Lenten resolve

D asked me if I was giving up Eminem for Lent this year like what I did with Leehom last year, and I said no. I am not as obsessed with Em at this point as much as I did with LH back then. Mostly because there isn't much left for me to get my claws on - I was done devouring everything he has to give months ago. Gosh, I speak like a scavenger : | Still, when it comes to him, no news is good news. He's still in the radar nevertheless, like the rest.. Ah, this phase will always be an enigma to me :)

Anyway it's 2 weeks into Lent now. My thing this year is to give up social media in the evening and focus on reading. It's next to impossible not to be on them at work, and what I really want out of this is to get my reading going. So, there haven't been Quora, 9gag, Facebook, Instagram, Blogger (hence my absence =), Wikipedia, IMDB, etc for me from 9pm onwards the past 14 days and shouldn't be any three weeks to come. I'll have to admit that it's liberating so not have my face being tanned nightly by the glow of my phone.

I've selected four books to complete during this time. I've started on three of them, which I shouldn't have done, but... :P They are Philip Yancey's Rumours of Another World, Edmund Chan's Growing Deep in God, Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Postmodern Times and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics. It has't been easy for me to read because my brain's kinda all mush these days so I actually have to read the words out loud which means I'm reading oh so slowly which means that I'm behind schedule to finish them by Good Friday but I'm not fretting, I'll finish them.

Btw I had wanted to trying going meat-less by my resolve has been weak. :( What I've been doing though was to bring my own lunch to work consisting of one vegetable and one egg dish. I won't count this as a Lent effort, just something I'm doing.

i tried to justify it as NOT cheating, but my friends wouldn't buy it. sigh.

remember my Lent promise? so I received an email from the youtube subscription to wlh and it linked to his Google+ account, and announced that he would be having a Hangout+ session with selected fans some time next week for those who have "burning questions" for him. so i figured out that since i wasn't (a) listening to his songs (b) googling him (c) facebooking him, and (d) weibo-ing him, I thought I found myself a nice loophole. so i posted some questions and was hoping to be picked.

i could well not said anything because no one who knows what i am doing is on G+ (srsly, i can count on one hand the number of ppl i know who are active on G+) but my conscience wouldn't let me off so easily. so i told D what I was doing, and then J, and yeah, hahahahaha... fine, fine... it's the principle of the matter kan? fine, fineeeee... :D so, i'll add no G-plussing leehom to the list okay? sheesh. hehe.. gosh, i hope i won't get selected!

anyway, other than that, i have been holding on quite okay. i'll admit it feels weird and that i miss weibo and all, but it's nice to revisit some of the songs i have long not heard, and some new ones. i now listen to scripture reading on my iPhone on the way to work (somehow i never thought to do that before)(thanks, youversion) and sing along to old worship songs when I'm in SMART (amazing how i still remember most of the lyrics of songs I haven't sang in years).. so it's all good yo. ^_^

me - 1, temptation - 0

Some channel is showing 戀愛通告 - the movie Leehom wrote, directed and acted in. Srsly?? I heard the name of his character (杜明漢 Du Ming Han) being called out when I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. You can imagine how much I want to plop my bum in front of the tv right now. I'm proud to say that I dutifully went back to bed. Maybe it's cos I know I can always watch it again later. But.. I can't believe this is happening! I would like to say that I've been a good girl the past 3 days. I can't deny I've broken out in his songs a few times (this wasn't on the list of prohibition ;) but I managed pretty okay not to google or listen to his songs. Kay, shan't dwell on this. Nitez!

(giving up) Leehom for Lent

so i've decided to give up Leehom for Lent. no, i've not gone off my rockers, and yes, i might just wake up tomorrow morning and regret this. *cries*

anyways, i've always thought Lent to be intriguing since i came to hear about it. it's not a common practice in the church where i grew up in as it's usually regarded as more of a Catholic or traditional church thingy, but the thought and action of giving up something that we think we can't live without struck a chord with me, especially around this time as we embrace Easter and focus on Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection.

basically, the idea is that during Lent (a period of about 6 weeks leading up to Easter, and also the past tense of lend, but not in this case hehe), one would commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. i've known friends who've given up coffee or shopping or social media, it can be anything, as long as it means something. this year's Lent starts today, Feb 13 (a day also known as Ash Wednesday).

i was thinking about what would be impossible for me to do without.. and i narrowed it down to two things: Leehom and meat. hehehe.. and i chose the "easier" of the two. if you didn't know, i'm a die-hard meatarian. maybe one day... well, you could add iPhone to the list, but that isn't very practical. plus, having obsessed over LH for a good one year, this is as worthwhile as it gets. wouldn't you agree? :)

anyway, the conditions i've set for this fast are as follows, whereby in the next 40 days, there would be:

1. no googling/youtubing for anything Leehom
2. no listening to any of his songs
3. no checking his daily Weibo updates
4. no checking his Facebook updates

gosh, i don't know what i'm getting myself into, but you know what the best thing is? when I break this fast in 40 days, it would be just in time for his Genting concert! heheheh.. did i mention the concert would fall on Easter this year? hahaha.. i honestly didn't know that when I got the ticket, but maybe this is the reason after all. :) btw i'm not doing this with the mindset that i should be rewarded, or that i should deserve anything.

honestly, i don't know if or how i'm going to last. oh the (first world) pains i have to endure! :) so yeah, it's happening. and i'm writing this blog so that i would be held accountable and won't chicken out. so here goes nothing...