It's been very long since I updated my blog. Life has been so hectic keeping up with school, KTBs, FYP, relationship, etc2.. Never had the time to write and reflect on anything since.. Yea finally week 12 is over and this sem is coming to and end, FYP still looms ahead waiting to be worked upon, and exams too. Year 4 is quite free as I only had 4 exams and they're quite well spaced. Anyway I hope I can still use my time efficiently.

The undergraduate years are soon coming to an end. Modules pursuing soon came to a halt, but knowledge won't. I guess I still want to learn even though I will work in the future.. still, what's my purpose? But on the other hand I need to be realistic and start worrying about the future plans, about work, and so on.. Things are very carefree during year 2 and 3, and now life gets so rigid when you started to plan everything. I still have the curiousity though to explore many areas of knowledge, but c'mon, be realistic.. and some people they would always haunt me for that.. Anyway to pursue knowledge isn't satisfying enough.. new horizons keep popping out once new areas are opened, and this sem my curiosity about calculus of variations, tensors and group theory has been fulfilled, and at least i'm informed about what is being studied in some algebra modules which I once thought very weird and abstract..

I am interested in economics too.. the dynamics of everything, about physics and mathematics, and programming. Hmm.. But I think soon I need to set my goals clear, and set a direction for my life. I might pursue masters degree, and PhD afterwards (if I feel I have to, but the most important thing is to know my direction). Knowledge building on different areas, lets call it a stop when undergraduate years are finished. I need some direction now and I have to remember that my life is finite, I can't possibly do everything and there has to be some focus (and I'm very bad at being focused)..

Actually life has been wonderful, and I think I need to cherish everything more. I have great friends, good education and good church sermon every Sunday. I must make out the best of everything I've obtained. I should have jot down what they discussed in the youth fellowship and the Sunday service which I think has been good lately. But so often the problem in Singapore is the hectic life itself, and it can worsen your Spirituality and everything afterwards gets worsen. The problem is time management..

Perhaps my own spiritual growth has not been very good this semester (or maybe just I thought so), just because of the hecticness, or maybe the sudden changes in life (new house, new status, and not being so involved in ISCF compared to last semester, and being a PKTB, perhaps FYP too) and drastic changes often affects a lot..

Yeah.. life has been quite fast, just went home celebrating a friend's birthday. Another friend was not well, I hope she is ok..

Relationship is well, but several things need to be improved, I need to re-read 'boy meets girl', just not have the time.. Often hecticness also steals your time, esp when you get so stressed out you will tend to waste time away.

I hope by writing this down on the blog can help me reorganise things and reflect as well.. and maybe advices from others..

Year 4 is gonna end.. and reminds me that life is going very fast, and reminds me of my temporariness which I often neglect... Its been so long when I looked everything from a 'superior sight', looking down on my temporariness..

Anyway reflecting from a 'superior sight' is great.. Sometimes it feels that everything is beautiful when we see it from God's 'superior' perspective.. when we looked upon all different issues that are happening.. The persecutions of Christians in India, the new US president, the economy crisis, etc.. and any other issues around the world, they're just temporary, things that came to pass, and they'll be part of history very soon. But God's plan will ultimately be fulfilled..

Hmm..what else to say? Its 2AM in the morning, gotta sleep...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySBaYMESb8o&feature=channel

Several points I picked up during the QnA session:

1) While you are young, work hard till it reaches the limit. It is not to surpass your limit so that you'll end up sick and be inefficient, but it would be optimal if you know your limit and work till approaching it before resting.

2) To succeed is not simply answering 'how to obtain as much as possible in the shortest period of time', but it is more like a mentality game. Many obtain easy profits and is trapped into the greed and collapsed. It is a 'character', not 'talent' problem. Hence it is good to develop your mentality, and not letting any chance of greed to spurt out in you.

3) To distinguish whether you are working to live or you are living to work. If the former, means you work simply in order so that you can sustain your living. If the latter, it means you have another mission of your living. Your working is not everything and it is just to support your living, and you have other priorities higher than that.

4) In studying philosophy, we shouldn't just study the content and understand every theories, but we should probe futher into the motivation of the author, and often we need to understand the historical context. Of course this might be speculative to a certain degree but it is good if we can learn as much to be as accurate as possible to make an interpretation.

