iidentity
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Pinch yourself and hit send

  • 30 April 2018
One my favourite simple pleasures in life is rediscovering songs from the 90s - and in particular, the one-hit wonders. My most recent nostalgia hit is Pinch Me by the Barenaked Ladies. Remember them? Yeah! Ten years ago to the day, I posted this brief status update to Facebook (in the third person - I guess that's how we did it back in the olden days). Intriguing! So ... what was my youth all about again?
ffaith
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Made to wonder: string theory and the resurrection

  • 4 April 2018
What does string theory have to do with the Resurrection? What's the difference between wanderlust and "wonderlust" (is that even a thing?)? Why do adverb particles matter? This Easter I really went down the rabbit hole ... String theory and the Resurrection I was listening to a podcast the other day, an interview with a physicist who was explaining the holographic principle. Based on string theory, one of the concepts is that our lived reality is two-dimensional data expressed in three dimensions. In other words, reality is a hologram. It made me think about dimensions in general. If two dimensions can express three, and it's generally accepted that we inhabit four dimensions (the fourth being time), what would 5D* projection mean? Because I'm convinced the material world isn't all there is to existence. As a person of faith, I believe we exist in more than four dimensions. But for most people - Christians, followers of other faiths and those of no faith alike - our active engagement in the fifth is limited. This Easter I was reminded that the Resurrection invites us to walk beyond the four dimensions and live a bigger, richer reality.
iidentity
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The deepest dreams

  • 7 December 2017
I was never much of a dreamer as a kid. Forget being a princess, pilot, pop star or police officer. All I ever aspired to was to be an accountant - a short degree with strong job prospects.* I'm not even kidding. To tell you the truth, I was an unambitious and cynical child. The funny thing is that somewhere along the way into adulthood, I did start dreaming. I dreamed of changing the world. Perhaps it was born of a desire to prove that my unambitious and cynical younger self was so, so wrong. Changing the world hardly seemed a dream to me, though. In my early-to-mid-twenties, I started to appreciate that changing the world is within reach of each of us, that the smallest gesture can be a part of a bigger picture. That it doesn't have to be dramatic or headline-worthy to be, well, worthy. To count as real change. And since it was something I was already in the process of doing, it never seemed a far off reality. It never seemed far away enough to be called a dream. So whaddya know - it seems I've been living the dream. But there are also dreams I'm yet to live. These are not things I hope I manage to do before I die, nor will I feel unfulfilled if they don't happen. Far from being a bucket list, this is a set of six longings that speak to the core of who I am. I'm sharing them with you here, to encourage you to discover (if you haven't already) and reflect on your own dreams.
cculture
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Going for glocal

  • 22 November 2017
The other day my dad kindly informed me that if I ever stood for politics I’d need to…
wwork
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The seed to lead: reflections of a beta girl

  • 25 October 2017
I've always thought of myself as a beta kinda gal. Even as a child, it was mostly my younger sister who spearheaded our games and playing. I was 26 the first time anybody told me I had demonstrated leadership.
iidentity
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Notes from a champion tickboxer

  • 11 July 2017
Sometimes I think I might have made a great bureaucrat. But alas, I don't like ticking boxes. And so it is that since graduating, I've given up ticking the boxes and being boxed in. Instead, I'm beating the box and I'm boxing the ticks.
cculture
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Australia: Not the place I thought you were

  • 17 May 2017
The other day after work, I was flowing with the peak hour crowd down Anzac Parade, when I witnessed something awful. An Aboriginal man was heckling and shoving an East Asian man. The Indigenous guy was yelling obscenities and things like "Go back to where you came from!" to the suited up Asian guy, who was trying, literally, to shake him off. That was Awkward thing Number 1. People just watched. And did nothing. That was Awkward thing Number 2. By people, I mean mainly Asian people. The University of New South Wales appears to be predominantly Asian, even the law faculty - a contrast with the College of Law at my own alma mater. That was Awkward thing Number 3. And I did nothing because, frankly, I'm both Asian and female. I actually thought I might get hit. That was Awkward thing Number 4. It made me think about how Australia is not the place I thought it was when I was little.
cculture
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No Canto?

  • 16 November 2016
To avoid confusion, I generally insist that English is my native language. I received all of my education in English, it’s what we spoke in my family growing up and it’s what we speak now. But technically, it’s not my first language. What would happen if I were to relearn my first language? What might that unlock?