In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading. In part inspired by my trip to Switzerland, and in part feeling the need to suffuse my brain with some non-tech/business knowledge. I headed down to the library and borrowed “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and “The Year of Living Biblically” by A.J. Jacobs.

Both offered rare insight into the human spirit, and while I would hesitate to say they changed my life, they’ve definitely given me a refreshing perspective on things.

I’ve already finished “Three Cups of Tea”, so I guess I can talk about that first. The basic premise of this non-fiction story revolves around this man named Greg Mortenson, a multi-hyphenate in that he is a trained nurse, a mountaineer, an educator, husband and father. He is an American who went to Pakistan first to scale its mountains in the Korphe region, but due to his physical limits, he failed to reach the summit. However, on his descent, he discovered that the region was so cut off from the world, and was painfully lacking schools. And so he embarked on a decade long mission to build schools for the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although that wasn’t his original intent (which was purely to provide education for the kids), he realized that building schools that teach moderation, as opposed to extremism, was key to combating militant Islam and terrorism in a non-violent way.

The book chronicles his adventures in the Middle East as he befriends village mujahadeens, Taliban leaders, reporters, and normal civilians who live among the mountains he loves. His major relationships are all marked by a simple ritual – exchanging three cups of tea with the other person. The first cup signifies peace and goodwill, the second signifies friendship, the third, signifies a bond between family.

I’m currently reading “A Year of Living Bibically”, written by Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs. People might know Esquire as a lad’s mag, as secular a publication can be. So it was interesting that one of its editors would choose to take a year from his life and try to emulate the Bible’s laws, as literally as possible, all while living in New York City, and holding a job at a magazine that has a section called “Best Dirrtyy Talk”. (Fiiine, I don’t know if that section actually exists.)

It’s actually surprisingly funny. (I’m now more convinced that God has a kickass sense of humor.) I’m definitely recommending it to Jamison, reformed hippie turned campus paster :)

This morning, when I logged on to Blackboard, Penn’s version of IVLE, I saw this funny message from Professor B.
Lame things make me laugh on Fridays. :)

I realized I never really kept up with the aim of this blog - which was to record memories and observations from my everyday life. As the days fly past, there is a very real and increasing risk that the moments will run and blend into each other, the months will pass like a flurry and eventually, the years will just seem like a thick haze. If I don’t record anything down, I am sure my memory will fail me, I will forget the wondrous sights, the lessons learned and it will be like all this never happened. Well, I exaggerate of course, but I think it was Socrates who said that an unexamined life is a life not worth living. Also, it would be nice to pen down the mumbo jumbo that’s in my head into actual sentences, even though I run the risk of rambling. :)

So. There is a whole backlog of things to talk about, and I’ll start with the one that pops into my head now.

St Gallen Symposium, Switzerland, May 04 – May 10, 2009

I was honestly blown away by this event. The quality of the speakers, the participants, and even the organization of everything, from accommodation, transport and food (oh, the glorious food) was so impeccably arranged that I think based on that alone, I was inspired by Swiss hospitality and their commitment to quality.
But beyond these comfortable trappings, the conversations I had with the people I met during this week were extremely enlightening. These people honestly seemed to have a fervent desire to contribute positively to the world in very tangible ways. I’ll admit that I felt inadequate at first, because my self introduction tended to end at “I’m a finance major.” Period. No side project to eliminate world hunger, no non-profit to teach youths in third world countries entrepreneurial skills, no Silicon Valley startup. (I’m actually not making this up, Wyovhek and Ben are just some of the youths I met who are doing just that.)

The Keynote speakers were generally well-credentialed, although my interest in what they had to say largely depended on their individual charisma. Having said that, I did in fact learn a tremendous amount from the speakers, who included a Nobel Laureate, several politicians (even one of our own…), Presidents and luminaries from academia. I discovered that journalists tend to be the most engaging speakers, I guess because they have had to deal so much with people, and some of the lessons in communication naturally come across in their speech I guess.



