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religious talks and thoughts

actually i dun mind a good religion talk with anyone... just as long as they dun try to flare up at being challenged or doubted.

i feel many people get frustrated at talking about their religion, and get ultimately defensive.
i think it's perfectly cool to defend your religion you know, it shows how well versed and confident you are in your religion.

if you flare emotions and avoid the topic,
people, at least i, would think that you are not confident in what you trust, and you are afraid to face it.

i have friends who i debate often with about Christianity.
Me from the view of a scientist.
Them from the view of faith.
i tell it's hard, because we are always not talking on same grounds.
but i think it's interesting and enriching.
and soooooo engaging ... ha

in my most recent talks,
my friend, someone who we think he's a potential pastor ha...
stands valiantly against the onslaught of 3 of us.
he knows the bible quite well.
and he agrees with me that many pastor and believers are selling Christianity in the wrong way.
He has his own thinking and conclusion about God.

some interesting points i thot was valuable from the discussion.

1. i prefer to refer to the bible as a storybook. even my pri and sec sch always say that... that the bible is the only story book you will ever need. it resembles a collection of man's experience with God, and thus stories, and less of a properly documented, less biased history book.

so if it is more like a storybook, it can be used like the Aesop's Fables to teach good values. Just like all other religions, Christianity justifies its existence as a strong religion because the teachings direct believers to become good.
but you can't use a storybook to make people believe that "a being above all" exist. it is not justifiable scientifically.

2. the bible is full of stories. and learning points. believers often use biblical references to substantiate their preach. in this sense, one very important question can be asked.
events that happened in the bible, are examples to tell you what the moral is like, what has God intended, and what does it reveal about God's ways.

a. Did the events come first, and by virtue of hindsight, a meaning for what the events speak about came along? OR

b. Did the meaning and moral came first, and events were selected to fit in to display that meaning?

you must be aware that then:
a) that could be misattribution. and the whole bible chapter was one man's records, and that suggest it was one man's interpretation! is it really reliable to trust ONE man's words, however noble and saintly he is? or could he be like what happened in WWII. The jewish were innocent, and hitler's persecution was really unfounded, but if everyone believed enough, every thing that happened to Germans were related to Jews. be it your chicken died. or my house bombed.

b)there was falsification potential. and really even more serious misattribution. Since events were plucked out of their context to fit into the story. Let's look at Shi Ji by Sima Qian. I've read that Sima Qian collected stories from the public, and often, he couldn't be the one talking to every single person. so many people collected stories. And i tell you some stories from the public (min jian), are really tales, and rumours, and even legends. The Shi Ji could have faulty parts no doubt. And none of the history books are truly accurate. Good examples are what Japanese schools are teaching for history lessons. And how Chinese govt covers up some things about Imperialism and the Nationalist. History is political! and history are written by the victors!
The point is if we truly treat the Bible as a history book, allow for the potential for real errors.

-----

Ha if you had read till this point, realise also that i'm not launching a face attack on bible, the things i talked about are methodological concerns, because of scrutinising of methods used for collection, compiling... we are testing the validity of a piece of info.
If as any other history books, if the bible has less than satisfactory validity, the theory about God that it is telling, falls short of validity too.
I'm also not disproving any one's God. I can predict that to Christians, God exist with/without the bible. To them it will be about faith, as i'm being sold the idea by many friends.But when you quote examples from the bible, think about what i say, about the stories' validity.

Think really, if you are telling me that you are going to tell me a story from the bible, you are also telling me that you are not telling me a historical fact. You can't really use stories to prove a God exist. But you CAN use stories to sell me ideas about how to conduct your life holistically.

I am presenting my doubts and thinkings.
I'm not picking a fight, in case you are seeing this, clement.
hee
i always welcome a healthy discussion about this.
just share our views!

i think i'm really not a good admin person.
i suck at admin
ha
i'm working on my Student Exchange Program admin now.
and i'll be out for about 5mths to Perth, University of Western Australia for exchange!
but before that, let me try to get the insurances thing and visa things settled.
what a hassle.
grrr....

and let's set a possible date to leave.
11 jul
cos my orientation starts on 12 jul, and i just need 5 hours to fly there!
my top choice is valuair budget airline.. although my friend did an econ analysis on airlines for his project and concluded that it's not budget.
any other suggestions?

and suddenly i think i'm too involved in foc again,
and trying to work and get money, that i'm actually neglecting time for getting my admin done, and catching up with friends....
and not forgetting one big concern... the future of swaps... i do want to do something before i leave. cos i presume by the time i'm back... the dust have settled... ha

i'm a dreamer.

advisor to re-fresh!

i'm holidaying!
actually last paper was only 21 days ago, exactly 3 weeks.
me as an advisor...good luck to foc comm... ha.

