The UN-GLAM of staying in a cool city like New York.

New York always sounds so cool, doesn't it? When I told several friends that I'll be going to NYC for my postgrad, they seemed so envious of me. Hollywood films perpetuate the image of NYC as being one of the greatest and most exciting cities in the world--well, I guess the exception would be films that depict aliens invading the planet or something catastrophic striking the world; such things always tend to happen in Manhattan in those fictional films, don't they?! Shows like Gossip Girl, Sex & the City, etc. show the glamorous side of living in NYC. Haha but they don't include the UN-GLAM parts of it. 

Today, the UN-GLAM part of living here was glaring to me. There was a snow storm. And it wasn't nice. I can't deny that it looked beautiful; everything was covered with a blanket of wintery white. However, as my friend, Esther, astutely recognized, "It's pretty when you look at it from inside through the window, not so when you are outside!" It's really gorgeous when in the initial stages when the snow flakes fall, but it's a totally nasty experience when it inches of snow accumulate on the sidewalks and pavements and especially horrible when the ice starts to melt. Amidst the heavy snowfall today was slush all over the ground that made walking along Broadway (and many places in New York and Jersey as a matter of fact) a hazardous experience.

I found myself slipping into the self-pity mode so many times today! I was blaming myself for not wearing my Wellington boots out. I wore the other pair which was not impervious to water. When the snow started to melt, puddles formed everywhere. Worse still, the puddle surfaces were shrouded by ice so I ended up stepping into puddles several times and some were pretty deep. After a while, my boots got wet and water seeped through, soaking my feet and chilling my toes! It was a real nasty experience. Anyway, thank God I made it to Harry's Shoe Store just 10 min before it closed and bought myself a USD300 pair of UGG boots that are waterproof. I knew I had to, otherwise I won't survive Montana in the next couple of days (it's like -14 degrees celsius over there!) 

Living in a country with winter is really a hassle. Not that I'm dismissing it totally; I do like the beautiful sights and the experience of 4 seasons. However, there are downsides that people like us who are born and bred in warm and sunny (and humid) Singapore just don't see. It seems so cool being able to wear jackets, and to mix and match different layers and accessories, but it is really costly buying so many different kinds of clothing, shoes and other stuff. Plus, the time I take to change into something (and change out) takes forever! Sometimes carrying those big coats around can be rather troublesome too. I can go on and on about the inconveniences, but one thing I realized is that life in Singapore tends to be more straightforward and efficient because we don't have the complications of dramatic climatic changes. We won't get stuck at Bukit Batok because of a snow storm, nor do we need foreign labor to shovel the snow off the pavements. We don't need to expend large amounts of energy to heat our homes (although Singaporeans probably spend a lot on air-conditioning!), or experience a drop in productivity because of harsh weather.  

So do I like living in NYC?? Haha, I'm just complaining and whining for now. I still enjoy the experience and these are just culture shocks I guess. They make me miss home. Whatever it is, I'll always remember Tuesday night (this week) when I was walking outside as it just started to snow. It was a magical experience. I have seen snow before, but that night was just awesome. It was so beautiful that I couldn't help but feel this joy well inside me and it made me want to praise the Lord. I'm still thankful that He brought me here, and I'm looking forward to the great things He will do soon. He has led me from place to place, closing one door and opening another, and I just can't wait to see where the final destination of this hope He has ignited in me will be. Hopefully, I'll get to stick around for a while. I just bought close to USD600 worth of North Face gear (and that 300-dollar-boots), I think I can tahan the snow at least in NYC, not too sure about Montana. 

REJECTION: LET'S FACE IT!

Let's face it, rejection is a fact of life. And if you are still young and naive to this world, I'm sorry to tell you this truth. What matters most however, is how you choose to respond to it--with despondence or endurance. 

I got my first rejection today. Well, technically not my first cos' last I remembered earlier this year I did receive 14 Ph.D. application rejections (maybe not 14 cos' some schools didn't even bother mailing me a letter of rejection!), but today's, I guess, was the first rejection I got for a journal submission. So that's a first!

Although I am a defensive pessimist who doesn't usually hold my hopes too high just in case my ego plummets in the face of a failure, I can't deny the disappointment I felt. I mean, it's only natural to feel upset, angry, or hurt when you encounter rejection. Some would even argue it's evolutionarily adaptive cos' emotions spur us toward action--and hopefully constructive action. But thank God my co-author (my prof) was reassuring and encouraging in conveying the news. It definitely buffered me from the impact of the rejection. Now, I need to channel my energies toward picking up the pieces and getting back into shape with that paper, which I know I can.

It's amazing what rejection can do to you. It can make or break you. For some, rejection just feeds into their desire to succeed; for others, it can become a traumatic experience that paralyzes their will to pursue their interests, or a scar that can carry grievance and pain for a long time. Well of course, for another group it probably doesn't make any difference--there's always room for statistical variability in our responses to rejection yah? Whatever the case, today I chose to praise God in the face of rejection. For it is in our weakness, that God's strength is truly revealed. God has this knack of using the meek to do the most remarkable things, and using trials to mold us into greater beings. I recalled all the good things He had done, and reminded myself that I really have nothing to complain about. 

What really prompted me to blog tonight wasn't my dejection over being rejected. Rather I just felt this familiar tingling, magical feeling that God was at work today. On Monday, I felt motivated to prepare my application package, and submit it to the office way before the deadline, which is 1 Jan 09. So on Tuesday afternoon, motivated me went down to the bookstore to get envelops to put my transcript and supporting documents into. This afternoon (Wednesday), my package was dropped off at the PhD office. The supporting documents included my CV, which under the "publications" section had my journal title written there as "under review". Obviously, I can't do anything about it now (I had just received the rejection) because the CV has been submitted with my package. Well, I could email the office and tell them that my manuscript had been rejected and change its status, but that would cause too much of a hassle and irritate the staff handling the applications--not a wise move. So somehow everything worked out such that my CV still looks good, and I didn't intentionally hide the news of the rejection from them. In any case, it shouldn't hurt my prospects that much. Besides, I could always change the status to "manuscript in preparation" or something like that. I would update them when I do get through to the interviews. NONETHELESS, I can't help but feel the tingling feeling that God was at work somehow, and He still is. He has given me much more than I can ever imagine, and a wonderful testimony that can encourage and uplift others (haha, shan't reveal anything here for now). So for this and other things, I can only look to Him in awe, and praise Him for His wonderful grace and favor on me.  

Rejection? Hahahaha. Laugh at it. If you deserve to be rejected, then do something it. If you feel rejected unjustly, be it by someone you had treated with respect or someone you totally don't know (like the editor of the journal I submitted to), remember that God frowns upon injustice and He promises in the bible that the unjust will be paid their dues. And even if the whole world rejects you, which is clearly impossible cos' you won't be able to meet everyone in the entire world in your lifetime (duh!), remember that Christ loved you so much that He gave His life to pay for your sins. It's like having the favor of the King. If you have the favor of the King, why would you need the favor of His men? Anyway, pleasing God can sometimes win you the favor of men. Doesn't mean that you'll definitely be rejected by people because of your faith; I guess it's more accurate to think that we should love God and follow Him in spite of the possibility of losing favor with men. Okay, getting into too much theology. Need to stop here now.

