Retreat 6-7 Mac 2010

Went to a church retreat cum teacher training last weekend at Rembia. Its mainly for Sunday school teachers and as the name suggests…supposed to be a time of reflection…having some private and personal with God..but since we so seldom see each other and share our thoughts on teaching…it soon became more like a socializing and sharing forum…haha..but anyhow..it was a good experience as the teachers ourselves are of a great mix of people..the youngest being 17 years old while the eldest maybe in his 50s..the site was very nice considering we just have to pay rm10 for 2 days 1 night…and all meals were included…and the food is super nice..the best ever in a camp! And I have joined at least 20 camps before..we were fortunate to have Fr Paul with us…who is a quite open-minded and bright young priest with sporting character and good sense of humour. I had learnt quite a bit and it was overall a good day out A summary of what I learnt:
Lies: When too often we lie with good intentions…sooner or later it will be abused.
Temper: It’s human nature but minimize on committing sins with it
Relationships (Any kind): To persevere, we have to sacrifice time & effort, even though it is a one-way traffic
All things: To be moderate, contented, to give freely, not to be too judgmental
Good or Bad: Depends on intention
Challenges: The cross is tailor made for each one of us, if its for us..it will somehow be bearable
Most powerful instrument: Prayers and bible
But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. (Luke 12:48)--that includes money, talents, positions, powers, health etc...

Road safety

Has been spending quite a lot of time in my car lately..since I have to travel 19km one way every day to work..that’s about 40min at least at a speed of 60 to 90km/hr….i have seen a number of road accidents too…some involved deaths…how often do we check my car…how often do we drive dangerously……how often do we sped….maybe we should be more careful next time

Art of communication

In today’s world, where communication is so convenient, to communicate, we often use phone calls, sms, msn, blog, facebook or email. Basically we communicate without seeing each other face to face. It’s true that people at the receiving end might perceive the message conveyed wrongly since despite knowing the content of the conversation…the tone or facial expression is lost in translation. But if we look into it closely..they are not entirely lost. In a telephone conversation…we can actually notice the speaker’s expression..whether they are impatient, happy, excited, bored etc. In written messages…we can sense that when we look at the use of punctuation, eg !, ?!, :) , :(, CAPITAL LETTERS etc…whether the message is a short one, long one, the use of words…all these hinted on the tone on which the message were to be conveyed. Whether we like it or not…these sort of non-face-to-face communications are here to stay…it’s our way of life in fact and makes our life so much easier, time saving and let us manage our time better, at the same time help us connected with others. It’s up to us to try our best to ensure the message conveyed correctly..by paying extra attention when writing them..or when conveying them verbally. It’s after all an art that needs to be practised always..hopefully to perfection.

To live

Ever thought of the purpose of life? Ever thought that there might be a greater purpose to our living than ourselves? In short…besides staying alive to fulfil whatever of our own agendas…There is a greater cause …ie to live for someone else…We are here for a purpose…it would be very selfish to think of just ourselves…we are here for others as well…eg a mother is here for her children and husband…a cleaner is to keep places tidy for others to stay healthy and work in sickness-free environment..so when we feel down and felt that the world won’t even notice us if we’re gone or if we are not getting the things we desired from the world…do remember that maybe we are created to serve others…and not to be served. And this might be the purpose of life.

Pursue the Virtue of Contentment

Got the following from a yet tyng. thanks yet! actually its not an easy life these days..to have a job that we like doing is not easy..most of the time we do it not because we like it..its bcos we have to feed ourselves or others..but when we have the choice...or when making choices for ourselves or our children...money vs passion have to go into consideration...its a tough call...anyway...i guess the most important thing is to execute our daily job with great passion...we have to try to see the significance of whatever we are doing...eg a toilet cleaner cleans so that to minimise infection of diseases to toilet users, so that whoever that goes to toilet won faint, and whoever leaves the toilet don smell, and gives everyone a good feeling after leaving the toilet etc....then we will be able to accomplish great things:) and ya...bout contentment...im always so not content...sometimes the dreams can blind us from appreciating the things that we have..always pursuing for the things that we don have..ya, its a balance...i guess by the end of the day...we can be sad for the things we failed to achieve..but at the same time we have to be happy for the things we did achieve and possess:)

