Permatang Pauh By-Election

The result was out (9:50pm - MalaysiaKini, 11:00pm - TheStar). Anwar Ibrahim (PR-PKR) got 31,195 votes. Arif Shah Omar Shah (BN-UMNO) 15,524 votes. Hanafi Hamat (Ind-Akim) 92 votes. 599 votes were ruled to be spoilt. This sum up to 81.1% voter turnout, or 47,410 out of 58,459 registered voters.

The support for Anwar and PKR has not changed so much. Rather, there were more support shown in the by-election, as Wan Azizah's majority vote margin of 13,388 in March 8 was broken by her husband's 15,671 majority vote, amid the sodomy allegation against him. Anwar was combating on a non-level playing field at PKR's disadvantage, and yet able to win. The ultra intensive attention poured out by BN, particularly Najib Abdul Razak who spent most of his time campaigning for his comrade (Arif Shah), was useless. All the campaign ceramahs, money, and tactics poured by BN to discredit Anwar seemed not helpful at all. The people in Permatang Pauh who have voted against BN have, in one voice, spoke directly to BN that all the efforts to fish for votes do and will not work. And more importantly, BN need to be receptive of these many-fold messages.

To many people, it was malicious to have the polling day set on Tuesday rather than on weekend. This decision by Election Committee had indeed created a major hindrance to the voters in Permatang Pauh, compromising the basic citizen rights of 58,459 registered voters. As an ultimate counter-action to safeguard their citizen rights, Penang CM Lim Guan Eng, with his power in his office, declared a holiday on the polling day. And, salute to the voters, the turnout rate was slightly better than March 8 election. Imagine, more voters are willing to turn out at polling stations on a weekday. The have chosen to rank their basic rights above anything else!

One person I would really salute: Hanafi Hamat. Having harvested only 92 votes throughout the polling hours, he was doomed to have his deposit lost in the by-election. Yet, he was there during the official announcement of the final results. He stayed at the battle till the end, even though it was obvious that he was going to lose - I guess throughout the 4-hour vote counting period, by the 3rd hour he should have known that he's lost. Salute to him!

On the other hand, it was reported that Arif Shah was nowhere to be found during the official announcement. Where was he? Why did he disappear instead of facing the truth there and then? Although he's lost in the by-election, he is still a legitimate state assemblyman of N10 Seberang Jaya constituency. The best that he could actually do was to show face, and let the voters that voted for him now as well as back in March 8 felt that he was still a hero and a sporting contestant among them. His very action of disappearing would cost him a disaster in his upcoming career as an assemblyman, as he had failed to honor the votes that has been cast for him. I do not know how Seberang Jaya voters would feel, but out of empathy, I would feel disheartened to have such an assemblyman.

Well, I guess the one person that did turn a sour face was Najib. Najib ranted that he was disappointed at the action of aggressive stopping of 5 buses by PKR supporters, who believed that those buses ferry phantom voters. According to Najib, the buses are supposed to ferry BN supporters. He also added that PKR did bring in supporters from outside. Well, one thing sure is that, the police had announced a day earlier that non-voters were advised not to step into Permatang Pauh. Which means, be it BN supporters from outside or PKR supporters from outside, they were not supposed to be there. In addition, even if the 5 buses contain phantom voters or BN supporters, it would not improve much on BN's vote count. Rather than feeling disappointed, Najib should gracefully accept the defeat, and spend some time pondering how he could listen more to the rakyat's needs and fulfilling it. In any case, the win by Anwar does pose a great threat to Najib, as both are called prime minister in-waiting.

Throughout the 10 days of campaigning and polling, Malaysians could see from different angles the true colors of many politicians and supporters, and experience one of the greatest political wrestle for votes of all times. It is indeed the mother of all by-elections.

Picture above is courtesy of MalaysiaKini.

The Magic Charm For Fuel Price Drop

I was reading one of the most recent vox populi (voices of the people) compilation from MalaysiaKini, and was amused at one of the response. It sounded like this:

Jo Dumas: As if March 8 was not enough evidence, the lowering of oil prices is again a sign of Anwar being a lucky charm for this country. He's not even in Parliament yet and he has been able to lower oil prices. Just imagine what this country would be destined for if he was in parliament, or even if he was the prime minister. This proves scare-mongers and doom-sayers like Khairy wrong.

