I am still alive

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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)
   
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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

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.

1. Hungry
2. Missing some people
3. Mood slightly elevated
4. A little hungry
5. Somewhat sleepy
6. Rather paranoid over a phone call
   
7. Wanting a full meal with family
8. Very blessed!
9. 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.)

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

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!

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

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!