Wasted Perceptive Efforts or Whatever Works for You

Random post on a random anime I picked up this afternoon...

ICE- The Last Generation/ Yesterday, Today and No Future (OVA).

Japanese are the weirdest people...
they're the only ones who are capable of combining yuri and environmentally conscious themes in one anime (and quiet effectively too).
Set in a post apocalyptic world, a major bioterrorism tragedy has caused the death of all men and a large portion of women on earth. That's right. No men. Kinda like my life now.
A major part deals with how the surviving women struggle to find a way to continue the human race while living in a 'city at the edge of time'.

Anyway, the retro style of drawing was good. The voice acting was atrocious (because they insisted on getting some girl band to do it instead of professional voice actors).
If you ignore the mild Yuri moments, the plot has potential (i would have kept it). However, all in all, because yuri makes me uncomfortable and because it's against my personal principals, I'm throwing this DVD away and keeping only the theme song, which was really the only good point of the entire ordeal.

Translation

Even in the future, the palms of these hands will be familiar
One day, because I know what to hold on to,
Even if all freedom is lost,
Such things as joy and sadness won’t be controlled

To be loved
People can’t go on living all alone
To be loved
Somebody stay by me

Even if the palms of these hands are empty,
With the back of my hands I wipe away my tears
Even if the sun in the sky is forgotten,
The days when I saw the rays of sunlight won’t disappear from my memories

Just being loved
Somehow everyone becomes so kind to me
Just being loved
A peaceful tomorrow comes

To be loved
People can’t go on living all alone
To be loved
Somebody stay by me

Just being loved
Somehow everyone becomes so kind to me
Just being loved
A peaceful tomorrow comes

(Credit:AnimeThemes)

Recently, have been hooked on Korean dance videos:



Shallow stuff to lighten the burdened mind at the end of a stressful day are these.

Being a Thinking Christian

Yesterday night was supposed to be a free CG, and us Young Adults were meeting in Benny and Sara's place. I was thinking...hmmm..Sara's place. It can only mean one thing...Board Games galore !! (and she offered us a 'Mind Your Language' marathon too)
However, as me and Yune were sitting at the dining table munching leftover CNY cookies, Aaron walked in and declared that we were going to have discussions..
at first I was O_o,
but then again,
I never regretted it. It was so important that I wanted to make an entry here so that I never forget.
Plus I'm really passionate about destroying the traditional 'Dependent Christianity' concept where we just absorb whatever we're told and don't question and come up with solid answers.

Living with a Black and White Mindset in a Grey World
Christians can be the meanest people, especially to each other.
Why?
because we label everything and everyone either Black(unacceptable) or White(acceptable).
For me, growing up in church, many things were labelled as such.
I remember I was barred from watching Michael Jackson MVs because he was considered 'demonic'.
Now, i tend to look back upon those things and have a good laugh about it with my Mum (who shares some of my opinions)
Did you know, even those cute little smurfs were considered 'demonic'.

(what!?)
In reality, the world is not dualistic.
As believers, if we continue to have this black/white concept in a greyscale world, we become disconnected,irrelevant and therefore no longer effective. As Aaron put it, it's as though we're living in a parallel reality.
In fact, the only thing it does make us judgmental, unpleasant people who hurt those close to us.

For example:
A few months ago, Subang Jaya ADUN Hannah Yeoh,came to FSCC to talk about standing as one of the few Christian politicians in Malaysia today. And she really said something that hits me to this day..
We Christians spend a lot of our time praying for God to raise good, clean, God-fearing leaders for our country who can really make a difference by standing up for what is right. However, when He really does answer our prayers, and one of our own brothers or sisters want to go into politics, we say negative stuff like " Are you sure? You can fall really easily you know. Better stay away. Politics is just bad news" or something along those lines.

You see what we're doing?

How on earth can we complain that the government is full of @#*% when we label politics as "black" and don't let any God-fearing people in.
I'd say, we asked for it.

Example 2:
The Bible is full of grey situations. Jesus himself in John 7:53 onwards saves a woman who was about to be stoned for adultery. If He had a black and white mindset, He would have allowed the law to take it's course. Instead, He drew a line and asked those who never screwed up in life before to throw the first stone( sorry, this is Michelle paraphrasing the Bible, hehe).
Idea credited to:SaraKhoo

Conclusion:
Of course, some things remain obviously black. And some things obviously white. That's why God gave us a brain. We are to use it to discern and to put God's laws into the various context. Because that's what the world actually is, a greyscale ball of context.

Note: Coming Soon..
How not to believe everything you hear on the pulpit.

Shourai

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

(Paul's letter to the) Romans 8:28

It's a Sunday, Why am I Working?

Hello minna-san. Everybody has been asking...

"You were in the hospital?"
"yes.."
"and you had a surgery?"
"Yeah..that too."
"What happened"
"Err..nothing..much, I had a bit of this and quite a lot of this , so they performed this on me."
"Oooh..so now you're ok-lah?"
"97 % download complete."


Random liner note:
Some of you were wondering what character I cosplayed,
it was Kaja Bergmann, from the anime version of Natsu no Arashi.

Amusing Musings

I sometimes wonder,
if I had been born prettier, with a smaller nose, smoother skin,with shapely legs and had an easier time losing weight, would life be any easier?
Would I get hurt less?
Would I have gotten what I wanted?
Would my heart be less tired?
Waiting and waiting and waiting
trying to forget.

Comic Fiesta 2009 or " How I managed to ruin a wig"

Everyone can do a review. In fact, if you google Comic fiesta 2009, you'd get a million and one reviews. So, I'm not going to do a it-was-great-i'm-looking-forward-to-next-year type of thing (although it was).
These are reflections:

I'm turning 27. Society has expectations. Job, boyfriend,kids, car, housing loan.
I have none of these.
There is a place I can be anyone I want to be. Free to express myself without judgement. Accepted in a simple manner, with like-minded people.
It happens only once a year, and I treasure the two days like air.
Sin-Lin, I'm so thankful you're around to share and understand.
And Flo, I know you don't really get it..but you accept me anyway. I'm thankful for friends like you.


I'm so glad I got to meet a bunch of spontaneous, friendly and creative people.
They were so warm, funny and original. I could chat with strangers really easily. They were like a kotatsu in the peak of winter..

Nobody turned down a request for pictures.
There were a lot of "please" and "thank you"s and "arigatou"s,
plus a lot of bowing.

Somehow, race, religion and gender became non-issues. Everyone was just in awe of the fact that there were people who shared their hobbies and interest.
"Finally...I can relax..they're all like me" was on many people's minds.


I learnt that being different alone is really difficult, but meeting other ACG community members gives strength and encouragement.

I learn't the value of team support.
I learnt to be strong. No matter what society says about us, we must learn not to be sucked into it.If we claim to be alive, it is time to LIVE.