Waynetopia - Start of a new world

2006-11-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Little Small Group Vermont Trip

Happy to be still alive after skydiving, the Susan & Two Dr. Genes small group (from the names of the 3 leaders Susan Marshner, Gene Kim M.D. and Gene Tan, PhD) decided to drive 8 hours to Vermont just to chill (told ya they're crazy) and watch autumn leaves. Beautiful foliage. Full credits to Jeff, brother and only fellow Malaysian for the fantastic video.

Skydiving

2006-11-18T15:00:00.001-08:00

I guess I have always been a sucker for life-defying stunts. After inverted pulling off inverted rappelling and run-downs, sky-diving was next in line. Of all the people I thought I would be doing this with, I never expect to be sky diving with my cell group people. This group of pious yet adventurous Christians are gonna get me killed someday (snow-boarding trip up next.)

It was crazy. At 13 000 feet and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, jumping off the plane was the one of the most adrenaline-escalating experiences ever. Believe it or not, the free-fall (before you pull the parachute) actually lasted a full minute.

Greg, my instructor and only life-line

Jumping off the plane, into the shimmering horizon and freezing temperature.

Simply lost for words. Trying to close your mouth is a challenge.

The beautiful horizon

Safe landing

Just gotta do this again!

Well, one more thing off the list of things to do before I die. Next on the list - bungee jumping!

Florida Trip

2006-10-16T19:16:00.001-07:00

It was totally unexpected. Barely a week after coming back from Niagara, I was called to my boss’ office to discuss on a department meeting. I was basically just tasked to take care of some presentation issues for the meeting.

“Well, Wayne,” Betty said, “you are more than welcome to join us for the meeting."
“Sure. Is it in the conference room?
Betty and Liz laughed.
“Boca Raton is in Florida, Wayne. Do you think you can take a few days off school and join us?”

Are you kidding me?

Boca Raton

Before I knew it, I was already flying to Florida. Checking into my room at the Boca Raton Hotel & Resort, I was shocked. I was expecting either a shared or single standard room. Instead, I had a junior executive suite all to myself. StarCite really knows how to hold high-class meetings. At the 18^th floor, the view from my room was breath-taking.

The living room.....

...the sleeping room....

...the view

Our meeting area

It was a Thursday when I arrived. The meeting ended on a Friday. That’s when the real adventure begins

South Beach, Miami

After the meeting, I was all on my own. I was unrealistically optimistic here because there were still a lot of uncertainties in my plans. I put together an almost ridiculous travel and accommodations plan for the next 2 days with almost no buffer time in between. All the stars in the heavens need to be aligned for me to pull my plan off. Thankfully, I think they were. A colleague happened to be heading down to Miami to return his rental car so I happily hitched a ride and reached Miami 2 hours ahead of schedule. Getting to South Beach required another hour-long bus ride. Alighting at my stop, I was stunned for 5 seconds as I examined the surroundings – it looked exactly like Tanjung Rhu, Singapore!

Familiar surroundings

The whole of the following day was spent exploring the beach island. The beach was picture perfect, although I really thought it was kinda overrated. I rented a bike to explore the entire island.

Perfect sky, sea and sand

Proof of me at Miami Beach

Once again, thanks to the stars (and God for aligning the stars), I just bumped into a friendly stranger who was kind enough to take me around the happening places around the Miami Beach Island.

Lincoln Road is famous for its high-end fashion and occasional celebrity appearances. Antwon, my new host was telling me all the places where you might be able to spot celebrities. There were also quite a handful of shops that had works of famous painters.

Lincoln Road

Paintings of Britto

Antwon outside an art gallery

And of course, we visited the only StarBucks that had an in-store music collection.

Yes, this is StarBucks with a music shop in it

Taking one last look at the beach, I returned my bike and left South Beach to proceed with the next part of my plan.

NASA

I picked up a car in Miami International Airport. Interesting enough, I had given one of the latest Chevy models, probably a 2005 or 2006 one. Driving the red hot Chevy with Planetshakers blasting in the stereo, I headed down to Cape Canaveral, home of the NASA visitor center. Since it was an overnight drive, I pulled over at one of the rest stops and spent the night in the car.

What would I give to make you mine

Arriving at NASA was like a dream come true because I have always wanted to be here. Space had always been one of my key interests since young. Sitting through the tour, we went through the fascinating Apollo missions to the moon and the construction of the ISS (International Space Station). I ended my NASA trip by shaking hands with an actual astronaut.

Rocket garden

Beneath one of the shuttles

Replaying the Apollo mission launch

Awesome rocket boosters

Shaking hands with an astronaut

Niagara Falls

2006-10-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

It was and early preview of autumn/winter. For the first time in 4 months, I had to don multiple layers of clothing again. With Jeff, Jamie, Scott (our only Caucasian-Korean friend) and his two ex-schoolmates, we headed up north to Niagara Falls.

The first thing we saw was the rainbow bridge, the bridge that connects USA and Canada.

Rainbow bridge got its name because you can frequently see a rainbow caused by the waterspray from the fountain.

Climbing on board the Maid of the Midst, the ship took us as close to the falls as we possibly could. I thought we looked a little silly in the bright blue ponchos. But then again, it probably the colour probably helps rescuers locate you in case you fall Thanks to the rain, none of us really dared to flourish our cameras so a lot of otherwise beautiful shots were missed. We could see the Canadian side of the falls on board.

sea of blue ponchos

The Bridal Veil behind me.

The rest of the gang.

Of course, we had time for other stuff, like visiting the aquarium and seeing some penguins.

Penguins.

Food was perhaps on of the best highlights. Staying a night at Buffalo, who would miss out Anchor Bar, where the original Buffalo wings came from?

Scott going strong at wing number

Scott was just out of control, downing almost 20 wings on his own. It was a short and wet trip, but it was generally good clean fun (except for the messy BBQ sauce).

