Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to you...
I hope the well wishes will make you happier,
A lot has happen and will continue to happen.

Make less rules,
Don't expect so much from others, perhaps then, you would have less disappointment,
Have less expectations,
You may not know what others are going through.

Things happen for a reason, and things are happening.
Rocking your foundation to the very core.

I know if given a wish, what would you want.
You would want to give health to your father.
He is weak and he is frail. It is so hard seeing it.
I wish you could do a bit better, giving him as much comfort, in this part of his journey of life.

As I see you caring for him, don't forget the rest of family are also here.
I know you can stay strong for them, uniting and assuring them.
You need to, you have to.

I wish you can control your emotion,
Your kids need you to be calm and assuring, while loving.
Your family needs you to make decisions and be present.
Your wife needs you to communicate the feelings that is bottled up.
I wish you all the best. While I know it is hard to juggle, eventually you will succeed.

Remembering what Dad has always thought us, rightfully or wrongfully it is not for me to judge.
It is for me to make my life better, and having him always in our hearts.

I am your logic, you are the heart and soul. Happy Birthday to us!

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Pain...

I don't remember having so much pain in my life... And I am facing it now. We feel pain when we are inflicted with injury, we felt that we lost something in our lives or we feel empty. Right now, I felt that I have lost something in my life. So often, we race the rat race and rushing here and there, running up and down, without ever knowing where we are headed to.

With the latest lost in my life, I felt that a lot of things does not have the same meaning any more. For a few days now, I felt that I have lost the energy and the will to wake up, and whatever I do, the same memory of  the lost' haunts me. Even when I am doing my favorite things or watching my favorite series. Perhaps time is my best friend to help me heal, to help me dilute the pain that is inside.

Kind of thinking back, school teaches us a lot of things, but there are lots more that didn't come with the school system. I remember one was financial literacy, the other I supposed is how to manage loss or emotion. We have to really loss something to learn this though. When something inevitable coming my way, the memory of Aidan suddenly pops into my mind again, and it is fresh again of what has happened. Life at this point seems a culmination of loss, sorrow and pain. It will probably need to take a long time again for me to to somewhere where pain is less.

I can only thing of moving forward, for my family. My mind is exhausted, body seems weary and the thought that I cannot sustain another day seems very real. Prayers, that God somehow grant me strength to stay on and stay the course, seems to be able to make me feel relieve. As I sip the last of my chamomile tea, I hope that too will calm me, but the restlessness and the feeling that 'something is not right' is felt throughout the day. And when I start to feel better, my mind reminds me that all is not right. All indeed is not right, and pray that I can really struggle through this time with some miraculous help.

5 things to do, to change your life

Be warned, it is not shortcut! Found reading the following (which I was reading off Facebook) very true and can't find the original owner to link it with, but, I am putting the content here just to really remind myself we cannot waste any time. If it is 2 or 3 hours of productive time in a very tired evening, I'll have to utilize that to make myself better. Funnily enough the use of word cultivation and yes, it is so true. And keeping the momentum and motivation is important as well. Without further delay, here is the long interesting passage that will inspire you....

You finish work at 6 pm, go to bed at 12 midnight. Within these six hours, how do you spend them? Watching TV? In fact, the activities you do between 6 am and 12 midnight, the importance of it is beyond your imagination.

Too many people believe that, your career is determined by the 8 hours of hard work and effort you put at work, and your future and career progression depend on the boss and the company. But the reality is that for most people, the company is leveraging your effort to make big money and you could be on your own, depending on the work you do and the value you provide. “Cultivation”, is our personal responsibility. If you found yourself not progressing in life, you cannot blame and put the responsibility on your company for not spoon feeding you.

1. What you do every night is important
2. Read more, anything will do!
3. Do some projects
4. Actively build your connections (contact smart friends, and learn their opinions, get information and knowledge that are difficult to obtain, help the company look for more potential partners, or income generating opportunities)
5. The CHANGE of your LIFE starts TONIGHT

My major in college was marketing, but I expect to become a designer. So I practiced day and night, picking up some freelance work to improve my design skills. It took me a long time. When I became a boss, I no longer need to involve myself in design work, So I went back to the Marketing field.

Every day, when my children are sleeping, I began learning to gain more knowledge, this again took me a long time, But I begin to realize my returns. If I rely on my working hours to gain skills, then I will never have become a creative director and a product manager, or like today, teaching MBA students on Marketing. What I rely on, is myself giving myself “lessons”. And the most successful people I knew, walked the same path as I am.

I have a friend who is a History graduate, but he is interested in technical sales, In the day, he does telemarketing, at night he learns how to code, Finally, he became the vice president of sales in a startup company. Now, he’s a CTO. 

I have another friend, he received a degree in political science. But he’s very interested in entrepreneurship. he learnt a lot of knowledge on how to start up a company, eventually, he founded a company and sold it, Now he has reaped the rewards.

 For them, what they do between 6 pm till 12 midnight, is what determined their future. Clearly, we need to balance life and work. If you have a wife and children, every night, you have to stay with them. Even if you are single, you also need a reasonable allocation of time to go to the gym, to meet with friends, or be alone to meditate and so on.

