Friend of God

This song kinda popped into my head last night and spent some time actually reflecting on the lyrics. Basically, the whole idea about being a friend of God.

For a long time I knew about the God-Mortal and Father-Son relationship. Recently I discovered the Lord-Steward relationship that exists. I have thought about the Friend relationship every time that we sing that song in church, but never in any real depth.

In any case, this morning i was at a retreat and we sang 'I am a friend of God'. Decided then that I should spend a bit more time thinking about it and write about it here. The phrase 'Friend of God' is actually used to describe my namesake in the Bible, Abraham.

James 2:23 - And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about friendship is loyalty. Along with loyalty, a good friend is always dependable as well. God is definitely both loyal and dependable. What about us then? Are we loyal to God and can God depend on us to act in accordance to His will? Often the answer is no, but God is gracious enough to forgive our transgressions if we realise the wrong we have done and make an attempt to change.

This brings me to the next point about friendship. I'm sure if you take a moment to consider friends who are closest to you, the realisation that the two of you share a lot of things in common will soon arise. In the same way, if we are to be God's friend, then our heart's desire should be in line with His. One should not just blindly accept God's commands and try to follow them. We must first understand why doing some things are not right and then ask God for the strength to break out of our sinful ways.

The most important aspect of friendship is communication. Acquaintances only become friends after you spend a considerable amount of quality time with the other person, conversing with them. God speaks to us. Whether we take the time to listen to his soft,still voice is something we have to decide on our own.

Can you imagine how superficial a friendship would be if you only contact your 'friend' when you need them to do something for you? God is ready to listen to us at any time but, when we pray, we should not solely be telling God what we need Him to do for us. Our conversation with God must go deeper than that. We should pray with the aim of knowing God better.

So let us say that we are loyal to God, our hearts are in sync with His and we have deep communication with God on a regular basis. What will be the result of this friendship? Besides having close fellowship with our Heavenly Father, which in itself is awesome, the bible reveals one more result.

John 15:15 - I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

A matter of mentality?

Proven: S'pore maths good for US students


I first read the above article in the New Paper on Sunday. Basically, it talks about how U.S. kids, using our Singaporean textbook, have shown improvements in their math grades. Who even knew that our math textbooks were being exported? I certainly didn't.

Know what else I did not know? Our Sec 2's and Primary 4's have topped the International rankings for achievement in maths and science a whopping 4 times! I felt so proud though i do know that my year probably wasn't one of the years who were awarded this recognition.

It got me thinking though. If our young kids (i feel so old saying this) show so much promise, should it not translate to more success in the outside world? I am not saying that Singapore have not been achieving anything in the last decades or so. On the contrary, our progress is admirable. I will always admire Creative for taking $100 Million from Apple in a legal suit.

All the ipods out there have to thank creative for their origin! Why it is not Creative but Apple which sells the most amount of Portable Music Players (brings back memories of project work) remains to be seen? Somewhere between the conception of the idea and implementing the idea, Creative got lost.

I would be even more delighted if their pay cheque came in from the shopping malls instead of from the court room. Is it just signs of learning? Perhaps next time a Singaporean company will get it right and become a global giant? Or is it our mentality preventing us from taking things to the next level?

We all embrace Corrinne May as a "Singapore-Made" Singer. Yes, she grew up here. The facts remains though that she is now a citizen in Los Angeles. She felt that the only way to further her music career was to "defect" over the US. Is it true that you can't remain in Singapore and become a superstar? Or is it a matter of mentality?

When I talk to my friends, many want to migrate overseas to work. Singapore isn't "big" enough for their dreams to be fulfilled here. Is it just a case of the grass being greener on the other side? Or do we feel shackled by the chains our own minds have locked us in?

I do think the day will come when Singaporeans will win Nobel Prizes, Grammy's, Emmy's and whatever award the west has come up with. I do think that we need to take another look at our education.

Is loading children with maths and science the route to success in the outside world? Unless one intends to be a teacher, a scientist or a mathematician, only a basic grasp of the above subjects are necessary.

I believe our Primary education is fine. What I do not understand is why does a student have to score for maths, physics, chemistry and history for O levels if they just want to pursue a course in Mass Communications in Polytechnic? Why is a student with As in Physics and Maths not allowed to get his course of study in Engineering due to his/her failure in Literature or Geography.

