The Best Things About Growing Up

I'm seven weeks into my first 'serious' job, and here are the things I like best about growing up:

1. Grocery shopping

I love prowling the aisles, dreaming up recipes I'd like to try, being able to pick up that item I want, put it into my basket, and pay for it. It's very liberating to have the decision to purchase rest solely on oneself. And the same goes for deciding whether or not to buy that book, that CD, that top. It's so guiltless

2. My own room

I'm loving the room I'm renting now. Since I've been sharing a room with my sister ever since I was a kid, getting a room of my own was one of the things I was looking forward to the most - months before I got the job. I've outfitted it with an Ikea bedspread (something I actually dreamt about buying once I knew I was moving), an Ikea bedside table, and my rockin' Guilin stuffed cat. The growing movie collection, my laptop and portable wifi make this bachelorette pad complete

3. Clocking out

Now I'm not sure if the joys of clocking out outweigh the happiness of those carefree university days, but I can tell you this - it's awesome. Punching out is absolutely the highlight of my day. Not because my job is so bad  - it isn't - but because once I punch out my time is mine to spend as I please. I don't need to feel bad for not working some more, because I've already earned my rest. So I visit Tesco, or surf the net, or experiment with some dishes (today's special: Bovril egg congee), read. And if clocking out brings this much pleasure, imagine how great it feels when you get to the

4. Weekends

Sometimes it feels like I'm living for the weekends. Though Sundays see me wishing weekends were longer, I think I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much if I didn't have to work on the weekdays. I don't remember enjoying weekends this much when I was studying. Then again, my flexible class schedules (read: online lectures) blurred the lines between weekdays and weekends. I now appreciate more fully what a sacrifice it is to give up your time on a Saturday for someone or something else

That's all I could think of for now. Just somethin' to get the blog juices starting again. It's been a while.

TTFN,

Jenna

Cat

There once was a cat
With fur so black
When darkness fell
You could not tell
Where once was a cat

Paws soft
Nose aloft
Eyes green
Coat a sheen
Whiskers shivering
Tail a-quivering
Crouching low
Moving slow
Here comes the predator cat!
A swipe, a snap, a crunch, a smack
A snack in a house
Where once was a mouse
Where now there was only a cuddly
Fearsomely wuddly
Awesomely
Possumly
Cat.



JL

Sleepless

It's 2am. I googled the first things that came to mind: you, myself, her. I'm searching for something to lose myself in - a story, a person, a life. Why isn't it working? I need fulfilment; sin eats up all meaning and leaves you hollow inside. God help me.

3. Family (Part 2)

The house was dark when Jared arrived. He fumbled with the keys, trying first one then another on the barely visible lock. When he finally unlocked the gates, its bolt clanged and its hinges creaked loudly as they opened. It was a welcome Jared had always thought echoed the feelings he had about his life, his soul? It grated on the ears and made him clench his fists, but his annoyance towards the gate was not half as great as that towards himself, because he knew he had stood by and let it rust. And so it was a good thing he lived alone, though if he hadn't maybe someone might have oiled the gate.

It's Official - My Blog is like a Diary

I checked out my visitor ratings and for the past few months, I've had a total of....no visitors! What this means is...my blog is officially like a diary! This means I can post up whatever I want, and not worry about the repercussions, because no one will visit. I don't know why I'm happy about this, but I am. Maybe it's cause I like the idea of this blog just floating around in cyberspace, doing it's own thing, this little island of thoughts existing just for me. Small concrete thoughts that could enter someone's head if they happened to drop by, but they don't, and so the thoughts just bounce around in a random Brownian fashion. Thoughts like...