Pray A Prayer of AUTHORITY Today.

We sang a song during the service today. It went like, "Tell the mountain to move away; tell the mountain to move away; move away, move away". I could really feel the conviction in the crowd as they were singing it. I felt so convicted myself.

It reminded me of how we need to pray prayers of authority at certain times. Whatever circumstance you are going through, be it a "mountain" or situation you feel has reached a stalemate or seemingly hopeless situation, perhaps you should take up the staff today, just as Moses did when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, and "tell that mountain to move away". Bring forth your petition to God with prayer and fasting, and at the same time, pray with authority.

Matthew 17 (NKJV)
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Mark 11 (NKJV)
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

"What does a CEO, a president, and a goldfish have in common?"

This question was posed several weeks ago to the congregation at TSC by a visiting Pastor. Don't think too hard cos' this is no IQ question, neither is it some psychoanalytical question aimed at detecting some of your innermost desires and unconscious conflicts. Think abstract. Yes, they have to breathe to live, they need food to survive, yada, yada, yada. There's nothing shocking really in the answer. They all will face the ineluctable fate of death's grip over their lives.

The Pastor mentioned two points that stuck with me: 1) LIFE IS SHORT (and I'm sure all you oldies out there like myself can fully comprehend and appreciate this fact, as we start to disregard the need for candles on our cake during our special day every year, and notice the inches amassing at our waists!) 2) LIFE CAN BE WASTED. This second point struck me hard. It's bad enough that life is as fleeting as a vapor; worse still, one can look back and express regret over the lost time that can never be reclaimed.

One of my favorite songs in secondary school was this song by Joni Mitchell, "The Circle Game". I used to sing it when I was walking home along Old Holland Road, being extra careful to notice if there were people approaching me from behind (don't worry, I wasn't being hypervigilant or oversensitive about anything). I remember lowering my voice, or pretending to clear my throat, when people approached. I was pretty shy, you know. Anyway, I loved the chorus of this song:

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We're captives on the carousel of time,
We can't return we can only look behind from where we came,
And go round and round and round on the circle game.

Yep, we are captive to the eventual fate of turning to dust and ashes. This may sound moribund and bleak, but it's a truth that we need to resign to. Of course, if you're Christian (like how I am), you'll believe in an eternity that far outweighs the pleasures of life on earth. However, that doesn't mean that your stay on earth should lay to waste. As I look back on my life (I'm still fresh and in my prime, so no complaints!), I recall times when I wished time would just fly by, and other times when I wished that time would just freeze and God would allow me to revel in the state forever. Unfortunately, we're not a "Hiro Nakamura"; we don't have super powers to time travel or freeze time. Man hasn't evolved to a state where we are able to dictate which time periods to fast forward, and which to configure to a slow playback speed---in it's literal sense, that would be pretty hilarious.

Whatever it is the chilling thought that "LIFE CAN BE WASTED" spoke volumes to me that day, and it continues to do so. As I'm in the midst of my PhD applications and juggling research and coursework, I can't help but wonder where all these would eventually lead me to. It's exciting really and I'm glad for the doors the Lord had shut and opened. Yet my mind can't stop dwelling on the paradoxical fact of life: That most of us spend a huge portion of our lives striving hard just to enjoy a piece of respite amidst the labors of life, so that we can retire at 65 and pay our kids' college education, (and in America, pay off our mortgages). Perhaps then we can take our time to do everything we ever wanted...hopefully we still have that energy and zeal to do so.

Whenever I go on FB, I'm pretty consoled by the photos I see. Perhaps it's just how the yuppies of this generation are able to enjoy life and play hard a little more than the Baby Boomers. Posted photos consist of travel and food and fun and babes and sand and the sea. I guess we all need a little comfort amidst the stresses of life. But at the end of the day, how much of everyone's lives are meaningful, I wonder. In the first place, should that be some higher goal driving our lives, or are we supposed to just drink and make merry since life is short and we are bound to die anyway. Of course again, being Christian, I would take the former view.

The Perils of Living Under Someone Else's Roof!

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd just shed the laziness and get back into business. Actually, the truth of the matter is, somehow I am now caught in a situation with too much time in my hands. This is weird because I've been super busy and my to-do list has been lengthening. But perhaps super-efficient me (as always...haha) has managed to complete everything I need to do for now. Or that's what I think... So what to do with too much time in my hands? Blog lor. 

This title came to me this morning not long after I woke up from bed. Don't worry, my landlady's not mistreating me, nor is she restricting me in any way. It's just that everyone living in my apartment shares one bathroom, and sometimes our needs arise at the same time (haha, sounds a little crude).  In the mornings I usually wake up with a full bladder and my first urge is to clear it. And this morning, there was nothing different. I wanted to pee but there was someone in the bathroom. So how? Ren(3) lor.

This little toilet crisis has happened to me several times already. I found myself having to hold my pee, and wait for whoever is inside to finish up whatever business in there. Hai, at home in Singapore I have my attached bathroom. And even if that was unavailable, we have four other bathrooms in our apartment! I miss my room :( and more so the luxury of not having to hold my pee in. It's so nice living in your own place and not having to worry about using the kitchen or lying on the couch in the living room...Can't wait to get my own place! Hopefully graduate housing with a studio apartment...

Notwithstanding, I'm still happy and consider myself blessed to be able to live where I am. At least, my heater's warm, and I don't have roommates who refuse (or pretend to not remember, or maybe genuinely forget--always give benefit of the doubt la-hor?) to wash the glasses in the sink. Speaking of heater, the weather's really getting harsh. The temperature's been dipping A LOT, to almost 0 degrees celsius! I'm starting to wear my down feather coat already. The one that makes me look like an Eskimo. Haha, the hyena fur gets into my eyes and the hood affects my peripheral vision (I really look like a duck when I try to look around before I cross the street lol), but it really keeps me warm. I'm so not looking forward to the Winter!! It's only Fall and it's so cold...I don't even think muggers would want to come out and mug people, unless they are absolutely desperate. I might need to get a pair of boots lined with fleece inside...excuse to shop heh. 

Okay, I'm losing my writer's flow. Gotta stop. Period. 

An unprecedented moment in world history...

I'm not just saying this because I live in the US of A now, but yesterday's election WAS an unprecedented event not only in the history of America, but also the world. I know how people typically stereotype Americans as egocentric and self-absorbed, but I can be certain that the collectivistic blood of the Orient still runs deep in my veins and I'm not making this statement because I've decided to trade in the five stars and one crescent for a star-spangled banner. However, the election of President-Elect Barack Obama truly marks the dawn of a new era. Though it may seem inconsequential to some of us living out of the US--you don't understand what the big hoo-ha is all about--all I can say is that America as a nation, its culture, economy, education, politics, etc. does have an astronomical impact on the rest of the world. Okay, I guess I've made my point.