The scenarios above are hypothetical, but I do have friends who have not been able to do a course they would have probably excelled at because of their O level grades.

Another thing to look at is the admissions criteria for our Universities. I do think that the playing field for JC Students and Poly Students should be level. I was a JC kid and yes i managed to attain a place in a university. I do feel for those who slogged it out for 3 years in Polytechnic only to find that the local University is not offering them a place to continue their studies.

For those with lots of capital, overseas uni is readily available. Those who do not have this luxury, they enter the working world, sometimes prematurely. The ONLY reason that I went to a Junior College was to buy time. If at 16 I knew what I wanted to do for a living, I would have gone to a Polytechnic. The assumption that students are in polytechnic only because they could not get into JC needs to be dropped.

I am convinced that we have lost a host of creative and talented students to overseas colleges. A significant number will choose to live out the rest of their life there, just like Corrinne May.

The key to unlocking our rigid mentality is education. Until we let each and every child recognise and grow the God-given talent that he/she has, the potential Singapore obviously possess will continue to waste away.

I am waiting for the day when Singapore produces a show which streams world-wide, or an artiste who releases a number 1 hit or even a soccer team which qualifies for the World Cup (i'm allowed to dream, aren't i?). Till then though, I shall endeavour to support our locals as much as I can. Be it buying creative earphones or attending a local comedy act, I will do my part to grow our local talent pool.

Wonder if anyone else will follow...

Rooted in Love

The below is actually a post in my Quiet Time blog which i just revived today.


Eph 3:17b - And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,...."

ref Matt 13:20,21 - The one who received the seed that fell on rocky ground is the man who hears the word and receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble and persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

I've read the parable of the sower and heard many sermons about it. Every time, I just assumed that having no root just means having no real foundation. That isn't wrong, but the question is what foundation is required? Foundation in God's Word? No, many have studied the bible religiously and have still fallen away, Pharisee's not the least of such people.

Rather, what is required is a foundation in God's love. We MUST be rooted in God's love, and our roots must go deep. It is only when we are empowered by God's love that we can overcome the trials that this world throws at us and come out stronger. Since we fall away from God, we would be unable to bear fruit.

This brings me to the second point. Without first drawing from and experiencing God's love, we would be unable to love those around us. If we have never experienced real love, how are we supposed to know how to fully love anyone else? Yes, we have experienced love from those close to us, but even this is imperfect love. When we draw on the Father's love, we can reflect some of His love to those around us. It is only when people see this unconditional love of God through us that they will give Christ any real thought.

So how do we send grow our roots deep into God's love? It is widely accepted that the soil in the parable of the sower is a metaphor for the state of our heart. If our heart is a rock, we block out God's love for us. Here lies the problem, we are sometimes have our hearts so closely guarded in the fear that we will get hurt that we block out things which are essential to our growth. In this case, we block out God's love, which he offers freely to us.

If our hearts are made of good soil, our roots can easily penetrate through and reach God's unending supply of love. Release your fears to God and open your heart to Him. Let His love flow right through you. You will find rest in His arms and shelter under His wing. In this conditions, we will be fruitful.

Incepted....

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.

Somehow, I can never locate where this idea has embedded itself. During the show, I had so many questions ans so many thoughts that I wanted to give further thought once the show was done. As soon as I left the cinema, most of the ideas disappeared. If i could remember it, this blog post would have been a lot longer.

In any case, I will be writing about my thoughts about the movie Inception, so if you have not watched it for one reason or another but do intend to watch it some time in the future, do not read on.

I will first just point out 3 loopholes which i found in the show (this seems to interest people more than anything), then a little secular analysis of a quote from the show and then end with a Christian analysis about the show.



I myself am not too interested in identifying loopholes in the show cause I don't quite see the point. I will just quickly point out some stuff which didn't quite make sense to me. First of which is why didn't the whole bunch of them get called back from the hotel level of the dream when the can went rolling down the slope? There were a few times that the van was completely off the ground and hence the feeling of falling should have been achieved.

The second one is more intriguing. Why is it that Albert missed the first kick? He was in no deeper state of dreaming and hence when the van first reversed off the bridge, he should have awoken already. This would have meant that he would not have been able to drop the rest and they would have been stuck.

