Huh?

love afar

2010-07-04T23:57:00.001+10:00

God, WHY do I always like girls who are beyond reach?

Urghh...

Tradition and us

2010-06-20T20:57:00.001+10:00

Something I shared with my church today.

One of the concern I had when coming over to Australia to study was whether I would be able to adapt to the huge change of lifestyle from Malaysia. How would the Aussie culture be? Will I be able to adapt and accept it quickly? How will it clash with my Christian background?

My other concerns were, which church should I attend? And if the new church I was going to attend be the right one for me? What if God asked me to attend a traditional church which sings hymns played by an elderly on an pipe organ? How would I from a charismatic church background adapt? No reference to this church or anyone

What is tradition?

Cambridge Dictionary defines it as a belief, principle or way of acting which people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time. The many traditions make up a culture. People make traditions. Because PEOPLE, affect the way things work in the society.

And when outsiders come into the group, they are influenced too. They conform to the way people in general behave. We, behave the way, You behave. Like HUGGING, I like the HUGGING culture here. The two girls I hang out with, loves the loving husband culture of the church. Doesn't put much pressure on the guys. Nope.

To elucidate the formation of tradition, here is a monkey illustration. There were four monkeys in a large cage with a pole in the middle. On top of the pole was a bunch of bananas. The 4 monkeys were kept there for some time and soon, they became hungry. They decided to climb the pole to grab some bananas to eat. But when the monkeys climbed to the half way point, freezing water was sprayed at all of them and they quickly hop off and ran for cover.

Confused, they wondered what just happened. So they waited for a while, then decided that one of them should try climbing again. The volunteer, bravely set off for the pole. AGAIN! The freezing water was sprayed at all monkeys as soon as the monkey climbed halfway.

After a while. The monkeys no longer dared climb the pole. But as time past, the monkeys became hungrier, one of them decided to have a go. When the brave monkey got near the pole, the other three quickly ran up to beat the monkey, to prevent him from climbing. Out of fear of being sprayed with freezing water.

Soon, one of the monkeys was taken out and a new one came in. Inexperienced, when the new one decided to climb the pole for food, the other three veteran monkeys, pounced on him, beat him up. That happened each time the new monkey climbed the pole and soon, the new one conformed to the ways of the group.

A little while later, one of the three veteran monkeys were replaced with another new monkey. The same thing happened, when the newest monkey tried to climb the pole, the two veteran monkeys, joined by the experienced monkey will beat the new one up.

The same happened with the third replacement. And when the fourth replacement came, all the monkeys knew that they are not to climb the pole where the bananas are for the fear of being beaten up.

That is tradition.

So what happens when a radical comes along? Lets open up the Book of Mark, Chapter 7:

1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and

2saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed.

5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

What is happening? Verses 3 and 4 explains:

3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

How did Jesus reply?

6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
   " 'These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
7They worship me in vain;
      their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

HUH? What is Jesus trying to say?

8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.

15Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "

Why?

18nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?

19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body."

20..."What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.'

21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "

That is just one example of tradition which Jesus challenged. Other examples include:

1. Mark 7:10-12 When the Jews used the excuse of giving to God to NOT honour their parents.

2. Matthew 12 Jesus' disciples picked grain and ate during Sabbath. You are not suppose to do that on the day of the lord.

3. Matthew 12 Jesus healed during Sabbath a man whose hand has shrivelled.

What does Jesus say about traditions and law?

Was Jesus there to break all the traditions and laws? No, he is here to fulfil them! Matthew 5:17

So what are traditions for? Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
(and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.),

It does not matter what we do, how we do it or when; but it is crucial why we do it and who we do it for, who we do it with. Something which I only began to understand better, that when you love and care for somebody, you would want to spend time with that person, no matter what it is you are doing.

A few months ago, my grandpa passed away after a long struggle with prostate cancer. Our family knew the end was coming, and got ready. When the day came, we were still caught unprepared, and grieved. As the Chinese/Buddhist family background dictates, the tradition for honouring the dead is a lengthy and complicated process. As an ignorant younger generation Chinese Christian, cut off from all family contact other than the handphone and regular but brief e-mail updates, I was utterly lost as to what needs to be done.

Should I wear black? Or should I wear a bright colour? Should I pray? How do I pray? What about my family? What about my grandma? How would she cope? How would they cope? What needs to be done? To fight this grief? So many questions; so little answers.

A clearer picture of what needs to be done came a few months later when a CD arrived via post. My aunt and uncle has compiled all the photos into CD and sent it over. Showing parts and pieces of the entire funeral and grieving procession. One thing that stood out was, grandma was smiling in many photos. So were my dad, aunt and uncle. Many of my relatives and friends were too.

I am quite sure the funeral rituals played a big role in why people were smiling. One of the reasons was, it brought people together. Even neighbours and friends whom you have not seen for ages. Apparently many of church friends visited grandma during the two days of funeral. And the togetherness allowed people to catch up and encourage each other. Tradition became a side issue.

Just a few days ago, my friend's college mate and his family were killed in a traffic accident back in Malaysia. There was nothing much he could do being so far away from home. He was simply devastated. A couple of us, spent some time with him over a couple of days. Neither could we do much for him. But it surprised me pleasantly, that he felt appreciative of the time spent together, for being supportive.

God feels the same way too. God doesn't care what you have done, or NOT done. But when done it in mind of Him, and His Grace and Joy, that would be the greatest thing you can do. Matthew 18

20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Let us not be dictated by the standards of man and the world but by what pleases God. Paul, who wrote Colossian 2:

8See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Surely there are times when we are compelled by our colleagues or friends to do things that we are uncomfortable with. "Oh, it is Uni Night, lets head down to the pub for a drink. It is a Uni Tradition." And some of them could be critical of the ways we live as followers of Christ. Nevertheless, we can still engage our friends, classmates or colleagues at a different time or from a different standpoint.

To sum it up, Peter once shared this quote from Gorge Bernard Shaw "A rational man adapts to the society, an irrational man makes the society adapt to him, thus are we depended on the irrational man for the world to make any progress"

Just like Jesus, He was and is one really influential man. Jesus was irrational and radical to the Jewish society in so many levels. He followed the standards set by the Law (of God), fulfilled it and managed to set a newer and higher standard.

BUT, that is not Jesus' goal. He came to bring the good news of God's love for us and die on the cross for us. A big portion of His ministry was to spend time with people around him.

Let us be a follower of Christ doing things or following a tradition, not because it is there; but because we are compelled by the way Christ has lived. Let us pray: Lord, may the traditions and rituals that we live by be of Your way. Let Your standard of Love, Mercy and Righteousness be our guide. Use us as an instrument for Your Kingdom, that all may know of Your promises. Amen.

Ouch..

2010-02-23T23:50:00.004+11:00

Am I in such a sorry state,
That a 17 year old girl,
Would consider me old,
And needs to be saved,
By taking the initiative,
Joining the ranks of aunties,
To match-make me,
With my new housemate,
Or any lady she could see?

Oh,
Are you beyond hope?
Or bound to eternal single-hood?
Is what she wondered aloud.

Dear me,
Am I really,
Really in such a sorry state?

Farewell

2010-01-15T23:44:00.000+11:00

He was a kind man who has reached his end at approximately 1515 hours today. Born in the year 1919, he has lived a long a fruitful life. Sharing all his has to others, without counting the cost or return in investment. Only hoping for a good companionship.

Thank you for everything, Ai Yeh. Rest in Peace.

Closure

2009-10-22T09:54:00.002+11:00

The general atmosphere for the last two days of presentation for our class was of a relaxed, resigned, rejuvenated, and to some extend, rejoice. The long toil for 2nd semester has finally come to an end.

Well, kind off. History test on the following Tuesday and it will be nearly 4 long months of summer break.

Going out with the Malaysian students in my class for dinner last night made me realised that I will be abandoned by them when they all fly home for the end of the year. Which means should something happen, they can easily narrow down to the only Asian in town.*

Right, like that ever happens.*

Four months. What can happen in 4 long, hot summer months? The subgroup of the dinner group (huge group of 10+ pax) agreed that the whole year past too fast, and the shock of going into 3rd year next year. Even the recent (Malaysian student) arrivals thought that this semester just blinked by. Two hundred and fifty three blinks roughly to be exact.

Hmm...

By the way, my dear Ben Luffy, I am a closet geek, speaking only to suit the occasion.

*Cultural Joke: Even Asians will suspect Asians first should 'something' happen. Later proven to be an untrue stereotype as one Australian mentioned that they too, can be randomly accused by bozo(s) after a few drinks...

Hole

2009-09-26T11:59:00.000+10:00

Whenever I try to explain myself,
And it does not sound right,

My secondary school friends will laugh,
My sister will roll her eyes and frown,
Walt will hand me a shovel,
Pat will animate and subtly go,

Chug,

Chug

Chug

Lately I have been given an upgrade.
A 16 year old girl offered a better solution,
The services of an excavator,

Should help me dig my own grave. Faster.

Pwnd?

Food

2009-09-16T23:35:00.001+10:00

Warning: Contains ugly photo. Really.

In protest against the Architecture Faculty's expensive Bollywood-theme dinner ball, we decided to have our own little dinner after a long talk by a Professor Jane Rendell, who gave a rather extraordinary and profound talk on Decentralising and Recentralising. Which happens to mean... z.zzz.z .z.z z.

Anyway, she does have a website which renders a picture of what her talk meant to a Level 2 architecture student's mind. That is definitely more interesting than the previous link.

Returning to the topic, we (Malaysians) invited our (2 Nepalese and 1 M'sian) friends over for dinner. And since they cooked dahl (something like this), it made dinner multicultural. For dessert, we had a round the table talk of different types of vegetables we hope to plant in our garden, and, Nepalese dishes that they should cook for these culturally unaware Malaysians.

Anyway, this jolted a haunting memory of a dished cooked a few days ago when a house mate decided to spice up the rice we usually have. If indeed you are a brave soul to have stayed so long, take a guess of what ingredients were used.

The end result is scary. The smell, downright deceiving. The taste, marginally poisonous. The texture, semi-liquid, and the sight, nightmarish.

Which incidentally, dug up a memory once thought lost in the cobweb filled corner of the mind, of a cross-continental fight with United Airline back in 1999 from San Francisco to Orlando, Florida. And since it was nearly a 5 hour flight, they served passengers something to eat. Indeed it is something as it did look similar to the photo above. And the "plopping" sound it made when pressed with a spoon echoes somewhere in the ear.

Of course, it has been nearly 10 years ago since then. I am quite sure they have improved their menu significantly. There was no way of verifying this since I never flew with them since the return trip...

Hazardous Combination

2009-09-09T00:40:00.002+10:00

Father's Day, Pastor, Pride and Prejudice, Bicycle Seat. That is.

A few weeks ago in one of the Uni's Christian Group meeting, we had a fervent discussion about watching classic movies. The Pastor's wife (of this Christian Group) gladly recommended that we watch Pride and Prejudice (not the 5-hour 6 episodes version, although she has it) to the silent protest of the Pastor. He prefers a more 'manly' movie.

Poster above: Taken somewhere from the Internet.

And thus, to celebrate Father's day last Sunday, we gathered at the Pastor's house for dinner and classic movie on top of the hill.

Not a bad idea.

However, a combination of bad planning and being a cheapskate, it was indeed a challenging journey from my house at the bottom of the valley. The alternative to walking at that time was my friend's bicycle.

Pic above: Father Killer

A bad bicycle seat can make one relive the journey even after two days it has ended. The sensation still lingers at the back of your mind and at the crotch. My friend told me upon returning his bike, was to get used to it.

The movie was indeed interesting. Sure, Keira Knightly was in the movie, which is a huge plus, but the beautiful Georgian and Victorian architecture. Makes one wish and desire the opportunity to reside in one of those babies.

Perhaps I should watch the movie again. This time I would pay more attention to the story. And Keira Knightly.

If you don't know Keira Knightly, click here.

If you don't know where I stay, click here.

Age vs Maturity

2009-08-16T00:31:00.005+10:00

Age does not denote maturity level.

My house mate came home last night rather displease with a classmate who took his joke very seriously and made a scene in the middle of class. House mate claims the issue has been settled but noted that although the other guy was slightly older but did not behave like one.

It hit me today that in a different manner that, despite me being a follower of Christ for some 7 odd years now and I still behave like a weed that sways easily. I had a Bible study with a new Christian the other day and we discussed about what it is like to follow God's will: having faith.

Long story short, the past few months I have been struggling in several areas: being obedient and being a God's lover. And I realised that I am still far from being mature in many ways, despite being a 7 year old Christian.

Oh, God. Have mercy on me. Remove all my selfish desires. May my heart follow You forever!

Sigh..

Money vs Rain

2009-08-05T02:17:00.001+10:00

Two things they always say about students: Not enough money, not enough food, and not enough brain.

Second semester has just started and a few of my year 3 seniors are about to graduate with Bachelors in Environment Design. Some have made plans to continue studying, some to change subject, many to go back home to work. Mostly due to item number 1 mentioned above.

I spoke to one of my local (Australian) classmate the week before and he was down to AUS$80 (roughly RM240) for the next 2 weeks or so. And he gets no allowance from parents. That is one of the many stories people share when money is mentioned. Many have opportunities to earn while they study but some have unfortunate circumstances.

I guess I am fortunate enough that my parents and relatives sponsor my studies. Makes me want to save on everything I can. Right. Thank God for providence.

Now, to the weather. It has been raining cows and blowing elephants the past few days. With winter leaving and spring approaching in September, the orcas will come in for the kill.

I had a taste of what was to come in Spring when a friend called me from Malaysia one night. It was raining and blowing and I had no key to enter the house. The front porch of my house is so small, it is equivalent of standing under an umbrella during a cyclone for 30 minutes. And walking around with strong wind can provide the experience of drunk walking without alcohol.

Makes you wonder how Spring would be like...

Shower

2009-07-03T16:34:00.004+10:00

Do you (yes, you tropical fishes) always wonder why people do not shower/bathe very often when they live in cold countries (e.g. Australia and England)? Is that a reason why Europeans especially French perfumes are so popular? Is that why deodorants are very popular products here in Australia?

I am not sure.

But one thing I know is that I have managed to stay in the same clothes for 4 days without smelling THAT bad. At least I can't really smell myself that well. All thanks to the wonderful winter in Tasmania. Here, you do not sweat as badly as in the tropics. And when there are no such thing as a proper toilet with shower within 15 km of the camping site, cleaning yourselves is a great challenge. Keeping warm is a challenge. Not smelling bad is a walk in the park.

