Cheers,
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Private
I'm making this blog private and viewable ONLY to Blogger owners/authors for some time. There seems to have been many spam viewers these days...
Cheers,
Cheers,
Thursday, April 19, 2012
RQ: Random Quote #25
"I need a little shopping mistake to help me carry on."
- HTL
**Procured in a dream**
When The Night
 |
| Image from Flickr, personally edited. No copyright infringement intended. |
Sweet, quick reverie,
Hope –– words first come.
My pleasure, architectured
Dream, desire, defier
Love.
Sincerely, arbitrary
My pain, alive.
This moment
Gone. Long and lost.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Raid: Redemption: Salvation
On Good Friday last week, my church friends and I went to see the new, internationally acclaimed Indonesian action film, The Raid: Redemption. This blog entry, despite of its title, is not meant to review the movie. Then again, I would not want to be spoiling any juice to anyone who is planning to see it.
Following the movie, we made our way to a nearby bubble tea place to calm down the mood after such a ________ (fill in the blank) movie.
The clock already struck past 12 when we decided to end our exuberant rendezvous. In the middle of our conversation about this behind-kicking movie as we were stepping outside onto the walkway, a mid-age lady came to approach us. It was a particularly cold night in April (thanks to Canada's obscure weather changes). Her voice slightly stammered when she asked us if we had any change to spare. Here is where the controversy may surface to some of you.
I'm not one to easily give change to homeless people because I don't know what they would turn the money into. However, are we still right to judge them for that? Second, opening my wallet in public, especially in front of a homeless person who is begging for change was and is never my favourite thing to do. My mind would generate cynical thoughts and convince my consideration to believe that this pitiful solicitation is a solely staged attempt to mug an innocent passerby like me. Please. Are we still right to judge them on this?
That night was different. I was different. When the person came to us for change, one of my friends was the first one to react. He reached into his pocket and gave her what she wanted. Initially, I was hesitant as to whether I should do the same. From what I could remember, I had used up all of my coins to buy food the few days prior. But instead, I dug into my purse, took out my gigantic red wallet and peered into it. I detected a $5, $10, and $20 bill before slipping the $10 into her hand. As I was handing it to her, I challenged my friends aloud – in Indonesian, of course – to pray for her together with me. None of them budged. They all stood motionlessly while staring at me in pure confusion. Knowing that I was the only one who was up for this, I gathered the remaining courage in my system and asked her if she would like to be prayed for. Much to our relief, she gladly accepted the offer! And so the prayer team, which consisted of me, JT, and his brother Justin, went ahead and did our thing. Her name was Shanna (spelling is likely to be wrong).
A fairly similar occurrence happened 2 years ago in 2010, as I was leaving the Indonesian Consulate building. Everything went down comparably accurate, except their names (the other person's name was Stella – read her story here), location of the incident, and the amount of $$ being given. JT half-jokingly suggested that they could be the same person, but I do not reckon they are. Even if they were, she must have gone through a major plastic surgery to change her looks.
When it was over, I wondered how two very similar incidents could happen to me within the span of less than 2 years. I told myself I could have given her the $20 bill instead. I mean, if she really were to use the money for purposes other than those alongside food and/or clothing, so what? We're feeding her poison? I realized it is not the value, but the thought that counts – and not anybody else's thoughts, but our own. My thought says so long as she could afford to buy something to keep her stomach full throughout a cold spring night, it would not matter how much money we give her. If she did not wish to spend the money on these things, but rather on something detrimental to her health, who are we to judge? We did not know this. We would not be able to assume or deem our irresolute assumptions to be correct without a basis of fixed certainty. The least we could do is to keep our positive thoughts out of the gutter.
I am not trying to go against the gospel of Matthew – precisely Matt 6:3-4, which reads, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing..." This post is simply a reminder and encouragement to all of us who often have second thoughts when making decisions. I have learned that some actions do not require any further thoughts. Just do what you have to – and surely, do so wisely. The reason why I believe this is because wisdom does not always equal to prolonged judgment. On the contrary, sometimes the more you think, the greater the chances that logistical rationalization would defeat preliminary thoughts, which could have well flourished out of your inherent wisdom. Like many of you, my faith in humanity is not lost. We could see that altruism still very well exists in our world and all around us if we would only look deeper.
I am thankful for Shanna. I am thankful that she came to us in her helpless state, humbly asking for a spare of change, regardless of what she was intending to spend it on. Most importantly, I am thankful that we had the opportunity to pray for her, with her. She was very kind and open-hearted. It undoubtedly is nice to meet people who are not hostile toward Christians. I pray that she would always remember how much she is loved; no matter what state of her life she is in – God is always on her side. And I pray that her brief encounter with us has introduced her to a path, which will lead her to God's promised destination that is eternal salvation.
With lots o' love,
Following the movie, we made our way to a nearby bubble tea place to calm down the mood after such a ________ (fill in the blank) movie.
I'm not one to easily give change to homeless people because I don't know what they would turn the money into. However, are we still right to judge them for that? Second, opening my wallet in public, especially in front of a homeless person who is begging for change was and is never my favourite thing to do. My mind would generate cynical thoughts and convince my consideration to believe that this pitiful solicitation is a solely staged attempt to mug an innocent passerby like me. Please. Are we still right to judge them on this?