Anyway, I'm not here to yak about politics, nor am I here to rejoice and celebrate Barack Obama, I mean, President-Elect, Obama's victory, although I was rooting for him throughout, and was exhilarated when he toppled the McCain campaign, and Sarah Palin (who by the way, had openly expressed her intentions to join the race for the white house in eight year's time!). I just thought I'd blog about my experiences regarding this election because I felt so privileged to be able to witness such a historical event right where it happened. Okay, that is partly true, the truth  is I really wanna blog about this even more so because I was blown away by the over the top reactions of Americans throughout the elections, and especially last night when Obama was declared the 44th president of the United States of America. I'm sure you know how wild they can get. 

The campaign fever really got into me when the two then-presidential candidates came to Columbia for their very first face-to-face dialogue. That I have blogged about. That really got me interested in this whole campaign. In the past few months, there had been so many controversies surrounding Palin (over the unjustified sacking of her former brother-in-law, and her former beauty queen, current hockey mum status) and Obama (his so-called associations with terrorists, and at the start his name sounding like Osama..haha), and it had all been so juicy and talked about over here. Professors and students would comment about presidential debates in class. There was one time, a student in class raised how Cindy McCain insinuated that people in the US Navy don't get PTSD because they are well-trained, and someone else mentioned how McCain stuck out his tongue at times when he said something wrong. On the streets, you would see booths with Obama stuff, and people wearing t-shirts in support of Obama. Then came Halloween when people even dressed up like him. And there were a few Sarah Palins too. More recently there was this dude I think from Brazil that decided to wake up in the morning and do a huge (and I mean really enormous) sand portrait of Obama on a long stretch of beach in his country. With all this happening, it was hard not to be attentive to the elections. That was accentuated when Lehman Bros fell, and both presidential candidates were putting forward their respective rescue package proposals and debates regarding the financial bailout ensued. Last week, Obama's campaign committee did something unprecedented in the history of the American elections. They bought prime time slots on major television networks and did a half-an-hour campaign ad last Wednesday. That costed them a bomb! But the ad was amazing, I felt both an emotional and an intellectual appeal coming from it. Obama is a fantastic speaker, or rather he had an amazing script-writer. Whenever he spoke, it sounded like some script taken off a Hollywood movie where one hero, leader or king makes this dramatic ra-ra speech to boost the morale of their audience. Above all, this campaign was historical because if Obama won, America would have their first African American president (well, technically not completely accurate because Obama's actually half caucasian and he has two degrees, one from Columbia and the other from Harvard, but still...); if McCain won, America would have their oldest president ever elected and first female vice-president, Sarah Palin; if Hillary won the democrat nomination for president, there could have potentially been a first female president in the history of the United States of America. So these points made this whole election so captivating.  

I had two random strangers talk to me yesterday on election day. One was this dude on the street who asked me whether I was voting and obviously I said no. And there was this other guy in the elevator that asked me the same question. Everyone was just so engrossed with elections yesterday. Throughout the day, there were people driving those campaign trucks and sounding those campaign horns (like how we used to do in the earlier days when PAP was still driving around in their lorries and SDP was still in operation...Ah, the Pay-And-Pay, So-Don't-Pay days...). Last night, major news stations zeroed in on the final race to the oval office by canceling regular TV shows and replacing them with election coverage (oh yah, even Heros was postponed on NBC because of some pre-election program telecasted on Monday night...darn!). From 6.30pm all the way till 12.30am, all that was on TV was voting statistics. CNN was doing projections and there came a point where it seemed like McCain was losing the battle and then later on he jumped back for a while. But when Obama seized majorities in the West coast, mainly Washington and California, his victory was sealed. He won 70% of voters' tickets in New York City by the way. Soon later McCain gave his defeat speech and later on Obama gave his landmark, victory speech which was really rousing to the crowd in Chicago and us tuning in on TV. Outside the window, in the streets, we could hear cars horning, people yelling and cheering when Obama was declared the winner. We peered outside the window and we saw people walking on the roads not giving a hoot about the vehicles. A friend of ours said that he was in a cab and this male person just literally walked over the taxi (like pranced over the bonnet). That was how crazy it was. It was like New Year's Day. People were packed elbow-to-elbow at Times Square, Harlem, and everywhere. People were standing on telephone booths and bus-top shelters just to catch the action at Times Square! TV stations were zooming in on people in the crowd with tearful faces, and famous people in the crowds like Jesse Jackson and Oprah. The enormity and intensity of reactions displayed was remarkable.   

This morning I was woken up by sirens. When I walked on the streets, everything felt so surreal and I felt like I was in a state of derealization. There were fire engines and police cars on the streets. Close to where I live was a car accident that had me wondering whether there were more incidents of road traffic accidents last night given the victory prances on the streets of NYC. As a raring fire engine drove by, I peered into the vehicle and caught a quick glimpse of FDNY firemen with their matter-of-fact, cool-as-a-cucumber expressions that totally contrasted the urgency and impatience depicted in the blaring siren. Perhaps all this brouhaha going on was long anticipated and expected. Apart from that, nothing seemed different. The first morning after election day seemed just like any other ordinary day. More than 20 months of campaigning had culminated in the nation's election of its first African American president. Everything will probably resume normalcy in a couple of days, maybe weeks. I wonder what vendors are going to do with their McCain paraphernalia. After the big event, life goes back to day-to-day struggling with finances and commitments. 

As I reflect on this whole event, the only thought on my mind is my hope that Obama can truly deliver what he had promised. Bush has become the scapegoat responsible for the total mess this country is in, and Obama has been accorded the mandate to clear this trash up. A huge burden weighs on his shoulder now, and he must swiftly change his gear and operate as the commander-in-chief of the nation. World leaders are looking toward him. The people of America are gazing expectantly at him. Can the man who inspired and raised so much hope throughout millions and billions of hearts in the USA create the needed and desired change in a country so diverse and stricken with social ills and poverty? Skeptics and pundits alike will now be scrutinizing his every move. With great power comes tremendous responsibility. And I guess that's why Times Square Church is organizing a day of prayer and fasting tomorrow to pray for the new president-elect and his government. And I hope Barack Obama will live each day safely as he takes the oval office in the white house (haha, there was a joke on the Internet about the white house going to be repainted if Barack wins--that's a joke, don't take it seriously). There were two dudes that were arrested for plotting to assassinate him few weeks back. Okay, I'm going to stop here. I haven't completed my paper that I need to turn in a few hours later, and I seriously need to get back to it. 

"Yes, we can!"  

Message from God today...

For the past two weeks Pastor David Wilkerson, founder of Times Square Church, had been ministering and preaching on Sunday mornings. It was indeed a refreshing departure from Pastor Conlon's preaching (not that I don't relish it; Pastor Conlon's a fantastic speaker and a tremendous man of God that I respect a lot, especially his leadership and zeal for God).

Today, Ps. Wilkerson preached an amazing sermon that I just felt the urge to post about here. I won't go into a long rhetoric but I'll just share the essence of it. His message entitled: "God's people will never be ashamed", and was based on Psalm 37:

16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;

17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.