Keeping dry in a camp site is a big challenge especially when the tent you borrow is not simple to set up. Wind, within the Tasmanian forest next to the beach is still very strong. We were camping nearly 450m away from the beach with shrubs and some trees around did not stop the wind from blowing rain water in to my tent.

Trees are not that helpful.

And when you get all moist and sticky from the cold weather and dew condensation, it is nearly impossible to clean up. So, one has no choice but to wipe yourself dry, or die trying. Otherwise it is very not cool to have cold feet.

Right. Time to shower. A hot one. After 4 days at least.

Weather. Again

2009-04-29T23:33:00.002+10:00

For those who plan to study, work, or live in Tasmania, especially those who come from tropical countries like Malaysia. Be warned.

It is has been so cold here the past few days that you can see the water vapour coming out from your mouth, in my house. Yup. The silly heater I got does not heat up my room. Only my legs.

It was so cold the past few days that my hands became so stiff that I cannot draw and write my assignments even with the silly heater on. Graahh!!

OK. Time to sleep. In the cold. Thank God for really effective quilts and the lovely sweaters available. Hehe..

Cheers!

Food for Thought..

2009-04-20T21:29:00.005+10:00

Girl housemate (GH): You guys eat a lot!

Boy housemate (BH): No lah, we eat like usual!

Me: ...

GH: You guys eat like cows like that, the portion I eat is less than yours. Mostly vegetable like deer.

BH: But both eat grass.

GH: Where got? Cows eat grass and worms. Deer eat leaves only.

Me: Cow eat worms? Aren't they parasites?

GH: Yeah, in the end they are still eaten by the cows, right?

BH: Doesn't the deer eat grass too? Then the "worms" will enter its stomach mah.

GH: Deer where got eat grass? They eat leaves only. And don't have worms one.

BH: ...

Me: ...

- - - - - - - - Q & A - - - - - - - -

1. Do cows eat "worms"?

2. What constitutes as eating?

3. Can one intentionally eat something so small? Does that mean we eat bacteria and viruses too?

4. Do we eat "worms"?

Lovely day for thought provoking, mind boggling, mentally challenging questions. Cheers!

Nightmare

2009-04-12T00:00:00.002+10:00

What a nightmare!

I dreamt about her,

The second time since I got here.

It wasn't the type in which I woke up in sweat,

But it is the one filled with the feeling of dread.

In my dream I saw her,

Walking in a dodgy area,

Not somewhere secluded and dark,

But like Genting Highlands theme park.

Holding hands with joy,

It seems like she has a boy.

Everywhere they went,

I followed as close as I can.

Twist and turn in the crowd,

I lost them in the cloud.

High and low I search for her,

For she is someone I hold dear.

In the end I sat in despair,

Because she is not to be found anywhere.

Is this a sign I ponder,

That I lose to someone younger?

That boy is just 12 years old,

Or so I was told.

In my dream I am a loser,

What bummer.

It will be all right. There is Easter bunny and chocolate eggs to munch on. Yumm...

Right.

2009-04-03T23:35:00.001+11:00

Dear Naj,

Now, walk your talk. Unless, of course, you are all talk.

The Weather

2009-03-28T23:37:00.005+11:00

When we talk about Australia's weather, we think of heat waves, dry hot sun, low to almost no humidity dessert. Well, those frogs (in the well), would have only thought of the vast desert and forest fires that we hear about in the news (in Malaysia). Poor people who lost things and love ones due to that.

Not in Launceston! It was summer the other way round. Arriving on the last few days of February, the weather was low cast and cold. Same like Melbourne during the two days stopover. Windy and chilly too. If there was a thermometer around, it would say -15˚C. Wait, or is it without the negative sign?

Anyway, now it is officially autumn (slow news report. It was since 1st March), the wind is even stronger, water is colder, rains more regularly, cloudy and overcast more than sunny. Eh. Yeah. Here is proof.

Looks like Cameron Highlands eh? Well, on other days, it looks like this.

Yeah, weather extremes relatively compared to Malaysia. Brrr.... Hope it looks like that tomorrow. It is laundry day. No one to wash my clothes for me. And fold it. And keep it..

I need a maid.

Tasmania

2009-03-08T23:13:00.001+11:00

Yes, just started to study here. In Uni Tas.

Autumn just started. Very cold. BbbrrrRRrrrbrr..

2008-08-10T01:26:00.003+10:00

Wooot!! Since 28th Jan. That is bad.

But that is because this dude is saddened by the feeling of being annoyed at the confusion of getting mad from being distressed of not overcoming jealousy of a friend's happiness.

Nah, he is just confused.

On other note: by God's grace and mercy, June has recovered from dengue. And thanks to insurance, her medical bill is on RM 65 *ching ching* after 6 days in the hospital. This is a warning to all. Stay away from mosquitoes. They are bad stuff which makes you like flies more.

Cheers!

What's New?

2008-01-28T03:41:00.000+11:00

I guess not blogging for a long while has its perks. More work can be done, trying to finish my finals, more time spent looking at other things, time to spend with friends, getting involve in new relationships etc.

It is 2008. 2007 ended with a fizz. Like a firework presentation where so much preparation put into it, and when launched, speed into the sky and "ding". Voilà! Many things did not end the way I hope it to be. I am not married, I have not graduated, and I have not landed in a big job which would quickly make me a millionaire.

The past few weeks taught me how to be reliant on God's strength and His standards. Very easy to say it now, I still have no idea how it really feels like now when I looked back at it. But I can appreciate it base on the things that has happened and recall how on planet earth I managed such impossibility. And the people who helped me along, God bless their souls!

The thing I appreciate most when looking back would be all the relationships I built the past year. It is good to know many more people on deeper level. It is also good to rebuild old connections, getting to know and or bumping into old friends.

So for this new year, things are developing rather quickly. I will try to update more often. Maybe with the possibility of a rare chance somewhere some time in the near distant future that I might not deny beyond reasonable doubt that I will update before CNY.

Cheers =)

Sold

2007-12-10T04:10:00.000+11:00

She smiled,
We talked,
For a while,
Now I am sold,
Does she know?

She?

2007-12-02T02:55:00.001+11:00

She is Hot, but Honourable
She is Intelligent, and very Impressive
She is Caring, absolutely Considerate
She is Witty, and totally Wonderful

Sigh... problems I create for myself.

Focus

2007-10-29T03:00:00.000+11:00

Distracted

Yes..

Love-hate

2007-10-12T02:26:00.000+11:00

Don't you hate it, when you win some; you loose some. Cases in points

Social Networks:
I have decided to let all my dormant Friendster, Multiply, Subtract etc. to remain, dormant. But I have just succumb into peer pressure (3 people) to join a new one.

Friends:
Some close ones are leaving, some not so close ones are coming, some lost ones found.

Room spaces:
I cleaned my room by throwing away a stack of not-so-potentially-useful old secondary tests and notes. OK, I exaggerated. I just threw newspapers dating back to February and bus tickets which needs some carbon dating to identify the date of issue. I gained 0.36 sq m of room space.

Constant Text-ing:
Remember the 12 smses in one day record? How about at least 5 text messages daily to a peak of what I presume is 10. Six days a week. And sometimes very silly questions being asked like what to do if there is no printer. Hmmm. Why can't it be the chick from that certain housing area?

Time:
I spent here, producing a blog. Not spent of my final project. Die...

Finals

2007-09-02T20:46:00.000+10:00

Woah... third week of final semester! So fast.

Not good. I feel too relaxed for it to be my final semester. With only classes three times a week and Saturday and Sunday also somewhat busy, I have quite a lot of time on my hand. This entry is a proof of it.

I can go on ranting about I should be a good boy and save Malaysia from incompetent people, or the world is being unfair, or we as Christians have been so selfish or mean to each other, or how some people are so nice to me when I don't deserve it, or wonder what should the next step be for being a Church of a living God.

But my heart goes out to this Aussie dame from Ipoh. I knew her from my previous college, separated since graduation, stumbled upon her blog and have been following ever since (like checking in once every quarterly). Always known her as someone friendly and a little bit cool. Loneliness and waiting patiently seems like a horrible combination. Hmmm...

*sigh

Press on, girl. DON'T GIVE UP!

Yeah, sounds like it is for me too..

The Beginning of The End

2007-08-20T01:15:00.000+10:00

Question: Which is better? Working or Studying?
Answer: Working makes you brain dead; studying causes fatigue.

Five months of practical training/industrial attachment/working part-time/cheap labour/slave trade in two different firms sure is great learning experience. It was a strange experience for me. I supposed that while it is quite a challenge to be working for two (and a half) firms, it is a great learning experience.

One is a construction firm, the other an architecture firm (with a town planning firm/department, hence the half). Both are related to each other, but cover two very different aspects of the same industry.

Which is better? I spent more time in the arch firm than the construction firm. Which happens to be a more healthy option because almost half the guys in the construction firm smokes (in an office with a/c). But hey, who said the construction industry in Malaysia is an easy job (or not corrupted)?

Yes, I know I am getting off tangent. I need to really think before I type. So while I think, here are some pictures for your viewing.

Architect Joke
A: Can I borrow your colour pencil.
B: Don't have it with me lah. But I have it at home
A: Your pencils will be too small lah (pointing at house models)
B: Err... hahahhaha..
*Note: This is where you laugh (uneasily) too

The pictures below are unofficial site visit to Sunway South Quay at night while I have my trusty camera next to me and ample time on hand

Thinking still in progress..

Yup, Cheers!

Sunday Free

2007-08-06T01:02:00.001+10:00

Bizarre news: Having Sunday free from anything.

Yeah, that means no Church, no rushing to somewhere for some event or dinner.

Not entirely true either. I had agreed to a morning breakfast which I suggested the evening before to a group of church people after service. It was rather random on my side because:

I would not have agreed to joining anyone for anything expensive at any given time unless it is paid for or I am going to meet someone special.
I suggested dim sum.
I hardly join their company of hangouts 98% of the time.

So, today at 0830hours, I drove down to Klang to meet them for dim sum breakfast buffet. It turned out to be the place where "un-know" was gathering too. This would provide an opportunity for us to see a fiery youth of un-know taking. Fortunately he and his went to a conference hall while we had our halal dim sum.

I tried to play it cool in front of my church friends but within I felt rather excited and jackoon at the same time. How rare is it that I could take anything I want without fearing the consequences of adding the numbers on the bill. The dish above is made personally just for me right in front of my eyes using my own hands.

The next picture shows how the table looked like after the dim sum has been cleaned by some male members of church for the 70th time. And the waiters, God bless them, came to the our tables like flies to, er... waste, after each round to make way for vicious cycle of gluttony.

The whole session ended after what seemed like an eternity later (1100hours). We rolled ourselves out with our bulging slightly belly. We went on our ways after a brief typical post-CBC-event/gathering-culture.

The drive home seemed to be the highlight of today's outing. It somehow did not matter that I took the wrong turning or longer route, nor was it how the warmth of the late morning sun was beating onto my skin. Neither was it how quiet the car felt when driving alone, along the empty highway.

It was about being able to drive in the day time to a destination without needing to worry what is going to happen next. It was about being able to sing a tune of a song which keeps playing over and over in my mind with the help of the broken car radio. It was about singing about how great God on a Sunday morning without anyone prompting. It was about keeping cool with help of the breeze coming in through the car through the open window.

It felt great. Yes, currently my life's greatest irony: The idea of being able to be enjoy and be free.

Cheers!

Poem

2007-07-17T01:43:00.000+10:00

Laugh, please do.

Hey there, what's with thee?
Are you stress?
Or are you just free?
Follow me and I will cheer you up.
I will be the monkey,
You the tree.

Together we be silly,
Dancing and singing off key.
People can shake their head in sympathy,
Or join us for some fun.
It will be lucky if they give money!

Hey, don't feel sorry.
As long as you are happy,
Smiling and feeling chirpy,
That's the way it should be.

Cheers!

Two and Twelve

2007-06-05T01:56:00.000+10:00

Two of the hardest SMSes I have ever sent this month (don't think I will be sending any more tough ones soon)

To apologise to a friend for making a very bad joke, and not make the situation get any worst. Well, it seems like it worked.
To compliment another about sharing her testimony while trying to sound casual and not hitting on her.

The scariest thing is receiving 12 SMSes in one day.. sorry, 10 hours, from a girl I don't quite know. Yeah, silly of me to exchange phone numbers but we all came from the same secondary school. How? How?

Well... it has been peaceful now... with occasional terror from the old secondary school girl...

Laptop and Long Day

2007-05-26T20:54:00.000+10:00

I drove to my usual spot and parked it there so I could hop onto the bus to work. Knowing that my carry on (which incidentally look like a laptop bag) would be very heavy, I decided to remove my laptop from my bag and place it under the car seat.

Quickly, I locked the car door and ran towards the bus stop, not wanting to miss the bus. Of course, being me, I would do a quick check list to see if I have left out anything crucial like turning off the car light, etc. Yes, I did left the car lights on the whole day once and that was also a very, very long day, and night.

The bus came and I got on. Just as I was about to settle down for the journey, I remembered that the central locking my old junk (car) no longer exist. And before that I made a mistake of not locking the car door at the passenger side.

That, was not my first time that I left my car unlocked. It was perfectly safe because nothing really important was left inside. This time, it wasn't the same.

Thus, the beginning of a long day of worries and more worries. I did ask God to look after my car. And imagine all possible scenarios as to what are the probabilities of someone passing by might open the car door, or look in, or break in, or search through a old junk, etc. And at the end, all is not well, base on assumed probabilities of bad events.

Somehow I managed to got past worrying and managed to get to work the rest of the day. Long story short, my laptop was safe when I got back to my car.

I suppose trusting someone invisible or you have never seen is really hard. Hah.. even Jesus said so to Thomas. I believe my God is kind and merciful and He would let His Son call upon 12 legions of angels at His disposal. Even to save my laptop?

I am still learning. Slowly and gradually as I learn more to trust God more and more...

Yup.

Cheers!

p.s. I am not desperate, I am just making fun of my availability. And no lah, this is not a HINT...

Quotes

2007-05-09T13:17:00.000+10:00

Love Hurts
Dr. House: This is a mistake. I don't know how to have casual conversation. You think you're talking about one thing, and either you are and it's incredibly boring, or you're not because it's subtext and you need a decoder ring.

