Feeling nostalgic to the core

Nostalgia is okay

To get lost in yesterday
Not wallowing in regret
But swimming in 
The remembering 
Those people and things
We loved
Even when they are lost to us

pearlie 

Source: Hello Poetry

Earworms: I learnt something new today

I did not know it is referred to as an "earworm", a piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing. 

I have always had earworms almost every day of my life and it does not really bother me unless I have them when I need to fall asleep. The most memorable ones was when I went caroling during Christmas time in my young days. The carols will go on and on and on in my head when I'm in bed after a long night of caroling from 6pm to 12 midnight, sometimes even one in the morning. I remember I was so irritated with those earworms.

I have not been actively caroling for many years now and so I don't have that problem anymore. I do get an earworm every other day though, songs I have heard in the airwaves or any song that would just appear out of nowhere and they do not really bother me. Quite often they can even be classical music too.

But what has been with me the whole of today is obviously earworms from The Messiah. Whilst it has been a torture for my other fellow sopranos, I hadn't minded them actually. I take them as reliving good music and good memories. 

I only hope it won't last into the night later when I need to sleep. Surprisingly, I stayed clear of them last night though I only slept at 3am because my mind was still so active. Endorphins they say, as a result of 3 straight hours of music. 

I pray I will sleep well tonight with no earworms. 

pearlie

P/S morning of 21/3/2016: thankfully I had no earworms before I fell asleep but the amusing thing was that I ended up dreaming I was attending The Messiah concert in a cruise ship as part of the audience and that I had slept through the entire work until the last part when I woke up (in my dream) but it was still intermission. Nobody sang anything in the dream. And then I woke up (for real) with earworms in my head. I keep hearing a mesh of Chi Hoe, the bass, singing Why do the Nations so Furiously Rage Together and The Trumpet Shall Sound. 

Nostalgic Find

My parents were packing and clearing their stuff when my dad found the typewriter he thought he sold off.

Vintage Typewriter - Royal Li 

He passed it on to me of which I gladly receive. It brings back good memories of me using it in my school days. When I tried typing something, I'm surprised I remembered what to with the levers and buttons. And a really nice feel and sound as well!

pearlie

Recipe Managers

Things have certainly changed since I was last active in the kitchen. Anyway, it's not that I've stopped cooking. I've just stopped experimenting and being creative, and as a result I cook only when I have to. But I've definitely stopped baking. 

Now that I'm getting myself back into the kitchen. I'm beginning to update myself both in kitchen gadgets and technological tools as well. 

Back then, I was in love with this app called the PDACookbook Plus. Looking at this screenshot certainly bring back many good memories. I was collecting recipes then by printing them out and filing them. But I soon moved onto a digital manager with this app in my Palm devices and found it really useful. Well, I've moved on from my PDAs a long time ago and this app is no longer being supported. I found out though that they have a new app called the PDACookbook LIVE, but with a high price tag of $11.99. 

I have gotten this app instead, the Paprika Recipe Manager, for $4.99. I have been filling it with recipes in the last couple of hours and here's a screenshot of it. I have not used it in the kitchen yet. I was using the free ChefTap but I was having problems when I want to clip recipes from the web. I must say though that when it works, it actually works better than Paprika. But I'm liking it a lot, what more with the plethora of recipes now available online. It's like having a cookbook with the most gorgeous looking food. 

Looking again at my TNT (tried-and-true) recipes, I am certainly feeling motivated again to make them. I'm off to the kitchen now to roast some chicken wings. 

pearlie 

Televisions through the decades

Ok, I admit. I'm a TV addict. But which of these TVs have you used before? Mine would be from the 1970s. And I still remember one in a red plastic box with only a 12 or 14 inch screen. But I think I've used one from the 1960s with sliding doors that cover the screen when not in use. Yes, sliding doors!

And how we have watched TV has also changed so much over the years. From national free channels (RTM's faithful TV1 and TV2) to private free channels (TV3 in 1984) to paid cable (Mega TV in 1994) to paid satellite (Astro in 1996), all timed and scheduled kind of entertainment, up till now with online streaming. We have the local but limited iFlix and NetFlix was just made available to us some weeks ago. 

I certainly wonder how will it be a decade from now. 

pearlie

Another new old

I was talking about the brand new Atria Complex a few days ago and how much it has changed from the old. Today, I experienced the same nostalgia with the Port Dickson Methodist Center.

Grace Notes was invited to sing in the Trinity Annual Conference's (TRAC) 40th annual conference. I was told that the center was renovated but I hadn't realised that it has been given such a complete makeover that I could not recognise it. Worse, I could not remember how it was before.

Anyway, I feel we did just fairly in our singing this round because the acoustics in the hall was really so bad our voice sounded dead.

Anyway, it's a good thing I found these pictures of the old center:

Entrance to the center


The Main Hall


Inside the Main Hall


Dormitories

pearlie
Photos: disciples

It's Back to the Future Day Today

Back to the Future Day Official Trailer


I still remember those days when I was so excited about the Back to the Future movie. I still think that the movie is pretty cool. I just might watch it again tonight except that I have too much to do and to catch up on my Coursera lectures.

pearlie

Divinely Interconnected?

It was an interesting Sunday of interconnectedness. Grace Notes was lined up to present a few songs in Living Faith Methodist Church in Ipoh, in their inauguration as a full-fledged church. We traveled up north for about two and a half hours and when we arrived, we found that one of our very old friend and his family from my good old Pudu Methodist Church days are worshipping there now. He was an assistant pastor of the church back then. On top of that, their kids are now studying in an international school in Kampar whose principal used to attend my current CG in Pantai Baptist Church. And when the preacher preached in the celebration service today, he preached from Nehemiah, which was one of the most significant session of bible study I had back then led by this same friend of mine. Too many coincidences for comfort. I shall call it divinely interconnected.

pearlie

My visit to Evangel BookStore in a really long time

I travelled for work today, and on the way back to the office, I had lunch in SS2, Petaling Jaya. I still had some time after lunch and decided to pop into Evangel, which was nearby. It must have been at least two years, if not three, since I've been there. Martin, the assistant, was still working there and it was nice of him to still remember my name.

It felt nostalgic to be back and it was a nice feeling. At first, I wasn't really looking but soon I have eyed four books that I might like to have. The only difference is I don't buy them now, like I used to, almost in bulk, but now I would check kobobooks.com for the electronic copies. Even Martin said that he had noticed that Alex, Noel and I, who frequented the bookstore so often previously have not visited for so long. He deduced that we may already gone digital.

But I was really attracted to this rack:

Preaching the Word Series, Crossway

The last time when I was there, this series was not yet very popular, and thus no such rack existed. It is a good thing they are cheaper electronically though I have not yet purchased the whole set. I will do so, slowly, eventually.

The books that I'm considering getting are these four, of which sadly, only the first two are available for sale in Kobo.


Come Let Us Reason
edited by Paul Copan, William Lane Craig


The Soul, How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters
by J.P. Moreland


Tough-Minded Christianity
edited by William Dembski, Thomas Schirrmacher


Doing Philosophy as a Christian
by Garrett J. DeWeese

pearlie