Bloodnut's Mind Shackles

First Race of the Year! (PSDC Charity Run)

2009-07-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday (26th of July 2009), 3 miracle miler including myself took part in a small marathon organized by PSDC in conjunction with their 20th Anniversary in Penang. The route was fairly short, only 6.5km and it seems like goodie bags are our reward or motivation factor to make us run the race instead of having a cool morning walk around the factory trade zone.I know this marathon would seemed like kacang puteh to most of the runners out there but I'm would think otherwise. Regardless of what others may think, I still think that this is a race to achieve my miracle mile (although it's just 6.5km..) in a good time. :)

So I woke up at 6am (I wouldn't say I'd had any sleep at all..seems like I could not sleep at all before the race...maybe I was too excited or too anxious..mixed feelings perhaps..) and went to fetch Justin as the organizers encouraged carpooling. We got there at 7am and mingled around the registration booth while waiting for Syarizan, our new miracle miler member! Our first bumiputera member! hehe..

At about 7:15am, Syarizan arrived and 3 of us started warming up before the race. I took no breakfast, only drank milk + water which means not much energy for me. Last time worse, just had curry mee for my dinner and the next day I ran my first half marathon at Penang Bridge. :) The race started at 7:30am sharp when I started my ipod nike + to keep track of my race and my Street Fighter 4 soundtracks started jamming in my ears for the extra motivation boost!

The race started off relatively fast for me because my goal was to finish the race within 30 minutes so Justin and myself could make it to church for Lord Supper at 9am thus we have a mission at hand! Justin was following behind me for the first 1 km but soon dropped off following his own pace later on. Lost Syarizan at the starting point. I guess I'm all alone and it's all about speed. No strategies needed. Just run as fast as you can.

I paced myself at 5 mins 20 secs per km for the first 3km and after that I find myself slowing down a little to catch some air as I was running under the influenza influence...Thank God, it's not H1N1..:P I ran with a group of indians and with some hardcore running aunties + uncles. No matter how fast I sprint or do a fartlek, these aunties and uncles always seemed to be faster than me.Pai seh..(When I told my friend that I lost to aunties and uncles, they wanted to 'un-friend' me straight away)

There are 3 runners band to collect throughout the race although it's only a short distance but however, I guess there are many short cuts in that area. That's why they need you to have 3 gelang tangan if you want to claim their goodie bag. At the 4th km, I was given the 3rd gelang and I started sprinting because my Ipod tells me that I'm 1km away from achieving my new 5k record. (I set 5K as my distance in my ipod so I can gauge my time for my 5k run) After hearing Tiger Woods congratulating me, it dawned on me that I still have 1.5km to go for the real race. A reality check on myself, I found myself stopping and slowing down after that sprint and some of the runners started overtaking me.

Inspired by the spirit of Pia, I decided to give it all and run! Picked up some pace and overtook some of the indian runners. As I approach the finishing line, I decided to sprint all the way and I managed to clock a 36"37 for my 6.5km run. Insignificant to most of you but to me, it was mindblowing because I never ran a marathon to record any time as I usually run just to complete marathons.

After crossing the finishing line, grabbed my goodie bag and sat down resting and waiting for Justin to arrive. He made it at 45 mins and we just went off after he grabbed his goodie bag. Nope, we was not gentleman enough to wait for our final miracle miler because we have a communion with our Lord. However, she smsed me that she did it in 55 mins later in the night. It was a good run and all of us did it under 90mins! (That 90mins mark was set by the organizers in order to motivate all the runners to run below that timestamp if they wish to get the goodie bag..)

Next stop: Adidas King of the Road!

"Forgetting what lies behind, straining our hearts on the prize. Always keeping our eyes on our Lord Jesus and we're running the race to win. All the way to the end.."

May this song be true to both my spiritual race and my physical race. Amen!

*Note: Forgot to mention that the route was nice and flat.*

Back on Track

2009-06-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

3 years ago my colleague (now,he's my ex-colleague) asked me if I ever ran on the Penang Bridge before and I said never. He then told me about his past runs and how he strived to earn his medal upon achieving the 3 hour mark for his half marathon run. He tried 3 times and the last time, he finally made it through and earned his medal. Those days the officials were very strict in giving of medals to the participants due to the high standards they preserved through the years. However, as of now, any participant can earn that medal even though they passed that 3 hour mark in their half marathons and by doing this greatly pulls the standard of PBR down. Even newbies like myself can earn a medal by running an overdue 3 hours run. Hehe..

So that first marathon started my running 'career' and I stopped running after my 2nd PBR marathon after achieving a 3hours mark for the half marathon. I stopped running entirely after that because I found out that both of my toe nails from each side of my feet broke due to the run. So I had to wait 1 whole year for my toe nails to grow fully or else my feet would look like I'm having leprosy with all those exposed skins..Eee..

Another factor that stopped me from running would be my feet hurts alot after running for quite a long time. This really breaks me down as I still remembered in those days when I had to walk instead of running even though I had much energy and stamina left for the race. So I quit running despite having my friend from church encouraging me to run. We used to train together for runs and now I left him to run by himself...Sounds like Mark deserting Paul and Barnabas in the first missionary journey in the book of Acts..hehe

Then suddenly I decided to trust Alan's advice on getting the right running shoe for my legs since I always find myself suffering from foot ache and blisters after every runs. So I managed to save up some cash to get myself a good running shoes. Went to Lee Hoe with Joshua since he offered to give some counsultation. Tried and ran on Asics Kayano 15, Cumulus 11 and Nimbus 11. (For more information, please go to here). I had a hard time choosing which pair would fit me well since Joshua said that it's not the price of the shoes that determines your performance but it's the compartibility. All of them gave me a 'flying' effect if you know what I mean but I went for Cumulus since it is able to grip my legs tightly when I ran around with it. Kayano and Nimbus was quite loose around the my ankle so I didn't quite like it although both of these pairs are supposedly the best running shoes for year 2008.

To cut the long story short, I'm totally convinced now that a good running shoe really saves a whole lot of trouble and with this new pair of shoes, I'm running consistently now. Now with my new Nike + device plus Ipod to aid my runs, I'm runninggggggggggggggggggg......
(I'm sorry for some of the crap I wrote in this post as I'm feeling dizzy and sick but determined to finish this post..so excuse my nonsense..hehe)

27

2009-06-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last 10 days I marked my 27th year of walking this earth.Time has indeed flew by and God hath been good plus gracious to me all these years of my life.It also marked the 11th year of walking with God.My 4th year as a working adult.I wonder what most of my peers did or have accomplished at this age. Hmm..let's see, most of them got married! Alan was married around that age, Adrian too, Kit Soon a little later, Aaron this weekend, and the best part is I have no one. Hahaha.. Anyway, I'm not trying to whine here but just trying to spice things up. Heh Heh..

On the bright side, I have a bunch of caring brothers and sisters in Christ to share my life and birthday with.I had 4 celebrations and I would not forget all the effort and love that each of them poured into my life.In this post, I would like to convey my deepest thanks and appreciation to Jonathan Low for driving all the way from Ipoh to Penang in order to bring my bible to me and coax with Justin and Ker Shin to have a surprise celebration for me.Although predictable but I thank you all for making the effort to celebrate my birthday and I really had a great time there.Your presence meant alot to me and I cherish each moment together with you guys..and girl..:)

Then the next day, I had another celebration with another group of brothers and sisters in Christ at the Times Square. This time, I would like to thank Samuel for organizing it and those who attended it, Jeff,Nicholas and Su Ting AKA Susan..We had our dinner buffet at Haven's Delight which offers similar delicacies as Tao offers but a little cheaper in price. Just a little cheaper but loses out in taste.We kept on comparing every dish we ordered with Tao since every dish is an exact replica from Tao. I guess the owner of this restaurant wants to compete with Tao so bad that he had to serve what Tao serves but failed big time though. Will be my first and last time there and yeah, don't be deceived about Times Square though. Even though the restaurant is already operational, it's only one of the 10% of the shops that are operational so when you go there, it feels like you're in one of L4D scene when zombies can hop on you at anytime.

Jeff and Nicholas gave me a present that made me laugh so much until I had to excuse myself to the loo because the sight of the present makes me burst into laughter and had stomach aches after that.Here's a picture of that gift and you'll know why..

Aneh gai..

Laugh until almost cried and peed..

Continue laughing..

On the eve of my birthday, Alan took me out for a midnight movie+ Starbucks treat even though he had to work the next day and I had holiday (Birthday holiday :P). We managed to spend some quality sharing time together and was converted into a Star Trek fan after our Star Trek movie that night.That movie was superb and was very well done especially for a first timer like me to enjoy a Star Trek movie. You know, if you're not familiar with the characters of the series, you wouldn't enjoy it as much as a Trekkie fan but this movie is very much different from all the Star Trek movies ever made.You gotta watch it if you haven't watch it before. ;) And he gave me this:

Yes.To be honest, this was one of the most prized gift I've ever received in my life from a buddy! Thanks Alan for this great gift and I will surely keep on running as long as God allows me to.:) (Now no excuse not to run! haha)

Then at night I had another celebration by Samuel, Su Ting and Ling Ee in a form of a karaoke session. I had some cake-smashing fun when Susan started putting cake on my face. Anyway, I had fun although I didn't smash any cake on anybody. I was so tempted to put the cream on the lense of Samuel's camera..hehe..Here are some photos taken that night:

Besides that, I had a blog post dedicated for me on my birthday! Thanks Stephen if you're reading this..:) Also alot of Facebook wishes from all my Facebooker friends..:)

Finally, the verse for my 27th birthday would be:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Cor 4:17-18

Farewell

2009-04-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my co-worker whom will be leaving the company at the end of this week for a brighter future in Australia as he and his family will be migrating there.

In this post, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to him for all that he has contributed alongside with me to the company and the example he left behind for me to imitate. A legacy left behind for an amateur to follow.Before I begin, I would like to look back at those times when Philip first came for the interview which was also my first encounter with him.

In my mind, I thought that I would have difficulties to work with him because he's like 10 years my senior! I was afraid that he would despise me and would pick on every wrong thing I do. So I took precaution and tried to gave my best shot at guiding him through the work which I did. While I was still having those thoughts, he told me to treat him like a newborn baby who needs even the slightest guidance during the training. It was an eye opener to see how humble he is and that calmed me down quite alot as I was not ready to guide anybody seeing myself still fumbling over my work, still trying to grasp the whole big picture of the MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) architecture.

After a few weeks guiding him through, he proved to be a person with great humility and holds a great sense of responsibility as there are some times which he made some mistakes and would honestly admit it. Not everyone has the guts to admit their mistakes to damage their dignity or pride, well at least, for those whom I've met so far. 7/10 people are like that in my sampling field. I'm getting more comfortable working with him and we quickly became good colleagues. It made my life much better after getting to know him better from working with him.

Besides that, the other thing which made me more comfortable with him was that we serve the living Savior together. When he told me that he's a Christian, that made me felt so glad as I'm working alongside with my brother in Christ! I'm filled with joy whenever there's someone who would have the same conviction with me which made so many more things easier. Not that I could abuse him to do something or command him to fix issues, but to bear each others burden as we work alongside.Whenever there's an issue during the weekend, it didn't stopped him from coming back to the plant and tried solving it. He did that countless of times and that alone put me to shame.I really felt that it was God's blessing and a way of teaching me to appreciate every sacrifice he made to have the problems solved without having me to come back into the plant. What made me appreciate more was that he did not boast about it or rub it at my face about it. It was as if God was telling me, "Imitate him in his pattern of humility." I was indeed encouraged by that thought and will give my best to do so.

Then one day, he told me that he was leaving soon for Australia. I was taken aside for a while and I began to be filled with grief. I was not sad because I couldn't rely on him during inconvenient times anymore, no, but sad to lose this humble and responsible brother. However, we know that this is not the end of all things. I wish you, Philip, all the best and God willing that we will meet someday again in Down Under or in the air with the Lord. :)

A small note of departure for you:

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Psalm 23

May the peace and grace of God be with you always. :)

The International

2009-04-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

I had a priviledge of watching this movie twice in the cinema and still finds it interesting and mind boggling when it comes to conspiracies theories. Although this type of movies will put you to sleep if you don't listen to every word they say, I still love such movies as it requires me to exercise my analytical mind rather than just laugh through a mindless movie like Disaster Movie and the like.

I hope everyone who reads this post would have already watched this movie or have no interest in such movie because there might be some spoilers later in this post. If you're the type that are very 'pantang' about movie spoilers, then click X on the top right of your browser. If you're the type that 'bo chap', then read on, brother..

This movie is about an international bank trying to scheme a conspiracy in a weapon arms dealing with an international defense corporation in order to monopolize the debts generated in a conflict. Anyway, in a much more simple term, the bank is trying to earn money in a shady manner by gaining control over the collection of the debts which will be generated in the war. Then there was this pair of investigators which had been tracking the bank down in order to retrieve enough evidence to stop the deal, arrest the criminals and uphold justice that they firmly holds.

However, whenever they gets any closer to a certain key person, the person will always gets assassinated by a hired hitman from the international bank. So the movie was filled with many investigation scenes, a little action here and there, some philosophical arguments, and finally ends with an inconvinient truth in reality. I'm not going to go into the details of this movie but I will only highlight the point that made a gentle reminder for me.

In this movie, the main actor, Lou Salinger is the agent who believes that all evil deeds are nothing complicated but are purely simple. "There is nothing complicated in murdering someone, it's just a plain cold blooded act of murder" (something like that...). As a matter of fact, I agree on that statement because it is obvious. Black and White. No gray lines. No compromise.
Regardless of what circumstances it may seemed to be, taking one's life is still a no-no.

Nevertheless, the main message which caught my attention from this movie was that regardless of how you would like justice to prevail and hopes that the wicked shall be punished for what they have done. Sadly, in reality this isn't the case. Even if the wicked is caught or being dealt with, the system of the world would just raise another candidate which will just take over his place to continue the bidding of the evil one. It dawned upon me that everyone is protecting their share to make sure that every under table transactions can be executed smoothly within the gray lines of law.

It tells me that all the secret organizations which are related in secret investigation seemed to be controlled by most of the 'wicked' organizations. When Lou gets closer and closer to the truth, every key person would be murdered before he gets to him. The best part was even the law enforcers also played a part in the cover up of the crime. Who can we trust then!? The thought which came to my mind was that there can never be real peace on earth if humans govern them. Even though a man could be having every good characteristics to be leader, he can still be corrupted by many ways as long as he's given the power to rule over things. I shudder to think that when we thought that we have peace and security over our families and belongings when we trust our lives to the government and law enforcers when this movie made me realized that they could just take all that they want from us if we are their targets. I maybe thinking too much but come to think of it, why not? Look at our political stage in Malaysia would suffice already. Whenever there's a tendency to get votes from the rakyat, the politicians somehow managed to video and get hold of other politician's private life and doings. Everything can be disclosed about a person when there's a will to overthrow that person regardless of what methods are being used.

However, I took comfort when I think that this world could never offer real peace to our souls and it has been spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27

Later it was confirmed by Paul in Philippians as he tasted the peace of God.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil 4:6-7

Let us hold fast upon the blessed hope of Christ in which He is coming soon as He utters these words in Revelations.

"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Rev 22:12-13

Amen.

Big purchases after working life

2009-03-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Do you keep track of any big purchases that made somewhat huge significance in your life? Well as for myself, I have a couple of things which I started purchasing once I started working. The first purchase I ever did for myself was my first ever Sony Ericssons phone K750i after I received my first paycheck. I was so happy that I spent it all on a cell phone which cost me RM1700 (after discount) and had to depended on my mum for I've spent most of my salary on a phone.

Ain't it a beauty? My first ever 2Mega Pixel cellphone and it was the top in the market during those days. I was proud of my purchase because I was one of the few in my circle of friends that own it.It's kinda nice to have something that everyone else don't have and yearn for it.Gives you a boost in your social status among your friends.Haha..

However, as time went by, approximately after 1 year, the joystick no longer seems to be 'joyful' anymore and broke down causing my phone to be limited to certain functions. I sent it to the Sony service center and got it repaired after 2 weeks+ just to find out that it broke on me again after 6 months. So I had to change my phone which will be my next big purchase again later.

My 2nd big purchase was a brand new desktop computer that was customized solely for my gaming purposes.Well only for one game specifically though : World of Warcraft.

This is just a brief picture of how my computer looks like although it was not purchased from HP. I just took its photo and paste it here for the sake of showing off although I don't have a HP. :P I'm not going to put the specifications here (compared to the present specifications, it's so ancient..) but I'll just show the pricing of this purchase which hooked most of my bonus. RM3500 not including LCD screen. I was still using my CRT monitor back then since it's so tahan lasak.

This piece of machine made me spent most of my time hoarding wealth in WoW, leveling up a virtual character, experiencing raids with 40 people around the world and Pvping on battlegrounds. It was an exciting experience which I ought to admit and an addictive one too. No wonder over 6 million people around the world are hooked with this game now.

However, it only took 2 years to see my big purchase expire due time. Now my LCD monitor broke down on me and I don't even bother to buy a new one or fix it since I'm using my company's laptop most of the time.

Next, my 3rd big purchase in life was another Sony Ericsson cellphone with no joysticks (I believe if joysticks was not installed in my K750i, I won't be changing my phone still.)

Ahh..this time no more joystick to break.Only buttons.Buttons are much more reliable than joysticks but this cellphone cost a bomb. It took RM2000 out from my pocket. Lubang besar after purchasing this phone.Now everyone gets the impression that I'm a frequent phone changer which I don't plan to be one. It's just that I don't like repairing stuff. Never had any good experience with repaired devices in the past so I cannot tahan.

This phone continue to serve me until now which is already 2 years plus but I'm not using this phone anymore because my company is kind enough to provide me a phone so I gave this unit to my mum. The only working big purchase I've bought till now. The rest of them are white elephants. Not the K750i though cause I managed to sell it to my ex colleague. :)

My next purchase was a car. Honda City 1.6 vTec. RM 82,000. Large sum of money but most of them are nullified when my mum trade in her Kenari for RM26,000 and she pumped RM24,000 into that purchase making it RM32,000 left to be paid.I'm faithfully paying an installment of RM1000 every month for 3 years in order to complete the purchase. It's a need since it provides me legs to everywhere I go and comfort to both my mum and myself since both of us longed to pamper ourselves with something nice in life.

My 5th big purchase just happened a few weeks ago which I bought myself a new pair of Asics running shoes and an ipod Nano to complete my running set.This two purchase cost me a bomb but considering that both of this product would last me quite some time so I consider them worth it. I bought the Asics Cumulus 10 after trying out so many other shoes and concluded that this shoe fits me best.I ran with it a few days ago and the more I ran, the more excited I become because my feet no longer hurts. Nike and Adidas will never be an option for me in buying shoes now since I've tasted the wonders of Asics.Haha..

My ipod seems to be sitting down there idling for weeks now because I have no time exploring it yet. No, you cannot have it and if you want it, you should get yourself one too. Don't ask me to give/loan it to you since I left it idling. :P It's my preciousss..although I don't use it yet.

Well, after listing down all the big purchases I've got myself in my entire working life you might say that I'm a rich brat that doesn't know his limits in spending. I guess you must be shaking your head now in disapproval of my spendthrift lifestyle. Heh. Who wouldn't? Tell you a secret. If you are unattached to any girl, you will find yourself to be able to do this as well.:P Who says being single is a lose out in the world? Haha

However, this is not what I wanted to share. I was brought back to a particular verse in the bible that goes something like this:

"18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. " 1 Peter 1:18-19

I was reminded that I was bought by the eternal God with the price of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.Unlike all the big purchases I've got myself with, I knew that it's only temporal. It only serves me up to a certain time and then wear off. It is a cumulative upkeep that one would have to live with if he/she still lives in this world. This purchase whom God purchased me is not with corruptible things such as silver or gold but with the blood of Christ. It is not temporal. It is forever.Am I living my life as a service back to God as a gratitude for His great purchase of me?Is He complaining how I break down all the time or go out of fashion in due time just like how I complain about the purchases I had for myself? Is He getting back what He paid for? Am I able to satisfy the Master who owns me?

This is one thing I strive to do to serve His purpose on earth just as how Paul exclaimed.

Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

For being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice for God is priceless and is noted for all God's pleasure.Yes Lord, may my life be like that for Thee. Amen

Resolution for 2009

2009-02-23T03:42:00.000-08:00

I guess it's been quite a while since I've visited my own blog or update anything over here. This is my first post for this year and it's been almost 2 months after the new year celebration already! I've been really busy with my work and some youth work recently, not forgetting my holiday to Langkawi as well. Heh Heh..I guess I work hard, serve hard and also holiday hard which I'm beginning to see a pattern here for this new year 2009.

The year 2009 has just started and it doesn't seem to be a good year for everybody because of the global economy downturn that put so many people out of their jobs.Retrenchment, pay cuts, shutdowns (for factory workers), and forced leaves are the common topics among the working adults these days. My mom told me that almost everyone who came to her shop will eventually discuss about this topic and most of them lost their jobs.I felt sorry for them but it's really lousy if that's all I could do for them. I tried to recommend some jobs over at my place to them and Lord willing, if they are accepted then this would really be a blessing for them. However, it seems that my company is starting to be choosy and fussy since there's a huge pool of expertise in the job market these days. They would take months to interview even for one position in the company.Choosey somemore lah, later end up choosing bad 'geng geng' (If you know Hokkien, you would know what I mean by that..:p)Besides, this year's zodiac is the Ox or Cow which made that phrase 'Work like a cow' to be common in everyone's lips.

As for myself, I thank God for His divine providence of a secured job for me which made me trust in the Lord all the more because He led me to this path last year. If I were to stay in my previous company, I would be having pay cuts and forced leaves now which would disable me to attend bible conferences and camps this year. God has indeed blessed me abundantly and to Him alone, I give my life to.

This year, I've purposed in my heart to finish the bible throughtout the whole year following the Emmaus Guide through the Bible because I've never really finished reading my bible in the NKJV version before. Thus, I told myself that I would strictly discipline myself to follow the guide that Emmaus graciously planned out for me. How kind..:) I hope to finish the bible this year and Lord willing, I will be able to see God throughout my studies through his Word.

"How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word." Psalms 119:9

10th Year Bible Camper

2008-12-30T04:13:00.000-08:00

After 9 years of Bible camping, it seems as if I wanted it to end it by attending my final one to make a 10th one to make it a decade as a Bible camper. What makes it better would be myself being the oldest camper in the entire camp besides the camp commandant which means there's a financial advantage over all the other big brothers. Heh Heh. Hey, financially loaded is a huge advantage in camp if you don't know how Bible camp is like when you're appointed as a big brother for a group. With that, I'm able to treat the whole group ice cream plus some other goodies to greatly motivate the group to win more activities that we took part plus putting extra 'stress' upon the other group leaders. Hehehe..Even their group members felt like switching over to my group. Like Switch. "Have you switch from Windows to Apple yet?", Apple's famous quote.

