risk management

The older we get, the more we see risk as something that might have a direct effect on us. In our twenties we take extraordinary risks with our lives, our careers, and our finances. Nothing will happen to us. In our thirties, we take fewer financial risks but we still think we are physically bulletproof. By the time we reach our forties (if we haven't taken too big a physical risk and been killed) most of us have a mortgage and our career had become very important, so we take fewer financial and job risks.

media relations
richard stanton

down

²³ Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. ²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?


<sup>i've probably read these verses a hundred times (no, not really, i'm just trying to illustrate the depth of my delusion) and each time, like most times when i read scripture, i just glazed over the words quickly. since, you know, i've read them a hundred times. i was late for church this morning. thanks in no small part to myself, of course, because i just couldn't get into the habit of resting early on saturday nights. i got up and lied down again as i waited for the water heater to heat up the water. so that's how i was late (it's the same story for the work week). anyway, as i was waiting for the bus, luke 9:23 came to my mind. incidentally, sep 23rd is the date my bro and his wife got married. i can't remember if they chose the date because of the scripture verse. 

and guess what was the message at church?

something 'bad' happened on monday. it's school. i think i'm going to fail a module for the first time in these 4 years. it's like history repeating itself. i never really recovered from that low point so many years back. i used to be quite good at my studies. then something happened (it should be because something happened, but i still don't know what that something was) and i just never got back to my former glory. fast forward to now, after having returned to God, i thought such things won't happen again. i did once forget to hand in an assignment... but this time it's really going to dent my records. i was angry with God. just so typical of a childish coward that's me. i was really mad that with or without him i seemed to be set up for failures. 

i've moved on from that for now, surprisingly quickly, might i say. i'd like to get really depressed... i am right now, to be honest, because it's exam season and i'm again face to face with the same fears. each year for 4 years, it's been the same. i've prayed for him to reveal to me what it was that brought me down. just like i've prayed some same prayers many times over. (at this point, there's a whole bunch of other things to say.. i don't know where to slot in what i really planned to talk about when i started this post). anyway, i did continue to talk with God, after an initial avoidance period. i was brutally honest with him, letting my mouth fly, lashing untruths at him. i demanded that he come down and talk to me. i just felt i needed to see and touch him so that i could finally be more faithful, so that all these shit would stop. 

he did. not once but three times, or more. knowing myself, i'd forget again in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds. even now, today, after coming back from church with the revelation fresh in my head, i'm still not victorious, not even after finally understanding what it means to deny myself and to abide in him. my prayer today was that he help me to remember what happened. 

i didn't forget. but why's it that i'm still in the same place again? i'm afraid i'm going to stop praying and then i'd backslide again. i can't and i don't want to if i can help it. i just wish he would make me vanish. this is no way to live.</sup> 

rightnowness

the good \ the bad \ the ugly

did LA always have such a bad rep? i had no idea. i only knew bryanboy moved from that city to NYC recently. sounds like the city is too big and so things can be chaotic?

i can get that. i imagine that'd be the case if i had a big space to work on. so perhaps it's a blesssing in disguise that i do not have the luxury. i recall reading some tip on organising kitchens (large ones): duplicate the utensils at two spots. one commenter remarked pointedly that the kitchen's too large when the owner had to resort to that.       

“It’s not about the pieces. It’s about how the pieces work together.”

Ice Cube

Ice Cube said a few other bingo things. it's like he's referring to me and my sad approach to the whole house reno thing.

rudymentary

"One of my goals in building Metromix was to move the newspaper away from its inefficient way of putting listings in the paper which is Rudy gets a press release and opens up a file. And types in the information and next week he gets a press release, opens it up, deletes last week's, and types in another one. Awful. So we built a database for Metromix of events so that Rudy can now get the press release, type in a whole year's worth of events, and it's fielded. So every week we just do a dump from the database to create the nine zone listing for the newspaper which is localized. We've decreased the error rate in them from 12 per page to 3 per page, typos and so on. Because it's all databased, it's only typed once. Huge deal. Huge deal."

Owen Youngman
in The Chicagotribune.com: Creating a Newspaper for the New Economy (A)
by Professor Nina Ziv 

dictator

margiela bootie via totokaelo blog

for some months now, i've been cracking my head over how to mitigate the wrong buys i made on some boots. i always end up liking and buying boots of a certain shape. i imagine they should work but i just can't get past myself when they're worn on. i have a pull-on pair that's much taller than the margielas shown above, so you can imagine how the side view looks. i'm no model, of course. somehow every boot just looks perfect on the model, right? do you think the boots look fine when viewed from the side? my boots look all right frontal but i can't stand how they look on their sides. so i'm again tempted to cut off the top of the boots. 

wdugt

the challenge: where do i start cutting? dead fleurette just blogged about "train(ing) your eyes to discern the right lengths for your body". it does make sense but i think it's more than that. i blogged recently about the difficulty of finding the right bottoms to go with my boots. to me, it's the shoes that dictate how to dress. unless you have a range of shoes of various heights and cuts to go with various silhouettes.

after all this talk, i still am quite clueless about discerning the right length of bottoms for myself.  

vanity

'He doesn't ride the donkey,' Thon Taddeo stated, 'because this morning the donkey was loaded down with corn. It doesn't occur to him that the packs are empty now. What is good enough for the morning is also good enough for the afternoon.'