My favorite keynotes:

Misha Glenny
Ex-BBC journalist, expert observer and commentator on Balkan states. (The President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, who also happened to be there later commented that Glenny probably knew more about the Balkans than he did. ;p) He delivered this fast-paced opus on global crime, and managed to pique my interest in the subject. It really was a bit like watching an action flick, but injected not with Hollywood bravado but the weary optimism of a man who’s been on the ground chasing the crime lords around.

Joseph A. Stanislaw
I was naturally anticipating this talk, because of the fact that his video “Commanding Heights” was one of the saving graces of my APB class. (I remember whenever the Professor said it was video time, I would be like “YESSSS”.) Stanislaw turned out to be a most riveting public/academic figure who has managed to retain a very sincere earnestness even after all these years. His mantra of changing the world a little step at a time really resonated with me. It all starts with that little lightbulb! (Go make sure your household is using an energy saving bulb.:))

Boris Tadic, President of Serbia
I was just impacted by his honesty. His country is not exactly thriving with prosperity, but he is extremely candid about what needs to be done and how to go about doing it. The much talked about EU candidacy may be given a hallowed glow under a more slick politician, but he gave a very down to earth response to this thorny issue: “Serbia just wants to develop for the sake of our own country, not for the sake of joining the EU.” And I thought, that seems like a very obvious statement, but on hindsight, it took no small amount of courage to say that.

Tharman Shamuragatnam
Singapore’s Minister of Finance was really solid in terms of his stance on pragmatism and simply the clarity in which he delivered his message. Surprisingly, he managed to get appreciative chuckles out of the audience, so kudos for having a sense of humor too. Having heard his spiel all my life, the message was nothing new to me, but I do think he is one of the few Singaporean politicians whom I’m drawn to.

Besides the Symposium itself, I got the chance to meet lots of fantastic people – Jasmin, my very gracious host. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hang out as much as I would have liked to because of our crazy schedules, but I definitely felt very welcome in her house.

St Gallen is a very small town, and there’s not much to do at night. We ended up going clubbing very frequently, and I guess because of the ongoing Symposium, everyone remained highly professional and conservative, meaning no skanky dances and what not. I wished we could have done something else, but I guess it was a good way to let loose for a while.

The Symposium really left a deep impression on me, and I’m committed to trying again next year. :) Heck, an all expense paid trip to Switzerland, throw in awesome learning and meeting cool people from around the world. I’m in! In the meantime, attack the pile of books!

Yesterday, I discovered that I haven’t completely abandoned that old, mean streak of competitiveness within me. Under frightfully calibrated circumstances, it continues to rear its head. The incident that elicited this sudden realization was minor, I was at the gym when a person I lack fond feelings for – let’s call him L – happened to be on the treadmill next to me. I looked at the speedometer on his treadmill – he registered a speed of 7 miles/hr. I then nonchalantly proceeded to ramp my speed up to 7.2 miles/hr. This was significantly faster than what I am normally used to, but I just wanted to prove, to him, to myself, to some invisible extension of my ego floating around or a random stranger who walked in, that I could run faster, perform better, be more well-liked, be smarter and on the whole, just live a better life than him. I don’t know how I made the mental leap from running 0.2 miles/hour faster to all these life projections.

I know, it sounds crazy and completely immature, but I realized that in some twisted way, I was pushed to really run faster in order to keep up with my silly façade. This silent battle of the egos lasted for a few more minutes before he eventually stopped and left the gym. I don’t think it was a sense of triumph I felt, but more a sense of embarrassment at having indulged in this ego feeding frenzy.
However, I will say this, in the long run, such negative forms of motivation are not sustainable, and one grows weary, almost at an exponential rate.

It absolutely takes more to be humble, to turn the other cheek, and after all these years, it is a lesson that I will have to relearn. Again and again. I’m sure the Lord has many more such lessons in store for me.

