Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim - Chega de Saudade

What can I say, the masters at work :). The original bossa in its purest form.

Dance

As some of you might know, I have been taking up dance lessons. The 2 kinds of dances I am taking up now are called "Bachata" and "Salsa" both of which have their roots in Latin America. In order to address the blur looks I get when I tell people what dances I am taking up (cause they really don't know), I have decided to put up a couple of showcase dances on this post that basically show what the dances are about. Yo guys! If any of you are interested, let me know ok? Will intro you to the places I am learning from now. Enjoy!

This is Bachata


And this is Salsa

Nietzsche

I know I promised something on Nietzsche, but I got lazy :) So I am letting a well made documentary do the trick. The documentary does serve to clarify a few things.

1) Was Nietzsche nationalistic?
2) What did he really mean when he said that God was dead?
3) Did he intend for his philosophy of the "Overman" to be used by the Nazis in the way it was used?
4) And finally after all that hoo haa, Was he actually significant in the history of philosophy?

I believe all the above questions are answered in the documentary. One question that is not answered though is what is your reaction to it as a christian? Think on that for a moment after watching it. Enjoy!

Part 1 of 6


Part 2 of 6


Part 3 of 6


Part 4 of 6


Part 5 of 6


Part 6 of 6

Still Alive

Yes! In case anybody was wondering, I am still alive, here some updates on what I am doing. Despite the economy situation, everything for me seems to be more or less stable. In fact, I am actually doing a job search now, not that I dislike my current job but I now feel like doing something more hands-on, something where my technical skills can be put to good use. But I am really in no real hurry to change though, currently asking to God for guidance now and taking my options as they come. If God see fit that I should change, I believe a door will open despite the bad economy.

This might come as a surprise to some but I am also taking salsa dance classes now and I am currently on my 8th lesson :) I actually find it quite fun and who knows? It might turn out to be a serious hobby. I have long loved the music and it felt quite good to finally learn how to dance to it. It also gives me one more option for things to do in boring old Singapore. Hahaha!

Finally, I am working on a post about Friedrich Nietzsche cause I find that he is misunderstood by most of us Christians. For the uninitiated, Friedrich Nietzsche is the guy most often quote as saying, "God is dead." And that did not help his reputation among us Christians. Hopefully I will be able to put the post together soon. I also I will not drag so long to post again, my apologies for that. Cheers

Good Music Nice Settiing

The title says it all, kudos to Paris Match, they sure do know their stuff. Enjoy!!!

Hello Beautiful Year!!!

Okok... I know it is a bit late, but I do not want to wish people happy new year just for the sake of it. If anyone if you guys are interested to find out what song Elgin and I were talking about well I will tell you now.

It all started when I was his room-mate for the church retreat last month and he heard my morning alarm tune on my phone which was a song titled "Hello Beautiful Day" by Paris Match. I personally find that song uplifting, optimistic and a good start to the day. That was the song Elgin wanted to get, here it is:



2008 was a good year which sort of went downhill for me near the end. I don't want to go into details but I am praying for a good start for 2009 for me and all you guys out there. Especially since we don't know what will happen, economically speaking. I hope the song above will help you feel optimistic about the year ahead, which is a hard thing to do especially now. Finally here are my new year wishes for all of you taken from a jazz standard I love.

"May all your storms be weathered and all that is good get better"

Blessed New Year!!!

Clazziquai - Dance

My good friend Stanley has just introduced me to this band. Saying that they are good might be an understatement. :) Enjoy!

Church Disagreements

I don’t think it is wise to write all these down here, but I have to vent and it is my blog after all. So I feel I have the right to vent here. But I fear I might influence the people who read this in a negative way so I think it is wise for me to put a disclaimer. In this post, I will be critical of the church as an institution and its leadership. If you feel uncomfortable with the topic in any way you should stop reading now. For all the non-Christians out there reading this now, I hope you understand that this is not how it was suppose to be. But we humans have a nasty habit of screwing things up.

Okay, so here goes.

The end of the year is upon us again, time for us to take stock of our experiences and the lessons we have learnt. One of the major lessons I have learnt is a sad one. For me, things in church have deteriorate to an extent that makes it very difficult to repair, I truly feel very tired and jaded not to mention very disappointed. I have always taken the church “party line” when it comes to people who leave church. I have always believed that those people are seduced by the world, taken in by the all that it offers. These church leavers have “backslided” they have crossed over to the dark side. Now I am beginning to think that that is not the case anymore.

Recent personal experiences and experiences shared by my church friends have changed my point of view. Although I acknowledge that there are people to leave church that are “seduced by the world.” I feel that there are others the church has willfully pushed away. The scary thing is that it seems to be done in a manner similar to a premeditated murder. There seems to be a plan to it, an overall agenda to be fulfilled and a reason why the person being pushed away does not fit into the agenda. Either because they disagree with the leadership of the church or for other reasons I cannot begin to fathom.

Disagreements in church and among the Christian community are a dime a dozen. If Martin Luther did not disagree with the catholic establishment about the selling of indulgences, I will not be here writing this post. The question is to what extend do we allow these disagreements to form bitterness, anger and division within the church. We are all now bible reading educated Christians, we read the bible ourselves, form our own opinions and have valid biblical concerns about certain issues within the church. Differences of opinions are sure to abound, so what do we do?

When there is a disagreement will the leadership of the church quietly “spirit away” the disagreeing party or will they hear their concerns? Will those that are not happy with the church choose the proper forum to air their concerns? I might be taking the analogy a bit far but I see the things happening in my church right now as nothing better than one of Stalin’s Great Purges. That is why I am turned off, because the church has become no better than the world. I see good people leaving the church, those that really love God but are turned off by the church. What makes it worse is that due to the circumstances surrounding my church. These are the people that decided to stay and stick it out with the church in these tough times (people in my church should know what I mean) and the same church is pushing these people away just because they disagree with how certain things are. Thus creating bitterness, anger and I would go as far as to say a certain sense of betrayal

So the conclusion is this, if my church leadership wants a “yes pastor” kind of congregation then I think I am in the wrong church. A church that does not listen to its people… well that is a misnomer really. A church should be supportive of its people and listen, especially if it is about the future of the church and their concerns are valid. A church should attract all kinds of Christians even those that question the leadership. A church should not turn Christians off, I guess that is my point, if even Christians get turn off from church then how about the non-Christains we are trying to reach out to? Food for thought.

Intermission

I know I have not updated for a long time, I apologise.

A lot of things have changed and I am still trying to pull my thoughts together.

Will update soon I promise.

Cheers :)

Eugene

Smile

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile, whats the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

:)