Durian Hope

Several years ago, when I was still living in the farm and believed my dream of developing the farm into a financially viable project, I managed to get several durian seedlings from the Agriculture Department. The seedlings were supposed to be of some good (clone) quality. Now, one of those seedlings not only managed to survive and grow up but has produced some fruits - for the first time.

The tree is not too tall but looks healthy.

There are about 8-10 fruits slowly developing and if the squirrels don't get to them and eat all up, maybe this year end, I'll have a few durians to eat.

Astonishing Teacher

My Bible reading the last few days have drawn my attention to certain practices and effects a great teacher owns. For today, I read that when Jesus finished teaching, his audience were astonished at His teachings. I know that there have been times that after teaching, my audience was astonished too . . . that they survived such a boring or difficult lessons! Not only did He astonish his audience, it is said that those listening to Jesus ascribed His greatness to 'one having authority'. Maybe this is the missing ingredient in teaching today - teachers are authority-less. Teachers teach with no teeth! I wonder what happened? Have a look at Matthew 7:28-29 and if you are a teacher, join me in praying: "Heavenly Father, help me to teach so that when the lesson comes to an end, my students are astonished. Also, give me the authority I need as a teacher. I want to be authority-full when I teach. Amen."

Think about

Some interesting observations/thoughts I picked up when in Sibu recently:

• We try to save (money) when we have nothing but spend all when we have a lot (better scenario: when have nothing spend wisely, when have lot, save)
• Spend your salary, save your abundance (money from other sources, not your main income/earnings/salary)

If a picture paints a thousand words, then this picture is a good depiction of my life at present. School till 4 (filled with all sorts of responsibilities, challenges and lessons to teach), endless markings of essays, responsibilities at home, tuition, counselling etc etc etc before I literally fall asleep wherever I am, dreading the hour I have to wake up and start again. I got to leave now; have to go see a couple to provide them with pre-marriage advice. See ya!

Lessons From Mistakes

It has been a very emotionally draining experience - a student was extremely offended by my words, jokes and style of teaching. I made the effort to explain my intentions and what I actually meant but I believe that when words hurt, reason makes no sense and is only seen as an excuse. I acknowledged my wrong and publicly apologized. It was the right thing to do but I am saddened and emotionally drained. I pray no more such episodes will take place. What did I learn from this?

1. What's funny for one, is offensive to the other. Be careful when joking and jesting in class and try never to laugh at or make a joke of a student or else disaster awaits.
2. In a multi racial class, the potential to step on sensitive 'toes' abound - learn to walk far away from such feet and be highly sensitive to certain students' reactions
3. Realize your words carry shades of meanings and its the receiver's/listener's interpretation that counts - not what you said but what she believed you said.
4. Hurting people hurt people - students come from various backgrounds and situations. Some are hurting and what you say and do can increase pain that already exist.
5. Trust God, do what is right, be humble and seek the best for all in these situations.

May God be gracious, just and true on all of us. Amen.

Beautiful river

This is the scene of a river we 'discovered' recently - really is beautiful, soothing and calming.

Generation Y

Got this from an email forwarded by my brother - makes sense with all the Y's I've seen (mostly gross) as well as belly buttons (Generation O?):

The Silent Generation are people born before 1946.
The Baby Boomers are people born between 1946 and 1959.
Generation X are people born between 1960 and 1989.
Generation Y are people born between 1990 and now.

Why do we call the last one generation Y? I did not know, but a cartoonist explains it eloquently below...Learned something new today.

Teacher or student?

Another article has been published in my column, which by the way has a new look (I think this one's much better, thanks to friend Adrian's help) and it touches on the question: Whose responsibility is it to make learning English a desirable act? Here's an excerpt:

When it comes to learning English does the onus stand on the teacher to wave his magical wand of creativity and enthusiasm that will enable his students to learn English (proven by good grades and obvious language mastery) or does it depend on the student to come to class hungering to master English coupled with an untiring willingness to pay attention and participate actively in all the exercises and activities poured out by her English teacher?

Want to read more and add your comments, click here for the full article.

You tweet?

Signed up for Twitter and now twiddling with it . . . yet to impress me. Looks more like a program that allows me to eavesdrop on the world and see what teens are feeling and doing (usually not so great . . .). Anyway, I'm a Twitter. Tweet,tweet,tweet . . .

You are FAT!

