Wednesday 29 August 2012

Learn Foochow 102 - "Du" - PiG

Okay.. lesson number 2. I will base it around one word. "Dṳ " or " Pig".
(ṳ is the French u in lune or German ü as in für)

If you missed lesson one, here is the link
Learn Foochow 101





Okay.. here are various uses of the word "pig".
Most of what I have listed below are used as some form of insult.
I'm not suggesting you go insulting people, but some situations may call for it :)

1. "Du" - Pig



2. "Ya Du " - Wild Pig/Boar



3.  "Bui Du"  - Fat pig



4. "Dian pa Du" - Crazy pig



5. "Du tao"  - Pig head





6."Sai Du" - Sh#t pig



7. "Du Ka" -Pork leg



7. "Du Ve Ge" -"Pigsy" - Monkey King's Companion in Journey to the East
                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Bajie



Have fun!
If you want more lessons, please let me know in the comment section!

Sunday 26 August 2012

What is the Will of God?


This article is written by a friend. I have posted it with permission.

What is the Will of God?
Monday, 30 July 2012 9:45 a.m
JN


One of the most asked questions for Christians is how to know the will of God. Questions such as
how do I know which city to move to, which subject to study, who to marry, where to invest funds,
which church to go to or which role to take up in church to serve the Lord among others are
bothering many. If only God makes His will clear, our lives will be so much easier.
The fact is God has made His will crystal clear through His Words. His will is that we should love Him
with all our heart, mind and strength, and that we will love one another (Matthew 22:36-40). His will
is that we should glorify Him in all that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31) and live our lives as running a
race with a sole focus of being praised by Him at the finish line (Hebrews 12:1-2). However, are we
truly keen to understand what His will is and to carry it out?
A fine young man came to Jesus eager to know the way to eternal life (Luke 18:18-30). He has tried
hard to achieve it in his own ways. However, Jesus gave him a task that fell out of his expected
framework, one that challenged his love of God above his riches. Instead of carrying out the will of
God, he left with sadness.
It is not uncommon for us to have a perceived framework of how God should work. When God
works differently to our expectation, sadly at times, we may rather reject it and walk away like the
young man. In fact, there is a framework that God is working within, although it is not according to
our wish or feeling. His framework is fully revealed in the Word of God. This framework is clear and
easily understandable, and His wish or will is that we would live accordingly. Disappointingly, there
are times we chose not to, especially when His commands do not fall within our wish list or expected
framework. Commands such as love our neighbours, love our enemies, tithe, be truthful, carry your
cross, be obedience and etc are simply too difficult. How easy would it be if God could just tell me
which enemy I am allowed to annihilate, where to invest my funds that I could be blessed
abundantly or which church to go to receive the best emotional need the way I want, rather than
hearing about the cost of discipleship. Is discipleship even a part of the will of God?
When we seek the will of God, it is important for us to ask ourselves, are we merely expecting help
from God to advance our own ambition? Are we only hoping that God would help us to make a
decision that would bring more blessing to ourselves? God does bless His people and this remains
true till this day. However, there are far more to seeking the will of God than merely seeking a
material blessing from God.
We may not realise that many decisions that appear to stress us out daily may not be as crucial as
we think. Should we move to this city? Should I take up this role in church? Should I take up this job?
Should I buy this house? Have I made a wrong decision by marrying this person or choosing this
career? There are hard decisions that we need to make daily and we wish that God could make them
easier for us. The fact of the matter is these decisions by themselves are often neutral. Whichever
way we choose, it is unlikely that we will displease God, at least not the decision itself. It is how we
execute the decision that matters more. God’s will has remained the same whether we decide to be
in this or that city, to live in this or that house, to marry this or that person, or whether we are rich
or poor. His will is in whatever we do, in wherever we are, do it all for the glory of God. In whatever
decisions that we have already made, we should continue to work to glorify His name. In whatever
decision that we are going to make, we should seek to glorify Him.
How do we know what the will of God is? It is by knowing the Word of God. The Word of God is a gift
from God. He has made His will clear through it. There is no short cut to know the will of God
without being serious about studying the Word of God. A scene we should all avoid is to claim doing
the will of God while doing the exact opposite of what God has clearly stated in His Word. God will
never go against His Word.
  Let us be a true seeker of the will of God by investing our time to know Him through studying His
Words and to live out the will of God in true obedience.