Anyway, this camp was the most tiring camp ever in my entire Bible camping experience. No, it's not because I'm getting older but those who have went for that camp can testify with me that this camp is indeed very tiring as most of us doze off even before 12am. I used to be able to have midnight chats with the all the group members talking about ghosts, spiritual life struggles, girls, or arm/leg wrestling inside the dorm from my past years in camp but this one, no one even stayed up for any talks. All slept like a log when the lights went off.

All the activities in camp organized by Burmah Road Gospel Hall was intense enough to make me used up all my skills and capabilities to lead the group to participate in all the activities. Each activity requires much planning and quick workarounds as any surprise element would pop up during the activities. There was the Amazing Race challenge, Survivors Nite challenge, Test of Wills challenge, Fire and Ice challenge, Bible CSI and finally the Runway to summed up all the activities in 2008 Bible camp. As I always liked workshops more than just playing any ball games which would always be the 'same' thing over and over again. I enjoyed all the workshops very much in terms of their creativity and challenging tasks at hand but I would just remark them as too tiring. However, all in all, these workshops are great and I deeply thank BRGH for organizing it. They have indeed pushed the benchmark of Bible camp into another level from all the other years of camps.

Inasmuch as I've enjoyed the camp activities, I enjoyed serving God there in the camp by mixing around with all the campers plus encouraging them and sharing with them in the Word of God. I've seen many different personalities in the past camps and this camp is not exceptional as well. Many of the believers come from different backgrounds which makes it more interesting when sharing with them. Some came from strong Christian family backgrounds, some are newly 1st generation Christians, some came from different denominations, and some are non-believers. Each of these groups potraits a different frequency of need in their spiritual walk with God and for some, yet to start a relationship with God which should be dealt with differently.

I took the oldest group which consists of those aged above 20 years old in my daily devotion group as I felt that I'm beginning to lose touch with the ones that had a decade age gap with me. It was refreshing to be in this group because everyone in that group came from different background which made the morning devotion discussions very interesting in terms of listening to my group members share from their experiences. There is one thing I loved about camps is that there are always opportunity to touch other people's lives with your own or be touched by others.

I used to think that serving in camp should be reserved for the younger generations in order to groom them to be a capable leader and those who are seasoned should not take that place. However, God showed how wrong I can be when the organizers appointed me as a big bro for a group. Well since then, I changed my 'perspective' and started to proclaim to the world that if a person decides not to serve or go for camps like this are labeling themselves to be 'senior people' who should go for seniors fellowship camps. LoL. I guess this statement will change as the years passes by and when I get older. Hahaha..

Just to sum up everything, one thing I've learnt in this camp is that motivation is indeed very important in every believer's life. It is because of motivation I believe that my group won the best group in camp. It is because of motivation I believe that ensures a believer to do their quiet time daily without fail. Most importantly would be that every believer's motivation should come from Christ alone and that without Him, we are nothing but with Him, we can be anything for Him. Amen.

Grace Period

2008-12-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

One day as my colleague was installing a software for our new server and he got this prompt up after installation saying 'The product has not been activated and has been operating without activation for a grace period of seven days.The Grace Period has now expired.' He asked me what to do next when faced with this problem so we managed to get hold of the license key from our counterpart in US and managed to get it solved.

The thing that struck me was this: What if the Grace period given to the whole world to find grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is expired? This thought continued to develop in my mind as I thought of the consequences when the dispensation of grace really expires. What is going to happen? To those who have studied about dispensationalism and second coming of Christ would know what will happen next.

The verse below taken from Luke 4:16- 21 states the fulfillment of the acceptable year of the Lord which would usher in the dispensation of Grace to replace the dispensation of Law.

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”^[k]

20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The original text for that part of Scripture is from Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Certainly this prophecy has come to passed in part and the other part is still yet to be fulfilled. Yes, the part where "And the day of vengeance of our God..."and the rest of the written text is not being fulfilled yet. However, it will come to pass when the grace period expires and it definitely doesn't sound nice to see the word 'Vengeance of our God' appear after that.

The point that I want to stress on is that time is running out. The grace period of God which is extended to everyone is now available so it's high time for each of us to start spreading the gospel of Christ before it's too late! And as for those who is reading this and knows about the gospel of Christ, linger no more. If you are curious about this, please speak to this blogger about it. It really matters! Plus it's better to be warned than not informed of such grace extended to you by God. Just as the software's trial period is up, we have to start paying for the license to use it. Similarly with God's period of grace when once the period is over, those who are left behind must pay the price of sin which is everlasting death.

Slowly but surely, a time will come where the throne of mercy will be turned into the throne which 'proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices.' (Rev 4:5, Rev 11:19) The description of the judgment of God is described in those verses and it will come!

Penang Bridge Run Revisited

2008-11-17T02:41:00.000-08:00

This year I didn't intended to join the run. After 2 broken toe nails, I told myself that I shouldn't participate in any marathons in the future since I've achieved my goal 2 years ago by running the Penang Bridge.In that span of 2 years, I have suffered greatly in my trainings to run that bridge and not only finish it but finish it within 3 hours to qualify for the medal.

Last year, I managed to achieve that goal and I planned to stop running since I was not born to be a runner. (I'm lousy in running because I got caught most of the time during hide and seek when I was young..) This year, the Penang Bridge Run was supposed to be called off due to the budget freeze by the government but Mr Lim miraculously managed to pull some strings and get some sponsors to organize the run without fundings from the government! Thus, the run was on and its starting point was in Queensbay Mall.

This year's run added a few kilometres to each category since it was held in Queensbay (it used to be held in USM..) which makes the whole marathon a big challenge for all the runners especially if I (amateur runner) were to join. So I told myself a big NO even from the start of the registration. Heh.

I managed to persuade some of my friends to join and ridiculed them if they didn't join the run when I, myself is not joining the run. Hehe..I'm so evil..*grin* However, to cut the long story short, I ended up signing in for the run on the eve of the big day itself. Sigh. I don't know why I did it but as I was driving past Queensbay, I saw all the tents, signboards and everything was put into place. As I watched all that, I remembered the time when I tasted the cornflakes after the marathon. It tastes like heaven! I felt as if it was the best thing I ever had eaten in my entire life. Maybe I was exaggerating but it really felt that way ok! So I acted impulsively by taking the registration form and signed myself up for a 10km run. Without any second thoughts, I took out RM10 and paid for the run.

Everything happened so rapidly and the next thing I knew, I was buying my PowerBar for the run! Hahaha. It was so natural. Must be Justin's fault. Anyway, I woke up at 4:30am the next day for the run despite of the lack of sleep I had(I was having a gathering with my primary school mates until 12am..), I rushed off to fetch Justin at 5am so that we could find ourselves a good spot to park and walk to the starting point.

The whole Sungai Nibong was packed with cars and I couldn't find any parking near Queensbay so I parked at Jeff's house which was quite a distance away from Queensbay. Then we walked to Jerejak Jetty (dunno what that place is called..) because our starting point is there. It was a good 2km walk to the jetty and the whole place was packed with people! There was easily 8000 people there at that time and most of them are wearing the orange Penang Bridge Run T-shirt when both of us is wearing out sleeve-less singlet to show off our biceps to the 'adik-beradiks ' in the run.

As we hanged around in the starting point waiting for the run to start, we tried to spot any familiar faces who would be joining the run but sadly couldn't find any..All the runners are young at age while both of us feels so old and leftout in the group.And then we ate our PowerBars and drink our Red Bulls as we warm ourselves up for the run.My adrenaline was already pumping as I waits for the run to start.I must admit that I haven't felt so charged up ever since my last run till this very moment.Hehe

As the gun fired into the air which marks the commencement of our run, we immediately ran off to be among the front liners so that we would not be blocked by the 'slow-runners'. Hehe. Our goal was a common one: Finish the race before 2 hours and get to church in time for Lord Supper!

It was quite a distance from Jerejak Jetty to the bridge but we were progressing quite well as we paced our speed fairly in order for us to finish the race in our timing.I was quite happy actually for the fact that I did not koyak that fast even though I didn't trained at all for this run. As we reached the foot of the bridge, we noticed that it was a graveyard spot because we spotted alot of PowerGel packets on the floor. I guess that the half marathon runners had already dehydrated at that point? Still a mystery to me since the distance from Queensbay to the foot of the bridge isn't that far for them to use the gels yet. Anyway, we continued running without stop uphill towards the bridge hoping to reach the U-turn as soon as possible.

Once we reached the middle span and did the U-turn, we stopped running and started walking back. We made short term goals by setting short destinations where we should run to instead of walking the whole way back to Queensbay which could have probably caused us to miss the Lord Supper in church.The short term goals we made did work as we tried to push ourselves off our limits and we made it to the finishing line before 2 hours was up!

We managed to finish the run in 1 hour 32 minutes! I bet we could have finished it in 1 hour if we had been faithfully training. hehe

Oh yeah, just 300 metres away from the finishing line, Justin and myself decided to go all out for it. We started to sprint all the way until the end. It was fun at the moment when we managed to cross the finishing line but was painful when we had to walked back all the way to Jeff's house to get our car!

And oh yes, I get to eat my cornflakes! Target sighted. Target achieved. Target consumed. Yummy! Nothing beats the cornflakes after a marathon. Muahhahaha..

Who's your boss?

2008-11-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I had the privilege of being rewarded at work.

It goes like this: I went to work as usual when suddenly my boss grabbed me into a room. At first I thought I must have done something wrong or I must have forgotten to do something for him.My boss is a very detailed person and would like everything to be done according to the standard procedure. I've been scolded by him before some time ago when I did things to improve the results but wasn't following the standard procedure which he ended up removing all those improvements.However, my boss, despite being an idealist, he's actually a very good boss that knows how to take care of my needs and understanding.No, he doesn't know that I write blogs and I'm certain that he won't read this here. Heh Heh

So here am I, in a room with him, feeling a little nervous of what's going to happen next.Holding in his hand was 3 envelopes.There can only be 3 possibilities.One is that I've done something so wrong that I would only redeem myself if I'll be forfeited of my job. Two, I'll get a raise for no reason.Lalala. And three, it's my monthly pay slip.

Without wasting more time, my boss, being a direct person as he is, told me that the first envelope is my monthly pay slip. The second one is my raise! (I was told that I was actually being underpaid for the level of job grade which I hold and was given a raise to meet the minimum expectation for that level of job grade.There was only 57 people in the whole company who was given this raise!) Instead of feeling "bo tart" for working for the company for almost a year getting paid below par, I actually felt that it was indeed a real blessing to receive this raise! I wouldn't mind if I was being paid lesser than I ought to because if the company did not intend to give me that raise, I wouldn't even realized that I was underpaid! It was purely out of their good conscience or God's will to bless? I would believe the latter.

People may think that the company is suppressing me by underpaying me and advised me that I should get a back payment for the mistake that they have done.Unfortunately, I would like to think otherwise.By receiving this raise now, I felt that my hard work actually paid off and God blessed me with this earthly blessing.Besides, if I was given the right amount from the beginning, I would not feel the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment because I don't really know much or did much in the beginning.

As I was feeling ecstatic when I received that second envelope, a third envelope came in. It was a token of appreciation (RM100 voucher angpow from Carrefour) from my boss for all the support that I've done during midnights plus weekends.By that time, I was already 'high' with so much blessings in one day.He told me that he was sorry because he didn't gave it me earlier so that I could enjoy my weekend but whatever it is, I don't really care when he gives it to me anyway. As long as he gives me, I'm overjoyed. Heh Heh

I thanked him with my smile that's so wide that my eyes turned into Mashi Maro's eyes.I walked out that room and immediately uttered a thanksgiving prayer unto the Lord for His goodness for I believe all good things comes from Him and Him alone. I believe that God is the true boss even though He appoints many bosses to govern us in our lives in order for us to submit unto them. And finally, even though I may change my job to elsewhere, my earthly bosses will change accordingly but my true boss never changes and in this I delight unto the Lord.

"Oh Lord, thank You for blessing me so much even though I have not acquire them from You. Indeed You will perform every good will according to your time and your ways which I have no clue about it for Your ways are not my ways, and Your thoughts are not my thoughts. For this, I will keep on clinging on You regardless of what the future may hold because my life is in You, Lord.

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ' name I pray,
Amen."

The Ax Head Floats!!

2008-09-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I was extremely demoralized.First, I heard that most of the YP's won't be following the bus to GLO for the GLO reunion service.At first I had quite a number of them who gave their response to attend that event. However, as the day draws nearer, one by one drop off. I heard some of them had themselves grounded by their parents, some of them have placed their exams to be their ultimate focus in life and some of them just couldn't be interested or bothered.

Well, I don't blame any of them actually because why should I be discouraged by the surroundings when I should have the conviction that comes from within?Nevertheless, being human is always frail. I was telling Justin on how demoralized I was when the numbers of youth dwindles for that event. He knew I was lamenting about it because I did it when he came to pick me up to church.However, I thought to myself that if I don't go then I will open myself to more temptations by staying at home alone. So I told myself that there should be a blessing in disguise if I go one, so I went with some confidence in my heart.

As we traveled to Taiping, I noticed that Uncle Kha Kooi was somewhat disappointed with the youth attendance seeing so many empty seats that was in the bus. I guess he was really hoping that the youth would had come to show support to GLO since GLO was suspended for this year. He would wished that the youth should come as an encouragement to GLO.Well, sometimes we see all our hopes would lead to a dead end even though the motives are right.I begin to see the light of life through the reality that shows around us when we thought that God would certainly bless us when we ask for the right things but that is just a mere expectation which we created in our minds. Where in the Scripture do we see righteous wishes would always end up with fruitful results? If that's always true then the theme of 2 Corinthians would not be dwelling on the attribute of God where He is the God of all comfort for those who clings on Him in times of trials.

Our response should always fall back on Him because in the end, it is only Him who knows what is beyond that rainbow. It is only God who has control of everything so it's best to always depend on Him whether in good times or bad times.

When I was in the church hall listening to various people sharing on the pulpit about GLO, I was thinking to myself whether should I quit my job and enroll myself to be a full time student at GLO. Hahaha..I wished I can do that but I wished I knew about GLO earlier in my life. If I knew about GLO when I am in the age of 17, I would certainly go for full time rather than wasting my time in RBS..Seriously, I can't recall anything I learnt from RBS..It's so blank now even when I think of it.I could remember bible camps sermons even more than what I can think of when I was in RBS! Sien..it's really sien when you find yourself wasting one month in Camerons and learnt nothing significant in life but get yourself full of rashes after that camp. The water there is extremely toxic..I can justify that! Argh..the Sieness..anyway, out of topic..

Then came Mr Ung preaching on a strong message taken from 2 King 6:1-7 which speaks of the floating ax head. I wondered what can he speak on from such that verse. When he started to expound and relate the activities of GLO with the pool of ministries in the world, then it started to make a whole lot of sense.

Firstly, he relate the sons of the prophets cutting down trees with the assembly working through GLO to offer solid discipleship from the Word. And then, it seems as if the sons of the prophets was working together to cut down beams but after a while each of them seems to be disoriented and worked individually without having the similar focus as before. This symbolizes that there was once upon a time where the assemblies had the similar focus together to build up GLO school together to build up disciples for God, rooted in the Word of God and equiped with good works. But as time passes by, GLO school was becoming more and more like the other institutes. The unique identidy of GLO was soon slowly fading away.

Then as it went on, one of them had their ax head fell into the pool of water. That symbolizes
that GLO school identity was becoming like the rest of the other organizations which are available in the pool of bible institutes. It was then GLO tried to emulate what the rest of the bible schools were capable of.It has lost its cutting edge where GLO normally could provide.

He was emphasizing that GLO should offer something that others could not offer. According to him, bible seminaries were inter denominational, RBS are practical but lack of depth and BSF are devotional where fellowship of Christians from all denominations could come together but never touched the doctrines of the Church. It is at this point of time when GLO came to realize that they should come back in one accord and work together to provide something that no other institutes can provide which is the firm teaching of the Word with assembly church practice distinctives.

It was stated that now as GLO picks up its ax head which floats from the pool, and fixes it back into the handle. The handle represents the title/name and the ax head represents the Word of God. The iron is hard so as the teaching of God is hard to swallow and receive but as the story pointed out despite of its hardness of iron, the ax head floats! This is something that needs to pay more attention at.Even though the teaching of the Word is hard to receive but it is presented in a way that it is gentle enough for the students to accept it. It is now time for GLO to take up the ax head and fixes it on its handle where the name should reconcile with its cutting edge.

I was truly blessed with so much spiritual truths in one evening. Thank you Lord for encouraging me in GLO despite of me being discouraged by the surroundings.

The faithfulness of God

2008-09-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

Something happened yesterday that made my heart rejoice with thanksgiving and filled with joy.
Something that the youth commitees have been praying fervently for.
Something that I thought would never come true due to so many obstacles that stands in the way.

But God in His sovereignity proved me wrong. Not only wrong, but faithless. I have always had a little more doubt than faith concerning that prayer which I made to God. I did not fully place my trust in God even though I knew it in the head that I should have faith. Sometimes I think I know more when I ought to simply believe it.

Most of the times, God had answered my prayers in alot of ways according to my plea when I put faith in it.I always thanked God for answering my prayers when I realized that it was His doing because I was expecting that kind of response from God.

Today, I realized another important trait about God through experience. This verse appeared in my mind immediately when I was still praising God today:

If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

God remains to be faithful even though I was faithless towards Him. His character is truly unchangable and His attributes endures forever. In this, I rejoice even more greatly when in my weakness, God used it for His opportunity to show how mighty He is in my life. Thank you God for such an experience.

Next year's bible camp speaker will be George Dawson. God willing that he will be able to make it that time. Amen

Account 13th September 2008

2008-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's 12:25 AM now and I just got back from a whole day of activities. Usually I'm already asleep at this time cause I have a strict schedule which I had to wake up at 6am everyday to get to work.However, tonight wasn't that usual night.Tonight I decided to pen down some of my thoughts and experience which I had today.(Although I know I should go to bed now since 7 hours later will be the Lord's Supper in church!)

It was an eventful day for me today as I begin the day by hanging out with Justin to the movies to watch "Money No Enough 2" which I had watched it 2 weeks ago with my mum.Well, although I have watched it already, I decided to watch it again with Justin just to have some laughs and spend some fellowship time together.It was a good comedy with a solemn ending at the end which touched most people's heart and makes them consider themselves.(I'm not going to spoil the movie for those who haven't watch it yet..)I gotta admit that this movie is a timely reminder for most people in this era and it serves as a good community show.

After the movie, we went for lunch in Nandos and met Jonathan Low with family there.We had a good time of fellowship there as well since I haven't really chatted with his family for quite some time.As for Jon Low, he's always teasing me with a girl which I have no interest on and most of the time, the conversation revolves around teasing here and there. Sigh. Gotta find a partner soon to stop his crap and tease.LOL

After that lunch, Justin and myself headed to church to 'anticipate' who would join the tracting in Youth Park which lo and behold, only 9 youths turned up including myself. It was a small group indeed but nevertheless that didn't disappointed me since I didn't really put high expectations on them.However, it striked me that some of them really had the zeal and passion for evangelism even though most of them had no idea what to say or what to do.It's really the heart that matters.Boldness and speech can be trained up or given by God but conviction only comes from within which matters the most.This shows that there are serious Christians afterall in our youth group and I rejoice to God for that!

When we got to Youth Park, we split ourselves into 2 groups. One led by Kok Wei and the other led by myself as we go separate ways to 'hunt'.I didn't had the boldness to approach anyone as I haven't done this for quite a long time so my fears overshadowed me.As I continue to walked along with the rest of them (Jeff,Mark,Sarah and Zara), I went to reach out by myself as I felt it harder to lead a group because it was quite awkward to have a bunch of people crowding around someone to be witnessed to.That person sure takut wan if kena mobbed by us.Heh

I went on to give chinese tracts to many chinese speaking people, mostly old ones since I had language barrier to reach out in Mandarin or Hokkien.However, I managed to bump into one auntie that could speak English when she indicated to me that she doesn't know how to read the chinese tract which I gave to her.I gathered my courage and tried to share to her in one on one basis by going into a spiritual conversation with her.As I was talking, the sky started to rain and suprisingly, the auntie seems like interested in the topic so we went and look for a shelter to continue our discussion.

She made some points stating that we cannot really define what is good and what is wrong as each of us have our own standards on what is good and bad which lies on every individual's interpretation.Well, I just simply agree with her to a certain extent but told her that there is a common set of right and wrongs where everyone else have in common which is the conscience.It is the conscience that bears witness against us when we do wrong or when we do right.I told her that no one in their right mind would think that murdering someone is a right thing or a lawful thing to do.Even if there's somebody with such mindset, the law will certainly take action on that person by the authorities.

Next, she made the comment on no one really knows that there's a God or not.I answered her back by showing her the nature around here.With such complicated design of nature itself, there's got to be a master designer behind the scenes working at them.Things are too great to happen by chance and if chances can takes it place so easily, then why wouldn't things get 'created' every once a while?Yet she still wasn't convinced at that point until I told her that there is someone who admited himself to be God and proved to everyone that He is God by being resurrected from the dead after the 3rd day of His death.He proclaimed it and proved it to mankind.

Then, she questions the validity of that statement and says that history is written by men and it could be a bias thought.I agreed with her to a certain point but chose to proclaim to her that history is just men writing down what happens.It states clearly what really happened at that time and it is used for the future references.If we were to disregard the historical events of Jesus then we could even question the fact that World War 2 was just a fiction of imagination, or man landed on the moon could be a hoax?(Actually, I still believe that man never really landed on the moon itself! hehe..I believe it was a stage thingy because human beings just can't go near that zone as the pressure will vaporize them already..off topic..will discuss later)

Whatever it was, she finally came to a point of openess where I managed to share to her the gospel of Christ and that's really a blessing from God.It really took alot of faith to be focused on preaching the gospel than to end up with an intellectual argument with her.And in that meantime, I managed to gave a few tracts to those who was sitting in that same booth.

After that, we headed back to church and had a nice meal with Kok Wei and Jeff. We shared our experiences and it was refreshing plus encouraging at the same time to have godly chatter over a meal together. I really longed for moments such as these because most of the time, fellowshipping over a meal always ends up with crap and nonsense.Sad but true indeed.

Then after that, Jeff and myself managed to catch movie together in Queensbay..this time, we watched 21 which I already watched also a month ago.I decided to watch it with Jeff since he didn't had the chance to watch it yet so I would just accompany him that night.That movie was well scripted and gave a few good lessons to learn from it.A person can really change because of money and ultimately, it always starts with something small..something like a small desire and if fanned properly, it will certainly grow and eats its way into you.Ultimately, this is a great reminder to me..

"What profits a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul" and with this I would end my entry tonight. God Bless. =)

Make It Simple

2008-08-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

Something for you guys/girls to think about.. :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Think Simple to Solve Complex Problems.

1. When NASA began launching astronauts into
space, they found out that the astronauts' pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink wouldn't flow down to the writing surface). It took them one decade and $12 million to solve this problem. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do? The Russians used a pencil.

2. One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management techniques was the case of the empty soap box, which occurred in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line, to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount of time and money to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the
same problem, he did not get into the complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

3. A 50 feet long trailer having 48" wheels got stuck while entering a midtown tunnel in New York because it was approximately 2.5 feet taller than the height of the tunnel. The fire department and the state department of transportation spent the whole day searching for a solution, to no avail.