That night was different. I was different. When the person came to us for change, one of my friends was the first one to react. He reached into his pocket and gave her what she wanted. Initially, I was hesitant as to whether I should do the same. From what I could remember, I had used up all of my coins to buy food the few days prior. But instead, I dug into my purse, took out my gigantic red wallet and peered into it. I detected a $5, $10, and $20 bill before slipping the $10 into her hand. As I was handing it to her, I challenged my friends aloud – in Indonesian, of course – to pray for her together with me. None of them budged. They all stood motionlessly while staring at me in pure confusion. Knowing that I was the only one who was up for this, I gathered the remaining courage in my system and asked her if she would like to be prayed for. Much to our relief, she gladly accepted the offer! And so the prayer team, which consisted of me, JT, and his brother Justin, went ahead and did our thing. Her name was Shanna (spelling is likely to be wrong).
A fairly similar occurrence happened 2 years ago in 2010, as I was leaving the Indonesian Consulate building. Everything went down comparably accurate, except their names (the other person's name was Stella – read her story here), location of the incident, and the amount of $$ being given. JT half-jokingly suggested that they could be the same person, but I do not reckon they are. Even if they were, she must have gone through a major plastic surgery to change her looks.
When it was over, I wondered how two very similar incidents could happen to me within the span of less than 2 years. I told myself I could have given her the $20 bill instead. I mean, if she really were to use the money for purposes other than those alongside food and/or clothing, so what? We're feeding her poison? I realized it is not the value, but the thought that counts – and not anybody else's thoughts, but our own. My thought says so long as she could afford to buy something to keep her stomach full throughout a cold spring night, it would not matter how much money we give her. If she did not wish to spend the money on these things, but rather on something detrimental to her health, who are we to judge? We did not know this. We would not be able to assume or deem our irresolute assumptions to be correct without a basis of fixed certainty. The least we could do is to keep our positive thoughts out of the gutter.
I am not trying to go against the gospel of Matthew – precisely Matt 6:3-4, which reads, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing..." This post is simply a reminder and encouragement to all of us who often have second thoughts when making decisions. I have learned that some actions do not require any further thoughts. Just do what you have to – and surely, do so wisely. The reason why I believe this is because wisdom does not always equal to prolonged judgment. On the contrary, sometimes the more you think, the greater the chances that logistical rationalization would defeat preliminary thoughts, which could have well flourished out of your inherent wisdom. Like many of you, my faith in humanity is not lost. We could see that altruism still very well exists in our world and all around us if we would only look deeper.
I am thankful for Shanna. I am thankful that she came to us in her helpless state, humbly asking for a spare of change, regardless of what she was intending to spend it on. Most importantly, I am thankful that we had the opportunity to pray for her, with her. She was very kind and open-hearted. It undoubtedly is nice to meet people who are not hostile toward Christians. I pray that she would always remember how much she is loved; no matter what state of her life she is in – God is always on her side. And I pray that her brief encounter with us has introduced her to a path, which will lead her to God's promised destination that is eternal salvation.
With lots o' love,
HTML/Photoshop junkie
That's what I [still] am! I am a straight up Photoshop and HTML junkie. Give me those two things and I'll be on my way to what I like to call Geekidise. I literally spent the whole day putting together this 'other' new layout. I know I just had a new one up less than 48 hours ago.. but when I kept going back to it, I realized it was very plain. A few hours later, I found myself scrambling over thousands and thousands of vintage graphics. That's when it hit me: I LOVE VINTAGE GRAPHICS. The inspiration to create a collage-kind-of layout out of vintage images dawned on me when I was browsing through some really awesome Blogger template websites. I immediately installed Adobe Photoshop and the rest was history.
Now that I'm securely equipped with my trusty Adobe Photoshop CS4 and some leftover basic HTML skills from a few years back, you can expect me to be churning out random miscellaneous dood-a-lee dood-a-loo's once in a while (or twice a week, depending on my schedule, really).
For those of you who might be interested in creating your own layouts, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be more than delighted to help you :-).
That should be all I have to say at the moment. Maybe I'll do these teeny updates more frequently.
Meanwhile, I'm yet again, still awake at the wee hours of the morning.................. (x,x) => not a mathematical functions figure
Stay healthy, safe, and have a great Sunday,
Now that I'm securely equipped with my trusty Adobe Photoshop CS4 and some leftover basic HTML skills from a few years back, you can expect me to be churning out random miscellaneous dood-a-lee dood-a-loo's once in a while (or twice a week, depending on my schedule, really).
For those of you who might be interested in creating your own layouts, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be more than delighted to help you :-).
That should be all I have to say at the moment. Maybe I'll do these teeny updates more frequently.
Meanwhile, I'm yet again, still awake at the wee hours of the morning.................. (x,x) => not a mathematical functions figure
Stay healthy, safe, and have a great Sunday,
Friday, April 13, 2012
Update!