Hey, it is a good reverse psychology, voiced out by a true intelligent Malaysian! Well, if the non-intelligent people can use reverse psychology to hand out bogus pamphlets, what the more intelligent rakyat can do!

How true it is, that Anwar is, even right now, in control of the direction the fuel prices are going. If there is no by-election, our 'beloved' PM would have kept his promise in reviewing fuel prices after Sept 1, and not announced price slash on Aug 22. Cool! Anwar is indeed powerful.

Haiya... I should not have puked on number four. It is indeed a good sign anyway. Thanks for the reminder, Jo Dumas. And, thanks to Pak Lah for giving us back 15 sen and helping us know who is more powerful!

Shameless Ng

Today, another fresh news from MalaysiaKini stated that Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen openly handed out envelopes containing RM200 to 156 Chinese elderly at a function in Permatang Pauh. In addition, Ng called on those present to support the BN as she emphasised that the ruling coalition was a government which took care of everyone.

As reported in MalaysiaKini, she denied the money she gave was a form of bribery, and she stressed that neither was it a form of election goodies. She said the money was given out by the National Welfare Foundation, a government-linked non-profit organisation she heads. According to her, it was a mere coincident that the financial aid came in at the sensitive time of the by-election. She added that it was an annual activity organised by the foundation.

When I read the news, I thought right away: Wah, she really did that ah? Nope, I have not puked anything yet, although I just had a heavy dinner.

Annual activity? It is indeed a low-profile annual activity indeed. Other than the over-publicized annual activity that happened to happen today, I have not heard of the foundation doing any charity work. Never have I heard of the foundation giving out money to the elderly.

Having said that, if the money is for welfare purpose, it should be done in sincerety. Means, you give and never ask anything in return. Anyway, it's not for this particular case - so much insincerety as perceived from MalaysiaKini's report.

Now the questions: What the heck was she doing when she talked about supporting BN? What is government taking care of everyone gotta do with the donation receipients' rights to choose their wakil rakyat? Why was the money from a welfare foundation given unwillingly? Why do you tell the receipients to support BN if the money is given for welfare? Why bother asking the receipients do this and that - why do the receipients need to fill up forms, photocopy their IC, and give their thumbprints? What kind of form is that? The rakyat want to know! And, do you ever request signature from a person receiving donation from you? Rubbish!!

Coincidence? I also want that kind of coincidence, especially on money matters, or else I would not be painstakingly blogging!! Really... you think we Malaysians are stupid ah? How can she expect everyone to be stupid?

I really can't believe it! She dares to do that - what a shameless act!!

Enough said. My breath is not smooth now (我好唔顺气). I just want to ask Ng Yen Yen one more question... Do you know how to write "shame" in Chinese characters (知道<丑>字怎样写吗)?

My number six (topping up the earlier five). UEKKKKKKK!!!

Basketball And TGIF Again

Last Sunday's basketball turnout rate is kinda disappointing, as there were only 6 of us: Andre, Derrick, Jorge (Davis), Boris, Kwok Weng, and I. It was kinda expected, as the dark clouds were hovering above the sky - just like the gigantic saucer in ID4. :-P



As expected, when we were about to start our 3-on-3, 8-point, best-of-5 game, it started drizzling. There are pros and cons playing in the rain. Pros - it was cooling, we did not get tired or thirsty that easily, and it slowed down the game. Cons - it was bad for catching a cold, and it was too slippery that we might end up tripping or spraining our ankles.

The team setting was like this: Andre, Derrick, Kwok Weng vs Jorge, David, Boris. My team won two games, but due to my many mistakes, we lost two games thereafter. On the fifth game, we were leading with 7-6, when we were kicked out of the court, firstly because it was late (about 8pm), secondly because the rain was getting heavier. Unofficially we won. A tiring game indeed - my inner thighs are still aching now.