Then a child, aged about 9 years, asked his father, "Why can't they take out the air from the tyre tubes? The height will automatically come down."

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

Moral: Always look for simple solutions. And learn to focus on solutions, not on problems.

If you look at what you do not have in life, you don't have anything. If you look at what you have in life, you have everything.

P/S: If you have God, you have everything and lack nothing.

He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot

Eros or Sore?

2008-07-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

In case any of you don't know what is Eros, it's affection love in Greek. Like those guy like girl kind of love in a simple term.So today's post is all either about Eros~ or Sore~..sore as in tired of being in a relationship or being rejected too often or reject too often either way works..as long as it soress...lame..I know.Trying to sound poetic but end up weird, I know.

However, I would like to express my thoughts here about relationships that most single guys would long for when their hormones start to kick up during the teens. I remember those times when I was in my teens, being attached with a girl is a very common thing and sought after thing.Forget about study first la,think of girls later.When you're at that age, it's really hard to not want to be involve in a relationship especially your peers are having theirs and it will definitely influence you quite a bit.I guess most of us have our own personal experiences in relationships regardless of a good one or a bad one or long to have one.

I remember once when I was in form 5, I tried out with a close girl friend of mine and ended up in shambles as we weren't matured enough which left broken heart that took me 2 years to recover.It was a painful experience as I have never been so depressed before in my entire life even up till now.It took me 2 long years to let go and move on with life.I thank God for that trial eventually because when I look back, I'm glad I didn't stayed on the ground but He enabled me to stand up and walk again with a different perspective of life.

I consider myself blessed enough to go through that experience because the experience totally changed my perspective in relationships and courtship.Now if I face any rejection from a girl I like, I can get over it within a day or two.Its quite simple to convince myself to let it go now after that one time experience.Sometimes I think I can just be so logical instead of being emotional over such things although I know logics shouldn't be the main factor in a relationship (too much programming influence..sigh). So all along my years, I have some other crushes and being crushed at the same time but everything ended up in "sore' ness" (dunno whether got such word bo..but nvm la..Even the Rock can create his own word..Jabroni!) when the ones I'm interested in, rejected me and those who are interested in me, them I have rejected. Sigh* Is it so difficult to find someone who fit into my criteria meh?

Before you start concluding me to be a fussy person, let me tell you what I look in a partner of life. Firstly, of course a boleh-tahan and lookable person..People keep bombarding others by saying looks not important wan..it's the heart that matters..porah..my logic is very simple..if the person can't even attract you, you where got time to go and 'know' that person.So that's the difference between an idealist and a realist.Let's be realistic.

Secondly, the belief and state of a believer.I'm not into just merely a 'Christian'.No I don't want a super well taught girl in the Word as well.What I'm looking for is the love for God in that person's heart and manifested through her actions.That's all.Only this 2 criterias. Oh ya, lastly of course having the same stands and a teachable heart if different stand.This one is just an added bonus.

So far it's all about "sore'ness" only, haven't even touch the "eros'ness" part also..Haha. However, I know God has plans for me and all I need to do is just to wait upon His direction before I 'strike'! Muahhahaha.

As a conclusion, I only wish for a God centered relationship with my other partner having the same love, being one accord, of one mind towards God.Hey that sounds familiar..

" 1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others"

Phillipians 2:1-4

God Bless.. :)

End of July Post...

Exodus

2008-07-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven"..Ecclesiastes 3:1

I will never forget the exodus that took place in this year, 2008. The exodus of 12 young people to another place where God has placed each of everyone of them where their destiny lies.

To be honest, I still do not know what to feel about the exodus. Whether to feel sad or to be filled with joy (obviously not!) or to feel discouraged when I'm faced with such situation. Yes, the youth group numbers will definitely be dwindling from now on but that's not what I'm thinking about. I believe that this is a challenge that God is putting me through as youth leader to face and I firmly believe that God is trying to make a point here with this current exodus. The One who is able to put down His life and is able to pick it back up is trying to prove a point to me.

It is as if God is trying to tell me that He is rebuilding His work and asked me to trust in Him. I always remind myself that the Lord's work belongs the the Lord and we who are given the charge to nurture it is responsible to keep it and work it out. It is never for us to take His glory upon ourselves on the work that flourishes. Yes, we may take pride in the work when it begins to bloom but we should always remember that it is the Lord that gave the growth. We planted but God is the one who gave the harvest. Sometimes we overlooked that it is the Lord that provides the fruit and we start to get cocky about it. Then as time passed by, we lazed in our comfort zone not doing anymore because we think that we have done 'enough'.

Well, the fact of the matter is this: If God chooses to take away, who are we to stop Him from doing so? And if God chooses to bless us, who are we to defy the Almighty God?The situation now is like a scene in the film 'Facing The Giants ', when the coach teaches his players to honor God whether they win or lose but what matters the most is that they give their best in the field. I wanna be like that too.I wanna give my best in this ministry that God has entrusted to me because at the end of the day, it is not men that I serve but God! Have to keep reminding myself that.

As closing, I'll just recommend you readers this great movie that have encouraged me alot in my walk of life.

Too bad it's just a picture..For more details, visit www.facingthegiants.com to buy. :)

If I Had To Die For Someone

2008-07-10T06:01:00.001-07:00

As I was surfing the net, I've thought of searching for some old Petra songs since most of the albums I bought when I was young was still in cassette format!To make things worse, all my cassettes are in bad shape and my cassette players are all malfunction as well.So since I miss their melodies so much, I resorted to YouTube as my source of Petratainment. Hehe

One of the songs I missed most was this one,"If I Had To Die For Someone" which sounds almost identical with Matchbox 20's "Push" (only the intro part).This song plays a catchy tune,simply contains meaningful lyrics (no misleading phrases or complicated sentences),and finally a good voice to back it up! John Schlitt!! Fuah, that guy's vocals still going strong despite of his age. Check out his other songs in YouTube if you have time.

The song simply speaks of our willingness to die for someone who is much likely to be like ourselves.A sinner like myself to die for another sinner.Sometimes when I think about it, if I had to die for someone, can I do it?Of course if taking my life to save my parents, I would willingly do it because they are the ones that raised me up and loved me for who I am.However, in reality it is really not that easy to take the plunge even when you think you would do it.Well at least for me, there's still some fear preventing me from dying for someone.

How about dying for someone who hates you?Or dying for your enemies?It would be ridiculous and absurd because I might die in vain and I wouldn't know if dying for him/her did any good at all.He/she might even laugh or ridicule me for my stupidity.I will not be able to see the end result of my 'sacrifice' and will certainly regret doing so.

However,this wasn't the case for Jesus.He came into this world as a man so that He might taste death for everyone in this whole world.His enemies ridiculed and mocked Him as they crucified Him.They made fun of Him but yet He spake not a single word.He gave His life willingly for all his enemies and He was raised from the dead in the third day after his burial.He didn't took any revenge at those who crucified Him but yet He gave eternal life to those who believed in Him.Cool and sporting guy don't you think God is?He lived to see His end results.

He gave up His life for our sake so that by His death, we might live the life He wants us to live in.He is the only one who is able to gave up His life and take it up once again.

Time to adapt, time to change..

2008-06-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Our recent petrol price hike threw most of the people into frenzy when the price of petrol increased 78 cents causing our usual cost of 1.92 cents/litre to 2.70 cents/litre! Initially when the announcement was made, it didn't trigger me that much since I know there's nothing much I can do about it but to get hit by it.

So I just lengang lengang and drove back to Penang from Kulim after work and then suddenly it came to me.

The sight of a huge overcrowded traffic was right in front of me and caused a standstill for almost an hour. The usual ride from Bukit Jambul to Queensbay that took only 15 minutes had taken me an hour to reach Queensbay that day.

I wonder what caused that traffic and behold, I saw: 2-3 stretches of cars tailing out from a petrol station a few metres away queueing to pump petrol! The queue was like 50 - 100 metres away from the station! And if you are familiar with the roundabout located in Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (I hope I got the name right...), there are about 4 petrol stations located at the vicinity! The whole roundabout was at a complete standstill due to the overwhelming traffic that was going to pump petrol.

After a few days, I started to receive forward emails that propagate the falsehood of the government, some research about oil-producing countries against the petrol pricing, how we can boycott from Petronas to pump their petrol, how to maximize the total petrol you paid for and etc.For once, I think that this petrol price hike did served its purpose. Why?

1) There are basically too many cars on the road and most of them only holds 1 passenger.I guess we are too pampered in a situation where most families are able to own more than 1 car these days.Some of them basically needs the car for the means to work.That's totally a credible reason in buying a car.

However, most families are so blessed (I won't use the word pampered since I want to be gracious..:p) that every members owns his/her own vehicle or even shared among siblings. This is for convinience sake they say.Sayang your kids mah.Now you see lo what happens.Too many cars but too few people occupying in them.

I believe this price hike will wake some of the people up to start car pooling or actually start to make use of public transports.

2) People will start to consider on the other alternative plan: NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle)

Installing this would be a one time deal and the cost of having a full tank gas is way much lower than a full tank of gasoline.I won't go into the details on how much in comparison but it's very low lah..It's like comparing Ding Dang(50sen) with JOJO(RM2) [Those in my era surely knows these brands..hehe]..

The only con I can see from installing NGV is that most of the petrol stations in Penang Island do not have natural gas. The only petrol station that has it is in Butterworth on the way to Kulim Highway.Well..even though this may stop Penangites to consider this alternative but it doesn't mean its the same elsewhere.

Maybe one day, everyone will turn to renewable energy....be more environmental friendly..going towards solar...buy First Solar panels....hehe*

3) Makes people thinks twice before they go anywhere.

This cost hike may just cause people to change their lifestyle and to adapt with the cost incurred by cutting down their lepak frequency.Once there's a cut down on outings like that, surely they could save more money when they stay at home and read some books..or exercise..(highly not possible but it could happen!)

For what's worth, I'm not saying that this petrol increase is good which makes me very unpopular among people around me.What I'm trying to address here is simply we can't do much about it but to accept the change.Be worried or not, its not the point because the price will increase eventually in time.What I'm trying to emphasize here is that DiGi is right about its slogan, Time to Change.

Regardless of what the government promises, we should take it as pinch of salt and never put our full trust on them.Nope, not because they are corrupted or bad but plainly because there are too many factors around the world that are uncontrollable. I guess people love to blame someone else when bad things happen and never look on the positive side of life.

Lets take some time off and start to appreciate our life that God gave us. To be contented in life is one of the toughest thing to do but it's the best thing to do in order to appreciate our short span of life on earth.

The third heavens...

2008-06-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

I took a day off from work today.

Hooray!FINALLY I got a day off to rest just to recover from work fatigue that was accumulated since last 2 weeks.Took my US counterpart out for sight seeing and food hunting on the last weekend.He(US counterpart) was so excited about Penang and durian could not stop bugging me for more authentic Penang food even during weekdays.Had to entertain him throughout his stay here and that took a toll on me since most of the time I had to drive.

So since I took a day off, I went for a movie at Queensbay with my church friends. All together 5 of us went and watched Kungfu Panda. As I was loitering around the gaming section, I met another group of my church youth group that came for the movie as well. I went to catch up with them a little and they was shocked to see their YP Chairman there when he was 'supposed' to be working!I told them that I took leave to watch movie with friends and one of them was shocked till her eyes was opened wide as if I was 'pontenging' work.

After the movie, I saw I had 2 missed calls so I called them back (Both of them are my church mates) and I found out that one of them is in the arcade zone when the other one is on the way to Queensbay to watch Indiana Jones.I thought to myself for a moment whether why is everybody coming to Queensbay today!Then as I walked around the arcade zone to greet my church mate, I met another 2 church members playing the drum game.Walau eh, got so many church members around Queensbay one!Luckily didn't bring any date with me that day or else..rumors will spread like wild fire...

I met at least 15 church members today and I got really excited about that because its like everywhere I go,I'd know someone.Felt famous for a little while.Hehe.As I enjoyed this thought, my mind soon caught focus on the thought of eternity.One day I will be amongst and together with all my brothers and sisters in Christ spending eternity together with God forever.The more I thought about it,the more excited I become.I am certain that we'll all one day meet in the third heavens whether God takes our lives first or He cames back again.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.[b]
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thes 4:14-18

I am comforted and looking forward to that day when I can be with my brothers and sisters in Christ forever.

Team Hoyt - Redeemer

2008-06-01T07:16:00.001-07:00

I'm always motivated when I watch this short video clip of Team Hoyt competing in an Iron man Triathlon.It never fails to inspire me whenever I lacked motivation and confidence in facing my challenges.I would always remind myself that wherever I go, I have someone like Rick Hoyt (the father in the clip)that guides me and runs along with me each and everyday of my life.This 'someone' is my Heavenly Father that watches over me and never fails to be there for me when I need Him and even in times when I don't feel that He's there for me although the truth is He's still there for me.

Sometimes I felt that I'm just like the handicap son, Rick that needed his father to push me around to where I'm supposed to be heading.This video clip showed me best on what total dependence should be like when I have problem committing myself to God.Sometimes I think that I just have to let go and let God take charge of my life while I place my trust on Him and enjoys the view wherever He plans to take me to although most of the time, I couldn't let that happen.

However, this video also reflects how the gospel of Christ can be shown clearly here.We don't earn God's favor by our own efforts but rather rely on Christ's finished work on the cross to save us.There's nothing we can do to earn God's favor when everything we do is tainted with sin.The only way is to accept what God has done for us and repent of our sinful ways to follow Him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

P/S: If Penang Bridge run is still on this year, I might be joining it again after watching this video but too bad it's canceled..aiya..although I broke my toe nails each time, I finished the race..ish..

The Memory Remains

2008-05-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

"Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane
But the memory remains"

Err..Not really insane yet but this song still rings in my head. Hehe.. No, this post is not about Metallica. I just took that song title since I was singing in my head when I was writing this.

Today's topic is about :

I don't know whether you are able to spot the topic or not but whatever it is, that was a characteristic test based on my birthday although I find it hard to let an Excel program to determine my character and behavior. However, I was attracted to the mathematical calculations that the program did to count my age in years, months, days, hours, minutes and even in seconds! Now I can tell people my age in days when people ask of my age. Heh

My birthday has just passed and it marks my 26th year of existence on this earth. Many friends of mine remembered my birthday and wished me on that day but some of them took special effort to throw a special celebration for me. It was really great to have such good friends that took effort to make me feel so special in their midst despite of their busy schedules. I felt grateful towards them and I thank God especially for them since He blessed me with such good friends. They made my life meaningful and I couldn’t ask for more because so much has already been done for my sake.

On the 15th of May, Samuel and Su Ting with a bunch of friends threw a birthday celebration for me at Red Box. Since they knew I love singing, they purposed to bring me to Red Box for the celebration although it was costly during the night rates. We took the birthday package which also serves a birthday cake despite of the regular buffet dinner that comes with it. We had a great time singing ‘emo’ Mandarin songs, English pop songs with lousy background videos, and a few Malay songs. Semangat muhibah is shown although Mandarin songs seem to be the prominent one amongst them all. They like ‘emo’ songs ma. Haha

Here are some photos to make this post less wordy…

*Su Ting, Ming Sheng, myself, Sam

*Su Ting ran away..*sad*

*Marker pen!!*

*All the lengchais*

Lastly, I would like to reiterate my thanks and gratitude to my friends that made my day so special. I love you guys/girls. :)

8 Random stuffs about me~

2008-04-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

An interesting chain tag.I was tagged by Jon's blog and decided to play along since it's quite fun.

Anyway, here it is.

The rules:

Link to your tagger and post this rules.
List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
Tag eight (8) people at the end of this post and list their names.
Let them know that they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Eight random facts about myself:

Had a stupid nick name '2CM' in high school because of a stupid question I asked.One day in my science class, I asked Mr Khoo (my Science teacher, now working as a guard in TARC Penang..wonder if he's still there) something about human reproductive system and this nick name sticked with me for years.I'm not gonna reveal what question I asked since it's a public blog here so if you wanna know, ask me personally. :P
I have a weird stomach structure which makes me different from others.People thinks that I have a belly but in truth, I don't have a beer belly.It must have been an alien residing inside my stomach that makes me so sexy.
I hate Cameron Highlands.The water supply generates a strong reaction to my skin and gives me rashes.This rashes can last for 1-2 years and there's no 100% cure for it.So never ever ask me to travel with you to Camerons.
I like digging my ears. The sensation of digging my ears are inexpressible.
I like pigs...i mean I like to eat pork..Tau Ew Bak, Bak Kut Teh, Sam Chan Bak! All my favorites. Yummyz...
The best gaming part of my life was when Wern Sern and I fought against Singaporeans in a Malaysia vs Singapore Battle Net game in Starcraft when we were 16 years old.
I used to declare Thursday as Starcraft day when I was in my high school. On Thursdays, I don't go to school but play Starcraft the whole day and I'm not alone...Most of my peers celebrated that day too..
I lost my gaming desires all of a sudden. Seems that I have taken up reading as my new hobby now.Good bye old Bing, Welcome the new Bingie..

Ok, now to tag the eight people that I believe would take the initiative to actually do this tag:

Justin (bo ko leng)
Jeff
Joshua
May Hsin
Sou Shuang
- (anyone who reads my blog)
- (anyone who reads my blog)
- (anyone who reads my blog)

Well, that's all. Hope you know a little more about me now. Adios~

If I had a time machine....

2008-04-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

As I was driving home one day after work, my mind wandered off and suddenly I came across this strange question: What if I found a time machine and it can only be used once only, what would I do with it?

They actually sell this in eBay...

Awesome~

I want one..:P

Here I was given an opportunity to change something in my life and I asked myself what would that be.How about you?If you were given the same time machine like me, what would you change in your life?To make it more specific, this time machine is only able to travel time as long as you exist in this world which means you cannot go back to 10,000 BC (if there was such a thing..) and witness the primal life back then.So we can only travel back to a certain point of time when we exist, which point of time would you want to go back? Would you want to change something in your life that would make a difference in your life afterwards? Would you plan to save your relationship with your first love?Or would you try to save your parents that has been killed in an accident?Or would you buy 4D to win a whole load of cash?

Would you try to win a game of basketball championship when you knew you can make a difference in the scores?Would you turn back time to score for your major examinations?10A's anyone for SPM?=) Or would you go back to the time when you are about to make a huge decision in life?Be it marrying your girlfriend, furthering your studies, which course should you be taking, which job would you end up in, and etc.

I gave some thought about it and wonder which point of time do I want myself to travel to. It came upon me that I could not think of any point of time which interests me to travel to.The best time I would probably travel back would be the time I was watching Linkin Park live in concert at Stadium Merdeka 3 years ago! Haha.. That was one of the best time in my life!

Seriously, as I gave myself another chance to change something significant in my life, which part of life should I travel back to do so.I ponder and ponder and ponder and finally came to a conclusion.I don't plan to use that time machine even if I am given one.I wouldn't want to change anything in the past because every event of my life have taught me the grace of God.As I looked back, I have never regretted making good/bad decisions in the past as I can reflect back and see what I have grown out of the decision I've made. In fact, it is my past that made me who I am today and I'm glad of who I am today because I know all things works for good for those who love God. (ref. Rom 8:28).What I've done whether it was the right or wrong, I delight in all of them because God put them there for me to mould me into the shape He wanted as I am the clay and He is the potter.

Good Friday 2008

2008-03-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Easter is back again and I looked forward for this huge event of the year because I get to meet up with all the “chabohs” from other churches..err no, I mean I get to eat Easter eggs and mutilate bunnies..err not really, I mean I get to celebrate Christ death and resurrection on Easter. Anyway, for those who know me better will know that I’m not serious with the first 2 reasons right...(maybe the first reason would be a secondary attraction..not the main one..hehe).

What is Easter all about anyway? Or Good Friday? To cut things short, Good Friday (Easter) is not about Easter eggs or Easter bunnies. That’s all got to do with sales marketing. They made a mascot out of that day which is the bunny, get some tangible products to attract kiddies by coloring chicken eggs, and create some story to convince customers that Good Friday is all about their products. Thus, we get an over-publicized Easter season in the western countries.

There isn’t such a big hoo haa in Malaysia though since it’s considered an Islamic country and we don’t get public holiday for Easter (Sad huh). Or maybe the Islamic do not recognize this occasion as a public holiday because they do not believe that Jesus died on the cross at Calvary and rose on the third day. They believed that it was Judas who was hanged on that cross instead of Jesus and somehow that’s why they don’t recognize Easter as a universal event even though it’s in the calendar.

Easter is all about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does resurrection means? It means that a dead being is brought back to life and never to die again! Totally awesome! Kawa Banga! A resurrection or should I say the resurrection! What’s so special about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What does it got to do with me and why should we care about it anyway? It’s not a holiday anyway so that makes it an any ordinary working or schooling day in Malaysia. But I beg to differ, the resurrection of Christ is what makes Christianity different from all other religions. Oh that statement makes me a religious bias or religious racist since I’m putting Christianity on top of all other religions. Before you shut me off, I would like to ask you a question: did any of the other religious pengasas raised from the dead to prove that they are special or different? The prophet Muhammad didn’t raised from the dead; Gautama didn’t raised from the Dead and all the rest of the pengasas is still in the tomb till today except Jesus Christ! Jesus’ tomb lies empty until this day simply because He is not dead. He is alive! No believe? Well, He did appear in front of 500 over eye witnesses after His resurrection. To say that He didn’t die at the first place? Well, historically the Roman soldier pierced his spear on Jesus’ side to make sure that He’s dead on the cross before taking Him down, wrapped and placed in the tomb that is being shut by a huge boulder to ensure no one can go in and steal His body, and as if that’s not enough, the Roman guards placed 2 guard post over His tomb to make sure that no one can go near that tomb. Why so kin cheong over a dead person anyway? Do you see any logic behind all the security measures that has been taken by the Roman soldiers?

The simple reason is this: Jesus told His disciples that He will rise from the dead after the third day of His death. Tada! That’s why the Jews (the people who put Jesus to death) were afraid that it would happen because that would jeopardize their religion at that time. They had to make sure that Jesus will be dead and stay dead in the tomb just like anybody else in order to make Jesus a liar for saying that He is able to raise from the dead after three days. Alas, that was not the case because Jesus indeed rose from the dead! The huge boulder that shut the entrance of the tomb was rolled away exposing the tomb and the body of Christ was not found in that tomb. He appeared to all his disciples and other eye witnesses to prove his Resurrection. In rising from the dead, He claims to be who He is: the Son of God and being that He is able to save you and me because He has broken the power of sin and conquered death!

What’s this thing about saving you and me? Do we need to be saved? Saved from what? The simple answer would be: the wrath of God; to save us from the wrath of God. Why is God angry with us? Is God supposed to be loving and caring? Why is there wrath since God “should” be loving? First of all, God is loving but He is also holy. All of us are sinful people and the meaning of sin simply means that anything that goes against God. If we just lied just once whether it be a white lie or a black lie, in God's eyes that makes us a liar even though we lied once only. Even if we just hate a person in our heart, in God's eyes we are considered as murderers because once we hate that person in our hearts, we have already 'murdered' him in our heart even though it is not acted out. If this is God's standard, how then can we face Him at all? Our sin makes us enmity to God and God being a holy and just God, He will punish us for our sins by sending us to hell. Eternal condemnation to hell. However, God knew that we could not possibly come to God with our own works thus God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to earth in order to redeem us from condemnation by living a perfect life on earth and die for us as a substitute. Which means that we will no longer be punished for our sins but be saved by the work of Christ when we trust on Him to take our sins away.