The Niagara rapids

My Most Amusing Failure

2006-08-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Some of my most disastrous failures come from computer-related projects, of which design work contributes a significant portion of it. I don’t usually like requirement-based design, meaning someone comes to me and say, “I want this and that and I want you to use this and that” cause that would mean me working around a very restricted perimeter.

Yesterday I was tasked to come up with an “eye-catching” event poster with images of mikes and mouths (the requirements). Sent to me was an attachment with about 10 pictures of which I only found 3 functional.

Now usually if I am forced to use what people give me, I would need a fair amount of trial and error to get the right composite. After struggling for 2 hours, I did come up with something really loud, but not too palatable. I decided to pull the plug.

In the morning, just before I was about to hit the delete button on my failed product, I decided to play a prank and send an email to every involved in organizing the event with the following 3 attachments.

in original colours

with purple colour overlay

with blue colour overlay

I stepped away for meeting and when I came back, all sorts of responses were pouring in via email and MSN. This had got to be the first time responses from NOC people were so prompt. I couldn't stop laughing when I read all the responses - I believe I had just started a demonstration of how varied the opinions of the NCBV people are. Responses range from A-Z and everything in between.

For:
“Besides that (the morbid gums), the rest of the picture looks fantastic, the words, color and especially the mike used. Brilliant.” – Kai An
“Eye-catching….I like the blue one” – Adrian
“This should look good on a T-shirt” – Rex

Against:
“Yucks, who’s mouth is that” – Cat
“It will be controversial – not sure if it will fly. It’s a bit disgusting. This person’s mouth is riddled with imperfections. Is it yours?” – Estee
“I feel like puking” – Tim
“If you put this as publicity I am DISOWNING you as a friend.” - Alicia

Undecided
“OH MY GOODNESS! In my worst design nightmare I have never seen this coming! So freaking well done! … We might want to send it out together with our email to our sponsors to prove to them that we have some solid work done” – Pacey
“I think it would be good to have SPIN Logo there as well as "Website for more info".... “ – Deliang
"Eh dude, where got jaw blue colour one." - Iris.

Anyway, to quell the unrest, I had to come up with something fast, so this was how the final product looked like.

Sleek, safe, professional, boring. But it keeps friends from disowning me.

MLB (Major League Baseball)

2006-08-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

It was another surprise call, this time from Hans.

"Wayne, you free tonight? I have extra tickets to the Phillies game."

Unlike the NBA game, I didn't really jump immediately at it since I am not a big fan of baseball. Furthermore, there's lots of work to be done.

"I'm desperate to get people cause I don't want to see the tickets go to waste."

I agreed.

The Phillies is Philadelphia's baseball team. They have been pretty inconsistent in performance this season. But still, it's rare to watch a free game on homeground. Hans still had one extra ticket by the time he picked me up. So, I cordially invited Rex, my dear housemate along.

Citizens Bank Park, one of the nicest stadiums in Philadelphia, is home of the Phillies

Inside the stadium

The diamond

The crowd

We had a good start, leading the first 3 innings. The weather was beautiful that day too, a comfortable 20-23 celsius, perfect for an outdoors game. I began to feel glad came. Towards the middle of the game, the Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds were both not scoring for 3-4 innings. The stadium however, looked really beautiful as the sky got darker.

A shot of the stadium as the sky was getting darker

American flags flying in the graduated sky

The hi-res LED screen.

Of course, like any American sports game, breaks were always filled with interesting stuff being displayed on the LED screen. The highlight was one one guy proposed to his girlfriend, with everything on camera broadcasted in front of 39 000+ people. She didn't really have a choice. Smart move. Too bad you don't get this kind of opportunities in Singapore or Malaysia.

He asked, "will you?"...

...she said, "yes"...

... in front of 39 500 people

It was a close game. We were 3 down in the last inning. Some Phillies fans were already walking out of the stadium. Surprises do happen though. The first batter hit a home run - 2 points more to go. The second batter was struck out. By the time we reached the last batter, we already had 2 more men in the first and second base respectively. Another home run and we win the game.

But we didn't. He was struck out. It was the second time I watched our home team lost on home ground. but it was a good game though. I was glad I went. And thank God for friends who always seem to have extra tickets. :-)

Evidence of our attendance at the game

The Phoenix That Never Was

2006-08-08T22:24:00.001-07:00

We had lunch, we took photos, we hugged and we said our goodbyes. Today would be the last time the IT department people see each other.

As a strategic move, my company merged with our last remaining competitor. We got to keep our business unit while the other company got to keep their IT unit. Since there was no longer a need to continue development of our new product, there's no reason to keep those who were working on it.

Mergers and acquisitions - I have heard about it and studied about it. But to be in one is a different story. After months of working hard together on a project and suddenly knowing it will never live to see the day, it's tough to pretend everything's still the same especially after you had to bid your colleagues, your boss, boss' boss and boss' boss' boss farewell due to down-sizing

To the fallen heroes of the Phoenix Project, it has been both a pleasure and an honour working together.

A week Central America

2006-08-01T16:42:00.001-07:00

The weather was hot, food was spicy and mosquitos were a plenty. Guatemala felt a lot like Malaysia the moment I stepped in. Being one of the few countries that connects the continents of North and South America, Guatemala had a sad history of civil wars and violence as recent as the 1980's. As a result, the country is relatively late in developing its economy compared to the rest of the world. There was I, with 40 other people wondering how big a difference we could make in a week.

Chisec was a good 8 hours away from Guatemala city where the airport is. Our main purpose this time round was to provide medical care, teaching for both local students and teachers and of course and a revival event at the end of the trip.