Eve (Paraphrased): It is easy to leave when things are going bad. But it is hard to leave when things are great.

You will be missed, sigh...

Darkness

2007-04-25T18:50:00.000+10:00

Lets Just Say It's Not Me (short for Me) was talking to Some Girl You Do Not Know In US (short for Her) in the midst of a instant messaging (MSN) conversation (paraphrased).

Me: Hey, I am back, did you reply? Sorry, there was a power outage. (Internet got disconnected)
Her: hahah.. lousy lah, stop chewing on the wires.
Me: not my teeth lah, more like my fingers
Her: then, don't chew the wires with your fingers, or don't let your fingers chew the wires. ?
Me: no lah, I passed by my boss' office and found out that he was sitting in the dark.
Her: meditating?
Me: no, eating
Her: what?
Me: yeah, so I asked him what why he did not switch on the light. he said that it will trip.
Me: and i think he asked me to try to switch on and see if it does or not, and so i did. the lights flickered for a while and poof! No power.
Her: HAHHAHAHAHAHA
Her: people bring light to other people, but you bring darkness!
Me: =P

One of the clerk who happened to be there throughout the whole incident asked Me if he was happy as he managed to trip the power for the entire site building. Yup, that was the most embarrassing few seconds of his.

On other things, the past few days (feels like weeks) has been a roller coaster... sigh...

Youth Celebration is coming up! Hmmm... Feel like having cole slaw suddenly

Yum...

Turning Point

2007-04-13T19:54:00.000+10:00

This week is not the same as it has been before. I might be lose my internet connection, privilege to use my handphone due to security reasons; my afternoon nap times and sanity due to increasing workload.

What is worst is that when someone does not take responsibility for doing their jobs properly, there will be a lot of flies flying around. You lousy swallows! You are supposed to eat your food and not let it fly around! It is not good when your food comes and mix with my food. Feels a little odd don't you think?

But hey, not to worry! These are kampung (village) flies. They are cleaner than city flies. Says the canteen operator. Why? because there is not as much pollution as the city.

Heh.. He did not mention that DBKL brings their merchandise in rubbish truck loads to a location not too far away from my work place. Yeah, so much for working in an oil palm estate. Maybe the canteen operator was polite enough to not mention it during one of our meals in the site canteen.

Now, there is a fly in my office. And it is bugging me...

Indeed...

Cheers!

Busy day

2007-04-03T19:21:00.000+10:00

Things that I have done today includes:

Attend a lunch meeting
Contact and correspond with a manager
Made important phone calls
Arrange appointments
Respond to e-mails
Check e-mail
Converse with other colleagues
Provided professional opinion
Contact a potential partner for a project
Online research

And this are not even related to practical training. *Grumble... I am a little too free. I mean there are some tasks to do here and there, but it is all done within minutes.

This is what happens when the client cannot afford to pay the main contractor. Then all the jobs in the construction site slows down and there is not much progress. A formula is here for all to learn. You can use this on your friends or kids or students or colleagues or...

No Work = No Progress = No Problemo

Notes on other event: Nothing interesting happened in the canteen today. But nearly a week back, a fly fell into my near-empty glass of leong char. Yeah. They all like to die a watery death eh?

Next up. More fly stories...

Pilot

2007-03-28T19:05:00.000+10:00

His mission was as crucial as any mission he has ever took. It was a matter of life and death. Searching for a ever changing landscape for fresh supplies. The pilot, equipped with the best sensors he could get, took off as soon as he was ready.

The landscaped below has somehow rearranged itself in a new order, but that did not stumped the pilot as it was the tactic of the enemy of his land. Immediately, his sensors, fine-tuned over many generations, gone wild detecting many different types of supply. Seven to be exact.

After flying around a couple of times, the pilot decided it was worth the risk to get a close up. From high on the pilot took a sharp dive and head towards the supplies. He knows that his enemies has detected him. Though many times more superior, they are no match to his amazing agility and experience.

The pilot stayed focus on his mission. He scouts for a safe landing spot near the supplies. He makes a big round and starts to land.

He is hit! An unidentified object which looks like a missile hits him off the sky. The pilot crashed into the sea.

Quickly he tried swimming to safety, but the more he struggled, the more water he takes in. In the end, it was all over.

The enemy then cried, "Hey, there is a fly in the mushroom dish!"

More Work

2007-03-20T21:10:00.000+11:00

OK, so I misjudged in the past on how much work I would be getting in future. It seems like my boss/colleagues/sub-ordinates/canteen workers/nature have some grand master plan of working me to death. The past two weeks was just a preview on how fun it could be working.

Today, I have done so many things. That includes having:

a 5 course lunch in the site canteen
trying not to fall asleep during a meeting
killing 4 mozzies and 1 fly
draw buildings on the computer
trying to sound somewhat important

It is almost the end of the day. Here is something for people who are interested in clicking on something. I like listening to this it. And thank goodness I have headphones. =)

Cheers.. more to come when I free =)

Time

2007-03-13T17:37:00.000+11:00

Lots, I have. But my brain can't function after lunch. I am slowly regaining the use of my brain. Disjointed eh?

I have been visiting this blog on and off since last year. And every time I went back there she writes something which I would go "wow, my brain never thought of it that way before." I am always tempted to leave a comment but somehow I could never think of anything intelligent. Sad huh?

This blog entry of hers just really set it off. It was about how she became a Christian. And somehow that warrant a respond from a Catholic.

I do not know man, I thought being a Christian is all about knowing the true Loving God and how Christ redeemed us by His blood. And all we have to do is live a life of blessing and being an ambassador to Christ's kingdom.

If going to heaven to be with God needs one to sit an entrance exam of theology and Sainthood, I would be packing my bag for hell already.

Of course, Jesus would have helped me through the test, that hell thing won't happen and we will live happily ever after. Correct me if I am wrong. I need to know God first and foremost. Theology can come later to explain God's reasoning.

Now, my brain has functioned beyond capacity. Time to shut down and read more things. Cheers!

Interesting sight of the day: Man adds tau youw / pak yauw / light sauce, lots and lots, into maggie mee soup.

How to Sleep AND not Get Scolded

2007-03-09T20:18:00.000+11:00

Disclaimer: This is NOT a guide on taking the easy way out but for your info only.

Introduction: I have started working from a 9 or approximately 10 to 5.30 or 7 in the evening basis because of my practical training / industrial training / industrial attachment. It requires me to wake up at about 06.15 and drag my feet until 06.30 before brushing my teeth. Leave the house by 0700 or suffer the penalties of traffic jam.

Since I have a bad habit of sleeping only after 12am, 6 or less hours asleep a day will kill in the long run. So here, is a way to sleep and not get scolded at work, especially by your boss. It will require a lot of preparation on your part and may not guarantee results.

Find a job
Find a job which requires you to travel in between different area.
Find a good boss.
Travelling must be more than 10 minutes to be worth while, try 50 minutes like mine.
Don't be the driver, let your boss, office driver, colleague(s) be.
Choose a comfortable seat in the car.
Get in the car and fall asleep as fast as possible. Otherwise they will start talking to you and you will miss your chance.
At work, find out if there is any thing to do. Otherwise find a cozy spot and fall asleep.
Make good friends with your colleagues (and boss if possible). They will encourage you to sleep if they think you need one.

Voila. Of course, all of these can work provided you don't drink coffee or have already considered all affecting variables. Have to go soon, my bed.. I mean, transport back to the HQ is coming soon.

Cheers!

p.s. I have been reading some online articles instead of sleeping today. Sensitive stuff but more or less insightful and helpful for us all (maybe not all).

Work!

2007-03-08T17:12:00.000+11:00

I was sitting all alone,

In front of the computer,

Just behind a curtain of plans,

In a small little room,

At the corner of the office building,

Shielding me from the sight of my colleagues.

With nothing to do,

And imagination is the limit,

My eyes will be staring,

My mind wonders.

The temptation is great,

I struggle to hold back,

With every bit of will power,

That is left remaining.

To just use the computer to surf the net, chat and slack.

Whoopss... I did..

____*****____

Next, how to sleep in front of your boss and NOT get into trouble.

Woah.. (Pic)

2007-02-26T03:51:00.000+11:00

Thanks for reminding that I am growing older and wider. Yes, I still think the petrol vouchers is still the best present. No, I really appreciate the presents you guys gave me, a good guess it is. Yes, remember to not get me those really elaborate t-shirts with really fancy design. Can't imagine how odd I would look.

To those who did not send me an sms on my birthday but did remember, thank you very much! You save me RM 0.07 to RM 0.15 per sms depending on the telco you are on. Yes, I am cheapskate. Yes, I will reply your sms even when I have RM 10 left for 20 days.

BUT, thank you all for remembering and being such a blessing to me too! If I have forgotten to thank you, do ask me out for lunch or dinner and I will gladly meet you.

Cheers!

Silence

2007-02-22T03:50:00.000+11:00

Amongst the cries of many well wishers, her silence was deafening...

sigh...

Tripple booking

2007-02-08T03:59:00.000+11:00

Give in to pressure by the committee who organised a BBQ trip to the seaside for college's winners of some grand competition on Saturday afternoon.
Succumb to pleadings of a pretty (petite) lady to attend a reunion where you can see all the former prefects of yesteryears and lots of lots of juniors (still in high school) in their once-in-a-life-time-can-wear-something-really-nice dresses on Saturday evening.
Submit to life's norm of not-turning-down-a-21-year-old-b'day-girl's invitation to a party on Saturday evening.

That? was last year, when life was so much more complicated and I did not use my organiser to plan out dates properly.

This year's New Year Resolution is to be more organise and able to plan out events properly. Or so I thought. I nearly did the same thing again. Luckily, only to find out how close I was to agreeing to attend three different events again, starting at almost the same time. 2 farewell parties and 1 friend's "house warming" ;)

So much for trying to use my organiser as part of my dust collection.

Hot!

2007-01-25T23:48:00.000+11:00

Woo... burn babe, burn! I am a lot stronger than 98˚! I am running a little hotter than that. Yup, so much for wanting to be normal.

I am hoping and praying it not dengue. You can't get it twice right? But, I think there are four types of viruses which causes dengue...

So here goes: Oh, MIGHTY GOD! Praise your holy name. The one who forgives all sins, the one who heals all sickness! (Psalms 103:1-3, edited unshamefully by me)

Woohoo!! Prepare the way for great testimony!

Author is insane due to high fever. Please, bear with him when he recovers.

Coming up...

2007-01-19T01:51:00.000+11:00

How NOT to design a letter box. Coming to this blog when the author is super free and has his tired feet rested.

Insults

2007-01-15T13:10:00.000+11:00

One of the more highly sophisticated insult I have received so far from an unexpected simpleton: Brainless Retard

sigh...

Welcome back to a certain Yim from Melbourne, Aus. More links to click on if you like =)

Combo B'day

2007-01-08T14:50:00.000+11:00

What I meant was church combo celebration (CCC) and Caryn's B'day. Yesterday news, todays headline. Reminds me of one title which goes: Fire fighter fights fire with fire in fire fight - Broken News.

Yesterday was a little hectic, in an odd way. Morning service was held in Tropicana - the land of the quite rich. The first Combine service in many moons, and the message for us all is: We are Family, and we need to walk down the same ROAD, facing the same DIRECTION and towards the same GOAL. And our guide is JESUS, son of the I AM.

Not me

Sounds great. That means we are in for something really big and would require the whole church to get off our love sit and start moving. Sigh...

Other news include Caryn becoming a year wiser. Amazing time for a girl who has super x-ray vision who eyesight penetrates through chaos to see the true heart of many people. Yup, glad to know that someone is out there taking care of the careless. Someone, save her!

Prayer for b'day girl to prosper

OK, enough rantings.. go pretend to do some work.

Wedding in Jan

2007-01-07T04:38:00.000+11:00

Sure.. no good pictures taken. But, it is the union of Mr and Mrs Soo. God Bless them. =)

Woahh.. it flies!

2006-12-09T11:47:00.000+11:00

Not superman, I have not watched it yet. But I tell you what does.

Time and season, as Blue Bear said.
I found it interesting after Jie said it.
My cousin getting married.
Almost everyone plus bro is on the hill.
Parents in Beijing
Phuas in Shanghai
Deadline is on the 20th of Dec
Some lucky families heading up north to Laos on 19 days drive.
Musical is on the 15th and 16th Dec.

Yeah.. I just read about jie's blog for her 23rd year on Earth. It did not strike me until one portion within which reminds me how much older we have all become; one day we will not be able to react to the situation as well as we once had.

I feel a little depressed once in a while. And the worries keep on coming even as I cast my cares onto the Lord. I wonder what I missed out that I do not seem to understand His promises? I am guessing that it could be something along the line of not being patients enough or not being able to do anything worthy.

Hah... sounds like I am quite results driven. I guess I will have to meditate on 1Peter 5:6-7 and Mat 11:28-30. Or some could come give me a smack on my head.

OK, OK!! I am going back to work. If only I have half of superman's speed...

p.s. Free tickets available for people interested in the musical. Good stuff guaranteed =)

Tagged!

2006-11-25T03:15:00.000+11:00

I am lazy (to finish my homework)... Tagged by Jee (Ben)

Here goes!

4 things many don't know:
- I am not as hardworking as I sound
- I like drinking water (lots)
- I do imagine what would it be like to have (insert your name) as a girlfriend, wife, sister. If you are a guy, how on earth did you get/survive your girlfriend, wife, sister...
- Had a crush on my teacher when I was 5.

4 movies I could watch over and over:
- Most James Bond movies
- True Lies
- Indiana Jones Series
- Back 2 The Future I, II & III

4 places where I've lived:
- Subang Jaya
- Air Hitam (Penang)
- Kota Kemuning
- Kai Been

4 TV shows I love:
- Top Gear
- Dr House
- NCIS
- Doc Martin

4 places i've been for vacation:
- East Coast
- Thailand, Cambodia
- Australia
- US

4 of my favourite foods:
- Meat
- Vegetable
- Fish
- Rice & Noodle

4 places i would rather be:
- UK
- Where everybody knows your name
- Your house
- Her house

4 favourite songs:
- James Bond Theme song
- C&C: Red Alert (sound track)
- Rainbow 6 (theme song)
- Day by Day (Point of Grace)

4 others I wanna tag:
- Jill, Rose, Beanstalk, Ripper & traits
- Eun
- Shi
- Carr

Trouble in bed...

