Always Judge a book by its cover.... uh really?

Books never intrigued me as a child until the eleventh grade. As I look back it's sad... really because I didn't realize how much I missed out on the adventures, mysteries and science fiction; I wasn't much interested in Romance. I wasn't all too fascinated about Harry Potter, like most children were, because the whole magical world was too 'fantasy-like' and wasn't too fond of that. I've always judged the book by its cover. Though once opening to the first page and glance at the first sentence, I end up disinterested and throw the book to the side of my bed. Other times I succeeded and came to love two series -- Magic Tree House Series and A Series of Unfortunate Events-- I really adored the child-like cover for Magic Tree House Series and inside there were small illustrations and exciting fun-facts. Also, the book A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, its cover attracted me because its intricate illustration as well as the book pages and first sentence.

Out of the two series my favorite was A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket because it kept your head spinning and captured your attention. It's mainly about an unlucky group of children, the Bauledaire siblings, whose parents were killed in a fire in the family mansion. Ever since their passing, the children faces a series of unfortunate events, literally there are no other explanation. In the first book, The Bad Beginning was a huge downfall in the children's lives. Before the fire they lived a life of pure happiness and after the fire they live of life of misery especially under a villian, Count Olaf who plans to embezzle their money through marrying the eldest of three children but then it falls through as the second child announces the marriage laws. Since then, the Bauledaire siblings were sent off to different relatives' houses and each move Count Olaf appears in a disguise and all of a sudden their relative mysteriously dies or disappears. Through out the series none of the adults really believe the children's stories and didn't understand how much of a danger there are in. I really love this series because of the huge mix of mystery and adventure which makes it much more exciting to read. After reading this series, it encouraged me to read more mystery-adventure books like John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, etc.

Even after a couple great discoveries of great book novel series I learned that it is best to never judge a book by its cover. That way you would be able to explore and broaden a better taste/perspective in what your read. 

Should I stay or should i go

So recently this HUGE window of opportunity fell upon me!~

and the question is... should I stay in the states... or should i go there and take this chance and a school year off?

more details later...

7/10/09 FNBS~ Salt and Light

That night I finally learned something from bible study. Before this I didn't even pay attention or even considered what I was being taught to apply to my life. Interesting right? This message actually caught my attention and I want to share it with you.

So the message was from Matthew 5:13-20 and it's about Salt and Light.

Did you know that if you list out the functions and characteristics of salt and light... you can transfer it to applying to your life?

So you know that the functions and the characteristics of salt is...

• it was considered and it is still considered valuable
• it has been traded
• bitter
• can never loose it's saltiness
• preserve things and prevents things going bad
• soluable in water
• gives taste and brings out the flavor of other flavors

and light is...

• bright/penetrates darkness
• a necessity
• guides us where we go
• exposes what its in the dark
• shine everywhere

So this is what the text says 

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by me.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

quite short isn't? BUT you know you can get out a lot from this. 

Progressively we have so many choices- that's a problem. Ironically we become more bounded rather living freely. How so? Like you know back in the day (1970a~80s) where there was one kind of pair of jeans you could just go in and out in a snap, when you look at it you can live freely from thinking too much you know? Whereas on the other hand in todays society we are given a variety of different kinds of jeans such as skinny, bootcut, fit, stretched jeans, etc. Since  you are given more options then you would have to think about it more and you become more bounded in the store longer than you intend to.

Okay so Salt gives taste; you are the salt that gives taste~ therefore the world is bland. (think of like this... the world is like a saltless 설렁탕) This world has nothing to offer of what we need. Without Jesus it's just water. With Jesus it's wine-like aroma, taste and color. As a christian, one should bring in taste/flavor among others (Bland=boring=tasteless). We should be seasoned with this salt. Christians should be mysterious as in making your personality different~ outstanding,  like something different from others, in a good way.

So in  

Salt makes people thirsty. We should be the agent of making people thirsty. Though in the end that's only half of my work. It is God who finishes the rest by offering fresh water.

Salt is powerful because a small amount can give a big influence. A small amount needs to melt because it can really bring out the flavor.

Salt preserves. Because the world is rotten you are the one who should preserve it. Salt was such a powerful thing. People were given salt as their salary.

Salt can also used as medicine. The issue here is contamination. Why isn't our lives as salty? The reason is that we are contaminated with sin. "You guys are the key to this bland world. You, you alone is the salt of the earth. You, you alone is the light of the world." 

Light exposes, penetrates, gives life, guides you. 

Salt and light can be parallel. We should always ask ourselves " How bright does your light shine?" Well i know that for me, my light is not bright at all~ it's quite dim almost to the point of darkness. We all conform to the world too much. We should show the good deeds of christ to others. When do you think God would be pleased? It is when we are praised by others. What kind of life are you living in? Are you making a difference?

i decided to do something other than sitting around the house doing nothing

never really thought of making a blog...but here I am sitting on my bed, thinking about what to write on this blog of mine that I just created. Earlier I told a friend of mine that I was bored out of my mind and thinking about creating a blog and he agreed to it. So I just set it up and decided to publish my thoughts with my terrible language. HAHA. How am I ever going to be a teacher if I cant speak or write correctly. My grammar is all over the place and my speech is spontaneous with poor vocabulary. oi! But still here I am at 11:45 pm writing some nonsense. Just writing whatever comes into mind.

I've always thought why would people write their thoughts on the web and who would care enough to read it! Heck I'm bored as hell, so why not create a blog and write all that boredom away if that make any sense. Come to think of it, it's quite sad that I feel this bored considering that most of the exciting parts of my life was when there were a lot of chaotic drama between friends. I should be glad that I'm not in that sort of drama anymore. But it's funny how I kind of miss it. Is that bad? haha... I guess if you hang out with people at church more, there will be less drama than when you hang out with school friends more. I know that, that's not always the case but I dislike to say tho...it seems to be like that in my life. I love my friends from school but really seeing them everyday and them creating drama is wayyyy too much for me. That's probably why I have more guy friends and more friends from other schools. 

Well i think I've talked enough about my thoughts for tonight. LOL.

(i know pretty scattered, I just have a lot of things in my mind at the same time)