Pyromaniac? Sadist?... I love animals what!

Coolcat asked me to comment on this entry. and I will :)

I don't think I'm a pyro-phobic. I'm not a pyromaniac too but I do enjoy burning things up occasionally.

I have tried to burn my hair when I was younger. Nothing too scary. It burns fast. then dies.

I haven't burn things for a long time until last month when I found snails in my aquarium - EATING my PLANTS!

How can man?! My lovely plants!

So I bought pufferfish that would eat them. And since they were about to die anyway I thought to have some fun with them. I caught one of the snails and put it on a piece of paper and lit it up. 1 min later, the fire engulf the snail and then.. **** blooop ****. A faint explosion signifying the end of miserable snail's life. muahahahaha! The snail's shell exploded into a thousand fragments. It was fun I guess, but too short lived...

If you have garden snails, you can put salt on the snail and see it melt (but this won't work on aquarium snails) which is certainly more fun to watch as it last like 30mins.... I'm sick I know.

Speaking of which, ants and mosquitos last a LONG time without their limbs....

Engine Oil

Got reminded today... prayer is my engine oil

Music & Kings

I went to Jakarta last week on a business trip.

Met this funny-wise man. We are both passionate about our music and that made for much conversation topics. Knowing my busy schedules he told me not to leave my music behind and added:

David became musician 1st then king... not the other way around... remember that!

....
....

now who am I to argue with that?!

Maggie Mee

Last night I was pooped out from my days work.

So we went to watch ice age 2. It was okay-la....

But what was even better when Liping made Asam Laksa Maggie for me. She makes the best maggie! I'm very biased. :)

some updates:

Hey there,

I'm doing well. Thanks for asking! How are things with you? Anything new? What are you busy with these days and what are you looking forward to?

Suddenly, I feel like typing.. so here goes! lol

Besides being busy with wedding plans and the biz, there is little time for music practice. I feel that I've been deproving for the past few months after the busy period of December. All those motor skills gone!

I've got a gig this weekend for CCM with Liang and Jac and I find myself practicing with my old friend- the metronome. Shucks. I'm planning to keep it simple and tight. But I hope I practice on a more regular basis, I feel very discourage when I don't improve... or maybe playing the same lines over and over and over again bores the heck of of me, or maybe I feel that stagnation of skills isn't worshiping Him (in eph, it says play with all your skills!). One thing still stays the same, playing music make me happy. It's weird. I'm weird.

In this year, I hope I'll be able to train up my ears a bit more. Learn more transcription skills. I'm a hopeless case in that! Oh btw, I've been experimenting on the minor harmonic scale. Sounds awesome.. hehehe.. if only I can get my fingers to move now...

On other stuff, it's pretty exciting. I have no experience in getting married so.... :P You dating anyone? You're not young anymore too!

On work, super stressful. But I love it... and love is not a 'feeling' word, it's an action word! ahahaha.. I'm getting so much white hair these days. Recently, I'm in the mission to tell those I see who don't enjoy their work to realised that we spent the majority of our waking hours in work. "Church" happens more in our office more than in 'ministry'.

As for cars.... arrggh I was eying the Honda City! hahaha sleek, not too expensive rm70k+ and very good on fuel consumption. So what do I do? I try to make some money and pray! But God seems to be saying no! arrgh. I'll keep praying. For now, it's the kancil and the bug. Have you got your Satria yet?

Okay you take care now.

Eric

Problems organising camps?

Hi there,

Organising a camp can sometimes be tough. Small meager budgets, demanding campers, high expectations for food and 'quality' tshirts. Satisfying all needs is as much a pain as the organising itself!!

Allow Johnny to the rescue- vely fierceZZZ, Johnny do Bestz!

You can now zhng your camp

http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/03/zhng_my_camp.html

We're gathered here today to remember...

... GIGS (of emails... 3 yrs worth)

bytes to bytes
gigs to gigs
we hereby say our farewell to the many gigs that has been lost in this terrible tragedy today
the words in the gigs has shown me that tho they are no more,
their meanings are still here to stay
their purpose we remember.

I will certainly miss you, Gigs of Email (son of Thunderbird)

***title here***

Just watched a Scott Henderson instructional video and then another - Tommy Emanualle.

Both monster players makes me wanna quit playing right now!

On the same time, both are simply inspiring... for me to just play and worship.

For music is a gift to worship without words.

How weird am I?

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

Your Observation Skills Get A B-

Your senses are pretty sharp (okay, most of the time) And it takes something big to distract you!

How Observant Are You?

Work break musings....

Thanks guys for commenting on the last entry.

1/12 of 2006 is almost over! Wow that's fast! I hardly feel time 'moved' and 1 month's over. It's a good reminder that we need to use time wisely- doing things that will give us the best returns.
I think using time is like investments. What's the ROI? What's the return? Short term or long term? What can we do that no one else around us can do better? Why the heck am I not thinking more in terms of this lines.

When I start to think in terms of this, I realised my life is much simpler. There's just that few things I need to do and it helps me prioritise. Makes my life simpler. For those things I need to do, I'd gotta be responsible for them.

Problems come when I stop to think. I do things for the sake of doing it. Sounds simple? Yet so difficult. After doing some things for like the 100th times, I forget the 'why'. I go on an auto-cruise mode - without much goal or objective - simply because I have to.

Being in auto-cruise mode is easy. I just go with the system. It 'feels' that my life is safe and secure -- which is plain stupidity! Because I was merely wasting my time doing things for the sake of doing it and adding no value to me and to the ppl around me. (since I'm hitting 30 soon... time has a new meaning)

Having asked myself many brutally honest questions, Im glad I've made some changes in my life this year already. The changes are not easy and its impact to be measured at the end of the year.




*****
What's a good/great Christian?
Thanks ppl for your comments! They are awesome. While I also dunno the answer....

but a christian is firstly a follower of Christ- a lover, a friend, a servant...etc In the whole equation, relationship is key. What's a good christian to me? one that has good relationship with God. What's a great Christian? One that has a great relationship with God. Tada! :))
*****

In the early part of the year I was also thinking: if I'm not doing any 'churchy' stuff, what do i do that defines me as a Christian? :)


*****

Early this week a very close friend gave me a line which stuck to me:

The spirit of excellence has nothing to do with being perfect.

Good to Great

I have been pondering what is a good christian?

We go to church, pray, do our quiet time. We lend a helpling hand. We study the word of God. I guess we are.

What will make us great christian? or better written as great followers of christ?

Share your views.

***
Martha's a good follower but, paraphrasing our Lord, "Dont' stop Mary, she has chosen the better..."
***

A friend

Johann says:
the metronome is your friend
Johann says:
:)
eric - says:
and my worst enemy!
Johann says:
it is the cruellest of critics
Johann says:
the harshest of teachers
Johann says:
and your most faithful friend
Johann says:
if you want someone to be honest with you about your playing... ask a metronome
Johann says:
lol

Trip to Klang Wesley

I played for Juwita & Liang last weekend in a concert for the closing of a youth camp. It was very fun to see the youth enjoying themselves. Most of all, I have the pleasure to meet Francisca Peter -- the singer that did SETIA. Yes that song we sang in school day after day, week after week.

She was there in Klang Wesley as well doing a couple songs. I used to watch her on TV everyday when I was in school and can still remember the blue baju kebaya (is that how you spell it?) In person, Francisca is very fun to be with, down to earth and simply nice. She's also got a warm and infecteous smile. Most of all, she's an incredible singer.

Lucky for me, the organisers requested that she did SETIA for us and we were all pulled on stage to sing the song with her. It's school time all over for me. This time I'm on stage (thankfully not for public punishment!).

I'm trying to upload the clip for you or find a friend who can help me upload it. But here's a pic of me and her :)



Merry Christmas!

my singapore trip and skirts

Last week, I went to Singapore. It was a great trip. I had lots of work done. I met up with many old friends.

So much to update....

