William Chong

I’m normally very careful in keeping my posts on this site away from work-related affairs. I work with hundreds of confidential documents and with commercially-sensitive information, so it’s generall unwise to blab about my office-time writing endeavours.

However I think it should be OK for me to tell everyone a bit about my current project. Our company’s basically been hired to fix up another agency’s bad work, some of which I’d like to share – for laughs, for serious criticism, and for a general sense of bewilderment.

Bear in mind the copy should be written for a medically-literate audience, and should normally be in a formal, scientific tone.

On the topic of diets:

“People do not have too [sic] eat as much on an organic diet as it contains more (e.g. nutrients) and tastes better.

There are zillions of diets available … Unfortunately, no successful programmeme [sic] for primary prevention has yet been established. …”

On drug adduction:

The brouhaha surrounding addiction is probably anecdotal. As the drug is a CNS stimulant like caffeine, ephedrine and amphetamine then there is the potential for people to become addicted or dependent on that feeling…

On weight loss programmes:

Calorie or point counting and weight loss programmemes [sic] (e.g. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig) work because they are successful in restricting the calorie intake by providing tools, meals, weekly visits and support in reaching weight loss goals.

These were just a few of the many painful-to-read examples we found. I was also disappointed to also find that of the content that wasn’t purely rank opinion, poor spelling and wild conjecture, there were entire sections that were not-so-subtly plagiarised from published journal articles.

For example, the following paragraph was puzzling because it didn’t seem to be written with the audience (pharmaceutical reps) in mind…

Prevention is the first choice. It has to be our first commitment, particularly to our children and adolescents. Unfortunately, no successful programmeme for primary prevention has yet been established. We have a pervasive culture, reinforced by powerful commercial forces, that promotes eating and physical inactivity. To challenge this established culture will take strong political will and a multidisciplinary approach.

… until I discovered it was word-for-word from the first page of this article.

You could conceivably turn a blind eye to that sort of thing for primary-secondary school essays, but for paid agency work? It was worse than Noelle McCarthy, that’s for sure.

The moral of the story – don’t pay anyone to give you half-baked, plagiarised writing. You might just have to hire someone else to fix it!

(UPDATE: Thankfully I’m not the only one who’s feeling a bit aggrieved today.)
Driving to work today, I saw the latest Tui billboard – and I’m a bit angry about it.

I haven’t got a picture of it, but if my memory was correct it read something like this:

(Created using: Interface 7 Tui Billboard)

I’m upset not because of any moral outcry or thought of blasphemous affront. I’m upset because it’s a sorrowful sign of the times, where less and less folk actually understand the reason for Christmas in the first place. And it doesn’t take a theologian to figure out that “Christmas” refers to Jesus Christ.

A couple of other signs of the times:

• Calling for a godless holiday: AHA ads
• You can’t call them Christmas trees anymore

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Happy holidays Season’s greetings Hello thar Merry Christmas, everyone – can you think of a slogan in response/reply?

The New Zealand 2008 General Elections are nearly upon us, and before I throw myself into the democratic process like the rest of the country, I’d like to digress.

At the end of August, I was driving Cheryl and Kim to a Vietnamese restaurant for a spot of dinner. We were searching for a carpark; on driving past a row that was filled up, I turned into the private car park behind the shop fronts to make a three-point turn and get back onto the main road.

I was in the middle of turning my car around and had stopped in the middle of the carpark, when a lady reversed into the front of my car. We exchanged details and I thought that the problem would be easily resolved.

However, she subsequently refused to accept liability, and fabricated (a la Winston Peters) a story that we had both reversed into each other. This is in full knowledge that:

• my car was stationary
• my car was facing forwards
• my car’s damage is not on the bumper but on the side panel where she hit me
• I had two people sitting in the car who can corroborate my version of events

I’m somewhat inclined to “let losses lie”, but I’m aware that the cost of panelbeating the vehicle is quoted at over $1000 – a definite financial strain, since I’m no Owen Glenn. My insurance company can’t cover my damage since I’m on a third party policy, and I’ve got little hope of getting anything from her insurance company since they won’t advise their clients to accept liability.

So the question now is: should I take this through to the disputes tribunal? It’s an unsavoury path but at the same time, the repair would cost a bundle. Thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

Oh the woe of grocery shopping.

