ALL HAIL HIS CHEWINESS, CHEWY JUNIOR!!!

While I was in Singapore, I came across this delicacy on my first night. Fiona, a friend of Yi Qin's, bought it for us and I completely and utterly loved it.

So what's Chewy Junior? I know there are Singaporeans reading this. If you still don't know what it is, I suggest you get on the MRT, get down on Bugis, and enter the mall that is connected to the exit. You'll see it there. To those who are non-Singaporean, Chewy Junior is a donut like delicacy. It has a soft, outer bread with a cream filling inside. Most of them also have toppings on them.

Anyways, I decided to take a dozen home and my family loved it too - despite the fact that out of the dozen I took home, I probably ate six. A few days later, my mom told me she had a dream that Chewy Junior apparently had an outlet in one of the malls here in Thailand. I prayed that it was a vision!

Imagine my surprise when one night, when my parents and brother came back from the mall, they give me a box of Chewy Junior! Apparently, the nearby mall has a Chewy Junior outlet! god has blessed me with Chewy Junior in Thailand!

Yesterday, I went to that mall and bought another box of Chewy Junior. Here are some photos I took.

This is the Chewy Junior outlet at Central Ladphrao.


















This is the box and one of the delicacies.

































Now the Thailand version is smaller and not as chewy as the Singaporean Chewy Junior. Nevertheless..... I HAVE CHEWY JUNIOR IN THAILAND!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!

Do Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Do

The song "Do Wah Diddy" was originally by Manfred Mann. This basically shows how good the oldies were back then and how they endure until now. Seriously, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding love" or Rihanna's "Umbrella" can't beat this or Frank Sinatra... Well, maybe Michael Buble can. Anyways, here's a video of Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy"



Here's a clip from the movie Stripes which stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. If you don't know who these guys are, they're two of the guys from "Ghostbusters" (Venkman and that bespectacled guy whose name escapes me). Anyways, here's them marching and singing "Do Wah Diddy"



And our final video!

You know those days when you're dead bored and it seems that surfing the Net just isn't enough? Apparently, I'm having one of those days.

Here's me lipsinging to "Do Wah Diddy", requested by Andre, a friend of mine from the AFIRE forum.

How Being a Jedi Relates to Being a Christian

I don't consider myself a Star Wars geek, but I would probably have a wider knowledge of the Star Wars world - or galaxy - than the everyday person. I also RP - or Role Play - in a forum board as a Jedi. Yes, lame I know, whatever. And no, this RPG is not one of those fancy games like DOTA. It's basically just a forum board.

But anyways, I've always related being a Jedi - or the Jedi - to being a Christian. I think their ways and their teachings mirror a lot of Christianity. Yes, I know there are facets of Buddhism in it, but I actually honestly see more Christianity than Buddhism.

Let me explain. I think the basic knowledge of a non-SW fan is that there are two sides: the Jedi and the Sith. There are actually some more in between but they're the general sides. These two sides use the Force, an entity that holds the universe together. Trained Jedi and Sith can use the Force to their own bidding. These two sides serve the Light and the Dark Side of the Force, respectively.

The facets of the Light Side are putting others before yourself, having patience, having no fear... sounds familiar, right? As for the Dark, it's - as you guessed it - the complete opposite: anger, fear and hatred.

Both the Jedi and the Sith meditate, train, and use the Force which enables them with their "powers". As you can see in the movies, these guys can jump real high, control stuff by waving their hands, and can block blaster blasts (something like bullets) with their lightsabers. Many people think that the Jedi and Sith's main weapon is the lightsaber. They are wrong. These two factions heavily rely on the Force. Without it, they are just normal people wielding light-up swords.

Now it always seems that the Dark Side is much more powerful. If you've seen the movies, the Sith have the ability of Force Lightning, where the Sith uses his hands to produce lightning. This ability can be used by a Jedi, but it takes training. Plus, the Dark Side offers an easy road. Face it people: being patient and loving is hard. Letting anger, frustration, and hate take over is much easier. Which explains why some Jedi fall to the Dark Side.