yeh i've been actively dishing out my tricks to the comm.
i've been pestering eugene, informing him of some of the impt coordinating jobs he should be involved in, suggesting ideas, and hopefully not stressing him out or pissing him off (what a busybody advisor ha)

i follow programs wherever they go.
have been sitting in 90% of their meetings so far.
i think as an ex-programmer i feel attached to these roles.
and as advisor, i see that programs make or break the camp.
but this programs group are having a lot of progress.
considering how late they started, they have more or less have a fixed plan in their mind liao.
their strength: this is a more experienced group in terms of camp experience, and they are creative! have more spontaneous ideas then what my programs was.
although i felt they lacked more adminstrative results than what we had in the last programs. As they move into the next stage, trial and amendments, i'll try my best to offer better ways to manage, and cope.
but somebody please restrain me, if you are an advocate of advisors only advise, but they dun try to do the work for them or make decisions for them.
not that i do, but i'm a menace, attacking their ideas now so that they can patch up loopholes now instead of them surfacing later!

ha
i wished foc planning started earlier.
if we will ever have another foc as swaps, can someone please see to that?
hee

done with arts open house i always do my best when i'm tasked to do something. and trying to do my best almost always tires me out. same goes for open house. gene asked if i could handle open house. ha i was guessing cos everyone had something to do in sem 2, but i was away for quite some time because i was sick with a hole in the lungs. and with that i feel guilty (why should i? i dunno... responsibility?) so i agreed. i thought of it as an easy job. how hard could org an open house thing be? esp when i'm just helping out Steven Graham. and getting to know steven graham was one of my catch of the event. it wasn't hassle free, as i kept up with planning with Dr Graham through the exams. I started this evil cycle 3 sems ago. while as a programmer, we planned foc thru the exams. last sem, i planned Absolut through the exams. this sem, i'm planning open house with graham through the exams. i'm lucky with added stress during exam periods. i certainly do not hope to be a victim like this way again next sem onwards. i have been working hard at open house preps. while attending foc meetings as advisor, i squeeze in time to go to sch and helped graham to design banner, and settled refreshments for him. and i spent many mornings and late nights coming up with posters and material to complement the talks. it would have helped if someone just brainstorm with me what publicity material to come up with, but hey, i chose to work alone again. I thought i preferred to have sole decision on what designs to come up with. dun think it's good on the whole as i tire myself out, and we pale in comparison to what sw students came up with. but i had a good intention, FOC lurks, and everyone i know is involved. i can't touch jean, she has good reasons. i dun wanna touch gene, cos i didn't want to take away his rest, and push him into a drained animal that becomes hostile to anyone. besides, i still think he's hard to work with, we are both individual workers, and unconsciously, he's the one that gave me this job. actually, gene, this wasn't the way i wished we had worked together. but you always dun consult us, but choose to tell us the decision when you have made one. no teamwork. but i had to take up the major projects, and i couldn't spare any energy left to tell you how i prefer to work with you. good for you, you're spared from my pestering, and i believe it gives you the room to try to manage 18th comm in the way you wanted. bad for me. I'm already drained from foc, video, and immediately absolut, and after absolut, from swaps. i guess i didn't have the fighting spirit left, and now i'm in the fading out stage. with my unfulfilled dreams for swaps. okok. nevertheless, open house has ended. time for me to look ahead, and get my sep prep finally going. it'll be prob bye bye swaps for one sem. and i shall see what i can savage of my dreams for swaps. while regaining a bit of life for myself.

am i anti bloggin or wat?
ha
i must have a fulfilled life.
haven't stopped working for any one day.
not working as in getting paid for a job, but doing stuff, be it preparing my exchange, preparing the open house, or clearing newspapers, backing up my laptop so that i can send it for re-format soon.
urgh... all those stuff.
i have been reading blogs, but not writing blogs.
i admit i have lost the meaning for myself to write down blogs.
once again.
i always wanted it to be for logging things that i learnt.
but more often it becomes a place to whine.
yah but i dun have many people to whine too, and i dun readily whine to people you know, where else can i vent my frustration and share my opinions?
duh...
let's not assume everyone person is the same, and can feel the same by doing the same things.
some people can feel liberated by playing games, some need a good dinner then sharing of lives with close friends to release themselves of bottled up feelings.
we all obtain our release/relief in different ways, because we dun all have the same protoccols of communication.
we dun all have the same resources to turn to for help.

for that.
this is what i learn.
and to apply that, it means some of you reading it may think
A: i knew that long ago
B: i never realised that, thanks
C: what you talking about, why you so hard to understand.

it makes understanding people interesting right?
it's why communication is a skill, and people write books after books about them.
and why it sells, because many of us are having deficits in communications?
(what has communication got to do with understanding? uh... understanding is an essential first subset of communication... get it?)