How can they expect us to eat 5+ vegetables a day….

when they price brussel sprouts to be cheaper than tomatoes?!

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(Disclaimer: The author is NOT a fan of brussel sprouts, and sees no useful place for them. Rating: F! muahahahahaa))

This is what’s left of my iPod headphones.

I normally use them at work, but they were left on the floor over the weekend, and a cleaner’s overzealous approach to vacuuming has left a mangled mess of frayed wires and broken audibles, and nary a note in sight to explain themselves. Pfft.

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In other news, who remembers Doulos from their childhood? No? Well this was the one ship that got my dad in a ruffle of excitement, back when I was still growing up in kampung-town Kuching. It’s known to many people as “the floating book store” because of its massive collection of over half a million books onboard. One of the few snippets I remembered from my childhood was my dad talking excitedly about a ship full of books, seeds for a lifetime of knowledge – Doulos had docked in when I was just 4 years old, and I recall a jigsaw puzzle with a picture of the almost mythical boat that we bought. I don’t remember what the ship looked like in real life, but the name has always pricked my subconscious once in a while, though I thought no more of it for a long time.

What I eventually found out as I grew older was that Doulos is a ship bringing more than just knowledge – it’s a volunteer-run ship�under the umbrella of Operation�Mobilisation,�that supplies literature resources and the gospel message to , This�is�a ship on a mission, and the more I think about it, the more I’m impressed about the creativity of this method of reaching out to the ends of the earth.

It’s berthing in Auckland next week, which sounds pretty cool. Apparently it’s the last time it’ll be here because it’s due to retire, so I’ll have to try and set aside a time to go check it out,�to come full circle and�to finally clarify an aspect of my childhood I never fully remembered.

Big. respect. Hope everyone is well.

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DOULOS – (Gr) from deo?; a slave (literally or figuratively, involuntarily or voluntarily; frequently therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bondservant.

�

Here’s something for Christians to consider: the Rational Response Squad issued a challenge to all atheists to commit what they termed the “unforgivable sin” – denying the Holy Spirit, by posting a youtube clip�online recording their statement of non-belief:�http://youtube.com/watch?v=i7QVbJnSPQE.

As you can see, they quote Mark 3:29, which states:

“…but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”

And they make it a dare to publicly do this, and therefore never be forgiven. Sorry to disappoint�you all, but if you read the Bible carefully (including other chapters and verses), the general consensus is that God does forgive us of our sins. 1 John 1:9 says that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Granted, looking at Mark 3:29, it does look pretty contradictory. But the RRS,�bless their souls, leave out Mark�3:30, which explains why Jesus said this.�

“…because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”"

And they also leave out the entire 3rd chapter of the gospel of Mark, which outlines the circumstances surrounding this seemingly shocking claim.

Isn’t it sad to hone�in on one or two verses that�seem so offensive, your mind becomes irrationally closed? That’s just poor hermeneutics.

I’m not here to push an agenda – atheists are free to make their leap of faith as much as anyone else. But I do want to dispel the myth that Mark 3:29�refers to a sin that can *never* be forgiven.

Context here is crucial – Jesus was responding to the Pharisees and lawmakers that, after seeing for themselves throughout Jesus’s ministry direct evidence of his miracles of healing, bread-multiplication, driving out unclean spirits�and so forth, instead of accepting that he was truly the Son of God, they claimed that “He has Beelzebub,” and , “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.” (Mk 3:22).

In the next few verses, Jesus then explains why he isn’t demon-possessed by using some good old fashioned logical thinking – “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” (Mk 3:23-4).

So if these religious leaders came all the way to watch him do miracles, and attributed this power not to the Holy Spirit but to demonic activity… this isn’t just denying the Holy Spirit. This is calling God a demon, calling good evil and mixing it all up – knowingly, and in the presence of Jesus Himself. Unpardonable? It seems so.

But since Jesus isn’t here at the moment, this unpardonable sin can’t be duplicated today.�Even if I posted�a statement blaspheming the Holy Spirit on youtube, it’s not the same as watching plain evidence of Jesus’s power and nature, and then declaring it to be demonic. What these guys are doing is in fact nothing new, nor special – we’ve all been denying accountability to our Creator one way or another since the beginning of time.