One of the things I notice about Singapore is the girls! :) They are all very well dressed and well verse with the use of make up :) They also like wearing skirts. I mean those short skirts. Which I happen to like. Funny thing is, when you have the whole Orchard road wearing that, it doesn't seem so nice already... it's like uniform. Where's the fun in that?

A finally met Don and Jon and the whole Choo family. In many ways, I feel like I'm part of the family. Aunt Florence aka my Godma, took care of me like one of her own! As usual, this trip, she made sure I was well fed, have tissue whenever I go out, have umbrella if its going to rain, and ask me if I'm coming 'home' for dinner.

I also get to meet Don's lovely wife Steph and Jon's wife Mary Ann.

Bumped into a super old pal- Edwin Teoh. Ed, you're still the same man! Just, 'twice the man' you use to be. It must have been 10 years since we met, at that time he was courting this chick.... which is another long story altogeter.

Lastly, friends, I met an old friend. Say hello to the 'Bumblebee' :)






























Since I'm on an slight uploading spree, here's the gears I'm using. I new GT8 and Bandit 112 (currently sponsored by Johann. Thanks buddy!) They sound pretty good together and are my gigging partners :) Can't wait to use the bee soon. They have super hot Dimazio pickups!

Furthering music

In recent months, I have been blessed to be given the chance to play more with my guitar. It's amazing that what I have only dreamt of doing last year is coming came true now. I really owe to God who is my provider and Liping who is a constant support to me in every area of my life. In fact, I believe I owe it to Liping who always encourages me to play more and go beyond my comfort zone.

I've been going out to play some gigs on weddings and to some clubs to do some jamming (3sets of jamming whole night! hahaha). There are often humbling experiences as I found myself to be lacking in so many ways musically.

Most of the time, I'm faced with playing songs - jazz, oldies, pop - that I don't know. Everyone in the band seems to be able to pick up the tune on the spot or at least know the song.

Solo-ing over these songs is also a challenging matter. I guess in jazz one can 'hantam' and get by but I'm convinced that I should know how to hantam be it playing 'in' or 'out'.

Either way, I'm so challenged to keep pressing on for improvement.

The other thing that I realised right away about these musicans are that, generally, they are humble, approachable, friendly and helpful. I'm stereotyping but the greater players are more humble and more friendly. It really confirms what the bible teaches about humility and its relation to wisdom.

Jesus made 1/2 ton of wine!

Some interesting info I came across as I read the bible:

from the revised std version (http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp)

⁶ Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it. ⁹ When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine

1 gallon is equivalent to about 4 litres (depending on whether it is UK, US or dry but average to about 4. Check this site out http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/). I am also assuming that the gallon referred to here in the rev std version is the one Im converting.

So that gives:

20-30gallons x 6 = 120 - 180 gallons = 480 - 720 litres of wine.

Jesus made an average of 600 litres of wine, more than half a ton!

If you read the scipture, he made the wine AFTER they ran out. Which means they drank the good wine first, then the bad wine. Why this order? This is so because they expect people to be less able to tell how bad the bad wine really is after finishing up the good one. I'm tempted to infer that at this point, much wine has been drunk already because it's a wedding, people will try to prepare more than enough on such occasion. The host seems to have servants, so I'm guessing that they are not poor either.

No matter how you look at it, that's still a lot of wine - even if you're doing a chinese wedding with 100 tables!

So...
Would we say that Jesus 'stumbled' people then?

Would we still argue whether drinking can or cannot be done?

One would say, there would be (and there should be) more wholesome things to be done than drinking on a wedding? Why make wine and so much of it?

What is the principal behind this that we can all learn?

If it's not about the wine then what is it about?

Words

The good book talk about our tongue so much. It has the power of life and death! A wise word at the right time is like (something very very good)!

Indeed.

Speech, is probably the first thing we learn and a subject we never finish learning

And in the past month, I've been put into situation to learn about this more and more - again and again. Obviously, the guy upstairs know that I haven't quite grasp the lesson. (Even while writting this entry, I find it a challenge)

Firstly, I find it difficult to put my thoughts and concept into words. Even more so to structure them in accurate, concise form.

Second, is the tact and art to saying the right things at the right time to the RIGHT people in the right way.

I guess I'll just have to keep practice 'speaking' better now. Practice don't make perfect, it makes permanent... and I'll permanently continuosly improve on it.

Son-day

My sunday was awesome.

A cg member got baptised. While he invited all of us to lunch to celebrate his 'birth', God let me in on his plan in leading another person to Christ. Who am I to be worthy of it? :) I'm simply overjoyed to be part of it.... as heaven rejoices!

Later in the day, I picked up Johann, an old friend, from Sentral. It's his annual trip back to KL from London. I'm quite happy to see him again. We have so much to talk about about God, theology and music. I also got educated about what F1 is about over dinner.

I just want to pen down this quote which Johann said (he can't remember who it was from). I like it so much and it has been ringing in my head since sunday.

"Preach the Gospel always. Use words if necessary"

Don't you think it speaks volume?

We spent a lot of time talking about this: what can christian offer non-christians?
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Give a pause and think about it if you are reading this. If you are working, what do you think you can offer your non-christian colleague? If you're a student, what can you offer your classmate? What is it that a christian have or should have so that s/he can offer others? What makes christian so special?

MSC status

Today the star paper wrote an article on the MSC status of penang (here). Seems pretty impressive doesn't it?

Let me bring your attention to:

Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) officials said some of the means that will be explored include the creation of high-value jobs, shared services and outsourcing opportunities in Malaysia.
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He said the most significant achievement of the MSC is that it has laid a solid foundation for the nation's hopes of achieving an information-rich and knowledge-driven economy.
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“A survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting notes that Malaysia is one of the likely beneficiaries of about US$250mil (RM950mil) worth of job shifts from the United States to other parts of the world.



I believe I have been reading 'high-value- job since the beginning of the creation of the MSC 10 years or so ago. Apparently today, we are still talking about generating such jobs... what is the result of it?

The result is that not so recently, we found out that our nation has the highest concentration of contractor. (... and unofficially, people not happy that the government is not spending on building anymore!!)

To be fair, there has been some high value jobs created. I just wonder what % of increase is that compared to 10 years ago and compared to other nations like south korea or china or india or japan?

Indeed the most significant achievement of the MSC is laying the foundation of future hope. Perhaps that's all there is - a foundation of hope. To be fair again, there is also some infrastructure laid down. But after 10 years, we're still talking about a business potential that the MSC could possible provide. That to me is a rather dubios measurement of success.

A survey by a consulting company indicates that there are a great potential out there. Which is great. Last year the internet generated 22billion (if I'm not mistaken) and Malaysia is really in position to take a piece of that cake. Well so is the rest of the world. It really doesn't mean anything when we say there's such an amount there waiting to be grabbed. However, what I feel would be more meaningful is how well positioned is Malaysia up for the outsourcing job? Are our people more skilled? Can we add more value? How are we compared to our competitors. Saying that there are outsourcing opportunities out there just meaningless.

Potential and opportunities are just there, always there.

******

At this moment, Malaysia has less then 2% broadband penetration rate. That's really bad. What happened? This is not just bad it's almost shameful. Some parts of KL/PJ can't even get connected to. And TM remains - TOMORROW... you call balik tomorrow k? No, TM reported a growth in their profits for the last ending fiscal year, so they are not running into a problem where they can't afford the hardware setups. Perhaps they should further decentralise the monopoly that TM has, so as to increase competition. TM has just done a very bad job.

If I mentioned Singapore for us to compare, we'll all be crying foul because it's just a small city, okay how about comparing it to countries like south korea which is having 70-80% penetration rate. How about Japan? USA? Australia? Okay, how about China and India?

Besides the infracstruture, our local industry is saying that we don't have enough knowledge workers. (I thought Malaysia's an education hub?) . The star reported this a couple months back too. What happened? Is that a reflection on the standards of our local universities?

We started MSC earlier or about the same time as many countries. I think it's time we compare ourselves with other better countries and raise our level of competitiveness as a nation.