This was such a joyful weekend I felt like I had to make a post about it. Encouraged. :)

Campus Retreat, Spring 2009


Our awesome log cabin in the woods. They were pure play cabins, so none of those silly heating systems that city folk like. Woke up at 4 am from the sound of my teeth chattering in the bunk.


With Kiara. This girl's morning ritual is...amazing. ;p


Ever seen 274 people gather around and try to play dodgeball? Go Philly! (I, unfortunately, had to sit out due to a minor skiing accident from the previous weekend. But that has to be reserved for another post.)


The Hampton Road sisters! Meeting 34942 new people is on of the things I love about Retreats. There were Michael-Cera-in-Juno types, people with tattoos and multiple piercings, aspiring rappers, sports jocks, goth kids...all sorts of people, but with a commonality amongst them. :) It was amazing to just hang out with all these people and listen to the lessons.


On the road with the resident clown. I don't think I've heard a white boy do such an uncanny impression of a black gospel singer before. The four of us had a crazy time in the car. (Discounting all the times I peaced out after stuffing myself.)

By His grace, all this was possible. I don't know about the others, but I was encouraged. Now it's time to get to the living it out part. :)

Seriously, ol' Steve was pretty hot back in the day.
And Bill was so cute! Ahh, the geek squad pwns :)

Fantastic sites to increase efficiency and save time, so we can have more of it to waste doing other random stuff :)

Had a horrendous finance midterm this morning. Seriously, I couldn’t even comprehend some of my answers. And some of the portions required such creative mathematics that I would laugh if anybody else did that. So suffice to say I was depressed thinking about the possibility of flunking and paying back the scholarship blahblahblah.

Then this happened:



The boss bought the entire office tickets to the Phillies World Series Playoffs next weekend. Yup, that managed to cheer me up a bit.
:D

I realized that because of the restricted access to Blogger while I was in India, I never had a post on my time there. So, in order to avoid seeming like 3 months of my life was spent in some vacuum, I decided to put up random stuff which I dug out from the folder labeled "Tata":

India, by all accounts, is a bemusing mixed bag of contradictions. I see it in the streets, where the white haired swamis perched on bullcarts, with not parrots but cellphones perched on their ears. I see it in the high rise software complexes, standing in front of a vast shantytown, where the bosses are obsessed about leveraging efficiency but still love their pani puris during long chaat breaks. I see it on the roads, where the autos squeeze along side the latest Nano cars, but everyone stops to let the buffalo in front pause to take a dump mid-traffic. I see it in the newspapers, affixed with the latest horror incident of honour killing in the villages, yet awashed with airbrushed celebrities on Page 3. (This, I have unsurprisingly, been very fond of.)

All these, are what I see from foreign eyes, but I am getting accustomed to the chaos, and even appreciating the liveliness it brings.

At the market:

Buying tomatoes from the market is somewhat therapeutic for me. The hybrid versions, which are only available from the posh supermarkets are uncommonly huge and plump with juice. But equally, I enjoy the more humble tomatoes from the street stalls, although they are small and some are quite a discomforting hue. But the old women who sell them to me are very honest and charge me according to the rates that apply to everyone. Under the dim lights of their stalls (or most of the time, light from the unreliable streets), their craigy faces look up at me in a moment’s curiosity, but their expressions return to the same stoic one that has to face a hard life, the moment I hand them my coins and walk away.

In the auto:

It was my first weekend in Hyderabad, and we were in an auto on our way home. The auto driver took us through one of his untested shortcuts, which wound through the alley streets in Koti. I clearly remember a young girl, no older than 14, whose expression captured the wonder at having seen such strange, yellow-skinned people, packed into and auto. Oh yes, I remember her very clearly. She was pretty in the way adolescents are, innocent, yet forced to be mature by life. She was bathing a toddler in a metal basin outside her house. (I suppose that must have been her brother.) She was dressed in a mustard yellow sari, and she looked up as our auto drove past her home. Her eyes widened and she gaped at us for a nanosecond before breaking into a wide smile as we zoomed past.

