Monday, October 27, 2008

wei fang is feeling a bit jaded, not knowing why.

she wishes for occasional bright orange hue of happiness to come along. but it doesn't quite often happen.

Last lap ahead for this semester. 3 major assignments, 2 take home exams and 1 quiz..


tick tick tick...

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Let me ask you something.

If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?


This came from "Evan Almighty", a movie which I watched over the weekend. This was a conversation between God (played by Morgan Freeman) and Joan Baxter at a food joint. After the conversation, she came to realise, that to make her prayers answered, it is down to hER to make it happen. Not for things to happen by itself.

I thought, what am I expecting out of my prayers when I pray? am I like Joan?

Many of us pray for things, things that we want for ourselves, be it virtues, material things, or for situations to turn around during tough times. But we never thought of how God is to answer our prayers. I guess humans, being humans, always think that it will be given, like a freebie from a shop or a dollar coin found along the pavement.

But on hindsight, I realised God is indeed a sovereign God. Whatever happened for the last few months has taught me more humility than I ever could see in myself. And I thanked Him for that.

Towards the last bit of the show, God explains the meaning of ark, when Evan asked Him why was he chosen to build an ark.

God: How do we change the world?
Evan Baxter: One single act of random kindness at a time.
God: [spoken while writing A-R-K on ground with a stick] One Act, of, Random, Kindness.

Yep, an Act of Random Kindness. :)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

bandwagon effect

"The Bandwagon Effect, also known as social proof or "cromo effect", is the observation that people often do and believe things because many other people do and believe the same things. The effect is often pejoratively called herding instinct, particularly when applied to adolescents. People tend to follow the crowd without examining the merits of a particular thing.

During the 1992 U.S. presidential election, Vicki G. Morwitz and Carol Pluzinski conducted a study, which was published in The Journal of Consumer Research. At a large northeastern university, some of 214 volunteer business students were given the results of student and national polls indicating that Bill Clinton was in the lead. Others were not exposed to the results of the polls. Several students who had intended to vote for Bush changed their minds after seeing the poll results (Morwitz and Pluzinski 58-64)." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Sociology always amazes me. And I'll like to read more about it someday. This social theory just highlights and scorns on the naivety of our actions.

What we act upon, is based on what we believe. But our perceptions/belief towards a person/thing are so easily fooled into another's opinion, so greatly shaped by other people's opinion, just because the majority thinks that way. Often, we do not realise that we are falling into a trend, especially in the case of cliques. Sadly, when trapped in this situation, one does not consider the falseness or truthfulness of matters when it happens.

What dOes happens, is that no credit will be given when credit is due, or give vindication when one mistakes another for something else.

Understandably, most of us choose to stay in line within the majority's opinion, in order to stay in the favour of others. There's just one thing to note: this bandwagon effect applies particularly to - adolescents.

Monday, October 6, 2008

canberra here i come! :)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

What constitutes faith? The word of God says, “It is the trust in things unseen, and believing it will actually come to pass”. True, and this is my dissected interpretation of faith:
1) A strong belief in a specific person or issue.
2) Total conviction that the belief is true or will eventually come true.
3) Even when situation turns entirely diametrical, the things you believe in still does not waver.

In the events that happened in the last 2 weeks, I have been thrown far out of my expectations. Situations which were the least expected, at the least appropriate timings. I thought I had lost all faith in humanity. But, as the saying goes, “what does not break you makes you stronger.” Honestly, no one’s absolutely right or wrong. And everyone had good intentions, regardless or not the thought justify the act. It is a closed chapter now and may time bring to pass the healing of invisible wounds.

I hope.

“Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons.”
Blaise Pascal