My merdeka

I just got back from Cameron Highlands, a tourist spot in Malaysia, famous for its lush green tea plantations and it's nice cool climate.

The place is about 3 hours of drive away from KL. 1 hour of highway driving. 1 hour of dizzy winding roads and 1 hour of stopping by the road side looking for good local food.

This trip is rather special. Not because it's the 48th anniversary of our country's independence.

It's special because, it has been a long time since I've taken a trip with my parents just to go travel. I think the last time was probably when I was still in Uni or something. Incredibly, there was also no arguements during the entire trip. I actually had fun talking to them.

Nothing like spending some quality time with family.

God is really good to me.

I'm so tired right now after the drive. Going to sleep for a bit before dinner.

The Weather Man sent me an email!!

Hey all,

The weather today in KL is gloomy. However thank to the ever shinning 'son', it's a lovely day here over in emailsville. Grace and Mercy came by this morning to said hi and gave me a new ALL-DAY-PACK... lovely.

I also had a kiss from the friendly Ghost Mr. Holy. He is my cup of coffee-- always waking me up.

Don't forget ppl, if you have any request at all, do tell it to Mr. Holy, He delivers. period. If you are not sure, read your Word, or you can also find it in the ALL-DAY-PACK. (to those who haven't collected their PACK, you're advises to spend 5 mins in a quiet place to pray. Comes Free with every vist from the friendly ghost!)

Yours Truly,
Weather Man

Job offers

I know each blog should have it's own unique theme. This one kinda don't have one. If there ever was a theme in this blog, I hope it adds value to your life simply by reading it. :)

For this entry, I'm putting up 2 job offers.

No, I'm not hiring but I have been asked twice this week about keeping an eye open for good people. Since there are good friends and I promised them to spread the word, I thought I'd put it up here.

The 2 job offers are from 2 establish company here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If you're interested just send me a comment here with your email and indicate which job you like. (job 1 or job 2 or both). I'll get the employer to contact you where you can get more details from them.

Okay.. here are some details on the job (with less than perfect english)

job 1:

description:
mobile content acquisition, product management, partners liaison

more description:
....interesing job... in an expanding company.. they're looking for someone with experience.. even better if he/she is a sport fan

requirement:
half a blain, can speek good england, no how 2 use the computer, know the industry.. preferably 1-2 years (ie. if you don't know what mobile content is about, it's not you), young at heart

office at:
PJ Philleo

job 2:

description:
A UK-based content company is looking for a Creative,Motivated and Articulate person who knows how to create ringtones and color images for mobile phones.

Requirement:
IT-savvy and know how to use software programs to create ringtones and color graphics in appropriate formats for phones with different operating systems, or for different content-hosting platforms.
Also, england must be ok. No need powderful but fluent. Walau, yuo have to talk to ang mo what!

Office at:
KLCC

We're going to die....

Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
Eric
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
u there?
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/11/nation/20050811130555&sec=nation
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
take that result and plus 80-100, thats the API at this current hour
eric - help im choking says:
yes
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
port klang exided max edi
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
we are gonna die!!!!
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
die!!!!
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
i am so sad
Casey Liew (SPARKY cAsEY) says:
havent find gf yet

The most over used quote....

coolcat: heheheheh

coolcat: and the most over-used one is 'life is a box of chocs...."

coolcat: rgrrrr

satch2003: that's a good one really

satch2003: i should add a twist. life is a box of chocs, everyone just open and eats it. but they forget to check the label.

coolcat: and see the expiry date

satch2003: it says made by God.

Bombings

My condolences to all the friends, love ones and families of all the victims in the recent bombings. You are in my prayers.

It's a sad and traggic thing that many lost their lives in the recent London bombings. It's scarier still when I think of the message behind the bombing (your interpretation here).

While the world is focused on London and the british police to apprehend the person(s) responsible for such an act, I remembered the time when I was working in Bangladesh, it is the year when election is about to take place.

One morning, my project manager was very late to come into the office. We were all frantically searching for him as we needed him to come with us to do a presentation to a client. He finally walked in at 1130am. He looked like he'd been thru the war zone but he still carried his usualy cheer. While many of us was angry and frustrated that he was so late, we held back and asked him what happened?

He answered:," My bus was bombed and I had to walk."

Apparently someone threw a homemade-bomb into the bus we was taking. He got out in time to see it go in flames. Then the whole place went crazy and traffic was a mess so he had to walk to the office, which took him hours. My project manage was just happy to be able to into office.

He told us that such occurence are 'normal'.

In my time in Dhaka, I saw many buses being burnt, bombed. A crowded park bombed...etc Each time many people lose their lives. In the news, it's always 'the other's guys' fault. (Guess what the-other-guy is talking about you?) You never get desensitised by such thing, you only learn how much more precious is our lives.

Of course there're those who are angered and wants revenge. But most echoes the message of love. Enough blood has been shed already they say... violence beget violence...

So what do my project manager do? He prays for peace in his country, and vote as best as he can for the more peaceful government.

The world seems to be hanging on the knife edge at this time. Lord I pray that you help all of us find love and find peace at our heart. And let the world be an expressionof that love that you've put into us.

Dogma

Hey all, just wanted to share some of my thoughts and passion...

Hey all, I came across this article- a speech by steve jobs - and I found that it's one of those gem articles. Don't know who he is? Read on.

To those who knows, I found that line about loving your job and not settling very good. Didn't Solomon said that, it's really a (wo)man's joy to enjoy what he does and enjoy the fruits of it too (last few para of ecc).

We spend the majority of our lives working. It may not be the 'main' way we worship or serve him, but it's surely the way we show how we worship and serve Him the majority of our waking time. Think about it? If you're not happy at your work or if you're not fufilled or not growing or if you feel all the above but not God's call, how is that making our life more meaningful? It's really not adding value to our already short life.

Our serving on the weekends are but mere expressions of our own worship to the Lord of our daily walk, and most of our walk are spent working. Those who went to uncle see lok's MLM talks will also tell you that the word avodah (unsure about the spelling) - it denotes worship AND work in the OT. In other words, we are paid to to work(worship). So if there are any other doubt that we are not in fulltime ministry, think again buddy. :) (awesome, does that mean I can bring a guitar to work? oh yeah, I already did.)

The other scary thing that hit me was this: Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. I was watching Kingdom of heaven the other day. Liping cried because it really happened! Many believed that they could be forgiven by joining the crusade. Don't they read the bible? okay they don't at that time. What about now? Are we able to always bring what we see and hear back to the word and weight it... carefully. Are we doing the things God wants
us to? (for example, why do we give thanks for the food and say 'grace'? it was never mentioned in the bible.. there are tonnes of other stuff we do, think about them.)


Also, here's the articles. (found here: http://joshuachin.multiply.com/journal/item/59) -- thanks josh!

..................................................
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs (one of my heroes in life), CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University.

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

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current rennaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

My dental visit.

My dentist and I are good friends. She cause me pain and then I pay her. Something wrong here.

Lying down on the dentist chair before I start... no problem. I'm cool.

About to start... getting scared.

I must becmoe fear to conquer fear itself

too late...

Yes kiddo, remember to brush your teeth or you'll end up here like me. Even if you brush your teeth EVERYDAY anyway, you'll end up here like me muahahahahaha...

GT8 vs podXTlive

Would love to hear any views out there on the following:-

GT8 vs PODxt live

There are plenty of forum discussion on both the machines. Understandably they are the 2 hottest effects pedals right now. Both earning great approvals from guitarist worldwide. However, despite the many post on the topic, I didn't find many that were particularly helpful. There are a few that was good but most were very hyped up. Near Godlike worship on either machines. Then, there were the other reviews that swinged to the other extreme.

By the way, the frequent visit on all these forums really make me 'gian' for more gadgets. It's that call that every guitarist hears:- the ultimate tone quest.

