the scratching post

Buttermilk Johnnycake

2012-06-01T23:12:34Z

Photo credit: TinyUrbanKitchen

Neptune Oyster's Buttermilk Johnnycake: honey butter, smoked trout tartare, Little Pearl Caviar

Sweet, savoury, succulent and absolutely amazing

Thank God

2010-08-30T15:21:56Z

For the totally unexpected generosity of friends.
For the friends who look out for me.
For the friends who keep me accountable and joyful in the Lord.
And for the friends who are willing to trust me and take me into their confidence.

I just realised today

2010-08-23T14:52:06Z

My sister has never used an ordinary pencil. She grew up with mechanical pencils, and the closest she's come to using a normal pencil is using her recently purchased eyeliner pencil.

Hence her question today, "Jie, how do I make this eyeliner pencil sharp again?"

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

qotd

2010-01-31T04:01:45Z

"If the husband is the head of the wife as verse 23 says, let it be very plain to all husbands that this means primarily leading out in the kind of love that is willing to die to give her life. As Jesus says in Luke 22:26, "Let the leader become as one who serves." The husband who plops himself down in front of the TV and orders his wife around like a slave has abandoned Christ in favor of Archie Bunker. Christ bound himself with a towel and washed the apostles' feet. If you want to be a Christian husband, copy Jesus not Jabba the Hutt."

- John Piper

New Year's Day 2010

2010-01-02T02:37:10Z

From an email that Shirin sent to the rest of the team, plus coaches:

"As a report on how sad our lives are, at 9.30pm on New Year's Day, Shirin and Sarah in the moot room find an article on point on (one issue) as an exception to (an area of law) obligations, and scream and laugh hysterically and hug each other. Sarah turns red. And is still laughing.

Happy new year!"

I spent the first half of the year leading the carefree life of an exchange student, and the last half the frenetic life of a mooter. I'm blessed to have both experiences. I've learnt a lot: legal learning, the learning that goes with leading the independent lifestyle overseas, and even a bit more of self-knowledge. I've learnt a bit more about the boy who features most prominently on my Skype history.

But most of all, 2009 is a year where I learnt things that make me cherish God more. A lot of what I learnt was not in spite of the pain I've experienced in 2009, but because of it.

So, my one resolution for 2010 is to pray, and plant, my tears.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T14:02:19Z

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."

John 1:14-16, as chosen by a dear friend who included this verse in her Christmas message :)

The process, not the end.

2009-12-17T01:39:33Z

From here, quoting Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest

"We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process - that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God."

Keep Breathing

2009-12-07T23:53:24Z

But all that I know is I'm breathing.
All I can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing now.

Quoth Cat

2009-11-22T00:03:58Z

"When you've been gone, you never really come back."

A book that no one should ever get for me

2009-11-19T12:08:09Z

Product description:

Warning:

You've heard about the latest studies and you've read the conflicting reports. You were very right to be suspicious--the strange reality is that everything is bad for you.

Everything from carpets to camping to water to Norman, Oklahoma, endangers your health, your sense of well-being and, ultimately, your sanity. Discover the disturbingly amusing truth: sunscreen is bad for you whether you use it or not--and everything else is too!

Although this amuses me the most:

It has landed!

2009-11-16T04:27:22Z

In my email inbox!

Google Wave!

Unfortunately few friends have it yet, so I'm trying out the public waves to get some use out of this thing. And reading The Complete Guide to Google Wave. And watching the Youtube videos that show the various nifty features, like this short one:

But now, back to exam prep. Sigh.

For funlaughterpeaceandjoy

2009-11-04T16:38:05Z

We put a print of The Creation of Adam up on the ceiling of Moot Room 1, like in the Sistine Chapel!

And we'll now start calling the room The Vatican. :D

[edited to add] We've just added a Christmas tree!

facelessentity @ 2009-09-29T23:37:00

2009-09-29T15:37:43Z

Joel went back to Cambridge today.

As Pratchett puts it, I live not where I love.

But I'm stuck here
Getting misty over you
I'm alone on a bicycle for two

We are blessed

2009-05-31T23:20:53Z

Bring heaven to earth, Lord
Bring peace where there's fear
Bring life where there's death, Lord
Bring joy in these tears

Bring love where there's lust, Lord
Bring hope where there's pain
Bring rest where there's chaos
Bring faith where there's fame

You invite us to partner with you
To see your kingdom come
We are blessed, to bless a world in pieces
We are loved, to love where love is not.
We are changed, to be the change you promised
We are freed, to be your hands, O God

Bring home to the homeless
Bring keys to the chained
Bring worth to the purchased
And touch to the shamed

Bring freedom from debt, Lord
An end to excess
Bring closer your kingdom
By quiet success

In the broken, we shall see restored
The image of our King
We are blessed, to bless a world in pieces
We are loved, to love where love is not.
We are changed, to be the change you promised
We are freed, to be your hands, O God

Lord we cry out to You
Change the atmosphere
Breathe new life in all who gather here

Because we are blessed, to bless a world in pieces
We are loved, to love where love is not.
We are changed, to be the change you promised
We are freed, to be your hands, O God

Bring heaven to earth, Lord

By Andy Flannagan

Sigh.