The last question I have is why did Fischer and Ariadne have to jump off the building in the Limbo state when the explosion at the snow level of the dream should have brought them out. Is it not true, according to the movie, that when you die in the limbo state that you wake up in reality? If that were the case, then Fischer would have woken up prior to the rest and realized that he was connected to a machine.

There are actually a few of my own questions to the movie that i can't quite answer, but i think i shall omit those so that I can get down to me analysis.. Exciting.. to me at least!

One of the quotes which stuck with me when I watched the movie the second time was how Cobb says that,

"I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time."

This line was taken from the scene where they are trying to figure out how they should plant the idea into Fischer's head. Eames suggests that they should make Fischer's already fractious relationship with his Father even worse and hence Fischer will break up his Father's empire in retaliation.

Upon hearing the quote above, I thought that it wasn't really true. People do tend to act on impulse and retaliate if they feel they have been wronged, but at times people don't always repay good with anything at all.

However, i realized that this actually goes a lot deeper. I think it can be considered a fact that people want to be accepted. This feeling is stronger in a few compared to others, but at the end of the day, we do want people to have a good opinion of us, especially when that person in question is someone who means a lot to you. In this case, Fischer longed for his father's love, just like many kids long to gain the approval of their parents.

Every experience Fischer had with his father suggested that his father had little or no affection for him. As soon as it was suggested that perhaps he just misunderstood his father though, his sub-conscience was quick to grab onto that idea. It was evidently something that Fischer had considered before but dismissed due to the lack of evidence. Through the dream a plausible scenario, which showed his father in a positive and loving light, was created.

Although the script does not tell us whether he actually broke up his father's empire. He now had reason to be his own man instead of just following in his father's footsteps. You may think that Fischer is soft and gullible for believing that his father actually loved him, but I think it takes courage to look past someones many faults and see the good in them.

i do believe that good exists in each and every person. the question is,"Are we willing to look past their faults, which could hurt us multiple times, and see the good in them?" If we dismiss anyone as a bad person, then eventually that person will believe that he/she is bad and they will not bother to change. It always is about building others up. Suggest to people that they are loved and accepted and see the positive emotion bear fruit.



Onto the Christian analysis now. I must admit though that this isn't fully thought through and there are going to be quite a few loopholes.

At the end of Inception, it is hard to tell for sure if Cobb is in a dream or in reality. As I gave the movie some thought, it occurred to me that even now we're in a dream-like state. I'm not saying we're in a dream, because there are certainly differences between being in a dream and our current situation. Hence, I say that we are in a dream-like state.

For Christians, we know that earth is not our home and eternal life begins postmortem in heaven. As such, our reality is technically in heaven. However, different from a dream, our actions here on earth have a very real effect on where we end up in the after-life. This is why we can not kill ourselves in the dream to escape and return back to reality. If we take our own lives in this world, the likelihood is that we enter a limbo (hell) which we will never be able to escape.

So what about this life makes me feel like it is just a dream. Well, this world makes little sense to me. The amount of violence, discrimination and natural disasters just confound me at times. Surely a good Creator did not have a life like this planned for us.

So this begs the question of why I think our Creator, if one even exists, is by nature good. First, why do I think a Creator exists? Well, as of now, there is no explanation which shows that the creation of the world and everything around us could have happened naturally. Scientists point to the Big Bang, but somethings must have triggered it. My brother would be in a better position to talk about this because he is into all this sciency, nerdy stuff. For me though, I think it is most sensible to believe that there is a power greater than anyone of us that created us. It makes more sense than believing that everything popped out of nothing.

How do i know that our Creator is good? Well, I can see why a good God would create us, but i don't see any reason as to why a bad God would create us. If a bad God created us, surely we would be bound into slavery, with no choice as to how we want to live. There is no reason for a bad God to conceal himself, manipulation could be done openly.

So why would a good God create us? I believe that we have been created to fellowship with God. Do note that God does not NEED us to fellowship with Him, He has angels and He Himself is triune. However, I do think that he WANTS to have fellowship with us. For true fellowship to exist though, the 2 parties have to decide to engage in a relationship with each other.

This is precisely why God gives us free choice. He designed the earth to be a perfect place where He could commune with us, but we chose sin and now a sinful nature exists innately in each and every one of us. To be human was never meant to be to err. It was only after we had fallen to temptation that this place became temporal and death came into existence.

