growing up

I am coming to the slow but sure conclusion that almost all of life, including work, is a power struggle and a search for significance. Like Christ, we can strive for excellence and for the opportunity to bless others, and also to run away from the temptation to manipulate and control others. Me? I'd be happy if I can politely but firmly stop others from attempting to manipulate and control me. I'm surprised by how students try to do this as a means to gain affirmation or attention from me. Was I like that too at that stage?

gangnam style

My church had an announcement video that used part of this video, and everyone burst out laughing. I guess this really is the most popular meme ever. The song is growing on me.

new experiences

The air in my new office still makes me sick. They opened up the ceiling yesterday to do more tests. Haven't heard back about those.

Will co-lead Team D of the welcome team for church.

Have continued to meet new people through badminton. The guy in the import-export business is helping a friend market kinesiology tape so he gave me a roll for free. The tape is supposed to increase blood circulation so that muscles in the affected area can recover more quickly. The first strips I cut were too long, so now I have green tape running from my right wrist to the bottom of my right shoulder blade, and from the left of my lumbar to the front right of my waist. Luckily, I don't have any meetings or classes to go to this week.

I taped my muscles after a session of tuina massage so hopefully those muscles are getting a one-two punch. my right arm is feeling sore from the massage, so hopefully it'll recover more quickly because of the tape too. The coach from my Sunday club taught me how to grip the racket "correctly" and I spent 3 hrs trying to nail that new grip. I know I'm starting to get it right because certain muscles on my right forearm are really fatigued.

But am still missing my shots or hitting them weakly. If I don't make the adjustments soon, I'll prob be left out of the team for our upcoming competition--which would be a fair decision--so I'll be playing an extra day this week. I really need to figure this out soon!

Hike with the sports fellowship this Saturday morning, then a barbecue with another group of friends in the evening. Life is full.

Lots of thoughts recently about my witness for Christ. If I had to grade myself, I would give myself a C-. Lord, have mercy.

on singleness

I don't have an ergonomic work station right now because the air in my office makes me sick (and the safety office keeps telling me that the air quality is excellent, so I must be crazy). It's hard to write long posts for the time being because my wrist and neck hurt when I use a non-ergonomic desk, i.e. my table at home. My apt is too small for me to set up a suitable work station.

Anyway, here's a fairly long article on singleness that I think is very thoughtful and well-written. I'm not an extrovert, so my version of happy-singlehood looks a little different. I have not always been happy about being single but I am happy now, and it is a wonderful place to be. I do have to be careful not to let my single life be self-centered though. I think that it is perfectly fine and in fact, necessary for me to take care of myself, and as someone who is introverted, it does mean a lot of time alone, and on the badminton court. Without that time alone, I start to become a horrible person. Badminton does make me happy, and being single means I can play in team competitions right now, something that I'm happy to be able to do during this season of my life.

But I haven't been able to take on responsibilities recently, and now I will start taking on more. This year, I've joined the children's ministry at my church, and will be helping out at a teacher's assistant in the class with kids aged 3-4. It's been two weeks and I am loving it! I will also probably step up to co-lead a team of ushers for the church. Nothing's confirmed yet though.

Because my church numbers between two to three thousand, and we have three services that meet on four different floors in the same building--yes, it is a bit of a logistical nightmare--co-leading a team of ushers actually will entail a bit of work. This year, the leader of the whole welcome-team, i.e. the volunteer who works with the leaders of the various teams, wants us to take on more of a pastoral role. We cannot take the place of home group leaders but the role will require more than "find volunteers to fill in the slots" which is tough in itself. The previous leaders of my team have really had to scramble to find volunteers sometimes. It does seem strange that we don't hv enough volunteers when our church is so large. And most of us who volunteer also usually volunteer to serve in multiple capacities, so.....

junk boating!

Here are a few pics taken by one of the sports fellowship organizers.

hmm

This post has a lot of insight on the non-married life. Yeah, I'm still really struggling with patience, or rather, the lack thereof.

lazy saturday