Next, we had dinner in TGIF. We happened to know that day itself, that it was Kwok Weng's birthday. Since it was Kwok Weng's first time in TGIF, he was not aware of what he would go through. We knew... heheh! And so, Kwok Weng ordered a serving of chicken fettucini... (sorry, Andre, what was that sauce?), while the rest ordered hamburgers with fries. What a hearty meal! We were also busy watching Astro sports channel on the Closing Ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I was also doing something online with my wife (my laptop lar...).

And finally, the show began. The TGIF waiters and waitresses, 4 of them altogether, came and presented Kwok Weng with a chocolate cake for birthday. With a price - to stand on the chair and sing a song in front of everybody, and to blow the candle from a distance of, like, 2 metres. He was very shy in the beginning, but after much nudging, he sang at last - the first two lines of the chorus of the song 童话 (by Michael Wong). We forced him to encore (so bad are we). After that, it was the usual birthday presentation by the TGIF people. It's quite fun watching them do it, and that time I was video recording it using my cell phone!

According to Kwok Weng, that was his first ever birthday celebration. I'm so glad that I gotta celebrate his birthday together with all of us bunch of new friends (with the exception of Boris). Yep, I only knew him for barely one month. Hope that we could celebrate with him in future. Ahh... perhaps next celebration with either Boris or Kevin (passed liao)... in TGIF again! Muahahahah!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KWOK WENG.

Kwok Weng forced to stand and sing, usual trick by TGIF on birthday babes


Kwok Weng with his birthday chocolate cake


The bball gang: [From left] David, Boris, Kwok Weng, Jorge, Derrick, Andre

Sub-Zero Reputation

Yes... From zero to sub-zero. I'm on one side of my mind impressed on the fed gomen's action, showing their nothing-to-lose desperation. On the other side, I feel disgusted at the extent of their action - foul and filthy. When I finish this post, I'm gonna puke.

UEKKKKKK!!! Oops... sorry! Can't hold on any longer. Hope August 26 pass with a smooth and gracious combat.

Why am I impressed and disgusted at the same time?

1. Usage of an un-investigated sodomy case as "hujah" for by-election campaign. Everyone knows that, in the name of Madam Justice the Blind, a person is innocent unless proven guilty. Some of our fed gomen leaders even voiced out this point (as if nobody knows). However, there are some jerks out there hailing "sodomy" during the by-election campaign. Sodomy - Is this word relevent? A country led by a sodomite - Is this not a statement of prejudice? Where is "innocent unless proven guilty"? Is it not childish? Extremely, I dare say.

By the way, in due respect to the departed ones, I do not agree with the yelling of the name "Altantuya" during the campaign neither. Let her rest in peace, guys. And, one note - two blacks do not make a white.

2. Having full-force concentration on Permatang Pauh. Cool... Imagine - all the big shots, including our "beloved" DPM and even our "beloved" PM, paid a visit to a constituency 400 km from their administrative base. So much time to help in the campaign... C'mon la... put more time on something more important... Wait, having a swift win in Permatang Pauh is of course important! Eesh... what am I talking? By the way, I am not at all surprised that KJ was there. I am also not at all surprised that our Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei was invited there (although this part I do feel disgusted... yes, I do, and not I did, because I am still wanting to vomit... wait... UEKKK!!!).

3. The efficiency of ACA... in being so fast in investigation and charging of the two Perak Excos (PKR state assemblymen). I'm just wondering... why not only one, and why not three? Well, perhaps it is just coincident that they found two and exactly two PKR assemblymen involved in bribery, and have nothing to do with 31-28 becoming 29-30 (hopefully not). On the other hand, I am also curious... I remembered that there are also fed gomen people, including the big shots, being reported to ACA for having involved in pribery. What happened to the cases? Missing files? Where are the investigative efforts on them? Oh ya... some of the efforts went to Perak.

4. This part I really wanna puke. It has been said that there will be no fuel price slash till before Sept 1, and it was announced by our 'beloved' PM twice, on Aug 14 and Aug 20. SURPRISE!!! Fuel price slash on Aug 22. Although I am one of Malaysian citizens that is more than glad to have to pay less for my petrol, I am very disgusted at the action taken - a nothing-to-lose kind of action. Well, our 'beloved' PM has done it before what - never keeping integrity of his words. C'mon, why so desperate? Do you think you can really win people's votes just by doing this? People can expect you would continue to eat your own words in future.

