In Christ Alone - Michael English

 In Christ alone will I glory
 Though I could pride myself
 In battles won
 For I've been blessed beyond measure
 And by His strength alone, I overcome
 Oh, I could stop and count successes
 Like diamonds in my hands
 But these trophies could not equal
 To the grace, by which I stand

 In Christ alone
 I place my trust
 And find my glory
 In the power of the cross
 In every victory
 Let it be said of me
 My source of strength
 My source of hope
 Is Christ alone

I've moved to a new home. No longer a room, but a proper unit. Perhaps I will return to my other home after I come back from the UK, but for now, I shall be comfortable with this. I hardly have much time for myself, in contrary to what I thought it would be when I shift out. It seems that work takes up 12 hours of my day, I spend about 6 hours for sleep, about 2 hours in the morn for breakfast, getting ready and travelling to work, and back at about 10plus for a bit of tv, dinner and sleep. In between, I try to squeeze some preparation for SEP and bits and pieces here and there. Some nights are spent cooking (which takes up quite a bit of time), some nights for catching up with old pals, and I realized I haven't spent time for rag at all.

Wait a minute. Am I suppose to be so consumed with work? After all I'm just a student intern, am I not? But I guess, it's inevitable. I can just choose to shirk responsibility and proclaim that I shall not be exploited, underpaid, overworked. Problem is, I don't feel that I am being underpaid, and overworked. I am enjoying myself at work, with crappy people around me, occasional bitching and definitely a fair share of work load. My stand is work is less stressful than school, of course that's when you're not the boss. The people I meet are definitely unique in their own way. Each have their own oddities and eccentricities, some more normal, some I take longer to know ( I too do not warm up fast to others) , some as fierce looking as a tiger, some perpetually mad, some just loves punching others. My heart thumps in fear when I get thumped on my arm. Spare me please!

I can only thank God for all the things that happened in my life. The people I meet along the way, for being introduced to this firm, for making things go well, and for making my colleagues a bunch of nice people. From tennis partners, volleyball players, to anime fans and people whom I can speak to about anything under the sun. People of the same mind, same likes and same goals shares general same thoughts and beliefs. Even though our destination may each differ, our values may not concur, at least it's something we can debate about. And my stint here is nearing an end, with 2 weeks left and much work to complete, I will only give the verdict later.

I shall go on searching for the answer, the question that I was so incapable of answering. A simple yet difficult question. One that has led me to search for the answer in books, online and elsewhere, until I bumped into a friend, whom I hardly knew, but we talked for a hour in the midnight on my way back from a jog, and we talked like lost friends. Haha.. it's truly amazing how God wants us to meet people at the weirdest times.

I'm reading this partially bleak but interesting book called Collapse. It's about how societies choose to fail or succeed, as written on the book cover. Actually, I do not think it's about whether they choose to fail or succeed. Who the heck chooses to fail? It's more like people are just too consumed by greed, too consumed by the wants and extravagants of life. If we all lived simply, live by our needs, respect the earth and the land that we step on, no extras, no unneccesary clutter, just back to our basics. Sadly, I think not many people have that will and determination. Seems like people's mindset today is I have the money, I buy what I like, albeit it being cheap, and not long lasting. Perhaps I'm a little influenced by the latest anime that I'm watching, Law of Ueki. It's about this boy, who was granted a talent, anything he can choose to do. Of all things in the world, he chooses to turn trash into trees. As silly as I may sound, animes do have some moral implications, of course not all animes, but some. Well, only if I could do the same, I'll start turning all the garbage in Malaysia back to trees. I'll turn the area behind my house back to the forest that I grew up with. I'll turn PJ back into a tree-filled area. I'll plant trees all over KL, clean the squatter areas and green the whole place. In fact, I'll plant trees everywhere possible.

It's funny how I'm in a profession that causes deforestation in the first place. I recall in year 1 sem 2, when my tutor had a chat with us in the canteen, and asked each and everyone of us why we are in archi. The reason I gave her was that I was concerned for the environment, and of course, I love this line, so I wanted to go into a line that enables me to build by working with God given gifts of nature. Her reply to me, you'll be happy but poor. Ok.. what kind of reply is that to a first year student? But it was a good statement to ponder over. AHve I thought through it thoroughly? I don't know for sure, but all I know is school definitely changed a bit of me.

Ok, enough for now. Been blabbing too much. All thanks to the lack of updates. Will continue some other time in the future.