God could not let us live forever in our sinful ways because no face-to-face fellowship could have taken place due to God's holiness. As such, God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sin so that once we believe in Jesus, we may again enter into fellowship with God. Once we die, we are able to enter into God's presence again.

So what will I do now? Well, let's just say that a certain man is coming. I know where I want Him to take me, and I know where He will take me. What I do not know is when will He take me there, but it doesn't matter. In the meantime, I will try to convince others to join me on the Jesus Express to Eternity.

Will you take a leap of faith with Christ?

Sloth and more Sloth...

They say time is money... I think it is much more important than that. I mean money is something that you can get in time, but time can do so much more than that. In time, you can pick up new skills, learn life lessons, save a life, etcetra etcetra..

I've acheived almost none of the above in the last 2 years of my life. Yeah.. a whole lot of time and hence opportunities wasted. I know how bad it is, but yet i can't seem to get out of this rut. What is it about lazing around that is so addictive?

There is surely no satisfaction at the end of the day and your brain is almost as good as dead during that time. Nothing is gained and an unquantifiable amount is lost.

I think I know the root of the cause... I just get bored of stuff so easily. I do things several times and before there is any fruit, i get bored of it and find something else to do. This blog for one is a good example. There have been so many things I wanted to write, especially about my South Africa trip. The thoughts never translated from my mind to the paper/web and now i struggle to remember the observations made and insights gained from the trip.

Learning Italian is another one on my un-numbered list of things I have started and never finished. I think every 4 months or so i decide that I REALLY want to learn Italian at least at a basic level, and after 4 days the desire is gone.

Oh.. at one time I was actually so convinced that I wanted to become a sports journalist that I actually wrote a match preview piece for a Milan-Juventus game and sent it in to some Goal.com writer to get his comments! He actually gave me a really positive and encouraging reply. wow.. i managed to find his reply :

Hey that was pretty good. You write very well for someone of your age. I understand that you've been keeping yourself up to date on Milan issues.

But do try using some more sub headings. It'll make your article more attractive

Do you read much? If you do, what do u read?

regards,
Arun

Not too long after this though I realised that there are so many people out there who write so much better than I do. I didn't think that even with serious effort I would ever make it as a sports journalist, doing what I really want to do. I never even tried... Even now I wonder whether it really is too late for me to try and catch up with the 'competition' or if I just do not want to try.

I suppose that my worry is, "what happens if i try and fail?" Yes, I know it will still be a good learning experience and writing is definitely a skill which will be useful in anything I do in the future. The problem is that my pride runs deep. Once I try and fail, then I will kow for sure that I am not good enough to be a Sports Journalist. If I stick with the status quo, I can at least comfort myself by reasoning that perhaps my talent and potential was just never fully realised and I could have been a great journalist.

Which in itself is really scary cause the bible warns of the consequences of not using the gifts God has given us to accomplish His will. My excuse to that has always been that God hasn't given me any gifts. It's amazing how stupid guilt can make a person.

In any case, I think it's evident to self, family, friends close to me and last;y, but definitely not least, God knows that I have to start doing something with my life before it really is too late. I do think it is a little too late for me to actually become a journalist, if you think I'm wrong feel free to shout at me. I still want to improve my writing though. As such I shall endevour to write a blog post every Sunday.

Italian? hmmm... undecided on this. Just mentally listed the pros and cons and I think I definitely should pick this up again.

Touch Typing... Gonna finish the online lessons on this before I ORD.. I type far too slowly..

Last, but most important...

Quiet Time... every weekday morning I shall rise at 5am to do my QT before I head off to camp..

All the best to myself... goodness knows that I will need perseverance as I have never displayed before..

"I can do all things through Him who gives me strength" Phil 4:13

Passing of a loved one

Well, tuesday started in the worst way possible. I got woken by a phone call informing my family that my Godfather, who is my granduncle, had passed away. I was still dazed, but something inside me sort of tingled. It's hard to explain, but at the same time I did not feel all that sorrowful. I had seen my Godfather just once in the last 5 years plus. My memories of him are from my very much younger days.

