A team of the best engineers in the world gathered to build that mirror, working 12-hour days for five straight years, grinding the mirror with equipment that would make sure it was perfect to within a millionth of an inch.

Whoops...
A guy named Lou Montagnino was in charge of testing the thing, using equipment so sensitive they had to do it in the middle of the night--(the vibration of a car driving three miles away would throw it off).

Unknown to Lou, a microscopic chip of paint flecked off a measuring rod that was supposed to make sure the mirror was the right shape. It started giving back false readings as a result, and the mirror wound up being off by four microns.

That was their mistake. Four microns. Twenty-five times smaller than the width of a human fucking hair. Smaller than a mosquito's flaccid penis.

Really, What's the Worst That Could Happen?
When the first images were returned from the Hubble, the quality was drastically less than what NASA expected, and nowhere close to powerful enough for what NASA needed it to do.

Of course the real problem was that by the time they discovered the flaw, the damned thing was already out in space. So say goodbye to a few billion more dollars, which is what it cost for a series of Space Shuttle missions to fix the thing's mirror (the repairs got so costly that there was debate as to whether it wouldn't be better to just build a new one). We're surprised they didn't just strap Lou Montagnino to a rocket and send him up there with some really fine grit sandpaper in his hand.

Praised by the Wise

"I found in Buddhist philosophy a way of thought that enthralled me by its calm and radical analysis of desire, its rejection of all the self-dramatising intensities by which I lived, and its promise of a possible strong and unsentimental sincerity."

Andrew Harvey, British author and Fellow of Oxford's All Souls College

crazy/random college times

im quite safe. other than maybe montfort days and some of whitley days, i dont do inappropriate things. then college came and the doctrine "live now or never" stuck.

for the record, the following weren't acts of bravado. they're merely spontaneous fun that fell into place.

dress down day
my four-year tradition of dressing really down for exams. it started as harmless fun, when i wore slippers, specs, fbt shorts and army singlet to my first core exam. everyone split their sides hahaha. that's a big deal if you're a Wee Kim Wee student, where every day is a fashion contest. dressing down stuck and it became my modus operandi.

phantom haunts

a leftover mask from drama class, and exam stress. what do you get? the birth of the hall 4 phantom, haunting all in sight. HAHA.
study room!
johnson-jianli's room!

license to crash
kenyee had a scooter in hall which he didnt use. so why not? so i took a special express riding course. under him LOL. there were big plans - the scooter could be my mode of transport around NTU. but first night i took it out i crashed. far away at sze's hall 11 some more. that fateful night kenyee, yaolong and deryck came to my rescue and we went all around jurong in the wee hours looking for a private doctor (the fact that im unlicensed was tricky). as i skidded my foot was caught under the bike. bloodied nails and all.

nanyang lake

a notorious hall ritual, most prevalent in hall 4 due to proximity. although EVERYONE in my hall has been ponded, how many of you others can say you've been in the waters of that murky lake where soaked clothes are advised to be disposed?

exam calls
it was final year and i thought if i should do anything, this was it. so i whipped out my phone, switched it on, and called yixuan. and yixuan was in the same exam hall as me. i enjoyed her panic mode.

the ADM afternoon

spending one whole afternoon on the greens of ADM, without a care in the world. except her. everyone has gone up ADM at night, that's not cool - this is cool. 

come on, let your colours burst

setting off homemade rocket fireworks on the hall rooftop because boring sparklers are Singaporeans' only form of pyrotechnic entertainment.

President's Lodge

going up to the President's Lodge at night. it's one of the highest points in the sprawling campus. cool 80s-looking bungalows, spooky, and romantic. not to mention the excitement of campus security coming up to chase you away on their routine patrols.

music to my ears

attending free lunchtime concerts alone. despite the droves of ah tiongs, the stuff belted out at these events are really quite good. things like these always remind me deep down inside im arts at heart.

rendezpool
we once climbed into NIE's swimming pool for a dip when it's closed. yes we also got caught for it. didnt notice the cctv pointing at us hahaha. the security guards made a hooha, made us write some confession reports, and i had a quarrel with one of them.

shuttle's cocks
my campus squabbles do not end there. i once quarreled with one of them tiong shuttle bus drivers whom we all know have lousy attitudes and lousy driving. dont get me started on the peeves.

hockey footie
trespassing of NIE also doesn end there haha. NIE's hockey pitch is best not for hockey, but soccer. it's awesome, and illegal.

bold moves
ive chatted up a Japanese girl and a Korean girl in hall, and a Thai-Chinese girl in wkwsci. HAHA.

