Phew.. It's been a long time.. and in one week from now I will enter my fourth year in NUS. The internship was a great 12 weeks journey. I'm happy that I could survive the long hours of travelling, queuing and suffering the traffic jams.

So far I've learnt a lot from my internship. First, I learnt that the basic operation of a (general) company is pretty much the same. In the company where i'm working at, it operates almost like the company of my father's. My father is doing shoes, and there's one designer, and several operators that works on the design to create the final product. Similarly, my company is an electronic company that requires a circuit designer (could be an expert working in the company, or another company that works on the design), as well as an operator (normally is a factory, a manufacturing company) to work out the final product based on the design. So based on these there could be 3 kinds of company: a design company, a manufacturing company, or a company that hires the services of both but deals more with the end product. Of course there might be combinations of those. Well.. there are many other types of companies for sure, eg research companies, and other types but at least these 3 i learnt from the internship.

Secondly, I've learnt that an electronic company that deals with end products will involve testing of the products. And guess what, if they would manufacture a very large quantity of end products, each of them needs to be tested! Its great if they have a machine to do so, but if the products have to be tested manually, one unit at a time, it would mean a very boring and not rewarding job!

Thirdly, I learnt that miscommunication may often come as a problem. When there is pressure from supervisor, or boss, even mates can blame each other. Ambiguous instructions from the top hierarchies can also be troublesome, and some may shift responsibilities, assuming that the command has been clear, and safely remain uncontactable.

Fourthly, I learnt that sometimes its really fine to withstand some boredom and the fact that you have nothing to do. Perhaps it is an issue of the operations management of the company. Its sometimes better to keep quiet and not keep bothering your boss asking for what job to do next, as he/she might perhaps be confused, of what jobs to give to you. But of course this doesn't mean an excuse for doing nothing and not asking. You should see the situation.

Yes..apart from those, I also learnt much technical stuffs which I think I'd rather not post here, hehe..

Anyway its been two weeks since my status has changed from being single... So far I'm very happy =), though perhaps its a bit uneasy for me to adapt..  but slowly im adapting, hehe.. Truly, there might be no perfect prince / princess. But the beautiful thing is to accept the imperfect prince / princess and able to genuinely say 'I am content'. Through this relationship so far, I also reflected much about the relation of God and His people too. And yes, it is God who has set the example, to love the imperfect perfectly. My hope is that this relationship would not turn up to be in vain (as today's message in pp), and that we can honor God more, and also each other. 

A new academic year is just 3 days left, and tomorrow I will be attending kulinus and kulinite. My internship is no more, just a day for presentation next wednesday. I'm very excited to enter this final year in NUS, before I would say goodbye to everyone, to all the lecture theatres and libraries and everything. And I think its best to set some milestones to pursue for the next year..

From now onwards, i think I need to start spend much time on learning. Yes. Firstly, I wanted to learn as much about 'secular' education since I don't want to waste my four-years in NUS. Anyway that was my initial goal that I set during year-one. I wanted to pursue physics, maths, computers. And yes i hope i'm very much into these 3 areas. So I decided to take 4 modules for each semester besides my FYP, and I will take the modules 'Mathematical methods for physics 2 and 3'. They are very interesting modules indeed!

Next, I really think I should start studying the Scripture. I was preparing this Bible study with Daisy (we planned to have it once a month) and we started with 1 John. I realised there is very much to be learnt, and so far I've learnt a lot from my own preparation. And this is just a thin 1 John, I havent touched upon other books. I used these sermons as my guide which I think is excellent : http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/40/ . Yes the Bible is the most important, and perhaps I would stop reading other religious books written by authors first, unless anyone give it to me as presents, hehe.. =p Our target is to finish 1 book every month. Some books are long and some are short, so I think we could combine the long and short ones to complete it within a few months.. And of course its not just about finished studying books, more important is that our spirituality must grow as well.. which is quite a tough job to do if you are too busy..

For ISCF ministry, i'm still involved in mission subcomm, though I think it will be less busy than last year, but I hope I can contribute something. Being the gen-sec of iscf sg is quite busy too.. I wish to finish it all well.. Btw ISCF next year would be great I think, judging from the welcome tea preparations.

And yes, perhaps I would have to lead a cell group too.. and I haven't prepare myself for that.

Oh it will be tough in juggling my time, but I hope I can survive and manage my time well, and do some multitasking.. I think I will try not to spend a single hour of doing-nothing-useful a day (which must be very difficult, but that's my aim).. And travelling time must be used very efficiently..

And yes there's this translating thing I must complete.. and i'm still not done with my internship reports and presentations.. I feel so busy.. and I havent even touched my FYP materials..

