The first stone

The recessional hymn at today's service was Fill My Cup, Lord:

Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy
And then I heard my Savior speaking:
"Draw from my well that never shall run dry".

Chorus
Fill my cup Lord,
I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

There are millions in this world who are craving
The pleasures earthly things afford;
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

The inspiration for this song was verse John 4:14, which says "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

I have always supported gay rights. Many other Christians do not agree. They say that homosexuality is a sin, so Christians should condemn gays, and should not support any measures that would encourage such behavior. And these Christians happen to form the bulk of the people that are anti-gay rights.

Well, make no mistake, I too believe that homosexuals engage in sinful behavior. However, they deserve rights as much as any other humans deserve rights! Jesus said that we should not be the judge of saint or sinner, but in fact embrace the sinner with our love, just as Jesus accepted the prostitute as his follower, and eventually she repented. How can we expect the sinner to ever repent if all we show is our hatred? Indeed, let he who has no sin cast the first stone against the homosexual sinner...

I remember a song we always sung in church when I was a kid. There was a part that goes:
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love!
So tell me, where is the love when we Christians are condemning gays and depriving them of their rights?

There is one tricky question, however. Let's say we forget the rights, what about gay marriage? Well, marriage is a union between man and woman, in the eyes of God. If gays want to have a legalised marriage, that's up to the courts to decide, but it won't be valid in the eyes of God. However, should cohabiting gays get as much rights and as much benefits and welfare as cohabiting heterosexuals who are not married? Why not? They need to live too, they need food on the table don't they? Who are we to cast the first stone at these fellow human beings?

By the way, the Catholic Church is one of the most conservative Christian Churches out there. So conservative that some Protestants (especially here in Singapore) don't consider Catholics Christians (wonder who put that idea into their head) because they are too conservative. Yet Newman Hall, Church of the Holy Spirit, which serves the Catholic community in Berkeley, has an LGBT club. LGBT stands for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender. The Catholic community doesn't condone sinful behavior, but yet they invite the sinner to come to church. For we are not worthy to be the judge, or cast the first stone; we are only worthy to shower our love on our fellow brothers and sisters. We Christians need to learn from Newman Hall....

From the late David Marshall

The late David Marshall, Chief Minister of Singapore, had these wise words to say:

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar – the vinegar of crabbed egoism.

Very well spoken! Are you guilty of turning into vinegar too?

Fireworks Festival 2006

So i went to the grand finale of the national fireworks festival 2006 (Is that what it's called?) today. It was awesome but way way crowded! Luckily A and VB managed to score us some good spots inside an investment office at 1 Fullerton, which is like the best place to watch it ever! Too bad its indoors, so we don't get the music. So I decided to try out my new camera's fireworks mode. I also have some really good videos, but the file size is super huge, so I'm not gonna post it.

The crowd outside was absolutely crazy man. I heard that people were camped out since 4pm. There's no way I'm gonna do that. The only other time I've heard of people camping out since 4pm to see anything was Times Square on New Year's Eve. But then again, Singaporeans will queue up 12 hours for Hello Kitty at McDonald's, so maybe its not so surprising after all!

You know, its great to have such a big event in the city and all, but it gets kinda disruptive to traffic. Most traffic in Singapore passes through the city area somehow or other, so with Nicoll highway and ECP totally jammed up, and all trains clogged up once they reach the City Hall and Raffles Place area, it just makes it so hard to get anywhere anytime some event like this is going on in the city! And that goes for Chinese New Year and National Day and whatever big event you can think of... Back in the Bay Area I only remember one day a year where traffic comes to this kinda standstill everywhere: Thanksgiving Eve.

Looks like people aren't too patriotic this national day. Look at this block, there's only one flag, and you can hardly see it! Back in the 80s everybody would put one up!! 

This guy hung a huge blanket outside his balcony! Might not be so easy to see in this pic, but I think its gonna fly away sooner or later!!!

all things sony

Check out my new toy! This is the Sony micro vault tiny 2GB thumb drive, except its much smaller than a thumb drive, more like a fingernail drive! Okay, the macro function on my camera may make it look a lot bigger than it really is, but I guess you can size it by looking a the tip which connects to your computer. oh, and its only a few millimeters thick, and comes with this cool carry case!

Have I suddenly become a sony fan? I've just got new sony headphones too, albeit the cheap variety. I used to use everything sony in the days of walkman and discman, but not until lately. I think sony's new mp3 player with the new lcd technology is really cool! The lcd screen is practically integrated into the case, and that makes IPod hella backward man...

So why did i get a Sony camera? after all, my last Canon was pretty much one of the better cameras I always had, and it ran on batteries which suited my run around lifestyle when I'm on vacation. Well, the Canon didn't last very long that's why. My parents got it for me before our trip to the canadian rockies. And it died once halfway during our trip! Got back, had it exchanged, and my parents being super kiasu sent the new one for diagnostics, only to turn up with a fault! And now, just after the warranty expires, it dies again. Canon may be the most popular brand around, but it ain't gonna last, especially the ones that are made in malaysia. My other sony at home which we got free has lasted till today.... And plus a family friend who's a pro photographer recommends sony for the type of purposes I'm using the camera for.

I got to say the price tag is pretty steep, but otherwise it's been doing pretty great except that the battery doesnt exactly last very long.... But I can live with that as long as it doesnt die on me during my vacation!

The view from my balcony. Ok, its a little dark... 

I like the night mode on my new camera. Here's a picture of the guard post at my house. 

Here's a closer look for you YW. You're lucky my mum likes turtles otherwise I won't know what to do with Lando other than "turtle soup" :P 

YW, here's Lando and friends. As you can see, he's still alive and snuggled up to his good friend! 

check this out! The magnifying glass function can actually show the fine print on top of the 50 dollar note! the more expensive model can show it more clearly but I guess I don't have that much $$ 

Just got a new camera! This is the calendar on my desk 

New Trick

With some help from YW today, I learned a new skating trick: The backward crossover! Considering that I can't even do a proper forward crossover, its a miracle I can do a backward crossover huh? And its fun, except that I don't know how to stop, so it can be quite dangerous!

There's going to be 2 huge gatherings/parties in California to celebrate my return. I'll be meeting up for dinner with the canoe/asce people in SoCal for dinner on 26th August, so if anyone's in town just holler out and we'll get you in the list. The weekend after that we'll have a huge potluck party at Christi's place in the Bay Area, where I'll be expecting a much larger and rowdy crowd (hopefully the cops won't come). The exact date is not fixed yet, but it'll be either a thursday, friday or saturday. I know its a long weekend, but no excuses if you're in town let me know!

The one thing I've got to do is go visit the new Davis Hall and take lots and lots of pictures! Which means I have to get a new camera cos the old one's broken. I'm getting a suit, shirt and watch too, to look good for the big wedding, and not to mention the air tickets already cost me a bomb! Coupled with the meager mid-year bonus I'll have to say I'm kinda broke now, but it'll definitely be worth the small fortune I'm spending! Special thanks to R and C who are willing to put me up for my vacation. 3 weeks and counting!
;)

The Longest day (or something)

Did you know that the theme song of the hit show 24 is actually a remix by Armin Van Buuren? It's called The Longest Day or something. Isn't he just great or what?

Oh, and he's Dutch....

Those Dutch.....

It says here that there's a legal political party just set up in Holland that is made of paedophiles. And they plan to run on a platform of lowering the age of consent and legalising sex with animals. Oh, and the Dutch courts condone it!

What kind of sick joke is this? They legalise prostitution and drugs and all that in Holland, and now paedophilia and beastiality? That's just sick to the gut man!