That's why it is called Good Friday! Even though it is the to commemorate the death of Christ, (why would anyone say good when a person dies??! I would whack that fella if anyone says that it is good when my parents die.) it is a day to celebrate because Christ didn't just die, He rose from the dead on the third day! He is alive today and forever more!

Friends, if you are reading this, I want to let you know that Jesus loves you that He have died in your place to redeem you from your sins so that you might have eternal life upon trusting in Him.This is the gift of Easter.It is a free gift of God and even though it is free, it is not cheap because it demands the life of Jesus Christ.

"For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
Romans 6:23

Memoirs of ASE Part 2~

2008-03-03T21:15:00.001-08:00

In my previous post, some of my ex-colleagues got back to me and complained why aren’t they mentioned back there in that post thus I will blog about the rest of them here in this post. However, I’ve got some feedbacks from my friends on how I’ve written about them and I find their response to it quite interesting when they commented about it in MSN. So I will continue to express what I feel about the rest of them in this post in words without much filtering of the ‘truth’.

Okay, first up we have our hilarious Infrastructure section (CH Tan) head whom possess a voice that’s so manly and when he speaks, you would be able to feel his shockwave (not much, but can be felt through the air) even though you may be sitting a few meters from him. He’s our MIS department’s defense manager since he’s the only one that is able to fend off all the users/customers attacks and accuses when issues happens. He is able to think of many realistic examples to reply back to the customers or users and most of them would be silenced by his replies and his manly voice. The best part was whenever he talks on the phone, his voice is projected throughout the whole office and practically everyone hears him speaking on the phone and the content of it. I had such wonderful times laughing in my cubicle at most of the replies he made in the phone calls to the users and that really made my day during those times. That was how I learnt to answer the users with such courage and use all the tactical replies to defend myself. There was once that he dyed his hair gold or light brown during Chinese New Year and I can still picture him in that hairdo even until today. It’s really fun working with him in those days when I was in ASE.

Next, this monkey (Fong Chin Fe)over here loves to pose a lot whenever he takes photographs. He’s one active guy that loves to be involved in almost every activity but of course he’ll surely calculate all the possible costs to involve himself in any of them. Hehe, for me to know and for you to find out (well, it’s easy to find out what that means if you’re from ASE..:P) . However, he’s a good friend and he’s able to give realistic advises to those who seek them from him. Besides that, he’s so friendly that almost the whole plant knows who he is. He can be ASE Idol if there’s such a contest. I will vote for him if there’s such a contest and I will ask Tze How to upload his photos to ASEM INFO so that all the operators can know who he is. His popularity is second to none; in fact, he may even be more popular than the GM himself. There was once, a girl from Production Control resigned from the company and she sends out a good bye mail to everyone. He replied to her something ‘naughty’ as it was his nature of doing so but this time, he has forgotten that the mail was addressed to everyone in the company and he replied to all! Man, if I were him, I would dig a hole and bury myself in there. So humiliating. What’s worse was that her boyfriend was in the same company too! He received that reply as well. Thank God that he knew that this was just a joke or else we wouldn’t see Fong in existence today. (I will be the first to curi all his dragon ball collection figures)

The next person I would like to talk about is our ever young man (TJ Tan) that never seemed to age. Although he may be the eldest among our group (second only to CH), he still fits in easily as he is a very fun person to be mixing with. He seems to be a pro-learner in almost every single thing he does. This can be proven because he excels very fast in any game he plays or anything he does. Last time, he doesn’t play DotA at all but he would love to watch people playing them. Then after a few convictions from us, he tried to play this game versus AI at first. After a few months of intensive training, he managed to play DotA and own like a pro! Not everyone can do that because I still meet lousy players even though they have been playing for years. Some people just wouldn’t learn and will never improve from their current performance but this is not true for TJ! He learns well and excels to be a better player than most of us in our department. He’s always in the top rankings in Facebook games as well. Furthermore, he’s very determined to learn all the game mechanics and is always updated with the latest version plus he likes to ban people in blueserver! That’s one thing I am always lazy to do because it involves a lot of procedures and hard work but that didn’t stop TJ from banning all those leavers!! (I couldn’t find any photo of him so I took it from his Friendster, he’s the second one from the bottom.)

These two lovebirds (Weng Keat & Yvonne) are inseparable as you can see in the photo above and even in real life, both of them shares everything together. Even now, when I think of what to write about them, my hair is already standing due to all the geliness that they like to engage themselves into. The girl is super yuk mar, the guy is super good towards her and both of them are really for each other. (110% compatibility) This girl is called 4P. (Pui Pui Pong Pong) PATENTED, and certified by ASE MIS department. This name came about because she admitted it herself! Of course, I came up with that nick name but I didn’t say that it was her but she claim that title upon herself so now she’s officially the 4P. Hehehe..She’s very jimat one similar to her ‘hubby’. Breakfast time won’t go down canteen with us to eat one but will come down to Weng Keat’s cubicle and ber-romantik there while everyone else is gone. So the ‘yuk mar’, anyway I better stop describing them here if not every single strand of my hair will stand up due to my imagination. The two of them had already bought a home together at Sunny ville and hopefully by the time they move in, Weng Keat know what to do lah.. hehehe.. (Better marry her liao, she already drooling for that sentence to be said by you.). Here are some photographs of the apartment they bought that Yvonne shared with me.

*Behold the isle of DAP~

*next year we go to their house and pai chia~

*titanic pose area

*ber-romantic sessions area

*where 4P keeps her deposits..

Last but not least, I wish all of them the best in their future and undertakings as we have now journeying in a different road now. Adios, and all the best! Hope to see you guys again if there are any gatherings.

Memoirs of ASE~

2008-02-25T05:18:00.001-08:00

As I looked back on my previous job in ASE, I really missed all my colleagues back there when I was working there with them. You know why?Have you ever worked in a company where all your colleagues are of the same age group as yourself?Have you ever had a bunch of friends marching out together to have your breakfast and lunch together everyday in a large group?Have you ever ran out of common topics to talk to your colleagues?Well, not with this bunch.Most of them plays DotA and even a production section head stops by at our place for gaming discussion.The discussion can last for hours and most of us will be sitting down giving our inputs about our gaming experiences and tactics.

Below are my friends whom I've met and known in my working life in ASE.It is a great honor and privilege in meeting this bunch of friends while working here.They had given me a lot of fun time working together and I really enjoyed working together with them. Besides working, we do organize a lot of makan gatherings together and we explored quite a number of places to look for good food together when Friday lunch kicks by.

This fella's name is Chau Fun and he's the youngest among all of us to get married! Sorry, but I had to announce that you are married so that most single girls should putus harapan on you so that we single ones would only have chance if not he will sapu all the single ladies that comes in his way.So now everyone knows that he's married already, no more hope lah for him. hehe. He's a nice guy who will always speaks his heart out regarding any matter without going around the bushes. He's a very direct man and has a loud voice. Whenever he gets excited while talking to the users, the whole office will be filled with his voice and everyone would get to hear what he's talking about without eavesdropping.

This lady(Hazlina) here works side by side with me and we support each other's systems whenever she or myself is not around. She's particularly very hardworking and always stays back quite late to finish up her work making us look bad because all of us likes to go home on time! Haha, just kidding. She's a great person to poke around with as in making fun with because she will not just sit there while you poke her but she'll retaliate and poke you back. Don't siao siao with her, she can bring her gang and gang poke you when she's under powered.

This jelly man(Wong Siew Ik) is my partner ever since I started working in ASE. We were assigned to help each other in supporting the eSIP system, a system-in-package system that generally takes care of the camera module process. We used to come on saturdays every month to do inventory count for them, just the two of us. He's a sarawakian thus he doesn't understand hokkien so our only way of communication is through Cantonese! haha. He's been a very supportive friend that is always willing to help me in my troubles during troubleshooting problems that I faced on the system.Not only that, he's a very analytical person and able to come up solutions for any problems quickly.No wonder he can spend so much time reading html.help. Hehe only those in MIS ASE would understand that term.

This guy(Timothy) has been my good gaming buddy as most of the time, we talked about games all the time.Most of the time, we can talk about DotA (our favorite game) whenever we go for breakfast, lunch and sometimes even working half way. We will ping each other when there's a new version update on the web.We have worked together in a project together and stayed late nights together trying to finish our project despite of our busy working schedules but in the end the whole system was not used because the users gave the wrong set of requirements.It was a sad case as well as disappointing one but working together with him has been a real pleasure and experience as both of us learn ASP.net together without any proper training given to us. We had to korek the Internet and then developed a system from scratch.I will never forget those times we used to slog our ways to complete that wretched project.It has been fun.

This cute girl(Jing Yen) is our Astro channel in our office. She can do that because she possess two sharp ears that can hear gossips from miles away and then spreads to us during our lunch breaks.She's our informant and also possess a cute voice not forgetting she has a very kwai giat face as we can see there.She can be quite lazy sometimes as she will skip breakfast when that happens and will rather sleep on her desk.We like to call each other's name twice like Yen Yen!! Bing Bing!! (must have that exclamation mark there cuz we will be shouting at each other!) Alas, she did join me for Jay's concert that day and she was such a hardcore fan of Jay's that she brought all the huan yin pin yin lyrics on Jay's song to sing along when Jay sings!She asked me where to get the big hand so that she can wave at Jay and also wants to collect Jay's bags that they sold there.Such a huge fan, much more gila than myself.Next concert, I will ask her to go again. hehehe

This blur girl(Viviance Lim) is Wong's girlfriend and she plays DotA as well!! Bad Wong.. He influenced and brought her to the dark side by teaching her DotA. Now she's got addicted to it and calls people to play together with her! Can you imagine that?Have any of you ever tried to convince your partner in playing games as most girls don't like to play games at all.Wong did a great job and now she can own people in most public games!She's quite quiet at first when I get to know her but when I really get to know her, she can really talk a lot and knows a lot just like Jing Yen. She is a very chatty person so if you know her quite well, you can really have a good time chatting with her.

This girl (Karen) is our latest hire in MIS before I left and at the first glance, she looked really familiar as if I've met her somewhere else. Mana tau, she is from TAR College, same year as me but different course. I was in Computer Science and she was in Information System Engineering but we saw each other before, just that we didn't know each other then.Maybe she too hao lian.Haha, just kidding.She has a very kwai giat personality (matches her face) and she can really mix around anyone because of her bubbly personality. In just a few weeks at work, we have already become good friends. We can tease around and joke with one another non stop.Too bad I had to leave so soon.Hehe Or maybe was it a good thing to leave so soon before she starts to get over my head. kekeke

As for this girl (Joyce), I just got to know her because there was not much communication among us ever since she joined in. She was very quiet at first and we were all afraid to approach her and talk.We thought that she was a very serious type of girl and would not tolerate nonsense from our side.After I leave ASE, I started to talk to her in MSN and found out that she's quite responsive over the net.Haha, she can really talk and able to relate quite somethings with me as she knows some of my friends in Friendster too.Well, it was nice to meet her so hopefully I will be able to mix around more with her in a near future.

Last but not least, this is my successor (Sharizan) of my left behind and leftover work which I let go on the day I left ASE.He's a very proactive person that is very into exploring new stuff in the programming world.He created and maintain a private website by himself due to his interest in programming.He's a very sporty person too as he is into sepak takraw and jogging.He's my training partner for Penang Bridge Run last year and last 2 years ago and he can really run! He finished the race in 2hours plus when I finished mine 3 hours plus.Last year, he got so bored,he tried to run barefooted on the Penang Bridge.Well that was not a good idea.He barely got back in time as his legs was almost all swollen and then it pains for him to keep on running that way.Lastly I wish him all the best in taking care of two major MES systems lah.Hope no problems or issues too big that he can't solve.

Finally, this was what Jing Yen drew for me while Karen added those words in there.It was really sad to leave you all but it is a must.I had to get out there because of the workload and not because of you guys.I really missed you guys and girls.Hopefully we will be able to meet once again in the near future! Miss you guys! Thanks for the friendship! :)

Science Vs God

2008-02-25T05:14:00.000-08:00

Recently, Jonathan sent me a link to read about an interesting article about Science and God. I found it quite interesting and would love to share it here to all of you. Here it is, enjoy :

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"Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"
"Yes sir," the student says.
"So you believe in God?"
"Absolutely."
"Is God good?"
"Sure! God's good."
"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"
"Yes."
"Are you good or evil?"
"The Bible says I'm evil."
The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment.
"Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"
"Yes sir, I would."
"So you're good...!"
"I wouldn't say that."
"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if
you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."

The student does not answer, so the professor continues.
"He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even
though he prayed to Jesus to heal him How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can
you answer that one?"
The student remains silent.

"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. "Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"
"Er...yes," the student says.
"Is Satan good?"
The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."
"Then where does Satan come from?"
The student : "From...God..."
"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"
"Yes, sir."
"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?"
"Yes."
"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues:
"Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"

The student: "Yes."

"So who created them?"

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them? There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.

"Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice is confident: "Yes, professor, I do."

The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"

"No sir. I've never seen Him"
"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"
"No, sir, I have not."
"Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or
smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus
Christ, or God for that matter?"
"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."
"Yet you still believe in him?"
"Yes."
"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"
"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."
"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of his own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"
"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."
"And is there such a thing as cold?"
"Yes, son, there's cold too."
"No sir, there isn't."

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.

"You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below
zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the
absence of it."

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"
"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation. "What is night if it isn't darkness?"
"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have Nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him.
This will be a good semester. "So what point are you making, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time.
"Flawed? Can you explain how?"

"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive
thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it."

"Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"
"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do"
"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean."

The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out into laughter.

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelled the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."

"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"

Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when
man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

Scheduled Prayers?

2008-02-21T21:02:00.000-08:00

I'm currently sitting down in my office on a Friday afternoon during lunch time. I decided that I would not go out for lunch since the scorching sun would make my whole face red due to the heat it radiates thus, I took my meal in my work canteen. After finished eating my lunch, I walked back to my cubicle and I saw there' so few people left in the office. It came upon me that today I should be having my long lunch break since the Muslims are off to prayer in the masjids. As I start to think back of those time when I eat with my colleagues in ASE, we would travel great distances to enjoy a meal together in somewhere else besides the usual food court we go to during the weekdays.

Coming back to the thought the Muslims having their prayers on Friday afternoon, one thought came upon me which is their scheduled prayers. If you have not known, a Muslim prays 5 times a day facing Mekkah and on Fridays, they would all go to the nearby masjid to have their corporate prayer. Sounds much like our prayer meetings on Wednesday, just that this one only one person does the praying and everyone follows. I asked myself whether would I be so diligent in my prayers with God that I should schedule some time just like the Muslims to pray. Then I thought to myself, "Nah, we Christians don't need this since we can pray anytime we want and anywhere since God is omni-presence." So I don't need this 5 times prayer kinda thing. I can pray whenever I want and wherever I want.

However when I thought about it more seriously, I found out that I've taken this advantage for granted. I wouldn't pray like what Scripture tells us to pray unceasingly whether in season or out of season. To always keep in mind that God is in your daily life and He's there just right there with you. It's kinda irony when we say God is always with us and around us but we don't talk to him as much as we do to our friends. When we don't see our best friends, we sms them with 2-3 pages long of words and when we receive a reply, we would then be so excited about it and start gazing at our handsets busy reading the replies we get and then start getting busy with the keypads to reply. Talking on the phone with a person of the opposite sex is always a long one when you have time in your hands. We can talk and talk and talk until our parents starts to frown at us from a distance then only we'll stop.

The more I think about it, the more unaware I have been for the past few months that I have lost my interest speaking to God frequently. Last few months ago, I would tell God everything even when I walk, sit and work or even do business in the toilet (hehehe). I always find myself talking in the air when I'm alone and if I'm discovered, I'll quickly speak softly. Haha But then as I thought about it now, I only prays when I'm in need or in trouble. I felt that I have treated God as my Saviour only and not my Lord. Whenever there's trouble, I cry Save me Lord, Save me! But when I'm doing fine, I'll just relax and forget about Him. I think it's time for me to buckle up as God had always been waiting for me to commune with Him. He have not failed to answer me in everything yet it is I that have failed Him. It is I that was the unfaithful one.

Back to the point, certainly I don't need a scheduled prayer time slot in my life but it is high time that I should start to pray unceasingly with or without a cause because my Lord enjoys speaking to me and I to Him. Let us cultivate this habit that God is always beside us, in fact He is IN us. Thus, let us not forget to remind ourselves that we are not alone regardless of where we may be in.

"18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" Eph 6:18

Holidays over liao..*sniff

2008-02-10T03:54:00.000-08:00

My 10 days holidays finally ended today as I will be on board First Solar early tomorrow morning in Kulim.Bye bye ASE, Hello First Solar.New Year, New Work, New Routine,New Life. The terrible part of this holiday was that I spent all those time sleeping and resting. Besides that, I would be eating and dotaing. Kinda wasted huh?I was so lazy that I slept and slept that I didn't go for angpow hunting this year.So far, I've only got 8-9 angpows?Wow, that's a bad record.I need to start visiting my friends during this week onwards.Hehehe

Oh well, my holidays will soon be over in a few hours time..Time to adjust back my life now.Can't wake up at 12pm everyday now.Instead I've gotta wake up 6 hours earlier.*Gulp* Hope I would be able to cope with this new routine though.

Will be updating soon another day.I still haven't started my motor yet..Still lazy.Although this year is the Year of the Rat but it seems like I'm manifesting the pig! Tubak!

School Holidays Mood Once Again

2008-01-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

Have you (for those who are already working and not studying) ever felt that your company should officially allocate some holidays just like when we were still studying in our days?Don't you just wish you could have a week off without having your personal leaves deducted?Don't you envy those who complains to you that they have nothing to do during their holidays and bore you with their total freedom + time when you have none for yourself to even watch the latest movie in the cinemas even though you know you deserve some time off?

For all this years..

Have you ever felt that you are starting to have back pains and cramps after working for some time and you never had that when you swing around the monkey bar, run around with your friends to the nearest shopping mall even though it's 10km away, you'd still say it's near and come back without any pains or cramps? (Seriously, I did that when I was still in Hamid Khan.Ran to Gallery to buy a pack of Magic cards booster pack! :p )

Remembering those times that I once had when I was young that I can practically do anything with my time and yet get 'ok' results in school (Thanks to all my friends that diligently taught me in my studies).Those were the golden era.Fortunately I enjoyed my study life instead of burying myself in books when time was still available to me to 'waste'.Haha..poor students nowadays..they need to go to so many tuitions and suffer..after studies come out to work lagi suffer..If I were that generation, I would have already drop out from school.haha

Well in a few hours later, I will be experiencing this once again! Today will be my last day at work in ASE after 2 and a half years service there. I will be having a 10 day holiday before I start working in my new company on the 11th of February so it's time for me to party~!Finally, the Bing can have 10 days holidays without any distress or worries for this short period of time!What to do,what to do??What should I do??Where am I gonna spend all my free time??

This is how I'm feeling right now!Who wants to ride with me? =P

Hmm..This is the greatest moment I have yet to savor ever since my uni days.I have to get a good rest from work, catch up with my friends, go meet some old friends, watch all the CNY movies (CJ7 and KungFu Dunk!), go KL and lepak!(hopefully), and of course spend time reading! Can't believe I read leh...Recently found out this new hobby nia.Hopefully it will last..Maybe when one is getting older, reading becomes an interesting hobby then.:)

Just like what John says in John 8:36.. "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." (Although this can't be used literally in this sense, but close enough.:P)

~Set Me Free~

Coincidence or Providence?

2008-01-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

Year 2008 blasted off with some suprises and new challenges in my life as I looked back the past few weeks in the month of January.Many things happened, some are subtle, some are eventful, some are out of expectation, and some required a little patience. Let's see what happened:

1) Assigned to be Youth Chairman to replace Richard. (still struggling to be one..)
2) Went for 2 job interviews since I find no more motivation to work in my current one.(Not appreciated at all by manager..*sad*)
3) Received 2 offer letters from both companies. (Choice dilemma..but solved within a day!)
4) Gave 2 new year messages within 1 week. (Tough call, but with God all things are possible!)
5) Preparing for 2 huge events for this quarter: a) Ang Pow night on the 16th of Feb b) Youth Retreat on 8th till 10th March.

Well, I think that's all since I can't think of anything else for now.That's alot of events happening in one month alone! I believe I have talked much on being a youth chairman in my previous post so I won't be talking about them any longer.In this post, I would like to highlight more on the shifting job experience.

I told myself last year that I will definitely change my job because things are really getting out of hand since I had to handle 3 person's tasks + support! It's a mad house here.The manager don't see a need in hiring people to support me.I can't even afford to be sick!I have no backup support at all! There's no help coming so I thought to myself, "That's it lah! No point working here anymore..plus I had to work on weekends if there's any calls or issues." Sometimes I had to work on Sundays when I'm in church or whenever I'm in camps or vacations, I still have to work since they required me to standby at every moment.

So I prayed about it, whether I should change job or not.Even if I want to change job, there must be vacancies in other companies as well or else it's useless right.So I prayed that if it is God's will that I should change, then grant me those opportunities to apply.After some time, I updated my resume and posted it in JobStreet (an online job application service), hoping that some companies will call me for interviews.

I waited and waited for JobStreet to reply but seems like its taking forever.Si liao lah..No hope d..forever stuck in ASE already lah..Then I tried to send my resume via my friends.Then Motorola called me for a job interview after waiting for a few days.I was delighted and nervous at the same time since I haven't really been through many interviews before.As I packed my certificates for my interview, suddenly my mum accidentally found my SPM certificate which I thought it can never be found ever again ever since form5.I applied for my first job by using the SPM result slip instead of SPM Certificate! Imagine that crumpled piece of result slip can secure me a full time job! Hmm, never throw away your SPM result slip because you may never know when you need them..kekekeke..The funny thing was why would companies still need your SPM cert if you already have a degree in a certain field.Without a SPM cert, one could not apply for any Malaysian universities or colleges.Imagine I applied for my diploma and degree using that crumpled piece of paper.I don't know where my SPM cert went since after form5.Suddenly I found it back.Coincidence?I don't think so.

More importantly, Motorola required me to provide them my SPM certificate and the night before that interview, I found it.Coincidence?Ok, fast forward.Then Motorola interviewed me and planned to hire me after the interview.I was happy of course but was abit reluctant to go there since I had to re-learn everything because they are not using the same platform that I was trained in.Plus I had to be on call 24/7 and had to attend for conference call at late nights with the US party.Anyway, I didn't expressed my regret about it since they are paying me more and I will be able to work flexi hours (can start work at anytime from 8 to 9).