18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever.

19 In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

20 But the wicked will perish:
The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields,
they will vanish—vanish like smoke.

21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;

22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be cut off.

Pastor Wilkerson was speaking this timely message in response to the crisis ahead in the nation and the world at large. Many are living in uncertain times, not knowing what the future beholds. He mentioned how the "wicked" will reap what they sow, and how this is already happening to some with the financial turmoil. In contrast, God's people will, as stated in verse 19, "in times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty". Apart from taking comfort from the fact that God's stated woes will come to pass, we are to rest on His promises that we will not be ashamed and will continue to be well-provided for during calamity. Imperatively, God's reputation is at stake here; whenever a promise like that is made in the bible, we can be rest assured that it will come to fruition because God must keep His word, like how he did when he delivered the Israelites out of Egypt by enabling them to cross the Red Sea--a seemingly futile endeavor by human standards, He made possible.

God cares about His namesake. In Isaiah 48, it is written:

9 For my own name's sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to cut you off.

And in verse 11, He reiterates Himself:

11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.

In this context He is saying that He won't allow Himself to go back on the promises He made to Israel even though they were stubborn and disobedient towards Him. In the same way, we know that God will fulfill His promises. And we need to look at eternity and not just here on earth.

One last line that Pastor Wilkerson said which impacted me was this: "Unity is not a feeling, it's a choice". Often in church, we feel dissatisfied because we feel that we lack a sense of unity, or we don't feel united as a church. But Pastor Wilkerson gave me an alternative perspective of unity as an action word. Unity does not mean no disagreement. Disagreements, in my opinion, can sometimes birth healthy discussions and collective action towards a common good, if managed appropriately. Unity means wanting a common goal, and sharing the burden as the team surges forward to achieve it.

Dear God,
I pray that those who fear will seek comfort in Your promises,
That they will always put their plans in Your hands
Because You know what's best for them.
Amen.

It's a November Sunday morning!

I woke up a little confused morning. Not that it was a Halloween hangover or something like that. Speaking of which, Halloween over here is a huge thing by the way. It was so amazing seeing adults and kids alike, so enthusiastic about getting costumes and dressing up. Till 7 p.m. on the night of October 31st, people were still walking into stores, trying to grab one for the event. It was spectacular and popular outfits this year were probably the Obama and Sarah Palin one's. I didn't notice any McCain ones, and we wonder why ;) Anyway, it was rather fascinating seeing different characters walking in the street; it really felt as though I was in some Hollywood film. There were kids carrying little pumpkins or goodie bags, going around trick or treating. We tried to catch for this annual parade, which is hugely participated and followed by people in NYC, but the enormity of the crowd that night was just a damper--being short among towering Americans wasn't helpful at the viewing of the parade which was something like our Chingay in Singapore, with floats and volunteers who dressed up and would like to join in the procession down 6th Ave from Spring Street to 14th Street. So we stayed for a while and left, but nonetheless, Halloween was an eye-opener. I had friends talking about what they'll costumes they'll be getting or dressing up in, a week before the actual event. Even my professor put on some crazy red horns and stuck a fake devil's tail at the back of his trousers for class on Friday. It was funny how he tried to use his tail as a pointer heh.

Anyway, back to the confusion this morning-Oh how I deviate a lot! Yeah, so there was supposed to be daylight savings last night. For those of us who live in Singapore and have never heard about it, it's simply everyone living in a certain region, in a unison effort to enjoy more daytime hours, setting their clock ahead by an hour near the start of spring so that we gain one more hour, and setting it back by an hour in autumn when night begins to fall earlier! Basically, it happens so that people can exploit the longer daylight hours in summer. But in close to winter, this is reversed because of reduced daylight. So the latter happened at 2 a.m. last night I think. So just to be sure, I woke up and immediately checked the world clock online. But I guess my confusion came from the fact that everything seems fine: my cell phone clock and Macbook clock all matched the world clock timing. So it seems strange that the transition was seamless, and everything automatically switched. I thought everyone had to manually do these things. Oh well, thank God for the smooth transition. Now we are officially, 13 hours behind Singapore. Okay, I think it's time to go to church now. Better stop babbling here. Period.

Having Pinkberry on a cold night out in NYC wasn't such a good idea!

Guess my worries about food in NYC were unnecessary. Tonight we went back to that Jap place we fell in love with the first time we ate there. Good authentic Jap food at cheap prices. How cheap? The two of us had a small place of appetizer (stewed slice beef and potato), edamame (green, soybean pods), a bowl of katsu don and shoyu ramen. And it cost us about 17USD. That's cheap for NYC! The only drawback was the place was so packed that the queue to get in was pretty long. But it was great. On our way back to campus, we stopped by Pinkberry for some healthy yogurt (haha, must emphasize the word healthy to make myself feel better). It wasn't such a great idea cos' tonight was super cold! The temperature today was 12 degrees celsius. The weather's turning cold, and I'm kinda worried about the impending winter. I don't think I'm equipped to deal with it. This morning I wanted to leave the house wearing a pair of tights under a denim skirt, and thank God I changed my mind and instead wore my jeans over it. Guess vanity needs to be cast aside when warmth is at stake. The cold is just too unbearable for me to dress to the nines and look cool and hip! 

Forgive my ramblings. It's late. I guess it's also because it's the midterms period coming up and I'm kinda exhausted. Not that I've been studying hard. In fact, I haven't. I'm taking five courses (the norm is four) this semester but one of them is really insignificant--I just attend 1 hour lab meetings every fortnight and do some video codings for that course. Only sad part is that I'm paying a hefty sum for course credits to do that course! Oh no, I'm rambling again. Caught the "discursive flu" from my professor; she really goes on and on. She is a very nice lady, but unfortunately she goes on and on. Anyway, I think I need to exercise to shake off the exhaustion and restore some vitality in my life. I really hope I don't get fat. Though there isn't fantastic hawker fare or Chinese food here, there are quite a few options to choose from. Today, I bought a salad and I couldn't finish it. So I left slightly less than half of it and left it under my table in class, thinking that I would bring it back home to eat it as a meal--food's not cheap here u'know, and the salad cost me USD6.23!!! But I forgot about it :( 

Okay, I'm turning circumstantial....I think I better stop before I go into "word salad" mode. Will provide more updates soon. Oh yes, praise God! I need to give Him some glory here. I somehow have made it into several research labs that will hopefully put in a better place for the PhD applications. I'm sure I'm in good hands and He has a great plan for me. I'm so eager to get my hands dirty on some research work! 

Here's a retro clip for those 70s, early 80s babies. Fantastic singing, and wonderful sense of nostalgia...be prepared for several laughs too. Enjoy! 

ming tian hui geng hao!

"We Are Singapore, We Are Singapore..."

Had an awesome day today...though now I feel kinda fat...=.= Probably because we just came back from dinner at Deluxe along Broadway (we had creamy fettuccine with grilled chicken, a tomato cream soup, and a cheeseburger with fries!!!), plus we just dropped by West Side Market to get some groceries after that. We'll be attempting to cook rice tomorrow--yippee!!!--with our new Ang-mo brand rice-cooker. Hopefully the rice that comes out won't be Ang-mo-fied *horrified*!