2006-11-16T04:28:00.000+11:00

Since that incident, I have problems in bed. I have too many pillows, my neck aches when I sleep on more than two pillows stacked together, the extra pillow falls off the bed as I can only hug two at a time.

Please come home, jie...

Other problems include the laptop cannot detect wireless connection sometimes, my comp is going crazy and I am sleepy all the time. *yawn...

Cheerrzzzzz.zz.z.zzz.....

p.s. now I know why I am sleepy, I just watched two James Bond flicks tonight! I should be busy doing homeworrkkzzzz.z.zz....

Four girls and one Guy

2006-11-06T05:10:00.000+11:00

Girl 1: We were standing at the door late at night. We just reached her house after dinner and she was about to enter. We looked at each other and said good bye. Deep within, I had so much to say but it would not come out. All I wanted was to give her a hug and hope that things would turn out fine no matter what. And sillily, we said good bye again, and ackwardly I left through the gate, leaving a good friend once again as she enters her house..

Girl 2: I quickly drove to the front of the gate only to realise that she was leaving the house with her luggage. I thought I was just in time. I quickly parked and ran towards the car she was getting onto. As I was running, I was said, God give me the chance to pray for her. But when I reached, I only managed to give her a hug, and then she had to go. The driver drove down the road with her inside, turned at the junction and out of sight..

Girl 3: She was waiting at the door as her parents continued talking. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to muster some courage to walk up to her to say hello. I walked towards her with all my boldness only to chicken out by talking to her dad. Seeing that I still have a chance to talk to her, I turned away the opposite direction. And from afar, she stood on for a few more minutes before leaving walking through the door with her parents..

Girl 4: It was nearing the end and she was talking to her friend. I went up next to her and gave her a side hug like what her friend was doing to her and joined on to their conversation, hoping that I would be able to hug her and thank her for being there for us all the time when we are left alone after. Her friend soon left and another friend came along and started another conversation. Just as it was about to come to a turning point, a little boy came an embraced her and started crying. Knowing that this was an urgent matter, she took him by his hand and lead him off to a distant place..

Guy: He was like a silent yet strong father to me although I still do not understand the value of the relationship we have. He stood by me, guiding and supporting me even when I was tired and frustrated. He calmed me and encouraged me and even gave me unimaginable strength to work things out. Time and time again, He got me out of trouble just at the right moment and even giving me unimaginable confidence. Crazy as it may seems, but I doubt His help all the time even when I have been proven wrong again and again. The amazing thing is, He never left once.

In all these, no-one is to be blamed. I guess. I just have to work on my timing. And hopefully, He will guide me through.

p.s. Thanks Su, your gift on Sunday morning was amazing =)

What a Sunday!

2006-10-23T03:41:00.000+11:00

Here, in brief of what happened today.

Went to church.
Bribe the kids with chocolates and mints which was meant for her to keep quiet and be obedient.
Fan bullied me
Stranger came to church looking for pastor. Had to call Ps. Mal to come all the way from Puch to counsel him.
Double Cheeseburger (only) lunch cost RM5.53 (tax included)!!!!! *grumble. For more outdated info, visit here.
Went back to church to take a nap. Background noise includes Ps. Mal still conseling stranger and constant car raving.
Indonesians came to church for their service. Started at 1830 till 2100hours. Concert with short sermon. Really, really blessed!!
God answered my prayer: Indonesians gave me some of their food!! :)
Droped by Eu's house, trying to redeem myself for forgetting her day with chocolates and cake.
Came home played Defcon with some gwai loh from Miami, Fl, US of A, unintentionally. Wanted to play with comp. But press wrong button. :P
Blogged!

Oh, one more thing. Try to guess what does GBU stand for. A nice cold drink for the first person to get it right (free hugs included upon request).

Mr Lee

2006-10-17T13:33:00.000+11:00

Dear Mr Lee from Singapore,

I know this is a little late, but you must realised that what you have said with some "people" has caused a stir in my place. And as you said later on, it made some guys really, really, REALLY, realllllyyyy uncomfortable. It is true that you speak of facts, but this open secret of ours should not be discussed or even mentioned at all.

Why? Because these guys believe that it will make us not happy. Sure, they did give us a lot of opportunity to "express" and "improve" ourselves by limiting us and giving our pies to their group. We NEED to help them too since we happened to be in this.

Let us not get in to too many details. These guys think we are not mature enough to discuss "certain" issues without becoming too emotional. You get my drift?

Don't worry too much for us. We will survive. If we do need your help, we will come down to visit you. Just tell your friends to be nice to us because we survived longer. =)

Cheers!

THIS is!

2006-10-06T10:16:00.001+11:00

SO sorry Matt. The link I was looking for could not be found anymore. So this is the copy I saved on my comp.

But this is it. Isn't she cute? Matt got this pic in the British Open early August this year.

If she is cute and happy, I am too :P

Living by faith

2006-10-01T23:11:00.000+11:00

It is funny how God reminds us how to live our life depending on Him all the time. All my Christian life (until now, mind you I am still a young one :] ), I still have trouble believing that God is larger than the situation I am facing. Pastor Mal was preaching on living life by faith this Sunday morning and yup, it is God passing His reminder on me again.

The other day, I skipped my usual Friday Church meeting so I can help out in the Mooncake Festival helping my college organised. Brilliant event which has so much potential to explode into chaos, which did not (this story for another time). By the time I managed to escape the clutches of after party cleanup Kwee (my friend) and I quickly ran home, hoping to catch the next possible bus back to Sub.

By the time we reached there, it was nearly 22.50 and there was no bus in sight. Asking the bus operator revealed that we will have to wait for the last bus (at 23.30) to take us home. Now, the plot thickens - I need to take a connecting bus into USJ (last bus at 0.00) or else I will have to pretend to be homeless for a night.

All those time I have always wondered if the 23.30 bus will be able to make to Sub in time. I guess the bus operator was trying to reassure me everytime I asked.

Finally, we got onto the bus and slowly rumbled through the night along LDP 23.32 onwards.

When my friend finally got off at his stop, I was alone in the bus, at the mercy of the not-so-happy-looking bus driver. When my stop came, I quickly got off and ran toward the connecting bus at 23:57. The smilling bus driver told me that the lucky fellow I am did not miss this bus to PJ Utama.

"PJ? But, but.." "Oh, it is ok, I can drop you somewhere near by (while you figure how you get to your place)" "errr.. Ok, thanks"

So off I got a few stops later waiting at the side of the road feeling a little nervous. The next few minutes was pretty tense. I was in a delima, I could call sis to come or grab a taxi or play with the stray dog. I prayed to God a little and that calmed me, giving a little assurance that a bus will come grab me.

Sure enough, 5 years later a bus came and stole me away from the dark, lonliness of the night (sure, the was oddly a lot of traffic at that time).

Yeah, I managed to get home alright. =)

Thanks for reading. Will try to update soon. Till then, Cheers!

Two happy things happened

2006-08-16T03:20:00.000+10:00

I got a 2.8!

And this from Matt Dunham of AP

Yup... Thank God for the first one. He answered my prayers =)

Thanks Matt for the second one. If someone can find a pic that is large enough for a decent size wallpaper, I would thank that person even more! *hint hint...

More good things are on the way... like getting to have dinner with a good friend on Wed the 16th, August 2006.

Shallow Deep

2006-08-16T02:20:00.000+10:00

Deep thoughts, are something I lack. Heck, even to think simple stuff is hard for me. My mind wonders all the time, always seeking the easiest way to explain how things should work. Any more information than the quota allowed, it will flow beyond my mind like a, ermm... a burst pipe. That's right, burst pipe!

I grow up in a family where deep thoughts are common, each individual in the family thinks of different matters which concerns them for long period of time, seeking explanation and solutions. Wishing that I would at least have half that kind of capability, I practise this thought process by wondering what would be the best way to get lunch using the least amount of time and effort.

It won't be long before I make the same decision base on previous experience. Not much thinking required.

Of course, this in turn has a terrible effect on me. Some of it are:

eating the same thing from the same place for a long period of time
not much of a great conversationist. I rather have people do most of the talking while I chip in a little to make it sound like I am smart enough to understand.
bad at self-evaluation, or sitting down quietly to reflect on important issues
etc. (see?)

Why am I thinking of these all of a sudden? I am not too sure myself. I was talking to an old school mate online just now and stumbled upon a blog of an ex-collegemate on philosophy of life. The old school mate I talked to was surprised when she found out that I was studying architecture instead of what suited me more like journalism or social science. Sure, it is nice to sound sophisticated and philosophical, but it is dangerous teritory once people found out that you are an expert on bull-dunging.

The other thing was I realised that my ex-collegemate who has a very philosophical outlook of life was rather worried about human civilisation and how inadequet, or meaningless, or how much pretense or how people would eventually fail/lie.

I would jump in and tell her that, God is with us! And there should be no fear in life with Him on our side. And failure is because we are physically and spiritually inperfect due to our sin. However, there is a fear that it would not be enough satisfy her philosophical needs or whatever she thinks it is. (sidenote: I think the Matthew 3 comes in here, when John the Baptist went around baptising people with the simple message of v2."Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near". And that work! Relevance? Do not know. You tell me (grin) )

So coming back to the topic, which I no longer know how to continue because my mind has already overworked, I would like to conclude. If given a chance to be Pinky or Brain, I would rather be Pinky. Yep, dumb yet happy. What would be better is to be happy in the Name of the Lord. That would be a different topic altogether..

Cheers!

Irregularities

2006-08-14T20:14:00.000+10:00

I am never for being constant. This is probably my 120th time I am trying to write an entry but again, I lost inspiration on what to write. Hmmm.. maybe that is my constant. So, here is an update on what I have been trying to occupy my holiday with (in point form).

Meeting up with old school friends and church mates. I think I have neglected my college mates. errr...
Book reading: Matthew, supposed to read Mark too =P
Stufdying: Matthew, and how to set up a secure wireless network for my house
Movie/Anime watching: 3 so far in the cinema, another 25 episodes of Bleach, and 26 episodes of Chobits.
Said: Not that I can remember but this are two things that stayed in my mind for a long time. Both to dad

Dad: Why is your closet so messy?
Me: Err.. I have not reached there yet.
Dad: What do you mean have not reached there yet? When are you going to finish cleaning your room? December?
Me: No lah, can finish by September.
Dad: Huuh... smart alec, come here!..
Me: run...!!

*****

Dad: If you are perfect like me, then you do not need God.
Me: Then why do you need insurance coverage for your workers?
Dad: (pause)
Me: See like work, God is the best insurance, and gives good assurance too!
Dad: (his classic speechless grin)
Mom: Charm liao (Oh oh..), see your son can outwit you liao..

*****

Fan: you want to watch Lady in the water with us? Or are you too scared?
Me: I can, but I need to ask my mom first!
Fan: Fine, come out with more excuse..
Me: OK, ok. But still have to ask my mom first! (thus little Jack was pressured into watching a movie in which he giggled and laughed all the way although it has a pretty serious message behind it.)

So, once again, I am going to leave this post hanging again with a bad ending. I see another constant here. Cheers!

Note: Most conversation has been paraphrased.

Love Stories - Introduction

2006-08-07T14:31:00.000+10:00

Love, is everywhere. Yup. And mine is exciting as empty flat table collecting dust. Or is it more like molds growing on bread? I do not know.

Not that I am complaining about the lack of love in my life. My life is filled with it, especially from God, family and friends. Also the love for sleeping, watching movie/anime and reading newspaper, and this.. and that..

Today I am telling stories of love from an audience point of view (POV). I have been listening to and watching several stories to share in online. This is what long holidays do to you. So, the first one is the movie: The Break Up by Vince what-his-name and Jennifer Anniston. The show is about how they broke up and wanting to get each other jealous.

Watching it with friends (especially girls when you think it is a romantic comedy) is fun (until you realise that it is anything but). There are lots to learn (from this not-so-romantic drama).

At the end of the movie, the girl (old school friend) sitting next to me jumped on me (not literally) with the question: "Don't you think it is the guy's fault?"

Huh?? I was caught off guard. So to play it safe, I told the girl that it is the guy's fault for being so duh and self-centred, but it is also the dame's fault too for not making it clear to him too. Well, my friend became speachless for a few seconds but still insisted that it was the guy's fault indirectly.

But to think of it, you cannot put the blame entirely on one side. Because relationships are meant to be two ways instead of one. I can boldly tell you that the guy is just plain silly for being self-centred, but would I repeat the same mistake I see? Sure, he had good intentions of being nice and cheering the girlfriend up and yet he did it badly. Sigh... seems like there are so much to learn in a relationship.

However, this is my opinion. I think I wrote with my points all over the place. So please have mercy on me if you are lost. For a clearer picture, please read the Christian POV about this movie.

Enough of POVs for now. Next time lah..

Cheers!

Too!

2006-08-02T12:02:00.000+10:00

Things these days come in two. Just to stress this point a little...

Two different type of busses needed to travel to Boarders from Subang, via Putra Bus and free shuttle bus from Kelana Jaya station. Did I say the shuttle bus is free?
Both bus company offered new time table of new routes (which I picked up because I had nothing to read)
The bus is not a friendly place to sleep, even when you think the IKANO shuttle bus is very comfortable - I knocked my head twice (rather painfully) on the window panel when my head fell forward. That fake cushion on the panel? Fake and hard.
Boarders (book shop) has two levels and elveators too.

Other things that happened twice are

I had to have lunch twice because two different group of friends called at two different time (from the same college)
Changed computer twice because of lousy Streamyx connection which seem to happen quite regularly in college
Saw two pretty good looking women on the way in to Borders
Confirmed twice that they were pretty good looking men.
Once when one spoke, the other when my friend told me loudly enough to make me want to run.

On the other hand, it was nice going going to prayer meeting on Tuesdays again. Was refreshing. That kind of reminds me how much lacking in my quiet time and how much more I need God. Yup... Till then.. Will try to post something soon.

Cheers!

Breathe, slowly...

2006-08-01T14:22:00.000+10:00

Finally, all is done! Homework, project, assignment and everything within that category is finally done. Yes, I think I am alive. I need to start thinking of ways to fill the next two to three weeks of holiday until college classes restart again. However, I have a bad feeling that this sem's results aren't going to turn out well. With so many late and last minute work (most of them not nicely done too), it sure is going to make the results look bad.

