Thursday, September 24, 2009
I have my moments.
Today, I saw clear blue skies,The bringer of sunshine oppressing the warm stifling heat.
But the moment of reprieve left me as soon as it arrived,
And again, I returned to the dejected hollow depth.
How funny is it to be in the light, yet be one with darkness?
I'm like a speck of dust, trapped, refusing to budge.
Is this the infinite hole that cannot be filled?
I prayed for strength, and peace, and joy...
But what happens when you run out of buoyancy?
When glimpses of the future fail to feed the fire?
Perhaps a blissful slumber is the medicine,
The sender of dreams - my physician,
To heal me of ailments that are naked to the eye,
Yet corrodes my soul one breath at a time.
Tomorrow will come and I shall try again,
To right the wrong and give hope a chance,
Or psych myself into believing a reality
That is only as real as you make it to be.
Fear is the worst fear of all.
Fear is fearful,
But without fear, the fearless cannot be manifested.
Posted by Jo at 9:56 PM
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
OPQRSTUVWXYZee.
I would have been contented eating burritos and sipping a chilled margarita at Café Iguana’s on a hazy Tuesday night when I received a call with an invite to the special preview of Zee Avi.
My first reaction: What’s that? I then learnt that Zee Avi is not a thing, but a she – a Malaysian singer-songwriter who was first discovered on YouTube. And my immediate reply to the invite: Nah, I’ll stick to my burritos and margarita instead.
It wasn’t until Hil started his salesman pitch that I decided to at least check out one of her songs on YouTube before blowing off the idea. If you’ve been tuning in to the top 40, you’d have probably heard her first single Bitter Heart on the radio. That was the song I checked out on YouTube and by the end of the first line, I was impressed with her voice.
Next thing I knew, I was erasing that delicious burrito image from my mind and calling to say yes to the St James’ preview.
Thank God for media benefits (Hil’s this time), we beat the crowd and made our way to the seating area just a few metres from the stage, complete with a free drink in hand. The petitely framed 24-year-old with a very big hair came on half an hour later escorted by a three-piece Caucasian band (I’m assuming they’re Americans since she signed on with Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records) and started belting out some unfamiliar tunes.
I must say that her voice is really quite remarkable – think Renee Olstead on a sugar high – with no local accent to suggest that she’s Malaysian whatsoever. She’s the kind of voice you’d find in the Audiophile CD compilation alongside jazz greats and not be out of place. She’s the type of record you’d play just before you drift into sleep at night.
With time on her side, Zee’s on her way to great things, and before she gets there, I hope she improves on her guitar skills and stage presence. Not that I’m any Simon Cowell or anything, but it’s apparent in the performance that her skill for the instrument is not quite as solid as her voice. In fact, I found myself holding my breath at times, hoping she won't screw it up. Thankfully, she held her ground despite a couple of minor misplucks.
I did like that Zee plays the ukelele. The charmingly lighthearted and uplifting sound of the instrument perfectly suits the tone of her voice and her personality; she ought to use that to her advantage and take on songs like Honey Bee and Kantoi instead of the run-of-the-mill jazz numbers which, more than anything, would only rob her of her youth - and a sizeable fan base.
With the right people, Zee will be a bright spark to watch in the near future. And hopefully, her success will inspire others in our region to bring the music industry to a whole new level.
Posted by Jo at 11:52 PM
Monday, September 14, 2009
a twit no more.
It's official. I had secretly gone cold turkey on Twitter the past 10 days and now, I'm proud to emerge a stronger person, liberated from the bonds of unwritten expectations that had virtually (yes, pun) ruled my life.No longer do I need to constantly think of witty liners - condensed into 140 characters. No longer do I need to detach from my surroundings in order to take that perfect tweet photo. No longer do I need to regularly check if anyone had dropped me a comment or two.
It all started when I learnt about Twitter and thought it would be a cool solution to the lack of activity on my blog. Having a microblog would continue to keep readers updated and, at the same time, take the pressure off the need for me to blog constantly. That worked out well for awhile, until my micro-blogging urge grew stronger and more frequent, and my desire to blog, ironically, diminished.
I finally knew that it was time to put an end to this when I was consciously thinking of tweets in the toilet, in the train, and yes, even when I'm in bed. It's one of those things that stick in your head, making your brain form new tweet sentences faster than you can say shenanigans.
In a world where value-add is highly treasured, we somehow fail to see how little value social networking sites have added to our lives. Ok, so we found out that so-and-so is eating crabs for dinner, or that so-and-so went to the zoo over the weekend...and then what?
