coming home

hey all

todae is my final dae in london....blogging now at kevin's sisters apartment.

london is nice. the people speak english...unlike the bloody french and italians....haha yes im anglophilic! but singapore is also nice...cos its home (awww...) i'm at the stage where im satisfied...ive seen what i wanted to see, done what i needed to do, shopped enough...oh shopping is fun....how often can one say that you could pop over to london for a spot of shopping? heh i sound like a tai tai already bleah

argh im not really looking forward to getting back to sunny singapore though....ipho beckons! and i've barely memorized my scripts! and my email is going to be flooded by work! just like army daes! bloody hell.

will post more pictures when i get back. internet here is abit erratic


"home is where the heart is"-- josh

photos frm italie

view from the top of st peter's basilica

vatican city

Clothing fit for The King

and no The King isnt elvis.... >_< this is an article on attire that i will be submitting to Epistole, the newsletter arm of VCF. enjoy! this will also probably be my last post for the next 3 wks as i jet off to europe, for some well deserved R&R!! byeeee (((:


*Clothing fit for The King*




Mini Skirt : +25 to “sex appeal”
+ 15 to “self confidence”
- 20 to “decent image”
(note: attributes will stack with other apparel such as tube tops, spaghetti straps and sport bra lines, allowing players to level up faster)

The above is a rather popular article of clothing worn by young girls today, as they immerse themselves in the immensely popular role-playing game (RPG) called “Life”. Guys too, aren’t exempt as they buy the most outrageous outfits and accessories to project a certain image for the approval of their peers. Is it wrong to want to dress nicely? Where should the line (if any) be drawn vis-à-vis Christian and secular values prevalent amongst our youth today? Lastly, this being a Christian newsletter, what does the Bible have to say regarding this issue?

Firstly, let me state categorically that I have nothing against the desire to dress nicely, and I believe in the importance of dressing well, according to the different social situations that we find ourselves in. The issue here is the Image that we consciously or unconsciously portray as a result of an Inappriopriate Dress Sense that causes unnecessary attention or friction between ourselves and the people that we are with at that point in time. Examples abound. The girl in church wearing a skimpy number that causes all the guys around her to be distracted, the guy with a death metal rock emblem emblazoned on his shirt trying to do street evangelism, the group that volunteers to serve as church ushers dressed in t-shirt and flip-flops….extreme examples no doubt, but one that illustrates the point mentioned above.

The truth of course, is far greyer. A line has to be drawn demarcating the point at which good taste and common decency act as a counterpoint to the vagaries of fashion and the vicissitudes of teenage opinions. Hence I will attempt to provide here the ABCs as a guideline to what constitutes good attire, and what does not.

Avert your eyes! This is especially applicable to the men amongst us today. Do we (yes myself included) need yet another reminder that to look at a woman with lust is already committing adultery under the laws of God? It is never quite within our control to decide what the girls will wear, but how we choose to react and respond to such distractions would definitely make a difference between spending quality time with God, and the reverse, which would be to sin against God by pandering to this aspect of our earthly desires. It really is as serious as that!

Be considerate. This is for the girls. The Bible clearly states that one should not do anything that would cause their fellow brother to stumble. If a guy feedbacks to you about your attire (or lack thereof), don’t take it as a compliment! Neither should you castigate him for being a busybody. Instead, ponder over the real reason why you choose to don that sexy number more fit for the nightclub than that Sunday worship service. I believe the subsequent attention you receive can hardly be considered as flattering (although it may feel good for a short while) as it denigrates you as a person and reduces you to a mere object of surreptitious voyeurism on the part of most males present. I believe I speak for all girls when they say that that is the absolute Worst Thing that can happen to them on any given day!

Christ Centered, Always. Let us never forget that we are constantly under His Scrutiny as well as under the scrutiny of other people like our fellow church goers, our elders, our parents and for some of us, our younger cell members or siblings that are under our charge and over whom we consciously or unconsciously exert a great deal of influence over. Bear in mind that our bodies are a holy temple of God, and what we choose to clothe it in as we enter into His Courts to worship Him is a definite reflection of our attitude and the deference that we accord The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords!

Yours in Christ
Joshua
Faculty of Medicine

the difference between martyrdom and sucide is press coverage

heh saw the above title somewhere, and though i dun really agree with it, it does hold some truth...

crap. ive just been feeling abit depressed these couple of daes.....

firstly iPHO trg on sat was shite...the dance trg was fun, but i didnt realize tt we had to memorize the script for the civic district and PRESENT it to our group! so i panicked...and madly tried to start mugging in weird places...the mrt (a new mugging first!) whilst having lunch....what a bloody waste of time....when it was my turn to present, i could only smoke my way half-assed through it...barely knowing what to say, surreptiously glancing at my script in a pathetic attempt to glean more information from those unhelpful words..felt terrible. i wondered if i would get kicked out of ipho becuz of my indiscretion. apparently however, ruimin (head honcho) found it acceptable so THANK GOD

secondly, and more seriously, i've just been feeling really caged recently....like i am supposed to CONFORM to some deluded notions put forth by society in general as to how i am supposed to behave, act, think and interact with others...specifically how my "membership" in the "exclusive" medicine club affords me privileges, but somehow other people venerate/distance themselves from me when i introduce myself to them...making me feel venerated/ostracized. i hate hate hate it! i dont WANT to be DEFINED by my choice of career, i dont WANT to be JUDGED and CATEGORIZED based on my course of study...i dont WANT me and my fellow medicine classmates to be polarized into "US" and "THEM" its making me depressed as realization slowly dawns on me that most of the relationships of all kinds that i will foster in the future inevitably has its basis on the fact of what i will eventually (hopefully) become.... my life is becoming regressively one-dimentional...with my waking thoughts, actions, and interactions increasingly based on one topic only.....and its not only me! the blogs of my fellow classmates are filed with words all in the same vein too...

am i even making sense???? please dont flame me...

the only thing that i would gladly accede to being stereotyped as is an acs boy...specifically a barker boy. barker was, and still is i believe, a seminal point in my life thus far, determining who i am, and who i will be. the school is a perfect juxtapositioning of the prestige that comes with the acs branding, and the compassion that guides the school and its teachers. barker was, and is, a safety net for those who kinda fell through the gaps of the psle, and some 12 yrs after it started, the school's original mission and raison 'd etre still lives in the the lives of her students and those privileged to have passed though her portals. for she symbolizes hope...dreams....possibilities that do not end when u receive your less than stellar psle results.

i have always been part of the underdogs i think, and even now as i mix with the "big boys" in The Game, that slightly rebellious, non-conformist me always lies just below the veneer of my visage.

Serendipitous perhaps, that i have found myself in melancholy remonstrations of a fate that many would dearly love to partake of? hardly, for i know in my heart of hearts that even as i struggle along the road of self recognition, self-fufillment and the traditional markers of success.... it is all according to Gods perfect will, and his plan for my life will never be reduced to be defined by the slip of paper that for better or worse, other people will use to define me.

just a barker boy.
joshua