I asked a couple of friends what they think of the machines

Johann - I got my GT3 about 5 years ago when they first came out... and I am still using it for gigs now. It doesn't sound as good as analog pedals, and probably doesn't sound as good as the newer digital modelling units. The delay and reverb are more than good enough for me, and I use pedals for my overdrive and wah sounds.

It's a great little "gigkit in a suitcase", and by all acounts the GT6 is an incremental improvement, and the GT8 an improvement on that. The GT8's dual-amp modelling sounds like a fantastic idea.

I've never gotten a good feel from the PODs, although the POD XT does sound pretty good recorded. I still prefer to have some tubes in my signal chain if possible though


Dennis- He says he won't be going for the XTL at all. However, after a long time of chatting, I feel that this dude is more inclined on the GT8.


Timmy- A season rock player, who's into fusion now. I find his playing hard rocking still. He's got an awesome 'rock' tone and currently uses a LesPaul custom with the XT and the Long FBV. This boy is really enjoying his toys. Was playing in church with me last week and he totally cut through the mix.


Matt- Matthew's just happy with his GT6 now.


When Matt lent me his GT6 for a couple of weeks last year I was really impressed with it. The only problem I had with it was that it still sounded digital to me. It has that 'digital' fuzz no matter how I tweak it. When I hear Matt using it, same thing. Here, there's no substitute for anolog stompboxes i feel. Not yet at least, there will come a time when digital tech would beat it but now's not the time.

Then came line6 and POD. My church just brought in the Flextone 3 a couple months back, and I think I'm the only one using all the on board cabs and amps. I am really happy about the tone and sound that I'm getting out from it, from hard to warm, flex3 just works. I'm using a Godin LGX with 3 mini buckers by the way. When I heard timmy with his PODxt, I was quite sure the XTL is for me. The different tone one gets from that tiny box is unbelievable.

Then came the GT8. (Decisions decisions.....) hehehe...

~~~~~
I had the pleasure of testing out the GT8 last saturday. It was a raining afternoon so the music shop was deserted. There isn't a better time to test out a hot gadget! I had 1 hour of uninterrupted time with it. I tested it with a Yamaha Pacifica (didn't see the model, 2nd hand about rm400) and a Marshall MG50FX (I think). I plugged it in thru the input of the amp and set everything to 12 o clock...

I had a great time just playing there in the shop. The hour felt like only 5 minutes :) The GT8 is not only well build - it's a tank! it's easy to use and sounded great. I was going through the preset effects without tweaking and they already sounded great. Lots of usable sound. The dual settings are cool to have and the solo button is useful. Most importantly to me was that it is a marked improvement from GT6 in terms of sound (very important to me) . It even had a 'PAD' effect that I found interesting. Not sure if it was there in GT6 but I bet it'll give the keyboardist a run if i started padding FOR them. To me, the preset distortions are much 'clearer' now and I feel i could use them straight out from the box for gigs. With more time to tweak, I'm sure I'd be able to get more juice out from the box.

Overall, I found the GT8 really really nice. I haven't try out the XTL yet but I'm sure it would be difficult to beat the GT8. At the price of rm1899, I suppose you can say it's 'reasonably' but I'm sure many ladies out there will differ with me. It's all about perspective I say, if you compare that to some boutique setups, rm1899 is really cheap!

Once again, I believe BOSS has set the standard for the guitar multi-effects market.

~~~~~

Finally, months after my gt8 test, I got to test out the POD xtl. I've decided to appendit to this entry because it simply made more sense to read both reviews together.

I tested out xtl at CK music. It was plugged directly into the mixer into speakers (i dunno what brand). The mixers eq are all at 12-o clock so no eq is done at all. Sounds are directly from the xtl to the speakers. guitar used is a jackson- JJCST.

The XTL was slightly bigger than i thought it was as compared in the pictures. It also seem to have less 'dials' and buttons to tweak as compared to the GT8. Things are neatly arranged on the XTL. Though the unit looks tough, the buttons looks a little more fragile compared to the 'tank feel' of the GT8.

The XTL sounds good. I mean really good. If GT8 sounds better as many forums has reported, I don't feel that that XTL is very far behind. I played the famous starting riff to 'for the love of God' (along with the minus 1, I'll explain later) and it sounded amazing close to the real thing. For the couple of seconds, I felt like I was vai. So really, in my opinion, the XTL isn't far behind in terms of sound quality wise.

However the GT8 does have more effects and other edgier stuff compared to the XTL. No solo button, no dual channels, no synth, no many things that the GT8 has. What it does have however are the line6 cabs and amps and a lot of useful and good effects. Nothing fancy, but enough, in my opinion.

On the other hand, for ease of use and a more 'plug and play' convenience, the XTL emerge as a clear winner between the two. I know i said that GT8 is easy to use, but the XTL is even more so. Like plain white paper , anyone with 2 hands and 1/2 a brain can do it. XTL also comes with this pc software and you can do your tweaking from the pc and saves it. Which makes things not only cool (im holding back) and really easy to use. I was adjusting most of the sound from the software during testing instead of doing it from the board.