We went to this Singaporean potluck lunch at TC today, and made so many new Singaporean friends---yay! You have no idea how happy I am :D It's nice being around people from home...*warm chummy feeling*. And eating Singaporean and Malaysian food... But for me, the best part of the interaction is not having to cook up a pseudo-American accent. I just find myself code-switching very naturally when I speak to Americans. Some of my lab-mates actually told me they like my Singaporean accent. Heh, it sounds refined because it's the Queen's English. I'm trying very hard not to code-switch now; it can be effortful trying to think of how Americans would say something and focusing on the content of the message, but it's just so natural to do so when you hear someone speaking with that accent to you. I'm proud of my Singlish accent, and I use it when I speak up in class! (: But of course not the cannot-make-it, super broken kind-lah! Our slangs are cool though...Haha! Anyway, I was so exhilarated. There was so much to talk about cos' we didn't know what course they were in or what backgrounds they came from. It was so easy just making conversation and speaking naturally. Then some of us stayed back to play Cranium. That was so much fun-lor! We'll probably register ourselves with the Singapore Consulate in NYC. Apparently, they hold events where they'll invite Singaporeans living in NYC to attend. There could be free dinners. We heard that recently George Yeo came down, and many tried to take photos with him heh...

After having a whale-of-a-time, we headed downtown to Times Square Church for the evening service, which was as usual, AWESOME. This time the choir did not have their choir robes on, so it was a pretty sight with so many diverse colors among the group onstage. It was the same choir that ministered in the mornings. Woah! They practically spend a whole day in church I guess. The worship-leader was excellent; female powerhouse. She was also new to us. They started with a series of upbeat Jewish-type songs. So catchy that I couldn't help dancing along. As usual, Pastor Conlon spoke brilliantly, though at some point I was really sleepy. He just speaks so much hope and truth into people's lives and I just find it so amazing. Every week I just can't wait to go to church to praise and worship the name of the Lord, and to hear the Word preached to us. The service always ends with a time of worship, which is great. And the choir would minister in song during the offering collection. The song they sang tonight was absolutely beautiful: Total Praise composed by Richard Smallwood. 

The weekend's over! Time flies man! Life here has been a wonderful experience so far. There's so much to look forward to and I'm so glad I'm alive. All because of Jesus man! I'm just soaking in all the cultural experiences here. There is so much diversity and I'm glad to contribute to this diversity as a Singaporean. U'know, being a minority here makes me so attuned to the ethnic mix here. Though we have all these implicit ideas about the different races, there is so much within-group variation that we often ignore. Nonetheless, you just pick up certain tendencies of different groups. Whatever the case, we'll all be singing the same tune in Heaven! Oh maybe not...we'll have some singing Country, some doing rap, and others doing opera! That'll be lovely! 

Guitar Fit!!!

~"How many camera poses can you do with a guitar?!!!"~

"He ain't heavy...He's my brother...yeah...yeah yeah!"

It's a Taylor! Bright and American...

Newly adopted Taylor!

Me getting a shot at posing with the guitar. Can tell I'm no expert.

Stealing some limelight from Taylor!

Long time no blog

Haha it's been a while since my last entry. Not that I've been super busy (well, a little maybe), just pure laziness and devoid of motivation, I guess. When you are away in a foreign land, there are so many interesting things that you can blog about. Just too many such that it gets too overwhelming when you give yourself a little break; you don't know where to start again. So before the "hiatus" prolongs, I shall do a blog summary of what's been happening in my life since October. Haha, so my mum will also know that I'm "alive and well"! (:

So I went down to Brooklyn twice. The first time I went with two really wonderful Korean female friends of mine. We went to Brooklyn Tabernacle--this church which is really well-known in NYC for their choir and music--for a Tuesday night prayer meeting. They have such a beautiful place--similar to Times Square Church, they acquired an old theatre and spruced it up. To be honest, that was the first ever authentic prayer meeting I've ever been to. There was a time of worship with only four back-up singers and a reduced band. Nonetheless, the voices and music sounded so wholesome and the harmonies were rich. We were each given a prayer slip later on, containing a prayer request from someone whom we didn't know. I presume all the prayer requests that were made to the church that week were printed out and disseminated to attendees to accord individual attention to during the meeting. I found it great that members were able to be involved in prayer for other members. Such a great way to promote unity and awareness of existing needs in church! This way, the burden gets shared among members and does not simply fall upon the shoulders of church leaders. 

The second time I went down to Brooklyn was last Sunday. This time we both went down with our Singaporean friend to check out the "Atlantic Antic", an annual fair where they block up a huge stretch of Atlantic Avenue and have stalls lined up on two sides of the street--something like our Pasar Malam but a whole lot fancier. It was so long! There were so many stalls selling all kinds of stuff; odds and ends like old furniture, jewelry, t-shirts (haha the Obama ones are everywhere!), etc. were on sale. Macy's had a corner selling shoes and offering foot massage. There was also this bus museum, where kids were allowed to hop on old vintage buses to play and snap pictures. Beautiful balloons with Elmo and Spongebob were everywhere. And as usual, New Yorkers brought their little (and some not so little) pooches out as they walked down Atlantic Avenue. The weather was cloudy, but cool and not too cold. And the food, wow, there were dozen of stalls along the street, but they kind of repeat--like our Pasar Malam but food looks more high-class heh. They had some restaurants setting up makeshift kitchens and serving fancy stuff outdoors. We ate oysters and had this roast pork sandwich (nothing near our sio bah, but good nonetheless!). I had a corndog which cost me USD5!!! Haha, more high class and upmarket then ours alright...

Our real purpose in Brooklyn however, was not to visit the fair. Rather, that Sunday, Paul Baloche (this kinda famous worship-leader, songwriter) was ministering at Brooklyn Tabernacle with their awesome choir. So he was there, and so we decided that it'll be a fantastic time to pop into their service to see what it's like, especially since so many people have recommended that place to me. It was good, but I guess the food in my stomach was digesting and I felt a little sleepy, hence I couldn't fully immerse myself in the entire experience. Haha, but Paul was great. The authenticity in his worship-leading and the songs that he sang (actually one song in particular) were inspiring. What do I mean by that? Well, someone was very inspired by it, and determined to buy a guitar subsequently (before that, the will to buy one was there, but after Paul's guitar-playing it was probably enhanced by a great deal). We've been on a guitar-hunt for few weeks now--went to the guitar centre in Manhattan twice, and the one in Brooklyn once. Probably go down to the one in Manhattan tonight and buy one once and for all. 

Last stop on the excursion to Brooklyn was a trip to Target--haha, how could we not go to Target yah? We don't have one near campus so it's always great to see one when we are out and about. They sell all sorts of stuff and very cheap too. We finally bought a rice cooker and will probably be cooking rice soon. This Saturday we'll be heading down to Chinatown for dinner with a couple of Chinese friends. And most likely we'll get some groceries too---Chinese vegetables!!!! They only sell western "stir-fry" in the grocery stores near campus. Anyway, we gave up a meal at Grimaldi's--this famous pizza place near the Brooklyn Bridge which is a famous tourist sight--and ice-cream at the Ice-Cream Factory beside it, to visit Target. So we'll probably go back to Brooklyn again.

