BLOGGER



Youngest kid of six with an inferiority and black sheep complex, but determined that God saves not just his soul to heaven but the remainder of his manic-depressive life, so others won't say he became a Christian and remained a jerk.


MAIN THEMES

On identity
i won't be transparent before i'm opaque. and you'll get to know me starting from the small things: who my favourite bands are. what kind of movies i like. who are my heroes.

On Christianity
I’m convinced that when confronted with sincere, real love, the Jesus factor will become obvious. But let’s not plant the cross before we carry it. I’m not trying to con you.

On dreams
Some dreams are meant to be achieved. I know that. But maybe other dreams are meant to drive us, privately. Never known to anyone but ourselves.


OTHER THEMES

On melancholy
It is a sadness that, when choosing between crying and sighing, will choose sighing. I'd almost say that melancholy is being sad about sadness itself.

On memory and nostalgia
It saddens me when life moves forward and people decide that certain things are worth forgetting.

On language
I've learnt that the word irregardless is filed as a non-standard word in the English language. That's a lexicographer's way of saying it's not a real word.

On politics
Crowds are fickle things. So when we stand in the thousands and cry against the present government, do we know who we're actually crying for?

On society
People always want the best for themselves. But I want to sometimes take second or third or fourth best, just so that the loser down the road doesn't always have to come in last. It must feel like shit to always come in last.

On growing old
Leasehold property make me feel sad. It doesn't matter how old the family photos are that you put on your wall. It's your family but it's not really your wall.

On philosophy
I ask you, if God loves everyone, and if God is also incapable of loving evil, how can there be such a thing as an evil man?

On a daily basis
One line quips, like this.


CHAT





Friday, November 28, 2008
6-MONTH

adlinr: hey man

is it:
6 month complimentary subscription
or
6 months complimentary subscription
or
6-month complimentary subscription
?

you can send me invoice later
i'm having a brainfart

Fergus: either

6-month complimentary subscription
or
6 months' complimentary subscription
or
6 months of complementary subscription
or
12 months of complementary subscription if you've helped Adlin with sub-editing

adlinr: hahha.. thanks!

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Genusfrog [ 4:52 pm ] | 0 comments

Thursday, November 27, 2008
PERSONS

We're all headed to the dogs now. i just know it. 

onward launch then to my gripe, which is about people using "persons" as the plural form of "person".

it's wrong.

it's wrong in 99% of the time you use it. it's probably only right in three circumstances:

(1) when you're drafting a contract
(2) when you're drafting a bill for parliament
(3) when you have a rabbit crawling into your behind.

on all other occasions, the plural for person is PEOPLE. 

that's right. takes you back to those good primary school days, doesn't it? well, yeah. you have to love those nostalgic days. those days when square tables sat four people and not four persons. you know, those days when you throw a party and you stand back and say "my, that's a lot of people" rather than "my, that's 56 persons". you don't remember those days? it's those days man, the ones where your english teacher taught you plural nouns and distinctly told your forgetful arse that the plural of person is people. 

you don't remember?

forgetful arse. 

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Genusfrog [ 3:16 pm ] | 1 comments

Monday, November 24, 2008
THAT RESTLESS FEELING

Like something bad is about to happen.

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Genusfrog [ 2:40 pm ] | 1 comments

Sunday, November 23, 2008
IT STARTS HERE

Properly anyway. Thanks for your trust.

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Genusfrog [ 2:41 pm ] | 0 comments

Thursday, November 20, 2008
REMEMBERING MAVIS

Do you remember mavis? we weren't really that much younger if you do the math. 

i'm sorry it's not panning out for you right now. we never really kept in touch like how we said we would. i didn't even really know when the shit started hitting the fan.

i downloaded that lantern album two days ago. partly as a tribute to you. i'm listening to it properly now for the first time. i never really got to hear it properly when you wanted me to. 

please hold up. 

please stop holding up.

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Genusfrog [ 2:04 pm ] | 0 comments

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
LAST TO KNOW

In almost every sphere that i live in, i'm usually the last to know things.

by things, i guess i mean gossip. and rumours. and stuff that falls in the category of word going around. by and large, i just don't have the habit of asking that first question, and even if the topic crops up, i don't ask that second question - the one that cues people to start letting it rip.

because of this, it takes me a lot longer than other people to find out that that someone has tendered their resignation, or that x and y are now xy, or that pq are now p and q. sometimes, because of my lack of initiative to bother digging deeper, i never know things till it's very old news. 

i actively made myself this way because i really don't like to hear gossip and people close to me probably know i won't give them the response they're looking for. 

but it's also annoying to always be the last to know. 