The pc software also allows you to play a track from your pc so that yuo can play along with it. Kinda like a guitar-karaoke. Which is really cool for practice.

~~~~~

So my final choice of an effect would be inclined to XTL because it's

1) easy to use. I decided that I'm not such a good tweaker and I also don't have the time to learn about it nor read the manual. The pc

2) cheaper. I can't tell you how much I can get the XTL for, but quite a bit cheaper than the GT8.

3) Sound wise it's really good in my opinion. Though GT8 has a lot more effects, I feel that I really don't need them in my gigs. Just good basics will do.

What am I doing now?... nothing

I was having a walk this evening and saw two dogs being 'muzzled up'.. is that what you call it? (when their mouths are closed shut by this mouth-cage thingy)

I was thinking to myself, how are the dogs feeling? Pretty shit I'm sure. How would we feel if someone shut our mouths so that we can't move our jaw.

If someone shut my mouth and ban me from talking.... I think I'll die. I love talking. It gives me joy (and others irritance sometimes) So why not let the dogs bark? Isn't it their nature to do so? What's a dog that don't bark? or show his/her affection to you by licking you (disgustingly) all over?

I think I got the answer! it's a CAT! meow.

of course that has nothing whatsoever with whatever I'm about to write.

Anyway, I'm sitting here at 135am. I should really be sleeping. But I while I am here thinking about life greatest question: what is my purpose here on earth, it got me into feeling this rare sensation....

I feel like just doing nothing.

All of a sudden, watching the fan spin seems like an interesting enough activity. I'm happy, not sad. I don't want to talk but feel the need to communicate. I just want to lie here but am restless about the rest of my life! I don't want to play pc games. I feel music building in me, but I rather be here with the brilliance of silence in my head.

Fascinated. I haven't feel like that for ages! I decided to you give you all this blog entry.

Practice

Practice don't make perfect. It makes permanent.

Habits. We are what we do repeatedly.

Vader is pissed because...

1. they put him in a silly suit. Plastic. (don't they have some robotic semi-bionitic suit?) Black.What a fashion statement. At least it's 'timeless' and it's difficult to get dirty during fights. I hope it's scratch proof. Looking at epi 4, 5 and 6 I think it is!

2. They put him in a silly suit and made him talk through an aqualung.

3. They saved his life and gave him a respirator with the on/off button in front of his suit. Look at him! You can't miss it. It reads "DO NOT TOUCH" right in front of his suit - followed by some japanese words - then followed by made in Taiwan.

Yeah he is pissed.... I would be too.

Star wars- what will you do if you're a Jedi?

Hey there,

How are you today? Imagine. you're a Jedi. The powers of midi-chlorian - the Force - is strong in you. You are able to jump at amazing heights, conjure deadly lightning, mind trick every bugger that want to charge you $10 for parking... impress the chicks with your lightsaber.

There isn't a need for the remote, heck you can use the force.

Found out that you didn't pull up your zipper in a public place? No problem, you have the force.

Life would be convenient.

So friends, Jedi and Sith, what would you do with the force?

Playing like a Pro

I was reading some guitaring forum yesterday and stumbled on this definition on what a pro is. I thought it captured the attitude of one who wants do be Good really well...

....an amateur practices until they get it right but a pro practices until they can't get it wrong.

Three legged race

An anology I thought about last night. Thought I write here it quickly.

A three legged race is a race whereby two contestant have one of their feet tied together, hence 'three-legged.

Our journey with God is like a three legged race. (it's only a anology, not fact k?) One of our feet is tied to the holy spirit (he is a person, afterall...). So it takes both of us to run the race of life.

Some people just 'depend on God'. They pray and they pray. They go for prayer meets and other meets. They study the bible dillengently and wonders, 'hmmm nothing's happening, why?' Then more question props up,' is this the right time? has God called me?' Hence more time in prayer meets...etc etc

Others believe in a 'do-it-yourself', IKEA style. These movers shake the world on their own accord. Sometimes, (or most of the time), they missed the purpose that God had intended for them. So after all those energy spent, they end up 'missing God'.

I find that it's a three legged race. It's a team game. It doesn't work if one party moves without the other. I realised that's why i need to move and pray as much so that the movements are in sync. Of course, the faster the movements are sync, the fast we move. (It's like a resonant frequency which peaks to unbelievable heights.... like erm, walking on water?)

Three legged race. Team Game. Me and Him
The HS is my leader, coz innately, he runs faster than I do.

Ching Ming

Last week was ching ming, It was a time when our family gather together to go to 'pai' our ancestors at the graveyard.

For a chinese christian, this could mean some tensions resulting from the rituals of 'pai'-ing. Anyway this blog entry isn't about that. It's about ching ming and what it meant for me last sunday. (Yes, we are practical folks! We went early to beat the jam).

Since I excepted the Lord, the burning of hell's note and paper mercedes has not much meaning to me. I understand them as a ritual us chinese perform. So I was thinking that my waking up at 630am in the morning travelling to a grave site better have a good reason!

It did.

While we were stuck in the jam (Sadly, there's still a jam a week before at such hour!), it struck me that ching ming has a lot of significance to me. It is a day of remembrance of what our forefathers did for us and a day to understnad our roots and who we are.

Many moons ago, my great-grandfather risked his life travalling to this part of the world. It was a high risk travel because during those days, he probably travelled here from southern china to 'nanyang' in a small boat. Many capsized on their way here others died of diseases...etc etc. So many died. He brought along my grandfather who was about 6 or 7 (as the story told by him) with him. Probably in the year 1918 +/- 2 years. Their motivation was simple. They wanted to make a better life for themselves and their family. They were willing to pay any price.

Their early days here were really tough. My granddad worked as a coolie, a tin-miner a farmer... to bring the family up. My granddad married my grandmother when he was 18 and she was 16 I think. Grandma was about to be 'cham-zhu-long' (put into a net and be drowned) because the parents didn't want a girl. Greatgrandpa had pity on her and took her as daughter-in-law. So they got married, and had lots of children. Then they went thru both the world wars.

Second world war was tough on them. Not long after my grandma passed away. Harships after hardships. Someone should make a movie on it!

Cutting the whole story short. All my cousins now are either professionals or business people alike. Hakkas are known to be resilient people and somehow when I see my family, I can say that we are indeed! Greatgrandpa came to see that we have a more comfortable life and I think he has succeeded.

You probably have heard this kind of stories before but do not be desensitised by it! For someone paid the price for us to have a better life.

Kaninabe

The following blog contains profanity, read it at your own risk.

A friend of mine told me that she started her new blog http://kaninabeudon.blogspot.com
(she can really bitch about her work heheh, which i find quite an interesting read)

!!!!! What in the world is that?!!!

so here's our conversation...

eric -. .. what are you guys playing man?... jazz? seriously are you guys tone deaf or are you all just pretending to be cool. says:
you should put kaninabeXXX.blogspot.com

rk says:

HEYYYYY

rk says:

GO TO ANY JAP RESTAURANT AND ORDER KANINABE AND THEY WILL BRING YOU SOMETHING OK

eric -. .. what are you guys playing man?... jazz? seriously are you guys tone deaf or are you all just pretending to be cool. says:

shit, i really don't want to order kaninabeXXX

eric -. .. what are you guys playing man?... jazz? seriously are you guys tone deaf or are you all just pretending to be cool. says:

what it they really bring what i think they will bring?

rk says:

is kaninabe

rk says:

some soupy stuff.


what? kaninabe is actually some jap food?!

LOL!

rk says:

kani = crab

rk says:

nabe = steamboat


Okay so I'm wrong. Sorry. But I'm telling you I sure can't order that in sushi king with a straight face!

Yes, good evening. I would like to have a kaninabeudon please.

Thoughts are Things

Truly, when mixed with definite of purporse, desire and persistance it translates any thought to the physical world. As the famous line goes "what the mind can conceive it can achieve". It reminds me of the tower of Babel, that when men put their thoughts together in definite of purpose(in unity), nothing can stop them. Quoting from the bible, God said,"....If as one people all sharing a common languagethey have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them...." (gen 11:6) God seem to know that they will succeed in building a tower with its top in heavens....

However, our thoughts are also double edged. Whatever our thoughts are :- Good or Bad, it will translate out to our physical being. Our mouth speaks from the abundant of our heart. Paul remind us to keep" whatever that is good, whatever that is noble..." in our minds at all time. It you keep thinking that you're going to hit the wrong note in your solo, guess what, chances are you will be doing it.

I like how henry ford puts it" whether you think you can or you can't, you're right". It reminds me that we usually don't see things as it is present to us in reality. We see it filter through our perception and past memories, mixed with our past experiences and spiced up by our emotions. We see what we are searching for.

