Entertainment: Doom At Your Service

Image credit: TvN

Okie dokie. I am a huge fan of Park Bo-young, I think she is an incredible actress and I love her chemistry with her leading men. But I also can’t handle dumb writing or horror elements so I’m sad to say I haven’t been able to finish watching a single drama she’s been in, lol.

I’m not as big of a fan of Seo In-guk and initially thought, with a title like “Doom At Your Service”, it would also be scary. But social media got me. Lol. I’ve been seeing clips of it everywhere and eventually read a recap of the first two episodes online. And I loved it.

There’s just something about the plot that interests me. I mean, there are parts that don’t make sense to me but everything else is just done so well and it seems like things align within its fantasy world, so I’m willing to look past those bits. In addition, I love PBY’s character.

Usually I’m content to just read the recaps without watching, but this drama contains so much beauty and nuance that it really must be watched to be appreciated. I’ve started watching it and so far I’m enjoying it a lot.

Note this contains spoilers for the first 2 episodes so proceed with caution!

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Personal: A Milestone or Two

Remember when I mentioned more pressing tasks in my previous post? …Well, this is mostly what I was referring to. As well as work getting incredibly busy, we just bought a house and I’ve also finally, finally submitted my greed card application! Jacky and I actually walked to the post office together today to send it in. See those files I’m holding up in the photo on the left? All those three packets of documents were submitted as part of the application. The process has been long, confusing and stressful, but I also thank God for bringing us through it all.

The photo on the right shows me cringing at our bank account just after we put in our closing payment on our property (actual amounts hidden for privacy). We closed escrow and got the keys on Tuesday, but I’ll be lying if I said I wasn’t at all nervous about how low our bank balance has dipped. I guess that’s the part people don’t really talk about: how nerve-wracking it is to be spending so much money on an item that may not even be the best investment, especially in the crazy NorCal property market.

Maybe this is first time buyer jitters, because it really is significantly more money than I ever thought I would spend (and, of course, it’s money we don’t have, because mortgage). But actually, let me take this opportunity to remind myself of just how faithful God has been these past few months on our property hunt:

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At Least Now There’s Some Justice

So much has happened lately that I have barely been keeping up with world events. I only just found out that Derek Chauvin has been convicted on all three charges of killing George Floyd. Wow. I was so, so happy I cried. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for George Floyd’s family, friends, and members of the black community who have been facing battles like this for so long without anyone else on their side.

No wonder the Black community wept tears of relief and joy and raised their voices in triumph when, finally, guilty verdicts were announced. It’s a momentous occasion indeed, and I hope that the sentencing in a couple months’ time is also appropriate. Biden put it well when he said, “Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice.”

The most recent case seems to be that of Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16 year old child. She was a child. She held a butter knife in her hands. The police department has utterly, utterly failed if it has trained its officers that it’s acceptable under any circumstance to respond to a child ‘wielding’ a butter knife by shooting them dead. Should she have injured someone else with the knife, that’s all that could have happened – an injury, not a death.

I hope Chauvin’s conviction is the beginning of a new era where police are held accountable for their actions, where bad cops are justly convicted, and police in general think twice before wielding their guns at people of colour.

A Quick Update

a lot can happen in just 3 days
Image credit: Radiant

Oh man it’s been a while again! Well, a month, I guess. There’s a very good reason for that though, so much has happened that meant I couldn’t really update my blog, the biggest reason being: about a month ago, my hosting provider suddenly sent me an email saying that they’re closing down and will be migrating me to another hosting provider that’s based in the UK and costs more for less. I wasn’t best pleased about that haha.

On top of this, my laptop and phone have started falling to pieces so I was researching new devices (unfortunately nothing has caught my eye), we’ve also been apt hunting and, with tax day coming up, I’ve had a bit of decision paralysis. It’s been so stressful that I haven’t really been able to exercise lately either. I also didn’t want to make changes to my blog while a hosting migration was happening in case I lost data. So, all in all, I’ve had to leave this space silent.

Fast forward to today, thanks to my beloved hubby, the migration is complete! I have backups of all my files and can start posting again. We also found a nice apt that we both really like so here’s praying we’ll be able to get it. I’m going to squeeze whatever use I can out of my laptop and phone and hopefully a few months later I’ll be able to replace them. And thank goodness, tax day is May 17th instead of April.

The most important thing I’ve missed updating, though, is Easter. He is risen! Hallelujah, Jesus lives!

Muchos love,

Bobbie

Reflections: “That’s Not Very Christian Of You.”

Someone said this to me yesterday. To be honest, I was a bit shocked. I wasn’t sure how to respond, and in my heart my first thought was, “That’s really harsh.” I felt like if someone wanted to attack me where it really hurt, that’s something they would say. I felt defensive, and even like that was a below-the-belt comment.

However, upon further reflection, I don’t believe that comment was unmerited. Perhaps it was said in jest as I would consider us to be friends, but even such an offhand comment comes from a deeper place, so at the very least I should conclude that I must have inadvertently hurt them.

The background is that I joked that a male celebrity/public figure looked “…different” in a recent photo. As in, he clearly had put on some weight, and as a result was accused of fat-shaming. Initially my thoughts were that, could I not even make such an observation without being shamed for the comment? The last time I saw a photo of him, he looked significantly slimmer.

However, my joke clearly did not come from a place of love, and even if I wished to argue that I was worried for his health, that isn’t really the thought that I had. To be fair, a major part of me was just thinking that he must have been eating really well, so good for him. Heck, I was even a little envious that he had the means to just jet off to any country and eat the best of foods at any given time.

But I can see how the circumstances under which I said it, coupled with the arguably judgemental tone I said it in, were all inappropriate and should have been kept to myself. In fact, I shouldn’t have thought like that in the first place. Shortly after, I apologised in a way that I hope came across sincerely. But today I am taking the time today to reflect on myself, my words and actions.

“That’s not very Christian of you” – this stung and cut me deeply. However, she’s not wrong.

Christian means to be “like Christ”. Have I been acting very Christian lately? Have I been thinking very Christian lately? I know that God will use whomever He pleases to convict me, why shouldn’t this be an act of His, working along with the Spirit to remind me of who I am/ought to be? I have sinned. It is appropriate for me to ask God, too, for forgiveness.

I have been toiling unto God’s Kingdom, but have I been reflecting Christ in my words and actions? How’s my relationship with Christ these days? How much devotional time have I had? Yes, I have done Bible reading. Yes, I have prayed. Yes, I have had plenty of Bible study. But if I consider how much quiet time I have had, it’s not nearly enough.

So let me make that a priority again, so that my heart can be in the right place. I thank God for His unconditional grace, endless mercy and forgiveness through Jesus. I thank God that He doesn’t count my sins against me, but, in love, sanctifies me to grow.

Because of Jesus, I am a sinner saved by grace. Because of Jesus, my unrighteousness is accounted to him, and his righteousness is counted to me. Because of Jesus, I am unashamed. But unashamed does not and should not mean unapologetic.

“That’s not very Christian of you” is a wake-up call. Wake up, Christian, and start being Christ-ian.

SDG,

Crystina