Of course, watching movies, playing games is good. But there are things you do not need to do. For example, watching the new season of a Netflix drama, 14 hours per week watching television (This is the average amount of time watching television). The time spent playing the game Candy Crush.Or spending time stalking your high school alumni on Facebook, it does not seem to be good. So what should you do?

 My college mentor was born in Alabama, A poor African family. He was admitted to West Point Military Academy, and he became the first person in the family to go college. Before going to Harvard for his MBA, he’s a trained officer. When I met him, he has already developed his career in the city of Colorado Springs. I asked him, what’s his biggest success? He replied, because he kept the habit of reading, and he never stopped. He believed that if you want to get what you want in life, knowledge is the key. He often asked his interviewees what book are they reading now, the excellent ones can give an answer immediately. Reading can give you a good headstart, this is often what your peers cannot obtain. Compared to others, you are more likely to know other industries strategies and tactics, and that may be helpful to your company.

 You can transfer your knowledge within the organization, create new possibilities for your company. Moreover, your conversation topics will become more interesting. Anthony Robbins said: “If you spend one hour a day to learn about a topic, a year later, in this regard, the knowledge you gain will be more than 99.999% of the world’s people.”Even if you have 30 minutes every night, each week you can easily read a book. You may not be an expert, but I promise, you’ll know more than what your peers know.

You can apply the knowledge learnt to real work scenario, this is only an ideal state. If your company did not give you this opportunity, create opportunities for yourself. You can do some volunteer projects. They can bring you fame. Working with a team, you’ll understand how things work. In the practical application of the industry, and how it ultimately affect actual customers. You’ll learn how to perform the task and meet deadlines, and get feedbacks on what you are doing, and benefit from it.

 When you are not strong enough, these experience may not have any value to you. But you are still a novice. these experiences are far more valuable than the miserable pay you are getting. If you can really convince others of your pockets of fruits of labour, Then go try it. But do not let these private jobs affect your work.

In your career path, a strong network of connections will make everything accelerate. If you have not set up your own personal connections, you’ll need to divide a portion of your time to do this. A strong network of relationships, can enable you: Go get to know your work colleague or boss….. If you are an entrepreneur, your network connections will be your early customers, your staffs are a source of capital rather than go home, or going to a bar, you should find some inner circles. There are many small groups which are highly relevant to your career. You should try to integrate into these circles. Every week, you can drink coffee together with new friends, go drinking or have breakfast.

 You can also look into everyone’s career developments on LinkedIn. And establish a network with mentors in those professional industries. They may be your next job employer, who knows? Your connections will be your most powerful asset in the workplace. Since you have time to watch “The Voice of China”, you have time to build a social network.

 6 pm to 12 am, you go home, though physically and mentally tired, you are free to do anything and do not have to take orders from others. During this time, you can switch off like switching off your computer at your workplace, switch off your brain. But you can also do something, make you smarter, stronger, have a wider network of people. From the start tonight, take an hour a day to do these things, I guarantee that after a year, your career, and life will change.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

My Love...

August 21st, a day to remember someone I loved, and to be able to love for such a short time only. The time is excruciating short and painful, and I wish it has not happened. It did though, and feelings cannot be taken away, the love, the pain, the hurt and the decision that was taken, cannot be reversed forever.

My promise to you, my love, will be, that I'll be a better man, the better man and the man I never thought I could become. I will become him for you, and I owe you that. I am at crossroad in my life now, decision seems to be hard, everything seems to be on losing end, everything seems to discourage me, there seems to be no way out and it is painful. Partly because I'm not yet where I want to be and also my worry that I will not be able to achieve what I have promised. To you, my love, I will not give up trying, I will not...

The moment I have known you, I have assumed that responsibility at least NEVER to give up on my promise, whether I will reach my goals, my promises to you, I will not know, but there is no giving up. The WILL is there, the body is tired and weary. I can tell you, my love, that no one is providing me any support, my soul of fire has been doused with cold water, many times. I stand firm, I'll protect the fire, even if it is ridiculous to every one around me, because for you, my love, I'll never let it go, less I return to Jesus.

Focus, concentration, weariness, confidence and will, all seems to be exiting from my fighting soul. Give me the strength, my love, my soul of fire is now kept alive only because of my promise to you, and I will use this promise to remind myself to keep going. My love, you know I will. Aug 21st, this day is a day for me to remember, my love, and for me to renew my promises and I will be the better man, I PROMISE.

Love you.

Spending the next few days in solitude.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

2016

I can only take time to reflect upon this quote, which summarizes what happened in 2015 and what I have to do more in 2016. Great quote which will definitely spur me to look into myself and stretch myself to do the things I have always thought impossible.