darwinism...

I am talking to a close friend this morning and somehow we stumbled across this topic.

I used to be a darwinism believer, it's logical and easy to understand.

Although my choice of religion has prompted me to ask questions about it, but I think it's the evidence, or rather 'lack of evidence' to the theory that has made me less inclined to the theory.

Just type in 'darwinism is true' in google and see the many writtings to know what I'm talking about.

What's more scarry is that darwinism is a theory. They don't teach you that in school. They tell you it's the truth, so many of us didn't have a chance to make up your mind. However, if you made up your mind that darwinism is true, I also respect that.

This reminds me the story, where for a time people believe Aristotle. He said that the heavier the object the faster it would fall on earth. He is the greatest thinker of his time so he cant' be wrong... It was probably accepted as truth for 2000 years?! Galileo in 1589, went on top of the leaning tower of pisa and drop 2 objects of the same size but of differing weights (as legends have it). Both objects landed at the same time and hence disproved aristotle. But ppl refused to believe that until hundreds of years later....

check out this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/galilei_galileo.shtml

part 1 and part 2

Part 1's Friday.

It must have started earlier in the week, when me and my gf exchanged little sarcasm. By friday, it was a full frontal war. Every sentence was with a dagger, laced with poison.

With so much practice, by Friday evening, we were launching guided misiles. I was losing, and I hated losing. I never was good with words anyway....

We decided to have peace talks at night. And obviously an absence of violence doesn't mean peace.

Part 2 continues on saturday morning when she came over to ask me something. I answered her, except I was still in bed and I was having this nightmare and I was talking to her with this really frowned up face... She thought I was being pissed at her for nothing.

Assumably Eric has draw 'first blood'. The rest of the day is history.

Until at night, we both admitted that it was the 2 worst day of our life. Still it was awkward to talk like normal because the hurt was so real and so deep and so frustrating. I took on both our parts to be gracious and step down.

Then instead of fighting, Liping decided that we should say sorry to each other. Apologizing to one another for the things the other part would want apology for. We also must thank each other for things they have done. Both must do it sincerely.

We both did. Again it was difficult. You must understand, our egos are like the KLCC twin towers standing together. At that moment, and the sky bridge wasn't too secure.

But after saying sorry, kiss and make up. Some maggi. Some Sim city 4. We both were chirpy again! yay!

A friend called on Sunday from Germany. Thanks Shan for the encouragement again! She just said that our arguements are healthy because as we grow closer, we fight at a different levels...etc Her mere positivity cheered me on Sunday! Thanks Yu Shan.

So on sunday, there wasn't any part 3. It'll probably come another day. But not on Sunday. Sunday, I got to know Liping a little more. On Sunday, I learn to love her a little bit more for who she is.

CNY

I had loads of fun last week... particularly because I spent quite a bit of time hanging out with Ricky Liew. Why? Coz he is such a meloncholy. Everything's well planned, well timed. If he arrives 5 minutes b4 the appointted time he considers himself late. While I am the opposite. I am implusive. I arrive on the dot - early, or 5-10minutues late - on time, 10-20minutes late - wasn't me but the traffic.... I change plans on the very last minute....etc

Our trip to watch 'Constantine' was a normal one to me. We arrived just about 15mins before a jam packed cinema to only que for a ticket. (of course we got our tickets.... send me a comment below and maybe i'll tell you how i get it! :) hehe ) We had no tickets and no plans what if we didn't get a ticket. Ricky has nice enough to go along and see what happens, but he did tell me later on that he don't like such 'adventures'. When we watch 'Seoul Raiders'. We arrived 5 minutes before to the Cinema....

Though on both occasion we manage to get good tickets to the movie, I felt really bad... hahahaah It's like he takes timing so seriously! (duh?!)

My gf was quite pleased to see some changes on my effort to being on time after she came back from penang. It's going to be a tough 2 months for me to fight this habit!!

my weekend

Last weekend was a great one for me!

God was so good to me. He is actually always good, but on this occasion, I think I was pampered :D. First, there was a prophetic conference in our church DUMC. The speaker is Dr. Ron Sawka. An American missionary to Japan. Who would thought that a speaker with the name 'Dr. Sawka', and esp a missionary to Japan would be so fun to listen to! (BOOORRRINGGGG... or so I thought)

My initial thought about the 'prophetic conference' was that Dr. Ron will just preach on what God has prophecied over Malaysia and pray for each one of us.... But none of that happen really. In fact in the conference he taught all of us to prophecy over our lives as accordance to Biblical truth. "Prophecying is as easy as being saved" he says. Shocking at first, but after countless practices of hearing the holy spirit and prophecying to strangers... We were all blessed and awed by how God can work through us. By the end of the conference, we were having so much fun and the joy of the Lord just came upon us, BIG TIME. It was like discovering new sets of ears all over again... I felt as if I have only one thing the Lord wanted to tell me and it was prophecied over me by different (strangers) people over and over again. I was truly blessed.

Dr. Ron, if you're reading this -- I think you're a cool dude! He spoke with such passionate and fevor. Althought I was sitting really far away, but it felt as if he was chatting with us. Just going with the flow, he made us laugh through out the conference. And he's got this smirk/grin on his face! He was even able to make the most boring stuff funny, which was great coz it helps me remember them. I found myself wanting to hear more of his 'stories' and how God has used him.

Okay.. that was just the start of my weekend.

On Saturday night, we had a party for Angeline's Birthday. We had yummy, really yummu tom yam soup as base for our steamboat session!!!! muahahahahahahahahaha

Liping she makes good soup! yeah! I love you!

Angeline also made very good mushroom with chicken feet (tung ku kai keok) , then there was BA KUA, tonnes of stuff to steamboat with (I can only remember the mushrooms mushrooms and more mushrooms.... im sure ricky feels the same!), esther made nice 'tong sui', we also got desert and deserts........

then my James Seeee came and he brought along with him all his stupid jokes and then timmy and then ricky... hahahah and then somemore we watched white chicks (again!) .

With this bunch of people, I finally feel that KL is my home!

Then on sunday, Dr. Ron preached. During the last song, I was so 'high' that I was screaming and jumping because I really wanted to see Jesus coming back! It was tremendous, I haven't done that in DUMC ever....


Sunday night came and we had our MWM appreciation night! With people like Ian and Ricky in the organisation team, you really don't know what to expect! We were all asked to dress up. So I wore a jacket and looked really smart :P the girls... i mean ladies, they were hot! hot! hot! Now, I was thankful that I dressed up. Amy and Patrick won the best dressed award for the night. They were stunning. We also had a game session.... and wen ai won a HP notebook! We were all cheering for her! until we found out that it was really a HP - notebook, about 50 pages of good quality paper! Someone won a PC --- plastic cup, Surround Sound System --- used ear phones! hahahahahaha.....

This year, we were presented with a token a REALLY cool polo-shirt. I thought, this was the only tshirt I earn because I was faithful and consistent in serving! Yeah! I'm giong to feel so proud wearing the shirt!

The tshirt was presented to us in a award-ceremony style. Like in the oscars, we go up on stage, receive the gift and the section leader was to give a short speech. Elliot was hillarious when he went up and spoke in cantonese......

oh yeah, he dressed up like a rapper that day instead of a suit. He looked almost, it was ridiculous! but it was so funny. It's irritating being around him sometimes, I can't feel sad around him. He just makes you laugh. He's a well-spring of stupid jokes (and some seriously wise words at the right times)

Consistency and humility

I had a wonderful time im Camerons last weekend with our worship team. There was so much food. So much laughter, too little sleep and so much of His Grace.

We were filled with the Holy Spirit for the entire weekend and cried buckets during worship, prayers. It was an awesome time.

There were a lot of things that happened over the weekend that left a deep impact on me. It has, in many ways, changed my life. I also receive a prophecy, from 3 brothers who prayed for me seperately but consecutively, talking about the same thing. That will be another entry altogether.

Above all else that I learn from camerons, Ive been inspired and humbled and awed by brothers & sisters who have served MWM faithfully. I feel that I'm so far behind them, and feel great privilledge to be able to serve beside them so that I may be able to learn from them.

The 2 very impressive traits that stood out from them was :-

1) consistency
2) humility

(I wouldn't have swore that I could have figure that out a logn time ago... but... )

It hit me really hard when i observe that it was consistency that earned respect and gives confidence to the ppl around us. That's leadership. And a humble attitude that allow us to go far in life (in many aspect).