Although I really wanna puke, I gotta say that I am kinda expecting it to happen anyway. As I said, it has happened before what... Now, I have all the reasons to not believing in fed gomen people anymore. How could we cast votes to people whom we cannot trust? So, save my puke for next time.

5. Bogus posters, offensive and containing reverse-psychology words, were put up around Permatang Pauh. Wallau... this is new! I am amazed - I don't expect those banner creators are that clever to do that. Reverse psychology needs extremely clever people in order to make the words effective. Anyway, I am very very glad that these banners has no party logos and name of the banner printer. As quoted in MalaysiaKini: "All the banners did not carry a party logo and the name of the printer. This breaches election laws and the Elections Commission can actually take action to have them removed." We shall expect to see EC people to remove it immediately.

There are many points, but five is enough. No point wasting time on childish matters and matters that concern people with sub-zero reputation.

UEKKKKKKKK!!!!!

Prayer For Permatang Pauh By-Election

O God, we acknowledge You today as Lord, not only of individuals but also of nations and governments.

We thank You for the graces You have given us to exercise our political charity in Malaysia.

We also thank You for the opportunity of free choice offered to the people of the constituency of Permatang Pauh for electing a leader.

Lord God, give them the courage to exercise their solemn duty as citizens of Malaysia to vote on behalf of the whole nation!

Guide those voters with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit so that they may choose a suitable and trustworthy candidate to become the next member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

September Twenty-Second

Yes, it is 30 days from now... Nope, I'm not predicting the future. I'm just trying to talk about how special this day is, and hence do a bit of self promotion. :-P

September 22 is indeed a special day. Special in many ways, as I'm gonna list down as follows:

10. It is the day of Autumn Equinox. A day where the length of daytime reduces most drastically (for countries north of the Equator). A day where the weather is supposed to change most drastically from warm to chill (again, for Northern Hemispheric countries). It is mid-autumn day... No, no, no, I'm not refering to Mooncake Festival that's based on Lunar calendar - I'm refering to the Gregorian calendar.
[ How about Southern Hemispheric countries? Vice versa lar... ]

9. September 22 means there is only 100 days left till the end of year.

8. It is the day mentioned in many movies. I really forgot which movies... I will update here if I remember.

7. It is the day of birth of the fictitious characters Frodo and Bilbo Bagginses in Lord of the Rings. Strange, even the land of Middle Earth used the Gregorian calendar! Haha...

6. It is the day of birth of the famous scientist Michael Faraday (year 1791).

5. It is the day of birth of a young artiste Tom Felton (year 1987), made famous as Louis Leonowens in Anna and the King and Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter movies.

4. It is the day of birth of the famous Brazilian football player Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima, or famously known as Ronaldo (year 1976).

3. It is the day of birth of my sifu who taught me something valuable couple of months back (year ???? - he kept it secret).

2. It is the day of birth of one of my coursemates (year 1977).

1. It is the day of birth of one of my colleagues (year 1985).

And most importantly (that's why I don't number it):
It is MY BIRTHDAY!! (proudly, born in year 1978) :-)

Paradise Worship - Part 2

Thursday was a fantastic day. It was the day that I witnessed for the first time the strong presence of God in a live worship concert by Paradise Worship! There were around 500 youths (perhaps more, I just threw in some numbers) in Shammah Hall, PCC. That was excluding some older people (perhaps the parents of the teenagers).

Although I have seen via DVD videos of live worship concert (that was Hillsong), I have never felt as much in awe as I was on that night. The atmosphere of praise and worship was strong, as almost everyone rushed to the open space between the stage and the seats, and began praising and blessing the Lord, jumping and hailing His name!

The worship team were exceptionally good in bringing up ourselves to praise and worship the Lord! Just like the 5-minute session. Of course... they are themselves worship pastors and leaders. They used a few songs from their latest album "Only By Grace", including "Across The World", "My God & King", "You Reign", and "Surrender". In fact, they also borrowed some other songs like "The Stand" and "Take It All".

