Days for years

"So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her."

The story goes that a great man, Jacob, or Israel once lived. Born second to his twin brother, Esau, he had the nature of a smooth talker, and when the day came for their father to bless the first-born, Jacob outwitted Esau and stole his older brother’s birthright (a preplanned performance involving wearing animal skin). He’s arguably one of the most appealing characters to me, personally, because of the great feats he did. It is said that he wrestled with a Man (whom he didn’t realise was actually God) through the night and ‘prevailed’- and impressed God with his persistence, and left a great nation behind after he died, but one story always seems to be very outstanding: how he waited for the love of his life.
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When time sped up.

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-Story is longer and can be found here for further reading.
-Inspired by a short exchange of words with TMY

"I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands -- this is not optional -- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference."

-Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States

2nd quarter of 2007

Cast of "Second Chances"

Top row: Joel,Daniel,Kheng Yee,Grace,MHong,MYoe

Bottom row: Jamie,Jacintha,Joshua,Gideon,me

As you can see, that's Gideon posing as his character, as are most of us. A few months back Meng yoe and I wrote a little script for this drama (he did 75%) to be performed by the youth. We created the characters bearing in mind the many personalities in everyone who would be watching it, some obvious, some subtle- Richard's pride, James' meekness (no correlation to the 'James' in LIAI), Ah Beng's doubt, Ah Lien's faith or Donna's indifference.

This coming Easter Sunday morning will be the actual performance and I must say, these people make good actors and whatever the final result of the drama may be, it's been a privilege trying, and practicing with them. (Tell me if you're interested to come...)

On another note, wow, it's already the fourth month of the year. This month promises a hectic schedule full of tests, assignments, presentations, papers, and other non-college activities. As a man I hold in high regard once said

"..a soldier, he does not get involved in civilian activities.."

Therefore soldier on we must!

A good week to you all ;> and remember, the music never, never fades ...

Second Film

This was a group project for my Movies class we had to submit two days ago. The following are some interesting facts to do with the film:

• The actor and actress for the story are among some of my best friends. They willingly did the shooting again after a technical glitch involving the video camera.


• Han Sheng genuinely fell down (as can be seen in the movie) and as a result, had a small part of his tooth chipped off. No kidding. Really appreciate his help!


• The book the girl (Yuhhui) was holding is "Freakonomics"


• We shot the bus scene a few times and during one of them, the bus driver actually stopped thinking HS wanted to board it


• XY and yours truly were the 'voices'. XY was also the cameraman for the toilet scene.


• Some of the song tracks were taken from Meng Yoe


• True to my love for swing music, there's a Tony Bennett song in the film


• I have a mini cameo appearance

Wedding

Troy and Janice's

Troy and Janice "The way you look tonight" With Laura

Post-wedding

Passion of suicide bombers

(spoiler alert)

"We Spartans have descended from Hercules himself. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death in the battlefield is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Spartans: the finest soldiers the world has ever known.”

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Call me morbid, I don’t think death is the worst thing that could happen to a person. A life of emptiness, unfruitfulness is.

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As a young kid, reading about the Battle of Thermopylae churned something inside me about standing unmoved in the heat of things even if the odds are stacked against you. It’s not such an easy thing to do as compared to merely reading it and enjoying the story, yet, it appealed so strongly because I thought underdog stories like David and Goliath and the 300 Spartans were supercool!

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The tale of the 300 Spartans is intriguing. 300 against a million! Surely the only thing that kept them standing against such a vast foe was that there was a good chance of winning. No one runs to his death for nothing . But, how could victory be achieved in such a circumstance as this?

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Today, watching this great story, adapted into film made me see their victory wasn’t in killing all the million Persian soldiers (it wouldn’t have been a victory then). Their victory, their achievement came in the form of overcoming their fears, fighting to the very end and creating a legacy so great generations later would read and marvel about. Truly, they never died, because they were makers of history.

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The issue is not about merely dying (anyone can do that at anytime) so much as it is about what you live for. One’s willingness to buy a certain product can be seen in his willingness to sacrifice his valuables for it (a principle in Economics). If passion could be calculated, passion at its peak would be a person’s willingness to give up everything for something, in exchange with nothing.

What we need to know is, no matter who we are, where we’ll end up or what we'll have to do, the privilege of making a difference is available to all. Take for example, that scene where King Leonidas asked the Thespian soldiers “What is your profession?”

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Jobs like ‘blacksmith’ and ‘sculptor’ were their replies.

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Then, turning to his own 300 Spartan soldiers, he asked them the same question, with a booming voice,

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“What is your profession?”

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And all in unison, they roared their battle cry.

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“A new age has come, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it.”

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We need the passion of suicide bombers.

(Piao's and Ju's wedding item, last year)