Visiting the Local Churches
Since our first official day was a Sunday, we spent some time visiting the local churches. Of all the services we chose to crash, we just had to do it during a wedding service. We felt kind of bad that we stole a bit of the limelight away from the newly-weds since there was quite a bit of fanfare involved during our introduction.

The wedded couple

The humidity and our inability to understand Kek’chi (the local tongue) was a winning formula for sleeping during the sermon. Almost the entire team was nodding off. I was fortunate enough that I had this cute little sitting beside me. Unlike the rest of the children, this girl was the only one that dared to look at me in the eye – and smiled. My heart melted.

“Como se llama?” I struggled to recall my Spanish.
“Nancy,” she replied in a cute voice.

Nancy couldn’t have been any more than 7 years old. It’s amazing to watch her entertain herself throughout the 2 hour sermon. While watching her playing with ropes, papers and balloons from the wedding and smiling innocently to herself, my mind was already thinking of how an adoption process for a Guatemalan child would be like.

Wait. Just because she is sitting alone doesn’t mean she’s an orphan.

“La familia donde es (where is your family)?” I asked.

She pointed to the back row at her mother. So she did have a family. Thoughts of adopting simply evaporated. What was I thinking? The service ended pretty abruptly and the team made a dash towards the exit. I only managed to take one photo of Nancy before I left.

Nancy. Isn't she adorable?

Medical
There were at least 8 villages within a radius of 80 km that were too rural for medical support from the government. Mornings were spent traveling to rural villages on pickup trucks to provide medical services to these villages. With medical supplies and at least 8 people per pickup truck, some of us had one foot in and one foot out of the truck, while the driver was happily cruising away at 80-90 km/h.

Cramming at the back of a truck.....

...and speeding up a hill.

It’s amazing the variety of healthcare we managed to pack into such a small area From dental to ultrasound scanning to physician care to drug dispensing, we did pretty much everything usually within a small church or 2 classrooms.

Jeremy and Bon treating a kid

The dentist's assistant. He turned at me and asked, "you want to do the next injection?"
"Just kidding," he said, laughing at my bewildered expression.

Tools of mass destruction. No wonder children feared the dentist.

Chris and I in our scrubs.

Revival

The revival event was supposed to be at the end of the trip where youths from all over Chisec were invited. Songs, dances and skits were all done in Spanish. It was a kick-dust performance, literally cause the stage was filled with dirt, all our cables and trousers were filled with dirt stains. It was probably the first time the locals ever saw musicians acting so crazy on stage. The last time I was jumping around on stage was in Singapore Expo; doing that in some remote village surrounded by mountains just sounded unreal

Setting up the equipment.

A quick shot before the event started

Chris and Joe. Excellent drummer and guitarist.

Recreation: Garden of Eden?

This was perhaps our first time we got to see the tropical beauty of Guatemala. We visited this recreational garden in the middle of nowhere, filled with birds of paradise, clear pools, hills and rapids. It was a great way to end the trip.

The entire gang.

At the peak of the climb.

Forgotten paradise.

Afterthought
Perhaps the one thing the really struck me the most about this trip was the diversity of culture and language. The missionaries and a huge part of the team were Koreans, Spanish is the official language of Guatemala, the locals speak Kek'chi and we spoke of course English. We usually have corporate prayers in all 4 languages. Perhaps we were not so different after all.

Found lying on the table. A English, a Korean and a Spanish bible.

6 Months Later...

2006-07-13T22:11:00.001-07:00

Its 1:07 am and I am fighting to keep my eyes open. Feel I better write something before I fly off for Guatemala tomorrow (or before I get stoned by some of you). It didn't really occur to me that it's already six months already until I saw my seniors off and received my juniors from the airport. Time flies. Before I know it, I'll be out of here.

Bye bye seniors....
Perhaps it first struck me that I've past the halfway point during the graduation ceremony of the seniors. Could tell that most of them were actually reluctant to leave. But still, all good things must come to an end. Bye bye guys! You guys have been fantastic seniors and it's time to pay it forward. See you all in 5 months.

Seniors' last performance....

...take a bow...

...and go nuts!

The ceremony started solemnly (and somewhat boringly), but I guess everybody goes a little bit crazy once all our bosses and supervisors left.

Estee, the name tag holder

Eric: "Wayne, help me!!!"
Me: "I can't reach you. I'm sorry!"

Go Victorians! The VJC alumni:
Michelle, Shamir, me, Lawrence & Alicia

The girls

The guys

The girls and the guys

Of course the bunch I will miss the most will the the BV cell group here, of which I am a part-time member. You guys rock!

The senders and the sendee - me and my prayer partners.

Poconos Trip

Barely a week later, we headed back to Poconos, where we skied during winter. Interesting enough, it was here where Batch 6 and Batch 7 got to know each other for the first time and it was also here where we would have our last event together - whitewater rafting.

Unfortunately I didn't capture any of our whitewater adventures on camera, just some of our candid moments.

Heading towards the river

Nacho Libre. It's amazing what lack of breakfast can do to your brains.

Carmates

Batchmates

Dinner at Mike and Grace's

2006-06-14T19:57:00.001-07:00

"...so that's how I ended up here," I said, concluding the series of stories that led to me being in Philly. My hosts smiled.

"It's my turn. So how did you guys meet?"

My favourite question to couples when trying to stall time for customer support to get back to me while doing sales. Works like a charm. Mike and Grace smiled again.

It was a casual dinner invitation. Mike was the drummer in my band and Grace was his wife. Over the course of serving together in ministry, Mike just extended an offer to me to join them for dinner. Sure, why not? Apparently, my hosts went through extensive lengths to provide me with an all-American dinner. Flattered, I was determined to find out more about my hosts.

"Mike, you wanna start?"