Woah, I haven't even got to other events beyond our Brooklyn adventures. Well, what else is happening? Hmm...we found a gem in East Village! After heading down to the guitar centre last Saturday, we walked toward East Village hoping to get some good and genuine Jap food. East Village is like a bohemian place, similar to our Holland V in Singapore. It's lovely! And there are several Jap eateries there that seem very authentic. After browsing through menus and deciding between various options, we went to one that was filling up with people rather quickly. The deco of the eatery had such a huge Jap flavor, and the people working in it were all Jap, so we figured that it'll be good. They had these vintage Jap posters on the wall (there was one with a nude woman!!! haha Japanese are known to be kinky), and some 60s Jap music playing in the background (I would describe it as in the genre of the Doremon theme song). The food was super cheap!!! And the portions were just nice. I had a Tanin Don (beef and egg with rice). It was very yummy cos' the sauce from the beef had penetrated the egg causing it to be so tasty and flavorful. Haha it was an unforgettable gastronomic experience! I couldn't help but rave about it throughout our subway trip back to campus. We'll definitely be going back to East Village to get our dose of Jap food. 

Had meals with a couple of friends this week too. We went to this Vietnamese place with my course-mate from Taiwan and her brother, and had a wonderful time just laughing and chatting. The four of us were all psych majors!!! And are all studying psychology now. So there was so much to talk about... psychology, being non-American (a lot about this actually!), etc. Haha, and I was really impressed with my Mandarin! I spoke much more fluently than I expected myself to. That was Wednesday evening. On Tuesday night, we met another friend for dessert at this Hungarian pastry shop on Amsterdam Avenue. The pastries were nice but really je lah after a while. But overall, the pastries were delectable and the place was crowded for a weekday night. In fact, I bumped into my Korean friend who was studying there. She's such a lovely girl and a devoted Christian. I had a nice and long chat with her on the subway when we were going back to Manhattan from Brooklyn. It's really fantastic to meet people who have so much in common with you. 

Okay, I shall stop here for now. I need to continue on my paper. Hopefully, I'll get back to blogging soon. Maybe next time, I'll be blogging about the guitar. Haha. 

Two beautiful songs of praise...

Your Name by Paul Baloche

Offering by Paul Baloche

Dear God:

Perform a heart surgery on me O Lord,

Give me a new heart that will beat for You.

Untainted by the imperfections of this world,

One that will trust and obey in You,

Even when everything seems impossible. 

More songs:

Dennis Jernigan's "Who Can Satisfy My Soul"

[He has a very powerful life testimony]

Terry MacAlmon's "Holy Holy Holy Are You Lord"

[He's a wonderful songwriter and worshipleader]

Music is such a powerful tool for worshipping the Lord.

Ask the Lord to put a new song in Your heart today.

Be a Giant-slayer!

I went to "The Gate" tonight at Times Square Church. It is a Friday night weekly service for youths and young adults. Technically, I still fall into this group because it is catered for people from 18-30 years old. I had an awesome time worshipping the Lord and just dancing uninhibited. The speaker was fantastic tonight, and I was so glad that I made the decision to go for the service. He was amazing. His speech was so youth-appealing (he got us cheering before he started preaching!) and he had all the young people (including myself) bawling with laughter. But entertainment aside, his sermon was sharp and he didn't mince his words at all. The message was simply this: 

"You need to kill the lion and the bear in private,

before you can slay Goliath in public."

Basically, he was referring to how David from the bible killed a lion and a bear on two separate occasions when these beasts harassed the flock of sheep he was tending to. He did so in private on his own, by God's might of course. The pastor from Christ Tabernacle in Brooklyn (who is kinda plump, wearing this purple t-shirt, and perspiring profusely) likened the lion and the bear to the "idols" in our lives--basically sins like pornography, drug abuse, masturbation, pride, conceit, vanity, jealousy, etc. And to be able to do great things for God (// slaying Goliath in public), we need to tackle those sins aggressively. Additionally, if David didn't kill those creatures, he wouldn't have been able to slay Goliath. Why so? Because God showed him he could do those things, and hence, David had enough faith to stand up and declare that he was going to take Goliath on. The speaker had so many other mini messages embedded in his story of David that was so simple yet penetrating. 

After his message, he gave an altar call. And although I didn't approach the stage, I was just worshipping and crying out to the Lord from where I was (which was pretty close to the stage). For the past one year and even till now, for almost every single day, the same worry pops into my head: "I have to get into a PhD program, a good one." I'm tired. Exhausted. Fatigued to the core of my bones. I cope by either telling myself that God will decide whether I eventually get into one, by praying, or sometimes just thinking of how to do more research. Tonight I laid it at the cross again and cried out to Him. I really need to "kill" my chronic worrying and self doubt. I've been trying too hard on my own. 

I had an awesome time tonight, and most of today actually. It was raining but I had my rubber boots! I had some hiccups in the morning that got me frustrated but I eventually made it through even though things weren't as satisfactory as I would have liked them to be. Otherwise, everything was great! Yay, the weekend's here!(=

Pretty red boots! Nice??

Songs we sang at "The Gate" tonight:

"I will Search" by Israel and Meleasa Houghton from "Israel and New Breed". 

"The Stand" by Hillsong United - Sounds very pop, and I love the chorus!

"Awesome" by William Murphy - short and powerful.

My apathy towards politics...

Americans ought to be vexed over the looming economic downturn. Exacerbating this worry is the failure of the country's lawmakers to come to a consensus on the proposed US financial bailout. I wonder how different factions are going to resolve this matter, but I am far from worried out this at this point. I'm definitely more perturbed by the draft intro I need to submit in less than two week's time for my Empirical Research course. This apathy towards the current economic and political situation is probably borne out of the desensitizing effect of exposure to copious news of political turmoil and upheaval around the world. Countries are changing leaders (in some cases, ousting them), and new leaders are tasked with the gargantuan task of "cleaning up the mess" in their new governments and countries. Perhaps, I'm not so disturbed because the political situation at home is stable (ha ha, with the trinity reigning at the top, of course). Isn't it something to be thankful about? 

I'm more helpless at the fact that the weeks are flying by so quickly. It's been more than a month since I touched down in NYC and now it's autumn. The temperature's getting lower and we're seeing more and more precipitation in the coming days. Glad I finally got my rubber boots and leather boots after scouting weekend after weekend through all the female shoe sections of departmental stores. I really hope I'll be able to survive the cold. The nights now are really chilly and I dread the impending winter. Okay, going to stop here and leave you with some photos of the pasta we cooked on Wed night. 

Pesto base linguine with mushroom and italian portobello mushroom sausage

[Belle, saw the photo of the spaghetti you cooked on your blog...check ours out!]

Tucking in to what's 10x better than Pasta Mania's pasta...!