'You know him?'

'He passes under my window too. Every morning and evening. Hadn't you noticed him?'

'A thousand like him.'

'Look. Can you bring yourself to believe that that brute is the lineal descendent of men who supposedly invented machines that flew, who traveled to the moon, harnessed the forces of Nature, built machines that could talk and seemed to think? Can you believe there were such men?'

Apollo was silent.

'Look at him!' the scholar persisted. 'No, but it's too dark now. You can't see the syphilis outbreak on his neck, the way the bridge of his nose is being eaten away. Paresis. But he was undoubtedly a moron to begin with. Illiterate, superstitious, murderous. He diseases his children. For a few coins he would kill them. He will sell them anyway, when they are old enough to be useful. Look at him, and tell me if you see the progeny of a once-mighty civilization? What do you see?

'The image of Christ,' grated the monsignot, surprised at his own sudden anger. 'What did you expect me to see?'

The scholar huffed impatiently. 'The incongruity. Men as you can observe them through any window, and men as historians would have us believe men once were. I can't accept it. How can a great and wise civilization have destroyed itself so completely?'

'Perhaps,' said Apollo, 'by being materially great and materially wise, and nothing else.'

A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr

hankering

via CofC

bata

Consumers have (also) been brainwashed to keep up with the latest technology fads; to “buy and throw away”. But where would these used products, for example the iPhone 4, go when newer models are available? According to a US study, millions of used personal computers now lie buried in landfills and will never be degraded. Is this sustainable? Definitely not. The Semakau landfill for example, will be filled up by 2045, going by the current rate of disposal.

Wang Jing-Yuan
in Challenge Online

#idontgettwitter

"I heard Twitter was a stupid place where people just talked about what they wanted to have for lunch and I said that is where I belong!"  

"Can Twitter do anything?

Can Twitter wipe my ass?!

No!

But people can!"

- extracted from here

currently working on a final assignment and it's gotta do with Twitter. if you noticed, i recently jumped onto the Tumblr wagon. i have things to say about that space but i'll just talk about Twitter. why Twitter and not Tumblr? you see, the weird thing was that i've got a few new followers on Twitter, rather than on Tumblr. and i was hardly ever on Twitter. and i hadn't been able to log on at all and i never got to finding out why.

it's all those integration tools that had helped to 'create' my presence on Twitter. so indeed it's the platform to self-promote even if that's the least of my intention, except of course, if i want to reach out to more people to sell my things. if you ask me, i do think it's amazing, but i also find it really scary. yes, no doubt i can block the fella if i suspect something fishy. honestly, though, i think most of the time it's just small businesses who added me based on what i'd blogged. i wonder if i'd get more followers if i posted more sexy or sensual pictures on Tumblr. i think it's highly likely. there's much nudity over there. not the vulgar type, nothing too unusual from what're already posted by some fashion magazines.

anyway, i just might stop Tumblring one day. just like how i imagine i'd just pull out from the other social media sites one day right out of the blue. 

p/s: just got another new follower, lol. this time it's a lingerie seller from Santa Monica. note to self: remember to untick the "Send to Twitter" box the next time i post pictures of white negligee.   

on transit

source
(click on image for a closer look)

when i saw this picture of Vika, it's like, hey why hadn't i thought of doing this?? i mean, nobody said i had to keep cutting my hair, right? i mean, i like my hair short.

but i'm not Vika, i can't get away with this. 

at least it's a reminder i could do this if i wanna grow my hair out, lah.

of note

"So many people have got no achievements to talk (of), they don't take any risks, they don't want to put in the effort, they want to enjoy themselves. I put in a lot of effort, and if (the efforts) result in success, I say it, not for personal pride, but actually to encourage other people: These things can be done, why don't you do it?"

Tan Kin Lian

spot

homerunballerina

i love that that clothes hanger's still hanging that way in the closet.

i love that the shoes are just where they can be seen. 

hello, august. 

settling

The irony of our human condition is that God has put us within sight of the Himalayas of His glory in Jesus Christ, but we have chosen to pull down the shades of our chalet and show slides of Buck Hill -- even in church. We are content to go on making mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

John Piper

How I Became a Christian Hedonist

grace period

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it be alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" - Luke 13:6-9

This parable is laden with grace and gravity. It's a picture of a nation or a person who has received abundant mercy and extraordinary care. All necessary measures have been taken to ensure that we bear fruit.