However, after 1 week, I had another call for interview at First Solar located in Kulim.To cut the long story short, after 2 interviews with them, they decided to offer me! And this time, I get more benefits, and I'm much more familiar with the systems used there.I call Motorola and rejected that offer and gladly accepted First Solar's offer.Coincidence?I don't think so.

Not only I am getting a new job, I'm going to US as well for training provided by First Solar! Wow.I didn't think that I would be able to go this far for training.Coincidence?I really think all this is due to God's providence instead of a pure coincidence.God knew my heart and answer my prayer just to show how much He cared and showed me that He can just bless me like that because He can.Everything happened in the span of 2 weeks and I couldn't even catch my breath till now.

Not only that, I placed my faith in God by tendering my resignation letter to my boss even before I receive the offer letter from any company! All I needed was that oral confirmation thru phone and I trust God will look after everything for me.Indeed He did! Blessed be the Lord God for He is my salvation, my strength and my song! Throughout all these experiences, I grew in faith to walk with faith rather than by sight.I place my surety and trust in God because I know I will never walk in darkness or lose my way in life.

Now I can truly understand that phrase in Habakkuk 2:4 ,

“Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. "

Chairman Yaks

2008-01-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

Last year, Richard came to me and told me that he's leaving for good to KL since his job requires him to be there.Chances of saying no: totally 0%. Which means that there will be a change in the youth leadership since he was our Youth Chairman.What makes it worse was that everything had to be in a hurry because he will be leaving for KL in one month's time! Great! Less time, less prayer and most of all, no appropriate candidate for a chairman post!Seriously, our youth workers weren't prepared for such a thing.

The last commitee meeting came, Richard dropped the bomb and highlighted me to be the successor of Sungai Nibong Gospel Hall/Sungai Ara Gospel Hall's joint Youth Chairman.I was obviously shocked and stunned as I didn't expect that to happen since I expected Andrew to be the Youth Chairman because he's the youth deputy.

It seems that Andrew was assigned to be the advisor instead of chairman so I was elected to be the chairman and Jeff the deputy.I told Richard that I needed time to reconsider such proposal since it was last minute and I needed time to seek for God's approval.Problem was: How do you know this is God's will or not?Even if I pray about it, how can I get the answer?Am I supposed to test God just like how Gideon did in Judges?Or am I supposed to hear some direct voice revelation from God?Or get my confirmation through dreams and visions?

I was in a difficult position because I need to decide quickly as time is short.The youth needed a replacement and it is very important for the youth group to have a leader to head this ministry.I wasn't prepared for such huge responsibility role and every youth was supposed to look at me as a leader now.How can a childish person like me since I still play alot of arcade games/computer games be a youth chairman and lead 30++ young people?I consulted with some of close friends and tried to get some feedback from them.They encouraged me to go if I want to take up that lead and ensured me that I was ready for that role even though I'm not convinced like them.

There's so many things to consider before I take up this role.What if some kid followed my footsteps by starts playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 and starts to ponteng school for it, what if some kid gets lost in a Youth outing to Muka Head or some sort like that, what if the safety of the young people are jeopardized in an event or camp.How would I be able to take these responsible up and face the parents, the elders of the church, and most importantly myself.How am I able to face myself if such cases happens during my leadership.I know that I will be the first one to be in parent's list to be blamed as well as church members if something like that happened.

These kinda title kinda puts you up there and makes you feel proud for a moment and then when trouble comes, I would be the first to be blamed regardless of what happens.When things don't go right, people start to point their fingers at me and starts mocking me behind my back.Such unpopular position with such heavy responsibility at hand and most of all, I don't get the credit for the things that I've done for the youth.Richard told me his experience and that doesn't seem nice at all.

As I was thinking of all the negative thoughts, I realized that I'm putting my own strength and experience for this post.I didn't realized that God put me in this situation to prove how great He is in my life.I began to think of myself, how can I be adequate as a 'Chairman' but honestly, there's nothing different from serving as a normal commitee worker.The title was assigned to me was just a name sake.Everyone was important in the youth work because we are not serving ourselves but God.God has given me this opportunity to lead the youth to honor Him and this is my chance to make that happen.It has been my dream to see this vision come true, to form a generation of youth that have a heart for God.

Then I realized that Richard did what he could to make the youth to be united as one.He did what he was purposed to do and God led him through.God used him to carry up this responsibility for 9 years and indeed He blessed the work.Now, it's time to pass the torch.In the end, I decided to give it a go.I don't know how it will be like but I know that God is always before me.He is always there for me when I needed strength, He is always there for me when I am lack of faith, He is always there for me when I am full of burden and He will carry these burden for me when I cast those burdens to Him.

The Lord is my salvation, and I shall not be moved.Hopefully God is able to use me to prove how great He is in my life.Amen

Terminator Vs Robocop 2

2008-01-22T02:00:00.001-08:00

This is the sequel..Enjoy

Robocop vs Terminator

2008-01-21T19:38:00.003-08:00

Samuel sent me this link quite some time ago and I felt that this is good stuff if you happened to be in the Robocop and Terminator era.Enjoy.Hopefully this will remind us of those action packed movies when we watch in our childhood.Maybe it's time to take out those vcd's and watch them back.Hehe

Movie Review : The Warlords

2008-01-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

Last month, I managed to catch this hebat film in the cinemas with a bunch of my church friends.I didn't expect much from this film since most Chinese films are so-so and they rarely produce any movies that requires a huge budget or invested much in computer graphical animation. Some chinese movies are so cheap that when you watch them, you would be viewing too much familiar scenes when they run out of budget.Copy and paste (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V) was that method to save cost. That's why most Chinese films are NOT supposed to be watched in a cinema unless you are expecting something good out of that movie (99% sure disappointing one) or you are too free and there's nothing to watch at the moment (must have the cash too).

What appealed me in watching this film was the actors that are involved in this movie.I always liked Andy Lau (wished to be like him, he never grows old even though he's the same age as my mum.Keng.Ju lai Ju En Tao) and Jet Li (for his martial arts moves, not for his acting skills..).The funny part was I didn't really took in consideration who directed the movie.Usually I would be picky on who the director is for a movie.If it's Johnnie To/Benny Lau/Stephen Chow/Wong sumthing sumthin.., then I'll be ok to watch it since they are quite creative and experienced in producing a worthy movie to be watched in a cinema.

However for this movie, I didn't quite bother who directed it because when I watched the trailer, "Hoh, got war wan.Like LotR.Must watch".Yeah, I know I'm easily conned but I like war flicks.Not because I like the violence there but I like story written for this kinda setting.Most of the time it teaches me to appreciate what I have now and boost the courage to defend the things that matters to me.Something like that.

As for The Warlords, I would rate it 5 out of 5!This epic movie does not only stresses on war alone but speaks much about life as well.The humanity of man is clearly depicted in this film that when I watched it, I felt that there's so much in common facts that happens today but just in a more subtle manner compared to the past.Why?Because in those times (around ancient China times), people reveal more in their actions without much 'hidden' actions but revealed them outwardly without self control. A few examples would be there was some junior soldiers in the army went to collect the spoils of war, they met up with a few civilian girls.Immediately what fills their minds is to gratify their hunger for sex after being deprived so long in war.They raped them on the spot.They treated these girls like the 'spoils of war' that they deserved to have.This scene indeed shows how barbaric a man can be when he's controlled by his emotions alone.There's no right and wrong.What makes him feel better is right, whatever makes him suffer is wrong.Everyone in those times did whatever that is right in their own eyes.(Familiar?Hmm..)

A person's values will determine his/her decisions in doing anything and they are influenced by their leaders that taught them these values.In the movie, in that same scene that I wrote about earlier, the junior soldiers were once thieves that was led by Andy Lau (Thief boss..sounds so MMORPGic..) who taught them to do whatever that makes them feel good instead of a proper understanding of what's right and what's wrong.When Jet Li decides to punish the junior soldiers, Andy Lau tried to reasoned with him but Jet Li stressed that they must hold on to a principal as soldiers,no longer thieves any more and soldiers protects the civilians not robbing them.In this scene, we see a sharp conflict in values between them but as of now, I would have agreed with Jet Li tho if I was given the choice to choose sides. Men who do everything according to their desires are no different from animals. The only difference that makes men and animal different from one another is that men have moral values and animals don't.Animals do as what their instinct tells them to do.If we are to do what our instinct tells us, then we are eligible of being animals instead.Forget about mankind.Welcome to the Planet of the Apes.

Another breath taking moment I enjoyed watching is when the 3 of them (Jet Li,Andy Lau,Takeshi) led a small army of 800 people or so and attacked a force that consists of 5000 soldiers (Sounds familiar?All war films are like that.Small number vs big number and the smaller number always wins..).There was a part when 3 of them along with their army was surrounded by the enemies and 3 of them sworn to take down as many soldiers possible as long as they have breath in their body.3 of them looked at each other and then had a battle cry to indicate that they will fight till the end.It's amazing to see people when they work together towards a common goal and they would not turn back until they drop dead.The unity that held them together was so marvelous that it moved me.

There was one particular controversial part which kept me thinking about who was right about their decisions.In this scene where the three blood brothers laid siege on the city of Su Zhou, that city was impenetrable.None could go in and none could go out due to the siege.This went on for 8 to 10 months and that left many soldiers starving in hunger.There was a rumor about a miracle worker inside that city that was able to produce piglets as food every single day and that's how the civilians and soldiers lasted behind those walls.Some of them was so caught up with such rumor that they sneaked into the city to look for food but none ever came back.Hunger and starvation fell upon the army of the three warlords.While Jet Li went back to the head quarters and begged for food rations, Andy Lau managed to sneaked into the city in attempt to capture the city by his own means.

When he was in there, he met up with the enemy's army commander who turned out to be one of his fellow gang member in the thief gang last time.The commander agreed with Andy Lau if he would release their soldiers, the city would gladly surrender.He paid the price with his life when he thrust his own blade into his chest.Andy Lau was shocked at his decision and took up that promise that he would release the enemy's soldiers plus providing them food rations. But when Jet Li reaches the scene, his first reaction was to kill all the enemy soldiers in fear that they would rebel against them.Plus these food rations are for his own fellow members that have been starving for months.He is not going to share these rations with the fellow enemies but Andy Lau tried to fulfill his promise to the fellow commander by giving them food.Both men were equally right in their stands.Both had their rational reasonings.Both was right at the same situation and time.Who was right and who was in the wrong?I was torn between the two. That is why there's the third party, Mr Takeshi, he had to place his vote on either one of them and he chose Jet Li because he was thinking for the whole army instead of siding with the enemies.Who would you support if you were in his place?

There is much to talk about in this film but I will stick to this one as my last point, the fall of man.In this film, it depicts how man is so prone to betray their buddies for the things that they love even to the point of death.The ugly face of men was shown throughout the film and these are facts of life.Every man has a price and he would do anything to attain what he wants.When one is in need, one doesn't mind what kind of situation he's in just as long as he have buddies alongside with him.When one gets a lil big headed, he would look on something further to please his desires instead of appreciating the things he had in front of him.When pride gets along the way of a man, that's it.It's the doom of all men when they think that they are 'God' in their lives and will subject to no one considering themselves to be impeccable in the sight of men.

I guess this is a lil too long for a movie review cuz I've been writing this for the past 8 days! hahaha..I was too busy and sleepy to get this updated and published due to the hectic schedule that I'm in now.Well hope you enjoy reading this and go watch this movie if you haven't watch it yet.God Bless

Blessed belated New Year 2008

2008-01-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

On the eve of New Year, I went to work as usual even though my company was officially shutdown for the day.There were only a few of us working on that day and most of us laze around like a pig in a pig farm.Most of us hanged around in our office and started playing facebook and trying to challenge one another in flash games or racing fluffs. It was really unusual for me that day as I walked along the production floor and this is what I saw:

Wow..so empty..no people at all..looks like some scene in a korean horror movie..maybe next time there's a horror movie called 'The Factory'..

Creepy...(imagine as you walk down this aisle, and then you look afar, there's someone with long hair covering her face standing at the end of the corridor and then shrieks as she flies towards you from the other end with two hands stretched forth towards you..such a 'gai' thought)

More creepy corners...

Unmanned machines operating itself!!

I wonder if I'm able to play hide and seek in the midst of these machines.I think it would be a fun activity to do during shutdown.Or play paint ball in this place...hehe

Well, I guess I was too bored that day that I decided to make stupid stories to entertain myself.Oh yes well, I guess the mind can do such things to me when I'm desperately bored in office.

Blessed belated New Year 2008 everyone! :)

It's all about giving

2007-12-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

As I was wrapping the Christmas gifts for my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, a silly question popped up in my head: Why do we need to wrap the presents we bought for people?Aren't they a waste of paper and effort since the recipients will eventually tear them apart and focus what's inside the wrapping paper instead of admiring the patterns on the wrapping paper itself?I managed to question myself this way this year because I have to wrap these presents myself instead of just asking those sales girls/guys to wrap them.After a few hours spent in wrapping those presents, I finally realized wrapping presents is an easy task if I want to wrap it fast and it would like look 'kiam chai bui'.Well what's outside doesn't really matter right since what's inside that counts, right?? Haha

As I ponder upon myself, how many people really appreciate those gifts that you gave them?When the gift was wrapped, most of us are excited of what gift would it be and all those enthusiasm automatically starts to flood our veins as we look forward to unwrap the gifts we received.Then if the gift is not what we expected it to be or is suitable for us to use, we tend to show a small frown and lets out a quiet sigh to show how much we appreciate that gift and reluctantly says 'Thank You' just to show some respect and manners.I don't believe everyone is like that or am I pointing any fingers around but it's just a hypothesis of human behavior on how most people would probably react in these situations thus I used myself as a test subject hence my hypothesis.

Before I went on any further, I checked my attitude in the light of Scripture and found out that my attitude was extremely self centered and ungrateful.How can I grumble and expect others to give me what I want and not think about the giver's financial standings and heart?People give out of a good purpose to cheer me up and to tell me that I'm someone in their life yet I have ruin such thought when I focus myself on the gift.How wretched am I if I were follow what my instinct tells me and allows it to determine my attitude!

The Bible tells us of the greatest gift mankind would ever receive which is forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. There was no outward adornment that makes the Lord Jesus Christ a beautifully wrapped gift since the Bible describes Him as a man that had his visage marred than of any man.He was neither popular or wanted in the society nor appreciated who He was.Only a handful of people realized that He was the greatest gift of all when they realized what was really needed in their lives.Not money or fame or prosperity because all these will soon perish and fade away but what is eternal.What then is eternal?They saw Jesus as the one who is able to reconcile mankind with God through the giving of His life!Did Jesus came to rule and lay down harsh commandments that makes our life miserable?Or did He came as a dictator, commanding us to give ourselves to Him without question and deals with us like slaves?If that was the case, Christ would not have died and we will all remain in our sins!

There was once, when I watched some Chinese film that depicts a rebellious son seeking for forgiveness of his father when he realized that he's done nothing but wrong to his father, and when the father willingly accepts his apology and forgives him of all that he has done, my heart felt joyful as I faced that in my life as well just as I ask the Lord Jesus to forgive me of all the sins that I have done and return back to Him while He's willing to accept me and forgive me.This is the greatest gift of all that God gave us.This gift of love that would sometimes seems to be just like any gift to me but yet sometimes it seems to be a mind boggling thought as I consider that gift a little closer.We will not appreciate the gift if we have not come to realize what we really lack and need.

I have learn t that even in giving presents to people, I would prefer to get them something that they need instead of something that they want.Of course this would need a lot of interaction between that individual but that would in turn strengthen the friendship as well.It's always satisfying to see the smile in your friend's face when they received your present or better still, a teary eye.Haha well, that for me is the joy of receiving and the joy of giving.It doesn't need to be expensive or branded but that item alone can cheer up and benefit that individual for a long time if it meets the need.

All in all, have a blessed holiday season and have a blessed New Year 2008!

Penang Food Review : Little India

2007-12-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Jeff took a bunch of us to try out some Indian food in Little India, somewhere near Beach Street. Jeff told us that he's taking us to an authentic banana leaf Indian food that tastes better than Banana Leaf (Passion of Kerala). Thus we drove down to Little India hoping to feast on some hebat Indian delicacies.Upon arrival, we parked our car along Beach Street and we walked into Little India, it's rather similar to China Town just that this time it's filled with Indians.

(Some sceneries inside Little India)

(Luckily we walked..look at the jam inside Little India..You wouldn't want to be stuck in them.)

Ah..After walking quite a distance, we reached our destination, Restoran Daun Pisang Sri Ananda Bahwan.Although at first I was a bit skeptical of that place but that thought vanished as soon as I started trying out the food.

(Remember,remember Sri Ananda Bahwan, the place that serves good Indian food..)

As I stepped inside the restaurant, there's so many dishes of Indian delicacies that when you go to normal nasi kandar stores such as Kayu, Kassim Mustaffa or Subaidah, you would utterly despise their effort.Hehe Well seriously, look at the dishes below and then compare them with what you get from the local nasi kandar stores.There's so much of variety that it put most of the indian restaurants to shame.

All the 3 photos above are just side dishes to be honest with ya.You will get to order their standard dishes from the menu.Believe me, those dishes are very good and worth the price.It is not spicy at all as I'm a person who cannot take hot and spicy food else my face will turn red immediately!So I'm a good indicator for the kepedasan level for food.

The two dishes above are mutton and chicken.To be honest, both of them tasted OK only in my opinion.The muttons are served in mild curry and its meat are not as hard as rocks.It's just ngam ngam for me.As for the chicken, the portion is quite weird as they served 2 pieces of chicken only for 5 person present there.So we had a hard time splitting up the portion for everyone, thus in the end only Sin Yee and me ate the chicken.

Here comes the bomb: Cauliflower! Who would have thought cauliflower could taste so nice! As I sank my teeth in one of those, there's an 'explosion' feeling inside your mouth as the cauliflower burst open and spreads its juice around your taste buds.This is one of their famous dish there so remember to order them when you eat there.

Next, the fried ikan bawal hitam covered with non-spicy curry rocks! It is one of the best fried fish I've ever eaten in an Indian restaurant.The crunchy skin and the smooth texture of the fish meat goes along very well with the curry plus there was no 'chau sui' smell in the fish making it taste good.Everyone walloped the fish so quickly that even though it was the last dish to arrive, it was the first dish to finish!

Finally, the fried brinjal (I don't think I spelt that correctly..hmm) was also one of the best side dishes we ordered.I guess no one loves brinjal if it was steamed since it doesn't really taste nice if it's done that way but if it's fried then it's a whole new different taste.This is also a must try if you ever visits this place.

Ahh..habis makan..100% satisfaction guaranteed but no refunds if you don't like the food here.Maybe you just don't like Indian food at all if you find this place lousy.:p

(ARGHHH...Die fishy die!!)

Scavenger Hunt Version 2

2007-12-08T05:44:00.000-08:00

On the 25th of November , our youth had a scavenger hunt similarly like what's been done before earlier this year. (Some of you would wonder why the title says Version 2, well that's because this is the second scavenger hunt that took place and recorded in here.The first one was not recorded though...) In this scavenger hunt, the participants first be required to find their drivers of the day since this hunt requires driving around Pantai Jerjak area up to Bayan Lepas area to gather the hunted items. The method of gathering the hunted items are mostly done by taking a picture of the acquired clues along side with a scavenger member. Most of the hunted items are places and some to-do-things in the location highlighted in the clue given by Jeff and myself.

(the gathering of the Penang hiong drivers)

Each car would consists of 3-4 participants and all of them are randomly selected according to our unbiased selection. (hehe..we're trying to be fair for all the groups so that the groups are equally divided within their wisdom,knowledge and enthusiasm..so that most of them could get most of the clues right unlike the last time..will blog about it next time..) After that, we will distribute the clues to all of the teams and they will get started with it right away.

In this blog entry, I will be focusing more on this group below :

(Most wacky group and most semangat group)

Why?The reason why I chose this group to blog about is because they had a totally different hunting clues from the rest of them.Their clue had some wacky ideas and odd jobs to do compared to the rest of the groups.Hmm..You would be wondering why right?Well, we did it on purpose since the girl in white which is Sin Yee is celebrating her birthday on that day so we thought of making fun of her in this game.kekeke.Oh ya, there's another twist for this team.Each of them are supposed to wear a party cap throughout all the hunts.They must appear wearing the cap in every photos taken by them.

Ok, now for the first clue, this group was supposed to find the exact place of the photo taken below and then take an exact photograph of that place alongside with the team members.

(Nice view of Equatorial Hotel from the side of the hill)

And here's what they took...

(we asked them to pose as superman but I don't think they know who superman was...Cuz they look like Ultraman more than Superman to me..Compare with photos below..)

Ok, after that, they headed off to Bukit Jambul Hill as they are required to hike up that hill which is different from the rest of the groups as they are not needed to hike any hill. :P

The funny thing was, they didn't plan to do that last but they did it immediately according to the clues given. Note: The participants are able to plan their route in order to capture their hunted items and not go according to the exact order that the clues appeared. So in this case, they hiked up Bukit Jambul hill at 4pm! Wahlau gila man..If I was in that group, I would be sunburned till death!

Here's some photos that they took to prove that they conquered the top of BJ hill:

(Obviously, Samuel have not been exercising after his recent weight achievement to 95)

(Even though slim-shady Tin is slim enough, BJ hill took a toll on him)

(Imagine a group of people taking photos with party caps on top of a hill at 4pm++....This is what it would look like..no need to imagine..)

Next stop: Coconut station. Bonus clue : Sin Yee was required to find a coconut stall and drink the whole coconut with photos taken as evidence.She managed to find a coconut stall right on the foot of BJ Hill.

(Ahhh...fresh nuts...(in Pudge's voice))

After that, they drove down to Lake Plaza situated around Parkview Towers, Alpine Towers and Hillside Towers.They are supposed to look around the lake to spot another clue that leads them to the right answer.Justin and Sin Yee found it as it was behind one of the benches in the lake.We purposely put the clue in the final few row of benches so that they need to walk quite far to find it.Hehe

(Wet Paint.Do not Touch.Obviously they don't heed the warnings...)

(Group photo in SMS cafe~Sin Yee was busy keng-ing sou with some mat romeo~)

(FUSION!!Dragon ball fusion!)

After all that, they drove down to Tesco Extra and Sin Yee was required to write a signboard and held it up for people to see.The message that she held up was to announce to people that Jesus is the only way to God and in order to believe in God is to repent and receive Him as our personal Savior.I'm glad I did received Jesus in my life because that's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. :)

(Eyur..mama why the malay chea chea there looking at us smiling so cunning one..I scared scared lah..)

Next, the group headed to the bus station situated in Pantai Jerjak.They are required to count the number of traffic lights there...Personally, I had a hard time counting all of them as well..you can give it a try if you like..

(wah..so many traffic lights..chiak lat loh..)

(after one hour...still counting...)

After that, they are required to state the price for the ferry ride to Pulau Jerejak thus they headed to the pier to find out the cost.

(Amoi, lengchai bo..~)

Gold Coast in Penang...

(Halo guard, ini ausstraliak ka?I mau pegi Go coast..)

The next activity required the group to do some tracting in Queensbay Mall.Sin Yee managed to tract to a hot 'chic' in Nandos.(I guess most of us seen this hot 'chic' before when we dine in Nandos Queensbay right...)

