Ns ends

By Thursday my NS will be over. This chapter of my life will end and another begin.

I've learned so much in such a short time. I've had to take on responsibility that I had no confidence that I could pull off but God helped me through everything.  I am grateful to God for the people I met here, the experiences and the teachings in both my fellowship (NCCF) and church (Anglican Chapel of Restoration). I will miss it so much.

What's next?
I have been praying for direction and still not sure what to do and all that. When I was leaving Malaysia, it was on my last Sunday that I got confirmation that coming back was God's plan. Hopefully I get a clear message earlier this time. God is good and his love endures forever. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness.

I hope to post more. I know I said that the last time but seriously mean it this time. I miss Malaysia so much that I get pictures of random places in my mind from time to time. It's not even funny.

Let us cling to God now more than ever. Jesus will be here sooner than we expect.

NS updates

I finally installed the Blogger app on my phone so now I can post updates. Thank God for smartphones with data plans.

So I finally went for NS. The orientation camp was 3 weeks and I loved it. Camp is regimented they said and it was but we pretty much got used to it. Unlike most countries we did not receive any military training, the closest we came was to go through some obstacles. Think climbing ropes and crawling under barbed wire.

The next phase is community service, most people were sent to ulu (remote) schools to be teachers, some will work in hospitals, stuff like that. I was posted to a secondary school to teach computer science. God help the students. Just kidding. I'm some how looking forward to it. I've never really taught before so it's going to be interesting, also and opportunity to develop myself.

All through te service year I've been blessed to have the NCCF. They're a non-denominational fellowship of corps members (yeah that's what we are called). Joining them gives this whole thing meaning. I remember being very reluctant to go for service, now I see it an an opportunity to give back a bit to my country.

A lot has happened since I last posted and in the future I'll share some of these things but for now, let those that hold on the God, hold on tightly, the King is coming back, oh very soon. 

where I need to be

Why do people compare themselves to others? I can't help but compare myself with people, but it's wrong. We are all different, we all have our place in this world. Some times it's the same as most other people, most times it's not but we all try to fit in.

I'm not sure if I've shared this but before I came back home, I prayed and sought the Lord repeatedly to get a go ahead or a stay put. I needed to know that I was not just making my own decision but going to where I need to be. For a long while there was nothing, but on my last Sunday in Kuching, I got the answer I needed and with that the confidence that I am where I need to be. That helps calm a lot of my anxieties.

Since being here I have had a hard time readjusting. Being away for almost a decade, it's not easy to re-integrate into society. I remember telling my mom, coming back home is like going back in time and it's true. But being here, I've been strengthened in my prayer life, I've been getting into the word more. The old testament used to be quite boring but when you see it as a part of a bigger picture, it starts to make more sense, there's a better understanding of the new testament, you get more context. It's been quite exciting really.

I've had to postpone NS until next year. Long story but it's all good. At least I can spend Christmas with my family.

God is really good, there's no limit to his love for his children. Even if you don't feel his presence just stick with him, you have nothing to lose.

-ONWARD!

update from home

God is good. I finally sorted everything out with my gmail. If you're using 2-factor authentication with gmail and you travel a lot, changing phones that google does not recognise, you might be locked out of your account if you don't have those backup codes. Thank God I saved them somewhere I can still get at.

I'm back in Nigeria. Have been back since the 1st. There was a little airport drama before I left but it doesn't matter anymore. I still feel kind of noob, not knowing where things are and expecting things to happen a certain way and being disappointed when they don't. Life in general is pretty chaotic and I don't think I'll ever get used to it. It takes longer than usual to get anything done. Here I go complaining but I can't help it.

My mom is on a mission to make me gain weight. I've been eating larger portions than I am used to and she's thinking of de-worming me. I love that I'm back with my sisters, they're so independent.

What do I miss about Malaysia?
This might shock you. I thought I would miss the people or even the food more but I miss fast-er, reliable, cheap internet. Oh my goodness don't get me started. But of course I miss the people a lot and the food and the lifestyle. My national service is soon, I hope I get to somewhere safe, somewhere interesting that I have not been to before.  More than that I hope I get all my documents ready on time.

Sorry for the in-coherent post. Will try to post more when I have something to share.


-ONWARD!

Pacific Rim

It is rare that I watch a movie and I don't have any complaints or things I find weird, things that takes me out of the movie experience. Pacific Rim is not an exception. For the first time, I was taking notes on parts of the movie that I thought was strange, or just bothered me. I don't think it's being nit-picky. Maybe it is, but still, I think movies should be seamless and engaging and immersive.

If you hate spoilers then read no further. That aside, I will try not to give too much away.

So the synopsis of this movie is big giant robots, controlled by a pair of humans fighting giant alien creatures hell bent on destroying all life on earth. As story lines go, I guess that's passable but if you're going to have big giant robots controlled by humans, do it right.

Big Giant Robots
They call the robots Jaegers. If you follow shingeki no kyojin, you recognise that name but I digress. If you're going to have Jaegers controlled by humans, at least give them seats to sit on. Gundam and Evangelion have showed us that a neural link with the machine is more versatile than having the humans perform actual actions that the machines replicate in real life. It bothered me that they were just suspended there doing all these moves. I think it would be cooler to have them sit on a chair, their neural network tapped and maybe access to some controls where their fingers will normally lie and maybe some voice commands. I would have expected that because that's what we are used to and playing on that would have made it more natural, more modern and approachable. Those Jaeger were like scrap metal pieced together by a skunkworks team. Is that really the best humanity could come up with? Please give them chairs.

I guess playing into this scrap metal scenario, one person could not handle the jaeger so you needed two people to sync their brain waves and fight as one. Again those anime I mentioned showed that one person is perfectly capable to operate a machine of that size and even navigate it in space. With the help of a sophisticated on board computer of course but it's the future, those capabilities should be there already.

One more thing about the Jaeger. Initially I thought there was no eject system but later in the movie we found out that there was. Why didn't the pilots eject when they were in grave danger. Why go down with the ship or jaeger in this case? I didn't get that.

Stereotypes
So Mako is Japanese. Not only that she's a girl. And because she's a Japanese girl obviously she has a noticeable Japanese accent and she's a tad shy. I thought this was unnecessary. The moment she came into the picture, I knew instantly where it would lead. There was even a James Bond moment in the end when they were together and the voice on the radio was like guys...? Of course the camera took a wide angle shut and I expected them to pucker up but they just hugged. Mako can be Japanese and she can be a girl but she does not have to be a stereotypical Japanese girl.

The Australians were an interesting much but half the time I couldn't make out what they were saying. There were subtitles in BM and Chinese but I can't read those so I have to try to get what they're saying.

And the scientists? A dynamic duo but guys, you went too far there.

Hannibal Chou was cool. Until he got eaten.

Striker. What I couldn't make out was if he was with the US or the UK or some kind of alliance. Idris Elba did a good job with Prometheus but his English accent got me confused in this one. Besides that I like the dynamic between him and Mako.

So did I even enjoy the movie? Absolutely. I thought the action scenes and the non-action scenes were well balanced. The ending was quite nice. Overall it's a good movie worth watching.

There was a scene where little Mako was sobbing and the people behind were laughing. What's up with that?

-ONWARD!