However, this is untrue. The Dark may seem powerful since it offers the easier and faster way. In truth, it is the Light that conquers and the Light that is more powerful. Mastre Yoda himself said so (If you don't know who Yoda is, why the heck are you even reading this?).

Anyways, I've always viewed the Light Side of the Force as the Holy Spirit. It's what empowers us "Jedi" to do God's work. It's what enables us with our "powers. It's what drives us in difficult times.

The Dark Side is, of course, evil, the world, and Satan. It's in the world, it's all around us, and it's taking over people's minds. This is also what empowers the "Sith".

As I've said before, anger is a facet of the Sith. However, this can be turned into a facet for the Light. How? Well, in lightsaber fighting, there are officially seven forms. The seventh form is called Vaapad. It requires great skill, focus, mastery of the Force, and mastery of the previous six forms. Why? this form utilizes the anger in its user and makes it a weapon of the Light.

Back in Singapore, I listened to a great sermon entitled "A Leader's State of Mind". The preacher talks about your holy discontentment. Basically, it's this something that irritates you, something you cannot stand any longer, like poverty, apathy, etc. Anyways, the preacher says that God can trun this anger against these things (for him it was the anger against churches just going down and abandoning its people) and use it for His own purpose. He explains how God used Moses' anger, who killed an Egyptian man beating up a Hebrew, and turned it for His own cause and therefore made Moses the man who led the Israelites to freedom. This, my friends, is our Vaapad.

We Christians are the Jedi of this world, and somewhere there are still those who fall to the Dark. Let's use the "Force" to bring them back. Let's use the "Force" to show the world that Light prevails over darkness. Let's use the "Force" to expand God's Kingdom in this world and conquer the Sith and the Dark Side.

May the Force be with us all.

S'pore Craziness

I've recently just returned from Singapore and I it was everything I hoped it would be and more. Well, first of before I left i've heard stuff about Singapore: a) It was very clean and they're very strict about it b) Stuff is expensive..... that's basically it :D

Anyways, yes, it was clean and I was careful not to drop anything on the sidewalk or else I'll get arrested for obstruction of cleanliness and what-not. Nevertheless, I had no trouble because frankly, I didn't see that much cops around. According to a friend of mine over there, if you see cops on the street it porbably means something bad has happenned within a 20-block radius. The only time I saw cops was when they came whooshing past on their patrol car.

And yes, stuff was expensive, at least much more expensive than stuff here in Thailand. My friends bought McDonalds one night and told me that it costs around $6 and they only bought the McChicken Sandiwch. In Thai Baht, that would be 240 Baht! I then proceeded to tell them that here in Thailand, you pay 150 Baht for a Double Big Mac... SET, with the fries and Coke. Anyways, even though I only had $100 in my pocket when I went there, I survived, thanks to the genorosity of my friends over there.

Anyways, here are some videos that I took while was there. The first one was taken at the Mind Cafe, an interesting cafe where they have tons of board games. My friend, Alfonso, can apparently do what I'd like to call the "Jenga Flick Trick", which is basically him flicking the last block on the very bottom of the Jenga tower. He did this a couple of times and I told him I wanted to video it. Unfortunately, everytime I did try to video him he failed. My other friend, Rasheed, also tried it but failed. When I did video him (which is this video), he apparently succeeded and Alfonso - you guessed it - failed again.



This next video was taken on the bus with Rasheed, Yi Qin, and Rei Zhong aka "Jerry" (His CG consists of Cartoon Network characters. His CL, Alvin, is apparently Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls). This is just random craziness.