I've made up my mind to start looking up nautical words like frigate and taffrail when I read seafaring adventures, because I've skipped them for far too long! I don't know if you do this too (you probably don't, since you don't exist), but I normally just skim through all the words I don't understand in books like Treasure Island and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Probably the only nautical words I know are starboard and port, and that's because C.S. Lewis actually explains what they mean in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And okay, a few others, like harpoon and "Ahoy" and "shiver me timbers!" (well maybe not the last one). I've really got to start looking up those words.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Jenna

Maybe Cleverbot reads this

Ever click on 'New Post' and spend minutes just staring at the blank field, wondering what you should blog about? What your title should be?Whether you should choose the title first, or just skip to the post section? I decided to just start typing instead of procrastinating like I have been so long (and what does the content matter anyway - no one reads this blog. According to the chatbox on the right, in any case. I think they're all just spammers wanting me to go to their blog and join some bogus contest! It's depressing. I have a feeling the messages are all from autobots. Anyone know how to prevent this? You, autobot reader, can you tell me?)

Back to the task at hand. I'm just going to write the first thing that comes to mind, never mind if the language is rubbish and the content crappy. If I learnt anything from Nanowrimo, it's that the way to get over writer's block is to focus on quantity, not quality. So though my days of writing have long past, I am going to shake of the dust, scrape of the rust, and increase that word count.

I love salmon sushi. It's an awesome, awesome taste. A fish dish best served cold and raw, with a little slice of lemon. The taste...the taste... one couldn't say it's sweet, nor sour or bitter or salty. Unagi it is then. But ever so subtle -everything about the salmon sashimi is subtle. It's soft, slightly chewy texture, it's mysterious flavour that you can only notice if it's served cold, it's fishiness that's so different from that of the tuna or the butter fish. Salmon, just salmon.

Groupon deals are becoming less and less attractive. There are too many offers for mani-pedis, facials, massages (Swedish, Thai, infrared (?), stone, you name it), body slimming sessions, make-up classes... I think a good 70% of Groupon deals are targeted at beauty nuts. Where are all the good food deals? Where are all the fun activities? Don't you remember the time when you sold those RM6 ice-skating tickets, and I bought 20 of them, and had to use most of them myself because not all my friends wanted to go? We had such fun then, Groupon. Come on!

That's not to say I haven't used any of those beauty deals myself. What hurts is when you spend RM38 on a mani coupon only to find a RM30 offer for mani, pedi and massage a few days later. Scarred me so bad I haven't bought a mani-pedi coupon since. Well that and I decided it just wasn't worth it.

Facebook and Twitter seem to me like the easy way out for people with blogger's block. Instead of expanding on an idea or feeling, a blogger might be tempted to just polish it off in a one-liner on his/her status message and enjoy the satisfaction of almost immediate feedback. I don't like those things. It's like free samples of orange juice at the market - customers drink the small portions up because it' free, then walk away and forget about it. At least, I do. If your audience is reading your stuff just because it's on their wall, then maybe you should find a different audience.

Like these autobots. At least they came here off their own accord. I didn't have to post anything on their walls. So I don't get any human feedback. No gifts from Cafeworld, no pokes, no likes. No matter. These lovely autobots keep up the activity on this site even when I'm gone.

So thank you autobots. Any of you know Cleverbot personally?

Off to study,

Jenna

Powerless

I've been reading AW Tozer's God's Pursuit of Man, and have been pleasantly though uncomfortably surprised. I expected a dry classic, and in fact I confess that I bought it because it was a dry classic. I thought only of increasing my doctrinal knowledge, but have now been challenged to seek a knowledge of God - a spiritual knowledge that Tozer asserts cannot be known without the Holy Spirit.

A spiritual knowledge? Tozer is right when he says that the conservative church has become fearful of an emphasis on the Holy Spirit. I certainly am, and it took a 'dry classic' to lure me into a contemplation of what it really means to be imbued with the Holy Spirit.

I have a niggling feeling that I am not. And if it is true that I am not, then it is certain that I cannot really know God,

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:11-13)

This could be the reason I constantly fall into 'dry spells', periods of apathy and a lack of active faith bordering on unbelief. This could be why I am unable to understand those who have an emotional relationship with God, why I am so skeptical of phrases like "God told me to...". It could also be the reason behind my continual slavery to sin.

Are Christians supposed to be powerless?