Mike and Grace met in college. It was a typical Korean drama love story. Both were theatre students forced to act as married couple. As an attempt to inject more stage chemistry, their professor arranged a date for both of them by asking them out and not turning up himself. It was a fun first date - they laughed at each other's jokes, climbed a tree at the back of Mike's backyard.... And then the serious of "mishaps" - he liked her, she got attached to someone else; when she finally liked him, he got attached to someone else.

But after six years they finally got together, got engaged within 6 months after and married 1 month later.

"Wow, that's fast." Grace laughed. It's hard to not get addicted to her hearty laughter.

The couple showed me their wedding videos. These two broke every rule in the game. They had 2 weddings, a personal and a public one. The first wedding was conducted in the tree they climbed on their first date. Both of them were dressed in medieval English costumes. Sitting on the tree branch, Mike's father conducted the wedding as they exchange vows and rings. The entire setting was almost fairy-tale like.

The second wedding was held on a beach, conducted at sunrise. Right after the rituals were over, they just shed their wedding clothes and jumped into the water, joined by the rest of the bridesmaid and groomsmen.

It was fun listening to this good-looking couple regaling their stories. It's amazing how they finally found each other again after six years. They spoke of how they intend to go to short-term missions with their future babies, a tough feat.

I guess there is something really special about this couple after seeing the divine magic sprinkled on this relationship. Wishing Mike and Grace a beautiful future ahead.

Mission : Guatemala

2006-06-09T04:57:00.002-07:00

This would be an interesting post to follow my previous one. There had been an invitation for me to join Emmanuel Church Philadelphia's missions team. I thought of it and gave it a miss, since I thought it was almost impossible - 5 days off from work and school in a row, burning up all my summer holidays and raising up USD1000.

Seems like I haven't really learnt my lesson of believing God can make the impossible happen. Suddenly my 5 day's leave was approved, there were no lessons for the week and I almost became one of the first to finish my fund-raising.

But this is the best part : the revival team (worship team) apparently already had a full band and was just lacking a bassist and was actively looking for one. So I was kind of like the last piece to the missing puzzle. Found it hard to believe myself.

This is perhaps yet another affirmation that I'm doing something right. Once again, I'm pirvileged enough to play in a different country and this time round, in a different language (Spanish).

Oh yeah, how could I forget the miraculous fund-raising? Being the absolute last to join, it took quite a while before my support letters were ready. It was getting a little worrying since the fund raising time window was short. Guess what? I didn't have to give out the support letters in the end cause the bulk of the amount was already raised before the letters could be sent out.

Michelle, Jia Xian, Jeffrey Jee Hui Tiong, Timothy, Iris, Jeremiah, Estee Yili Teo, Alicia, Kai An, Jessica, Jo-Ann, Kai Hong and Julia - thanks for making this possible.

Bringing ministry to ends of the earth

2006-05-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

I suppose ministry is a life-long thing. It follows you like a shadow wherever you go, and to some extent, you never really outgrow it.

When I packed up my bass guitar and look one last look at it, I thought it would be the last time I touch a bass at least for the next year. It was the last week of 2005, one of the craziest weeks of my life. Prior to that, I had been playing every week for FCBC. Even my Christmas "break" from ministry could barely qualify as a vacation. Due to my strong ties with the people in Muar, I ended up playing for two churches - the church I grew up in and my parent's church of which the senior pastor is a close friend of mine. Once Christmas was over, packed my bags, crossed the causeway and straight to Singapore Expo Hall 10 for the New Year bash. That was on top of all my packing preparation.

My first church service in the US was also the first time in a long while I got to sit in the congregation instead of standing on stage. Hmmm....the band lacked a drummer and a bassist. Never mind, ignore that. Just worship in peace. By the third week, I got to know some of the people, especially the pastors and they mentioned they needed a bassist. "No way! This is physically impossible. I simply don't have the time!" I was playing by the fourth week.

Yeah, I can take a hint. Some things just stick to you. Whether it's breaking keyboard keys in Cambodia, playing in front of 100 people in Malaysia or a 5000 people in Singapore, the music ministry is one of the things I carry with me wherever I go - with or without my instruments.

Boston Road Trip

2006-05-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Lancaster team soon got bored and decided on another road trip; a longer one this time. The Boston trip was easily one of the most consuming trips I had. The drive alone was 8 hours. We dropped by a couple of hotspots within the vicinity.

Cape Cod
It's interesting to see so many shops still "Closed for the Season". When we were there, it was the first day of operation for almost a quarter of the shops there. Cape Cod is basically a small and somehwhat sleepy fishery town. I suppose the highlight of this place was the lobster meal we had for lunch.

Nice view of the cape

A local church

Nike commercial wannabe

the sky, the sea and the sand

the gang

Salem

Now this is the interesting one. In the eve of the 16th century, the Witch Hysteria outbreak disrupted an otherwise peaceful town. It started with a few teenage girls hallucinating and behaving crazily. Before long, these girls started accusing some townsfolks for bewitching them, which started the hyteria. Innocents were hanged. Those who pleaded guilty were set free if they name someone else who practice witchcraft. It was a period of distrust and backstabbing in Salem. By the time the hysteria was over, 19 have been sentenced to death.

Many years later, the girls who started the hysteria admitted that it was all a hoax. But what motivated them to play such a deadly prank? One of the most likely theories said the unusually high humidity during that period caused a certain fungus "Ergot of Rye" to grow on the townspeople break. This fungus is the origin of our modern day drug, LSD.

Cat and Weijia on the softtoys

Salem graveyard

names of the dead

official mascot of Salem

mirror mirror on the wall

the Hogsworth's graduating class of 2006

trinkets outside the Witch Museum

the gallows, the executioner and the prisoners

Pickering Wharf

Took a short drive to Pickering Wharf. Since it was pretty much rainy, we couldn't do much except taking a few photos beside the ship "Friendship of Salem".

the historical ship

Adrain on board the ship

By the time the rain actually stopped, most of the shops had closed. Disappointed, we headed back.