This last video was taken during my trip to Sentosa. Rei Zhong "Jerry" and my other friend, Wilfred (who is Blossom) are riding the Skyride. Once we got to the top, we rode the Luge, a bike like contraption, to the bottom of the mountain. Alfonso was with us, but he didn't go since he said he was afraid of heights. It was actually good he didn't go. As you can see in this video, I was dead scared too.



Anyways, i've got more pix and vids but I haven;t uploaded them yet. I actually captured a lot of craziness from the Mind Cafe where Winstar, Prana, and Mandon among others go crazy in one board game. Unfortunately, I still haven't uploaded 'em to my YouTube yet. Will try to, though! ~ E

The Heartbreak Kid

First of, I know this is my first post in a very long time, so hello once again. It's good to be back.

I recently borrowed "The Heartbreak Kid" from a friend of mine and watched it yesterday. It stars Ben Stiller as Edward Cantrow, a man who is constantly pressured by his father and best friend to get a girl and finally get married or, in his father's opinion, at least enjoy being single and sleep with numerous women. Anyways, the movie has a lot of crude humor and scenes in it and is quite funny, but it gives a clear view of the world's perspective on what they call "love".

In the movie, Eddie meets a gorgeous woman after she gets mugged. They eventually start seeing each other and six weeks later, the woman says she has to leave for Germany. After pressure from his father and best friend - who are, in my opinion, the most knuckle headed guys you'll ever see - Eddie decides to marry her (I'm sorry, her name escapes me). However, in their honeymoon, Eddie realizes how much he doesn't know about his new wife (Like her past cocaine addiction and her irritating singing while he's driving) and meets another woman, Miranda, who is apparently the love of his life.

Well, hilarity ensues, Eddie lies, two - or should I say three - people collide and in the end, it seemed that Eddie and Miranda would be together after all.

But what does this show? Is this how dating or "falling in love" is like today? You date for less than two months and bang, get married?

I've recently been reading the book "I've Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris and apparently, all the wrongs and faults that he mentioned about dating completely show in "The Heartbreak Kid". Eddie was not ready for a committed relationship and so was the woman, and they just jumped at it when they didn't even know each other. Dating, as referred to in the book, skips the "friendship" stage of a relationship and jumps into the intimacy stage, usually. No, intimacy doesn't necessarily mean sleeping together, though in the movie, they do. Joshua Harris explains it clearly: The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment. If you cannot match your intimacy with commitment, don't even bother getting into a romantic relationship.

In the end of the movie, Miranda goes to Eddie and tells him she's still in love with him and they decide to meet for drinks. Apparently, Eddie has another girl. He lies to her, and tells her the same line he said to his ex-wife when he wanted to divorce her. The very last line he says has profanity in it, but it basically condemns himself on his sheer stupidity.

So what makes Miranda different? I mean, Eddie got married to his wife and put her aside because of Miranda. But once Miranda got married, he went to get another girl. Miranda comes back, and he's splitting with his new girlfriend or wife. In other words, if another woman comes to his life, Eddie could just throw Miranda aside too. Intimacy that doesn't match commitment.

I hope all of us think first beofre getting into a relationship. Don't listen to your heart. Don't listen to you brain. Listen to God, that's what. You do it your way, I can assure you in 75 years you'll be 45 break-ups and 6 divorces down the road.

"If" ~ Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! --- Rudyard Kipling

I've actually heard this poem before on "The Simpsons" (and yes, I know it's very peculiar) with Homer's dad quoting the last verses while Homer tries to stop him from betting all his inherited money. But anyways, to the poem. There is only one word to describe it.....

Beautiful.

There is no words to describe how Kipling described life spot on, how he describes the people around us despising us and hating us while we are here all alone and we have the choice to either freak out or keep our cool. But the most important thing about this poem is this: it's really asking you a question. What will you do when everybody around you leaves you? What will you do if you lose everything dear to you and start all over again? What do you do when everybody around you blames you for the bad stuff in their life? It just makes you think about what you will do, or maybe what you did.

