My Funeral and Rebirth

How time flies. I still feel like an infant in my spiritual walk, although it has been over 10 years since I was saved. Today marks an important milestone in my faith. My 'funeral' and rebirth. My public proclamation that I am a follower of Christ and am taking a step of obedience in His commands.

Today was my water baptism. Something that I'd been putting off for way too long. So many excuses. A couple of failed attempts. Many promptings from the Holy Spirit and through various individuals throughout the years. But the culmination of it all is today. Ready as I am.

Although I started out having companions in this journey, when the day approached - I was the only one taking the leap. I was a little disappointed at first, but in a way it was a good thing too. I truly know now that I took this step because I wanted to do so and not because it was just to jump on the bandwagon.

Despite the not too favourable timing of my baptism event, I am touched that the family and friends who mattered came out to support me (in person and through online streaming continents away). Although this is a personal journey, I believe having the people I care about witness my symbolic 'watery death' and rebirth would hold me accountable to the lifetime commitment I have chosen to take on.

Praise God for Year 2013! This year I have had much of Your blessings and presence in my life. Without Your gentle pushes, I would not have grown as much as I have in these two years. I am truly Yours now. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back.

Le Tour de KL on Hari Raya

I've come to realise that as an urban dweller, I know very little about the nearest biggest city - Kuala Lumpur. When visitors ask for recommendations of places to visit, it's pretty sad that I myself have not been to most of the tourist spots in KL. In light of this shortcoming, we have endeavored to bring ourselves to self-enlightenment. Last year, we explored Batu Caves and Thean Hou Temple. This year, we were a little more kiasu - trying to pack in as many attractions as possible in a day but alas, the body wasn't willing!

Taman Tasik Perdana (Lake Garden) - The longest zebra crossing I've ever seen!

Of Typos & Autocorrects

Typing fast is one thing. Typing accurately is another thing altogether. I think most of us can list typing as one of the integral processes encountered in our daily lives - be it for work, replying an SMS or chatting with a friend. Whether we type on a QWERTY chicklet keyboard or on a touch screen - the feel is different but the outcome is the same.

In my many years affair with typing, I've realised that I, myself am prone to several specific typo/autocorrect errors, which is really annoying but hilarious when I read them back. The top three that I always end up making are as below:-

What it's meant to be	Typo	Autocorrect
Selamat Datang		Selamat Dating [English: Happy dating]
Best regards	Best retards Best reagents
Malaysia	Malausia [Chinese: monkey-sia]

Boohoohoo! ;)

Insensitivity of Some Writers

While snooping on what's been hot news among my Fb friends, I stumbled across a shared blogpost in response to an article published a few days ago on The Star news website on "No benefit in being fat" (written by Tee Lin Say). With limited time and internet access during lunch hour, I Googled up the offending article and found it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to read past the first two paragraphs when I was called away.

About an hour ago, I tried to access the said article again and found that it had been replaced with a public apology by the writer! Shoot (I thought) I had missed it! In the space of a few hours, the article had been taken down. A screenshot of the current webpage is as below. More of the story after the jump.

Article replaced with public apology

Suddenly Death

It is pretty curious. Over the past few weeks, the topic of death has suddenly kept reappearing in different forms.

Possessing a Company Secretary's Licence is a Strong Ass

Can't help the Grammar Nazi emerging. Was browsing through some job advertisement when I found this ad by a large local O&G company.

This is why we need proofreading

Lol! I guess in 3-4 years' time I will have a "strong ass"? Looking forward to that moment! *wink*

sm Vs the Haze

I'm glad to say that my body held up pretty well against the haze this time around. I guess thanks to careful minimal exposure and lots of water and fish oil supplements too. The worst symptoms so far were allergies which made me sneeze and start a runny nose with a little itchy eyes. But no asthma or emergency clinic visits. Just as a reminder of how bad the haze was this year:

Comparison of a normal day and a hazy day - the hazy day photo doesn't do justice to the actual haze situation we experienced

KFC's Spicy Korean Burger Vs McD's Grand Spicy Chicken McDeluxe

I was home alone last weekend. So what did I think of doing? Make full use of my ta-pau-ings (takeaways) of course! I had started out intending to make my own meals, but when I couldn't find the pot to boil the eggs, I decided to drive out and get some fast food. And since, I had been mentally taking note to try out the KFC Spicy Korean Burger, I made a beeline to the nearest KFC (5 minutes drive). And so, this is how it looks:

KFC's Spicy Korean Burger

Today

Today.
Today I'm breaking my rule of keeping things impersonal here.
Today I'm surprised by perceptions I've made. Humbled that my breaking point is seen as performance.
Things I thought were deserved were not up to par. Whereas things I thought I'd failed at were the highlights.
Surprise me more, my Lord.

Today for the umpteenth time, I'm coming back to the same conclusion. Like the fool on the hill.
It is me and not you. But it is killing me still.
Maybe some things in life, we need to give up on. And maybe this is it.
A door meant to be closed will eventually be closed?
Surprise me more, my Lord.

A promise I made early this year.
But progress has stagnated and accountability lies in a few days' time.
A mid year review. Another six months of second chance.
How can I make up? Forget the distraction and move into the right channel.
Open my eyes and heart to people after your heart.
Surprise me more, my Lord.

Repetitive behaviour and the time Time stood still

I had a late night last night - basically celebrating in my subconscious mind the completion of the 5th minutes of a string of 7 minutes that I had pending since late April. With an apparent lack of sleep, I jumped out of bed realising that I had snoozed my cellphone alarms one too many times. It was 7.20am! (My daily target wake up time was 7am)

I took a quick bath and got dressed, with a quick glance at my watch - I remember seeing that it was about 15 minutes past my ideal departure time (which was 8am). Cutting short all the routine dilly-dallyings, I hopped into my car and ignited the engine. The radio digital clock flashed on at "8:00" and I was slightly stumped. It couldn't be that my radio clock had slowed down by 15 minutes in such a short time? I'd readjusted the time just last week!

Trusty watch of mine, which has lasted for a good 10 years or so!