Continued unbelief, it’s fair to say, won’t lead to forgiveness. Posting a youtube clip saying essentially the same thing? It’s about as useful as Ray Comfort’s argument about bananas.

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There are many things that occur in this life that defy any reasonable explanation or excuse.

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Tommy came back from HK and brought back presents. My birthday present (April 29) turned out to be a brand-new Nokia n73, which is fantastic. Cheryl got a Haruhi figurine, which is pretty cool I suppose.

If I quit my job and had 48 hours in a day, I’d be happy mucking around on Garageband.� As it stands the last five weeks of academic rigour (at uni anyways) involves 2 assignments, 1 lab report, studying for 3 exams – then I can focus on my ATCL violin recital. Oh my, recitally goodness.

Last week I took my (first) sick day from work. Saturday turned out to be my only work shift, which was kinda odd.� I wonder what it will feel like if I get a full-time job and have to leave – I’m sure I’ll have a hard time saying goodbye to everyone.

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A section on lifestyle choices and my opinion of that which is merely my own. (controversy alert)

I envy the E lifestyle. It is carefree. It is freedom. It is the inspirational green thumb that can pick songs and make videos and they’re all course-related, they’re all part of the academic workload.� His major is life-m. (In Bahasa Melayu, the word film is translated as “filem”, therefore an appropriate anagram). Assignments are more enjoyable. Friends are creative. Money is not as important as happiness.

I’m annoyed with the M lifestyle. It is self-centered. It is me me me. It is stepping on others to get your way. It is being so proud that a job unglamorous is a job not worth working. It is a Type-Asinine personality. It is on the verge of life and death, too proud to ask for help, too afraid to live unwanted but not willing to change.

I pity the C lifestyle. It is like Cellatape. It sticks to an ideal borne of success stories posted from the depths of Bible-belt America. It is a yearning for a culture foreign to the majority of people around her. She strives to FROG her way into Keith the pastor’s golden son’s arms (or stereotypical equivalent).� It is impossible living in her traditionalist Asian heritage world of burden and expectation. Whoever spoke Cantonese in West Virginia and got married?

I’m tired of the B lifestyle. It is oppressively headstrong. Uncooperative, a sports convertible with a glued-on roof. It is half-baked at times, and there is less loyalty to those who have been there for him since the 1980′s. Who can understand him? Evidently not I. I am the enemy. The tacit disapprover. The Napoleonic-Anti-God. And the lifestyle of low standards of living.

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Oh all these negative opinions. What of my life? It is the same. Unremarkable. Plain. Sorrowful. And barely faithful. It must be the Last Night on Earth.

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雖然我三月有把我的Toyota Camry車帶去維修，可還沒用 ﹣ 過六個月發現有至少五，六個問題！今天我很不高興地付了$1099.40！ 這些問題為什麼不早說呢？ 是不是因為以前的維修都是很粗心得作？ 真气死人！

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Hope your tail-end of semesters are going well, or your work doesn’t bore you, or you’ve done something good to yourself today.

Was a bit peeved yesterday (for a total of about 14 minutes between start and end of lunch) when I tried to return a magazine which I couldn’t open instore and found it wasn’t worth the money I paid, and found out there was a no returns policy for them.� Oh well.

(end rant) See, that wasn’t a very convincing rant, haha.

Teaching was fine, it’s interesting how I have two beginners’ classes that started off exactly the same, but each class has a totally different dynamic.� My favourite student is a 7 year-old boy who reminds me of me when I was 7 and just starting the violin as well!� He’s very cute.� Kinda like me when I was 7, though that’s a totally qualitative statement with absolutely zero objectivity whatsoever.

I’m currently working on a presentation for Tuesday, on the content analysis of lots of sports and gaming magazines.� It’s worth 10%, and a final report worth 25%.� And a 5% proposal completed earlier means that this study is worth 40% of my 307 grade.� *sweats*

What would I like to do in the near future?� Graduate.� Then take some time off, perhaps see some of the world.� Might do that start of the year when the madness of Christmas and New Years’ is over – you see, this is the time when everyone is most busy working and playing.

I’d most likely be working.

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