So, I am just praying and hoping that God will bless me good results. I do not know how that will happen. But just hoping and praying...

cheers!

Insecurity

2006-06-28T13:02:00.000+10:00

The biggest fear I guess I will ever have is the fear of rejection. Or at least that is in my mind. Having the feeling of being rejected is pretty bad. Even when it seems far away in the horizon. It is really bad when every non-respond from someone you care for or know is seen as an act of rejection.

I am bad at keeping in contact with people I once met. Most of the time, it will either die a fast heart attack or a slow painful death (akward is more like it). This seems to be the case especially when I just came back from an architecture workshop two weeks back. That was when I have to come out from my comfort zone to meet people, dreading the same scenario would repeat. Not too bad so far considering there are people who are actually keen in meeting up with people they met during the workshop. So currently, I am just hoping, hoping that history will not repeat

Sigh... this will be a short post. It is deadline season again. Next one will be before I succumb homework pressure.

*This is one of those time again. Don't worry just yet.. muahahahah....

Dad's advise

2006-05-24T10:21:00.000+10:00

"Suffer in silence. It is for the best. You do not want more than you bargain for," (paraphrased) says dad. In a few hours, I will be gone on a long peaceful (hopefully) journey to Penang. Hopefully we will be able to have a few hours of peace every once in a while the whole time we are there. It is the duty of a relative to visit another, even if it means that we will receive constant scolding from the elderly.

Symptons

2006-05-19T02:22:00.000+10:00

IF you have the following symptons:

uncontrollable cough
unstopable nose leaking
unbelievable sore throat
unimaginable headache
unceasable sneezing

Then, I am sorry that you have flu. Sorry but you have been registered as a flu virus carrier. Just like me. But no worries, with enough rest and a good Medical Cert (MC) from a good doctor, and the wonderful help of God. All will be gone soon.

oh, Happy B'day Poh! Who is officially 1 year away from being an elligible voter for Malaysia if she comes back from Aussie land. :)

When architecture students do performing arts... (photos)

2006-05-11T16:40:00.000+10:00

It is true when they say that architecture students are crazy and stressed all the time. So some decided to turn to performing arts to destress...

Mrs. Doubtfire

Grimlins

Woman-with-problem-asks-MCA-for-help Show

Talk-is-cool-and-cheap Show

Your Basic Rights

2006-05-11T15:27:00.000+10:00

"Howdy, officer? Is there anything wrong?"

What do you do when you are stopped by a police? I recieved an e-mail with a link to a website which informs you of your rights by the Malaysian Bar (not the one where they serve alcohol beverages and soft drinks at a cut throat price).

Download this little book and read it so that you will know what to do when you are caught with your pants down by the police next time. Not that I want to hear of anyone really caught that way literally. Read some of the comments given regarding the book too, which proves to be quite helpful too.

If you want to do more than knowing your rights, you can always join the SOPF - Save Our Police Force by signing the online petition.

Once you have done all of the above, Malaysia will become a better place. Yeah...

The price to pay

2006-04-28T13:20:00.000+10:00

There is a heavy price to pay for maintaining long distance relationship (i.e. Singapore).

50cents per Text (SMS)!!

At the rate I went before I realised, I am a few Ringgit poorer than before. But I guess it was worth it.

The obsession with money lately? Not that I am becoming more calculative, but it is a involuntary action due to spending too much. I have nearly blew nearly RM 150 the past two weeks. Mostly on food. And that is not good. I am way over my budget and that is really scaring me.

I don't like asking for money from my parents. Sure it is their duty to pay me allowance but not at the rate I am spending. *grumble*

I can't wait for the day I start earning my own living... till then, somebody save me..
*ends with Smallville's theme song*

p.s. Don't worry the-rest-of-the-people-around-the-world, I will try my best to keep in contact. Maybe the cheaper way. :P

Field trip

2006-04-22T15:40:00.001+10:00

Train trip to and from Pulau Ketam: RM 5.80
Trip to toilet while waiting for boat: RM0.30
Boat ride from Port Klang to the island (one way): RM 6.00
A bowl of gone low ee min (dry brown noodles): RM3.50
Seeing a cute blond chick: Priceless..

At least that is the little consolation for travelling so far beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone to understand the workings of sewage system in an island. The sewage system (or the lack of it) is of no surprise as there are many ways to deal with it. Animals like crabs (what the island is famous for) and some anphibian fish would pick on the "nutrients" and put it back to where it all belong. It is true to the term that one man's, er.. shit, is another animals' food?

The oddest part of this island is that the smell most of us got is the smell of the rotting prawns and crab shells that most islanders wouldn't mind throwing onto the soil. Bare in mind that most of the island's activities are on stilts. The ground/ soil is a convenient site for dumping.

Not all islanders are like that. There is a small group who actually like the island to smell better. However, the small group does not have the right tool to start a crusade against such illicit act against nature.

The consolation of this trip? Yup, a cute blond chick. Hair colour is natural, or so we were told by the aunty we interviewed. To protect herself from us, she ran into the house to bring her sword but her weapon was her laughter. As we were leaving the house after the interview, she hid behind the window and shout at us.

And oh, people there are willing to take all the shitty questions we asked, literally. They do explain where their human waste go to and how the tide and animals would "take care" of their stuff. We were rather embarrassed to ask such questions.

In the end, we went home. Voila! Never would we ever do that again unless forced to go back there.

p.s. one of the guys who went a week ahead of us told us how unfortunate we were because we missed the opportunity to see real good looking ladies from other colleges doing their project too. I cannot begin to imgaine a pickup line suitable for such meeting - "Hi, what is a pretty girl doing in a smelly place like this?" Yeah, right.

A short one

2006-04-21T18:04:00.000+10:00

When is it the right time to like someone? Is the person I like the right one? Would it hurt to wait and see or just go ahead and consider? What if someone better comes along or someone who is THE one comes about?

I once heard or saw a bumper sticker's perspective of a relationship (the not so serious one) - "choosing the right partner is like buying a computer; the longer you wait, a newer better one comes along (paraphrased)".

Is that what I really want? Or should I just wait for God to move? I know I would missout in His goodness by doing things my own way? Only time will tell.

p.s. There is no particular one yet. But several... *shock!*

Wazzup (pic)...

2006-02-08T01:19:00.000+11:00

Long time ago, there was a boy who would spend a lot of his time writing non-sensical stuff online and no one would read about it. Soon, something bad happened and he no longer wrote again, until one day, someone sprang an oportunity for him, too tempting to say no. And for the first time in many moons, he started writing again.

Oh yeah, be scared. Be very scared... more rubbish is on the way. And the only way to escape is not to come to this web site. Anyway, nothing to report other than the fact that I am growing fat and not going to college.

Blame Chinese New Year, blame good food, blame good cooks. Now there are two cooks in the house. Sis came back from Aussieland and she vows to cook more often. Good news eh?

Anyway, I went up to Penang hill during CNY. Would have taken very nice pics but lousy camera and lousy shaky hands.

evening scene from the top of the hill

Nice lovely garden with lights!

The bridge is not that clear, and the camera is a little shaky.

From another side of the mountain.

Dawn I think. I missed sunrise by being overtly tired. :(

Some ideas for my cooks.

The Mansion/bungalow/big house on top of the hill. Used to belong to the Thai Ambassador a pretty long time ago. Soon, some guy was lucky enough to buy it. Pretty lucky :)

Well, there it is is for now. More to come in future if I am not too lazy to post.

Past, present, future..

2005-12-15T20:27:00.000+11:00

So many things happened yet so little time. It is day four of 14 of deadline season. Everything that is due is either dued or going to be.

In the midst of such craziness, I went for this superbly interesting, marvelous, Christ powered, miracle filled Youth camp of mine, met people from other parts of the world, I turned down invitations to free lunch, dinner and movie, I will be working throughout the weekend to finish my work, I am going to shift into a new house by Sunday, I might not be able to present my work nicely, I might just scarpe through my remaining week of holiday before the new term starts on the 2 of January 2006.

Now, is that not interesting? Would I be able to finish all my work on time? Would a comet, meteorite, car, stone crash land and burn my homework? Would a super chun and helpful person come and offer to do all my homework? Would I be able to safe Jackhsiung's Christmas? Would I cry for the first time in so many years for not being able to finish my homework? Stay tune for next post...

p.s. Thanks for those who have been praying for me. :)

I am still alive

2005-11-24T15:11:00.000+11:00

An update for the sake of updates. I am still alive. Just a little busy.

I am surprised that I could go so long not reading and writing blogs. Man, I miss all those funny posts by all those funny people. Here, is a little update in point form for people who are busy like me:

It is deadline season: all homework and assignments are due within a short period of time. My course is coming to an end, in 4 weeks time.
No credit: my handphone has had no credit since it recovered from its fall a few weeks back.
Youth camp is coming: yeah.. one which I might not be going to enjoy. I might not have the time to! blewk..
Moving to a new road - slowly: so slowly that people actually notice the progress in movement.
Missing people: yeah, I miss proper human interaction quite a lot.
Hungry: I eat the same thing each day even guys notice
Hunger: My spirit man is.
Homecoming: Many of my friends are coming back from abroad and I succesfully managed to mix all their dates. Brilliant eh?

How would I survive? Find out soon, if you see the next post.. ever..

Wake

2005-11-09T04:43:00.000+11:00

Attending wakes should not be a problem for me. Having the heart of stone, this stuff does not affect me. So today, I went to the wake of the 15 year old girl who left us with two of my church mates.

Arriving late at the wake about 10 minutes late, we were led to our seats at the back corner. Booklets with songs of praise and worship were passed to us and we sang accordingly.

The difference this time was I was fighting back emotions of sadness. Although tears were coming, but it felt rather difficult to cry it out. When the singing ended, we sat down and listened to the testimonies of the Youth leader who prepared the girl for her final few days unknowingly.

******

The Youth leader "walked" with the girl from the moment she entered the hospital until the last day she left this world. The Youth leader played a vital role in keeping a spiritual well being of the family through prayers. At one point, she had a vision that God said it was time to call the girl home. After struggling for a long while, the Youth leader told the family about the vision and they too accepted it. The girl's last request was to hear or see the eldest brother who was studying abroad. When her brother called her before he boarded the plane, they spoke for an hour. As soon as the conversation ended, she was gone within minutes.

The eldest brother's testimony was just as powerful. At the beginning of this incident a few weeks back, he felt heavy hearted and the need of calling back. The family at that moment, decided not to break the news of the sister's condition for the fear of extra pressure on his studies. As days when by, again and again he felt sadness of which he could not explain. When the brother got news of his ailing sister, together with his some of his Christian friends they prayed. When the call came to get the brother to go back immediately, he missed the flight by an hour. The next available flight was the noon the next day. Going back to the hotel to get some rest, the brother got a phone call at 4 in the morning to talk to the sister. They talked for an hour or so and he went back to sleep.

The next day, the same cab driver brought him back to the airport just when the brother needed it so much. When he finally reached back here, the Youth leader went to pick him up. Sensing that the brother figured out that the sister has gone, the Youth leader prepared him by informing him the kind of visual to expect when he reaches home. The brother joined his family in a somewhat calm and collective manner.

*****

I am not sure if the I relate the story correctly or wholely, but if you could see that God was in everything, every part of this from the very beginning. No, we still do not have an answer as to why He decided to take the girl away from us but the tremendous effects and blessings on the lifes of many are simply amazing. It brought into realisation to many that life is indeed precious and it could be taken away just in the blink of an eye. Many people who knew her said they missed her so much.

But one vision was repeated each time when someone related it was that Jesus was with her through her pain and suffering. This girl is one tough cookie when she went through her chemotherapy sessions. The effects are painful as her doctor dad explained. However, the girl went through it without so much of a complain. A few mentioned a vision that Jesus was carrying her all the time.

One pastor from the Puchong church was approached while speaking as a guest in another church with a verse from Marks of Jesus telling a woman that she is completely healed (could not remember the verse).

Another remarkable thing about is that Senior Pastor mentioned that parents stayed on each day without fail with the girl. That means nearly 17 days in total. Not a part of a day, not half a day, but the whole day. Each parents taking turns in taking care of her, and always by her side.

It holds true. In the end, the girl is the victor in Christ. She is fully healed now in her new body in heaven. Some of the family members have accepeted this and are rejoicing now (especially the father and elder brother) knowing this fact by hard.

And I thought I was strong. The moment before we left, we went over to the coffin. As I approached it, a strong fear overwhelmed me and I dare not look into the covers until an aunt I was familiar with held me and together we looked in.

Until now, I am still overwhelmed and saddened. But I rejoice, with many others, knowing that she is safe now we Jesus, free from all suffering! Consider how a stranger has affected someone like me, what more if it is someone we know.

Here are two people who posted a journal on this, one is someone who is like me who kind of knew her; the other is her friend.

Departed

2005-11-08T15:02:00.000+11:00

Three deaths affected me this past two days. And the odd thing is, I have not met 2 of the dearly departed but their death had a significant impact on me.

The first person is a 15 year old girl from a sister church who has been treated with lukemia for the past 2 weeks. Although we (people from our church) barely knew her, we were all asked to pray for her health as it was deteriorating. Some even took the challenge to pray round the clock by taking an hour each.

Her condition did not improve and as of the 1055hour, 7th October 2005, she has gone home. What would be good to know was that the family, friends and relatives stayed and prayed with her until the very moment she left.

The second person is 18 year old girl who passed away of suspected pnuemonia on Sunday Star. What really caught my eye at first was the name. At first glance, I thought I have lost a good friend. Fearing the worst, I read on. Only to find out it was someone else with the same name and a distantly similar profile.

Although it was a relieve, my heart was still shaken by the fact that life could be so fragile.

There are a few things I got from these two misfortunes.

Life is fragile.
Lives can just come and go easily. It is worst when it is someone you can more or less relate to. I would not say that I could fully relate to the things they have been through. But it affected me and it got me thinking about what I really want to do in life with people I know with before it is too late.
What kind of life do I want to live and legacy to leave behind? One left this place after touching the lifes of so many while the other has so much potential. What do I have? Does being nice and helpful actually mean anything? I am not talking so much as about being proud of what I have done. But have I done enough? Did I do it correctly so that it affected positively on others?
What does God say in the end when we finally meet. Would I be in a big surprise when together we sit down to review my life only to find out that I could have done better, or I have been doing things wrongly? How much of Jesus is factored in my life? Have I been so ignorant so much so often?
What should the next few steps be? I have all the time my God is willing to bless me with. And I really need Him to guide me. My best wish would be to really see His ways clearly so that I could serve Him better.