Being the photographer, I was the permanently the one walking furthest behind. Just after I took the above shot, I turned back for one last look....

....lo and behold, I saw one of the most beautiful rainbows I had ever seen in my entire life. Everyone stopped short and ran back to the river. It was a full semi-circle, completely surrounding the ship, and there were 2 of them - one rainbow on top of each other. Because we were so near to it, we couldn't capture the entire thing within one camera shot. In the end we took 7-8 shots hoping to capture parts of it. After spending one entire night, I managed to stich the shots we had, and it looked something like this.

One of the most beautiful moments of my life. Too bad the second rainbow was not really captured.

Salem II

This is definitely one of the stories I would tell my grandchildren next time - going on a ghost trail. The was a resident certified ghost hunter who put together a special program to trace all the underworld activity going on in Salem. Apparently we were in the right place at the right time, since the solar eclipse that happened 2 days ago was supposed to stir up electromagnetic activites around the area (ghosts are explained as a scientific phenomena here).

These "activities" appear in 3 forms.

Orbs (bright perfectly-shaped spheres)
Ectomorphs (semi-solid shapes)
Apparation (takes on a tangible figures, like a face or object)

Since you probably won't see much with a naked eye, we were asked to let our cameras do the "seeing". To capture a "ghost photo" you need to set your camera to:

Maximum exposure
Maximum ISO setting
Maximum shutter / aperture setting to get a decent non-blurred photo

So off we went to ghost hunting.

Apparently some nasty spiritual activities were capture on this spot by the guide himself

Another alley with lots of "activities"

The spot that used to be the old prison for accused witches

The tour ended with the tour guide showing us some photos he took.

Boston
Finally, the place where this trip was named after. Typical of an American city - lots of
skyscrapers and bustling with people.

Stopped by a church to have a look at the pre-service preparation. Interestingly, this church had a long history, a huge pipe organ and a full-fledge gospel choir with services in 6 different languages; but the total membership was still smaller than FCBC.

Gospel choir rehearsal

lots of sky-scrapers

After we got bored of all the city sight, we went to the the harbour. It was a perfect sunny day at the pier with seagulls soaring, private yatches sailing, people having coffee beside the sea...this is life.

a nice arch beside the harbour

Cat, Adrain and Shamir having a good time

Enjoying the breeze

one day, I will own one of these

shot across the other end of the harbour

Lancaster

2006-04-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

Remember the Amish people you used to learn about in the A-levels General Paper? Well, the opportunity to visit them came when we decided to do a road trip down to visit the people who time has forgotten. The tour was a bit short and gimmicky, but nevertheless fun. It's interesting to see learn the lengths these people go through just to shun technology. Since a fridge is needed, they would actually changed the adaptor so that it can run on fuel-powered energy instead the normal off-the-wall electricity outlet. Sounds almost ironic.

I am quite sure technology is inspired by God (how else do you explain the awesome equipment in my church :-) ). I for sure can't survive without technology and is grateful for how my life is so much more effecient because of technology. Let's not take what we have for granted and acknowledge the fact that the world is flat because of the awesome technological breakthroughs that we had.

a tour of the amish house

The mattress is supported by ropes! Thank God mine is on spring...

Traditionally, the Amish people only have one classroom for all children and the stop somewhere at the end of middle school cause they believe that is more than enough. Thereafter, they would focus on picking up hard skills which will probably be their vocation for life.

Deliang disciplining naughty female students in a small Amish classroom.

Cat, the horse?

more horse carts

The hat is an important component of an Amish man's dress-gear. Different hats denotes whether a man is single or married.

Trying out some hats

The gang and the car. Cat, Deliang, Shamir, Rex and Weijia. It's a miracle all six of us manage to fit into the small tin box on wheels.

Once done with the Amish village, we drove around the surrounding areas. You've got to wonder who was the genius who came up with the names. The 2 names we found most amusing: Bird in Hand & Intercourse. The guys (including me) almost died laughing when we say how some of the merchandise were marketed.

who wouldn't?

But all in all, this place is beautiful. We will definitely be back for a nice overnight farm stay during summer.

Windows XP background shot

NBA!

2006-04-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

This has been quite a while ago but I suppose this is just one of the things you can't really leave out. It started with a simple I received at 5:00pm during work with an opening,"Hey Wayne, Hans I was wondering in free tickets to the NBA because Hans cannot make it in time....."Are you kidding?

Two hours, later I found myself outside the Wachovia stadium, home of the Philadelphia 76-ers (Basketball) and Phantoms (Hockey). As I would expect, the setting was rowdy, since it was the home time playing. But what I didn't expect was that there were more to NBA than just basketball. Every break was filled with acrobatic stunts from the dancers or cheerleaders, comic relief, audience competition and Kiss-cams (yes, if the camera points at you, you GOT to kiss your partner, so that everyone in the stadium can see it on the gigantic LED screen).

Too bad we lost despite leading for 3 quarters. But it was still an experience to see Allen Iverson doing a reverse dunk in front of you. Thanks Scott for making this happen.

The Wachovia Stadium

Banners of achievements

The stand

Warm-up

Surprise Parcel

2006-03-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

It was a 2 pm. An innocent parcel waited unsuspectingly in my mail box waited in my mail box just as I passed by. "Hmmm.... could this be mine?"

Looking at the handwriting, I knew I recognised something familiar. When I saw what was written in the content, I laughed. No need to look at the name. This was definitely mine.

Grace, I can recognise your handwriting anytime.

My hall buddies decided to drop an eleborate "Hi" with a parcel sent all the way from Singapore. It had been a stressful afternoon and this parcel really made my day. I am really thankful for friends who remember what makes me tick.