For the first time, I saw it differently. The effort put in to do the small things, consistently over the years speaks GREAT volume. So much volume it nearly knocked me over unconscious! My brother Ricky Liew sets the standard for consistency (he is a super meloncholy). He is always early, always prepare, keeps himself neat and tidy be it 5am or 11pm, print out immaculate score sheets...etc And Janan, whenever I missed a sermon, I'd look for his email detailing an accurate summary - all typed before work starts.

I'm amazed at all these ppl. (I only mentioned 2 here because it would take a book to write them all down). Consistency like that really translate to 'dependability'. I would be comfortable knowing that such responsible individual is my leader.

Reflecting on myself, I'm embrassed to say that consistency is almost, (almost!!!), non-existent in my life. Perhaps the only consistent thing I do is being inconsistent.

As for humility, James See says it like this when we complimented his leadership style (esp on his approachability and 'realness'), ".... truly, I don't feel that I'm coming down to your level to talk to you when I'm leading you in this team. I feel honoured that I'm leading you. Really, I feel that I'm looking up to you all when I'm talking to you because I'm so far behind you in so many things....."

ppl i meet

It's been about 5 years since I've been attending my current church.

I'm still being surprised by the people I meet there. Extraordinary people who shocks me out from my chair. You never know who you're talking to in church really.

There's this guy, who often comes very early to help arrange chairs. Pick up rubbish... etc. In fact, I don't remember a time when i don't see him. Mind you,my church is about 2000++ in size. So there's a lot of chairs to be moved and he is not young either. He is usually jovial, and full of candor. I nearly fell off my chair when i saw that he is a president of a large organisation here.

There's this dude, who is always helping out with the traffic. We have a lot of cars moving in and out. Being a tropical country and all, hot sun and humid weather really add on to the discomfort. But he is always with a smile. Rain or shine. Joy of the Lord must be.

(don't have much time now.. so i have to cut short)

There are some really successful man who when I talk to them remains so humble, that literally puts me to shame at my own boast.

Like I said, I never know who I'm talknig to in church. Praise God for these men and women who really earns my utmost respect with such humility.

love hate relationship with Teh-o-ice-Limau

I found out quite recently that if i drink tea at night I would be awake for most of the night... and I foolishly drank the strong cup of Teh o ice limau last night. Somemore the one i had last night was quite 'kau' i think.. because it's 1127am now that I haven't been able to sleep.

This is one of the worst feeling ever, tired but can't sleep. It wrecks my whole system and timing. I wanna work but I'm like 3x slower. I wanna sleep but I kinda just lay there. It's horrble. No wonder soldiers goes crazy when tortured without sleep for days.

When life hands you a lemon, try to make lemonade

the most important thing in life is not to capitalise in gains. any fool can do that. the really important thing is to profit from your losses. that requires intelligence and it makes the difference between the man of sense and a fool.

Those... those.. those... SHOES!!!!! best dressed man's shoes totally awesome

me and mr. best dressed man of the night.

me! my darling. joolian and keng keat!

They look so good together

Lvl 3 - All the guys helping him to sing

between lvl 2 and lvl3 -- the groom's hand was shaknig actually! :P

rm9999 or answer 3 questions... 2nd level

rm9999 or dance in the street... 1st Lvl

My ipoh trip

Hey all!!!

I'm back! from a wonderful wonderful weekend in Ipoh. It was just great to get away from KL for awhile to enjoy the easy-slow pace of ipoh, the good food (at reasonable prices), the ipoh-leng-lui (who is with me -- my gf! muaks!) and great companies of friends.

I also attended a friend's wedding and it was a blessed time to see everyone celebrating with him. It would be one of those occasion ppl will be talking about for years to come esp the early morning session where the bridgegroom have to 'prove himself worthy' at the door before he is let into the house of the bride.

This entry is about food really. I think it's a passion that has been recently unlocked and I'm all out to map out all the delicious yummies in ipoh.

There are 2 very outstanding makan session is noteworhty here. The first is the police-station-curry-mee. It's so yummy!!!!!! It has got this spice in it and taste very different from the 'normal' curry mee I've had. The blend of spices, chilli... etc makes whole event unforgetable really. Even Chou Yun Fatt came to the shop to taste the food between breaks during the shoot of 'The King and I'.

The other occasion, which i failed to document any picture with my digicam is me having timsum with Lawrence at -Tai Thong Restraunt on Sunday. Both of us ate rm40 worth of timsum! That's alot for Ipoh really! Muhahahahaha... The porridge and the carrot cake was mediocre but the other timsum tasted real fresh. They weren't over steamed so the juices was filled with flavour. The mixture of fillings in the tim sum was also done in good proportion.

Finding these great makan places is easy in ipoh. You tell your driver, or your friend who is taking you around the name of the food. For example if you want to eat the beef noodles in rainbow-city just say 'rainbow city beef noodles' or 'police station curry mee'. I've been to ipoh a few times. So far, my mental map of ipoh is landmarked by all the eating places... hehehe.

The average wedding dinner yummy prawns. It made such a good picture I just thought I post it here for all you guys who are reading this from your offices.

We had rainbow-city beef noodles. It was so yummy, I forgot to snap any pictures - again.

The average road side Chee-cheong-fun looks so yummy we couldn't resist it! only RM2!!!! spotted by my darling gf! with 'kay-chee' herbs gravy! and look at those chunky mushroom and the chicken slices

Talk is cheap. Getting down to business

A better picture of the police station curry noodles

The infamous 'Ma-Da-Lui' Curry Mee (Police Station CurryMee).

Segambut Fried Chicken Rice - awesome!

It tasted so good.. i decided to write a quick blog on it!

The shop is only open on wednesday and saturday. The shop which really is a bigger hawker stall is situated beside the road with zinc roof. It was already crowded when we got there at about 1245pm and by 1pm they are already selling out fast. Suprisingly i didn't feel too hot sitting there and the hygiene is pretty okay for a place like that, ie. no bad smell, no rats..etc

What so special about the chicken rice? first the service is so fast. You sit down. You order, it's there. The chicken is fried but not overly done. It's very juicy and yet the skin remains crispy. Added to that the chicken taste so flavourful. The kind after you finish with the skin (it's a must!) and meat, you 'suck' on the bones to get the juice out.

The 'oil' rice that comes with it also smells so good. Nicely done, not too oily and they manage to get the 'taste inside the rice'. Cantonese call it 'yap meh'.

The chilli is AWESOME. Dont' have much time to describe it but between the three of us, we finish about half a bowl - not rice bowl but noodle size bowl!

With such great chilli sauce, the dish is just isn't complete with 'spare parts' ie. the liver and the 'kai kan' (what is it call in english?) .

Between 3 of us we spent Rm26. 1 BIG plate of chicken + 1 small plate of 'spare parts' + extra chicken. 5 rice. 3 drinks. So the price is reasonable.

I haven't had such a lucn for a long time and I told my friend - the makan guru - Vincent Kwok - we gotta do that again next week. But first, the need to exercise.....

SHOE warehouse SALES!

I went to a stock clearance sale with mom...twice this weekend! It was so much fun. Actually it's the same sale we went to. Once on Saturday and once on sunday. We went on Sunday again because when we got there on saturday, it began to rain and the stalls started to closed. I spotted this sandal that I really on Saturday but the salespeople said there were out of stock. We thought it was bull and decided to go there again on sunday. :)

Turns out they were not BSing. The stocks were really out in one day! (why have a 2 days sales anyway?) However, we ended up buying even more things on Sunday.

The rules of engagement is simple during a warehouse, stock clearance sale.
1. Know what you want before you head there. Time is crrrrruuucialllll. Don't go there thinking what you're about to buy. Know it before hand.
2. If you like and the price is right. Just take it first. (You can pay later in the counter). Wisdom behind this is that you never know when the stocks is going to run out. Take for example this item, there as a pack of 2 for $15 (or you buy 1 for $10). We hesistated, and by the time we head back, the 2 for $15 was gone.
3. If you think you might like it. Take it first
4. IF you think your friend/mom likes it. Take it first.
5. If you think.. maybe you like it. Take if first?
6. Time is crucial. Keep moving. There may be better things ahead. Hence you have to know rule no 1. well. Once you've spotted your item. Get it.
7. There is no rules with regards to queing. (elbow, sidestepping, shouting... is allowed)

Man... it was an experience. I felt like I was in a rock concert! Only this time, you don't get yuong screaming girls wearing sexy outfits fighting for space with you. (though that could be fun at first, it's still get tiring when you're just trying to enjoy the music) In this case, I was going against all types of people, ages, races, genders for the ultimate bargain. You name it. I try to remind myself that I shouldn't be fooled by their looks. No matter how harmless they look.... in this SALES scenario.. it's a BATTLEFIELD. You can't win them all. They come from all directions! So I had to choose my fights and win the war -- so I fought the good fight and I did manage to get this pair of really nice AND comfy working shoe for $120 (retailing at $238). Not bad heh :) .