To their immediate family, my deepest condolenses for your lost. May God bless your heart.

The third death, maybe we will keep it for some other day.

Pastor

2005-11-02T15:32:00.000+11:00

October 30th was a day where the world appreciated their Pastors. Did you?

Since the first day I met my pastor, I knew he was cool, has the right heart and the passion for God. Pastor joined the church on the second week in joined the church. Joining the Youth Ministry at first, he easy going attitude sure got the youths of our church feeling comfartable with him around.

After a year later (if I got my facts correctly), pastor became the an associate pastor, leading our church into a new era or phase. Becoming our pastor for our congregation is not easy, especially when we were a bunch of crazy and somewhat slow moving people. A quick study of our church at that time would reveal we were in a bad state with many people hurt by the past.

But, one thing you really like about this pastor is that he is persistant. Through all the lousy things that we gave (well, not all the time), pastor would still do his best in bringing the best out of us.

Recently, there was a revival in church back in April this year (2005) and many people felt the need to change. These people have been touched by the Holy Spirit in ways even I would not be able to explain clearly although I have been through it. And pastor, is one of the main people used by God in this movement.

So now, you can see a radical change in my pastor. He is more daring now. So bold but so humble at the same time. He makes a stand on what he believes and nothing seems to be able to compromise that. However, that did not make him un-approachable. He is always available to the people in need of help, usually going the extra mile to make sure things are OK. If you can see it clearly, God is working in our church through pastor.

On Sunday, we finally have a chance to really appreciate everything our pastor did by hosting an appreciation dinner for all the pastors in our church.

Like the touch of God, dinner was good, icebreaker was amazing, the skit was funny and the worship session, simply spectacular.

Overall, I think pastor and his wife had a good time. So did the rest of the pastors and people. My highest regards and salute, to the Pastor who has it all from God! It is an honour to know him and be blessed in such amazing ways!

Handphone kills...

2005-11-01T22:04:00.000+11:00

your social life when it dies. This is the truth. Many are not aware how severe it could be without handphone. Of course life still goes on, but it is when people are trying to reach you or vice-versa is when this horrid massacare occurs.

I grew up in a world where handphone was not an issue until I entered first year of college. Everyone had one. Everyone was within reach. I was not. I was hard to get (anyway you want to see it). I was in a social blackhole that anyone with a phone could not reach me.

I am glad the way I am but not my friends. They wanted me to join the club badly. Everday they preach to me. Everyday they try their best to convert me. So finally, I gave in and after many months of saving, a handphone fell from the sky.

What I have is a Nokia3310. Lovely 5 year old technology when I first got it 2 years back. Not as colourful as most would imagine, but functional. The best thing is it makes phone calls and send messagers! To compliment it, a Digi prepaid starter pack worth RM20 at that time with the lowest call rates and sms too (now even cheaper with call rates being higher but sms is still dirt cheap unless you send it to other telcos).

Since then, the phone is with me everyday for all functions and events. It is one of the first thing I see when I wakeup (to hit the snooze button) and last thing I see before bedtime (set alarm) other than my Bible. It reminds me of birthdays and appointments, becomes my calculator, a tool for communicating and for protection. It is so rugged that you can drop it a few hundred times a year but it won't show you an error screen.

Or that was what I thought.

On the 372nd time I dropped the phone (two weeks back), the phone showed sign of defiance. It showed "low battery". Hmmm... pretty common. Seen it this before. So I charged the phone.

After the whole night later, it still did the same thing each time I turned on. It would not last more than 7.4 seconds before it shuts down with a "low battery" sign.

Finally, I have to declare my phone dead. OK, I would not say that my social life is dead. It has been dead for a long time now. By dropping the phone the 423rd time just made the living world harder to contact the dead.

All my living contact numbers are stored within a silly chip in the phone and the only way to retrieve any data is to have the phone stay switched on for at least 92 seconds.

To fix this tiny whinny little problem, I will need a miracle like getting a new phone (less likely) or replacing a battery (quite likely but not so soon) or remain out of reach for a long time.

Well, no frets. It is not the end of the world, there is always something called house phone, or the internet or snail-mail or signal through smoke and pegions and telepathy an...

Food

2005-10-30T01:13:00.000+11:00

My dinner today was at 15minutes to 9. There was no one to cook for me, so I had to go out to hire one. Took my new chef to cook one Nasi Goreng USA (USA fried rice? why do they call that?) around 5 minutues to cook my lovely dinner (which did not turn out as nice as it sounds.) and it cost me RM5. In the end, I had to eat leftpver curry (of 2 weeks I think) with some bread to really keep me happy.

It is not a balance diet. And some of my nutritionists friends would scream in horrow over my bad selection. It is oily, filled with carbon from the frying wok, high in calories, low in vitamin C, tasteless, has green peas and chicken drumstick is so skinny.

I love a good meal with all the necessary nutrient at the right time, but it seems like a twisted fate that I have to eat an imbalance diet for the past few weeks or so and eating at the wrong time.

Of course, I get to eat whenever I want, except for dinner which I have to eat with my family. It is just that sometimes when you are caught up with work, or you totally missed the breadman van or your class starts at the wrong time with no hope of getting a break in between.

When you finally overcome all the big obstacles, the first thing you want to do is eat anything that is being served no matter how many odd colours there are in the dish you have ordered. Same applied for what happened today, but not as bad.

For preventive measure, say a prayer and thank God for the food, get Him to sanctify the food or risk having a tummy ache with indigestion or something along that line. OK, that happened not too long ago, I was being adventurous.

So, here you are. If you are interested in the meaning of eating and its significance, read this. It is actually quite interesting.

Till then, chow!

p.s. This post was inspired by both her and the stomach.

Turning back

2005-10-23T15:02:00.000+11:00

I guess I made a mistake when I posted the last entry. And I would like to change my attitude towards things. I am also sorry for causing any misunderstanding or hurt on my part.

I got a wakeup call when someone commented about my post yesterday. And another even stronger wakeup call after watching a play about Christians' marriage to the Church.

I think, as someone who yearns to hear from God and be taught of His ways each day, it is my duty not to turn down people who are in need of help even if it means listening to their problems all the time.

But what is duty with bad attitude? Hmm.. through the message I got from the play was that it is equivalent to not caring at all.

So, from today onwards, I pray that this new attitude of listening will stay for eternity. God was willing to listen to me, so should I be willing to listen.

Help?

2005-10-22T06:02:00.000+11:00

Everyone is this world is a little troubled, quite troubled, and very troubled all the time. But some seem to be so happy while others would show feelings in words or on their face. The best thing about technology now is some people do it online by displaying it on their blog, e-mail or even on their display names in chat rooms.

Do take note that I am not here to insult or make fun of anyone. I just want to point out sometimes I feel so helpless when talking to these people. I just do not know what to say because I would not be able to help them in anyway (to even feel better).

I have several friends who always seem to get into trouble with the world or things just doesn't seem to be lovely. They do complain about things that everyone face. And they do it very well.

Some would not complain, but would put up messages or signs about how their heart is slowly breaking, or are crying painfully when they sleep because they feel lonely. Some would beat themselves up by saying "I feel so useless" and so forth.

When you are ask them what happened, they will tell you that it is a small thing. These are people who always complain to you about things they are not happy or dissatisfied about.

I bet some are a little confused about what I am trying to say here. The truth is, so am I!

Yes, I have problems myself. Yes, we need to be aware of the problems we are facing so we could deal with it. No, we should not dwell on every single problem in our life every single minute that we are aware of it. And no, we should not use our colourful vocabulary to describe all our problems too.

The truth is, there is more to life than our very imperfection. If we look at how life sucks, then it is really overwhelming. Friends can only do so much as to offer their ears to listen. But be warn that even the best ears can go deaf if used to often.

Think! Think of ways you can overcome your problem, even if it means crawling back to God or humbling yourself. Your constant tearing can only make fungus grow on people's shirt, which brings more trouble in the end.

OK, OK. To summarise, read the two paragraphs before these. This does not mean that I do not want to listen to you if you have problems. I am willing to lend an ear and a hand if applicable. But don't cry and make it sound like it is the end of the world. The world does not need another catastrophe.

Nightmare

2005-10-20T01:43:00.000+11:00

For those who know the course I take do not have as many written exams as compared to the rest of the world (except for those cooking char kwey teow and wan tan mee). Many people would ask if when my finals would be and I would have to remind them that there isn't any.

But this term, I have a theory subject. And it is a heavy one. I have to learn how much soil much I have before I can plant my floor nicely. How deep my column must be or it would swing with the wind... you get the drift. My first paper in a very long time is finally coming and it is tomorrow.

Now, that is not the nightmare I am talking about. My test is an open book test.

The real nightmare I had has Walt in it. Nope, he is not the scary one.

Knowing the kind of person I am, I have decided to study at least two days before it. And all seem well. Suddenly, Walt appeared and asked me like what good friends would always ask: how much have you studied?
Me: Just started, why?
Walt: What? Still got two more days and you just started? I took 10 days just to glance through it!
Me: ... I don't want to fail!! NOoooOOoOOo......

And I woke up drenched in sweat. OK, that was a scene in a movie I want to watch. But it was still horrible! The fact that I would fail really scare me.

But as my breathing calmed down, I realised that Walt is studying engineering while I am doing an easier course than him. Why shoul I worry for something that engineers specialise in and architects just laugh at?

Anyway, I better get some real work done. Otherwise the my nightmare would become real.

All the best to all SPM, STPM, Nutritionists, Engineers, Marketing and Sales, Doctors, Mass Commist, Psychologists, Char Kwey Teoh fryer and anyone else in between... who will be taking a paper soon. God bless you all!

p.s. All those not taking test, also be blessed too!

Two Asian Beauties

2005-10-20T01:09:00.000+11:00

These two Asian women deserve a special mention here. Yup, by looking at them, you would be able to recognise both of them immidiately. One is Nicol David, who won the British Open on Monday by beating some unknown (OK, I only know Nicol in her sports and Ong Beng Hee). Being a Malaysian, I am proud of her great achievement. (For more info, here!)

According to a friend who used to play squash with her, Nicol runs around the court faster than you can blink properlly. Sigh, that is the only connection I have with her... *looks admiringly

Picture by Alan Tan from Lensapix

The other one, who did not do well, but still a chick, I mean a good sportswoman is Michelle Wie from America. The other reason why she deserves a mention here is because she is just turned 16 last week (?) and she is now playing Pro-Golf. Plus, she is Asian.

At this tender age, she is almost a millionaire and a 6 footer! Don't get me wrong when I said she did not do well. Or else she would not have played Pro. She just made an innocent mistake which made her look bad in her otherwise 4th place finishing in her pro debut.

Picture by REUTERS

Sharks.. I just spent so much time blogging on people I do not know, or least likely going to meet in real person. Back to reality it is for me. *with satisfactory smile :)

Needs

2005-10-13T05:03:00.000+11:00

This is my second time trying to write this entry. The first time was in the morning yesterday. I wrote it halfway before realising that I have no idea what I am talking about. Could I be writing an entry for the sake of writing? Hopefully not.

This week, I introduced my blog to my friend. After a while, she mentioned that it is good to have a reason or a purpose for this blog. That got me thinking a little, have I for the past few thousand entries have been true to the purpose of this blog?

This blog's original purpose was to inspire, to bring humour and to enlighten readers about how a Christian brother is living life (of which the first two I do not know how to do). If I did hold fast to the original purpose, did I do it properlly or half heartedly? And how did the readers respond to the entries?

Yes, it seems like I would need to hire a marketing analyst for my blog. But I am not going to do that. I need to spend my time worrying about other things like my thining hair and my pillow. I always seem to get it locked in my parents room at night (another long story).

No amount of worrying would solve problems. I guess I would seriously need to evaluate all my future entries. I will try to make as much sense as possible in future, promise!

At the moment, there are several things I really need:

A construction site where I can go take pictures of building structures.
A book on Traditional Korean Architecture - there are none even in the Korean Embassy! blewh..
More quality quiet time
A long, long holiday with one or two person
To bless some people who have been very nice to me by offering me rides and printer and teaching me and guiding me and...

Yeah, should be fun doing all of those stuff.

Amazing prayer

2005-10-11T05:12:00.000+11:00

I might be taking things from God for granted. But all these while, He has been very good to me and my family. Praying is something that I am not very good at. I seldom do it now since the fasting month ended on the 31st of August. I do pray, at least I try. Praying is not that frequent too. But when a prayer is made, God surely moves.

Like the other day in April when I drove to Cherating with several of my church mates for our Church camp with bad tires and invisible road tax for the car. We did not get into trouble with the wet weather and the local authorities (police, which happened to set a road block about 250m from our camp site). We could have gotten into lots of trouble no doubt, but God's grace is there.

Now, there is another story to it. It may not as dramatic as the former, but still as amazing as God itself. While we drove to Cameron Highland for the weekend, the engine of the truck we drove just died after turning right at the traffic light from the toll in Simpang Pulai.

Guessing it was just the alternator problem that caused the battery to run flat, my dad contacted the truck's manufacturer to get a local mechanic to replace the battery. However, even the replacement did not solve the problem. But an ingenious trick got the truck to start up again.

Otherwise, we would be stuck in Simpang Pulai (about 10km south of Ipoh) and our weekend trip would be cancelled.

All things were as normal until we arrived home on Sunday evening. That is when the truck finally gave up for good.

How can this be explained? Hmm.. not very well. But even if it is a mechanical problem, God's grace must have been there. If it wasn't for Him, we would have been a new resident of Simpang Pulai roadside or Cameron Highland.

And all of these because of a simple prayer made before the trip.