Squeezing in the ladies compartment in the public bus:

I remember the bus was chugging along, and I was trying to hold on to something for balance, but of course, the bodies were too tightly packed for any space to move about. I was in a highly awkward position, with my full weight pressed upon this fleshy auntie. I could feel the softness of her body beneath the starchy sari.

I was expecting her to holler at me for being pushed up against her in that manner, but I guess in a country of more than a billion bodies, people get that it’s crowded at times.

In the bazaar:

I pleaded as sweetly as I could without being nauseating, for the shopkeeper to let me have the scarf for Rs100. He flat out refused me and said “Rs 150. No bargain!”. Of course, ever the pugnacious shopper, I tried again, but just I was prepared to give up because there were other customers around, the white haired shop keeper hitched his sarong, got up and whispered to my ear, “ok, best price just for you, Rs 120.”

Then, there was no more to be said.

Having said that, the green pashmina scarf is really pretty. :D

Reading the newspapers:

India has an obsession with information, much like all great democracies. The society might be conservative on the whole, but its newspapers are relatively liberal, publishing snippets on all and sundry. The pictures are filled with gory detail, of accidents, hangings, executions and murders.

***********************************************************************************

India is like a wonderful love affair, and it seems there must be a private narrative scraped out for preservation of whatever smoky memories I will come to have of this place. Chalo.

Working at a start up has been a sobering experience. VS at the adolescent stage of a great company, not quite a start up in its infancy, but not a well-oiled machine either. There are lots of menial things to be done, which of course fall onto the laps of those lowest in the food chain. Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I hold on to the hope that after all the photocopying, faxing, data-entry, there will be more exciting stuff to come. (Which is why I'm anxious to finish up the current work properly, because if I can't even handle simple data entry work, who's gonna trust me with more complicated things eh.)

Otherwise I'm just gonna bug people till I get to do more interesting stuff. :)

The culture in the office has two main modes: relaxed and ultra-relaxed, the latter kicks in on Friday afternoons after the main bosses take off for the weekend. Initially, (ok, even now), I was unsure of how to communicate with my colleagues. I guess there is really no other way to describe them other than sweet angmoh bengs. Amid all the bodily noises they emit during office hours, everyone busts their butts for the company, and they reward themselves with a pint or two after the week's targets have been fulfilled and Bootcakes scrawls a big red tick on the whiteboard beside the wii machine. P and I discussed baking cookies for the office people to celebrate Labour Day, and we're even thinking of caving in and use red, white and blue icing. -.-''

One of our bosses, let's call him M - he resembles a character straight out of the Sopranos. "I don't ever have a filter over my mouth," he tells me on our first meeting, and in that sense, he reminds me a bit of my own Dad. Fast-talking, educated inthe school of hard knocks, intensely loyal and extremely dismissive of crap. (I overheard him say in an even tone to someone over the phone "I only listen to the facts, so call me back when you get them straight.")

On my first day at work, my supervisor (let's call him "B") had some instructions for me, and I grabbed the first notepad lying on the desk. Turns out that the entire notepad had headers that were lovingly printed in elegant, cursive pennmanship, the words "Dear ****face". Truamatised. B didn't seem to notice, or at least he pretended not to, I'm not entirely sure what that says about VS culture.

In any case, to a great year ahead, farts, warts and all. :)

Work doesn't officially start till next Monday, so I've been pottering about the house being all housewifey and heading out to wander, somewhat aimlessly, but very enjoyably so.

Headed to school for a behavioral experiment, then went off to the bookstore to worm myself in a corner. I guess passing the hours like this can seem extremely agreeable, but I can sense restlessness creeping up on me. Obviously there are tons of stuff I could occupy myself with, but I suppose I should really use this week as a recharger before all the hectic-ness starts.