5) Treat every point of your life as an alpha point. The moment you call 'finally..' its the end of your progress..

6) Be consistent.

A = There is something absolute.

B = Everything is relative.

Argument B collapses as it claims a statement which destroys its own standing. In claiming to be relative, it tried to make absolute that statement.

C = Paradigm matters (interpretation is not neutral).

D = There is no such thing as a paradigm (interpretation can be neutral).

Argument D collapses as when it claims that there is no such thing as a paradigm, in itself it forms a paradigm. It collapses just like argument B does collapse.

Therefore paradigm matters.. Human interpretation is not in itself neutral, but is subject to paradigm. I dunno why in philosophy papers they call some views paradigmatic, while in fact all views are.

Paradigms are a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.  (Dictionary.com)

Since those are assumptions, like axioms, their values can't be proven true or false. People plunge into it by faith.

Since those things are by faith, it also indicates that faith is the beginning, and is really prior to understanding.

This conclusion is again aligned with the Christian faith.

Its always been on my mind that what if one day I can formulate all the questions to ask, perhaps I can list them one by one, questions so crucial that answering them would make our thinking so clear and it will explore every branch of thought and realise every assumptions that one might had. As an example if one suddenly met a problem so confusing, and once he/she obtained an insight, are there rules / laws to follow, a set of questions that must be asked so that he/she would obtained a hint to the answer obtained by his/her insight? These questions also might serve as guidelines so that we can really describe something in a very precise manner, and prevent ambigousness and thus misinterpretations, and very possibly miscommunications.

Several rules might be like:

1) Given a list of two. Always ask whether the two are mutually exclusive, or can they intersect? Ask whether the two is an analog (there are two extremes in which there are a continuum of degrees in between), or a digital thing (1 or 0, yes or no) if this two represents extremes / opposites. Ask whether it is a true or false dichotomy if it is claimed to be a dichotomy. Ask whether the list is exhaustive.

2) Given a list of more than two. Ask whether they are exclusive things, or can one thing in the list implies the others. If yes, how does one thing imply another? If the list is a list of examples, ask what lies in common between the examples (the underlying common essence). Ask if the examples given are particular (they are the most striking of examples to be representative of all possible cases. If the  list is numbered, ask whether the order of the list is important, and the basis of their ordering. Ask whether there are exceptional cases, and why are there exceptions and what are the essence of things that are being exceptioned.

3) Given a statement. Ask whether the statement is a prescriptive or a descriptive statement. Ask whether it is literal or figurative. Ask whether its trueness holds for eternal or temporary, universal or contextual.

The rules however, is too general.. meanwhile I will work on it to make it into more specialised categories..

any more to add...? (the list will be edited if I can think of more)

Ephesians 5:18 : "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."

(To get the whole context, read Ephesians 5:15 to Ephesians 6:9)

Firstly, from the verse, it is clear that it is a statement of contrast. Being filled with the Spirit is contrasted to drunkenness. And why drunkenness? The reason is because being drunkenness suggests that you are being controlled with alcohol, or something has a dominating force in you other than the Holy Spirit. In other words, the point of the verse is to say 'Do not let something dominatingly control you other than the Holy Spirit'. Not your studies, work, games, entertainments, money, relationships, etc. This is consistent with the first command of the ten commandments. Another way to interpret is 'Do not be full with wine, instead, be full of the Spirit'.

Secondly, v.18 is a statement of command. It is a command to be filled with the Spirit. From the Greek phrasing, it was said that the tense used is such that it describes a continuation. It is not something to be done once and be done with. It can be read 'be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again.

Next, what is it like to be filled with the Spirit? Paul continues in verse 19-21 by mentioning ways in which being filled with the Spirit is manifested / associated with: "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." From the verses above, being filled with the Spirit is being manifested in 1) Longing for worship (not only worshipping, but worship that comes from the heart). 2) Thankfulness and gratitude in any given circumstances 3) Submitting to one another out in reverence for Christ.

A question that might be raised is 'How do I be filled with the Spirit?'. This may not be in the passage, but ways that can be done are through prayer (ask God) and the study of the Word of God. Of course this is not exhaustive..