Another List (of a different nature)

STILL trying to complete the "serious" blog entries. I'll excuse myself with the fact that I need to pack for 1. Hong Kong trip 2. Moving house.

In the meantime, here's another short filler in lieu of something substantial:

Food That Mr. Ho Will Have To Eat On His Hong Kong Trip

Warning! Reading this may bore you to death or reduce you to a hungry, ravenous creature!

from cha chan tiang

1. French Toast
2. Soup macaroni w/ sausages
3. Instant Noodles w/ pork ribs (yes this is good)
4. Egg + Corn Beef Sandwich
5. Ying-Yang Drink (coffee + tea mixture)
6. Milk/Butter Bao
7. Iced Red Bean Drink w/ ice cream
8. Iced Lemon Tea/Water

from Cafe de Coral (HK fastfood chain)

1. Pork Chop Baked Rice
2. Deep-Fried Chicken w/ rice
3. Corn + Meat rice (uncertain of proper english term)
4. Supreme Sandwich
5. Happy Tea Set

from HK "delis"

1. Ying-Yang rice
2. Fried Pigeon (crowd fav)
3. Wanton Mee
4. Fishball Noodles
5. Chinese Sausage Claypot
6. Pan-Fried Beef Horfun
7. Crispy Noodle w/ Seafood
8. Beef Brisket Noodle
9. Char Siew Rice (the hk variant is MILES above the sg one)
10. Big Bean Sprout w/ Beef
11. Rice Dumpling
12. Hot-Plate Steak
13. HK Spag

from restaurants

1. Dim Sum (it'd be too long to list all of the dim sum that I "have" to have)
2. Cheese-Baked Lobster
(if I had to choose only 1 item on this whole list to eat, this'd be it!)
3. Soup in Huge Melon (bad translation)
4. Live Sea Bass
5. Broiled Scallops w/ broccoli
6. Peking Duck
7. Roast Pig

from "shanghainese" restaurants

1. Xiao Long Bao (well duh)
2. Sticky Rice
3. Fried Dumpling
4. Beef Brisket Noodles (not a repeat, it's a different variety)

desserts

1. Sogo Beanpaste Mini Pancake (bad translation)
2. Banana Paste
3. Mango Pudding
4. Black Sesame Soup
5. Almond Pudding
6. Butter Pineapple Bread
7. Wife's Cake
8. Egg Roll
9. Butterfly Biscuit
10. Egg Tart
11. Various HK ice creams

misc.

1. Porridge + Yau Tao
2. Cheong Fun
3. Various HK Pastries
4. "Street" Foods
5. Jap Curry Rice
6. Steamboat
7. Maxim Cookies

For the record, I currently weigh in at 69 kg.

p.s. I'm open to suggestions if I actually left out something that can't be missed.

Note to self: Initiate starvation diet in T MINUS 23 hours

The Ho's Ms. Right

Prov 31:10-31; 1 Cor 13

I got stuck writing my 2nd actual post (serious blogging is a bummer). It was getting too long so I'm saving the draft for another time. Therefore, I'm changing topics and giving you my "wish list".

1. Godliness (1 Peter 1:15)
2. Loves those around her (1 John 3:18)
3. Good with children (Deut 11:19)
4. Accepts or even appreciates my "weirdness" (Rom 15:7)
5. Compatible in God's calling (Rom 15:5-6)
6. Able to endure the life of full-time service unto the Lord (Matt 6:25; 2 Cor 12:9)
7. Beautiful, joyful, intelligent, sweet (I, not the Lord ;D)

IF by any chance you fit the above, please do the following (in order).

1. Calm down, you wouldn't want your heart to jump out of your throat, now do you?
2. Thank the Lord that He has refined you to be such a model of Himself.
3. Read and digest "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and "Boy Meets Girl"; both by Joshua Harris.
4. Send me your life and conversion testimony.
5. Prepare to be swept off your feet!

p.s. I realise that I am in no way Mr Right myself (I'll write more on that in another post), but I'm prepping my way there. Meanwhile, post your own "wish list" in the comments section! Suppress the sarcasm please.