Waiting for the housemates to come home so we can set off to the frat house for the party preparations later. In all seriousness, I think that particular frat house is pretty gross, just cos there's so much random trash lying around. Thought about clearing away all the empty cans from the common room, but then I saw a roach scurrying past the kitchen door and freaked out a bit. (yeah, I know it's senseless, but I hate cockroaches. HATE. Ok, more like fear.)

So I got J to shoo the offending creature away before we all continued to marinate the meat. Seriously, I think my house in India was cleaner. :p

Random sightings:

On my way home from the bookstore, I walked past the cathedral next to our house and saw this homeless man in a tuxedo suit, sitting crossed legged on the steps and facing the large wooden doors of the church hall, snorting a cig furiously. His head was bobbing up and down and he seemed pretty out of it. So that's a whole new spin on taking it higher for the Lord.

Whew, mostly settled down in our new apartment. Things are still a bit messy, but it's oddly comforting to be arranging the salt, pepper and various spices on the shelves. We know where the water flask goes, where the utensils should be kept, our toothbrushes have their own space in the toilet.

My bed is by the window, the view is honestly nothing to shout about, but it's my cosy corner in the room. My sheets are in this awful paisley print, but they sort of remind me of India, so I'm keeping them.

Service today was similar to what we have back home, but the people might have been more enthusiastic than what this Singaporean is used to. American exuberance needs to be cultivated eh. Loved the whole Sister-Act vibe during worship though. (African-Americansoul gospel is always spine-tingling.:))

The housemates went out while I was at service, and while waiting for them to come home, I fell into a 7 hour nap. Woke up only at 7 pm, so I decided to venture out and check out the neighbourhood. Must have walked quite a distance, because after several streets, the houses took on a different facade and the cars were batty and blasted loud music. Found this little grocery store catering to the Indo-Pak migrants, and I bought some Pav Bhaji in a packet to cook. There was also a Rite Line outlet here, and I'll be persuading the rest to shop here instead of Fresh Grocer's near our place. (Since we're all being paid peanuts - and not the Mrs GCT variety.)

Got chastised by the rest for going beyond 40th Street (I must have wandered till the 48th), but I was adamant that the safety advice YL and other Singaporeans give us tend to be a bit too exaggerated. Sure, it may be a dominantly black neighbourhood, but that just means more Risque video stores (no kidding, walked into one by that name, then backed out quickly when I saw the categorization list), and not necessarily outright daylight violence. But then again, I'm stubborn about some things, hopefully I'll learn to rein in my "unassuming tendencies" and stick to the cobbled path. (God forbid I need to be taught a lesson before I do that.)

Can't seem to sleep though it's already 3.30 am. Perhaps the jet lag is finally setting in. That, or the 7 hour nap in the afternoon was a bad idea.

I shall go see what I can do about this.

2 jokes that did not make me laugh:

Unfunny Joke No. 1. Prof Lam, during Investment Analysis class:

Prof: Let me tell you all a joke. What's the difference between an investment bank and a hedge fund?
Student A: an investment bank faces more regulatory pressure than a hedge fund, and it holds more diversified assets.

Prof: Good try, but that's the textbook answer. Actually, the joke is that i-banks are more leveraged than hedge funds. HAHAHAHA!!!! (yeah, she let rip a guffaw)

Me: Maaaan, how is that even a joke?!?!

Seriously, I'm a bit worried that I don't find that in the least bit funny. What if my colleagues in the future are all bonding and laughing over jokes like that and I sit in a corner being sulky and not being part of all that hilarious stand-up?! I'll end up being an outcast cos I don't share their same love of finance jokes.

Unfunny Joke No. 2. From xx's (a web engineer) blog:



I did not roll over laughing from this one either. But understandably, because I'm not well-versed in programming code. Apparently the mother in the comic actually gave her son a name that deleted the school’s database of students through a method called SQL Injection. Um, hahaa?