“Only as high as I reach can I grow
Only as far as I seek can I go
Only as deep as I look can I see
Only as much as I dream can I be”
Karen Ravn

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Message to myself

Dear Me,

I say good morning, to God's beautiful world with a smile

I have quiet time thankfully for the new day

I am in the present, engaging and align to my goals

I am passionate in every role God has given me

I understand my perspective and season in my life

I listen intently and care about others

I know, to influence is to take time and love

I expect problem, that's why God sent me here

I expect hardship, just as Jesus held the cross

I learn every day from good and bad experience

I wrap up in evening, summarizing my learning

I thank God, take stock and plan the next day

I spend loving moments with my family

and as I do all this

God bless me and shower me with his faithful love

I learn to love others because God love me many times more.

Love,

I

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Appreciation

Appreciation helps you to be happy when you misplaced it till tomorrow, to learn when you fail, to have humility when you succeed, to look up when you are down, to be sympathetic towards others and to get to know yourself, better.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

What I learned in 2012

It was supposed to be the end, coupled with a film made out of it, but it wasn't. So life goes on...

2012 has been a difficult year for me personally, as I learn to cope with difficult situation in life. I am not going to say, my situation is more difficult than others, but it was definitely difficult compared to any other years any time.

With the incident, I have decided on the same conclusion that I have came to every year when it comes to year end, that I have to live my life to the fullest and give it my best shot in fulfilling my aspiration. Same conclusion, but I felt that it came with a deeper and stronger conviction this year to ensure that things are done.

I will be mindful also that life is a roller coaster and it goes up and down, situations and emotions. I will not take into granted the moments I have with my family and friends while trying to reach for the stars. I realized that they are there for me during my worst days. And I have to be there for them in their rainy days as well. I will cherish my family and friends, though family members to me, sometimes, felt like they are the ones that helped us most in our life but seem to be the one that is less cherished or taken for granted.

I will challenge the impossible, not with the same motivation of how I used to, but with a renewed feeling of doing something of a greater worth for family/friends and the society. Challenging what seems impossible used to be something that I think I do that to be special or I can boast about it, but that kind of motivation doesn't sustain in the longer run. The only way to have motivation for an uphill tasks, is really to do something that is of great worth to people around me.

And of course, to sustain the drive to seek fervently for God. I will continue to learn to be a servant and to follow my shepherd. Life is after all temporary here for a mere 80 years (plus/minus), what is more important is seeking him who made us and ask for his protection upon my household.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

How to take on the World!! A Collection of Wisdom and Guides

At times when I feel burned out and asked the question like, why is this happening to me, why ONLY me, does this happen to other people, why it doesn't happen in their lives, why God is so unfair, why, why, why. All this questions enclosed myself in a situation of self doubt, self limiting and self defeating rant to myself (at least in my own head), and discourage me until I lose my way.

Well I was thinking this has to stop, especially now that I am playing many roles, not just as a friend, a colleague, more importantly a father, a husband, a son, a leader etc. It not only dis-empower me but also the people around me and the people who look up to me when they are in situations. I am quite sure I am mature enough not to do a scene in public, but those thought in my mind will eventually be sensed by those around me.

True enough, some people do ask if anything was wrong with me, especially closer friends. Well I try to tell them what the problem is but I cannot pin point the problem. That leads me to begin to think, what is wrong in my head... Well there is no real problem actually, but the combination of repeating the same things day in and out as well as negative thoughts being repeated in my head causes me to not see the richness of life which I already enjoy on a daily basis. It is time I wake up and take on the world, as the title of this post says it.

Here are a few lines I'm sure I will take a look every morning from now on to ensure that the negative thoughts will not distract me off my awesome life.
1. God made me special and awesome :) Stop comparing my life with others. They're probably not as awesome. (By no means I am putting anyone down, it is just something to appease my competitive spirit inside so that I feel better than others, haha, no friends or family are hurt in the process)
2. Misfits will do what misfits do best - Not try to fit in with the rest of the world. This one is from a friend, I read it and liked it immediately.
3. I decided that my life IS extraordinary. Therefore I have extraordinary problems as well, don't look at others and say 'why it happens to me'. My reaction to problems in life will be extraordinary. Bring it on!!
4. Problems are my best opportunities.
5. For anything to happen, I have to take action, not anyone else.

Well that is at least how I motivate myself. I hope you guys have your own ways as well. Have an awesome life, friends.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Cow Scandal

I am just wondering, where do we get a one stop all truth, non-spinning, truth account version of any story that is in the news today? Everything seems to be biased, either way, and I don't see that this is a good thing. If I have all the time in the world, I would read both side of the argument, think through it logically, get supporting facts and then make a conclusion myself of what is or is not the truth.

However I think 99.9% of Malaysian are busy, hence, unable to do the above. What is then left of us who reads one source of news? We will be biased. It is time to re-think press freedom and I think how Malaysian think will be very much rooted to the type of news that we subscribe to. Not everything that is within reach should be used to fight political war. We need a society that is able to receive neutral and truthful information and let them think what is right and wrong in their own perspective. No?

And a side stuff, I have just replaced my blogger profile with that of my google+ profile. My google+ profile is a little bit more of my professional profile. I just figured that I might have one less profile to worry about then. So goodbye blogger profile.

Profile
"I tend to take my life simple, like to achieve a lot of different objectives in life, want to strive hard to achieve things because I feel that life is too valuable to be wasted on not getting anything done."

