songs and BUBBLEWRAP

He's awesome, so I subscribe to him on Youtube.

"Short people got no reason to live." Oh my.

My orders from Desiring God came today...and much to my delight, the books came with a rather satisfyingly large piece of BUBBLEWRAP.

Instead of offering gum to someone next time, I could say, "Bubblewrap?". And we could both POCK our way through our conversation, ain't that great?

Also, I figured out that the next time I plan games, I could hold a competition for the Best Blind Bubblewrappoker. Blindfold the players and see how many bubbles they can pop in one minute.

Okay, maybe I should pock the bubbles with only one hand. There's just only one precious piece right now.

Ciao, Back2Bubblewrap.

2nd Gospel Coalition Conference

Spent a week in Chicago with Caleb to attend this conference. And I feel very, very encouraged and inspired after listening to the various speakers, speaking as a fellow pastor and student of the Bible to the many pastors and seminary students. John Piper never fails to remind me that emotions is a necessary component in spiritual growth. I used to have a particularly problematic view of emotions: emotionalism and legalistic obedience to be exact, alternating between either. But Piper has helped me reconcile the affective outbursts of the Psalmists, the Minor Prophets, Peter, Paul, John...it seems to permeate so much through each book: literally or metaphysically. He applies this to preachers and teachers as well, that whoever finds God's Word boring and sermon/teaching notes a chore "should quit". Rightly so, I believe - because the Word's ability to inspire, admonish and encourage is ignored. The Inspiration is obliterated from view.

Don Carson enhances this view by encouraging believers to not divorce the devotional and objective aspects of the Word, ie: our devotional reading of God's Word can be accompanied by studying it (as opposed to academical-izing study, making it a killjoy). He exhorts us to think, even during recreational or devotional reading, because much joy comes from knowledge. Tim Keller reminds me that the Great Commandment greatly values knowledge (funny how there is no mention of our emotional capacity).

John Piper's challenge is...challenging: to read less books (!!!) and annotate, mull, digest, reflect. On the other hand, Caleb and I got so many free books from the conference! We would have got TEN more if we had signed up for the Band of Bloggers Conference, but I guess it's good we didn't - had trouble packing and lugging the books (and the complimentary ESV Study Bible) around.

I wish I hadn't fall asleep during some sermons, but even my falling asleep this time round exposed me of my prejudices and immaturity. God, thank you so much for showing me my pride! I also enjoyed meeting and/or talking to Levy, Billy, Nathan, Jenkins, Gary, Kyle and others on the plane and during breaks. I give ten thumbs up for this experience because of the Holy Spirit's work, and for seeing Caleb again. YAY!

Chicken a la Carte

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

PC shared this on the fellowship listserv and it looks like a country really close to home. Don't waste food!

colorfuls on my White

I love Firefox Skins, Gmail Themes...and colors. They make life a little happier, especially when I have to write papers chiong style.

I took this picture at the bottom of the South Rim of Grand Canyon. Feels like a secret garden.

And look! Even pop-up windows are pretty too!


Ahhh, happy.

Read-thinking

"Imagine this scenario: Parents from around the world send their children to a rustic camp set in the midst of Kentucky's Bluegrass Region for the summer. All one hundred children became infected with a deadly virus during the first week of the camp and have but one month to live. Fortunately, a specialist who has seen a similar outbreak in New Mexico knows of a treatment: the Yucca cactus, when ground to a pulp, blended with vinegar and ingested over a period of three weeks, will completely counteract the virus and return the children to full health.

Unfortunately, every single child finds the smell of the concoction so utterly repulsive that no amount of coaxing by even the best of counselors succeeds in getting anyone to eat any of it. To make matters worse, the virus somehow drives the children mad, prompting them to lash out in foul language at those trying to help them and to accuse their counselors of gross misconduct. Luckily, yet another specialist develops a serum that, when injected hypodermically, creates within the child an insatiable passion for eating the Yucca mash.

Now imagine that new of the virus reaches the alarmed parents. The camp director immediately sends a letter reassuring them that he loves all their children, that he is offering to all their children the life-saving Yucca mash in liberal quantities, that he will supply this expensive preparation without charge and that all children will be brought to the cafeteria three times a day and strongly urged to eat.

Three months later, the parents arrive in the Bluegrass to retrieve their children. But at the campsite, they are stunned to discover that seventy-five children have died from the virus. Interrogating the director, they discover that the life-saving food could not work its wonders unless the child was injected with the appetite stimulant. On further questioning they discover that the director had chosen to inject only twenty-five children with the serum, though he had an unlimited supply at his disposal. To say nothing about their anger and grief, the parents are utterly perplexed!