Interestingly, this little parcel contained everything that I couldn't live without. And these are all the things that I can't find in the US. You guys are amazing! Seriously, you guys just made the remaining of the year easier to bear.

so, what's in the package?

Bible: Chinese + English. This would be an interesting one. Since on average, I own a new one every 3 years to vary the reading routine, having 2 languages on the same page would be something fresh.

Indomee: Simply the best instant noodles. 7 years being an expert in the field can't be wrong. Nothing else comes close to it. Ben, I hope this didn't come from your cupboard.

G-Tec C4: I only use fine tip pen and this particular pen model can't be found here. Just at the right time too, since the my last one was down to 0.5 cm remaining ink.

White Coffe: Coffee is to me what fuel is to car. Anybody who has known me long enough will know that. Zhan Rui, I believe you are the culprit for this, cause I have not seen any E-blocker drinking this before. Thanks. The next time we will be drinking the coffee that you will be bringing back from France.

Chili Sauce: For someone who consumes 5-7 packets of chili sauce per value meal, I am reduced to just ketchup here. My housemates simply went bonkers when they saw this too. Melf, Tina, Lishi, Grace, Weiguang, Ben (did I miss out anyone?), I really wonder HOW MANY times did you guys go to McDonalds to really amass this amount of chili packets? I am touched...

But the winner of them all is...

my calculator!

For a country this advanced, it is surprising that I couldn't find a better replacement for my 7-year old sidekick. None of the scientific calculators here fall under the category of "functional". This dude came at the right time - just 2 hours before my test! That is why this parcel is God-sent.

Cost of shipping: $52.80
Chinese & English Parallel Bible: $30.00
Joy of receiving: Priceless

There are some things money just can't buy. For others, there are always friends.

Trekking In The Snow

2006-03-05T21:44:00.001-08:00

Since my trip to Silicon Valley is cancelled, I decided I was still gonna make my spring break worthwhile. I prefer the great outdoors to shopping anytime and was anticipating my first hiking experience in the US woods. Thankfully, managed to find a few trekking buddies, rented a car and off we went to the nearest State Park we could find.

Taking a shot outside someone's yard

"Near" was relative, since we drove for almost 4 hours before we finally found the park. The place was almost deserted, save for a jogger with his 2 dogs. While we weren't expecting a very bright and sunny whether we didn't expect was that the park was almost covered entirely by snow either.

at least we know we are not alone

Iris getting the food ready

Seconds before we started (Iris & Kai Hong)

lets go

Eric beside the river

Since the ground was covered with snow, we could really find the right trail. So, following the safest way, we trekked along the river, until we reached an open plain that didn't seem to fit into the densely-packed terrain. At first, we wanted to trek along this opening and see where this trail led to. After walking a few steps, all 4 of us felt that something was not quite right. Upon investigation, we figured it out - we had been walking on a snow-covered frozen stream.

all that's calm may not be good news...

...until you find out...

...what exactly lies beneath

In the middle of the park, there were some abandoned tunnels and railway tracks. It was actually pretty dangerous walking through the tunnels as stalactites were actually forming from the roof and one pile actually fell and stabbed through the ground as we past.

watch out for falling icicles

hopefully no train runs at this time (Iris, Eric & Kai Hong)

We saw some other interesting stuff as well - oddly shaped ice-bubbles, stalactites forming beside cliff wall and beautiful gorges.

discovery of icicles

check out the shape of the ice

illegal souveniers

final glimpses of sunlight

time to go

we'll be back

StarCite

2006-03-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Background
Quite of you have been asking me what my company deals with and honestly it's quite a mouthly for me to string into one sentence. My internship company, StarCite, is a Philadelphia home-grown company that acts as the channel between corporate event planners and suppliers (airlines, hotels, golf clubs, etc.), allowing them have visibility over their budget and spending.

Confused? So was I, the first time I heard it. Let's say I am from a multinational company in US and I will like to hold a conference in Japan. Now, sourcing for a hotel / conference hall in a country halfway across the world isn't really that easy a task. Besides negotiating prices, you will still need to work around limitations (such as no rooms during proposed date, but rooms are available a week later), special requests (golf course for Sunday) and when all is done, you realise all you've got are quotations from just one hotel. And all the time you spent calling, negotiating, agreeing to bad deals all translates to unquantifiable money lost.

Via the StarCite website, you can post up a detailed decription of your meeting 9 in just a matter of minutes) and choose to send it to say all the hotels in Japan or all Hilton hotel chains automatically. Instantly, you can ask for quotations to a few hundred hotels in the blink of the eye and let them do the work instead of you. Every hotel returns with a quotation and the one that gives the best deal wins. Pretty much like ebay bidding for hotel space. Simple?

The story so far...
On Monday, my boss CH called us (Eric & I) into his office. All the while I have heard from seniors on how great a boss he is. He called us because he was really concerned if we were learning enough during this internship period. He wanted to see if there were anything else we wanted to do. He had actually mailed all 6 managers under him telling them that we would be approaching them for assignments and we actually get to choose the assignment where we can learn the most. All 6 managers hold very different portfolios so diversity in learning is assured. My admiration for this man grows....

Passing the Holy Grail
When you work for department that revolves around technology, the "untouchable items" would be the code and components that makes up the code. After the session with CH, I am officially "in", working hand-in-hand with the developers and programmers. My remaining 10 months is going to be exciting.

Scenic view on the way to work

Welcome to StarCite!

To remind us of our names after working for 18 hours straight

My cubicle

View of the city from the office after 6 pm

My Story

2006-02-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

A few days back, I mailed some of you my Christian testimony. Since quite a few requested to put this online, so I here it goes. Hope it blesses you reading it.

The Verse:

But seek first the kingdom of God, and all these shall be added unto you".