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Purpose of my Life

It is the point in time every year that I take a step back and see what is happening in my life. Every year I make a little bit of adjustment here and there, like less of sinful food, more of exercise, strategy to reduce my body fats, strategy to contact some long lost friends and etc. This year though, I take a more profound approach by asking the question, what is the purpose of my life here? Well it has been 2 weeks since I asked that question and really it is not one that I readily have any answers to, even though I have 2 weeks to think about it.

I do know that everyone has a different purpose. Not everyone look at it objectively, and build a plan to achieve it, most people drift by it or get into the thick of action without giving too much of a thought about it. When they do give a thought about it, it is too complex, takes too much time, so, revert to something easier or forget about it.

So after 2 weeks, here is what I have, the most important thing for me is to trust and walk with Jesus and to build that relationship, next is to be the best that I can be with all the given talents and physical health, to give my best to my family and friends and to do my best in every initiative that I embark on.

I suppose time management, wealth, happiness need not be mentioned here because if I am able to do the above and prioritize accordingly, the rest will be added on into my life. Am I missing anything? Well, my friends, do say something if you have anything constructive :p

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Farewell Fa Fa at Ribs @ Oasis Bandar Utama

Late last year, to send off our dear friend, we had dinner at Ribs@Oasis Bandar Utama. This is the first time and the awesome part is that the portion is quite big. I used to be a meat lover, but now, I really should have less. However, meat lover will find this place quite interesting.

It feels like home, eating there, probably because it is so close and surrounded in a housing area. The crowd isn't too big, probably only those who stayed around there would know. However over the past few months, I think it has gained popularity.

Enough about the food and restaurant, I will let you food lover go find out and tell me how it goes. Well the reason I was there is because one of my friend is flying back to England, where she works. And I just got sentimental and started to think of my friends, how little time we have to catch up, how superficial at times because we have very little time to talk, not to mention time to eat and then have to quickly rush off. There just isn't enough quality in those time it feels. How come, generally, most people I know tell me that, time was slower when we were younger. Well, if I can just program my mind to think like that, wouldn't it be good?

Well I realize that, time will not slow down relative to my sensation to it, but it will only move faster and faster. I have to really make full use of it, every moment of it. As I clean up my computer files and photos that I never had time earlier to clear them up. Found some photos and I really took some time, looked at them and think of how fast time flies, and years that has gone by seems to happen in a blink of an eye. And it is Chinese New Year now, I would have some time to re-connect with some of them. I like to look at them, each one of them, in the eye and tell them how much I appreciate them as friends.

Time will only move forward, but good memories will last, and I intend to keep each and every one of them :)
 
~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Thank you 2009, Welcome 2010

My believe is that every year we have to look back and see what progress we have made, do a minor tweak or adjustment and see where we are headed to next. In all reality, 2009 has not been an easy year, as do most years anyway. It will be a waste not to look back and take away learning points. The reality is that the world seems to have gone on a twisted economic cycle. Just to recap some of it the financial meltdown in US, the laying off of workforce all over the world, cutting back of spending from consumer to corporate, the almost always worsening weather and its getting really hot here, political disappointment (the usual picking and biting of each other but as a nation, no real progress), H1N1 another name for another strain of something as common as flu (but it has name because it kills us easily) and inflation on daily items.

So it does look crappy 2009, isn't it? well there was a feel scare but we all survived. And well, for all the stuff mentioned above, it is really beyond my control anyway. What I could do was what I can influence both from my personal action and personal thinking. In spite of all above, it was quite a fruitful year to complement a sad list above :) It is a year that I achieve my PMP, got an award in Software Testing for the organization I service, made a few friends, felt closer to God (yes, we pray more during the tough times), attended Wealth Mastery and preparation for fatherhood. Not that bad at all, I think.

So, come 2010, first of all is making real progress in planning and execution, as well as getting excited and fill my enthusiasm for life itself. I have to be more detailed now, and more precise in execution as this is one of the area I feel lacking the concentration. You know, we can be so distracted sometimes over things we have to do. I am really thinking of a year plan and then breaking them into quarterly plans so that the tracking is much better. From past experience, yearly plans are seldom looked at. Though with quarterly targets, I must live everyday by itself that is, everyday I must make progress and live it to the fullest, in passion, enthusiasm, love and joyfulness. We know we have today, but we do not know whether we really have tomorrow. And all of the daily activity jumbled up really packs it up and well hopefully still giving myself 7 or at least 6 hours of good sleep, plenty of water and pack in a couple of hours of good exercise and sun light every week.

A lot of cutbacks as well for 2010, I must reduce wastage time. Plenty of it, I suppose I should start with less TV, less games (yes, I still do games), less unhealthy food, less negativism, less pessimism and definitely less anger. I find that we live in a world full of pressure and pain. As yet technology has provided us with ample amount of convenience, I do find that with so much convenience, sometimes we do not appreciate life enough as it is. One thing I remembered that Keith Cunningham taught me, is that we have to set aside time to THINK. Have you really sit down and think today? Have we sit down and appreciate each and every present that God has give me and thank God and thank the people around me? Nope, have not done much of that. Come 2010, I definitely will.