A colleague (while offering me some prunes) whispered loudly, “You’re putting on so much fat”. Now I’m feeling all rotten inside and the smile on my face has disappeared together with any ounce of confidence. The blistering honest comment is like a merciless mirror that mocks at me as I stand naked before it and am forced to acknowledge that I have grown bigger, putting on pounds of blubber around my waist, back, neck and face.

Images from the humiliating The Biggest Loser Asia flash across my tortured mind.

I know I must be thinner, I know I must eat healthily and I know but I must exercise but I also know I love food and want to eat often, I know I have very little desire for exercising (the effort, time taken and resulting pain is very discouraging) and I know my trousers and shirts are getting tight (and it pains me literally to wear them, both physically and emotionally).

It is a perennial problem that I not only have not been able to solve but one that has grown bigger and stronger. How discouraging. How demporalizing. How tiring.

All efforts relying on self-will and determination to do what I know I should (see blog posting on April 1st) last from within a few hours to a few days.

Will I turn into a large, ugly, fat, bouncy hulk of blubber and die from one of the millions of death-producing diseases related to being fat? Will I ever be able to have and keep always a healthy fit body with a BMI of 20 and a lifestyle that includes hours of great exercise daily? I dunno; this old dog is tired of trying and not keen of learning new tricks and changing his lifestyle . . . yet it hurts and feel bad when the reminders (both verbal and emotional) scream mockingly at you “You’re fat”!

Hurray for Angels!

Daphne Lee’s (daphne.blogs.com/books) column in STARMAG today was a breath of fresh air as she makes a bold prediction – we are getting tired with the deluge of stories littered with zombies, vampires and werewolves; it’s time for something uplifting, fresh, positive and may I say clean. The answer? ANGELS!

New literary series where angels are the key characters are presently being published. Some revolve around romantic relations between angels and humans while others present angels with good looks and supernatural abilities and powers. As immortal beings that are accepted by the religious as ministering beings and by unbelievers as mythological creatures, they provide a healthy and better alternative to the demonic, dark and gruesome creatures of Twilight fame as all its kind in this genre.

Angels are fantastic beings, their exploits recorded by all three monotheistic religions as well as a slew of testimonies from thousands who claimed to have had an encounter with angels. All this can be mined and explored to provide stunning fantasy novels for both the young adult and adult readership.

A series that looks to have a great future would be Angelology where a nun stands between a conflict between a society of angelologist and the Nephilims (another great source of stories, especially how they came about and what happened to them). This series by Danielle Trussoni is soon to be available (read an excerpt) .

What can I say except give me angels anytime. Enough of glorifying dark demonic evil beings as characters to be emulated, pitied and worship. Give me an angel anytime (Gabriel, Michael and Azrael would be great starters).

What's significant?

It is not the mundaneness of marking countless essays that saps me and leaves me unmotivated but its the desire to make most of my life time doing what is meaningful and significant - it is hard to see this in the often unappreciated and endless markings. How much of the time used up for this thankless activity could be used for more meaningful and appreciated activities or in other words is this activity significant? Anyway enough of rambling - I'll get back to the books and mark them well as soon as I can (I am responsible even if I'm not enthusiastic about this duty).

On a brighter note - I went looking for a river to conduct water baptism and found a lovely one on the way to Bau in one of the small kampungs along the road. The scenery and the very act of walking in the pebble strewn river catching small sucker fish was simply rejuvenating and reminded me of what's missing in my life. Am so thankful for the few hours there.

Drowning . . . in the blues

The last few days have been difficult as I am drained of (almost) all my passion and sense of importance in relation to my work. The unending and overwhelming number of essays and written answers to be marked, corrected and commented on is the one excruciating dread I have as a teacher; its a constant and prime source of deep depression (one which I am presently downing in). I have begun to entertain the idea of leaving to do something less stressful and one that I'm passionate about but without anything remotely possible or available, I will have to bite the bullet and keep my head above these blue waters till passion and power is restored. Till then . . .

Got my own column (again)!

A student approached me today and said, "I read what you wrote in the papers today." Wondering what she was referring to, I asked her and she dug out today's copy of the Eastern Times and showed me page 4. To my surprise, there was my column, Peter's Write Words, with my first article 'Have you read lately?'!

I have been in consultation and contact with the newspaper and have been faithfully meeting their request but I was not informed that my proposed column had the green light and was going to be published today - what a surprise. And to think that if my student had not mentioned about it . . .

I'll be writing a weekly column on English and all that's related to it (the listening, speaking, writing and reading of English) - don't forget to get a copy of the Eastern Times every Friday from now on. Happy reading!