Marriage at the Resurrection

Gen 2:18-24; Matt 22:29-30

Now, as "everyone" knows, I'm Mr. Romantic and is of course going to be happily married one day (you can laugh now). So, after having had many mishaps in this particular area in my life (I MAY share about those someday), I've been really cautious and am really relying on the Word for guidance in this.

*Warning* Further reading may totally drain off all your hope/desire/aspirations/ideals of marriage.

Oh man, feel like I'm teaching ss... ANYWAY.

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him...

The man said,
" This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man."

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen 2:18; 23-24

The book "Boy Meets Girl" by Joshua Harris called these verses as the "Original Love Story", and I gotta admit it's true. So amazing ain't (not a real word) it? The first man: yet to see, hear or conceive of a mate a partner; for him to take a glimpse of her for the first time and know that God made her just for him? A real "match-made-in-heaven" if there's ever such a thing.

Embarrassingly to admit, this passage has regularly given me "hope". Hope that God doesn't want the Ho to be alone. That God said it wasn't good for the Ho to be alone. But alas! Man had to fall and ruin this beautiful part of God's creation. Reduced it to this:

But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Matthew 22:29-30

So was it a mistake? This whole "and they shall become one flesh". I've always felt uncomfortable with the vow "till death do us part". Why till death do us part? Why part at all?
Can't people stay married in the Kingdom of God? Isn't marriage the beautiful creation of God, so beautiful in fact, that He uses it as a picture of the relationship of the church and His Son? The Holy Institution/ Matrimony?

Thus, after a lengthy discussion with kc, my conclusion is this. Call me a cynic, but marriage isn't as great as I thought it to be. A rite where 2 people form a covenant of love only and only for this lifetime. Yes, love is unpopular and it can be beautiful, sacrificial and self-less. But yet, all nulled by the great equalizer (death). Imagine, 2 people go through thick and thin for each other because of their boundless love. Yet at the resurrection, we'll all have no "special thing" for anybody. Oh sure, the memories will be there. But it will not matter. "We will be like the angels in heaven".

Please don't misunderstand me. I in no way am bitter towards my Maker and I still DO intend to get married one day (so don't despair, you still have a shot), yet after having arrived to these thoughts, I felt empty. And in my heart, I cried. Not for my future marriage. But cried that sin has defiled this beautiful part of God's plan. That where God intended for us to love one another forever, to find each our own "helper", sin has obilerated and smashed to irrelevance in the new Jerusalem.

*Man I'm starting to yawn, hope it's nothing to do with this post.*

The fact is, despite all those romantic dramas, stories, songs or even great Christian love stories of our age, we are incapable of that. That which is a total joining of 2 bodies, 2 lives, 2 souls into 1 body, 1 life , 1 soul. At this point dear reader (if you're still awake), my thoughts become incoherent pertaining this topic.

So I'll just leave you with this question: "It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all." What do YOU think? My parents are getting old and like all of creation, will die. Entering heaven, they will no longer be husband and wife. Fellow children-of-God "only". All the love, things they have gone through. I know it's a better way, God's way. But yet, feelings of loss/sadness creep into me...

Comments appreciated: whether on this topic, improvements on my written english or to write something less "gloomy".

p.s. Once again, don't worry. I still intend to get married (future blog post topic?).

First of (hopefully) many posts

Greetings reader. If you know me even a little bit, you'll probably be pretty intrigued that I'd actually start a blog of my own. "You mean you're actually writing your thoughts down?!!".

Yesyesyes. Awkward exclamations aside, I was listening to my creative zen and pondering about many things today as I was meeting up Xin Zhan for lunch. Thought that it would be pretty much a waste to the world *laugh* not to share some of my more serious (and yes weird) thoughts to those who actually stumble across this blog.

Yesyesyes, I'm a joker. But on this blog, you won't find much joking (so if you came here for a laugh, try http://sidetalking.com/photos.html).

What you will get is a better understanding of john's psyche (how I tick), my struggeles (perhaps) and my inner thoughts. Be forewarned: This is a serious side of the Ho that you may never have seen (or guessed) before; those prone to ADD need not apply.

Note to self: Really hope that I can actually update this long and often enough to be meaningful.