One theme I want to make 2010 for me personally, is that 'To make this world a better place, with compelling future and exciting tomorrows for people around me, more so my family, so that the energy and enthusiasm around me will bring me to greater heights with God and understanding him better. To utilize my time so fully that I translate all my plans into outcomes that I wanted through perfect execution, as well as being generous with time for family and friends.

Yes Yes Yes, I can't wait for 2010!!

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

From my e-mail box - Beautiful Lesson

The girl in the picture is Katie Kirkpatrick, she is 21 . Next to her, her fiancé, Nick, 23. The picture was taken shortly before their wedding ceremony, held on January 11, 2005 in the US .. Katie has terminal cancer and spend hours a day receiving medication. In the picture, Nick is waiting for her on one of the many sessions of quimo to end. In spite of all the pain, organ failures, and morphine shots, Katie is going along with her wedding and took care of every detail. The dress had to be adjusted a few times due to her constant weight loss An unusual accessory at the party was the oxygen tube that Katie used throughout the ceremony and reception as well. The other couple in the picture are Nick's parents. Excited to see her son marrying his high school sweetheart.

Katie, in her wheelchair with the oxygen tube , listening to a song from her husband and friends

At the reception, katie had to take a few rests.The pain does not allow her to stand up for long periods

Katie died five days after her wedding day. Watching a woman so ill and weak getting married and with a smile on her face makes us think..... Happiness is reachable, no matter how long it last. We should stop making our lives complicated.

Life is short
Break the rules
forgive quickly
kiss passionately, love truly
laugh constantly
And never stop smiling
no matter how strange life is
Life is not always the party we expected to be
but as long as we are here, we should smile and be grateful.

As I reproduce this piece found in my mailbox, I didn't take the trouble to find out whether this person is in fact real or not. If the write did have such good imagination to even create a story of such, I think he or she knows something about life. And indeed if I reflect back at myself, too many times I have been looking into the small things and get frustrated with the minute things. The big picture, how about being alive and even close to our loved ones. Life is indeed fragile and unpredictable, but Love is something uniquely God build into us from his own image. How can we not learn to love and give more than anything else. If there is something I can learn from this is I need to Love and be less selfish. Have a great day, folks.


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

A long break and now back

After about a couple of decade not writing blog, or at least that was how it felt like, I decide to write something today. But have no specified topic to write about, so lets just say I'll comment on something and everything that I can remember or know that is happening around me.

1. Economic Crisis OR Financial Crisis: Friends and family around me has been talking about the crisis and our stock market hitting rock bottom. That is then when we buy our house and invest a few 100k into blue chip stocks. Apparently over a period of 5 years, it will double your income. Well if that is true, lets us dig into our pocket and see how much we have :) 2nd problem, when do we exactly hit rock bottom :) And lastly, will you have that much to invest, just in case you have emergency. Well have to do a risk analysis already

2. Politics: Nothing like what I have read in the Sejarah textbooks. It is amazing how politic play a role today. It even seems to overshadow everything else like the police, the judiciary, the MACC and it is like all this pillars of the country is under political party. Well how sad that we can only make a decision every 4 to 5 years (that is, every general election). So, it is like we pay a movie ticket and watch it for 5 years. In between, you could do nothing about it. But one thing I do wish, can everyone involved in it just think of the country first, and everything else second. Look at the shape of the economy in our country. Companies are doing all the cost cutting for survival and we still can see a lot of 'advertisement' of political leaders, of that our country is in a good shape, of everything is good and fair. Nope I don't buy that. We have come into the working world and we only know one thing, only RESULT is justifiable. I don't see any activity that can justify result from 8/3/08 until now. So, zero result thus far, and not to mention the poor return of my EPF :( I thought the country did pretty well last year. Enough talk I suppose, I could go on forever.

3. Global Climate Change: I have said this many times, look at the kind of weather we have. It is really bad. It gets really hot and we have rain almost every evening. The climate is definitely changing, but how would it affect things globally. No one knows, hopefully our kids still gets to see what we see today.

4. PMP: I am doing this course and it is just so hard to answer some of the questions. I am really trying to work hard, after a long day of work, going back and do revision. It is not easy especially after a long day at work place. I suppose I need a lot of motivation and a lot of coffee. And hopefully with a lot of trial exam question and a lot of reading and memorizing, I can make it through.

5. Scandals: Is it me or what but there seems to be a lot of scandals lately. How come Dr Chua's issue re-surface? Scandal is subset of politics I suppose.

6. Meetings: I propose we held some meeting under the tree rather than air-con rooms. It is better for the environment and heck, important meeting of the state can also be held there, why not a small company's meeting, right.

7. Health: I seem to have problem with cough, it haunts me so often and it takes so long to get well :( Also it takes so long for me to recover after a game of basketball. My muscle ache is really a nuisance. Otherwise, pretty cool. Not to mention my mental stress increased when Man Utd went down to Liverpool at Old Trafford. But let me tell you what champion is made of, they will come back stronger AND so am I.