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Genusfrog [ 3:36 pm ] | 1 comments

Monday, November 17, 2008
HOW I ENDED UP WITH A LOT OF 2008 EPs

Fergus: i think end of year i wanna do a list of top 10 EPs

Chrischew: hahah ok
got that many ah

Fergus: dunno. gotta look
i download a fair few randomly for the b-sides
on some teruk days
anything with a 7" on sordo that isn't doom sludge metal, i take

Chrischew: ahahahahahaha

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Genusfrog [ 3:48 pm ] | 0 comments

Thursday, November 13, 2008
WHAT ARE WE REJOICING FOR?

When we ask our young adults to rejoice in suffering and be glad in tribulations, what are we really hoping to get from them?

maybe they're not even suffering in the way paul meant. maybe paul wasn't talking about bad bosses, mean deadlines and frustrating clients.

maybe he didn't even mean making ends meet, where one end is a new condominium and the other end is paying off a 50 thousand dollar wedding.

maybe he was talking about what he was talking about on every other occassion - suffering for the gospel.

how much of our yuppie suffering is for the gospel?

if it's really not for the gospel, then why the hell are we rejoicing?

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Genusfrog [ 11:48 am ] | 0 comments

Friday, November 07, 2008
THEOLOGY OF PRAYING FOR FOOTBALL

I'm not kidding. it's a theology i hold.

i pray for football.

i pray for no injuries. i pray for good and fair officiating. there's a lot to pray for in football that doesn't make you out to be a psychobiased fan. i pray against bad weather, bad calls and maybe i'll work in praying against bad support like racism and hooliganism. i pray for good football and that fair, honest teams win.

and then there's the bit where i pray for my team. yes, my team. i pray for the first eleven, all the bench warmers, the manager, the coaching staff. i pray for success for them. i pray for good team selection, good substitutions, effective strategies, and always a favourable result. i pray that whatever my team touches turns to gold. or silverware, as the case may be.

does Almighty God care about football? does he influence results? if he cared, would he be a liverpool fan?

the truth is, i have no idea. i secretly dislike it when liverpool fans call robbie fowler god, cos i think it's harder to pray to God when 60,000 fans are mistaking him for their centerforward. but yes, i don't know if God cares for football results per se, but i do know that he cares for people, and footballers are people.

on some level, he has to care.

and if my christian life is supposed to be cohesive and whollistic, then there's no wriggle room for me to keep some things spiritual and other things secular. my prayer life would have to consume every aspect of my daily experience.

think about it. if kaka was in your cell group, wouldn't you surround him before a cup final and pray for him, that he will do well at his job, that he will receive favour from his bosses, that he will find success and that his success will glorify God's name?

exactly.

if we can pray like that for our friends, who are dear to us, why can't we pray like that for our sporting heroes, who are also dear to us?

i pray for football, but it's conditional. i have to testify about it. and so i do testify about it. today, i'm testifying that i prayed for 30 minutes of the second half of chelsea v liverpool and in the dying minutes, i was sitting outside the hall at YA camp, arms wrapped around my knees and i was praying in tongues that liverpool would hold on to their 1-0 lead. which they did. and i thank God for it.

was it God?

i prayed for it so i have to believe it is, don't i? and i do. sincerely, i do. and when i was praying, i remembered malouda jumping over steve finnan in the same fixture last year to win a bizarre penalty that kept that day's score 1-1. i asked God if he could reverse that decision tonight. as i prayed i also saw riise's own goal in the champions league semifinal and i asked God why, and if he could, if he could reverse that result tonight. i prayed. those two very bitter goals from the past were reversed that night. do i have any room to disbelieve?

some people ask me, "fergus, what if there's a chelsea fan out there praying for his team to win?"

in answer to that question, fair game. we both pray. but i'll pray anyway. cos maybe there isn't. maybe nobody is interceding for chelsea. maybe God looks across the entire population of football fans following the game that night and he's waiting to see if anybody sincerely believes that He can make a difference, and is exercising that belief by verbally breaking into prayer.

to be honest, i think lots of people pray too. maybe they don't make it a pre-match ritual. i'm not really that crazy yet as well, but maybe i'll get there one of these days. maybe if liverpool's title chances start to crank up then i'll call a holy fast or something.

i dunno man. maybe you've never prayed for football but you've prayed for something equally insane. care to share?

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Genusfrog [ 6:00 am ] | 1 comments

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
COULD IT BE?

Last night i was reminded that the richest 1% of the world has 40% of its wealth.

the top 10% of the world's richest - that includes you and me - own 85% of the world's resources.

the poorer 50% of the world has access to only 1% of the world's wealth.

you know, i remember reading the quip "in order to make poverty history, you must also make affluence history". thought it was cute. perhaps a little left-wing to hold up against centrist thinkers.

today, i think, maybe it's true. maybe if there's really enough in the world to go around, then the problem of having poor people is really inseparable from the phenomenon of the wealthy.

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Genusfrog [ 2:43 pm ] | 0 comments