Here's a scan of the article if you missed it!

For the rest of you who can't get hold of the paper or won't buy it, read all my articles here . . . please.

Easter - Good news for sinners (like me)!

Here are some thoughts on Easter from Pastor Rick Warren which I believe explains so beautifully why I am most excited as a Christian when it comes to celebrating Easter (even more excited than Christmas):

Through the blood of his Son, we are set free from our sins. God forgives our failures because of his overflowing kindness. Ephesians 1:7 (GWT)

There have been a lot of great religious teachers throughout history. They've all had good things to say, but what makes Jesus different from every other religious teacher throughout history is the fact that he died and rose again.

That's of critical importance because it's not the life of Jesus that saves you; it's not the teachings of Jesus that save you; it's his death and resurrection that open the door for your salvation.

The Bible says that justice demands punishment. If you do the crime, you pay the time. If you break the law, you pay the fine. If you get caught speeding, you get a ticket. If you break God's laws, you pay God's penalty and, according to the Bible, "the wages [for our] sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23 NLT).

In other words, somebody has to pay for all the things you've done wrong in life: either you pay or somebody else pays for you. And this is where God says, "I'll do it!" He steps up to the plate. Jesus Christ is sent to earth—God in human form—and he says, in effect, "I will pay for your sins."

When Jesus died on the cross for you, it showed two things:

1. It showed how much your forgiveness cost. The highest price you can pay for anything is to give your life for it. And that's what Jesus did. He gave his blood. He gave his life. It was extremely expensive. Grace is free but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his life, but he paid for your sins.

2. It shows how much God values you. It shows how much you matter to God. Jesus died for you on the cross. It shows the highest price possibly to be paid was giving a life.

Thank God it's Friday

Today's Good Friday and I'm relieved that the death of Jesus is a historical fact attested by believers and non-believers alike. I am so glad the death of Jesus has dealt the death blow to man's (mine included) biggest problem: sin. Today my debt to God because of my failure to live up to his standards have been paid in full thus erased; my bondage to various destructive sins have been completely busted - I'm free from the bondage of sin; best of all, my guilt and shame and sense of filth due to sins committed have been washed away all because of Jesus' death on the cross (the pouring out of blood from Jesus' wounds played an important role). So what can I say except Thank God It's Friday!

The ideal eating guideline

Gotta get used to eating these guys . . . a LOT!

To NOT be overweight (after you realize you are one of those thousands heading towards obesity) I believe these simple rules that are almost impossible to obey are necessary to maintain a healthy weight and waistline. Here it goes:

1. Breakfast for a king - eat most and keep it healthy with lots of cereal, fruits and some bread
2. Lunch for a prince - a reasonable lunch (half of what you normally eat) with a piece of meat, lots of vegetables and some carbo (rice will do fine)
3. Dinner for a pauper - a saucer full of something similar for lunch.
4. NO meals in between. If hungry, eat what's promoted in Law 5
5. Eat TONS of fruit and vegetables (nuts too) - sounds like I need to be a almost converted vegan or vegetarian
6. NO fried stuff whatsoever, NO oils (or oily food) and NO fat (yes, that includes butter)
7. NO eating after 8 pm
8. Eat ONLY WHITE meat - de-skinned and de-fat chicken and lots of fish
9. Allow sometimes itsy-bitsy portions of sweets (chocolate included)
10. No seafood - cholesterol laden
11. Drink lots of PLAIN water and natural (freshly squeezed) fruit juices
12. Little or no sweet drinks and alcohol
13. Very little or no milk (non-fat milk if need to) or milk products (bye-bye cheese)

Ouch and oh!

Today the stitches on 2 of my toes that were sliced open by the blade of my bush cutter ( the accident happened some 2 weeks ago) were removed. The wounds are healing slowly but well. I only hope I would not stub my toe or have someone accidentally kick them . . . ouch!

I going through one of my seasons of depression with common symptoms like being heavy-headed, sleeping a lot and loss of drive - even so, as usual, I am sure it will pass and I'll be up and going again.

Got lots of exam papers (essays and commentaries as well as summaries and letters) to mark as the first term examination rolls in. With 3 classes under my belt, the workload is challenging . . .

Wah! So long already . . .

Just helped to create for my wife her blog and so I decided to have a look at mine. What a shock! I have not posted for almost a year - yikes!!! How do you guys write so much and find the time to upload daily a posting or more? Guess I have to do something but . . .