Well 7 points, represents 7 days in a week, 7 deadly sins, 7 heavenly virtue and of course the 7 dwarves :) I better get on with what I am doing and more updates down the road...

In the photo today: Indiana Choo and the Landmine Museum of Cambodia. Wow, boy do I look like .......

Blessed weekend ahead :)

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Resolution 2009

From young, I have been setting targets and goals and it has been a few fruitful years. Though some of the years, the target was over-set, which causes me to few a bit down for not achieving it. There were also times, that it was fruitful and able to push me forward very well. I remember there were time that I didn't even know where I kept my resolution. Whatever it is, resolution is a tradition to me and I would go around asking people what their resolution is. Funny but interestingly, most people do not have one or a very vague one.

Here is how you can do it most effectively as far as I am concern. I am no expert but I must say that I have enough experience of it over the past 10 years to know what to do to setup your yearly resolution

1. FOLLOW what your heart tells you. Take time to meditate, think, think and think. Talk to yourself on what really makes you happy and what really propels you forward and make you feel good. Your heart must buy what your head says. Think with the very end in mind. I know this is tough, but when you set this year resolution, think as far as possible what would the end result be from your goals and actions this year. Begin with the end in mind, says Covey

2. THINK big, start small, walk persistently...

3. WRITE it down... anything you do, the one thing you MUST do is write it down. Somehow it helps your brain to stick the info in better.

4. Get an accountability partner to help ensure you follow up

5. Work on it, don't drift. Stick to the wall and look at it everyday. Ensure you move inch by inch towards it. At least millimeters.

There is a lot of good expert out there that have written great books about it, but if you are really serious about it, get excited and go for your goals that you have set out to do :)

In the pic: Still thinking of this vacation place. Forgot the name though.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 4 - LAST DAY)

Happens to be the last day of the trip. We have not scheduled much for today, it will just be the regular Sunday church celebration at Kampung Bukit Serok. Morning, we prepared ourselves, bathed and ready to go. We went off first to the same place for breakfast. And roti has never tasted that good before. We took our fair share of roti telur over the last 2 days, but we did not want to miss this for the 3rd day and I myself ordered exactly the same thing as 2 previous days. Only later, I found out that their Roti Sardin is nice as well. We'll see whether I would have the chance to come back here for breakfast :)

We reached back the church after our sumptuous breakfast. Cleaned up the church hall for the service and I went off to pick up the kids. It was an enjoyable ride on the old little van. It felt totally different from driving car. It is really heavy and the feel is just different. Noticeably, the reverse gear needs to engage in a little pull before moving to reverse. How weird.. Luckily I was told how to engage reverse gear by a team mate. Although it is just a stretch of road divided by a trunk road, I went around back and forth 2 rounds AND it took me 1 and half hour. The weather was hot and we just keep encouraging children playing by the road side, near their house to come right up the van and join us. Of course they recognize the van and as the van passes, they keep looking at us.

Back at the church, the kids gathered and they decide to have an adult fellowship session. So the kids (making up 80 - 85% of the crowd) has to be taken aside for children's activity. As we have ran out of our previous days material, because we have been here for 2 days of activities, we have to resolve to last minute ideas. Finally we had some question and answering session and then moved on to the story of creation. It was tough handling the kids, and I think we had 4 adults trying to do that. It was still not easy. At the end they could be faster, louder and their volume could easily have drowned anyone of us.

At the same time, the adults were doing their own fellowship which I hope will be a good beginning to grow the number of faithful Christian here.

All done, we packed up, sent the kids and adult back, did a debrief, bid farewell to our Pastor there and we were on our way a little bit after lunch our. We decided to stop in a town called Bahau to get ourselves lunch at about 4pm. Yes 4pm, and that is the time we had lunch. We went for Chinese food, and as we circled the town for this restaurant, it gave me a great chance to come back to this town that I have a lot of memory when I was younger. I have friends here. But I think they have all left town now or I don't know, probably not staying around anymore as most of them I have not contacted for years. Anyway it was great to come to this town again after more than 14 years. I could recognize the town and some part of it, but it has grown much more.

Hitting the road after the meal, I saw a dead python on the road, and it looks really big. On our way back, it rained, and rather heavily at certain stretch, reminding us the goodness of God for all our days that we had activity, we didn't have to go through the rain at all, not once. But things are done now, and rain can come. We reached back to our starting point at about 8pm +. It was a journey well remembered, one that God moves before us and prepared the place for us. One that God lead us and not by our strength...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 3)

Time to continue to write the 3rd day of the trip. Here goes... The night before, it was raining quite heavily. We had a good rest on the hard flooring of the church building. Though I found that in the morning for the 2nd day consecutive, the space I had to sleep on is much smaller because my team mate tends to lean towards my side. Anyway over here, the 'cock' helps by giving us morning call come 6-6.30am. The cock will make a comeback tonight, which I will detail towards the end of the 3rd day :)

We woke up and pack our stuff into the van. This is because we are on a mission to 2 more villages or Kampung. We went to the same place as Day 2 for breakfast and then off we go to Kampung Inoi, which is the furthest from the church location. The journey was long and we have to take the Oil Palm Plantation roads to get into this village. We have to travel through the oil palm estate that the road is far from being good, was hard for the van to go through. After about 20 minutes of this road, we arrived into the village. The Orang Asli here is very shy, small sized and skinny. They also do not have electricity and they were using old water pump, like those I saw in Tom and Jerry. Being a town folk, I am a little bit surprised at the condition that they are living in.