Matthew 6:33

The Story

I always wondered how to describe my salvation story since I have been attending church before I could ever remember. Born to a family with humble finances, my family was predominantly Christians except for both my parents. Courtesy of a relaxed childhood, I attended 2 different Presbyterian churches all the way through elementary school, one in English and the other in Chinese. Being exposed to the biblical teachings since young, I used to think that Christianity was all about obeying rules. This was further reinforced with by family pedagogical way of teaching “Christians shouldn’t do this; Christians should do that”. Christianity was simply … religion.

Since young, I always knew my family didn’t have much but just enough to get by. There were many things that I wanted to have and do but couldn’t. I refused to believe that I was under privileged in any way. “After all,” I told myself, “you can’t have everything; life is fair”. I started banking on achievements to prove my worth. I worked part time through middle school for spare cash. It was around that time where I began developing a growing a .com company which I believed would be my lucky break. The website grew rapidly within a year. For once, I felt I really had something I could be proud of.

My euphoria was short-lived. An unforeseen financial downturn in my family drove me to search for opportunities to ensure my college education. When a scholarship to study in Singapore came, I knew I only had one option.

Being put together in a dorm together with the best scholars in the region, it didn’t take me long to realize I am living with the elites. All of them were smart, rich, athletic and talented in some way or another. I simply could not measure up. These people made me believe they could have everything. To make matters worse, my new hostel lacked Internet facilities meaning I had to give up my involvement in the online company. My one and only prized possession was taken away. For the first time in my life, I began to think that life was unfair. I resented the fact that these people had it better because their families could afford to send them to better schools, lessons and coaching with fees easily five times more than what I earned. I worked harder than anybody else. What must I be the one holding up the bottom of the scales?

Week after week, my self-esteem diminished. No matter how hard I try to do something, there seemed to be someone else in the small dorm of 14 who could do it better, be it studies, sports or extra curricular activities. While I still prayed regularly, I began to doubt if my prayers were ever heard. The set of rules called “Christianity” doesn’t seem to be helping me in my problems right then.

The day came when I knelt down in church after a disastrous week and cried out to God. I had nothing simply nothing left. My grades were slipping, finances were running out and I was shunned by my dorm-mates. Praying in silent agony, suddenly I saw a vision. I saw all the things that I had always dreamt of doing flashed before me all at once. Till today, I still believed I heard God spoke to me that day in church, “Believe in Me and put Me first and I will make all these happen”.

After that weekend, I felt different. I felt I no longer need to build my confidence upon achievements. Instead, I could be just rest my confidence in the Lord. My Bible reading experience also changed dramatically. Suddenly, it seemed like there is always a verse in my daily readings that was able to sooth me of the wounds I collected on that day. Christianity wasn’t a religion anymore. It became a lifestyle and a relationship. I became more interested to learn more about something I thought I already knew. After attending baptism class, I learnt that to be saved means to believe that 2000 years ago, a man hung on a cross for me and this man is my Savior. It’s not about the good deeds that I do, how many Sundays spent in church, the songs I sing or the amount of rules I obey. On August 26th 2000, I acknowledged this Savior as I fully submerged into the water of the baptism pool.

Looking back, I can hardly believe I am the same person I was 7 years ago. It has been a long journey. I still struggle financially. I had to work on vacations and even during term time just to make ends meet. But the little that I have, I am committed to tithe a tenth reluctant as I may be at times. I am still in the company of elites, although I see it as a privilege now to be able to work and learn from people way better than I am. I still strive hard, but that’s because I want to be a husband who is worthy of my future spouse. In God’s eyes, there’s nothing more I could do to earn my salvation.

A blurb from my internship report

2006-02-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

Just a portion ripped off from technical journal. For those of you interested in technical stuff, read on....

Environments
After a week of fiddling with the products, my job scope became more defined. Since I was working in the Quality Assurance (QA) Department of which my supervisor Geneva was manager of, it was only natural that I my initial responsibilities would be testing.

I learnt that for most software products, there would be at least 3 different working environments: Development where the developers / programmers continuously work on new code; QA where the testers validate the quality and functionality; and the Production, which was the live working product. All 3 were to coexists simultaneously and independently – while we the testers are testing in the QA environment, the developers could continue to write new codes and the customer beta users can continue to use the live product. When the developers had written substantially enough new code, it will be grouped together as a “build” and will be “pushed” to the QA environment, meaning the QA environment will be updated with all the latest changes from Development. Once the testers have finished testing and validated that it works, it will be “pushed” again to Production (now the live version will be updated from QA). Anytime there are major issues with a push, the build will have to be "unrolled" or reverted to an older build.

No wonder software development is so complicated :-)

Colours and snow in New York

2006-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

Part I: Colours
Visited the much anticipated city. Managed to meet up with Ellen, close pal from our ODAC days. While I was expecting New York to be metropolitan and all, I didn;t expect it to be so Hong Kong/Tokyo style. The was so filled with billboards, LED screens, lights and colours that it blinds you.

Ground zero || Downtown New York

Beautiful lights outside some unknown pubs

M&Ms Machine || Coffee Jugs (my fav!)

MacDonald's - colourful New York Style

Ellen & Mia in Hello Kitty shop

Part II: Snow
Unknown to us, New York was going to have one of the heaviest snow storms in 10 years that night. Didn't know it was such a huge thing until it was on international news. Some parks have between 15-25 inches of snow. The sudden change in the city is phenomenal. Overnight, the city became a completely different place. Snow-covered roads prevented any possible transportational activities. The snow was so heavy it was literally pelting. But the experience of being caught in a historical snow storm is truly unique.

Admiring the snow on a lazy sunday morning

Ellen, friends and the snowcladded lanscape

This is for you guys, ODAC 18th Batch.
We had it on sand and earth. Having it on snow completes the collection

The Next 2 Weeks

2006-02-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Home!
After leaving off a suitcase for 2 weeks, finally got a roof to call my (together with housemates Niki, Rex and Shamir) own. While I wasn't expecting things to be a piece of cake, setting up the house was more than just unpalatable. The team effort to unblock password protected routers, tap into the right cable TV network, negotiate hefty deposits and assembling furnitures really brought out the hackers and engineers in us.