(Abang..eh, kakak..ambik ini sat dan pose kat kamera ok tak? Ok~~)

Unknown encounter of the Digi-manz..THAT was not part of the clue..

(Yo,I'm with Yellow mellow man~!)

Finally the hunt ended in Sungai Nibong Gospel Hall where all of us gathered.We managed to organize a suprise birthday party for this lil girl and made every team to get her some fruits since she loves to eat fruits so much.(Sure pandai pangsai one..)And we had each of them buy birthday cards for her.Aww..she was suprised of course..but most of all, happy.All the eyes was on her and I felt that she loves that attention given to her until....

(Which one to start first ar...hmm..watermelon,banana,grapes,or apples..)

A dog showed up!

(oh no, me caught red handed with muffin~!)

And all eyes were upon this cute puppy...Muffin..

(You think I'm dumb coz I don't bark?Well, I'll pee on you as soon as I get down..&#@%)

Everyone started taking turns hugging and cuddling the cute thing..

(3 black dots...)

Sin Yee merajuk..

Justin gets bashed by Sin Yee..

Justin gets cubitted by Jon..

Then the attention returns back to dog..

(so cute..notice he's sticking out his tougue..)

(Stop playing with me........)

(sien face..)

Well, that's all for the scavenger hunt and this post is dedicated to Sin Yee since she's the main character of the day.Hope that she enjoyed herself being amongst our Youth group.God Bless.

Are you WORLD enough?

2007-12-02T01:42:00.000-08:00

As I was strolling alongside with Jonathan in PC Fair this afternoon, just wondering how much have the computer industry changed ever since I bought my gaming computer last 3 years ago.Much to my amazement, as I looked at all the pricing for processors, hard disks, graphic cards and RAM dropped tremendously because of the vast availability of products and much competitors.I can even see that there are many competitors for our sole broadband provider, Tmnet with the other up rising competitors such as Maxis and Celcom.Actually there's another one,PenangFon which allows the usage of broadband without applying for a Telekom phone!

(hmm..can consider..)

Actually for this quarter's PC Fair, it's all about broadband only from what I see.Every counter I see offers broadband services and will stop at nothing in making sure you stop and listen to their crap.Anyway from my observation, many things are changing progressively fast and sometimes too fast to handle.In the past, if you tell your friends that you own a Pentium PC, most of them would be in awe and starts clashing into your home to have a look.Now if you say you own a Pentium, everyone would ask how much processing speed and tries to compare them with their own.

(this was used 10 years ago)

(after 10 years, it evolved to this..)

In the span of 10 years only, the processing power and speed increased exponentially.The term Megabyte was used just pass 6-7 years ago and now Gigabyte seems to be the trend.Who knows, give it another 2-3 years, Terrabyte would eventually be common as well.Let's look at how computer games evolved..

(This is Doom 1..one of the hottest game in the 90's era)

(Now this is the latest game, Crysis..notice the difference...)

How about another genre?

(Classic game..Starcraft..released on 1998)

(Starcraft 2..Yet to be determined)

Okay, enough of the cyber world, let's take a look at things that are much more down to earth.Just take a look at fashion, during the 90's people are more decent in their dressing and much more considerate as in how much flesh they would expose.As of now, the unwritten norm states that the less cloth you wear, the better you look cuz it would eventually turn more heads.Even as for those games we used to play when we were kids (eg: Pepsi Cola, Hide and Seek, 'Catch the Bottle Caps', 'Police and Thief',etc) compared to what kids play nowadays differs so much (eg: PokeMon Cards, PS2, Computer games,etc).Just in the span of 10 years, culture changes and thus, social norms changes rapidly in accordance with time.

Now, on a more serious note, how about moral values and society norms?How much have it changed to suit the time and culture of modern humanity?Long ago, people refrain from having pre-marital sex and are held as a social norm that only married couples are allowed to enjoy such activities.Plus most of the people actually did uphold that commandment.Most parents of that time are more conservative and made sure that their children follow those commandments. Then as the time passes, society have grown to compromise with that old standard. Co-habitation and pre-marital sex no longer seem strange to the world now, in fact, it's being advertised that having safe sex are recommended instead of abstaining from such sexual activities.As the world continues to evolve, society begins to accept homosexuality as an acceptable community now.Those who oppose such movement will be labeled as bigots and prejudice.

The list of laws increases due to the rapid change of cultural society in order to govern the 'freedom' that the society voted for.I believe the list will continue to grow as the world continues to evolve.Cyber-crime was never heard of only until recently.The definition of right and wrong are always been redefined again and again trying to achieve an absolute justice which is impossible by men.

There is only thing that remain true and capable of defining what is right and wrong; that which is the Word of God, the Bible.The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 6:16

"
16 Thus says the LORD:

“ Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.
"

The Bible speaks of the old road which means whatever that was written in the past in the Bible defines the truth and those who finds it and walk in it will find rest for their souls.What kind of rest does your soul need?Are you tired of looking for the truth and can't find it in any other place except the Bible?Do you not know that if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free?Free from what?Free from the weariness of finding out what's life is all about.

Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John8:31-32

The world is changing and advancing every moment but can you find any security in it?Times are changing, opinions of people are changing, technologies are changing and lifestyles are changing.Can we keep up with the pace set before us?Or is it wiser to hold back to the old path as it is written in the Bible?If I were to choose between what man and God would say about the truth, I would choose God even though the truth might sounds terrible and not as nice as it sounds.

What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. Rom 3:3-4

Where do you stand?Continue to hang on to what man can promise or start putting our trust on what God can promise?The old path or the always-uptodate-path?

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."Josh 24:15

I do wish that all of us could echo these words of faith along with me.Amen

Food Galore at Bing's~

2007-11-26T04:35:00.000-08:00

Halo semua, it's been quite some time I've updated my blog due to the heavy load in work recently that caused me much anxiety.Took me 2 weeks to recover from my insomnia effect, went to see the doctor for more than 4 times in 2 weeks, dependent upon sleeping pills to sleep, recovery from my eczema outbreak due to insufficient rest and overhaul of work stress and much more.Thank God for His abundant grace that I finally managed to recover and now much alive and kicking!

Been wanted to blog about this quite some time but didn't get myself to do so due to the fact of me being lazy to upload these photos into my computer.Heh.Plegmatic person mar..what to do..A lazy reluctant person I am.

Well regardless of how lazy I am, I still managed to get things done~ hehe..Anyway, on the 8th of November, there was a small makan gathering among my church members, thanks to Suleen who willingly suggested that she'll cook for us all.

(The Al-Mighty Chef, Su-leen)

At first, I thought she was just messing around with me but she seems to be serious about it and starts planning for the menu.The best part was that she was delighted in doing it.So I thought it's gonna be fun so I join in by allowing her to use my place to cook and gather.Now when I thought back, man thank God I said yes to the plan or else I wouldn't be able to enjoy all her hebat delicacies.My mum was excited about it as well and even went to buy an oven just for the sake of catering to Suleen's needs.See how contagious she can be.Can even influence my mum to buy such thing.Haha.Well its good to have an oven now and I figure that it's easier to cook using an oven than using a wok.

So most of the girls (Sarah,Sin Yee,May Hsin) came together and went shopping with me for the ingredients as Suleen leads the team while I do the driving,paying..(well, after eating what's been cooked by her,I felt that it's worth paying it..hehe) and carrying.After that, we headed back home and started preparing for the dinner (well, to be honest, I was playing DoTA when the girls are preparing..hehehe..Yea, typical guy..dunno how to cook) from 2pm onwards until 8pm non-stop..All of them was heeding Suleen's instructions(Chef 'Remy') to do this and do that, and me watching them from afar..hahaha

(Yes..more mustard...MORE!!)

The food prepared was :

1) Mushroom Soup

(as good as Mizi's)

2) Salted Chicken (Yim Kuk Kai)..I think..

(my latest addiction)

3) Cheezy Sweet Potato..totally no idea how to call it..

(from the photo, it looks so scary..)

4) Bread Strata..this one confirm betul since it's been approved by the chef

(This is heavenly~)

5) Salad

(meat are for me,vege for girls...)

6) Ai Gaik..Hokkien term..dunno how to call it in English

(can sell beside the road already..taste exactly the same with Chulia Street's one)

Alas, after so much enjoyment for the stomach, I sat down and felt so blessed.Not because of the food only, but because of the fellowship that we had during that whole eventful day.I never open my house before for such a huge gathering due to many excuses I gave myself for not doing it.This was my first time having such a huge gathering in my home and definitely will not be the last.I felt so joyful to know that I have so many friends around me that cares for me and will be there for me when I need them.It really touches my heart to finally understands what it feels like to open my own home for gatherings such as this.I never learn how to be hospitable or am I hospitable by nature.I believe I have to learn be like one because in the end, best things are always shared among the people you love.

One thought came to my mind as I watched all my friends laugh and joke around the dinner table and eating at the same time which is this: I will spend eternity with all of them in heaven in that Day.I smiled to myself and said to myself, 'Now, that's paradise.'

Below are all the photos taken during the food galore.

(*Oh look at me, I have the thickest lips of them all* Sin Yee happily amuse herself)

(This is my best try!! *Nick tries to open his eyes for his kodak moment*)

(Justin teaches Kah Wai how to make salad popiah)

(95..96..97..98..still going strong..)

(Aww..always looking away from the camera..main star have no clear photo..where can!)

(Ah..got perfect photo d..sorry ar..have to curi from friendster :P)

2 Things that are certain in life

2007-11-14T22:47:00.000-08:00

There are 2 things that are certain in life. One, Death. Two, Taxes.I got this story from a colleague of mine and I find it very true so I'll share it here with you guys.

A good point to ponder.

"For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible."

From the University of Georgia :
Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all
ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with
the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since
you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily beer by $20."
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so
the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men; i.e. the paying customers? How
could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get
his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth
man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each
man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out
the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the
men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a
dollar, too. It's unfair
that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine
sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the
bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough
money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors,
is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes
get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack
them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In
fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is
somewhat friendlier.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in order to be free from taxes, make sure your annual salary does not go above RM30,000.Otherwise you would be entitled to pay taxes to Badawi, else you can still enjoy your tax-less freedom.

"Therefore render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and render to God what is God's."
Luke 20:25

Being Alone

2007-11-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the opportunity..well I wouldn't call it an opportunity but maybe an occasion that I was left by myself, since most of my friends weren't around me for that weekend. Despite of being alone at home and going places alone all by myself, I realised that it was kinda pathetic and it's as if you've got no friend or not worthy to have one."You eat alot of meals alone...trust me,you don't wanna to be that guy" quoted by John Mclane (Die Hard 4)

Hence I thought to myself, it was good having a bunch of friends around you to talk to and hang around.It then sank to me in my heart that it felt terrible to be like that forever!Maybe I should get a companion (mum would be happy) and then my friends can stop calling me 'gay' for that childish reason.Heh.

As I sat back munching on the food on the table in Chopper Board at Queensbay Mall, I began to look around myself and started thinking.My first thought went start into biblical persona's that have faced such loneliness in their lives.I didn't think long when the sudden gush of name ideas came into my mind.There was Joseph, Moses, David, John and Jesus.(I believe there's more but I would stop right there for now)

In each occasions when these characters are alone, God spoke to them.For example, when Moses was alone keeping his flocks, God called him in a burning bush, when John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, the Son Of Man appeared to him and gave him the book of Revelations, and when Jesus was alone praying in the garden, God spoke to his 3 disciples confirming to them that this is His well beloved Son.

Come to think of it, God really speaks when we are alone because it is then we are most vulnerable.Why do I say vulnerable?Simply because God can speak to you similarly can the Devil speak to you.It is said that 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop' and I find it very true especially if we do not focus our thoughts on God.I usually fall into temptations when I'm alone and no one's able to see what I'm capable of.

However, I'm not talking about sin and temptations but rather how God really speaks to us when we are alone.In moments like this, my mind focused on two characters that really spoke to me, Jesus and John.Jesus always did set apart a time for him to be alone with God and He did this not to alienate himself from his disciples or spend some napping time from his ministry, but He did so to spend quality time with God the Father.He practically enjoyed doing so because He did this quite a number of times throughout the gospels! Sometimes I asked myself, do I really long for God's presence and spend such quality times with Him, just being there with Him.I can say Yes and No, but most of the time, No..sad but true..I chose to do other things than choosing to be with Him.I wonder what if Jesus comes back again at this time, will I enjoy Him eternally?Will I be able to say to myself ,'All I need is You'? And nothing else matters..
Do I echo the words of David in Psalm 23 by saying that the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want?

Secondly, my mind focuses on the apostle John that was exiled to the Isle of Patmos by the Roman Empire.Imagine, being alienated and thrown out from your assembly into an outcast land under the government authority, how would John felt at that moment of time.However, John was still faithful to God even in the absence of his fellow men.He continued to remember the Lord at the Lord's Day (Sunday).He had no intention to skip the Lord's Supper in remembrance of his master and Savior.And lo and behold, who did he met there?The Son of Man himself! The Lord Jesus in His full glory appeared to him and gave him the final revelation for the Church and the world in the isolated island.

At that moment,I stepped back and imagined myself in John's shoes.Would I be able to keep my thoughts on Him when I'm away from my brethren?Is my faith genuine to Him or am I just showing off to my fellow brethren all this while?Would I be glad or afraid if I met Him there?Would I be ashamed of what I'm doing at that moment of time?At most of our times being alone, most likely we would give in to our flesh and lusts.What if we are caught in the air in that moment when we are sinning?I would dig a hole on the ground and bury myself there.

After all these thoughts, I suddenly realized that I should always be on guard of my mind and actions regardless of whether I being alone or not.Let's hope that all of us are good boys and girls not only in front of our family and friends but also alone with ourselves. =)

Remember,Remember the 5th Of November...

2007-11-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

"...the gun powder treason on 1605...", quoted by V (V For Vendetta) reminds me of the precious lesson which I've learnt from watching this movie, V For Vendetta last year.Before I watched this film, I thought that it would be a boring talk show that integrates a sort of 'super hero' in it to make it marketable since most of the people don't favor talk shows..most people enjoys mindless action packed movies where the hero/heroine never dies or some mindless comedy that anyone would laugh their lungs out no matter how lame their jokes can be..Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy these kind of movies as well for a no-brainer like myself..haha

However, there are times, I would go for a serious movie where it requires some analytical skills of interpretation of speech and some hidden plots that would make you stand in awe once you discover the meaning of that mystery.You know what I mean.Movies like Matrix, Minority Report, The Bone Collector, The Island, V for Vendetta and others which are able to fuel the mind to wander in admiration of the concept and plots written for such movies.

Ok, back to 5th of November, Ahh..Many significant lessons I've learnt from this movie (V for Vendetta) but the most important lesson I've learnt was standing up for what is right even though you might be standing against all odds. Many people believe in the truth but never stands for the truth.Familiar?When we see something is wrong or injustice seems to prevails in a certain situation, most of the time there won't be anyone standing against it.Everyone just keep quiet and just let it happen even though they know deep down inside their heart that such things shouldn't happen and that justice should prevail.But no one would put their finger to amend such situation or even to voice out any disagreements against such plot.They think that by doing so, it would get themselves into trouble or unnecessary 'mess'.

We tend to think that one day justice will serve its rigthful purpose upon the offender that pollutes it and we think that the law will judge them eventually one fine day.Even though I believe in God and God will eventually punish every law offender in the End Times but I firmly believe that the law which God have entrusted to us, we have to safeguard and uphold it if we firmly believes in it.Let's put ourselves in the victim's shoes, wouldn't you feel that what is right is to be done and everyone around you should concur to support what which is right?Let's face it, taking a stand for something you firmly believes takes guts and truly requires courage to do that.I believe we are lack of 'guts' (I like guts better than courage because it reminds me of chicken guts..food..even though I don't eat them..) and that's why there's so many ah kua's around these days...nah, just kidding..

To solve a problem, we must always look for the root cause of that problem or else we might never solve the problem where it started.In my opinion, I felt that the root cause of this problem might be unnecessary attention drawn towards you.People would care less of whether or not justice is preserved and would only care what happens within his/her sphere of life.These are thought as excess baggages that might even effect their quiet little lives just by lifting their fingers or mouth to help the victim.Let's face it, we have been so self centered until we've become cowards that would stand up for the truth.Another fact would be too concious of what other's might think of us.We think that by standing up for the truth might hurt some other individuals around us thus we chose to stand with the majority.

I've got a forwarded mail from a friend that tells a true story in New York.There's this gentlemen walking to work while he was robbed and stabbed in an open day light in the streets of New York! While this gentlemen gloat and begged for help to sidewalkers, no one seemed to care and everyone was so engrossed with themselves than to realized his neighbour is in trouble.Kids filling their ears with iPods while adults looked elsewhere with their bluetooth cellphone talking away their business of the day.Finally, a street sweeper realized and asked for help to help that poor gentlemen to the hospital.What's wrong with these people?What are they thinking about?It's a man's life we're talking about here and no one seems to cared.

Well, let me speculate what's in their mind: "If I help this man, I might be labeled as his accomplice in his business and I'm afraid that the stabber would hunt after me if I helped him", "I've no time to help this man.I have a meeting in 10 minutes time.", "Let someone else help him but not me,I can't look at blood.","Maybe he deserved it.Maybe he's an adulterer or spy.Who knows?"..You would think that I've exaggerating abit but the essence is there.What I'm trying to convey is that people are not having the courage to stand up for the truth.If everyone were to stand up for what's right, I believe this would be totally another different scenario.You'll be seeing 2 or 3 young people running after that robber, 2 or 3 aiding the victim, and 1 calling 911.That would make the place a more secure place to walk in wouldn't it if everyone took the courage to be involved.

Unfortunately, our old values are clouded and darkened despite of growth of our civilization. Let this day remind all of us to stand up for what is right and true, and even though V is a fictional character in a comic but its lessons are valuable for us all to learn.Bring out the V in us and remember that V is not just a character but an idea.And 'ideas are...bulletproof'. They never dies.

Girls/Boys vs Grown Women/Men

2007-10-30T18:44:00.001-07:00

Girls vs. Grown Women

Girls leave their schedule wide-open and wait for a guy to call and make plans.
Grown women make their own plans and nicely tell the guy to get in where he fits

**********
Girls want to control the man in their life.
Grown women know that if he's truly hers, he doesn't need controlling.

**********
Girls check you for not calling them.
Grown women are too busy to realize you hadn't.

**********
Girls are afraid to be alone.
Grown women revel in it-using it as a time for personal growth.

**********
Girls ignore the good guys.
Grown women ignore the bad guys.

**********
Girls make you come home.
Grown women make you want to come home.

**********
Girls worry about not being pretty and/or good enough for their man.
Grown women know that they are pretty and/or good enough for any man.

**********
Girls try to monopolize all their man's time ( I.e., don't want him hanging with his friends).
Grown women realize that a lil' bit of space makes the 'together time' even more special-and goes to kick it with her own friends!

**********
Girls think a guy crying is weak.
Grown women offer their shoulder and a tissue.

**********
Girls want to be spoiled and 'tell' their man so.
Grown women 'show' him and make him comfortable enough to reciprocate without fear of losing his 'manhood'.

**********
Girls get hurt by one man and make all men pay for it.
Grown women know that that was just one man.

**********
Girls fall in love and chase aimlessly after the object of their affection, ignoring all 'signs'.
Grown women know that sometimes the one you love, don't always love you back-and move on, without bitterness.

**********
Girls will read this and get an attitude.
Grown women will read this and pass it on to other Grown women and their male friends.

Hah!Totally agree with what's been said above! Got this from a forwarded mail and found what's been said here to be quite true in general.Alright, I'm not gonna be a sexist.I will include the guys part here myself.

Boys do not know how to read any signs given by girls even when it's obvious that she's not interested in him.
Men knows when to stop pursuing after reading the signs shown by girls and able to test the 'waters' before going after the girl.
**********

Boys thinks that they can only show how much they love their girlfriends by how much presents they shower upon them or how much they spent on them.
Men knows that the best gift they can ever give is themselves.
**********

Boys would always be jealous if their girlfriends gets alot of attention from other guys.
Men are proud of their girlfriends when their girlfriends get such attention because he knows that she is priceless and now belongs to him.
**********

Boys would not keep in touch with their ex girlfriends or even treat them as friends even though they cannot be together.
Men would still consider their ex girlfriends their best friends even though they have parted ways.
**********

Boys would only not consider much when he's in love with a girl of his dreams.All he thinks about is getting into the relationship as soon as possible in order to own her physically and that's all he can think about.
Men would consider whether he can spend eternity with the women he loves even before he asks for a relationship.
**********

Can't think anymore, brain karat today.Hopefully will get better tomorrow. =)

Jay Chou's new hit song review(Jay Chou - Rainbow/Cai Hong)

2007-10-28T18:44:00.001-07:00

Jay's new album will be out next month and I'm excited over it as I have secretly liked him..eh no no..his songs baru betul..haha I'm not into guys..Totally uncool about that and God dislikes it.Hehe

Well I first heard of him while I was in TARC (Tunku Abdul Rahman College) furthering my studies before I started working as a lousy programmer now.As a 'banana' such as myself, I kinda find myself weird if i sing chinese songs especially mandarin songs as I don't really know how to read them.When I first heard Jay's song (Hei Se Yo Mo - Black Humor) from my coursemate's computer, I liked it.Then I went to replay it and the more I listened to it, the more I liked it.It was like chor luen (first love) but only this refers to a song not to the person who sang it...Then I sort after the Huan Yin Pin Yin (some chinese translated alphabetical phrases) to help me learn the lyrics.

As I listened more to Jay's songs, I gave up learning the lyrics by huan yin.I gave it a try to memorize all the lyrics by just listening to the songs.I played it over 100 times for each song a day in order for me to get the flow and pronounciations right.

However, I only managed to get myself 50% accurate in singing his songs rightly.~Argh~ But then, the style of his singing gave me the advantage to make mistakes since he mumbles in most of his songs..hehehe good for banana beginners :D

When I was still in KL TARC, I managed to find many karaoke kaki's that are 'siao' enough to sing till their throats go sore.Sometimes we can sing the whole night through even though its a torture for the voice box but boh chap, still sing! hehe..Ah~ Those were the days..

Anyway, this song is the latest hit on radio now.Sad MV though but it's just fiction.That's all for this short post.Enjoy the song.Bring out the 'Jay' in you!

Old Time Favourite

2007-10-24T17:10:00.001-07:00

Whenever there's a new arcade game,it never fails to attract my attention when I walk past them.I would usually check out the cool introductions and then decide whether to play them or not when I was young.This game instantly caught my attention and I tried the game immediately without much thought since I love Marvel super heroes and Capcom Street Fighters.

Amazed at the detailed graphics and hyper combos, I decided to train up this game after a one-time try out.I was quite pro in those time since I always drop by at Komtar after schooling hours to play and hang out in the arcade zone.Suprisingly, I didn't fell to the 'Ah Beng' path where most of them starts to learn how to curse,smoke and flirt with passerby ladiesI(girls).I was so captivated by playing these games that I didn't bother to learn those stuff.Hehe.The powa of gaming!