On the side there was also a whole bunch of other stuffs being sold - cheese (yes cheese, I about 2 packs. ie 2 dozen slices. yum yum for my supper snacks!), nivea stuff (everything), kellog's Cornflakes, Ansell condoms, Sanitary Pads (generic brand), Wine, Cross pens, Toys... etc

Everything was going for 1/2 price or less. I think they were selling pampers as well and someone bought a trolley over and cleared everything. He bought heaps of sanitary pads too. I expect to see them in a nearby convenient store next week.

Some areas of intense bargaining battle are - woman's shoes, nivea section, man's working shoe.

Battle in woman's shoes section were intense. Casualty were high on ALL 5 - 7 coutners. These ppl are serious. Watch out for aunties who knows how to shop and has skills honed over the years. Most younger girls prefer to look pretty and watch, but few were deadly. Troop density high. Movement - rapid and unpredictable with frequent elbows and other advance technique. Noise level - high. Danger level - high! Proceed with caution.

Man's working shoe area. There's only 1 1/2 counter doing it so all the men flocked there. While the woman's section has a lot of questioning (how much is this? got this colour? got this size?), men's section are quieter. Troop density high. Movement - not so rapid coz of congestion (only 1 1/2 counter) however no elbows, but a lot of side stepping. Noise level - medium/low (they don't bargain as much). Dangel level - wuss (I think they do pretty well, but compared to the aunties in their tactics of buying, i think the men didn't fair so well)

Nivea section - read women's shoe section.

Me and my mom got there, bought what we wanted and got out in 30mins. Primary objectives: success - got nice working shoe.. Secondary objective: failer- that sandal no more size. Unimportant objectives: pletny of success - i got a ankle guard for $10 also! :P

Now that I'm self-learning...

it seems weird that I feel that I'm just beginning my journey of self-learning guitar. But that's how I feel after I've stopped my 'lesson' with Jose. Though, I have been mostly self-taught but I am most fortunate to always have friends and people around me to open doors and direct me to the next level. Also, I ask the people around me a lot of questions. Those who know who you are:- my sincere thanks :) my music now is in part what you guys/gals has passed on to me.

Perhaps the only thing that I have never done in my musical life is to SERIOUSLY set a goal for myself, dedicate time to it in getting there. It was always, 'playing' as compared to 'learning and practicing'. Boy, it's not easy practicing -- playing just gets in the way.

I suppose I have done some 'practising' in my guitar life but there's some power at work when decision give birth to discipline. The synergy of it all is quite amazing. I hope I can keep up the desire.

At this moment, I think I can pick pretty well at 100bpm with the new technique at quater notes. I'm still practicing the major scales at cycles of 4th. They are great in learning modes. I'm beginnign to discover after sometime I do have a clearer picture of all the major scales (and hence modes in the fret board) .

In addition to the picking, I'm doing legato practices on my left hand. I got this john petrucci rock discipline pt2 video. JP gives does an excellent job at showing how legato is done and how it can be used. He also show us how shamefully slow we are when he does his legato demos at blinding speed.

That's all for techniques practices. I'll be trying to transribe one song and learn the ins and outs of it. Its called mind games by bob james. Check out the track in his 'casino lights' version.

Lastly, a quote from Bruce Lee ,"it's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away the unessentials"

holiday ramblings

We graduate with a square hat for a round world. How ironic is that? It didn't teach us anything about life!

I went to Ikea later in the day and bought a luxury item! I'm a SUCKA! it's RM15 mouse pad! It's black and it's all leather (wrapped around a circullar piece of sheetmetal). It's a mouse pad with a lot of class (and one sucka).

Also, on sunday night, I went to a friend's house to chill out. It's an interesting place to be. There's about 12 of us, all in 20s and 30s, gathering to play pictionary and charades. Though, I agree with you that we may be too old for that shit, but it was great fun. The 12 of us are all very different in nature: character, body shape...etc but we are all very competitive. So it was havoc when the competition turns hot. There's lotsa bitching (2 of them and they are in my team. love them... does wonders to the guys on the opp team), swearing (colour vocabulary just gets better with more alcohol), there's this guy who is SO intense and slams the table whenever the time's up for our turn (he's got REALLY weird looking glasses I tell you)... There's another with the blinks and talks too much shit... there's the blur (who gets to be picked on to a charade for the movie basic instinct?), the sweet, the leaders (the natural born leaders) , the swearing again! (oh man!). There are boobs - the host has big boobs and loves showing off... (gee am i suppose to write that here? no ones seems to mind them tho) and she was bouncing up and down in excitement most of the time. She was so competitive and was bitching about everything to win. she was in my team, so I wasn't complaining. There was legs (they know who they are) There were dog lovers, movie lovers, there are the 'lawyers' (when things turn sour, they clarify the rules with the book. we need them). There was smoke everywhere and alcohol was all over the place. There was f* this and that, a perfect setting for a bar brawl really, except that this bunch are apparently hapkido pros... and the guy with the weird glasses is the trainer, he is not in my team. So I wont want to start it.

Nonetheless, Liping and I had so much fun hanging out. The people there are so real. They wont hide it if they don't like you! :P I think there were only 4 of us among the 12 that's christians and I am proud to say that we were just as competitive, most of them were quiet and nice. However, I did a little thrash talking though but really i was getting worried if a fight starts because I'd be picking at the hapkido guys.

angel in the wind

I had a very tiring day today. I woke up slightly before nine to take my gf's 1960s VW to the workshop. The VW had a major oil leakage problem and all the petrol that we fill in was leaked and stunk up our entired porch where we parked the car. We decided to fill the car up anyway and dash to the workshop.

Unfortunenately, the battery died, so we had to jump start the car.
Fortunately, we have done it before.
Unfortunenately, we don't have the cables.
Fortunately, my neighbour have them
Unfortunenately, they are pretty useless. Somehow his cables were useless. We charged the VW for about 40mins and it didn't work
Fortunately, Lionel have a set and we went to BU to get it from him.
Fortunately, it worked so well the car started in like 30secs. So we were able to take the car to the workshop and stood there to see it fixed. (why we stood there and monitor it the whole time is another long long story) The guys did a good job fixing the petrol leakages and we were out in about 1 hour
Unfortunenately, the 1 week old battery died halfway while we were going up the slope (towards BU to make a u-turn on the overhead bridge to head back towards bangsar) and I was surprise that it couldn't be charged.
Fortunately, I had the jumper cables handy this time and quickly revive the car. This time I decided to drive for at least 30mins to charge back the battery.
Unfortunenately, it started to rain very heavily. Visibility is down to zero. I couldn't switch on the air-con or the wipre or the headlights. because once i do the car battery wouldn't hold the load and die.
Fortunately, I didn't have to for my 30min drive
Unfortunenately, on my way back the rain got even heavier. and I was racing down a slope with ZERO visibility. My wipers & headlights were not on. I had to switch one of them on. This time the car died at a junction of a housing area--> in the middle of it and cars was just minding their own business zooming past me.
Fortunately, I had my celphone with me. I issued an SOS to liping and she was on her way. What else could i do but to pray? and I had a good time of prayers in the car. Just when i felt a 'break' in my spirit. my gf arrived - she had umbrella, spare change all ready!
Unfortunenately, the rain was really heavy. I had to be in the car because she didn't know how to jump start it. whcih means she had to push. which really suck to have your gf push u in the heavy rain while you're driving. just when she was about to come out of her car into the rain....
FORTUNATELY, out of no where.. my knight in wet soaked clothes. boots and a safety helmet. A construction worker from a nearby site came and ask me sheepishly in malay if he could help! I almost felt shy that he asked. But yes. He gave the car a push, I managed to jump start the car and drove home.

Praise God for the help he sent me.

learning music

I'm glad i made the decision to to stop lessons with jose for the time being.

Besides financial reasons, somehow I feel 'lighter'. It's probably the fear of hearing him saying another 'NO' to me!

The next step would be to increase my lines vocabulary and improve on the clarity of my tones when im picking. I'm still practicing the major scales at all positions in cycles of fourth. Still trying to do it everyday for 1 hour. Consistency, i think is the best teacher. I'm learning new lines as I play the scales over and over again.

I'm also goign to purchase a few books. Jazz Guitar Chord System (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons) -- by scott henderson. will be one of them. I'm trying to get hold of Joe Satrianis book too.

I am thinknig now, the ingredients I then need to improve =
1) desire to improve (i have to know why am i doing what im doing - my objectives...etc)
2) decide how much resources I am going to put in
3) Action plan and stick with it.
4) constantly think about 1) to keep realigning myself and focus.