First Race of the Year! (PSDC Charity Run)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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