History repeats itself because I don't learn from my mistakes, or because I want to relive it again.Saturday morning started out quiet, playing video games and learning guitar. I still have trouble playing a D chord with the 4th finger. I might need a finger extension, or some extra bones. After that, I went to Morse Fish Co. again for lunch, ordering the fried Catfish at the last moment. Going well with ketchup, I killed a couple more hours at base, before heading out to see Immortal Technique. It was the first time going to a hip-hop concert, so I was looking forward to it, even though the place was pretty small. At this point, I realized I locked myself out of the house again when trying to get a Hubway bike. The concert was great. I saw names like Poison Pen, Mad Hoffa, The Circle, Diabolik, and Pumpkinhead. There was a lot of energy, humor, showmanship, and technical delivery, though a lot of the cliches of hip-hop were present as well. Nevertheless, it gave me much material to reflect upon. After the concert, I headed downtown to Burger King. There's a Yelp review (http://www.yelp.com/biz/burger-king-boston-12#hrid:OM9g8g7uWqUGx6walnF-jg/) which you can check out in case you need laughs. Sunday was full of BBQ, roast pork, pie, and diet Dr. Pete (which I highly recommend because it tastes like vanilla). We spent most of the time at our cousins' place playing Halo 2, Mortal Kombat, driving sims, and a whole bunch of other old school video games. Apparently, my cousins are into this new thing called "Minecraft". Crazy kids... Back at work now, and now I have to catch up from everything on the weekend. Hopefully, base didn't turn into an aquarium...
Monday, June 18, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Small Group Reflections 6/6/12
I'm not sure how to process this all. Being faithful to something while being faithless doesn't seem like the right path to go. It all looks so disjunctive and not flowing correctly.If there were any confirmation of thought yesterday, it is that God constantly tells us to defy and go against the grain in terms of conventional wisdom, of strength being inverted in the face of humility, that a savior would not come in the form of a warrior, but rather a man who seemingly came to accept his fate. I am disturbed by people who opt to speak as wise men, but sound like fools (present company included).At the end of the day, it seems that our causes, our purpose, our desires - they need to be validating and validated, and also that our source of strength, our reliance or what we can depend on must give us assurance, and give others assurance too. I feel like taking on the world today. Earthly consequences, pain, shame, grief, doubt - they appear to fly out the window of the mind.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Day 3 of Charlotte, NC
I simply wonder when I'm going to get back.
A lot of things that I've seen and heard are on my mind concerning the future of the nation, if not at least my job.
Tomorrow I head back home trying to understand more of this world around me.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Day 2 of Charlotte, NC
I've yet to find someone from the Carolinas who has a Carolinean accent.
I woke up this morning, and headed across the street to the conference room for our Day 1 training. The central air was running too hard. Also after going through that training case, I felt too much sympathy towards the fake family presented in the training.
For lunch, I went to the Kangaroo Express across the street to pick up a snack. Everything was cheaper there - a 14 oz Slush cost $1.20 and a 32 oz Slush cost $1.50. Cigarettes were $5 a box and for the brand name ones too.
I'm looking to check out the city either tomorrow or the day after if plans go well. Also, I'm looking forward to checking out the regional office to see what kind of pearls of wisdom we can learn there too. The weather's nice, and it hasn't rained yet. All is good for now.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Day 1 of being in Charlotte, NC
It's been a while since I was on a plane to somewhere, and I didn't have anything on my agenda. Getting out of the office was a refreshing change of pace, even though it's only been the first day.
The airport was fun. Instead of getting X-rayed, I let them pat me down and it wasn't as titilating as I thought it'd be.
The flight involved gorging myself on bags of Popcorners, which apparently is a new way of making popcorn, but into chip form. There was a Rick James documentary on VH1 and MTV Countdown of the most expensive Cribs ever. I didn't know that Richard Branson had his own private island. There were a lot of good ideas to decorate a house, but the Van Gogh paintings are a bit out of my budget.
There are huge bugs in North Carolina.
This room is awesome. If only I could get the normal internet working, then we'd be back in business. The lights are kinda dim though.
We're sorta in the middle of nowhere. It's an office park-like community, where there are schools, condos, businesses and stuff all around. It's like the area in Wellington, except without buses.
The weather is really nice too, but I hear it's gonna rain in the coming days. There's also a tornado warning but I don't think it'll touch down here.
There are only a couple hours left before hitting the sack. Time to make use of the fitness center, and then crash hard.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
QT reflection 2/6/12
How often do we look to the law to break the rules? Sounds funny, right?
