I’ve been preoccupied recently with assignments. It is very important that in times like this that I’m not distracted from treating music as just work. Thus in the interest of enriching my musical palette, I’ve decided to listen to some quality music. Here are my top picks from my recent listening on youtube.

Let’s start with the classics,

Here’s Ode To Joy

Since we’re on the topic of chickens, a little jazz, talented chic-kens… here are some pianistic chickens and a techno one too…

Music is nothing without the performance element, here are some good performances…

Cameos are always good, for example Norah Jones and James Blunt,

And if you utterly hate music, you may have experiences similar to this video:

It’s been a confusing week. From before camp, to camp, to after camp, to school, to Life Group, to Church and to a weekend at home in Serdang. Sounds like I’m rambling on about busy-ness and the effects of being tired. Erm.. not exactly…

In a short week and a half, I have had to fluctuate between introvert to extrovert more times then Frank Sinatra had to burp in the first 3 months of his life. This along side the fact that according to a personlity test I’ve done before, I’m exactly 50% sanguin (extrovert and people oriented) and 50% melancholy (introvert and analytical). This is one of the most incongruent mixtures. It’s like coffee and soya bean, it’ll just coagulate.

Maybe you don’t quite understanding what’s the big deal about it, the only way I can describe it is, it feels like I’m living two different lives. Hypocrite?

Nuh-uh, I don’t own a hippo nor do I have a crate big enough for it. It used to be a wild roller-coaster ride of emotional trauma each time I had to suddenly change from one side to the other. But, now, by the grace of God, He has revealed a secret to being me, as paradoxal as I am, without faking it. The key is: Balance.

I do not know what traits of personality Jesus had, but I do know He had to mix with great crowds and also with one God. He had moments of hype when He healed people, and moments of beautiful loneliness with God the Father in the wee hours of the day. Yet He didn’t lose His mind, not even His temper.

Now I’m happier, I feel God’s peace cause I know when it’s time to go and be extro and when to be intro. I feel free, free to be me. But this awareness comes at a price, it takes effort to detach yourself and assess each situation and to push yourself into either one of the personalities. And after a while, one will become jaded. Totally jaded. And everything feels fake again.

Which brings me to the lesson I’m trying to learn now. Keyword is: Embrace. There’s only one picture in my mind when I say this word, Jesus holding a child in His lap and telling everyone, that we have to have faith like a child. What tends to happen to us adults is that we think we’ve figured life out. We know what we are suppose to do and not suppose to do and we think our business here is to finish the race. WRONG!! We have forgotten to LIVE. To live life for every breath its worth. So as I am being an extrovert, I have to have faith and totally embrace the emotions and the realities of being an extrovert, and when I am being introvertish, I have to do the same.

It is like a  musical melody. You have to know how the notes relate to each other in a melody and balance your phrasing to correctly express its meaning. But you also have to embrace each note for the sonority that it posseses and for the length it is to be held to understand the depth of its message.

Balance your life to give yourself a chance to embrace living. Because God has made each one of us, for such a time as this.

I’m not just going to change my world, according to Daniel, :

“Cheng Yee, go CHENG YOUR WORLD!” ~ dezw

Haha.. apparently only I can do that. You Daniel will have to erm… Daniel your world.

“It’s Bobana!” exclaimed Bob pointing to the bright object in the sky.

“Hello Bob, hello Pit, sorry I’m late,” shouted Bobana from on top of the flying saucer, “I asked my friend Pupoojomaro to come help.”

Suddenly a small little man jumped out of the flying saucer. He leaped around in a sort of happy manner. He did a few spins and took a bow.

“Hello dear friends,
I’m here to seek,
A cow named Tutti,
Who is very sick!”

With that, Pupoojomaro sprinkled rhyme powder on the rest of this story.

“Oh deary me,
This is dire,
What Tutti needs,
Is induced diarrhea.

Thankfully I brought my tools,
A Scottish bagpipe, filled with tunes.
Nay, you shan’t worry for you must stay cool,
For when I start playing, the needles will come loose.”

So Pupoojomaro with all his might,
Drew the biggest breadth he ever could.
He filled his lungs until they were so tight,
That even his goose who likes to bump, stood.

And he sang,

“Didalee doo, didalee foo,
Momma forgot to give me my food
Didalee la, dedalee ta,
So I called my friends up for a pizza!”

As Pupoo sang,
It was apparent,
That something strange,
Had happened.

Tutti groan a while more,
But suddenly got up on her feet.
The needles had melted at the sound of Pupoos song,
And now where part of her blood stream.

Feeling stronger than before,
Tutti knew the needles played a role.
For the iron from the needles reached her core,
She was now iron-reinforced.

So ended this very strange day,
Of its happenings none ever knew.
For this episode has dragged on too long,
So everyone repeated Pupoojomaro’s song.

“Didalee doo, didalee foo,
Momma forgot to give me my food
Didalee la, dedalee ta,
So I called my friends up for a pizza!”

I was at Port Dickson over the weekend for Change Your World Camp. The camp’s objective was to raise awareness about what’s going on in the world especially in Malaysia and what we could do to change it, that’s why it’s called Change Your World camp. Many of the campers said that the experiences helped them to see their world in a different perspective.

But I had a different experience altogether. Camps to me are hide-aways from the world. I went for CYW camp for only one reason: to force myself to fellowship with God and His people intensely.

Strange? Yes, but being in the world for quite a while without withdrawing from its deceiving realities, one would become very desensitized. On top of that, I tend to become a recluse nowadays, so I had to force myself out of my shell.

The issues of hunger, injustice and corruption wasn’t new to me, I am aware and am trying to do my part. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t gain anything. God has been gracious and I have learnt many other things in camp.

I’ve learnt that because I’ve not been writing and reading much, I’ve lost quite a bit of my ability to arrange ideas/points in my head and expound them. My thoughts are all over the place. My bible knowledge has diminished and my ability to remember ideas has also shrunked. I’ve learnt that I’m no longer interested in certain things that I used to be obsessed with and that my humour although often a dread to my hometown friends have found its niche here in KL (maybe). The point of having humour to me however is not just to entertain, it’s to be incorporated into ideas and concepts to help lighten the mood of heavy topics and bring people together. However, I’ve lost that ability/knowledge of how to communicate ideas and no longer am able to draw a smooth line of thought that people can follow.

This is not all, but it is quite a lot already. As God revealed these things, I stood in amazement at the changes He has made. I have changed. In some ways for the better, and some ways for the worst. But at least I know now. This camp to me, was a camp of self-discovery.

“You can do it yeah!”
~ Grace Messenger