Niki: Looking for cheapest furnitures online
Shamir & Rex: Getting the wireless router up
Me: transportation route to get our furnitures in

New Morning
Woke up in the morning and needed some time to register my new surrounding. Not used to being woken up by the peeking sunlight through theblinds. I could smell the tang of fresh wood. Looked around at all my new furniture. Suddenly, it feels like home.

Clockwise from top-left, my table, my bed, my shelfs and living room

High Velocity @ Poconos

2006-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Most of us have a few things that we hope to do before we die. For me, skiing is definitely one of them. Can't believe I actually had the good fortune to do this as my batch orientation. God bless the genius who actually thought of this. Anybody who is addicted to the adrenaline rush should definitely try it out. It is every bit as exhilarating (and heart stopping) as I expected it to be. Did the most magnificent falls as well. My body actually contorted to positions I didn't even know the human body was capable of. I vow to be back before winter is over. Not for the faint hearted...

Of course the resort was equipped with other facilities as well. Good dinner & bowling alleys kept us occupied when the weather was wet.

Men in black

the gang

looking down at our skis while taking the elevator

knocking down the pins after dinner

The Next 7 Days...

2006-01-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

Work

Finally started work. StarCite is a relatively huge company overlooking the city. Expecting a small corner, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I have my own cubicle equivalent to that of the rest of the employees. Even more impressive was the work culture. Everyone was project driven rather that fixed office hours. People start working as early as 7 or as late as 12. Some start leaving from 3 while others at midnight. I made sure that I wear my birthday gift on the first day of work. Thanks ODAC dudes - the shirt was excellent.

Against the view of the city from the height of 18th storey

Birthday

Dear God,

I thank you for people who are more concerned about my birthday than I do. People who bother to make my day even if they only knew me for lesser than 2 weeks. It's amazing to have 8 years suprise birthdays in a row, each time celebrated by different people and each year more spectacular than the previous.

To the NOCians - thanks. All the preparation despite the sea of work means much to me. You guys really caught me off guard while still drying my hair with the towel. May God bless you guys with an excellent and exciting year ahead.

Amen

Mastermind Niki: Hugs

The slice to start the year

Ice & speed

Winter - in all its majesty and splendour were truly displayed before us over the weekend. Perhaps the best orientation ever, we got more than just a skiing trip. Frosty lakes, wooden huts, snow-covered trees made up part of picturesque walk we took. The NOC people have their own definition of speed. During our walk, we travelled at a breathtaking speed of 500 photos per mile. Walking on the frozen lake was perhaps the highlight of my day.

Excuse me, is that ice you are standing on?

First 14 days of the year....

2006-01-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

New Blog

Yeah, I took your advice. I hope you understand my reluctance to start a blog cause I just have something against using templates, something all blogging sites try to force down my throat. Anyway, this blog is not about me. It is about you. It is not about my complains, my daily happenings or achievements. It is about appreciating the people who made a difference in my life. That's why you'll see a lot of "thank you"s in the postings. That's what it's all about.

The New Year Bash

What a great way to start the year by playing in front of a crowd of 5000 people. To me, it was a great way to end my ministry in the worship team. To band fire (Benster, Phebe, Chris, Darnie) + Kenny, it was great spending my "last days" grooving with you guys. I still can't get the images of New Year Bash off my head everytime I hear "Always & Forever". (p.s. Ben Por, find the T-shirt familiar?)

getting ready

Band fire (me, kenny, darnie, phebe, ben, chris)

Action!

Farewells ....
Thanks for taking the effort to meet up. Jasmine, thanks for brunch. Jessica and Kenny, thanks for lunch. Too bad you forgot your camera's battery. E-block CG seniors, thanks for the meal, missing Chinese food already. Americans eat cheese with everything. Just smelling it makes you fat. Rachel, hadn't got the chance to cook nasi lemak yet with the sambal you gave me. However, the seniors here already can't wait to try it out.

the great meal

Parting smiles with the E-block CG seniors. Love this photo

... in the midst of packing
Now this is the hard part. 6 more hours before the plane flies and my room is still almost. Thanks to the E-block CG juniors (Wei Guang, Grace, Lishi, Mel, Christina) for helping me pack. I guess you guys must have burned your weekend trying to shove my stuff into your cupboards. You kids are great. It has been fun being your big brother/father. Grace, I owe you one big meal.

Family photo with my kids from E-block juniors

Quan Hui: Can't owe you enough. You have really demonstrated what it takes to be a true friend. Guess I would not have boarded my plane in time if it wasn't for you. Gonna miss you buddy.

Leaving

Rong Hui, Soon Yang and Wang Xing, thanks for sending me off. Could see you guys fighting off tears just to keep awake.

Apologies

To the people I promised to meet up but didn't...

Kennard: Sorry for not being able to record the CD. My nights were burnt from rehearsals.
Rui Jun: Chom chom with Ray when I come back. Promise.
Adeline: Didn't manage to go KL in the end. Stuck at Muar.
Melf: Too bad I didnt' get to receive what you wanted to pass to me. Appreciate your effort.

Philadelphia

After a long journey and some mishap adventures in between, I would say it is worth it. This place is pictureque - nice vegetation, beautiful architechture.... Jasmine, WX, Pan jing, Rong Hui, Weng Cheong, David, Soon Yang, Bi Peng, Ken & Jason - thanks for the jacket. It came in very handy. Can't live without it now.

Thank you for everything. Wonder how less colourful my life if without you. Continue to be the great people that you are to others and they will have things to write about.

Melody: Happy Birthday!