We wasted no time in kicking off with our activity. We started to sing and dance to our song to attract children and adult alike. And the kids start to come and see what is happening, though they are very shy. We have to ask them a few times and give them balloons to get their attention. After what seem to be a long singing session, we finally got together a bunch of kids (10 - 15 range) and taught them the 'Fruit of the Spirit'. They are somewhat shy, quiet but some of them are quite intelligent kids. To our surprise some of them are much older but the body size still is very small and their hair brownish, probably a sign of mal-nutrition.

Given all the Fruit of the Spirit training, balloon, jelly and stuff as present, our other members starts to arrange and disseminate clothing to them. Most of them, the cloths seem worn, some even bare their top (guys / boys I meant) and seem to walk around like that under the hot sun. Most of them seem happy grabbing those clothing running back home. Also the pastor had a little session playing 'doctor' by providing medical aid to some of them who requires them, especially those with skin problem. We decided to visit the Tok Batin (village head) to give him a present and have a chat with him. On the way, we saw a small black snake crossing the road while we are in the van. The pastor told us that it was poisonous. I am quite surprised to see a cobra crossing the road literally in the middle of the town!!

We reach the Kampung Inoi Tok Batin's house and notice the simplicity of it. it was plain and without anything special. He is an easy going man and nice man. We gave him the gift and then had a few chat with him on what is happening in town, then went off to gather up the rest of the team member to move on to the next town. Next stop is Kampung Gadak.

Gadak is a much nicer town, with electricity and water supply. Houses are arranged nicely and there seemed to be a lot of land. People here is nice and friendly. As we reach this Kampung, I think we skipped lunch and started to prepare for the telematch and movie in the evening , much like the 2nd day schedule. Before that, we went around to hand out flyers and we even had a chance to visit the Tok Batin of Gadak. All is well, he is very supportive of our work here and gave us a resounding support for our activity there in his village. We left soon after a nice chat and we asked him to join us later on in the evening.

Back to our church member's house, we prepare for the activity to come. The food is prepared by one of the local Orang Asli church member there. Again, we repeated of what happened on Day 2, the only thing is that the crowd is different, the kids is different and the crowd here is much more easier to control then in Day 2.

We did all those with the presence of the Tok Batin for most part of the movie and we enjoyed dinner together. The food was great and every one of us, the kids and adult alike all join in for the great feast of nasi lemak and ayam.

The evening and darkness soon sets in. We started to clean things up and move on our way home towards the church. Along the way, our van got lost after we sped of with pastor's van right behind. We turned into a wrong turning and was frantically waiting for pastor's van to pass us, only that he is in front of us. We waited for a long while before we were able to communicate via the mobile phone. All is well, we reached back to church, cleaned up, debrief and falling asleep. As I remembered, while I was bathing, a 'cock' was sitting right at the corner of the bathroom watching me bath. I didn't realize at first but was told by someone who went to the bathroom before me. So I did see that cock, sitting comfortably at a corner, peeking at each of us taking bath. This is the same day I saw the longest centipede in my life. My blood was already cold looking at the 20cm odd poisonous creature. It went off as fast as I could take a closer look at it.

The night was suppose to be short but was lengthen by our team mate in charge of journal. They were having a meeting after debrief to put down the facts and points throughout our adventure for the last 3 days. Myself and team lead was fast asleep when we were woke up again with the sound of laughter. I am not sure, I sat up and was offered noodles. Why not, right. I had it, done with, drink water, brush teeth and ZZZzzzZZZzzz. Look out for Day 4 (Last day)

Learning of the day: Life is already very good where we are, cherish and thank God for it. A lot of people live with much less, so don't complain.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Orang Asli Mission Trip (Day 2)

Day 2 starts with the 'not enough sleep' symptom. My eye could barely open and I have to force myself up to clean myself up and bring myself to do devotion in BM. It is not easy. I have to think of how to say it after having not spoken BM for a very long time. Well, fortunately it went quite OK with the topic being James 1: 2-4, talking about 'Suffering is Good'. Indeed. Having remembered from the 1st day that it would be working non-stop from sunrise to sunset, it motivates me to have everything prepared and ready early on in the day.

The day started well with we traveling to a place our team lead call Karatong. It was a small little nice township complete with buildings, mini-market, several rows of shops, some government building, a MARA bus-stop and a field. Overall it looks like a small little township area just like you see it in town. We went to one of this Malay store that serves normal Malay and Mamak food. I ordered the famed Roti Telur. The Roti Telur here is different because it not only has egg, but also some other mixed spices and also onion. Tasted good actually. The drink here taste OK as well. I think I drank teh tarik for this first morning of OA.

