Bersih 2.0

Since Facebook seems to be having so many people who include the Bersih badge on their photo..

Why not blog about it?

I've always found it ironic that so many people are all powered-up and charged to support causes for the 'bigger-picture'/'macro' stuff when their own personal lives are out of order and disorganized. Some people fight for causes of other human rights and blablabla but if you check back their own family lives, they don't give two hoots about who dies, who's sick, who needs help, who's hurting. I suppose there's more glamour in helping the bigger picture? (After all, who sees if you put your family first..)

I've been in and out of several NGO's since secondary school days, and most times I leave with a dissatisfied feeling after working with a few others. Back then I ignored it. Now I think I've pinpointed out why.. it disturbed me that some people seemed to care more for strangers than for their own family. And many times, I was one of them.

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world." -Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.-

Just some food for thought.

God bless,

Jo

P.S. I'm falling sick and the other half is recovering from a powerful cold that knocked him out last week!

Happy Father's Day!

The video says it all.

(This song is one of my favourite emo songs when I think of dad.. haha but I'm not emo-ing now lah, just thought I'll share it on this blog. Enjoy!)

Artist: Shawanda Crystal Song: You Can Let Go (Emphasis of final chorus mine)

Wind blowin’ on my face
Sidewalk flyin’ beneath my bike
A five year-old’s first taste
Of what freedom’s really like
He was runnin’ right beside me
His hand holdin’ on the seat
I took a deep breath and hollered
As I headed for the street

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I’m ready
To do this on my own
It’s still a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go

I was standin’ at the altar
Between the two loves of my life
To one I’ve been a daughter
To one I soon would be a wife
When the preacher asked,
‘Who gives this woman?’
Daddy’s eyes filled up with tears
He kept holdin’ tightly to my arm
‘Till I whispered in his ear

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I’m ready
To do this on my own
It still feels a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go

It was killin’ me to see
The strongest man I ever knew
Wastin’ away to nothin’
In that hospital room
‘You know he’s only hangin’ on for you’
That’s what the night nurse said
My voice and heart were breakin’
As I crawled up in his bed, and said

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Your little girl is ready
To do this on my own
It’s gonna be a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
You can let go

If people ask me what I've done so far for my holidays... my answer is simple: Growing up. There are still so many things to learn, to do, ever since I've told dad to let go. Running a household is far from easy, but I'm learning and managing somehow. Trying to ensure the cars have petrol and air (tires), ensuring phones and touch n' go cards are topped up, ensuring bills are paid, buying essential items, obliging the whims and fancies of family whenever I can... doesn't sound like much but I can't even keep up with these few things. :-(

The cars are long overdue for servicing but I've not managed to send them for servicing. Creaking and making funny noises. If any one of these cars break down one of these days on the road it'll be my fault (and this blog post will just be proof that I didn't do anything to prevent it). The internet is highly unstable and laggy because I think I've failed to keep viruses out of it and bro is just too darn busy with work to maintain the internet well. My biggest worry is the internet because a compromised connection means all our important data is at risk. But I can't do anything about it..

The things I've mentioned are the things dad used to do without complaint. Especially combating viruses whenever I did some stupid things like clicking on virus links or opening virus-filled emails/attachments etc. I find it highly ironical that I've now got to sort of 'take over' his role although I'm obviously the completely wrong person to do it. -_- Needless to say I'm a complete failure and our constantly trying to ward off viruses isn't working because I'm just not IT savvy enough (if at all).. *sigh*

Anyway, just a relatively short post to wish you... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Hope you had a great one with your dads! =) Appreciate your dad no matter how much he frustrates you, typical Asian dads tend to do that to us more 'westernized' kids. Hehehe.

God bless,

Jo

I detest...

Consumerism.

It's rare that consumerism consumes me. Usually I can just say no to things that my heart begins to want and walk away, the evil desire to spend unnecessarily will fade away fairly quickly.

But when it does consume me, it's usually for some ridiculously expensive thing. Which makes up for my lack of shopping non-stop like some girls are wont to do.

This time it's bad. -_- I've been wanting an Ipod Nano 6th Gen (the mightily CUUUTEEEE one!) for months now. And it's not going away although I rarely even entertain the idea of THINKING about it, much less walking into Apple stores and playing with it.

But it's at a ridiculous price of RM549 (for the 8gb version)! :(

Which is a complete turn off. At least, I wish it were a complete turn off. But it's not. :( Cause I still desire it, no matter how hard I'm fighting against it.

What makes it even more ridiculous is that my bro has told me I can use his Ipod Nano 4th Generation. Which means I have a very good music player in hand already.

So dramatic hor? But how?

I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it

:( I still want it.

Haha. I'll be fine, I will. :-)

Just thinking aloud. The power of consumerism. Dang, Steve Jobs is the cause of this!

Have a good day & God bless!

Jo

Essentially...

... It's your own, personal journey which no one can walk along with you.

I'm talking about the pilgrimage, the journey of faith we make. (To non-Christian readers, this may appear shallow and nonsensical but hey, it's my blog ;-) )

I've come to realise that it's each individual's journey which we can't expect to be accompanied with.

To 1st generation Christians who are accustomed to persecution and going to church alone, you would be used to it.

But for people like me, who grew up in church, for whom Sunday church used to be a family affair in which we all went to church together, it's a hard realisation. But hey, better learn now than never, right?

So many Sundays as I head to church alone I contemplate over the great change in my life that I still find hard to grasp sometimes.

At some points, I even ask myself questions which if spoken aloud, people would send me for counselling of the highest order.

*Which is why I'll never ask these questions aloud ;-)*

Like they say, it's more cruel to give someone everything only to take it all away, than to leave a person with nothing from the very start. Simply because the former has tasted all the riches and comfort of life, only to lose it all. The latter? He never knew a better life, nothing to miss.

Am off now,

Jo