I think the best par of this poem that I like is the first part (Dunno what you call it. Is it verse? Stanza?)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

The way Kipling says it is just beautiful. Can we really keep our cool when everybody around us are blaming their troubles on us? Can we still keep our dignity and have faith in ourselves while others condemn us? But this is the sentence that caught me: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting. Now this one really caught my attention.

Many times I have heard how Christians fall back to their old ways and how some claim they are Christians and live like one too, only to be humiliated when their darkest and deepest secrets are revealed. Many times, the excuse for back sliding is impatience. "God told us His Son's coming back, but when!?" Now comes the sentence - or rather the question - the Kipling gives his readers: Can we wait...... and not be tired of waiting?

Can we really? Can I really? Can I wait for God's return and not complain like others do? Can I do His work faithfully and not complain about the people around me mocking me? Can I still love Him even though my closes friends despise me because of Him?

These questions came into my mind when reading this..... and it sure is important, even for a fourteen year old.

I've got my whole life ahead of me with God having big plans for me, filled with blessings. Question is: do I walk the way He chose for me, or do I turn away...... and miss His plan for me?

Can I not lie when everybody lies? Can I not hate when the whole world hates? Can I not be prideful in everything I do and, instead, be humble and have a contrite heart?

Can I?
Can I?

Can I?

It is beyond man's limit to be perfect.... But I'm not leaving this world without trying. I would strive to do the things said in the Bible, and even follow the examples this poem has given: to stay collected and cool while everybody hates you. To be patient. To be humble. Etc. Etc.....

Can I patiently wait for the train to come in the subway? Can I not lie when my closest friends do? Can I, when rebuked, be humble and receive it gladly? Can I, when my home and PS2 (boo hoo!) is taken away, hold on and have faith in the Father? Can I, if put in a high position, still be humble?

And so, I can apply this poem to the different aspects of my life, but a question still remains.....

Can I?

Spring Break.....

Well, after our very enjoyable retreat to the beach, we now have to face studies again. In the past week, we have been bombarded with tests and mountainous amounts of homework. But things seem to get from bad to worse: in the following week, we have our Third Quarter exams. After that, we have to suffer the tension of our parents talking to our teachers and at the same time suffer the sweaty tensions of waiting for our report cards aka GRADES.

So is there anything in this friggin' depressin' world that can make me and my fellow classmates who feel as depressed and glum feel so much better.

Indeed there is.

SPRING BREAK!

After our very depressing and troublesome week, the school has been gracious, needless to say kind, enough to give us a ten-day break from the homework, exams and quizzes teenagers dread the most. But what will I do over Spring Break?

Well, there is absolutely no doubt I will be trying my best to complete a numerous amount of games on my PS2. I will probably be on the computer every afternoon and will always be on Facebook, RPing (Roleplaying) as my alter Jedi-self on the Star Wars Facebook universe and as my very own Autobot, Avenger, on the Transformers RP, also on Facebook.

And I must say that is all I would probably do.

My parents aren't rich enough that we could go to another country or possibly go home for at least ten days which I would love, nor do we have anything interesting planned for the break.

What's for sure is that my mom would probably bombard me chores and I will play with my brother as he drums away over our Hillsong DVD. Will be occupied with the said things above and I will probably attend numerous CareGroups , or Bible Studies, and I will probably visit my church friends over in Bangna. In the weekends, I would be away practicing for worship on Sunday and on Sunday I would be at Church.

If there is anything else that's interesting I could think of, I would probably go to IMDB to check out what new movies are out and I would maybe go and watch them. And maybe - just maybe - I'll go Central alone to play Guitar Hero and just walk around and what not.

In addition to my speculation of what I'll be doing, I would do my best to finish the books "Rift in Time" and "Captured by Grace". Good books, I must say.

Well, I think that's what I'll do for spring break. Nothing much, nothing fancy. Just a good ol' holiday with me in front of a TV or computer screen.