All this funny business is making me slightly disturbed.

I know that technically, it's really none of my business, but for reasons beyond the fact that I am female, I feel strangely invested in this person:



Oh no, it's true then, I've turned into one of those noob third rate political junkies who are hooked on this race. :( But yeah, to quote Tina Fey, "Bitches get things done, people, get on board, Bitch is the new Black."

My mother and sister just asked me out to go clubbing with them. I told them I needed to finish up some work in school. -_-''

In other news, Chingay 2008 is finally over!! Woot!

I'm back from Winnipeg/Chicago. Had a blast in both cities, and learnt alot on the way. Everytime I come back from another country, I always have this urge to move away and live there for a while. Lem and I were saying that both of us would swop our red passports for a blue one :s Ohwell, Singapore still rocks la.

Ok, enough talking, pictures!
Transiting in Narita Airport, Tokyo. Pretty geishas were very obliging. I think they were highly aware of their exhibitionistic purpose. Oh yeah, and I met Jo by coincidence at the Narita airport. Turns out he was on his way home after vacationing in LA. Small world eh.

The team just before our presentation. Pretty fun bunch, heh. :P Will miss our marathon sessions. (Only very slightly)


We headed off to the local casino for lunch after the presentation. What can I say, the food was AWFUL. Seriously, Canadian cuisine is not very appealing. Sorry!

Me with one of our very sweet ambassadors, Bryanne. She chauffered us practically everywhere, took us shopping, sihgtseeing, cosmic bowling, and even got her Dad to cook us Caribbean curry.

The team at some dinner function. Poor Lem was MIA cos she had mild food poisoning. I had food poisoning on the first night from -get this- the hotel food. Delta Winnipeg was a pretty awesome hotel, but their food is absolutely horrendous. Spent the first night puking up the room service we ordered. (Creepy egg mayo sandwich, ugh) Thank goodness I recovered on the second day after throwing up all the toxins. -_-''

Jy and Mike, another of our ambassadors.

Ok, more pictures coming up after I'm done unpacking and then repacking to move back to hall on Monday.

Flew out of Winnipeg to Chicago yesterday. After the frigid cold of Winnipeg, Chicago seems positively warm to me. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda miss all the snow and frosty air :p

Anyway, am currently in the Harold Washington Chicago Public Library. It's a huge establishment, almost the size of the Supreme Court back home. Really nice place. They've got this massive computer room which I'm in right now, a museum and of course, millions of books. Interesting observation: when Lem and I waled pass yesterday, there were like 20 people lining up outside to get in the library the moment it opens its doors. We realised that they were mostly homeless people wanted to seek shelter and uh, use the internet. The guy before me kept going back to the librarian to complain that his account wasn't working, and they librarian snapped at him and said it must be because of the websites he's visiting.

Anyway to recount some of the highlights of Winnipeg:

Meeting our Ambassadors, who were all really sweet. They took us cosmic bowling, which is basically bowling in this glow in the dark aleey with teeny balls. We went shopping, walnut hunting, boozing, and a night out at the bar, which is kinda like Zouk back home. Oh yeah, that's where Terence spent all our money buying rounds of shots for everyone -_-''

Had mild food poisoning on the first day after this creepy sandwich from the Delta Winnipeg hotel, so I spent the first day pretty much out and puking out stuff. Thankfully, I recovered soon enough and was able to have fun, heh.

Mike bought us all shot glasses to take home after we finished drinking from them, but uh I guess we were so hammered, we just left them in his room. Uh, the stuff he gave us was kinda potent though, and reallyreally spicy. The bar had way tamer stuff, so even though Lem and I had about 12 shots bewteen us, we still pretty ok at the end of the night. Same can't be said of jy though. Haha, he was so gone, but yeah, the four of us had fun. Especially T! Our Sarong Party Boy. Oh man, that guy is one hardcore party animal. I'm such an old geezer, I'm usually pretty tired by 2 am and I can't party 2 nights in a row. I remember there was this one night we were supposed to get to a party at midnight or something, and T tried to wake me up, but I was so shacked I totally did not respond. Good on me. Too much partying ruins your complexion anyway :)

Managed to find a church in Winnipeg, Catholic, but better than nothing you know. Went in for mass for a while, but L wanted out and I didn't really know what the guy was talking about, so we left after a while. Had to settle for TV evangelists. Kidding lar.