Monday 6 August 2012

Ye Shi Wen - A very fast swimmer



Somehow I did not has as much anticipation about this Olympics as the previous Olympics. It had been much less publicised, or maybe I've gotten old and am less excited about this. Infact I only realised the London Olympics have started, after the opening ceremony had finished.
Now a week into the Olympics it seems that this Olympic is more about tears, bitterness and lameness (badminton players trying to lose?) than sportmanship. What I want to talk about though is the case of the Chinese swimmer, Ye Shi Wen who has won gold in both the 400m and 200m individual medley.
Unless you have been stuck in a cave, you would have heard all the accusations and speculations about "doping".




This started with the American coach John Leanard who basically said that her performance in the 400m event was "impossible" and "unbelievable"

Now that's a funny thing to say, given that the swim did happen. That's like saying going to the moon is impossible. ( well, that's another debate I suppose). Anyway, it DID happen, so what he was really insinuating is that it was impossible without the use of drugs. And now the media has run away and continually reviving the allegation that her performance could be drug related despite all the drug tests been negative.
Sour grapes much?

And the reasoning for this accusation ?

Because she swam very fast !

Yes! She swam very fast, at the Olympics, faster than any woman has ever swam before!
Wow, no way! She must be cheating!

Does that sound ridiculous to you as it does to me?
Sounds ridiculous to me, and I find it stupid and annoying.

First of all, we are talking about the Olympics, where the fastest and strongest men and women from around the world gather to put everything they have into being the world's best.
And you know what? Sometimes they swim or run faster than ever before. Wow! Impossibleu!!

She swam the 400m medley in 4:28.43 whereas the last Olympic record was 4:29.45. Wow unbelievable! She beat it by 1 second!  How can the world record be beaten at the Olympics? Never in a million years could I have imagined that world records could be broken at the Olympics. My reality has been shattered~!

Ok, then we narrow down to the more specific focus of the accusations. The last 50m freestyle lap.
 Hey it was so fast , it was faster the Ryan Lochte's?!
 Does that mean she cheated? No.
Was that Ryan's fastest 50m freestyle ever?
 No. She did not beat Ryan's best 50m time. Just the time he did in this Olympics, the one where he was leading comfortably at the end. And she was slower than the other men in the same race.

BTW I checked my "laws of the universe" book, and no where did it say that
"Shi Wen can never beat Ryan in any 50m stretch"

In fact it doesn't even say

"No woman can ever outswim a man"

Lets analyse this using basic science principles we learnt from school

Premise:
1. Ryan Lochte is one of the best male swimmers in the world
2. Ye Shi Wen is a woman swimmer

Hypothesis:

Ye Shi Wen can never beat Ryan Lochte in any 50m stretch.

Experiment Method:

Race them in the same event and time them

Result:
Hey, she really did swim faster than Ryan in that 50 m

Conclusion:
Hypothesis= False

See? That is science. Conclusion based on fact and observation. Not speculation.

Okay.
Lets talk about  what if" she was cheating?
How?
Drugs? What kind off drugs?
Erythropoietin? Some other magic drug not detectable?

So far, all her drug tests have been negative. And world athletes have regular blood test to detect other changes that could be attributed to drugs , such as an increase in haemoglobin as a consequence of EPO.
When did she start using drugs? After the last World Championships?
What interest me is, what kind of drug would make you swim just faster in the last 100m?
The only thing I can think of is drugs that make you pass gas at the last lap so you get extra propulsion.
Swimming fast in the last 100min doesn't increase the likelihood of drug use at all. If you had been using drugs, it would make sense you would be fast the whole 400m. Not just the last 100m.
These arguments just don't make any sense to me,

If you would like a more in-depth analysis here is an analysis of numbers.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/02/olympic-times-too-good-to-be-true-usually-are-but-there-s-a-formula-to-find-out.html?obref=obinsite

Bottom line is

All Olympic athletes are freaks to me, and they routinely do things that us mere humans are incapable of.
We should just celebrate their awesomeness rather than be bitter and jealous about what they are achieving.
I have no doubt her current record will be broken in the future and the "impossible" number will just be a norm for future elite athletes.

Let me leave you with some numbers

Ben Johnson ran the 100m in 9.79s in 1988 in Seoul. He was later disqualified after being tested positive for stanozolol.
The current world record is held by Usain Bolt at 9.58s. And he is not the only one who has surpassed Ben Johnson's anabolically boosted time.