An update on this blog.

It is with a heavy heart that I am updating this blog now. I have not been updating the blog for the past one year because I have been busy with the hobby, enlightening books (some relating to Christianity) and to some extent, work. In addition, the ease of getting criticised in the internet has dissuaded me to write.

However a lot have happened recently and things are no longer the same. As a result, I am now updating this blog now to take stock of my life. I would now like to address 4 issues, namely my hobby, my Christian life, my academic advancement and my writing.

First things first, my hobby. I would foremost like to clarify that my hobby is not the most important thing in my life. However, it is due to the developments in the hobby in Singapore that has led to all these changes. As such, I would like to talk about the hobby first.

Serene has fallen.

Comicsmart as a store has ceased to exist and I no longer could live the hobby in the same way again. The loss of a venue for games, and a convenient place to make my purchases has led me to take a step back and relook at my life priorities. Yes, it is time to cut down on the hobby and give way to other matters. I have made the following decisions regarding my hobby for the rest of this year.

1) I will cut down on my purchases and only buy things that I would really need (for eg. to complete my armies). This will meant that i can truly focus on painting the miniatures that I have already bought. Nevertheless, I will not venture to paint any large centerpiece models (such as the Cauldron of Blood and vehicles) as I am moving house soon and it will be a hassle to transport these items over to Punggol.

2) I have cut down the number of visits to the new meeting place (Kenf's home) to once per fortnight. This allows me to spend more time on my family (Mum) and my fiancee. In addition, the extra time could be put into better use on other issues such as my religious and academic studies which I will talk about later.
------

Issue no 2, Religious life. I am happy to announce that I will be attending a baptism class soon and soon I will be on my way to formally live a life as a Christian. Admitedly, it will also mean that I would have shake up my life so as to adhere to the Christian teaching more rigorously. I know I have not behave exactly as what it required and I have broken the commandments many times. I need to shape up. To assist in my endeavours, I have subscripted to "My Daily Bread" (with the help of my fiancee's persistent nagging) and intend to make prayer as part and parcel of my daily itinerary.

Issue 3, academic advancement. Due to my coming marriage, I have lots of potential financial commitment and thus I am unable to take up a Masters Degree. Therefore I have decided to do some self study on statistics, mainly statistics on business and economics. When my financial commitments are finally in control post marriage, I will then take up a Masters degree. I have yet to decide on the nature of the degree and I see the current interim period as an opportunity to allow me to re-consider my academic and professional career. I believe that I will be able to decide on my Masters degree once this period passes. As of now, my gut feel is to take up a degree on statistics (with specialisation in finance) so as to build up on the foundations laid by my academic and professional training.

Last issue is with regards to my writing. I sorely need to improve my writing. I used to write very well but as more time are being spent in internet forums rather than on blogs and papers, the quality of my writing has taken a backseat. I intend to improve on my writing again since it is an important skill and has a significant impact on my job. As one can see, I have deliberatedly taken care to write this post. I cannot guarantee that it is of the best standards but one cannot deny that it is a lot better than the slipshod writing that I have done for the past few posts. I hope that these writing exercises will improve the quality of my work in the future.

In conclusion, the shutting of Comicsmart has led to me to re-evaluate and change the above four aspects of my life. I hope these decisions will lead to a more fruitful, efficient and effective life in the days to come. If possible, I will also update this blog more often so as to practise on my writing. However this will depend on whether there are things to write about.

I thank you for reading this post. Good day.

Best Regards,
Vern