Matt Heins, the Senior Executive Pastor, later came up to give a sharing followed by an altar-call. He shared that the God that we worship is the God of the breakthrough, based on Luke 11:2-9. The passage was about Jesus teaching the disciples how to pray (the short version of the Lord's Prayer), followed by a parable of persistent friend requesting for bread in the middle of the night. He pointed out that, when Jesus told the parable, He emphasized that, Jesus was bringing out a situation where it is natural, logical, and factual that the man in the house would not get up in the middle of the night to help his friend; but because his friend was boldly and shamelessly persisting his request, it was granted.

He pointed out that God would grant us what we ask for if we keep on knocking, and the criteria that we need to have are boldness and shameless. (Well, that's not because God is granting unwillingly, and that's not the case where we can ask for anything, even if it is wrong.) He also emphasized that the two aread that persistent prayers would break through, which is:

1. Natural, logical, and factual barriers - that when it seems that it is natural, logical, and factual that something would not happen, God WOULD make it happen if we pray persistently, bold and shameless.

2. The volatility and unpredictibility of life

After the altar-call, the worship session was wrapped up with the same songs as mentioned above. The whole session lasted for about 2 hours, and yet it was an amazing and fantastic experience that I had.


The stage of Shammah Hall PCC, fully equipped with musical instruments


Me, Gino, Kenneth, and Andre (Clockwise from top-left)


The congregation, before concert began


Worship leader and musicians on stage


Youths praising God


Group photo with Paradise Church Senior Executive Pastor, Matt Heins
[From left] Kenneth, Ben, Sharon, Matt, Andre, Geraldine, David, Aaron

P.S. I was told by Andre that the second day of workshop was great. I missed a whole lot of it I know, but what to do... cannot just walk out of the office just like that (unless I am not working for food... lol!)

How Rude!

I posted a comment in my friend's blog post in LiveJournal, but I forgot to enter the word verification (what's that? see below).



The following is what I got:



How rude! Hahahahaha! Anyway, my bad...

Paradise Worship - Part 1

Today I attended the first day of the Paradise Church's National Worship Conference (hosted by Assemblies of God of Malaysia, held in Penang Christian Centre). I was able to apply for a half-day emergency leave, so I was only able to attend half of the conference as the sessions are spread across working hour. I attended only two sessions, or rather, workshops, which was Vocal Techniques and Keyboard Techniques. The speakers were Chloe Moldovan and Jaye Liubinskas respectively. Both are leaders of Paradise Church in Adelaide, Australia.

Chloe was very good in sharing the ways of breathing, the ways of projecting our voices at different pitches, and most importantly, in getting our mood to practice what she taught, hence bringing the workshop lively. She shared the most basic and important way of breathing, which is through our diaphragms. Also, she shared on how we position our projected sounds in our mouth, treating it as our bathrooms (bathrooms form an environment that naturally create echoes, forming a natural microphone to ourselves). To tackle higher pitched voices, we were taught to use twangs and append it to our natural voices - which is great for we learnt how to avoid falseto. Not forgetting breathing intervals being essential in buying us time to change our voices into twangs.

For Jaye, she shared on the importance of keyboards with good sound, the usage of keyboard sounds in Praise, Worship, and Alter-Call sessions. She also shared on the proper chord progressions and dynamics used in P, W, and AC. Most importantly, she also shared that a keyboardist must not be a distracting factor, and always be aware of what the worship leader is doing so as not to disturb the flow of the worship - be spiritually and physically aware of the surrounding. As a matter of fact, all these were in fact applied by Andre during Shalom meetings!! Something that I should have known - just that Jaye had put it into words for better understanding.

What I was amazed most was the 5-minute wrap-up session, where the invited session presenters from Paradise Church (led by their Senior Executive Pastor Matt Heins) lead the short worship session. As they took over the musical instruments and began playing the song "The Stand", I could feel God's strong anointing amongst the musicians, and it flowed towards and across the congregation! The 5-minute worship, though brief, was truly intense, and the manifested presence of God is so strong that I nearly burst in tears.

That was 5 minutes. I am actually very excited at the Live Concert tomorrow!

Next Time

LEE Chong Wei (MAS) lost to LIN Dan (CHN) 12-21, 8-21, in less than 30 minutes. There goes our dream of Malaysia's first ever gold medal. Nevertheless, the 12-year Olympics medal drought has ended. Word of encouragement - we Malaysians are proud of you, Chong Wei, for being the first single player to obtain a medal. Till the next round, Chong Wei... though very unlikely for he'll be in his 30's if he ever makes it to London in 2012.