天梁小昭――玲珑心、柔中劲

昭，是一个清白的字眼，光明磊落，如日月昭昭。倚天屠龙中的曼妙女子多如银河繁星，倘若说，赵敏、芷若是骄阳、旭日，那溶溶如月的清婉气质只属于细腻温婉的小昭一人。

月亮澹然而优雅，不需要霞光虹彩来点缀她的光环；月光婉约而清澈，不会因为风雨晦朔而减损她的烁烁清辉。“昭”象征着共辉天地，而女孩儿家在前面添上一个小字，则要显的斯文娇俏，刚好以这小小的光明，去照着自己爱的人。她的柔，并非一味的顺从，外柔内刚，还有着自身的信念与自尊，这种种特质都在告诉我们，她的命宫主星就是坚韧专情而又善解人意的天梁独座。一样都是认识张无忌，光明顶上，周芷若是一剑刺向无忌的胸口，小昭却是急忙抢上，试图以身挡剑。她与赵敏都是一心只想着张无忌的，只不过开创型的赵敏是开门见山，言语举止直奔主题；而合作型的小昭则是迂回曲折的曲径通幽，有想法也都只是藏在心底。

浮华的光影，褪不去的回忆，年复一年的弹指挥间，即使沧海化作了桑田，也不改一段无法磨灭的铭心追忆。混进光明顶时，她还只是一株小桃稚柳，伴随着那条神秘玄铁链的，还有那些更加猜不透的玲珑心事。再次见到她时，她却已是奉着圣火令牌，即将离开中土去接掌波斯明教的圣女教主。“爱一个人是要为他平平坦坦铺路的，而不是成为他的累赘”这真是典型天梁星的言辞，所以当无忌问道：“小昭，你做了波斯明教的教主么？”小昭只是低眉垂首，并不回答，过了片刻，大大的眼中才忽然挂下两颗晶莹的泪。渐渐的，两人间的海面越拉越广，终于小昭的座舰成为一个黑点。长风掠帆，忽闻清音入耳，“拈朵微笑的花，看一番人世变换，到头来输赢有何妨……眉间放一字宽，看一段人间风光，谁不是把悲喜在尝……”

低回宛转、动人心肠，此情此景更是动人非常。面对小昭这样的美女你会动心吗？你的身边有如此这般同属天梁星的人物吗？一般来说，天梁星都是相当善良的人，痛恨作奸犯科，也时常关心弱势群体，因为内心常有侠义之心，所以对他们来说，路见不平真是生活中常有的事。不过，合作型的天梁星重视讲理，不喜欢以暴制暴，就像是柔中带劲的水，看似静默绵长，却又常常在关键时刻四两拨千斤，柔弱胜刚强。

一颗追求爱的心，越过日月，穿过星辰，天梁星通常适合比自己年龄大的恋人。天梁星的爱情属于慢热型，因为害怕受伤，不容易付出，所以虽然年纪轻时对爱情常常诸多幻想，但是有时也还是会让人觉得蛮被动的，进而怜惜非常。小昭终于还是走了，跟着波斯的明教离开了无忌、离开了中土。万水千山远隔，纵有万种风情，更与何人说。曾为他快乐、为他的悲伤，足矣！相濡以沫，不如相忘于江湖。
(http://www.go108.com.cn/mail108/mail_g050318.php)

decided to take a break from studies, and so i watched the taped 天龙八部
and while searching for 乔峰 Qiao Feng's story, i came across this beautiful article about this character in 倚天屠龙记.

she has a very beautiful name, you know it, 小昭
the first time i heard this name was from watching 倚天屠龙记 that has 马景涛 as 张无忌.
and i like her story, and was moved by her character and her fate.
the song she sang in the show is still embedded in my mind.
the song is

俩俩相忘
歌手:辛晓琪 专辑:领悟

拈朵微笑的花想一番人世变换
到头来输赢有何妨
日与月互消长富与贵难久长
今早的容颜老于昨晚

眉间放一字宽看一段人间风光
谁不是把悲喜在尝
海连天走不完恩怨难计算
昨日非今日该忘

浪滔滔 人渺渺 青春鸟 飞去了
纵然是千古风流浪里摇
风潇潇 人渺渺 快意刀 山中草
爱恨的百般滋味随风摇

眉间放一字宽看一段人间风光
谁不是把悲喜在尝
海连天走不完恩怨难计算
昨日非今日该忘
lyrics from baidu.com

a beautiful melody, poetic lyrics, a beautiful name, and a beautiful character.
i have been contemplating since then to try to include 昭 in my daughter's name.
oh man, and when i saw this article, i was immediately attracted to the style of writing.
it has been long since i wrote any chinese.
and looking at this, i'm really starting to miss it.
miss churning out beautiful chinese phrases and essay.