Soon after breakfast we went back to church, prepared and set out again to hand out flyers from house to house of our activity in the afternoon and night. We found that shape-able balloons is a very attractive tool for kids. The afternoon activity was Sukaneka (what we meant was telematch - targeting the kids) and evening time event is the Jesus Story movie. We went around on our old faithful van to pick up the kids and adults alike. The kids are very excited every time the van passes and they wouldn't miss the opportunity to jump up the van. Some kids are shy though, which requires a little bit of persuasion by their friends.

The afternoon under a little shade, we played telematch such as 3 legged race, racing with ping pong ball balanced on a spoon, pair crab walk with balloon between them etc, all played as a team game. We permutated the games as it fits to keep the kids' attention. All is well, no injuries or sort, but a lot of fun and the kids were given regular breaks because the weather is very hot. Still we have to thank God because there is no rain, so that all this can be carried out. After what we believe to be a joyous outing for the kids, we cool things down with some individual games, and also a station prepared to teach children how to sing.

We kick start the evangelistic event with prayer, singing of songs and then when straight for the Jesus movie. Then we went for John 3:16 and prayed together with the kids. It was an event to highlight I must say. Kids was the most responsive and although they were a little bit restless during the Jesus movie which lasted for an hour, the rest was quite cool and accordingly done. We finished early, cleaned up and then send the kids home. No dinner for the night, we decided to visit one of the houses, which is going through a wedding ceremony. Apparently some of our team mates know her. We went and witness some sort of wedding ceremony. It was nice, and it was very joyous occasion. They were 'food', dance and music. It was very much like Malay wedding, only it is not. And we got to learn that Malay wedding and Orang Asli wedding has some similarity.

We had our late dinner there at the wedding and took some photos. We went back shortly cleaned up and prepared for bed time. It was a good night except that our room (the church floor), was visited by 'water ant', bees and similar small insects. Prior to resting, we had a debriefing with the pastor to discuss the day and to highlight the activities tomorrow. Without proper break in between, for the entire day, my body starts to become very tired and I fall asleep shortly with the rest of the team.

Learning: Kids are really hard to control especially when they come as a big bunch. God is good to each and everyone of us, as he has given us a gift of life and a gift or happiness. Human heart though always wanted more and part of our human is always looking for more. I believe I would like to challenge myself parallel that is, to have a better relationship with God and to expand my human wanting that is of more positive and useful for people around me. Shape-able balloon is very attractive for kids, they make sword out of it and start to chase each other for a fencing sword fight.

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

I got a book, a small book for a run-down price during the MPH sales near my house. I think I have got more than what I have bargained for. For a few reasons, reason no. 1 is that it is small enough for me to finish reading within the appropriate time frame. I found that this days, I do not have the endurance to finish a book. It happened when I try to read the last thick book, that is, one of the Lord of the Ring book. Even when I tried to read the Harry Porter book, I couldn't finish one. So having bought and completed Randy's book is one of my personal achievement, that yes, I am still able to find the concentration to finish a book.

OK, moving forward, like to share with you what I have learned from the book, I figured that there will be a couple of people who is like me, who will always try to look for synopsis of the book rather than going through the whole book. The story begin frankly with our Professor Randy Pausch who has been diagnosed with cancer. The story goes on to tell us how he thinks life is all about, how he navigated it through and how he summarizes it for the benefit of his students and also his family in his last lecture in Carnegie Mellon University.

A few of the things that strikes out in the book or lesson learned are

1. Life meaning is about fulfilling your childhood dream (well, yes, that is what Randy has achieved)

2. He throws in a couple of adventure and the lessons that he had learned throughout life. I remember especially the one on head-fake.

3. It is also one of his happiness to be able to enable other people's dream, which is what a lecturer's life is all about. Training the students for the coming future in his field of expertise, that is the virtual reality.

4. His second last section is on how to life your life, that is, to Randy how he had live his life or his life lesson thus far. He is telling us his way that he thinks best of living it. No argument there with our professor.

5. His final remark is a bit touching. It is mainly for his wife and his kids, which he may not be able to see very much of in the time of his writing of this book. Nevertheless, he has given much thought and communication with his wife. The think about him is that he views communication, jovial and his choosing not to succumb in sadness or depression really sticks out strongly for him.

The book contains some photos which shows that the professor in his 40s still look very boyish and handsome and has been able to exude a strong sense of friendliness and influence in the place he works and people around him. The way his think and a piece of his thought throughout the book gives us a fresh insight of a dying man with a strong and firm battling spirit for the betterment of his family is really an inspiration to me. Not only that I am not facing such issues, but I am living my life so much less 'treasured' compared to him. Well if one thing Randy did in this book is to tell me to live my life to the fullest and in every moment of it. Live my life to the very minute of it, with the people that I treasure most.

Go get the book, the author is already dead now, that is, somewhere July/August 2008 this year. However he will always be remembered, at least by me. Go 'google' this famous name out or get a hand on his book. Have a nice day :)