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





Tuesday, March 31, 2009



There's an air asia flight attendant who doesn't look like she's up for it. bad haircut, over-the-top make up and a scowl right out of a sergio leone film tells her story. flight attendants don't do their pre-flight safety demos with conviction these days. where's the love? i know they're just telling me about inflatable life jackets, but i swear i've seen that done with a lot more verve. what happened? maybe video versions of it happened. there ... one more star that video killed. 

as i disappear into the sky between kl and krabi, i'm simultaneously frustrated by the ventures' rendition of apache. what have they done to it? it should be so much more driving. where's the bite? where's that mysteriously alluring thing about apache that has always made it my favourite surf guitar number? they too seem to have forgotten how sexy their tune has always been. here's to krabi having more mojo than this.

air asia flight ak 862, 1.45pm krabi time

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Genusfrog [ 1:45 pm ] | 0 comments




You can tell a nation's concept of beauty by the girls they use to model their ads for their national carrier. my first impression was that of a thai air girl on a cardboard cutout. i knew it. thailand having better looking people is a myth. 

myth or not, the great medium that is the television in our hotel room threw up an entirely contrasting response.

travelbuddy 1: why do they have prettier girls here?
fergus: it's the population, dude. they got 60 million people. that's a lot more beauty in the gene pool.
travelbuddy 1: aaaahh.... the gene pool!

krabi river hotel, hot afternoon

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Genusfrog [ 3:48 am ] | 2 comments

Friday, January 23, 2009



You've awakened terrible things, thay. you have.

board rental is RM15 a day. private instructor's RM80 an hour. how much is it again to fly to kata beach at phuket? RM144 round trip? you know, that's not too bad. and accomodation? RM50 for a backpacker place huh.

let's see... that's about 700 bucks for five days of surfing at the beach, with surfing lessons, food, lodging, and travel all worked in. evil, i tell you.

pure aquatic sunset beach evil.

i wan.

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Genusfrog [ 11:44 am ] | 0 comments

Thursday, May 29, 2008
THE DISPOSABLE HOME

Some jobs will send you places. in fact, some jobs specialise in sending you places.

i heard of this company that offers you some really swanky career opportunities. the ladder, if you wanted to climb it, was yours to climb. you even get to travel.

yes. you travel. a lot. the idea behind all that travelling is that just before you can start putting roots down, they pick you up and send you on another exciting adventure. this way, you never get to form meaningful attachments to people or places. you're always just passing by. and the only attachment you can form is towards your company.

why else wouldn't you start climbing?

on the same day that i conceived of this post, a friend talked about never having known what it's like to have a longstanding home. always living out of a suitcase, so to speak. i happen to know what having a home is like. and i treasure it. putting roots down is a very meaningful thing to me. israel travelled forty years to find it. some people spend their whole lives running away from it.

me. i intend to hold on to it.

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Genusfrog [ 5:53 pm ] | 2 comments

Tuesday, March 29, 2005
SYDNEY IN THUMBNAILS

Hi everyone! Glad to be back at blogging. Ain't got time to post much, but here are some photos from Down Under!

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Genusfrog [ 5:56 pm ] | 0 comments

Saturday, March 19, 2005
THE GRACE OF SYDNEY

I'm going to sydney! praise the Lord!!!

it was only this tuesday that we were in the young adult's prayer meeting. and pastor lee choo was leading us all to pray for favour in our workplaces. and we did. we prayed really fervently over this. now, i know this is God. i know it's Him because nothing happens without Him.

two days later, i get word from my boss that i'm being sent to the sydney office for training. praise God!

you know, when good things happen to not-always-good people, there's always the feeling of why. and i've been thinking a lot about this - why me? i'm sure there are lots of folks in my office with the same question on their lips - why him? did i do something right?

then i remember the parable Jesus told about those guys who were hired in the morning, and they earned x amount. and those guys who joined in in the afternoon, but they also earned x amount, like the morning guys. and when the morning batch found out, they started asking what was wrong with the reward system. and the boss in the parable told them, if i want to pay them x, it's up to me. as far as i'm concerned, you agreed to work for x, so don't complain.

i always see this from the perspective of the morning folks. but now, hey, i've been blessed. you know, i'm getting something i probably don't deserve. i've to look my colleagues in the eye and try to have a laugh over it when for all intents and purposes, they're wondering "why not me". there are friendly colleagues who openly tell me they wish it was them. and then there are colleagues who don't say anything. it's hard. why me?

it does, ultimately, boil down to one's theology of grace. i believe that God is gracious and He will give to us blessings which we do not deserve. and in His own way, He will reward those who love Him with all kinds of rewards they can never earn. this is grace - the abject failure of people to earn blessings, yet by God's generosity, He gives it to us anyway.

have i loved God more? have i prayed harder for favour? have i been a better christian to warrant this? no! this is essentially the point! i have not earned this. so, does this make God unfair? i dunno. but God is God and He does what He likes without having to explain. i am convinced beyond doubt that God's grace falls on all who love Him. and sometimes even those who have issues with Him.

in the meantime, i'll be in sunny sydney from this sunday to the next. i'll try to go to Hillsong church for good friday or something. i'll try to blog from there if i get the chance, but if i don't, trust that i'll be having the time of my life.

until then, i'll rest in reverance of the indescribable grace of God, which you and i know, exceeds all understanding. fair dinkum.

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Genusfrog [ 2:18 pm ] | 0 comments