My family loved/s to take holidays to Malaysia, especially Fraser's Hill and Cameron Highlands. En route, we often stopped over at Kuala Lumpur to visit my Godfather, Godmother and Godsister. There are just a few things I remember from my trips there. Playing on the white swing outside the house, playing soccer on the little patch of grass, doing random stuff with my siblings on my Godfather's bed, but most of all, I remember playing chess with my Godfather.

I can't exactly remember whether I actually knew how to play chess at that point of time. On the way back from the funeral I did find out from my grandmother that I could play chess WELL when I was 4. Little pat on the head for myself. In any case, I was really young, but I do remember being able to "beat" my Godfather in chess once in awhile. Yes, I patted myself then as well.

My Godfather was by no means a bad chess player. On the contrary, judging by what I've gathered from my Uncles, he is quite an excellent one. I really think it is a skill to be able to lose to a child, but at the same time make the child think that he actually won! My Godfather was excellent at this. He had a knack for building others up and encouraging people.

In any case, we arranged to travel up to KL for the funeral on wednesday. At the wee hour of 4am, My family, Grandmother and one of my uncles, who is my other Godfather, left for Malaysia. I slept almost the entire way there, so before long, for me at least, we were at my Gpdfather's house.

As I saw everyone around break down in grief, I too let a few tears roll down. it suddenly struck me that I had missed out on something. My Godfather was a lot more than the great encourager I knew him as. I just hadn't spent the time to get to know the other elements of his amazing character. I was struck my immense regret. I had wasted time in his house watching tv instead of talking to him. I do not recall ever picking up the phone to give him a call to see how he was doing. Although He would faithfully send me a birthday card every year, I did not even know what month he was born in.

This is the first time I had attended the funeral of someone who was actually close to me. Even as I type this, it burns that I did not take the time to know him better. How dreadful retrospect can be! I sat on the now rusted swing and thought about my Godfather and others around me who I do not know as well as I should. The list is pretty long.

There was, thankfully i suppose, not much time was contemplation as there was a little service at the house before the actual funeral service at the church. So what did I gather about my Godfather from the numerous people who spoke highly of him? Well, he was one with a man with a friendly countenance who had the ability to make everyone feel special without playing favorites. He was a man of many skills or talent, who was always willing and had the ability to pass on his skills to those around him. Most of all though, he was a man of God, possessing a child-like faith in Christ, an undying hope for Salvation and a deep love for God.

As I walked down the church aisle next to the coffin, I whispered to him, "Sorry that I never got to know you better here on earth, but I hope to live a life like yours and after that I would be delighted to get to know you in heaven!"

What are we chasing after?

Today I returned to an empty house and sat down in front of the computer after downing a bit of chocolate cake and a whole lot of chocolate icing. I transferred pictures from last night's dinner into the computer and proceeded to entertain myself with a couple of videos from YouTube. Though 'whose line is it anyway' provided me with a few moments of laughter, time did seem to crawl on by. Being blessed with three siblings, I've become accustomed to always having someone to talk to at home.

In any case, at about 6.45 I glanced out of my window and saw a splash of orange across the skyline. Since my camera was already beside me, I took a few snaps before coming to the realization that I did not spend over $1k on my camera to shoot from my window. I packed my camera and my bible and decided to chase after the sunset on my father's bicycle.

Staying in the east, I was never likely to get a clear shot at the sun. Setting out at close to 7pm and the fact that I live in an urban jungle, probably as dense as the Amazon Basin, made it Mission Improbable. Soon it become impossible as I got stuck at a junction. A King Kong-sized tractor being transported by a truck, possibly as long as an anaconda, was attempting to reverse uphill into one of the construction sites.

There were about 3 people directing the truck and after almost going off-road, they finally managed to get it into a position where they could reverse the truck up. However, due to the presence of water puddles, there was insufficient traction for the truck to make it up the hill. Hence, they had to drive the tractor off the truck, before reversing the truck into the construction site.

By the time this was done, the sun had set and darkness fell across the land. Haha.. just trying to be as dramatic as my brother! In any case I gave up on getting my shot and decided to make this into a thought-filled cycle ride. first task was to relate the incident which just unfolded to actual life.

Well, at times you could feel like you really can't see where you are headed and if you reverse blindly it is definitely plausible that you could end up in a ditch. At times, friends could help you get back into the right direction and save you from falling into a position where it would be near impossible to get out. However, even if you manage to get into the right direction, you still have obstacles you need to overcome before you can achieve what you are aiming for.