I've been using this book I borrowed from Lee Yih to do daily devotionals. Most, if not all, of the reflections have some sort of practical application in terms of character, internals, and understanding the nature of Christianity on a day-to-day basis. In one of the things I read, I came across the idea of how if "we follow the 10 Commandments, then the requirements of the Law are satisfied." It makes sense that if we glorify God and don't screw over our neighbors, then we can be held blameless for what we do.
Often, I find myself being able or wanting to bend the rules without breaking them. Games are a prime example in our culture where's it's accepted and expected for you to do so. How far and to what depths of actions will you go through in order to achieve what you want?
Friday, January 20, 2012
small group reflections 1/17/2012
I love my small group for the diversity of opinion and reasonings people can give, along with the ideas they make me ponder about. I dislike my smal group because....(for that, you can ask me in person)
A lot of thoughts ran through my mind in small group this week, and a lot of questions came from it too. Without going into an uber-philosophical tirade, I find it helpful to at least mull about the implications of such questions and issues that popped up. Any one of these can be a good conversation in and of themselves, but for purposes of mental exercise, the thoughts about them will be short.
Can we still grow/change, even if we know the answers?
I liken it to a robot that has all the information in the world fed into it. It's at the apex of development where any other information would seem redundant. However, if there is nothing further for it to learn, can it become any better at all? In our walks of faith, we find that even if we do know what the Bible says, that our own personal development is stunted without being tested. Whatever testing that may be - we can still grow, whether by changing our perspective, rearranging our priorities, or understanding a greater importance.
Faith & works go hand in hand, but can you develop faith through your works?
It takes effort and will to develop faith. One can go about life easy and "believe" anything, but the main proof is whether you live your life on that belief thinking that it is or should be true. A child could believe in Santa Claus, but if they start buying their own presents and not wait for him to show up, then we would say that they don't believe in him, even though they declared it so. When we say faith, the connotation is that it's a good thing, particularly in the Christian realm. If one were to do good works continuously, without obligation to do so, I believe they start growing into that mindset of a deeper morality. One's mind begins to change, not simply because they are doing something, but rather because they're coming to a realization in their lives by doing do.
Who is in charge of the renewing of the mind?: (Romans 12:2)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
People wanted to avoid talking about pre-destination. One person in our group believed that it's a joint effort. I can't consider any alternatives where it's 100% God or 100% man, since if it's 100% God, then He wouldn't need to renew it, and if it's 100% man, it wouldn't be possible since by nature we despise Him.
Are we replacing our thoughts or are we transforming them?
I don't think we are replacing our thoughts, though i can see that we do blur the lines. Sinful thoughts do and will exist, and it will happen. In one case, I can see us moving towards the point where certain desires are dulled out to the point, but are never gone. We are not "brainwashed" in the sense that there is some deviousness or malicious intent to change one's thoughts. Rather it is the forced choices that the world makes us make that if we were to choose a Godly perspective, that by not conforming to the patterns of the world, we are being mindless, stupid, ignorant, etc.
We are forced by choice, not by will, to choose between God and the world.
I talked about this before in the previous issue. I believe that our wills are blank slates in that they can be molded and not be preset. I think there is some part in all of us that desire to glorfiy God, but it's not recognized internally yet, or we're being distracted (i.e. other choices). Every decision we make up until the point of death is whether or not we choose God. It sounds melodramatic but I do believe it is realistic to believe so.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
fruity pebbles, crappy vegetable juice
It feels like a while since I actually blogged a personal reflection rather than a "hey, this is how my X went". Christmas was a good time for learning, but it wasn't something that I would have encountered had I not broken the rules of convention.
I was talking to a friend today, whom I hadn't seen in a while. While catching up with him, we went into a discussion of Reddit and the face of the internet today, that it revolved around social media. We also came to the conclusion of information overload, in that we're getting so much information. As useful as it is, we spend hours on ending soaking up all the information that we're neglecting our other duties, deluding ourselves in thinking that we're being productive.
That being said, I thought of something another friend said to me, that "I always tend to find a loophole in whatever is said." I think that is true, in that I do, but not for nefarious or underhanded reasons. Rather, I'm always looking to see things from the other side of the coin, and checking to see if I can make things better.
Concerning the loophole, it goes back to how the market plays itself out. On the one side, people are looking for one entity to depend on to get their information/services/resources. Yet people are afraid that if this entity gets too large and powerful, it would go out of control and effectively destroy everything around them.
On the other side, we're looking for straight efficiency and keeping costs down. It's why we outsource and use cheap labor, in order to push comparative and absolute advantage. However, seen from a different light, going about those methods means the end of unions and American jobs.
Constantly, I find myself having to act like a chameleon in order to meet the needs and demands of others. Again though, the conflictions continue and there seems to be no end.
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