2009-05-13T19:32:48Z

Here I am, with a laptop, big desk, surrounded by textbooks and readings, stressed out because I have exams in less than 2 weeks.

But Michael Kerr? He was a German Jew studying law at Cambridge during WWII, who did his exams in an internment camp because as a German, he was considered an enemy alien.

He wrote on toilet paper, with a borrowed pen.

And got a First.

From this Times article

SQUEEEEE

2009-02-02T09:05:23Z

IT'S SNOWING!!!

facelessentity @ 2009-01-24T09:36:00

2009-01-24T09:36:43Z

From this Times article

"My generation grew up being told by pre-television age parents that we were enervated addicts, who would never come to much.

I was reminded of this when the Blue Peter producer Biddy Baxter, told me about a boy who had written to her 35 years ago saying that he'd found the secret of reviving the dead: “A list of what I need. 1. Diagram of how evreything works [inside youre body]. 2. Model of a heart split in half [both halvs]” etc.

Biddy replied kindly but heard nothing more until now. He'd been thinking lately, said the man, now professor of tissue engineering in the team that regenerated that French woman's windpipe through stem-cell technology, how inspired he'd been back then by a programme on TV."

from Wesley's Explanatory Notes

2009-01-13T11:00:37Z

On Genesis 1:3

"God has thus divided between light and darkness, because he would daily mind us that this is a world of mixtures and changes. In heaven there is perpetual light, and no darkness; in hell utter darkness, and no light: but in this world they are counter - changed, and we pass daily from one to another; that we may learn to expect the like vicissitudes in the providence of God."

The Darkling Thrush

2008-12-31T09:58:26Z

This article from Slate reminded me of (or rather, thrust upon me) Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, that poem we got for unseen in the prelims, and which horrified Mr Prince because of all the exam scripts written by people who didn't know what a thrush was (It's a man! It's a bush! It's a STD!)

But leaving aside my sentimentality, Slate was right in saying that this poem is quite appropriate to go into the new year with. A new year that holds an incredible amount of uncertainty for many because of the economic crisis and all the madness going on in the world: Zimbabwe, Congo, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand. Here in England I was particularly disturbed by the Baby P case, the undeniable presence of the homeless on English streets and the news of so many retailers going bust; 99 year old Woolsworth alone disgorged 27,000 staff.

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

31 December 1900

-Thomas Hardy

from the delightful dawn

2008-12-11T13:11:00Z

Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.

The silicon chip inside her head is switched to overload

She's blood, flesh and bone
In the morning when you rise
Whatever happened to my part
I'm a new soul

In another younger day I could dream the time away
Well I saw fireworks from the freeway
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
These mist-covered mountains

You got the best of both worlds
If you were falling, then I would catch you
Once in every show
Wake up in the morning

Well let the geek in the pink take a stab at it
Would you know my name
Say you're sorry, that face of an angel
Watching me like you never watched no one

The US Elections

2008-11-05T16:13:26Z

Aside from the big things (look at the stripey-states, the ones who've voted out Republicans; look at Florida)

There's also the little things.

Like the description of Michelle Obama here (italics mine):

"Michelle is not only invigoratingly intelligent, proud of her urbanity, but also unafraid of showing her abilities. She is certainly the only wife of a presidential candidate I can remember who, instead of playing herself down, played up the general uselessness of her husband in matters domestic — and in doing so not only held her ground intellectually but also reached out to all those women who, while devoted to their spouses, also find them slightly useless in matters of sock-tidying."

And this Game Theorist post

"Conversation in our house this evening after watching Obama's speech:
"Dad, can we play Guitar Hero?"

"No."

"But Barak Obama says 'yes we can.' And he's the President."

"Still no."

Next they are going to want a puppy."

for the first time

2008-10-21T14:28:19Z

the temperature is at a single digit! it's 9 degrees today, even lower once you factor in wind chill. i think i'm beginning to understand the english obsession with tea - it keeps you warm. :)

qotd

2008-10-20T16:32:17Z

Girl walking behind me explaining the Human Rights lecture we had just now, which was about Islam and Asian values, to her friend: "Basically, Islam and Asian values are the same things."

qotd

2008-10-13T08:05:13Z

from Robin Jacob's "Industrial Property - Industry's Enemy?" [1997] IPQ 3

"A squirrel is a rat with good PR. "Intellectual Property" is perhaps a phrase coined by the same PR agent for monopolies."

Harking back

2008-10-08T01:10:58Z

It is 2am. I am in my AC 'Debate Traditions' shirt, pyjama pants, and my lovely fleecey ACJC hoodie, reading into the night for my human rights tutorial. It's just like the old days: reading about Locke, the American Declaration of Independence, the French rev, and later tonight, the UN. Despite my resentment at only having one and a half days to prepare for this tutorial, right now in this academic moment, I am happy, because i have returned to my humanities roots for a while.