Camerons

2005-10-11T04:42:00.000+11:00

On the 8th of October, I travelled up to Camerons with my family for a vacation/business trip. It was an interesting trip filled with many unexpected turn of events. For those who like stats, here are some for you:

Places been through: Subang - Simpang Pulai - Berinchang - Tanah Rata - Beringchang - Simpang Pulai - Shah Alam - Subang
No. of times truck failed to start: 2
No. of car battery changed: 1
No. of stops along Simpang Pulai and Berinchang: at least 3 to take pictures
No. of future landslide sites passed by: A lot
Name of hotel stayed: Equatorial, Berinchang
Cost of apartment suit after subsidies: RM80
No. of rooms in apartment suit: 2
No. of free drinks while waiting for room to be ready way after check in time: 4
No. of breakfast coupons for occupants: None! none!! NONE!!
Cost of meal for one day in Cameron Highland for four: RM127
No. of years dad has been working on a case in Cameron Highland: 12 years
Age of writter: 20 years
No. of times it rain while being in Cameron Highland: 3 times
Distant driven by writer on the way down from Cameron Highland to Simpang Pulai: at least 70km
No. of cars writer overtook on the winding road: 2
No. of 2 tonne trucks which overtook driver while doing 70km on winding road: 1
No. of accident seen on the trip: 1
No. of tow-truck seen: 5

Yup, it gives some kind of picture of things happened throughout the whole trip. It is one trip that I enjoyed and want to go back again. Hopefully then I will have enough money for the food, and rememeber to bring a jacket.

Oh, a few more stats.

No. of pics taken throughout the whole trip: 125.
Location of people missed in the trip: Australia, Phillipines, Singapore and Subang Jaya

Lovely models (pic)

2005-10-07T06:14:00.000+11:00

There was a presentation on Tuesday to show off out models after two weeks of hard work. Our models are houses (recreational or living) on which we design for our clients, ranging from Micheal Jordan to Jacky Chan. From Kenny G. to the average Joe.

The end result? You be the judge ;)

The first two pics (left and bottom), is for Zainal Abidin. Nature lover

This house (left) is for Vaneasa Mae, violinist who likes having parties but still prefers simple life and lots of privacy.

Below: corridor leading to the guest house. Pretty need, but a "contractor" was hired to get it done.

This house is a vacation house for Jacky Chan and his family of dunno how many hundreds. The design is supposedly inspired by dragons from both East and West.

House for Kenny G and his family of 4. The building is on stilts but supposedly to be not more than one storey high. Sliding door will be one of the main features of this house to allow better viewing of nature.

House for Elizabeth Hurley and her son. The only house design to be partially over lake for the best view.

House of a average Joe who is a pilot and his family of 3. Another unique house design with one floor only but with two different structure. Plus a beautifully made car porch.

This is one of the nicest model I have seen. For a Korean singer/dancer. Simple double storey with flat roof and a big balcony! hmm.. cool!

So, guess, which is mine? No price for winning.

p.s. I did not take picture for the house which was meant for Micheal Jordan. I was too sleepy at that time. :(

Flies

2005-10-05T21:08:00.000+11:00

Flies - an insect in rival for publicity in recent times after losing out to the aedes mosquito.

Although less irritating compared to a mosquito, it is still a threat to my well being. So annoying it is that after many years of technological breakthrough in trying to zap or splat the fly, its cohorts still manage to find ways to buzz around just to get your attention.

Here are some of the methods I have used in my 20 years experience.

simple hand clapping method: never got around to mastering it. The flies are usually faster than my brain can register. Neither could I bare the idea of touching a fly, dead or alive. So, the clapping method did not succeed.
Fly swater: A very useful and cheap tool. Can get it at a local store for less than RM5. Although it works as fine as your hand, but the results it yields is way better as you can strike from a further distant. With this tool is which I had the most kill.
Electrically-charged Fly swater: Technology upgrade. Rather silly idea because it still depends on your hand work, but fun more the less especially after the kill. I once used to catch semi-conscious flies and put it on this fly swater to see sparks. But that was only once, honest! (battries not included)
Leg-stepping method: Not really practical, but still fun. Legs are not as agile as your hands. But the satisfaction of squishing flies with legs are higher than of the hand. How often do you get to brag about killing flies with your legs (without the killer smell of course)? Shoes and semi-concious flies required.
Windscreen: Works if you are driving through summer time in Australia or place full of ermm.. waste. Yes, the windscreen is very useful especially when you are driving very fast. The flies (or any thing) that cannot fly away fast enough will be sucked into the windscreen. Not very beautiful, but it works.
Knife: Yup, it works. Unless getting hungry while working late at night seriously affect my visual senses. This one happened when I was spreading peanut butter on my bread and a fly landed on it. Being sensible, I tried shaking it hoping it would fly, it did not. Fearing that the fly would turn at me for disturbing its meal, I quickly slam the bread shut and squash it using the knife. Hmm.. so much for supper. Maybe the killer weapon is the bread?

There you go, it has all be proven to work. Next, how to clean up after the "incident"

Feelings

2005-10-04T07:09:00.000+11:00

Good Morning! There goes another alarm on my handphone to wake me up. Thank God for all these technologies. With one device, I can set up to 5 or more alarms to ring at intervals so that I would not fall back to sleep!

I am about to start an epic journey to finish my presentation that is due in 10 hours and less. My brain tells me to finish my work, but I insisted on blogging.

It won't take long, this entry would be a short one. Just want to tell people who come by a few things about me just yet ;) and what I am feeling at the moment.

Hungry
Missing some people
Mood slightly elevated
A little hungry
Somewhat sleepy
Rather paranoid over a phone call
Wanting a full meal with family
Very blessed!
Thankful!

Yeah, you can see I am a little crazy at the moment. My regards to all of those who come by to visit. I might throw in a hug too! Thank you for all the moments a prayer you have given. God bless you all!

Jesus's loves us! blehehehehe...

Neglect (PhD.)

2005-09-26T20:33:00.000+10:00

Neglect, something which I master well. I was borned with it. I use it all the time. But of late, I tried concealing my amazing capability due to responsibilities. It reveals itself subtly once in a while. And people could see it well.

Nothing to be proud of. And I don't like showing off this capability of mine. Because, it causes chaos. It annoys people. It discourages people and losses trust and friendships.

Lately (again), I was told that I did not do my job. I have neglected my members. One feed back I got from one of my team mate was:

The change is not noticable. They feel like nothing has changed since being transfered. They felt leftout and coming for meetings is a drag. They rather be somewhere else. There is little or no follow-up. (Paraphrased)

I would admit that I do not have much time in the world to call everyone up and inform of the up and coming. My nights have been greatly restricted to sitting at home and trying to get some work done. The day would be going to college or church to finish my other errants. At least I make an effort to go through my checklist at least once a week.

The person who made the comment above, by all means should be forgiven. He does not know what I have been through, neither do I know what he is going through too. But it hurts me and angers me. I am not planning to take out my baseball bat to threaten him (searches in background), hmmm can't seem to find it. Oh wait, I don't have one at all. Silly me, maybe I will use my feather then.

To be honest, I admit, I have showed off my skill for that person to see to some degree. But that did not mean I neglected him totally. The past few weeks, I have tried to call him out several times so we could run some errants and chat at the same time. Other times I have tried calling him out so we could catch up a little. I called and send him messeges asking his whereabout in which he did not reply.

When I do meet him, he is always busy or looking for someone else's company.

Indeed we have our own life. Indeed he has his right to his opinion. Well, my team mate told me that he might come and see me to discuss about this particular issue soon.

Might. A good choice of word. I await for that day to come. Might, is what I really need from God now when it does happen.

At the mean time, let Him minister to me.

Politics

2005-09-22T05:23:00.000+10:00

Currently, there are many things in my mind I want to write about. However, I have decided that politics should be more interestzeze.z.zz...z.....

*Snort. Where were we? Ah, Politics. I have been visiting this website about Malaysian politics known as Screenshots. This website has won awards like the Blogs Defending Freedom of Expression.

But today, I want to tell you of something I read today from Screenshots that took me by surprise. A link lead me to a BBC interview of a Malaysian triad. Read it and so would you be surprise.

Now, go forth and learn... or read from different perspective.

I starting to get the hang of Malaysian politics, I think.

Deep!

2005-09-19T04:33:00.000+10:00

It is half quarter past two in the morning and I just concluded a discussion with my brother on life issues and perspective. For once, I have been paying at least 50% to what he said and tried to shut up most of the time. A few things I learnt through this discussion:

I am the black sheep of the family in terms of thinking. Everyone else (in this family) thinks pretty hard and pretty long.
God works in pretty amazing way through the lifes of people.
Shut up and it will do you good by listening.
Although some people may be struggling with priorities in life, they are still willing to move for God.
Someone and my brother said that God's presence should not be in our carreer, safety, food provision, wealth or health, but in EVERYTHING and EVERY PARTS of our life.

Amazing. Simply amazing! Although I think I still have less issues in my life compared to my siblings, they serve God because He was there, is there, and will be there, to see them walk through the dark valleys into the light even if they know or not. Amazing!

OK, time to go get some work done before bedtime. Please pray for us as a family. And oh, for Lor too as she is enjoying herself in Phillipines.

Cheers!

How to clean your house

2005-09-17T15:55:00.000+10:00

Do you have problems keeping your house clean? Finding it hard to maintain the house of your dreams (or not)? Here, are some tips on how to get around the magezines, books, cups and etc away from cluttering in the dining hall, living room and the floor! (Warning! Some of the following tips would require substantial amount of metal preparation.)

Burn the house
Buy a new house and shift in. Leave all of your rubbish behind
Have a junkayard sale
Hire a contractor (i.e. your kids, your kids' friends, your kids' parents, your kids...) and pay him/her lavishly
Have a camp fire, or threaten too (Not related to the first option)
Organise a function.

Before choosing any of the option above, the most important thing you must remember is that you want a house to stay at the end of the clearing up. Unless after all the years of cluttering, your rubbish has organically bond with the house, or it has become too toxic to be safely remove it.

The sane human of me decided to chose last option (without putting much thought into it, only to regret the decision until it was too late). My cell group decided to organise a BBQ for our non-Christian friends and finding the right place to organise the event proved to be much harder than organising th event it self.

After searching at several potential places was shot down (including one place with BBQ pit which cost RM200 and an apratment with one toilet down, no fan, termite infested floor, and leaking kitchen), my house was the only option. Without thinking about the psychological anguish that was to come after, I absent mindedly said yes. That was because my cell leader promised to help out too!

The front and back lawn is infested with wild growth (without proper care, grass can grow really really wild). It was like a tropical forest out there. After giving a quick trim, it became like the plains of Spain.

All the rest of the useful stuff (not rubbish in my sight) was shifted up stairs into different bedrooms or storeroom for sorting later. The floor was later wiped 3 times. Twice with clean water once with detergent (which I did not know it exist in my house).

So in the end, the whole house looked so much cleaner and lighter because all the rubbish (or not) has been hidden in a place out of sight.

*****

The function went well... although the place was in serious mess after that. Cleanning was really necessary otherwise it would be infested with rats and cockroaches. But the best part was, in the dirty environment, people still managed to eat, mingle around, got to know each other, have fun and clean up all the spills that happened!

The people I met other than my cell group members came from all sorts of background. And the interesting fact was most of them studied in the same secondary school. So it seems like the akwardness was reduced. It is also amazing to see how people's life were intervined in a way, no matter how far you go, you are still connected to each other through one friend or another.

My cell group members, amazing, seriously amazing. I have never seen them worked together at such wonderful pace before. They responded, took initiative and even offered to help without asking! I was really blessed!

So in the end, when it all ended, I could see that the visitors (most of them) seemed like they enjoyed themselves.

*****

In the end, when all things were cleared, wiping the floor in the deep silence of night, knowing that everything else has been cleared and the fact that God was helping me out throughout the whole event was just simply satisfying. Many things were simply going out of hand but yet He made it happened. And as a bonus, He gave me strength while cleaning the house even when it was nearly 1 in the morning! *chuckles.

Now, my house is very much cleaner than the many years before. For a limited time only, you can come visit my house with a small fee (food is exceptable). House is open 12 hours a day, call before you leave. It is either now or never!

Amazing... just amazing!

Note: Author is currently very proud of the clean house he is currently enjoying. Do contact him if more details is needed on how to clean your house!

Bus stop meeting?

2005-09-14T03:09:00.000+10:00

I have been involved with the local public transportation sector these past few weeks. Due to rising cost in traveling by car (blame petrol, it cost me RM63 to pump a full tank when it was nearly RM55 the last time!) traveling to college by bus is the cheapest option. The reasons:

It cost RM3 per day.
The price remained the same the past 2 years or more.
It now cost me RM7 a day compared to RM5 before the price hike.
I get to sleep in the bus on the way back
I get to read while waiting for the bus to come
I get to meet people (or see) people, nice looking people while waiting for the bus to come. (some people would definitely protest to that)

Now, I usually see people instead of meeting people there. My traveling companion, also my classmate, does much more seeing than I do. And when there is something good to see, my friend will distract me from my book to see the nice looking people. To be honest, I am usually too shy to look myself. You seriously have to believe me!

One faithful day, my friend decided to attend the later class, leaving me alone at the bus stop. A bus came by and a lady got off the bus asking me for a if a certain bus has passed by. Telling her that I was waiting for the bus she mentioned, we started talking a little.

It went on for about until the bus arrived, until we reached our destination and until we parted our ways.

That was the end of it. Knowing that I might bump into her once in a blue moon.

The next day, the blue moon rose again. I bumped into the lady on the way back home from college with my traveling mate at the bus stop. A quick introduction later, the lady and I started talking. While my friend of mine, became absolutely quiet and look into the blank. We waited for the bus for almost an hour that day for the bus to come. The lady later mentioned that she has been waiting at least an hour before we arrived.

Like striking the lottery twice, the moon rose again on the third day and we met the lady again on the way back home. And immediately, she told us that she had been waiting at least an hour there. After a while, the lady convinced us to share a taxi back to home.

On the fourth day, my friend told me when we were leaving college that if we do bump into the lady, we will have to wait at least another hour before going home. As soon as we reached the bus stop, he quickly gave a quick scan of the area before letting of a sigh of relieve. When the bus finally arrived, I thought I heard him say "yippee". Well, it seems like the blue moon missed its cue.

All these meetings could be summed down to a few statements and a few questions. It is not that I am not glad to see her, I am afraid of seeing this lovely aunty! Don't get me wrong, she is a lovely lady and friendly. But there is this barrier of discomfort that bugs me, about our age barrier and her being a little too friendly. BUT, if she were to be 30 years younger, I would not mind. If she were to be a model, rich, smart, intelligent... well, you get the drift.

Hmm.. so what do you expect from all these encounters? Not much, we would be meeting more of her in future. Girls will protest to some of these, like Mythweaver. For understanding a little on why girls would do this, read this.

Cheers!