These 70 years or so will be very quick...it will pass as if all was just a dream.. We're just like passers by who come and go.. And what is important is actually to remember that fact.. and to remember that we're here just to be a steward.. We come and will go with nothing in our hands and we're soon meant to be alone with God after the end of it all.. And as we journeyed all along there might be imperfections.. and reality might sometimes be quite cold and hard to swallow.. But sometimes we just need to swallow it.. Maybe the reason of those imperfections are to remind us so that we do not expect and focus too much on what is around, but keep our eyes locked on to the eternal as our only hope.. So welcome to the world.. and I think we shouldn't complain too much about the imperfections, as God Himself has accepted all those, even the imperfect 'us'.. Just focus on being a good steward and trust less on the temporary.. 

The QnA session was awesome.. The truth was so straightforwardly told, and its been so long since i've been bombarded with pure and abundant truth and witnessed the beauty of it. Honestly I was rebuked several times hearing the session.

First of all, of course, its been so long since I've really meditated upon those things, while in fact these are actually the most important things and hence deserves the greatest portion of our times to ponder. I've known so little. If I knew, I think most of them just lie on the cognitive level, objective knowledge, and rarely do I bring it into a personal level and live it out. The illustrations was excellent. In Plato's philosophy he described ratio as being the utmost important, above emotion or lustful desires, while the Bible surpasses the Greeks' philosophy. If ratio is the highest, then everything will stop as just being rigid and cold, without Spirit. The understanding gained would be lifeless.

Secondly, I was rebuked when the question 'How do we know God's will?' was addressed. Truly, I reflected that I've asked those questions only on selective circumstances, and hence, I am biased. Most of just just asked those questions when we want to find jobs or life partner. And yes, I think its biased to ponder about those things just on certain circumstances while not in all circumstances. The attitude was a disguise, and its a fake!

Thirdly, I was reminded that God's love was often taken for granted. It is not just when we received something or obtained some achievements that God is loving. God's sustenance is often taken for granted. Not just sustaining the 'everyday' things, more than that, the world is as it is because of God's love. We can think of a more miserable world, and certainly there is no other reason why the world is not as bad as our imagination can be other than God's love. Therefore, I should be more thankful

Fourthly, I think I have not loved God enough.. And I was reminded that prayers should not be self centered..

Hope that by His grace He would help me to change.. and gain wisdom and not just knowledge, and I may be edified more by the truth. I think I need to go back to the basics and relearn everything.. =(

(Spoiler warning, stop reading if u don't want to obtained some hints of the story)

I watched this movie today. It's a really an interesting movie, and I would recommend everyone to watch it. First of all, just like as any other cartoons nowadays, this one also has some environmental tones I think. But the movie is really interesting as this is the first time they can make a robot movie, though with less speech and conversations, to be not boring at all. I thought it will be a boring movie since the main characters was just Wall-e and Eve, and the intro was like Wall-e seems to be the only survivor of the deserted planet earth, which seems quite gloomy and not much development for the story. I thought the movie would be quick, but it was an interestin 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The environmental themes is very clear (that we should save the earth), since it is the story about the future where earth has been deserted by human beings, and human beings now lived in an outer space station far away from the milky way. Technology had been so advanced and men lived in comfort, in flying wheelchairs. Everyone became fat and unhealthy till they can hardly stand. Despite all the comforts brought about by technology, I feel that the life depicted is so meaningless, dull. They even had to create a fake atmosphere, with the sun, clouds, and the moon all installed in a huge atmospheric and electronic wallpaper.

Next thing that catches my eye is the AI-propaganda, that is, they seem to want to brought a message across, that is robots can be made to think and feel like humans do, and that emotion is reducible to just the programming and complexity of the system. Wall-e and Eve are robots who can think and feel.

I was fascinated, however, by Eve, can we actually build a robot with a 'detached levitating head' and yet connected in some manner that allows information to be transferred from the body? Perhaps.. by wireless communication? haha.. Quite a cool invention!

Although it sounds quite robotic, the movie was a great mix of environment concerns, technology, romance and action, and it makes everything an interesting package.. 

This is just my opinion. There is always a Biblical and the un-Biblical pride, just as there is a Biblical and the non-Biblical positive thinking. It is good to have Biblical pride, but the un-Biblical pride is centered on self, to value oneself highly just for the sake of feeling valuable, or even superior. I don't know if this kind of attitude is totally wrong, but everyone seems to have it. But I think we need to discern and strive to cut off those unnecessary pride, and introspect further. Feeling valuable is good, but is it supposed to be centered on us? Do we think we are valuable at all? Shouldn't we value ourselves valuable just because God valued us to be valuable or otherwise it would turn out to be arrogance? I'm not sure, and perhaps its a very difficult thing to abolish and discern. But sometimes there is no need for the un-Biblical pride that is centered on self. Think about it. If Jesus had kept His pride, perhaps all of us would still be unredempted sinners by now. But the Biblical pride is good, and holy.