What the obstacle is and hence what you need to overcome it varies according to what your end goal is. So now the question becomes, what exactly is our goal in life? I'm not talking about the little objectives that you try and complete over the span of your life, but rather what is the one thing you chase after through your entire life.

I think it is pretty safe to say that the thing everyone chases after is happiness. Whether in this age or during the Jurassic age, whether in Europe or in Asia even whether we're talking about man or animals, we are all after true happiness. People who chase after power believe that power will provide them with happiness. Same for the people who chase after wealth and it is the same for religious people.

I think to myself then, what would make me truly happy? I do honestly believe I was born in the wrong generation. I do not long after the lifestyle of Bill Gates or any celebrity, including soccer players. The person whose life i dream of emulating is that of a certain Charles Ingalls. I believe that the number of people who have watched Little House on the Prairie is as few as those who do not download illegally, a group which i have recently have become a proud member of.

Charles Ingalls, his wife and 3 kids built their own house on a prairie in a town where everyone knows everyone else. He was naught but a farmer and a good man. They weren't rich and they had zero technology. What they did have was a creek near their house, neighbors who cared, a single school for the whole town and a little church, where they would faithfully attend service every Sunday, wearing their best clothes.

Of course there were trials and tribulations along the way, but life would be incredibly boring without a few days of worry here and there. In any case, this is the kind of life I am drawn to. Living in a quiet quaint place in a small town with a whole lot of countryside and wide open spaces. Which is the main reason I am so attracted to Europe. Not even the main cities like London, Madrid or even Milan, but rather locations such as Salzburg.

Upon further thought, I realized that just migrating to Salzburg would not guarantee a life of happiness and joy. No, in fact, I believe I am as happy stuck here in this urban jungle as I would ever be living in any other country or place. Of course I would be delighted to live the life i dream about, but I would not be happier. Hmmm..let's see how else i can put this across.

You see, true happiness is only brought about by partaking in perfect love. A love that no human can provide you with. This love is a concoction of grace and selflessness. This incomprehensible love is freely given and is unconditional. Whether we love God or not, He loved us first. However, unless you accept and partake of God's love, you attain no joy from it.

After you embrace God's love, the road ahead is as difficult if not more difficult than before. The difference is that now we move out with divine enabling. We know that no matter what comes our way, God's love is a constant we can always depend on. Perfect love certainly drives out all fear.

Perfect love gives us more than just enabling though. It provides us with an identity. When you are basking in someone's love, the natural reaction would be to replicate that love. We will never be able to fully replicate God's love, but the way we express our love is by doing His will and living a life pleasing to Him. This, I have discovered, is my main purpose in life. My identity is as God's son and my end goal is to make my Father proud.

The person whose life I try to emulate is not Charles Ingalls, it is the life of Jesus Christ. He came down to earth in complete humility and showed us how to live life as God's children. A man who endured more suffering than anyone before or after him, I have no doubt that Christ also enjoyed a happier life than anyone before or after Him. Why? He was in perfect relation with God the Father.

The way I see it, the only way for us to be successful in our pursuit of happiness is if we pursue a Christ-like lifestyle.

Hey apple.. can you multi-task?

Let me first say that I am no product reviewer and that i have never owned an Apple product, neither have i found the need too. I just find that Apple's marketing strategy is absolute genius.

Let me start with the iPhone. Honestly, if any other company had released the iPhone, people would just be like bleah.. nothing special. Honestly, when the iPhone was announced the specification sheet was so terribly ordinary. No 3G, only a 2 MP camera, no video recording and no multi-tasking. Honestly, I was wondering how they were gonna sell this phone especially when compared with the Nokia N95 which was released earlier with much better specs.

However, when it was released, the iPhone was good for one thing and one thing alone. It had an incredible operating system. In essence, the iPhone was by far the easiest phones to use in the market. It had the best implementation of a touch screen and the layout was easy enough for anyone to understand.

This was more than enough to convince consumers to change to the iPhone. They were willing to part with a very considerable amount of cash for a phone which paled in comparison to others in the market. I'm not saying that they were gullible dummies for choosing an under-equipped phone, because ease of usage is something worth paying for.