Anyway, am making plans for Broadway! Toss up between Jersey Boys and Wicked, but I have an inkling of the one we'll ultimately be catching. :p

Tons of pictures which I'll upload on Facebook once I get home.

Have resorted to the curious and potentially destructive habit of snipping off a bit of my fringe whenever I'm extremely frustrated with studying. Somehow, I feel just a little better without all that hair in my face. Entertained whimsical thoughts of collecting hair from individual snips, putting them in a little glass bottle and labeling them with love - "2oth Nov 2007, 3.14 pm, Qn4(b)", tie it up with a fancy lace and then toss them out the window.

Well, for now, the aesthetic consequences are putting a very quick stop to this new inclination.

In other more exciting non-follicular news, I've been checking out on the fantastic phenomenon of the "aurora borealis", commonly known as the "northern lights", which are visible from the tundra terrains of Manitoba. Plus I also found out that there are polar bears to be seen around this time of the year! Whee, the adventures that come with the Arctic. :)

The bad news: actually traveling to the outskirts from Winnipeg and finding accommodation is hellishly expensive and might snuff out any chance of me getting to witness these beautiful sights. Will have to contend with Google Images to satisfy my wanderlust for now.


A picture I pilfered off the net - the aurora borealis in Manitoba.

我很想家，但是我要离开这个国家， 到一个很远的冬天， 去哪儿看北斗星。

Yet another awesome Sunday, Amen.

Was pretty discouraged in the morning, cos I witnessed a caustic little argument between my parents and realized that my father can be a difficult man to be married to. And when I got to church, things were a little frenetic and people were generally irritable. (Mostly due to feeling sick I suppose) But then I heard an absolutely cutting lesson from ZQ, and I'm thankful that there are always people who really give it to be and tell me what I need to hear, although I don't necessarily want to hear it.

ZQ started off by asking if we think God meant to deny certain things from us, by giving us so much, but yet forbid us from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then he said that as much as God loves us, there are certain things he reserves for Him and only Him to define for us - mainly the prerogative to define our moral framework, to give a truly universal definition of Good and Evil, because we obviously don't know how - as evident from all the wars people are fighting over controversial issues, where each side thinks they are doing the "right" and "good" thing. Then he just said that we are so stubborn in living our lives in our own terms that we don't want to follow God's will for us.

Man. Just what I did NOT want to hear. Since I've been pretty much self-absorbed and neglecting other people. Timely reminder indeed.

Cookies were generally well received, save from a brief moment when I caught someone trying very hard to bite into one. Ahem, since I baked them in different batches, some were unfortunately not up to standard. Hee. Ohwell, there were some good ones from the other batches though! ;p

Then I headed to Ahyi's house for Simin jie's 21st Birthday Celebrations. Woot! Had sooo much fun just catching up with my cousins, cooing and fussing around my newborn nephew, getting advice about stuff, listening to my uncles talk shop and of course, stuffing my face silly. :p On the menu: Ee-fu noodles (good!), Cereal prawns (juicy!), Breaded fish (good!), mango pudding (sweet!) and other stuff. Generally had a good time just letting my hair down, talking about girly stuff (boyfriends, or the lack thereof (but we agreed that we are generally nonplussed about that:)), hair, shopping, traveling, studies, work). I like my extended family (well, most of them anyway...). And Daddy managed to coax Mummy with some very shiny birthday presents. ;p

Ok, back to prepping for tomorrow's presentation :)