Many, however, remain chronic consumers of grace, connoisseurs of great sermons, soaking up sacraments week after week, year after year, but simply refusing to fulfil our God-given purpose. God is not harsh. The doom that follows is self-imposed. 

"Time's up," says the Master. "Cut it down!" "No, wait!" cries the Caretaker. "One more year." God is patient and forbearing. He stays the axe and lavishes yet more loving attention. He extends the season of grace. He gives nations and people time to respond. He will wait. But not forever. Forty years after Jesus spoke this parable, Jerusalem and the temple lay in ruins. They did not read the signs. They did not respond. Will we?

source: the eleventh hour

trendy

vanessa jackman

this is yet another post related to hair. ha ha. you see, my hairstyle's very similar to the woman's in the picture, except mine's shorter and more graduated at the back, and not so sleek. frankly, i dislike the style. i wonder who decides the styles to wear for the season.

which is what led me to write this post. i was reminded what my stylist said during the recent cut. she didn't care that i didn't care for trends. now you understand why i was quite mad. mostly at myself ultimately. why couldn't i have been more firm, when it's my hair? what's wrong with me?

or i might as well BE trendy since that's the term many ended up using when describing my... style. i'm not sure if i like it better than "fashionable" anyway.

十五

 i forgot to include this bag as one of my purchases from the recent trip. i'd been eyeing something similar to the cath kidstons so when i saw this, i couldn't not make it mine. but did you know that it's a cooler or chiller bag? well, i didn't. but my sil could tell right away. ha ha. 

colour blocking? when did it start anyway? realised it's close to the combination i liked here.   

fringe benefits

streetfsn

i'm secretly pleased that she's not looking her best here. or maybe this was her best look by far and then i'd have reason to brag that i share something common with her. style g would know what i mean.   

rewind

i thought about whether to write today. tomorrow. ever after.

i'd like to be read. do you not?

but i guess i must write. sooner or later.

so i've been to korea and back last month. it'd turned out to be an unexpected delight. although it didn't occur to me sometimes when i wasn't so 'aware'. an example's the food. i was quick to declare that i never loved korean food. it's still a fact... i mean, i prefer japanese to korean anytime. but if i were to be really honest, they don't differ by tooooo much. korea was occupied by japan for a spell. so why am i being such a snob?

korea turned out to be rather scenic. not unlike the wonders i've witnessed in china and countless other spots on the planet, i'm certain. it's all the work of His mighty hands anyway. and it's universal that we must praise when in the presence of awesomeness.

apart from being the accidental tourist, i also got to do things i didn't usually set out to do, like going to a spa and a theme park. my travel companions were thinking of a ski trip the next time they do korea. i said skiing is not on my list of things to do before i die. but i think i should be taking that back. you see, it's cheaper to do it in korea, so it could only be the better option for me. i hope i'd be able to go if they do decide to go sometime in the near future. 

a few other firsts happened during this trip and they had to do with my luggage. i bought a combination padlock for it and it's gone when we reached korea (one of the girls got the same padlock but hers was intact). then the combination lock on my luggage decided to quit on me on the last day. but thank God, nothing was lost. 

i'll be honest with you. i'd like to do korea again for some... shopping! lol. i didn't even buy a single pair of shoes. it's something i always made a point to do when i travelled (but i think hk and china are still the best places to get cheap yet decent shoes). i hafta admit that it's a refreshing change that we didn't get to do much of it. we didn't even have time to drop by the famous dongdaemun market! i'd have liked to have my hair done at sinchon but we're given one hour only. i ended up buying two brollies (one of which is pictured below) and a canvas bag there. i'd like to go back to this store to check out more of their wares. we had more time at myeongdong where i scored a shirt and a dress. my friend got the same dress in a different colour for slightly more at sinchon. yayness. ha ha. 

as for skincare and beauty products, i did haul back some things. if it were a decade ago, i might not have left the shops w/o emptying half my wallet. even though they're significantly cheaper there, they all added up to a substantial sum of money. a week or so after our return, we found out that nature republic seemed to be no more in singapore. my friend ended up buying some lip and nail products here since they're on clearance. lol. me? i was a very good girl.     

ok, i think that's all for now. till i write again! 

反

What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals? Mack and the boys avoid the trap, walk around the poison, step over the noose while a generation of trapped, poisoned, and trussed-up men scream at them and call them no-goods, come-to-bad-ends, blots-on-the-town, thieves, rascals, bums. Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-of-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys. 

Cannery Row

John Steinbeck

via one note to play