Posts tagged Life

A note of sorts

There’s been a dearth of new postings and photos on this blog for a while now. I guess it’s comes down to time. You know, before the move, the move and after the move and all that sort of stuff. There’s been a lot of work as well lately plus there’s the little odd and ends that I need to do in due time. It was a big difference moving in 2007 when we took over a month of weekends to do things slowly and then later, a month to move things in slowly. Plus of course, the furniture was all newly shipped in and the place has been rented out before so it was already partially equipped.

Anyways, I’m still at a loss at why TM’s Streamyx broadband (narrow band more like it) is slow at my parents place compared to mine. I wonder if there’s something up with the modem, line, or router. Kinda odd considering that not much else is using the bandwidth. Anyways, I’ll need to get a new wireless router soon for my new place (I’m soldiering on with a Belkin right now) so perhaps moving the belkin over might do the trick. Or possibly a change in wiring?

I’m thinking of using P1’s Wimax service. Anyone has experience with it so far would like to share?

Tax time is also coming. Sigh, I really need to calculate out and figure out how not pay more tax. There’s a difference between tax mitigation and evasion. Anyways, looks like I really need to get my PC desk and printers all setup in time for this weekend to do my taxes!

How great is a Father’s love?

After you watch this video then try to imagine God, our heavenly father and How much more He will do for us…
“How great the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory”

Roof-Line

Well, the year is coming to an end and I cannot wait to get out of my box and move into a real home…

Friday Worship

As I drove out this morning, my trusty iPod mini hooked up to my Alpine CDE-9873 played Somewhere in the Middle by Casting Crowns The Altar and the Door CD. As is my habit nowadays, due to the lack of time and workload, I begin my morning with Worship in traffic. It calms my heart, and helps me re-focus the start of each new day on our Lord, God and Creator. The days feel much more bearable and I find strength to carry-on when I do this compared to a few days where I did not.

Of course today was a bit different as I was heading to the KWSP or EPF to withdraw some much needed cash for my new house & studio! This particular song caught on to me and I replayed it a couple of times. It really made me think and somehow I think it accurately describes me and where I am right now. It’s trying to decide if I should plan and calculate all probabilities or to trust in God’s supreme providence and faithfulness. To rely on my steady income or jump into my passion for photography. To pursue my personal goals and ambitions or who God wants me to be. To having everything to giving everything. No easy answers and not something one can decide or even do overnight or over a year.

icon_ltgray_open_quoteSomewhere between the hot and the cold
Somewhere between the new and the old
Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be
Somewhere in the middle, You’ll find me

Somewhere between the wrong and the right
Somewhere between the darkness and the light
Somewhere between who I was and who You’re making me
Somewhere in the middle, You’ll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle
With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle
Are we caught in the middle

Somewhere between my heart and my hands
Somewhere between my faith and my plans
Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing waves

Somewhere between a whisper and a roar
Somewhere between the altar and the door
Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more
Somewhere in the middle You’ll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Lord, I feel You in this place and I know You’re by my side
Loving me even on these nights when I’m caught in the middle icon_ltgray_close_quote
© Casting Crowns

This is no drill…

The day I show up in the office fairly early (earlier than my normal time anyways) and first thing was I saw crowds of people everywhere and for the first time, the Semasa Sentral security personnel deployed at various locations. I asked the guy assisting illiterate people at the season parking boom gate (yes, people cannot read a sign with 16″ letters stating “Season Parking Only” and attempt to get a parking ticket where there is no dispenser!) what is going on. He replied “api-lah” in a very nonchalant way. So anyways, I head into my parking and assume it’s all a drill.

When I get back up to the ground floor to change elevators to go up to my office, it smells a bit strange and there was an actual fire it seems. So anyways, I was a bit lazy to walk to Starbucks so I head over to Gloria Jeans, get myself a iced coffee and waited out the crowds of hard-working people queuing up to re-enter their offices. And all I could get was this blurry photo with my iPhone.

One Card to buy them all…

My Visa card of course, not the 1 Utama ONECard. Anyways, just reflecting the ever reducing consumer purchasing power in this country. Can you believe that’s over RM150 in that shopping cart? If you told someone in the US to spend $150 in groceries, they’ll end up filling the cart till it overflows. I know I do not buy some of the cheaper stuff but then, a lot of our supposedly “cheaper” groceries are made up of rather poor ingredients like artificial coloring, flavors and all sorts of stuff. I also do not like ice-cream made with palm oil. It makes washing-up difficult but I associate the word “cream” with diary products… and so happens that where I did my undergraduate degree turned out to be the US Diary State! Abundant land of milk and cheese, and oh, ice-cream too!

With all the recent price increases, I’m actually concerned. Really concerned. I’m so blessed that generally, everything is still normal. I can still drive around wherever I want, go for a movie (yeah, yeah, I know I watched ONE movie in ONE year), go find some nice makan place or still buy the stuff I want (this does not include the Lust-list items… Mark you know what this is!) so things are still alright. With my staff however, I feel that they’re really feeling it. Imagine having lunch and having to pick only two vegetable dishes at an economy rice stall here in KL Sentral and NOT getting a drink because it’ll blow your lunch budget! My goodness! I just couldn’t tolerate that for someone in my team so I picked up her drink and lunch tab. Looks like time to get back to arguing with HR for more pay increases due to the recent price hikes.