Pursue the Virtue of Contentment
by Max Lucado

A businessman bought popcorn from an old street vendor each day after lunch. He once arrived to find the peddler closing up his stand at noon. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
A smile wrinkled the seller’s leathery face. “By no means. All is well.”
“Then why are you closing your popcorn stand?”
“So I can go to my house, sit on my porch, and sip tea with my wife.”
The man of commerce objected. “But the day is still young. You can still sell.”
“No need to,” the stand owner replied. “I’ve made enough money for today.”
“Enough? Absurd. You should keep working.”
The spry old man stopped and stared at his well-dressed visitor. “And why should I keep working?”
“To sell more popcorn.”
“And why sell more popcorn?”
“Because the more popcorn you sell, the more money you make. The more money you make, the richer you are. The richer you are, the more popcorn stands you can buy. The more popcorn stands you buy, the more peddlers sell your product, and the richer you become. And when you have enough, you can stop working, sell your popcorn stands, stay home, and sit on the porch with your wife and drink tea.”
The popcorn man smiled. “I can do that today. I guess I have enough.”
Wise was the one who wrote, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (Eccles. 5:10 NIV).
Don’t heed greed.
Greed makes a poor job counselor.
Greed has a growling stomach. Feed it, and you risk more than budget-busting debt. You risk losing purpose. Greed can seduce you out of your sweet spot.
Before you change your job title, examine your perspective toward life. Success is not defined by position or pay scale but by this: doing the most what you do the best.
Parents, give that counsel to your kids. Tell them to do what they love to do so well that someone pays them to do it.
Spouses, urge your mate to choose satisfaction over salary. Better to be married to a happy person who has a thin wallet than a miserable person with a thick one. Besides, “a pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life” (Prov. 13:7 MSG).
Pursue the virtue of contentment. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6 NIV). When choosing or changing jobs, be careful. Consult your design. Consult your Designer. But never consult your greed.

From Cure for the Common Life
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2006) Max Lucado

A professional mistake

A professional mistake

Got this from a fren... (thanks pao2 :P)
How much does this apply to u???? kinda scary when u imagine urself in it!

Your alarm rings, signalling another brand new day.
You get up, looking forward for another new day of challenge, another new day to learn.
After washing up, you put on your office outfit, giving you that professional look, one that you believe many out there envy.
Breakfast follows (perhaps), and you head off to your office. You're one of the earliest to arrive, ahead of all your superior and when they come in later, they greet you and you feel all charged up for another productive day.
Plenty to do and learn and hence, you are prepared to stay back late to do all that is necessary.

If you're currently doing a degree in finance, accounting or law, the above is probably what you've been waiting for all these years.
You work your ass off (well... most of you) in university because it's your dream to join one of those big glamorous firms out there in the market.

Lawyers and accountants are the usual suspects for this curse. Once graduated, all of them will run like headless chicken towards those big firms.
If you're an accounting student... you want to be an auditor in one of the Big-4 right?

Well, if you do make it, it's like a dream come true.
In such firms, you get a personal computer, maybe a notebook (wow!). All your stationeries are free, and it's also the first time you step into a 'pantry', where you can make your own coffee, just like those nice offices in TVB series.
Next, you get an exclusive e-mail, the domain after your name is not the ordinary @ gmail.com or @hotmail.com or @ yahoo.com ... No, it's
not, it's your-name@a-big-and-glamorous-firm.com

You can't wait to tell that to your friend.

Then comes the feeling of giving a business card with your name on it,and it's not any other business card, it's one with your name on it,
it's one that signifies you're an employee with
a-big-and-glamorous-firm. And... the word below your name is not a lowly
"accounts executive"... the word below your name is exclusive... the
word below your name is... "Associate". And when your friend gives you
the "Wow, you're an associate with this firm?"... you get into instant
orgasm.

3 or 6 months into your job, you will then be experiencing the euphoria
of saying... I-am-very-busy... I-have-a-lot-work...
I-worked-till-very-late-last-night...
I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend. Yeah,
it's an euphoria because to you, it's a privilege to be busy, it's very
cool to work late, you're very proud to work in during weekends. When
you utter such words, a sense of arrogance and pride radiates from you.

You feel great because working so hard means you learnt a lot of things,
those not in the professional industry somehow looks lowly to you. You
feel big, you feel you're a level smarter than them .Reality will tend
to sink in within 2 years or so, though the duration seems to be getting
shorter and shorter now with the younger generation.

First, you will probably ask yourself, how come a graduate like you must
do all sorts of donkey jobs such as photocopying, checking invoices,
going through pile and pile of documents and filing. You will also be
wondering how come your superior whom you once looked up to have to suck
up to clients. Oh yeah... most all clients are unreasonable.

If you're an accountant, you will probably realise that there is no such
thing called a 'balance' sheet. It's balanced because you did the
balancing act so that your big boss can sign on it and certify it as
'true and fair'.

Yeah... signing on accounts, the job that you once dreamed of... isn't
exactly all a bed of roses. You then realise that you will probably
never reach that "just-need-to-sign-only stage" but hey... it's ok, you
probably hate that job by now. When you tell your client something,
chances are you are just as blur and confuse as them. But you have to
act as though you're an expert because you're the con-sul-tant. This is
just a glimpse of it.

Now, all the late nights and irregular meals will probably caused you to
age 8 years in 2 years. Those I-am-very-busy... I-have-a-lot-work...
I-worked-till-very-late-last-night...
I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend will
take its toll on your body and it will show. You will probably look very
skinny... or very far... you will certainly look old and worn out.
Working late and spending weekends in the office is no longer a cool
thing but absolute stupidity. But hey... you will still have to do it,
because there's still much work to be done.