please, you all. college is not college if you did nothing. studies and grades are just part of the experience. a really small part.

what love stories are made of

against all odds, or at least my preconceived value system, we are a love story. :)

in the Japanese film Be With You, one of my favourites, Takumi chanced upon his late wife Mio's diary that changed everything. earlier, he narrates his version of their story, from high school to her death, a one-sided love which to his bewilderment eventually won her. that diary reveals her vantage point, that she's loved him from the beginning too, in a poignant and moving moment.

it's difficult when you realise all you've assumed is actually a myth. but it's different when that reveals a wondrous connection called love. it's comforting.

on our last night together in hall, the end of a fantasy, before we face the realities of our relationship, she told me. after so long, she told me before all this between us, before i actually entered her life, she had once dreamed of me. just once, long ago, when we both had our own partners.

we kissed.

no one knew what it meant. definitely not her. and it stayed a secret.

i feel extremely guilty and sorry, probably like Takumi, as i had always insisted she never could remember nor notice me before this. i truly thought i meant nothing to her. but because of our circumstances, she couldn't say.

even more amazing to me, we had watched Be With You together just a few days before. :)

like i said, "maybe you always knew, it's gonna be us."

folks, we have a love story. and love stories have happy endings.

to be continued...

will this summer be as comforting as the last?

the last was quite something. went out of my comfort zone and did things i had always wanted to. like catch up with old friends. and of course immersing in the prospects of my final year.

this time is, well, significantly different. it's a much more surreal summer, me having graduated, without the stability of school to progress towards.

plans are good. at least they're socially appropriate. but i like free time and how fluid they are. my supposed "grad trip" to europe or US capitulated, yet im not too bothered. i feel upbeat, especially with how in its place a still-uncertain love story is playing out.

so yes a lot of time post-exams has been spent with her. which i wholly am in favour of.

checked

trying to cook again is therapeutic, although also taxing and chaotic. hmm, how paradoxical. grocery shopping though, is becoming addictive.

immediately after exams ended my dramatic streak took over and i auditioned for an okto role for fun. really simple stuff, but i enjoyed performing again. unfortunately my friend's production house eventually had enough actors. next time, hopefully!

japanese buffet at yuzuya.

met the hall clique after months, to celebrate the May babies' birthdays. especially nice to see lingling, johnson and angeline after so long!

jarrod and hsien organised a farewell bbq in hall. a really nice touch. though most of my closer friends are gone, this bbq gave our hall life a good closure.

dropped by WKWSCI seniors' camp. "dropped by", not participate. since i was in hall. sat in for their HC/FN briefings. boy, every batch is getting more and more kilat. the attention and professionalism they accord to FOC these days is as top-notch as any industry conference or campaign.

made time for a bookswop event at Orchard Central. gave them 17 old books in exchange for 16 really cool books i cant wait to read!

packed my room after, yes, six years. cos i haven't been living at home for that long. and to be frank, im in the process of creating a proper living space for myself first time in my life, since im not sure how long i'd be staying here. my hall room has always been super, it's time to transfer that home.

finally caught up again with 'the six' (the subset of the hall clique) after a semester of FYPs for some of us. back at chomp chomp, our old haunt. hokkien mee, wings, oyster egg, stingray, la-la, sotong, sugar cane ftw!

a spontaneous date at Bird Park! "the world's largest" hahaha. it's been so many years since seeing especially those penguins. but more importantly i loved the time spent with her. :) ugly pigeons, tea shake, amigo, mynahs, bongo, dumbhead owls and ducks, man on horse, lory nectar, colourful iguana and fruit juice we forgot to buy!

johor twice and malacca once. hahaha. so 联邦.

what's next

boost my long-inadequate itunes, after my mac's demise two years ago.

watch all the films and read all the books i haven't.

settle that headache of a Reuters sports journalism internship.

---

anyhow, im going to taiwan! finally, after toying with the idea since army days. very last-minute but okay lah. guess this is my grad trip after all (although my dad offered to pay for me to go US, as minder to my little sis going for a year-long exchange).

right side of wrong

what a sad song.