A Flushing Discovery!!!

Praise God! Found a new place to feast on Chinese and Malaysian (pseudo-Singaporean) cuisine, and to buy Asian groceries from (can find Milo, Chu Qian Yi Ding, Kai Lan, Ribena, century egg, etc.)! Yippeee... This place is called Flushing--don't ask me why, I really have no idea. It's in Queens, another borough of New York City (the others being Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, etc.). Haha, it's like a second Chinatown with a little Korea attached to it. My friend, Celia from Taiwan, recommended me to this place called Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, which is (obviously) known for xiao long bao, and so (obviously) we had xiao long bao!

Super juicy xiao long bao!!!

Eating the xiao long bao with care.

We also had pork chop noodles which was extremely tasty, soya bean milk, and you tiao. And it was cheap!! Compared to Manhattan, that is. Later on, we went to Macy's and got me a pair of red, polka-dot rain boots! I really like them. But I'm too lazy to take a photo of them and post it here. Maybe next time yah. They cost me 69 bucks. As I was paying I was chatting with this Chinese-American salesgirl who has the same last name as me, birthday in October like me, and wants to go to TC. So much details in just a while eh? That's because she spent a long time helping me to apply for a Macy's card which was unsuccessful in the end because I didn't have a Social Security Number. Meanwhile, I also helped to do translation for two customers who could only speak Mandarin. Knowing chinese is really helpful--especially in the line of work I want to do and it looks good on my CV too. I just joined this research team at the School of Epidemiology that is embarking on a project to do with Schizophrenia in the Chinese-American immigrant community and I'm in the translation team because I'm bilingual! It is a precious language. Don't lose it. 

After shopping at the Chinese supermarket (where we bought 12 packets of instant mee!), we went to have bubble tea. They have Quickly there. But it wasn't as nice as the one in Singapore. The pearls were too chewy and tasteless. I bet I can find better ones here. My mum should really set up a stall selling bubble tea near Columbia. It'll be money-raking! Finally, we had dinner at this place called Sentosa, which serves Malaysian (not Singaporean) food. We had Hainanese Chicken Rice and Curry Chicken Rice, and they were pretty good! Haha, and cheap too (again as compared to Manhattan). They have other stuff like Roti Canai (that is, Roti Prata) and ice kachang. Looks like we'll be back for more. 

Won't be missing Singapore food no more!

I'll be going back on Tuesday to meet my relatives for lunch. Apparently, I got two distant aunts (or grandaunts) there and I'll be visiting them at Flushing together with my uncle who is coming to NYC tomorrow. Got a lot of shopping to do when I go there on Tuesday. It's gonna be a 1 hour plus ride on the subway man. It's pretty far but worth the visit! 

Gonna stop here cos' I need to do some work. It's the end of the weekend; another week just flew by. Tomorrow night is the debut of the new season of HEROS on NBC!!! Yay! Can't wait. Here's a song that I really love that Times Square Church did today--very uplifting!

UNCHANGING by Chris Tomlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrGbVmfOw1A

Just being random: Unpacking my dream content...

It's 6.20 a.m. here in the morning and I just woke up from a dream--haha, don't worry not a nightmare! It was bizarre yet I was able to make sense out of it. And amazing cos' I actually remember it quite vividly. It feels like I'm in one of those experiments where they get you to sleep in the lab, very uncomfortably linked to EEG machines so that they can measure the brain activity going on as you shift through various stages of sleep, and then they wake you up at a certain point and get you to relate whatever dream content that you just experienced in your sleep. I suppose that's the only way to preserve memories of dreams--to wake you and record it immediately. 

The dream made sense to me because I see many elements of it comprise thoughts that ran through my mind in the preceding day. Somewhat a manifestation of the Activation-Synthesis Theory regarding dreams that I learnt in my Psych 101 text--I really liked the chapter on dreams; it was fascinating how Freud purported that specific images in your dream (e.g., a horse) reflected certain unwanted contents (e.g., a horse would symbolize sex) that were anxiety-provoking if they found their way constantly into your conscious mind and a defense mechanism that your brain employed was to repress it (that's when it could potentially seep into your dreams). Ha Ha, I don't buy that, but I do admire his creativity and how perceptive he is as a psychotherapist. Despite his controversies, I think he is a brilliant psychologist who was very much influenced by the cultures of his time. 

The Activation-Synthesis Theory, which appears to be more scientific, seems to hold a premise that sounds suspiciously similar to what we say in Mandarin about "ri you suo xi, ye you suo meng" (idioms possess a lot of investigative value in the social sciences realm haha). Basically, scientists noticed that the brain discharges some electrical activity in the night as one sleeps, and it appears to be very random. And one theory says that it could be processing and rearranging the thought material located in the different areas in our brain. It's interesting because there are various sensing organs located in your brain and sometimes when you perceive something in your sleep (e.g., you are falling down a great height), I think (and I emphasize that this is my presumption) that the vestibular area in the brain stem that is responsible for the function of coordination and balance is activated in your sleep. It's been a while since I took Psych 101 so everything I'm espousing now is really based on my memory of what I learnt from Zimbardo (not the man himself--I wish--just the textbook he edited). But I did read it back forth several times!

Oh man, how did I get into such a long discourse about my sleep? I think I really need to put a disclaimer in my posting title. This is really very random stuff. Okay, so here goes the dream (which I must clarify should not be interpreted as having any particular meaning--it's just a mishmash of various things, both important and inconsequential, that probably went through my mind recently). 

So the context of the dream goes like this. I got into a police car (I think it should be a Singapore one--haha, if you didn't know where I used to work you would probably think I was arrested for something), and this may sound a bit moribund but it felt as though there was something to be mourned for (again, this is not prophetic, just a meaningless jumble of stuff). Obviously, someone I know, who is a cop-friend of mine (which I'm not going to reveal cos' I wanna leave you guessing haha), was driving the car. In my hand was a bunch of weed-like plants that I must have plucked from somewhere before I left. As we drove (I think it was day before it gradually became night), I opened the window to the police car (haha, I'll never be able to do what I did in reality--neither can anyone else!) and started to dump the weeds a couple at a time into a plot of the same kind of weed or grass that ran along the road that we were traveling along. The plot was sloping towards my direction so as I threw subsets of what I gathered earlier onto the plot, I could give a quick glance of the weeds that I flung lying there on the ground--the car was traveling slow enough. 

It gradually became dark and apparently the bunch of weeds that I gathered had some kind of flies residing in it and I kinda released the flies into the police car (this is when it starts to take on a movie-like quality haha--I can even remember what the flies resemble!). I was horrified cos' this is not something you want to happen when you are sitting in someone else's car, and your own of course, but this was a police car! Worse, the flies began to emit some substance that solidified into something that looked like a slice of desiccated beehive that was the size of a pencil-case. But somehow I was quite certain that it was made of cinnamon. And they just started multiplying and flying around in the car with that thing attached to them. I began to shoo them out of the window or swat them in the car. Some were smashed against the window and that was a gross sight which I shan't describe. I remember being very apologetic throughout and my friend was very kind in assuring me. We were driving along the PIE towards Bukit Batok then. 