Anyway, back to this game, I would love to review this game as my old time favourite since it's been 7 years now when this game was released.I still play them today and it has been my weekly thingy to release my work stress.Hehe

If you like fast pace action games with hyper combos that would reach up to 99 hits or infinite hits, then this game is for you.Furthermore, you will be able to choose 3 super heroes out of 64 (I think) heroes in the character list to match up with other opponents.Each hero have their own pros and cons thus maximizing the pros would be the winning factor to determine the win.This game is easy to play but yet difficult to master but there are some pros in Penang whom I've met with ultra fast reflexes that can combo you to death once you let go of your guard.There are some players that will abuse the easy style of playing by just picking all projectile heroes which means all 3 heroes can shoot beams to their opponents and then they would just stand back shooting them to avoid close contact.Then there are those who would chose heroes that are able to counter air contacts to avoid being engaged in close contact.There are various styles of playing but I would only salute those who can play close encounters and able to execute the right combos at the right time.

Most of these fights are intense and will definitely make you sweat in your armpits as you control the joy stick and press the button furiously when panic.Hehehe

The combo video above is just a foretaste of what this game can do and it certainly gives you new ideas on how to execute these great combos.I would rate this game 5 out of 5 because I never get bored playing them.

Call me a kid if you want but put that aside when I challenge you to this game and let the heroes do the talking.Yes,I am childish but who isn't?=P So go ahead, change your 50 cent coin into a token and engage me in the battle of the super heroes.Muahahaha.Expecting real players and not projectile cowards.You know what I mean if you play this game. :D

Movie Review - Hair Spray

2007-10-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

When I was browsing at the cinema screens in Golden Screens Cinemas for any good shows, I came across this movie poster.As usual, the first thing to determine whether the movie was worth watching is first to look at the actors/actresses involved in the movie.Directors and producers also makes a big difference to determine whether the movie is good or not.

First of all, the name of this movie did not appeal to me at all but what caught my attention was the cast.I always thought that a good cast will always produce a good movie (I sticked to this 'theory' ever since I started watching movies which seems to work) and I thought to myself that if there's so many famous actors/actresses collaborating together in making that movie, then this producer must have a huge budget for the film.More budget = more props = much more details = good movie. Hehe

Anyway, I managed to catch this movie with my church friends and I enjoyed every moment of the movie.It's based in the 70's and a musical drama itself.*Warning for those who haven't watch this film yet, there WILL be spoilers in this review*

Basically, this movie is about a plump girl(Nikki Blonsky) that loves dancing and would love to dance in her favorite TV show plus she's got a crush on a guy(Zac Efron) in that show as well so she's devoted to that show more than anything else (even studies or food diet).Then there's an opening in that show to replace a dancer because she would be away for 9 months and Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) knew about it and went for the audition for that spot.The manager of the TV station,Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) made it hard for Tracy to qualify for that spot by making cruel statements about her size, brains and skill just by look at her without even any trying out.Well, in reality, that really happens a lot when most plump people will be looked at like second class citizen.

Nobody loves to be fat or glad to be one simply because we are bombarded by the media that slim people look the best, perform the best, and does everything else much better than someone who is plump (except for some areas like Sumo wrestling or Tug of war challenge). Look at all the media adverts today, it's hard to find some adverts with plump people in it and even if there's one, it's not the main feature.People always look at the outward part of people and make reckless judgment about them that isn't really true at most of the time.This problem will always be there but what can one do about it is to be considerate and look through a person,not merely the outward expression but what is inside that person.Be patient and find out about them lest we judge recklessly.

Back to the show, in that era according to the show, there's a significant separation between the whites and the blacks (one with fair skin and one with dark skin), where racism is portrayed strongly in that show. Velma and her boss dislikes having the blacks in having the same position as whites that's why they separated the white dancers with the blacks plus they officiate a day to be 'Negro day' where only the blacks can have that 'privilege' to dance in the show for that day.Negro day only happens once a month and any other day is 'Whites' day.Queen Latifah and Elijah Kelley led the role of the blacks and showed how they protested against such racism.Tracy was the only one who is fair skinned joined the protest because she believes in standing for what is right instead of standing with the majority.

Sometimes, do we asked ourselves, "Are we following what others want me to do just because I want to be part of them and not to offend them?" or "Even though I know it's wrong, but what can I do about it?I'm only one person.I can't be against a whole lot of them".At times like this, we should remind ourselves that what actually rule our lives.Majority or values that we hold true to?If we hold true to the values that are against the majority and could not stand for what is right in our eyes, we can only hold ourselves to be blamed when our integrity are questioned. Are we standing for what we think is right or are we just mere followers of the crowd?Are we living a lives to please everyone or are we living our lives for ourselves or are we living it for a higher calling?

Finally, what impacts me in this movie is this part: the part where Wilbur (Christopher Walken) and Mrs. Turnblad (John Travolta) tried to patch up after Wilbur got misunderstood by having an affair with Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) and they did a whole musical by singing to one another that they are Timeless to one another.Despite of Mrs. Turnblad's big size for being a big eater, Wilbur's love remained unchanged towards her.His faithfulness to her was more than just external and the trust between them seems impeccable.That's what love really is and that really marvels me to see how marriage should really work.

External beauty may fade away but what really keeps them together is the internal beauty that never fade away.Both of them built their relationship on the right track and that kept them together for the rest of their lives.In the world today, most relationships are motivated by the lust of the eyes.One guy can fall for a girl without even knowing her and that can happen within seconds just by having a few glances at her.Nowadays we can see that relationships can be built easily and break easily.What I can see is that what really motivates relationships is lust instead of love.I hope I won't end up liking a girl due to her appearance alone and end up lusting after her body instead of loving her for who she really is.

These are the verses that was reminded in me when I write this post:

Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Romans 14:4

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:28-29

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Overall, this is a very good show in my opinion.Go buy the dvd and watch it.Buy original ya! Don't pirate :P

Bloodnut Overloaded!

2007-10-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's a quarter past 4 now and I'm dead tired sitting in my cubicle solving issues at my work place.The new cubicle is indeed nice because I'm all 'covered' from all sides except for the exit which means I can surf the net and chat with my friends via MSN without any worries. Hehe Unlike my old cubicle, it was wide open and everyone who walks to the loo will always be able to see what I'm doing.You might be wondering why I was transfered to a new cubicle.Well a colleague of mine just resigned and left, I was to replace him and all his workload TOGETHER with my current job scope until a new employee is hired!!!

As if that's not tragic enough, another colleague of mine was transfered to work in a main project with the vendors therefore his current job scope is left void.Thus my superior placed me (Why me??) to replace him as well!! Bravo, I'm now the 'trinity' (new name given by Kah Wai).How come I wasn't paid 3 times of my current salary?Well, this is Malaysia I supposed, Malaysia 'Boleh' and I'm a Malaysian therefore I am 'boleh'. Boleh dipergunakan got lah..

Although my job scope grew overnight, I believe this new job scope will be much more interesting than my old one.In this new job scope, I am in charge of System Automation which means most of my systems are related to the manufacturing line directly and also deals with machines.I always love new challenges but not in this way. Having a single person single handedly handling 3 person's job is no joke.

I can only persevere until the new employees arrive.The worst part of working life is getting not appreciated in the work that I have done.Only the users know what I did and reward me accordingly.My boss?He thinks what I'm doing is peanut (kacang).

As I am furious with all this, a thought came to me that calmed me down and put me into deep thought. Do we ever think that we appreciate what God has done for the world?I mean in creating the earth, creating the animals and plants, the beauty and splendor of nature, blessed us with the authority over earth and given us the freedom to make choices.Have we ever thought about that? Or are we taking all that is around us for granted? Do we even stop and admire God's creation and blessing for us all or are we too busy to notice God in our lives?

I have always complain much on how much I've gotta do and have to do in order to fulfill my duties and desires.Complaining that no one ever noticed what I did (I mean at my work place) and appreciate my contribution, and yet forgetting that I am not the only one that feels this way.

It always occured to me that I have to often think for others in order for God to teach me something valuable.I believe that God really wants us to think for one another and love one another. And I believe that's how we become a much more matured person, regardless of whether a person is a Christian or not.Maturity comes when one starts to think of the need of the other person.Well, I'm not saying maturity can only comes in one way only but can be obtain as well from other aspects like responsibility, etc.

Now, I have learnt to be tougher in times like this, and learn to appreciate others more especially God in His providence and guidance.

Why should I be discouraged when the one who watches the sparrow is ever watching over me?

Forever 'loved'?

2007-10-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

After discussing on the taboo topic (Death), I've come across another topic that makes the world go round.This object of the topic will always be the most common topic discussed over and over again throughout the ages and loved by many, if not all mankind. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?Are we thinking of the same object now?I think it's not tough to guess that object of discussion is : Money (Mammon)

And more money!

And MORE!!!

Okok enough of money..eh wait, do you think anyone would get sick of money?Very unlikely, except for those multi billionaires that have too much to spare.We are not talking about monopoly notes here but the real thing, hehe and I believe everyone would always be interested in discussing on this topic and will never get bored of them.

When I was still in my schooling age, I have already learn t that money is a very important object that I must possess in order to buy anything, be it a product or a service.I always ask for more monthly allowance as I always finish spending them before the month ends.As I grew older, I was involved in this multi-level marketing that gives me the opportunity to earn around 10k to 20k per month if I do it right (as told by my peer groups). When I was in this, I began to devise plans and starts to call my friends out to start this 'business' with me.

Basically for those who do not know how multi level marketing works, let me briefly explain it here.First you pay a certain amount of capital to start a 'business' or I would call it a virtual counter or shop.To do business, one must possess an outlet/shop to sell their products therefore this makes perfect sense.After setting up a virtual shop, the company would supply the products and all we need to do is to get another partner to join venture in this plan by starting another virtual shop under you.Thus, if you get more partners to join you, the company would reward you handsomely with the commission agreed on.Therefore, your job is to find people, 'convert' them and then train them to 'convert' others.It's a pyramid plan.Those on top will get the most as the ones lower will build their empire around those who are on top.So first come first serve.

When I first started, I called my closest friends and tells them of this incredible plan to earn extra pocket money at a cost.Those time were quite easy as most of us have PTPN loans, so it's the right time to 'INVEST'.So when I got some of my friends joining me, the thoughts of earning 10k-20k per month as a student seems like a reachable dream.

As I was busy planning and 'converting' my friends to invest into this business, suddenly something held me back.I started to think about what I am doing.Whenever I called my friends out for supper, there was an intention behind the invitation.Soon I begin to realized that I have been trying to convert all my long lost buddies into this business without even meeting out for a simple conversation.Every time we met, we just talked about that business and how we can earn more money through it.Where did all our fun and laughter that we used to share and talk about when we meet up?Where did my genuineness of just being a friend/companion gone to?Where did the care and sharing gone to?All these have faded away just because of money.No, Money is not the reason but the Love of Money is.

I was so obsessed about money that I have traded friendship for money.After that, I begin to sense that all my friends are leaving me because of what I have become.A self centered, care-less, lousy friend and a money minded freak, I have become.

When I was considering to quit, 2 thoughts came to me.

1) Matt 6:24

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

2) 1 Tim 6:10

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

After giving much thought to it, I gave it and decided to not continue in this business.How can I be so fervent in the service of money instead of service to God?I felt so guilty to all of my friends that I've used and to God for letting Him down by serving money instead of Him.The second verse is particularly true to me in that moment of trial where it states that some people have pierced themselves with many griefs.As I look back, I thank God for giving me such realisation before it was too late.

Many people will not love you for standing against them especially when you turn from their viewpoint of money.Most people would not agree with what I've thinking and would be perfectly okay with what I was doing in earning money but most importantly is what God thinks and where your convictions lies.To a millionaire-to-be person, the methods might not matter but what mattered most are the results but to a Christian, to be contented with what is given and live a life that is pleasing to God mattered the most instead of getting himself/herself occupied with earthly treasures.

Well, you may say that it's the opinion that differs in the individuals but for me, I would just simply say this: Are you serving God or are you serving money?All our actions are inclined to what we think so it's just either God or money.There is no middle ground.As for now, I thank God for bringing me back to Him instead of getting myself occupied with monetary happiness.

So what is your priority in life?Money or God?

Celine dion and Josh groban live - The Prayer

2007-10-02T16:59:00.001-07:00

Just bump to this video when I was surfing YouTube for Josh Groban.This video really gives me goosebumps(in a good way) when I listen to it.I really admire Josh Groban's voice and his strength in magnifying his voice to a higher level with such confidence.

Josh Groban, my favourite artist ever since I heard him sing "You raised me up" from the radio and that turned me into a Grobanite.Haha

Maybe I should start a career like him and be Bingness instead of Grobanite....err maybe not..:P

Choi~

2007-10-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

There's a topic I've learn t throughout my life that most people tend to avoid. Whenever anyone speaks of this topic, you would hear people trying to hush about it or would try to dismiss the discussion immediately. Among our chinese circles, it is considered a taboo and no one would bring this topic up unless necessary. Yea, this topic is Death.

I'm not interested of discussing such topic now but I came across this question when I was a young boy and it kinda stuck in my mind till now.The question sounds like this: If you were to die tomorrow, what would you do with the remaining hours in your hands?

I would :

a) Call up all my long lost best friends and have a fruitful chat over the phone.
b) Eat steamed nuts that are sold in Gurney Drive.
c) Write my will so that all my Dragon Ball Model collections will be handed over to the right hands.
d) Tell my colleagues that Jesus is the only way to God and ask them to consider Christ over everything else.
e) Meet up with my friends whom I've hurt before in the past and reconcile with them + give them a hug.(Man, I never really hug people before..hmm)
f) Go Tambun and have a feast of seafood! HAHAHA..Since I'm going to die tomorrow, myself die with a full stomach and I don't have to worry about allergy s.
g) Organize a gathering for all my internet friends whom I've never met before despite of having a close virtual relationship.Make sure I meet all of them before I die!
h) Play paintball with all my church friends!
i) Eat more steamed nuts..(I crave for them even now!)
j) Show love and appreciation to all my close friends and tell them how good they are and thank them for being such a wonderful friend to me.Could even cry while doing that...*sniff *sniff
k) Have my Last Dinner with my parents and tell them how much I love them, plus seeking for forgiveness over the times that I have merajuked to them.
l) Tell the one I admired secretly that I love her with my sincere heart and even though we may not be together, I would tell her that she will be my last.(Of course, tomorrow die d what..sure last la..hahaha)
m) Pray for all my parents, friends, church mates, colleagues, school mates, uni mates, and enemies that God will watch over them and continue to bless their lives abundantly. Of course pray for forgiveness from God and make myself ready to meet God.
n) Lastly, lie silently in the tomb where I custom made for myself and savor the memories in my final hour.

Of course there are many more things I have not added into the list but I think there's too many things to do when I know that I will die tomorrow.One lesson I've learn t from asking myself this question which is to appreciate everything in front of you and be contented with what you have. What's the use if I had the wealth of the world yet I will die tomorrow?What gain can I have if I am the most successful man on earth but will perish tomorrow?People may make monuments or statues to commemorate someone important but how many people actually knows about his/her life?What impact have we brought to everyone whom we have met?Are they touched by our lives or are we living our lives just for ourselves?

As I grew older, I begin to realize that time is really too short for me to achieve everything I've planned for myself.I believe that we can only achieve certain things in our lives, not all things. Therefore, this day onwards, I purposed in my heart to always consider about others, bless others, encourage others, love one another, cherish one another, compliment others, and finally look out for other's needs.I want to be a living testimony and leave a strong impact in other people's life in one way or another.I hope that I can achieve this very purpose that I have made.

So what's your death wish?

Retreat Blues

2007-09-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the priviledge of participating a youth retreat organized by my church, well I thank them for still considering me a 'youth' though, haha..Nevertheless, I will still go even though they consider me an 'over-aged-ancient-bones', no way they are gonna stop me from coming! *grin**I'M UNSTOPPABLE!!(Juggernaut's quote)*

*IM UNSTOPPABLE!*

Nevertheless, the retreat was very relaxing and lived up to it's title.Was able to get away from all my daily routines and work by spending time with a lively group of young people.It was not only refreshing but it's also a time for stack on!Almost every guy get 'stacked on' (except myself ^ ^) whenever there's an opening for the opportunity~For those who doesn't know what stacks on is, please refer to the photo below :

*too bad I didn't take any stacks on photos for you guys to see =( *

Fun eh?Should try that once a while ya when you gather up with your friends..They will surely love it and it tightens your 'bond'.Haha well that's not the only thing we did in the retreat else it would be a stack-ons camp and not retreat!We did some other cool activities together such as painting each other's legs, washing each other's legs (after painting them), PAINtBALL, and eat tons of food. At the end of the retreat, I gained around 2 kgs in just 3 days! Now I officially weigh 71kgs and I think I should be careful lest I become 100 kg! Haha

Besides of all those fun, we had some serious talks and workshops to keep our brains sane before all the food and games makes us insane.The talks were given by Alan, our youth leader, to give us a rough background of how false teachings in the church have crept in subtlely and make its home amongst us.We were warned to contend for the faith and stick the the bible alone regardless of many other teachings that were taught by men.To stand firm and believe solely on what the Bible says alone really takes alot of courage and guts when we are challenged inwardly or outwardly.To hold on to Sola Scriptura (which means "Scripture and Scripture Alone") stand will definitely put alot of believer's smile to frown because of the different stands that most believers hold.

Many so called church goers would call themselves "Christians" because they believe in God and Jesus, well it's not for me to judge whether are they true born again believers or not but it is God's calling for us all to test all the spirits.How can we test it with our own perceptions when there's the Bible to test it?How can we test unless we know the Truth?Jesus warned his disciples that in the last days, there will be many false prophets and false Christ and many people will follow them.Thus, we gotta know and contend for the faith with which we are in.

The choice is simple: "Come out and be separate" or "Join in and partake along".Which choice would we pick?Take the easy way or suffer for the sake of the call.Jesus didn't came to bring peace on earth but a sword which means we are meant to suffer because of Jesus.He suffered thus we as believers too are to participate in His sufferings; He glorified, we as believers too will be glorified together with Him.It is stated that "Narrow is the way that leadeth to life;Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction" in the Bible.

After that, we had a night session to wet our appetite on the calling to preach the gospel via a special video clip by Steven Curtis Chapman's live concert.The short video is based on "Operation Aucas Indians" formed by 5 young Christian missionaries that gave their lives for the sake of these indians in Ecuador.To cut the long story short, you can view the whole video here via YouTube:

Beyond the Gates Of Splendor Part 1

Beyond the Gates of Splendor Part 2

*sadly I have yet to find out how to embed these videos into my post..thus I can only give you the links*

Did you cried after watching them?Hehe..This was what was showed during the night session that encourages me to go forth and preach the Word with boldness.

Overall, I've greatly benefited from this retreat and nurished by the fellowship/teaching among my church members.We have surely gotten closer in our bonds after this retreat and I'm sure each and everyone of us that participated in this retreat will have the same thought with me.Here's the group photo we took after camp! I love you guys as my brothers and sisters in Christ!

"Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Phil 2:1-2

I am who I am

2007-09-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

I did an online temperament test to see what kind of person I am.The results are below :

I'm classified as strong Phlegmatic and a little of Sanguine which makes me someone that is quite sluggish at doing things, lazy in nature, spontaneous, 'last-minute' kind of person, reluctant, always keeping the 'status quo' kind of person and much more.You can actually read them from the link above.

Well, as you can see, there's alot of weaknesses in me but you may be asking me, why am I stating only my weaknesses and not my strengths. My point would be simply this: I would rather esteem others better than myself. In my experience, I've always come across all this temperament tests that are usually to boost up our confidence and place our trust upon our strengths.

Sometimes, we rely too much on ourselves and who we are.Sometimes, we blame who we are for the wrong things that we do just simply because I am made this way.And then we expect others to accept our flaws and weaknesses.Some would say "I am a Sanguine, thus what I'm doing now is normal to me.I'm sorry, your values are not my values", and then some would determine that they are right regardless of what wrong they did to the other individual.

I guess we have pride in ourselves, just the measure of pride that differs.Our pride in us makes us think that we are who we are and what we do, others must respect.The culture around us today makes us very selfish creatures and we always think inwardly.The lack of love and care around us forces us to conform towards the patterns of this world.Sadly, we thought there's no choice, therefore we conform.

However, I found the cure for my pride. This cure can only be found in putting on humility and putting our trust upon Jesus Christ to change us into a being that is according to His traits.As Christians, we do not place our temperaments before us to determines who we are.All Christians are called to conform into Christ likeness and bear the fruits of the Spirit.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:22-26

How nice if everyone around us bear such traits and live together in love.There will still be temperaments among Christians, but there is one thing that all of us have in common in our character because we are all in One Spirit.

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Amen.

No More World

2007-09-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

The world was once my stronghold,

Once I was led captivity to the world,

Being led by its powers,

I have succumbed to its addiction,

That captivates even the most casual players,

Nay, I will say No to the World,

Though once I walked in the paths of Kalimdor and Azeroth,

Now no longer will I see the wonders of Outland,

Because I am free,

Free from the bondage of the World,

For only He can set me free,

Thank You Lord Jesus.

On the 19th of August 2007 marks a turning point of my life, the day which I willingly quit World of Warcraft. Not because of the monthly subsciptions fee, not because of work, not because of time, not because of friends, and certainly not because of boredom. The reason is because I have wasted so much in my life playing this MMORPG which turns me into a useless Christian.

I have fading slowly ever since I have started this game last 2 years ago, fading from Him, fading from being fervent to Him, the one who was without sin and was made sin for my sake. Yes, the One who died for me so that I that was once dead and now alive in Him.I have drawn myself away from Him, my parents and friends.

This game is superbly done and well maintained, this I give it to them.I have to admit that this is the best game I've ever played in my entire 25 years of life.Superb graphics, very interactive game play, more than 5 million people plays this game, interesting quests hubs and exciting dungeon experience.I have influenced so many people in playing this game but now come to think of it, I kinda regret for doing so.Most of them now are lifeless in reality but full of life in a complete virtual world.

Thank God, I am able to break from this virtual cage and I thank my God for opening my spiritual eyes to look at what is eternal rather than what is temporal.Just look at the awards that this game has won. I wonder how can I break free from the best game ever made.One would wonder and question me, why?My reason?Because I want to do what God wants me to do.Period.

This morning I surfed the net and guess what I saw?Here it is:

Maybe Blizzard knew that their most influencial player has left the game thus they are giving such promotion?Hehehe (For those who can't see what it writes, Blizzard is offering their players one month free gaming if they are able to 'persuade' their ex-gamers)

Highlights of 2007

2007-09-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Halo semua!! I know I've been missing for quite some time now (almost 1 year) and I do not know whether anyone misses me or not, nevertheless I gonna try to be much more active and committed in updating my blog now.Why such enthusiasm? Well, I have much more time in my hands now since I stopped playing World Of Warcraft now (will elaborate reasons in the next post) thus I can spend more time doing something different.

Various events that I've experienced this year :

- Went to Australia for a 1 week tour (Sydney/Melbourne) which I willingly sponsored myself to go. Got to know a Sammi Cheng/Miriam Yeung lookalike as my tour guide.