By now, all your friends who ended up as salesmen or doing other thing
except being a professional, those whom you felt superior to are driving
anything but a proton. But for you, it's time to think whether you
should buy a proton cause your perodua is beginning to give you problem.
Of course, if your father is well-connected fella, things can be
different.

But if you're not, tough luck. You'll be wondering how come you're
generally under-paid. Those exposure and learning curve that you once
craved are no longer relevant. You want to make more money. But unless
you're a partner of the glamorous firm, money can be a lil tough to come
by.

At this point of time, probably after 3, 4 or 5 years, you finally
realised that document you signed when you first joined the glamorous
firm was nothing but lies. Then, you decide to ply your trade in the
commercial world, you leave those glamorous firm. You think joining a
commercial firm will bring about a good change, not knowing that such
move means you switched from being a 'profit centre' to a 'cost centre'.

One of the main effect of the switch is that you will be working doubly
hard compared to the profit centre, which probably includes a lot of
late nights too... but your salary and bonus is much lower compared to
profit centre. What does this mean... a story for another time.

One thing for sure... your morning will now be something like...
Your alarm rings, signalling another day... another weekday. You get up,
after snoozing the alarm a million and one times. You hope today is
Friday, but it's not, and you feel like shit. You think of a million and
one reasons to take MC, but you realised you have to go to office
because you failed to finish the report due today though you stayed till
10pm last night. You tell yourself you need to change job, just like how
you have been telling yourself in the last 1 year. Once in office,
you're in a dilemma cause you want time to go slower so that you can
finish your work but yet, you want time to go faster so that you can
leave the office and go for lunch.

During lunch, you will b**** with your colleagues about work and
probably the bosses. You will all talk about so many people who seem to
be doing so well except for you. You realised you should have done
something else while in university. You realised you may have made a
mistake in life... a mistake in being a professional... you have made...
a professional mistake.

I'm Back!!!

Back with a camera i mean....sold off my canon 1000d and now having nikon d3000. jus had it for a month but haven been using it much except for a recent singapore trip. but i think i can sort of write a review on it.. basically d3000 is the cheapest entry level dslr for nikon while 1000d for canon. both are almost the same price.

d3000 lacks the live view feature that canon has (basically that feature allows u to take a shot jus looking at the big lcd screen of camera and not through the small hole)..d3000 is also not as user-friendly as canon cos you have to go into menu to change some settings like ISO, White Balance etc. the good thing about nikon is its lower range lens are somehow sharper..at least sharper than canon 18-55mm kit lens and colours have more impact too. you can have more editing options too straight after u made some shots, for eg (D-Lighting...basically make the image brighter, monochrome..change it to single colour, miniature...change it to toy like effect)..also nikon is somehow smarter than canon in terms of point and shoot, ie when u put it to auto or programme mode, it still produces decent images..unlike my previous 1000d..but beware of the noise level..it can be abit disturbing..but its understandable since d3000 uses the CCD sensor while 1000d uses the CMOS sensor which creates less noise even when the ISO is shot up...so if u keep the ISO up to 200 then it should be fine..if not jus use brighter exposure compensation in it or the flash! d3000 is also feels better (not too plastic feel) & heavier...when stability and minimal shake is concerned..weight is important.but one bad thing bout d3000 is that the 50mm prime lens..the one for portrait cant rili auto focus on it..so basically have to manual focus which is a pain in the butt...1000d can auto focus the 50mm lens...there is a 35mm prime that can auto focus on d3000 but it cost rm500 more..so sien..another plus thing for d3000 is that it has 11 focus points while 1000d has 7...basically the more is better..basically i changed to nikon cos it allows me more control over settings of shots, images are sharper and the colour looks more appealing. if we compare it among lower ranges..higher ranges might have a different story..these are purely my personal opinion as other dslr users might not agree with me..lol.

bought an external flash too...its a third party though..Nissin..since its cheaper..but it has the same function as the original..haha..it even has wireless flash control..so might experiment on it more for portraits..

currently looking for models to be my experiment..lol..anyone? i wil try to experiment on my sis first so in case u all decide to sacrifice for me..at least i can produce some decent images:P difficult to learn it all by myself...any foto kaki around so that we can share the fun and knowledge? till then..i have to youtube to learn it by myself..lol..till then...hope to bring more decent pictures to u all...and for whoever getting married soon..mayb i can help to take some pictures too...jus shot 2 so far...lol..take care everyone:)

To my future loved one

You're happy therefore i'm happy, although it meant hurting me in the process..

Happy Birthday

Just found out today that i have forgotten another best friend's birthday...twice in a month! sigh...if i were the friend..i wud b quite pissed! sigh..my this yr's resolution supposed to be somehow related to this thing...kantoi again...can't turn back the time..damage has been done...sorry..but no cure..my bad :(

Wasting our lives away

Sometimes it's sad to see people around us wasting their lives away..and worst of all they'll eventually affect the bystanders....sometimes jus wana hit them with a stick...lol