Just when we managed to kill or release all the flies that arose, new ones that were more ferocious appeared (they didn't have funny faces or stings, they just looked like some kind of ordinary flies with nice, leaf-shaped wings). And they multiplied again and we resumed the shooing and swatting. There were some other details that I can't recall now. Soon after, the dream just ended and I woke up peacefully from my sleep. 

As I reflect on that dream, I recognize some elements which were things that either went through my mind very briefly, or were talked about in the day before. The cinnamon part must have came about because I've been eating some apple cinnamon cereal bars recently. The flies probably came about because my prof was talking about mosquitoes and how they transmit Malaria during one of my classes. The police car might have came about because I was telling some new people I met yesterday about my previous job and I clearly remembered thinking about a police car when I gave my reply. And just to wrap it up, I was reading my textbook on PTSD and here was this section on how they measured brain waves in sleep and compared this outcome between combat veterans stricken with PTSD and their healthy counterparts. Ha Ha, psychologists are always so inclined to analyze what they experience...and that's how they derive hypotheses and design good research studies to support their conjectures. 

It's 7.30 am now. Time to stop and decide whether I should go back to bed. The weather in NYC took a drastic change and now its getting really cold. Time to bring out all the sweaters and coats!

~Ciao

NEW NEWS NEWS!!!

Since the weekend, news in the past few days has been dominated by news of the Lehman Bros' demise in the financial markets and how different multinational companies followed suit soon after. Before that, the nation was glued to the ineluctable rage of hurricane Ike striking Galveston Bay at Texas. And of course, amidst all this was simply election craze as the presidential candidates enter the heat of the competition and busy themselves with strategic garnering of votes and controversial politics. The turn of events is remarkably dramatic. It is just so amazing how focus switches so quickly, and these rapid changes are exemplified clearly on the headlines of CNN's website. It is indeed an "exciting" time to be here I guess. The ripple effects of what happens here in the US is felt everywhere in the world. Even in Singapore, which is exactly 12 hrs away from here (on the exact opposite spot of the globe), the repercussions are tremendous, with the stock market plunging to the lowest point in two years. Though some of us may not grasp the gravity of the situation, all I can say is change can come swiftly and inadvertently. Please do not be alarmed; this is not an apocalyptic message. All I want to express is nothing in this world is secure, and only our faith is. 

Super hot Sunday - 09-14-2008 !!!

Hi everyone! I'm going to blog about today. It was really hot today. The weather has been a little erratic: cloudy and rainy on one day, and bright and hot on the next. Ha ha, it's been driving me nuts because I need to dress appropriately for the weather. I either end up overdressed and underdressed. So checking the weather forecast is a must before I leave the apartment. 

As per other Sundays, we went to Times Square Church today. Took some shots of the church facade and within the church:

Times Square Church located at 51st Street along Broadway

That's me standing across the street from the church!

The building is actually an old theatre so the ceiling is very elaborately designed.

This is the view from the gallery snapped before service began. The service starts at 10 am but people come here as early as 8 am just to secure seats! Last Sunday, we couldn't get seats cos' we went at 9.40 am so this week we were more kiasu! If you notice a man onstage, that's the senior pastor who was walking and praying before service. And people would gather at the altar area (below the stage) to pray every Sunday.

This was taken after service (obviously I'll be too preoccupied to take photos during service).You can see the choir onstage in their white robes and the pastor at the pulpit area. They were doing a baby dedication, so there were families onstage. And the crowds below are not extended family members. They were responding to an earlier altar call!

After church, we walked down Madison Avenue to go to the Apple Store to buy a cable for my new Samsung printer. Here are some shots taken along the way and of course shots of the Apple Store which was really cool. The place was crowded with people and according to the cashier I spoke to, he said the store opened 24 hours and it is crowded all the time (don't think he meant during the ungodly hours like 3 am though!). There were so many iPods, Macbooks, etc. displayed for people to play around with. And the store assistants, or "Specialists" really look hip, young and friendly. Ha ha, Mac is really about lifestyle and not branding anymore!

Travel by horse carriage - additional way of seeing NYC & getting tourists to spend $$

The smell of horse manure was really pungent in the air!

The mecca for all Mac fans! Ha Ha no prizes for whose fave store this is!

Apple fans - actually it's just one Apple fan, I'm not that fanatic yet!

Check out the contours of this building. Nice reflective surface too.

It's the Louis Vuitton building (rightmost building)! Fans of Louis sure must love this.

The previous photo was actually taken in Harlem. We took a walk along 25th Street to look for Havaianas. Happens that the only shop selling those flipflops is situated in Harlem. But to our disappointment, there were no male designs--now you know who we were shopping for! We didn't really take many pictures there cos' it was our first time visiting the area and we were busy appreciating the sights and sounds, and being vigilant. We were the only 2 out of 3 Asians walking around there on a Sunday afternoon--other person was this old Chinese woman selling terrapins to a bunch of Blacks...which was quite an interesting sight. I didn't dare to snap that on my cam so instead we took this pix of Popeye's...LOL!!!

After Harlem, we went back to rest before whipping up a nice pasta dinner. It was yummy!!! Ha ha, we are really perfecting our pasta...so far we have used 2 kinds of bases, marinara and pesto. Next, we'll try Alfredo! I must say, our pasta beats Pasta Mania's hands down! Watch out for photos of the food we cook in my subsequent postings! For now, photos from PINKBERRY, this hip dessert chain that has hordes of Columbia student supporters! Their desserts are simply heavenly and delectable - it's just yogurt (choose from original, green tea and coffee flavor) and select your toppings from an array of fruits and cereal!!!  

 

Haha,  just posing with my PINKBERRY! Relax, I'm not eating both portions.

Front cup: Med-sized, original yogurt with blackberries, kiwis, and Captain Crunch.

Rear cup: Med-sized, original yogurt with strawberries, kiwis, and mochi! 

Guess who ordered which... 

Answer revealed!!!

Finally made it home to set up my new Samsung printer with the cable I bought from the Apple Store. It looks nice right? But it's super heavy and takes up a lot of space!!! I was so frustrated earlier on that the paper kept jamming. And I later realized that my paper was considered "thick" and I had to alter the settings on the computer....zzzzzz....zzzz....zzz...zz. The stack of paper I bought cost me eight bucks--USD, mind you!!! 

Haha, it's super late!!! I've done it again! It took me so long to upload and format the photos. I had to drag each one to the exact spot and every time I uploaded them, they appeared right on top of my posting. Okay, shall end here...and that also marks the end of my day anyway. Just want to leave you with something that touched me during the service today...second verse of Amazing Grace. Tears just rolled down uncontrollably today as we sang it in church.

Twas' grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed...

It wasn't by chance that I got to know you, Lord. It was by your grace that I experienced fear in my heart--the fear of things around me and the fear of You, Lord--and the only way to bring relief to those fears was to run into Your wide and open arms. And by that same grace, You calmed my fears and still do today. It wasn't by chance. It was all because of Your amazing grace.