-Bing in Australia-

- Organized 2 main church event : Ang Pow Night and IA games. Being involved in this 2 event tells me that it is fun to work with younger people in the church.

- Attended a bible reading conference held in Genting View Resort that changed my life permanently. Change my life priority completely and given up most of my gaming pleasures after what was heard.

- Quited World Of Warcraft. Now, this was a tough one but nevertheless the decision was made and it was a right one. After 2 years of gaming, I felt that I need to retire from this to do some other things that I've missed out in my life.

I believe there will be more to come but I guess this year is quite an eventful year for me.Well I hope there will be more exciting adventures and hopefully updates in here..hehe

Just the two of us

2006-11-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

" This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of[d] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. "
Ephesians 4: 17 - 24

As I read this text for my morning devotion, I've been challenged by the words that speaks to me. Certainly any person would know what I'm talking about when they read of the verse itself right? One would say "Yeah, live holy lives as the Bible preaches, nothing new" or "Yeah, we gotta be like this like that to be this and that" such idealistic words and visions people can have.It's not wrong to have such idealistic dreams but if its just for plans without actions towards it then it will continue to be as a plan.What I'm stressing on is the impact.Does these words impact you?Or rather are they just mere words?Do I see myself being renewed in the spirit of my mind, putting on the new man which was created according to God? Am I putting off my former conduct that corrupts according to my deceitful lusts?Or am I a hypocrite that often wears a mask outside and always speaks the right things but never practice them?

This verse I don't see it as an encouragement or an advice, I see it as a command itself.I am charged to NOT walk in my old ways anymore but walk in the light as God have enlightened me with His truth.I was once walking in the ways of my own desires and lusts but now being shown the truth, I cannot be ignorant about the truth because if I would, I would be living out a lie by knowing the truth.It shocks me sometimes when I read this verse over and over again just to find that there is no such thing as a compromised "Christian" that have different lifestyles to accomodate himself.It is either Christ or yourself.There can never be 2 rulers in a country.Same goes with our lives, where only one can be our master.It's either ourselves or Christ.It all boils down into a decision.Decide therefore today if you call yourself a Christian, do you live your life
just like what Ephesians 4:17-24 speaks about or are you compromising your life?

I am still striving to deny myself and subject myself to Christ.Have I succeeded?I would'nt say so.Have I failed?Too many times..But the decision still have to be made..It's either you or Christ..I pray that both you and me would always choose Christ.Amen

I saw my GM in cyber cafe!!!

2006-10-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

It was Tuesday, I decided to have a game of DotA at Infinity with my friends after work.Drove there as usual and had a wonderful game there pawning all the players..haahaa..Then it was 9:30 pm and I played my last game before I head to the counter to pay.When I finished my game, I headed to the counter and lined up to pay the bill when I saw someone familiar.Someone who is most unlikely to be found in a cybercafe, someone who pays my check every month and someone who determines my yearly bonus...Then I turned around and saw my General Manager playing castle defend of Warcraft!!! I was stunned for 3 seconds there before I come back to my senses.I just couldn't believe my eyes and what I saw.Of all the people, my GM????Well I had a Section Head working colleague that plays with me often but...GM???WoW...That's a shocker..For once I thought GM's only play golf with his high class friends and dine at overpriced clubs and talk businesses.

Never have I thought the impossible, my GM plays DotA....That thought sank with me for the rest of the night and I thought of inviting him for my gaming sessions as well every week.As I went to work the next day, I told my colleagues about what I saw and all of them got shocked for 3 seconds before responding..hahahaa...well, we have a gamer here and we WOULD love him to play with us!hahahaa...

Well, after that encounter, I believe that games are not really for teenagers or kids (Someone actually calls me keena for playing games...:( ) but nevertheless the old as well.I believe that behind a successful man is always a man itself. My GM is also human, flesh and blood, and there was no shame in playing games at his age.It was pure entertainment and fun! Now I am more than convinced that playing games is not only for the young but also for the old! hahahaha..its just the matter of interest..:D

Welcome to Existence

2006-10-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is taken from Switchfoot's hit single 'Dare you to move' and i'm sure most of you have listened before, mainly from Spiderman 2's hit and a Walk to Remember movie, now can even hear it from the radio.Well to everyone's suprise, I'm back!! Long have I lazed around and got myself busy with all my work and preparation for Bible camp..Phew not that
I don't have any time to write my blog but most of my free time are taken for World of Warcraft already!hehehe...well you might think or figure that i'm a game freak or a 'No Life' stud, but I can assure you that I can give up those stuff and lead on a life that you possess..Haw Haw Haw just that I have a passion for games as much as some of you have passion for music, cars, shopping and many other different things. One thing that we all have in common is our existence here on earth. We cannot deny the fact that we don't exist in this world and in fact if our existence here does not leave any impact or memory in anyone's life then indeed we fail tremendously in our life. At least your parents will remember you or being impacted by you
at any time right?

Well, the topic that got me back into blogging is this: Am I merely existing or am I living? To differentiate the terms used here is quite simple and I guess most of you readers are quite good at English unlike myself here.( I can't really use grammars that well so forgive me if I did
use any wrong grammars ya..:P) Back to a more serious note, actually this question was asked to me 6 years ago by a preacher that spoke about Life.It got my mind thinking on this question for the rest of the time.You know,if we don't question ourselves on what we are doing in our life and our purpose in life at all, then I could conclude that you are really just 'existing' in this world. What does it mean to have a life?Hang out with your close gang all the time, always do things together or sell yourself to your work in order to secure your future to have a better 'life' or just relax as long as you're happy, everything will be 'fine'.What I'm trying to picture here is what reality is really like and where am I in that spot. Honestly, sometimes I do not know what I'm doing and what I'm doing. I get up in the morning, wash myself up, drives to work to ASE while listening to Gocha calls by Hitz.fm, got down to my computer and starts to go thru my
work list, goes to the canteen to grab a bite, comes back to work + chat via MSN + surfing the net, lunchout, continues my work till 5:15, goes home, eat, wash up and play World of Warcraft until 11 then I'll sleep.

Again this schedule repeats itself for the next 4 working days of the week. If you have much better and meaningful life than mine then that's great but you still need to ask that question.HAHAHA What does God think about my life?I believe what God thinks of my life more than what my friends think of my life cause His opinion means more to me than any of my friends. Of course I'm not saying that my friends have no say or advice for my lifestyle lah! I will still listen to them and will take their advice when I see truth in it. =) The bible puts it this way :
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16. Hmm.. God wants me to walk my life circumspectly which means that I gotta check every step/decisions i make in my life and direction in my life not as a fool but as a wise person. What does wise and fool mean here? The following text states : 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the
Lord is. Which means that whatever that does not conform to the will of God is foolish.Hmm..The statement states asks us not to be unwise, its like saying that we can choose to be wise or unwise.I believe this statement to be very true because I believe as Christians we should know what we live for and what God wants us to live for instead of finding our own ways to manage our lives. But this only applies to Christians, and not to others you might say. Well I think its the same. Why?

We were all created for a purpose and we have to find out what that purpose is right?No one would tell you that your purpose of life is to serve the government and die as a loyal servant of the government while the government feast on your achievements due to your total commitment without regarding whether you exist or not.If then, do we make our own purpose?I guess not because I asked most people and quite frankly, they don't know
what they are living for and just live as if they had no goal in life. Well not all, some of them tells me they wanna do this, do that, wanna get their first million by the age of 30, own his/her own business by the age of 27, early retirement, live life to the fullest(man, if you don't even know what is life how can you live it the fullest?another doubt), achieve their first name in the Guiness Book of Records etc.These people have goals and aims in their life but ultimately, aren't all this self made purposes?What if there's a spannar throw into your wheel of life and ruins everything where you have to live by the edge of the sword?Then things become meaningless to
you and you condemn God for not giving what you want.Cruel and unjust God. In the end, we might not know what we are here for and what our purpose of life by just 'existing' all along till we die.What we just did up there was just merely wanting to live for ourselves by making our own purpose and we end up existing. If a clock functions as a clock does, it is functioning
well; if it's not, then its there to exist till utterly destroyed by its owner. Destroyed by its owner, scary thought huh if we were the clock but to think about it, all of us are OWNED by God because He gave us life and a freedom to live our life.We only need to choose whether we want to function as God wants us to be or we want to create our own function which we were
not made for.If you've read this post till this far, then I would like to thank you for your patience for doing so.

All in all, I would like to conclude that we have the freedom to choose which life we wanna live but the question still boils down to this whether are you existing or living?I've found my purpose of life which is in God.Have you? :)

Feeling the shockwaves of holidays..

2006-02-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

I love February..The best month of the year..Why?you may ask..Because this is the month with the most public holidays in it..hurray!!!But then as time passes by, its gonna end soon.No..my precious sleep and gaming hours back to normal again.Work will be 5 days a week again no longer 4 days a week.Gotta be accustomed back to 5 days week again.Well I know that I'm ranting here and you may find it hopeless to see me acting this way.Hahaha..Let's recap and see what happened in the month of February for myself.

First was Chinese New Year which I had a long break of 4 days from work and I went back to Kedah to visit my grandmother for the reunion dinner.The next day,was Sunday and went to church for the 1st day of CNY(Ever the first time I've ever experienced CNY in church,somemore the first day of CNY..Lol).Visited some friends and made some income from it.Angpows!!hehe anyone who's single will surely love this red packet.hehe oopps not just the red packet but the money inside which is of utmost importance.In fact, they seems to be my bonus for the year for being single and unmarried.haha..stay this way, I would be collecting angpows every year without fail..muahahahhaha..

Secondly, was thaipusam, had another day off for monday since it landed on the weekends.It was another day of rest and enjoyment for me as I get to sleep more and wake up later..haha man i love the long weekend thingy.Now I perfectly understand why working adults longed for 1 day holiday even though its just 1 day.hahaha feels good to be at home and not going to work.I could play World of Warcraft for the whole day if I want to, or hang out with friends if I feel like it.So much freedom and time but then..That time is coming to pass and now the month with most holidays are going to be over..Nooo..furthermore, March and April have no public holidays, Double NOOOO..sigh, I guess I gotta live day by day to the fullest.As for now, I gotta log off and get some gaming 'excitement'.hehe

Finally my PC is BACK!!

2006-02-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, forgive me for not updating this blog site as my PC was sent into the factory to fix my graphic card and that took me 2 1/2 weeks! Finally my PC is back and I can blog again!hahahha...Recently my life without PC was just terrible and simple.Came back from work, ate and bathe then head to sleep.What a simple life and boring one..hahahhaa..I had to struggle through those days without any PC games, internet chatting and onlining..and it was so boring..arghh.

But those days were over and I thank God for it.Believe it or not, I actually prayed to God for PC! hahaha..Hope that the PC will be back before CNY else I will be growing mushrooms at home.After I prayed, God really took mercy on me and granted my wish on one fine Friday just before CNY week, the technician called me up and told me this great news that my PC was fully repaired and asked me to come and get it! I couldn't believe what I heard and I thank God for the answered prayer.This reminds me of a verse in Scripture that proves God really keeps His Word. The verse is taken from Philippians 4:6-7

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"

New Year Resolutions?Made to be Broken?=p

2006-01-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

Blessed new year everyone! Hope that it's not too late on greetings of the season..well, new year season is over, now waiting for chinese new year season to come. Even one month before chinese new year, I have already heard malls playing chinese new year songs even during christmas! haha..anyway, there's no way of turning back time..so myself just greet you guys here..even though its 4 days late..haha. =)

Besides all those holiday moods we get during new year, most people tend to make new year resolutions for the new year or try to improve themselves for the better good or get a girl friend/boyfriend or find a better career or drink their first can of beer LEGALLY. Hehe..alot of wacky and serious thoughts given to such resolutions I got from people. Well as for myself, I haven't gave much thought to it yet but I guess its always the same. hehe. but then I never succeeded in keeping them! ahaha..what's the use of making a promise or covenant with yourself and fail fulfill it?

Therefore, I have given some thought for this year's resolution and that would be...: Keeping the promises I've made with God or other people. hehe.. I know this requires great determination and discipline but I guess if I can't do what I promise, then resolutions for me is nothing then right?Anyway, there's a verse in the bible for me to share with you guys/girls regarding the resolution i made and it's taken from James 5:12

' But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your "Yes" be "Yes", and your "No" be "No", lest you fall into judgement. '

This verse above teaches us that whenever we try to do something, let's not swear here and swear there, making use of that word swear to make yourself look more promosing but instead let your yes be yes and no be no in any decisions we make. Just like the new year resolution, I promise myself to say 'Yes' be 'Yes' and 'No' be 'No'. Simple teaching, difficult application. hmm..Now that's cool~! =)

After-camp effects..

2005-12-29T04:34:00.000-08:00

It's been 2 weeks now since the Annual Bible Camp took place and still it seems like yesterday to me. Even though I'm consolidating my thoughts on re-structuring my program, my mind still wanders off to every detail that I've experienced in camp. With that, I smiled to myself facing the monitor and decided to take a break off from my work and start to pen down how the 'after-camp' effects on myself. Honestly speaking, I'm thrilled to write the things I've learnt and experienced in the camp itself. The words, "Don't Waste Your Life" still echoes in my mind accompanied by the loud and empowering voice from Andrew Cowell keeps repeating in my head as my days go along. True enough I've gotta remind myself this all the time because we humans are very forgetful people and tends to lose focus in life as the days goes by.

On the first night of camp, Andrew Cowell have already pound this fact into our ears and emphasizes that this fact, "Don't Waste Your Life" is a wake up call for those who live lives according to what we believe it's right or were told to be right. I was there smiling as I thought that were only applicable to those "young" kids attending this camp. But I soon realized that the speaker then turned the tide and starts to question our means of life, yes..pointing the finger to those working adults such as myself. Are you storing up your wealth now?Just like what your parents or friends tells you how you should live your life and how we should earn our first
million at the age of 30?We have so many medias that tells us how to live and live life to the fullest and gratifying our desires so much so that the world now force us to think and live this pattern of life."What a life!", one would say when a person retires at the age of 30 and spends his whole life partying. Cool isn't it? Imagine that you don't need to work anymore once you pass 30 years old and starts to do what you like with millions of dollars at your expense. You would have your breakfast in China this day and take your dinner in Italy in the same day to enjoy different delights in one single day! Awesome man..Anyone including myself would want
those kind of life! I mean, who wouldn't?(Honestly speaking)

The speaker then tells us a story from the Bible which records the about the rich fool that stores too much for himself and God took away his life that very same night he got rich. Let's take a look on that story, LUKE 12:13 - 21 reads

"Then one from the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritence with me." But He said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?" And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'"So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." "

But but..isn't that logical?If that farmer were you, you would do the same too right?I mean, there's no where to place all the crops therefore it is only logical to tear down the old one and build bigger storage to store it right?I don't see anything wrong in that thought, in fact its a smart choice right?Do you mean that God doesn't like rich people?Does it mean that God won't bless us with such blessings?Nay, That wasn't the reason God punishes that farmer..It was because of self-centeredness that was wrong. His entire objective and purpose was wrong when he thought that he could retire young and take life easy to eat,drink and be merry all the days
of his life. He tries to gratify his own desires to the max and concentrates only himself.He forgot that all his riches are from God: the fertile soil, the rain, the sun light and etc.Instead of remembering what God has done and given, he plans to edify himself to the fullest. What's worse? He don't even have God in his mind and live life fully for himself only. That is
why God said, "You Fool!" because it is not the farmer who controls his own life but it is God and what good if a man gain the whole world but loses his soul. Till now, this passage still rings in my head, the message of living for God is amplified in my life each day.I don't want to be rich
to the world but I wanna be rich towards God.

From that night onwards, I recollect my thoughts and question every decisions I've made in life. Did I make those decisions just purely to achieve my selfish desires and ambitions?Or am I blessing others or edifying others in the decisions I made?Can I please God even though God blesses me with material riches?Surely I can, if I put my first priority and focus to God and I have made that decision to do so that night.Now pray that I will be able to uphold what I've commited to God.

7th Year Bible Camp!

2005-12-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

Selamat Pagi semua sekalian, harap saudara/saudari berada dalam keadaansihat sihat belaka, boleh makan dan tidur baik. kekeke..It's been a longtime since I've wrote anything in here and I've got loads to share hereabout my past extreme experience in Bible Camp 2005! First of all, I didnot plan to go for this year's camp because of work. But then as the dayspassed by, something bothered me very much and my heart feels like groaningto go for this particular camp. Then, there are some people asking me to goas well. Then I thought to myself, why not?But the camp registration listis all 'booked up' already and there's no more space for me to be in it.I prayed about it and see what God have in plan for me then. Then I called upthe camp commitee to ask whether the camp is fully booked up or not. Trueenough, it was fully booked and even exceeded the amount catered for the camp. There and then, I was upset but still had faith in God and toldmyself, "if it's God's will for me to go, I shall be there." and shrugs offthe issue then. After 1 week or so, I've got a call from one of thecommitee while I was on the way home in Justin's car after steamboat BBQwith my church members in Gurney. Much to my suprise, I was told that therewas some people that pulled out from the camp and I was slotted in toreplace them.Speechless for a second but felt overjoyed in my heart that God answered myprayer!Indeed, it was not a waste of effort of trying to go to the camp.Well, I have gained alot from the camp itself, both spiritually and'physically' (as i'm like the garbage truck that sapu everything duringmeals). Besides that, I met alot of new friends there as well but alsonoticed one thing : I'm the oldest in my group! *gasp..A kid in an adultbody..haha..anyway, I still managed to get into the group and had funtogether with the group members although they were quite young..youngerthan me almost 3-4 years..or even more!

Going to this year's camp was really an eye opener to me as a 7th yearbible camper. Why?Those who went to this camp will know why! Burmah RoadGospel Hall have done a very very good job in organizing such excellentcamp~! with all the hard work, all the events that are executed there arenew and a unique experience for all campers.The Amazing G-Race, SurvivorsNight and Oscar night was such events that I would never ever forget in mylife. Not forgetting the wonderful speaker that spoke boldly on the Word inthe camp, Mr Andrew Cowell! Man, he is the one that makes the camp asuccess. A camp would be a failure if there was no spiritual lessons learntor edified even if the events were superb. What matters the most is achanged life and I believe it impacted me so much so that I'm all fired upand take my walk with God seriously. I would share what I've learntthroughout the camp in my latter posts in order to edify or inspire thosewho read this 'blog'..hehe

Anyway, just to close up this matter, a challenge for me next year isto...try to crack my brain on how to organize the 60th Bible Camp nextyear..arghhh..BRGH!! You've set the standard too high!!! ARghh...

Lack of 'Discipline'

2005-12-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

Starting something is sure easy but maintaining it, that's the thing that really test your patience, determination and most of all : Discipline. When I started this blog, I thought I would pen down most of the things I've been through in my life and always be 'excited' to write such new things in this blog, but it seems that the fire grew cold inside and World of Warcraft starts and always will take the time I use for writing blogs..hahaha..actually i'm not that talented in writing, surely those who knows me well enough will know that..hehe takes me a long time to figure out what words to use, which bombastic words to add in to make my sentences 'flowerish', and won't know who would be reading this anyway.

Initially, I wanted to start a blog that would edify the readers who read of it and gives inspiration as well. I think I still have a long way to go since I haven't acheived anything. =) Anyway, I'm up for the challenge to execute my plans. Hope I'll gather enough time to write. haha. Another that turns me down, which is whenever I finishes writing and click the publish post button, it will show error and whenever i click back. I see an empty screen. THAT really turns me OFF!! anyway, i've learnt to save my work now..hahahaha..so no excuse for myself. =)

Holiday Blues...

2005-11-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

I got myself up today when I heard the alarm ringing at 6am which I haven't heard for quite some time. Man, I had the toughest time to get myself up this morning to go to work.. Holidays are great but they aren't enough~!! arghh..gotta wait till Chinese New year then..sigh.. and now at work trying to literally 'WORK' but my eyes are closing while I tried to open my SQL browser..I guess we've always gotta look forward in life rather than to lay back, hoping that those holidays would come back again..

Anyway, just to express myself here and realized that 'holiday blues' are much more worse than just 'monday blues'..I wished I was still studying for my degree where I can take as much 'leave' as I want..muahaha...but again..those were the days...:(

Work, Work

2005-11-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, I’ve started my working life after 23 years of studying and now I’ve got to settle down and start to contribute by using my past knowledge learnt and hopefully not forgotten, to help me to acquire earthly ‘wealth’ to support this feeble body and ever growling stomach. At the first glance, working life seems to be so exciting as I will be facing a whole new life of challenges, new life experiences, new life grieves, new life routines, and new life of BILLS!! After 5 months of work now, I’ve begin to realize that working life isn’t as nice as what I’ve thought before I started work. I mean I do expect it to be tough and challenging but I didn’t know it was THIS tough~! Nevertheless, it feels good to receive my wages after a whole month of toil. hehe

I started to wonder what made working life tougher than studying life, I mean I still study.. once in a while about new technologies but not those study-for-exams. It made my thoughts wonder and what I got was a gentle reminder of the curse that befell man when the fall of man happened in Genesis 3.

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

Gen 3:17 - 19

Lets see what’s this second part of the curse meant. This was the second portion of the curse and it was targeted to Adam, well the first one was targeted to Eve in the previous verse. In the first line, ‘“ Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life. “’, The ground was cursed and we have to toil to eat of its abundance all the days of our lives. In those times, Adam and Eve need not do anything to feed their stomachs or toil for food. They were given the freedom to eat of any fruit in the Garden of Eden except the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But those times were gone, ever since Adam and Eve was exiled from the Garden after the sin that they have committed. That was not all, thorns and thistles start to grow forth from the ground making things much harder to achieve. I suppose those fruits that Adam and Eve was privileged to eat for free was gone as they have to toil to eat the herbs of the field thereafter. In my opinion, herbs are not as tasty as fruits. Hehe. Let’s see, fruits are sweet but herbs are bitter. Is there any significance about this? I would just see it that God’s blessing are sweet and is free, not purchasable and not attainable by our human strengths as God blesses whom He pleases and wills. On the other hand, trying to achieve something by our own human abilities is tough, and bitter. What do we get in return? ‘In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground’, bread for our stomach until we pass away and that requires us to sweat for it as well. That really shows us how tough work really is and how work is made tough through this curse.

Well, it all boils down to our attitude towards work itself. Nay, we can’t escape work or can we avoid it, (even though you might be rich, there’s still other form of work for you to do.) we can just accept it and be grateful that God cursed the ground instead of Adam himself. God loved man so much that He was willing to spare man from the curse and cursed the ground instead of Adam himself. After such thoughts, I felt that I’ve revitalized myself back to work. Keke..

Alright, Get back to work!~!

Amateur blogger learning to blog...

2005-10-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

finally, the trendy blog fashion have crept into my mind and forces me to express my feeble thoughts in words which i don't normally do in life..i mean action speak louder than words!People see me as who I am and I'm glad of that fact...but times have changed ever since there are many people whom i consider as friends which I can't meet face to face due to geographical differences..well, here I am..welcoming myself in this newly created blog..excuse me for a moment since I'm new here and haven't find something to write just yet....so you can close your explorer now :)