In chorus they immediately challenge the claim made by the camp director in the letter they had received, asking, "How can you claim to have loved the seventy-five dead children if you could have saved them but didn't?" We can imagine just how unconvincing some of the director's answers might be: "But I offered the Yucca mash liberally, freely and passionately." Yes, but all this talk about the merits of the mixture misses the issue of the serum! "But the children are to blame, since they ate exactly what they wanted and violently rejected my help!" Yes, but you fully controlled exactly what each child wanted! "But note how much attention I lavished on these children in the last weeks of their lives." And you call this love - to provide the most exciting camp activities to a child as she dies, while you withhold the very serum of life?

The director's claim to love all children rings hollow at best, deceptive at worst. If love will not employ all available means to rescue someone from ultimate loss, it is hard to hear the announcement of universal love as good news. Indeed, it is hard to hear it as love at all. In our judgment, it becomes meaningless to claim that God wishes to save all while also insisting that God refrains from making the salvation of all possible [footnote]. What are we to make of a God whose walk does not match his talk?

...[In the Calvinist interpretation,] the true intentions of God cannot be discerned from his words."

Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell, Why I Am Not A Calvinist (2004: 54-5, 57) (emphases theirs).

On another note, I have about two to three books I've borrowed from friends here that I want to finish reading within this month, so I can return them before I leave Tucson. On top of school books and writing papers. Speedy eyes and spongy brain!!!

Christian America

Greg Boyd's Don't Weep for the Demise of American Christianity, Christus Victor Ministries

Jon Meacham's The End of Christian America and Faith isn't Under Fire, Newsweek

Judith Warner's This I Believe, New York Times

Still thinking about it, but it seems to corroborate with what I've seen and encountered with Christian America and many American Christians.

Keeping a tab on:
De Civitate Deo, Augustine
The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church (2006), Greg Boyd
The Cross and the Sword Sermon Series (2004), Greg Boyd

I need to debunk my professor

On the Wednesday after spring break, I had my first conference with Mr Clouser. And he's challenged me massively to my ideals of beauty. He said the reason why many people don't think convulsion and contortion (think African trance) is beautiful is because of cultural differences.

No, I think on top of personal experience and the natural, observable world, the Bible has something to say about the parameters of beauty. And spiritual oppression for that matter.

Quick, I need an intelligent answer to make him accept my stand.

Anthropology 395B

Two of Kristeva's interests seem to coincide with our own: the creation of subordinate groups through positioning in language (Kristeva is especially interested in women), and the disruption of the process through which such positioning is habitually achieved.

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The meaning of style (1979)

Thanks Dick, but why would want I to know if Kristeva is especially interested in women. And her interest in women does not coincide with mine.
Besides, I'm attached.

DiaS'pura and Philly

Revisiting Philly was great. It felt like savouring a lovely cup of crème brûlée nuanced with many layers of flavours - bittersweet with cocoa, XO durian and wine, rich like Naked Chocolate Cafe, and intoxicating like sundubu. Not to mention speaking Singlish, meeting up with Singaporeans (great comfort for any of the 5 Singaporean students now in UofA) and talking about things close to heart.

I really liked Sing City! 2 and the whole idea of DiaS'pura. Li-Anne Huang, Mirabelle Ang, Boo Junfeng, Mr Brown and Eva Tang. Of course, very impressed with Josh's super-proficiency in Singlish, and thankful and proud of Caleb, whose compositions fed my ears with a palate of different styles. Also, I finally saw Debs, whom I missed in California, with her friends of confused nationalities: Singaporean in Melbourne on exchange to Berkeley + Korean New Zealander who spoke Debs-influenced Singlish.

I think Josh has revived "cockanaden", though I've yet to see how I can use that in my vocabulary.

I spent a lot of time with Jon (Ong), Zhi Wei and Limmy since we were all bunking over together over the weekend. Talked a lot of nonsense, caught up with each other and made fun of each other. A generally hilarious bunch of people, except at 3am when people did homework or got attacked by the Dizzy Monster.

I speak as someone who stayed there only for a really short time, but it was generally a very comfortable feeling to be in Philly again. Walking about in Penn, around University City, past the Schuykill River into the city, and into Tenth and Rittenhouse Square. Washing dishes, laying on the couch, doing homework on the desk...even the feel of the carpet felt comfortable.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER!

On another note, I'm on to my seventeenth verse (Ephesians 2:8-9) on Jon's Topical Memory System. My favourite verse so far is still the very first one.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

My trip to Philly was well worth it. I'm contented :) Looking forward to staying there in summer again after the semester.


Noodle Blues from Sing City! 2, on www.mrbrown.com