In time to come, I don't want people, particularly my kids, to remember me as a Twitter addict or a Facebook maniac. I want to leave a legacy, even if it's a small one, that has made some impact on society and changed some lives.
So, this is it - three months and 143 tweets later, I'm pulling the plug on the account. And in true Twitter style, I conclude: "Goodbye, twee' you around". Next cold turkey mission, Facebook!
10 meaningful things you can do when not tweeting:
1) Read a spiritually enriching book (and pass it on when you're done)
2) Pray for a family member, friend or the world
3) Spend more time - in the living room - with your family
4) Clean up the junk which also happens to be your bedroom
5) Get involved in other forms of social networking = church ministry
6) Write a blog entry that inspires in a good way
7) Exercise.
8) Sleep early...so that you can rise early (Now, don't judge me.)
9) Learn a new skill that will ultimately benefit others
10) Acquire new knowledge by watching good TV programmes (think Nat Geo, History, etc)
Oh yes, anyone keen on joining the I-don't-wanna-be-a-twit-anymore support group, feel free to call me! Like all other forms of addiction, moral support from a friend is always helpful :)
Posted by Jo at 10:46 PM
Monday, September 07, 2009
Holy Nerds Club (May-Aug) - Sophie's world
If you've been following my blog, you'd probably realise by now that I had fallen behind on my new year's resolution of reading one spiritually enriching book every month. Well, I'm proud to announce that four (yes, 4!) very long and agonising months later, I've finally finished Sophie's World. That's almost half a year spent on a single book, although to be fair, it's a lot thicker and the font size is much smaller than those I had read previously. Besides, four months is a considerably short time to read about a topic that has spanned over thousands and thousands of years.
Bro Sam introduced the book to me one day while we were browsing around in the bookshop. At that time, philosophy, to me, was as foreign as Sanskrit. Nonetheless, I impulsively picked the book up and paid for it. I did have a friend in poly who used to sprout quotes and anecdotes about Plato and Socrates, so I guess that formed my basic foundation, albeit a weak one, for the topic.
Sophie's World, as it clearly states on the cover, is a novel about the history of philosophy. Like economics, philosophy is one of those subjects that had been conveniently left out of the compulsory school curriculum. So while we were learning what the inside of the plant is called, we're missing out on the bigger picture: how did the plant come about in the first place? A flaw in the education system, if you asked me...
What's interesting about this book is how the author, Jostein Gaarder, had cleverly combined the seemingly dull and long-drawn history of Western philosophy with a fictional tale through the eyes of 14-year-old Sophie. For first-timers like me with very little knowledge of such a broad, underrated and dying subject, this book is the perfect introduction to philosophy.
I particularly enjoyed the 'heavy' portions which talked about some of the greatest philosophical concepts. Simple yet often forgotten questions like 'Who am I?' and 'Where did the world come from?' had been posed by philosophers since the early days, and really, what's truly amazing (and for me, faith-defining) is the fact that no one - no genius, scientist or teacher - has an answer to how the world came about, which only goes to reiterate God's mysterious ways in creation.
It helped me to appreciate how evolution has brought us to where we are today, and question whether modernisation, with all the technological, scientific and political advances, are good things after all. It also made me rethink the purpose of my existence: if I'm truly living life or simply going with the world's flow.
The book puts into perspective how small I am and how incomprehensively big the universe is. And really, at some point in time, you just have to stop and marvel at God's ingenuity and mystery.
The fictional aspect of the book provides much needed breaks in between the huge chunks of content, and serves as a metaphoric message which Gaarder is trying to drive home. However, I found myself being constantly irked by the cheesy dialogues which seemed redundant and lame at times.
Overall though, I have to say it was a good read. If I could, I would do it all over again. The second time round, I'd probably prepare a blank piece of paper and map out the whole history of Western philosophy - just to see how ideas had progressed through the centuries.
With all that content, I could go on talking and discussing significant concepts about creation and religion for hours, but I shan't...The book leaves much for self-exploration and the best way to do it is to get into Sophie's World yourself.
Here's an excerpt from the book to whet your appetite:
"Faith is the most important factor in religious questions...If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this, I must believe. If I wish to preserve myself in faith, I must constantly be intent upon holding fast the objective uncertainty, so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water, still preserving my faith.
...Many had previously tried to prove the existence of God - or at any rate to bring him within the bounds of rationality. But if you content yourself with some such proof or logical argument, you suffer a loss of faith, and with it, a loss of religious passion. Because what matters is not whether Christianity is true, but whether it is true for you."