Parable of the bird droppings

2005-09-10T04:40:00.000+10:00

The owner loveed his car very much but never took good care of it. Finally, after months of neglect and layers of dusts later, the owner decided to give his car a good scrubing. Giving the car something of which it deserves every month at least. Within one hour of starting, the accumulation of dirt on the car's interior and exterior has been reduced by a factor of 10 the power of 42. Much dish washing detergent and water were sacrificed in the process.

Feeling happy and regaining her original level of confidence again, the car was ready to show her body and owner without much shame. The owner decided to take her out for a ride around town, and took her out for a simple meal (which cost the owner RM10).

At night, the owner decided to have his meal with his mates while she was left to hang out with the rest of her friends under the tree.

Not known to the owner, that was a decision he soon regretted.

When the owner returned to his car, she was covered with birds' wastes. Shocked and clearly deranged (do not know what the word means but let's give it a try), he quickly drove his baby home and gave it a good scrubbing again. Neighbours peered out of their windows at 1 in the morning to see some psychotic maniac washing car in the dark (this did not happened, it was added to make the parable more interesting).

Within a short moment, she became clean again and the owner is happy again. Of course, you cannot see how clean it is in the dark until the morning star shines again.

*****

Moral of the story: Do not park your car under the tree. And was your car more often (what my mom keeps telling me).

p.s. This is the part where readers must go "Huh?"

Chinese?

2005-09-08T03:43:00.000+10:00

"Are you really Chinese?"
"Yes."
"OK, you don't sound like one."
??!!??!

Yes, I am a Chinese. And I can speak Chinese too. I love Chinese food. And I like Chinese New Year very much, thank you.

But people keep on asking me. Their reaction to the fact that I can speak Mandrin has buffled them more than the mystery behind the rising price of oil recently. It might not sound like the typical M'sian Mandarin accent, but it sure provides humour to those who are willing to listen and annoyance to those who can't take it.

I can speak the language and several other dialects like Seng ning (my dialect which sounds like Cantonese, but with a slight pronounciation), Cantonese and Hokkien. But the sad fact for me is, some of my friends would rather have an English speaking me than any other things. Reason? I occasionally speak like a piano that needs serious tuning.

Intonation while speaking Chinese (language or dialect) is crucial. Different intonation for the same sound gives totally different meaning. Wait a minute, even the same sound with the same intonation could represent different Chinese characters! There are 5 different intonations. So, with much practise and juggling, you can be a master too, young ones.

Now, that is where my problem began. Although I have nearly 9 years worth of Mandarin classes (not inclusive of several extra years in kidnergarten), I still have problems with intonations. English is my primary language and my parents has always emphasised on good English (Not that my English is any better, but we will save this for another day:).

People don't find it hard to understand me, they just can't stop wondering which wire needs tuning in my brain. And they can't stop laughing.

Recently, the question of me being Chinese enough has risen to a new level. A few weeks back, this questioned dealt a death blow to my ego: "are you even Chinese?" That, was much more hurtful than "are you a banana?".

Why? Because I did not know a supposedly famous Chinese ingredient in some soup. Hmmm.. It can't go any worst.

I was wrong. Later that day, another friend asked the same question *ouch! The irony was that guy could not speak Mandarin even though he is a Chinese. :P

All is not lost fortunately, there is a small consolation after all these episodes. A few days back, I was waiting for my bus to come. A lady walked by and asked me in Mandarin if the one bus she was looking for has passed by. Nothing unusual about that. But what made the day was when we continued conversing, she found out that I could speak English! The reason why she initiated the conversation in Mandarin was because I looked like I came from China.

Now, isn't that great?

Inspiration

2005-09-07T03:17:00.000+10:00

Yup, something which I do not have the past few days for writing my in. It has been several weeks now since my last entry (well, it seems like weeks to me :).

While I was not writing, I have been spending lots of hours in visiting blogs of my friends, blogs that I enjoy, and blogs of strangers. Each day, I spend nearly 2 hours (sometimes more) on reading blogs. ehehehe... I have my reasons. I am doing a research for my project.

What has that got to do with Architecture? Isn't your course all about buildings? Yes, it has everything to do with my course. You have to know that most buildings are meant for human beings. And human beings have different personalities and interest.

In our country, one of the most common buildings are terrace houses. Although the designs may vary from one area to another, it still a form of mass production in my point of view, leaving us with not many options.

My newest project in this new term is to create a house which suits the client's personality of our liking in a place so ulu (secluded in Malay, and it has a name. It is known as Ulu Yam). And I chose someone who flies aeroplanes. After searching high and low for a suitable profile through blogs and dating websites (I was really desperate), I finally found several potential clients that has enough information which informs me of their interests (other than their love for aeroplanes).

Of course, along the way, I found out several things that surprised me:

There are websites of blog listing which specially caters to profession of the aviation industry.
Dating websites want you to be a member before you can get any information about the person you are interested in.
If you are not careful, you can venture in to blogs with connections to porn even within the profesion oriented websites.
George Bush once had a blog.
There are wars that goes on within the blogging community over blog comments (yeah, this is not part of the project. But I was bored of not finding anything interesting.)

Now that I have finally and officially concluded my research of my client's profile. I finally took time to write in. Well, I do not know when I will find my next round of inspiration to write again.

Cheers!

Yes, pray for me to finish my homework ON TIME and WELL and bless others without thinking too much. Pray that God is with all that seeks Him earnestly. Pray for peace at heart for people suffering silently everyday. Amen.

God bless you :)

What balance?

2005-08-23T01:28:00.000+10:00

Life is definitely unfair. Just when you want something most, it does not come at all. And when you have finally decided not to pursue it, it returns to haunt you. Maybe not haunt you, but it makes you wonder if you actually deserved it.

I got to know my previous term's results and it was bad news. I did not hit the minimum required to continue receiving my scholarship. It is to my understanding that they (the college) are recalling it back and I will have to pay for studying now. All of these happened during a holiday I wanted to enjoy so much. Sadly, I did not enjoy too much of the time I had and now I am actually looking forward for the new term to term start. So I would have a chance to proof myself that I can do it.

Yup... but classes only start next week. And one week seems like a pretty long wait all of a sudden. *chuckles*, at least that leaves me with enough time to seek strength from God for the new term. I worry that I would fall back into the lazy self again, and I really hated it when that happened. Solution, find a good study partner or a torturer that would torment and remind me what I would be if I do not perform. :)

Ah, here is another case. It has been a long time since I have decided to stop having crushes on this particular girl I barely know. At the very beginning, I was too shy to talk to her. We only met a couple of times and greeted each other.

A good friend of mine told me to take courage and strike a conversation with her. Indeed, as chance allowed it, we talked about the weather and how each other were going home. And she said (paraphrased): "Oh, today my boyfriend is fetching me at 6." That was the beginning of a turning point. To put it crudely, she is off boundaries, a no-no.

Ironically, we met each other more often and at least we are having a friendship that is growing (I think) slowly.

A third example: Working in the event's department for is such a hastle and something very new to me. I would admit I was slacking in many aspect of my job and complained a lot. However, at least I was able to make decisions (I think, again) for the way things should go in my area. I got a friend to help me in the department and he has been the most helpful of all person.

After awhile, I got some wake up call not to neglect my responsibilities. I finally decided to actually do my job. However, I soon realised that my boss would rather inform my friend on going ons and updates rather than approach me. Decisions are made without my knowledge.

I had the biggest of mood swings the past few days and nights. One good example: Chatting online. I was happy talking to a friend in one chat window, and being serious and dissapointed at the next chat window. And the mood changed back and forth every time the chat window changed. Hmmm... man, I was as though I had the worst PMS. Now I know how it feels like to be left out. *sigh

What do you learn from all of these? It could be something about me, or human nature, or even as Christians who has a relationship with God. God is always calling and reaching out to us all the with such tender love and we turn away to love something else instead. Yet, we only seek Him when we need help from Him. Maybe what I felt is a small comparison of what He always feel. Pursuing vainly only to have it when we finally give up? And getting it not the way one expects it to be?

I do not know if people could see the relationship between this conclusion and the cases mentioned above. But that is how my brain is uniquely wired (it could mean either way). :)

p.s. Thanks Yew and Lor for the advise over chicken rice. Made me realised some important things. I would do my best in serving while being in the dept ;)

ADD-ON (0024hour):
I just chat with my friend not too long ago about event we were involved. And she told me the reason why helped although it wasn't her responsibility (and department) was because I was actually blur. Many people seemed to agree on that fact that I work too slowly and always seemed confused. However, no one dared to tell me.

For whatever reason why no one told me, I do not know. But I am greatful to have a friend who was willing to speak the truth although there was a chance it could hurt my feelings. The fact that no one actually tells me hurts me more than what state I am in. *sigh... Thanks Chea :)

Another person who encouraged me in the most unusual way. What blessings.

What does it say?

2005-08-21T05:03:00.000+10:00

Some pictures taken in the past few weeks when the camera was never removed from my bag.

More than usual? My burger is related to a WC?

My other breakfast date.

Yup, sure brings back memories of an old game

How often do you see a dome which has gone for extreme diet?

Beautiful weather. Especially after the haze.

Gear with a sinking feeling..

Hanging clothes at the side of the field. A scene that is rare even at the place this was taken.

You like the pictures? You can ask it from me. :)

shower of blessings!

2005-08-15T04:40:00.000+10:00

Sunday is a beautiful day. Sermon was about Jesus saying: I'll be back... (say it with a manly, German accent for more effect). It was a great reminder about the question on whether we will be ready if for what ever reason Jesus said He is coming tomorrow. Of course, do not be fooled by the question, it is bound to happen.

When Eld. Be gave an alter call, I was one of the first one to be up there! In a way I am proud because I would usually wait for 23 people to go up first before seeing whether I am I want to go up or not.

I was glad mostly because I wanted God to help me. And the fact is only He can help me. I guess I always make the mistake of relying so much on myself more than on Him. Eld. Be quickly prayed over me, and through Char, He told me "Perfect love knows no fear".

Followed on was during hang-out time, A. Flor decided to get me a Christmas@Park T-shirt. Sounds pretty strange, because Christmas is in another 4 more months away. That, did not bother me because I am getting a new T-shirt!!

So, brilliant is a word to describe today. Blessed by God is the phrase to describe what I am feeling now. Thanks :)

p.s. Welcome to my blog! My visitor count has gone up to 2!! TWO!! dua! tu! ngo leh! liong gor!.. buahahha...
p.p.s. Oh, another blessing is, the Wee sis' leftover egg sandwiches! yumm....

Hayyzzzzzz

2005-08-15T04:06:00.000+10:00

Now, it is my turn to talk about the haze!! Yes, yes, I have finally comformed to the norm when all the other blogs in this country have been talking about it. Yes, it is unhealthy for the body. No, I did not get a face mask. No, I was not safe even at home as it looked pretty bad inside the house too. I would have escaped by hopping into the LRT and sit there with a nice novel to read while it runs its round (I have a plan for not paying a sum for traveling so far and so long), but that would mean waiting for the bus to come, and waiting means outside in this hostile environment!

One thing the haze reminds me off is the computer games with bad graphic cards. I used to play Need For Speed III on a lousy computer system. And a lousy computer system do not reproduce a scenery fast enough. So what you will see is when you are driving along, further down the road you will have things popping up towards you. And beyond that, it is shrouded with a blur "mist". Yes, it is like driving in the haze.

But the most amazing thing happened on thursday night when youth leaders (from church) met up for our weekly meeting. At the end of the meeting, our pastor prayed for haze to be lifted up, saying that it was scriptural. And it did work :) !!! When we left the meeting later, the sky was definitely clearer. And the next day, it was as though the haze was gone for good!

Yes, poor penang folks.

But one thing for sure, we believed in the power of God. And He made it happened. What blessings!

Now, pray for the people in the north who are suffering from the haze. So that the haze will stop coming back and paster anyone at all. Amen!

Depression

2005-08-08T04:10:00.000+10:00

I assume that I am suffering from a little bit from mild depression. I supposed I screwed up a lot of things.

There are two parking fines I am dealing with one of them threatening a court case if I don't pay up soon
there is a streamyx bill totalling more than RM 900 under my name because I did not cancel the account almost a year ago when it was giving me so much trouble.
my scholarship is at threat if I do not get at least 2.85 an above this term because I did not meet the mark required last term
there are a lot of things not settled for my part in an event I am involved with, and my "boss" is chasing me.

Hmmm, now that I have listed all of it down, I can see how much trouble I am in. Lately I have been praying more often than usual. I do not know why, but it could be because of 40 days fast. I tried very hard to fast. First from food, then from meat, and then from a computer game and a few days ago, pringles.

The fact that I could not stick to one kind of fasting makes me feel bad too. Now that I am on holiday, I am rather demotivated. What more when I go back to college with so much trouble in hand (in two weeks time).

There are happy times, short happy times. Especially when I am praising God. But mostly I am feeling a little crappy because of all the mess I made. All the other time I spend praying, asking God to give me strenght and not bless me specifically. And yet I have little faith. I fear that I would be dissapointed. What am I to do?

I want to tell someone about all my troubles and yet I can't find a suitable "victim". Some victims know some part of the story. The rest are all hidden within my heart, in which only God knows.

God is not a victim, not at all... eheheh... He has been faithful and forgiving and helpful. But, I felt like I have dissapointed Him so many times. At the moment, I just need someone who walk with me through all my problems. Some one I could be accountable to. Some one who would minister to me. Some one to hold me in the hand and lead me.

Hmmm... God... help... please...

What a break!

2005-07-28T04:30:00.000+10:00

Hmm.. it has been a long time since I last posted and so many things happened in between. There are so many things to tell yet I do not know where to start. But the most exciting thing to tell is about my retreat with the Youth leaders to Penang a week before my asessement, and the initiative I took in talking to the person I am interested.

As for now, I am on holiday while the rest of the world just got back to work and studying. What about my college friends? Hmm.. here is the hard part. I am not that close to any of them. Sure, we can talk, but not close enough to meet them up during the holidays to actually talk. Most would be working part time (I want to too), while the rest would have gone back to their beloved hometown, a small portion are aquaitances in college.

Sigh.. what am I to do? TV is not a very good option mind you. There is only so many hours in a day to keep me entertain. And more so this month is fasting month. I have finally figured out what to fast for, now the thing is to get going.

Well, it is pretty late now. I am saying this when I am on holiday? Kind of silly isn't it? Anyway, more things to come. Good night and God bless!