I hereby present to you a new layout for this blog! I thought the last one had a little too much touch of pink, so I hope this one compensates. Since I am using "exceptional" fonts, I'd suppose only the more advanced browsers (ie. Chrome, Safari, certain versions of Explorer, and maybe Firefox?) could view this blog as is. Old browser users might have to manage with whatever shows up on their screens. Anyhow, I'm still not sure if that truly is the case.
I will continue my Mission series posts, perhaps later this week because I have an exam coming up on Monday.
Next, with the aim of clearing up some questions and misunderstandings, I'd like to point out that "HTL" stands for Hazel Theresia L. (Hazel, my first name; Theresia, my middle; and L, being the first letter of my last name). If you have been following my blog for a long time, and are a loyal reader, you would have noticed these three letters stamped on some of the quotes I often feature here. Indeed, these quotes were written by yours truly. The reason for this seemingly unnecessary elaboration is to let my readers know that they are my original quotes – originally written and thought out by me. I have observed a few people on their attempts of searching up fragments of my quotes on Google (it shows up on my stats record :-)), only to be directed to this blog. So, there you go.
By no means am I forbidding you from posting my quotes on your personal blog. On the contrary, I am utterly flattered to have my posts be featured on your blog, Twitter, or whatever else. With that said, I thank you for helping me to share and spread the word! :-)
Enough rambling on now, I shall see you all on the 'flip' side, as they call it. Love God, love people.
**And please remember to VOTE on the poll right beside this column =>. I am incredibly curious as to how people ended up on my blog – which, what we all know, is the ultimate middle of nowhere. Thanks!!**
***EDIT: I am 75 more views away from 5,000!!!! I thank every visitor who has visited my blog, be it from a mere click or friendly referral. I will be sure to reward the 5,000th viewer with something very special :-). If you are interested to receive it, drop a comment on my most recent post (at 5,000th view), or on Chatbox, which is located at the side panel of this blog :-). FYI, it won't be anything bizarre like a car, apartment key, or anything else along the lines of monetary reimbursements. Please look forward to it, but I would not suggest you to get your hopes up! *wink*
Cheers,
I will continue my Mission series posts, perhaps later this week because I have an exam coming up on Monday.
Next, with the aim of clearing up some questions and misunderstandings, I'd like to point out that "HTL" stands for Hazel Theresia L. (Hazel, my first name; Theresia, my middle; and L, being the first letter of my last name). If you have been following my blog for a long time, and are a loyal reader, you would have noticed these three letters stamped on some of the quotes I often feature here. Indeed, these quotes were written by yours truly. The reason for this seemingly unnecessary elaboration is to let my readers know that they are my original quotes – originally written and thought out by me. I have observed a few people on their attempts of searching up fragments of my quotes on Google (it shows up on my stats record :-)), only to be directed to this blog. So, there you go.
By no means am I forbidding you from posting my quotes on your personal blog. On the contrary, I am utterly flattered to have my posts be featured on your blog, Twitter, or whatever else. With that said, I thank you for helping me to share and spread the word! :-)
Enough rambling on now, I shall see you all on the 'flip' side, as they call it. Love God, love people.
**And please remember to VOTE on the poll right beside this column =>. I am incredibly curious as to how people ended up on my blog – which, what we all know, is the ultimate middle of nowhere. Thanks!!**
***EDIT: I am 75 more views away from 5,000!!!! I thank every visitor who has visited my blog, be it from a mere click or friendly referral. I will be sure to reward the 5,000th viewer with something very special :-). If you are interested to receive it, drop a comment on my most recent post (at 5,000th view), or on Chatbox, which is located at the side panel of this blog :-). FYI, it won't be anything bizarre like a car, apartment key, or anything else along the lines of monetary reimbursements. Please look forward to it, but I would not suggest you to get your hopes up! *wink*
Cheers,
Friday, April 6, 2012
BlogShare: It's Almost Naptime!!: Better me than you
Sharing with you a blog post from one of the blogs I'm following. Enjoy and be blessed :-).
Have a blessed and lovely Good Friday,
It's Almost Naptime!!: Better me than you: Because I am barefoot 99% of the time, and because we aren't the neatest house on the block, the incident of stepping on sharp, pointy ...
Have a blessed and lovely Good Friday,
It's Almost Naptime!!: Better me than you: Because I am barefoot 99% of the time, and because we aren't the neatest house on the block, the incident of stepping on sharp, pointy ...
Monday, April 2, 2012
Paul Baloche - The Same Love
You choose the humble and raise them high
You choose the weak and make them strong
You heal our brokenness inside
And give us life
The same love that set the captives free
The same love that opened eyes to see
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
The same God that spread the heavens wide
The same God that was crucified
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
You take the faithless one aside
And speak the words “You are mine”
You call the cynic and the proud
Come to me now
The same love that set the captives free
The same love that opened eyes to see
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
The same God that spread the heavens wide
The same God that was crucified
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
You’re calling You’re calling
You’re calling us to the cross
You’re calling You’re calling
You’re calling us to the cross
Sunday, April 1, 2012
RQ: Random Quote #24
"Never limit yourself to the impossible."
On another note, HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!! :-)
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