A friend of a friend needs a favor

No questions asked, there's not much more to say

Me and the wife, we need the money

We've got four kids all hungry, one on the way

Slip these sweat socks in your shirt and pray they think your packin'

Be sure to keep your head down, don't look 'em in the eye

And don't get fancy, Ricky, we ain't Jimmy Cagney

Look at me, let's do the job and let's get home tonight

I got a half tank of gas and if we run all the lights

We'll slip across the border on the wrong side of right

And just like Butch and Sundance we'll ride until the dawn

Sipping whiskey, singing cowboy songs

On the right side of wrong

We picked a helluva of a night, from the shore I see the skyline

In a couple of hours from now Rick, we're gonna get out of this life

We'll stop for smokes, I brought a six pack, we'll stop at lookers on the way back

Hell, we'll laugh this off, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well tonight

We'll make the grade, they'll know our names, I need a friend to drive here

Wear my necklace of St. Christopher and talk to him while I go inside

I'll take that suitcase, get the cash and we'll be gone before you know

Wait until we tell the girls we're moving down to the Gulf of Mexico...

A friend of a friend needed a favor

Life was just what happened while we were busy making plans

We never saw nothing, there was a run-in

.9 millimeter steel was coming for the windshield of that Oldsmobile

As the cop said, "Show your hands!"

five months versus five years

"my epic ktm love story"

"you overwhelm me. especially today.

i really love today.

it's crazy lovely."

i guess that says it. it's really enough.

the plan: you have your difficulties, i know, so since i cant be your anything in singapore, i decided we could be husband-and-wife in malaysia. so since we're going on a rail trip northwards, i would propose to you in tanjong pagar railway station (which technically still belongs to malaysia and thus malaysian land), and we could be married for the day. to highlight the quirkiness and fable of it all, who cares about silver rings, i prepared silver tie bands for our fingers. and i designed and printed a 'certificate of marriage' for us to formalise our love and union "in malaysia" haha.

epic, isnt it? :)

if you would like the fine print, here you go: i started researching and designing the 'certificate of marriage' after my exams ended, oftentimes right in front of you. because for the last week we've been together almost 24/7, i couldn't settle anything, until when you went out on tuesday night, i ran off to prepare the stuff. i got up very early on wednesday to print the 'certificate of marriage' before my medical appointment, but there were problems, and later in the day i walked around novena looking for a printer, finally finding one at goldhill centre. they refused to use my paper though, i had to buy a full stack from them (!).

*well because of the eventual rush to catch our train, proposing in the station didnt materialise, so the new location was on the train itself. we had many witnesses, our fellow passengers. :)

i loved that you had the courage. for so many things, in so many ways.

i loved how you drove over to save me when i was caught in the rain going home.

i loved that you said yes. 

i loved how you laughed freely today.

i loved how your hands always reciprocated when i reached out.

i loved how you held my arm sometimes. makes me feel you really submit yourself to me.

i loved how you were truly concerned my walk home would be too long.

i loved how you tried to really be my wife for the day.

i loved how i could feel, faintly, that you do like me.

staple

her: do you have penknife or scissors?

me: yes! anything else?

her: you!

chatter

her: let's go running.

me: really?

her: no.

"i'll still like you without your long hair."

:)

becoming Fergie: my pick to beat Barca

a lot of talk going around on which 18 players Fergie should pick for Barcelona, out of his 22 league champions. some are shoo-ins, while some will be disappointed. this is my best team to face Barca.

van der Sar

Fabio                    Ferdinand                    Vidic                    Evra

Anderson                 Giggs                 Park

                       Valencia

Rooney

Hernandez

• it has to be 4-4-1-1, United's best formation this season, and which was especially effective against top opposition like Chelsea and Arsenal.
• most significant change will be to drop the languid Carrick because his central partnership with Giggs is too lightweight against Barca's engine room. Anderson, Valencia and big-game man Park to provide the muscle and legs, allowing Giggs to focus on a creative role.
• Rooney has to be at his roaming best to help disrupt Barca's possession and support Hernandez. if he gives Busquets enough trouble, United has a chance.
• the more disciplined Fabio to get the nod ahead of brother Rafael. but i won't be surprised if O'Shea is preferred over the twins.

12. Kuszack

13. Evans

14. Scholes

15. Carrick

16. Nani

17. Berbatov

18. Owen

• would play Nani, for his style, which is more effective against continental opponents, but the first eleven simply has no space for him on this night. would also play Scholes, for his ability, but the concern is he might be exploited by top-level opponents.
• most significantly, Owen is in as an impact player. ive a strong hunch he'll make it count. Berbatov's tendency for genius has to be called upon earlier if the forwards aren't effective.
• Evans ahead of the other defenders because he can come in as centre- or leftback.

left out: Rafael, Smalling, O'Shea, Fletcher, Gibson

*Kuszack makes the team automatically as goalkeeper cover, although he did not win a league medal