Apple had to market their phones not just to consumers, but to the tons of people who write apps. As soon as the iPhone started selling, tons and tons of apps starting flowing into the market. Making it even easier to use the iPhone and access information over the net. Suddenly, it was so much easier to watch YouTube videos, check email, check up on facebook, find bus info, find places to eat, download tons of games and of check up on blogs.

Suddenly, it became synonymous to relate these functions to the iPhone. I had people telling me that they wanted to get the iPhone so that they can receive email. Flabbergasting really.. surely the blackberry is a better option for such a purpose. In any case, as more people bought into the iPhone, more people wrote apps for it leading to more people buying into the iPhone and i think you get my drift.

Still it was ridiculous that such an internet driven phone was running on a 2G network which is a lot slower than the 3G one. So once Apple had made sure that enough people had bought the 2G version of the iPhone, it decided to release the 3G version. It just added 3G support plus GPS. So now the multitude of people who had bought the 2G version found out that they had an underpowered device. Mind you that the 3G version came out just 1 year after the initial product.

Yet apple was praised for improving a handset which already was the best-selling one in the market. Of course, the 3G and GPS technology was already available even before the 2G version was released. In any case, 1 year later, Apple release another updated model, 3Gs. Improving the camera, enabling video recording and utilising a better CPU.

Now in 2010, just one year after the 3Gs was released, we wait on the 4G version on the iPhone. Which finally has a spec sheet comparable to phones released half a year earlier. It is expected to be a smash hit just like the 2G,3G and 3Gs versions.

Apple could have arguably released this 4G version back in 2007, but they chose to release 3 under-powered versions before releasing this one. Absolute genius. The iPhone now sells at a price comparable to the initial price of the iPhone 3 years ago, the price of the 4G version will definitely go up a few hundred dollars. Which other phone in the market has been able to continue selling at the same price tag it was first released with?

Look at any Nokia, Samsung or SE phone.. within 3 months the price drops by at least 10%, not so with the iPhone. A phone which is inferior to a host of phones in every way except for it's ease of use.

Why am I writing about this now? Well... the iPad was just released and I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that they are going to continue with the above marketing strategy. Why change a working system?

The iPad is a brilliant conception.I can see it eventually replacing laptops in the next decade or so. Paper, pencil, textbooks all could potentially be replaced by iPad-like devices in the future. A good thing if you are high on saving the environment or if you do not fancy training up your shoulder muscles as you travel to and from school.

Honestly though, I'm more than happy to wait for Samsung or some other company to come up with a more competent version of the iPad, which is missing a plethora of essential features. It would probably be easier to get accustomed to Apple's operating system, but i think it is worth my time to figure out a different operating system which will give me better performance. So grazie apple for your great concept, but there isn't a way that I will buy your products in the conceivable future.

Till the next random thought, farewell and God bless!

Better Late than Never

Well, Blogging certainly has lost it's shine with the advent of Facebook, which means that I shall now start blogging. I am one who likes to go for things which are out of trend, a rebel wannabe you could say. Yeah, I'm not a real rebel. I do think though that most people intentionally try to be different in one way or another. Hence it isn't actually rebellious to be a rebel.

By the way, the blog will continue like this. I created it mainly because I have thoughts like this running through my mind all the time. Observing stuff, evaluating it, forming conclusions, evaluating the conclusion, realizing that said conclusion actually isn't true and it can go on and on for hours. That's usually how my travelling time is usually spent.

I wanted the Url to be travelling thoughts, but it was taken, then i tried boulevard of thoughts, also taken. Fleeting thoughts was taken as well and a few others all turned up taken. Yeah... there are that many people with blogs. Contemplated giving up but then decided to just have something random. Someone gave me a photo of a card which I had given the person which had the words,'please don't go scary mad'.

I figured that the way I think and write is as if I am talking to my self, which can be pretty scary? I am in no way mad though... You can have my assurance. Though a mad person isn't really aware that he/she is mad? Haha... this has got to be after effects of watching shutter island. It really is a brilliant show... warped, eerie, thought provoking and absolute genius.

In any case, I decided to jot my thoughts down on a blog because, as you probably can tell by now, my thoughts get all jumbled and scrambled. I really need to focus my thoughts before I start university, and I decided that this would be a good place to not only achieve that, but also to improve my writing skills and vocabulary.

That would be all for now, so till the next random thought, Farewell and God Bless.:)