P.S. Ya, I've been shooting at fed gomen people like mad, but that doesn't mean I'm not patriotic. I still love Bolehland, and I really wish we could be proud of a medal. I just hate the way the gomen people (whom I never vote for) ruin the whole country.

Tonight

Awaiting the great match tonight. LEE Chong Wei (MAS) vs LIN Dan (CHN) in Badminton Men Singles Final (Beijing Olympics 2008). If Lee wins, Malaysia will grab her first ever Olympics Gold medal.

Ganbatte, Chong Wei!!

IQ Test

Recently, I was invited by Wilson to his blog for an IQ Test. According to the originator of the test, the one who partake the test needs to have IQ score above 140 in order to get the answer correctly. Haha... tell you what, my Facebook's IQ Test application states that I have a score of 143. I was indeed able to answer it, but it took me one day! With two tries. Wilson got the answer within 2 minutes, and he said his IQ score is below 140. I guess there are a few explanations to it:

1. Wilson is lying on his IQ score.

2. Wilson did some similar test(s) before, so this one - sap sap sui la...

3. This is very true... I actually ignored part of the dialogue, the part where Q said he knew that P didn't know. Yes, I ignored it, and screwed up my first try. After getting past the understanding of the whole dialogue, then only I could solve it. Lesson: Never ever ignore the details of every IQ question - be vigilant.

In order to give credit to Wilson's blog, I would not post it again here. Go and visit his blog in the above hyperlinks.

WYD Sydney 2008

I missed a great deal of the World Youth Day (WYD) events. I did not even log in to EWTN to witness the event live. I was a poor Catholic who was oblivious of what had actually happend in Sydney. I felt bad, very bad.

However, I got to know a little bit about how God worked on the youth through Andre's sharing during SWYF meetings. According to his summary:

1. There were peace across the whole city. The police was on the alert and standby, but they were amazed that, with a million Catholic youths gathering at teh city, there were a record of low crime rates during the WYD week. Only 2 recorded incidents happened - a Catholic assaulted WYD protesters, and a seminary was broken into due to teh reason that all seminarians were out attending the WYD events.

2. Priests were hearing confessions across the streets of Sydney. People were seeking repentence and reconciliation everywhere.

3. Every event seemed like a charismatic event. People are experiencing the strong manifested presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere in Sydney. Even through the monitor screen can the presence be felt.

These testimonies did increase our faith on how God worked on the youths who, of every nation and tribe, were united under one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, under the leadership of none other than our Pope Benedict XVI. Definitely the work of God brought alive through the willing hands the faithful ones who does according to His will.
______________________________________________________

Many anti-Catholic people out there were quick at spotting things that are seemingly pleasing to them in heavily attacking the Catholic Church. One particular attack comes right on the WYD website being an OCCULT website. I happened to notice it (quite some time ago) when I posted "Receive The Power" YouTube Video. This YouTube user by the name of "whilechildrenstarve" has seemingly justified himself in using the website's CSS code to sort of "reveal" all "OCCULT" numbers within the website. You can view the YouTube video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdXbKzdwCEM

Well, I could say that the "revelation" is bullshxt. Just to begin with, the number six is NOT a Satan's number. It is a mere number created by God. You may then argue, simply by quoting the infamous Scripture verse from the movie "Damian: Omen 2", which is Revelation 13:18. The number 666 is there. Well, many people have been caught up with the reverse hence the wrong order of cause-and-effect argument. We know that everything God created is good. Numbers are created by God. Thus, there are no particular numbers that is marked as a "bad" or "occult" numbers. We all know that God created the universe in 7 days. God supposedly created everything in 6 days, but creation is not considered complete without a rest day, or a holy day (of Sabbath). With this, the Hebrews have been observing the number "7" as a number symbolizing completion or perfection. "6", being a number short of "7", symbolizes a step short of completion, or rather, incompletion or imperfection. Satan, being the fallen angel Lucifer, who always wanted to be God, can never be perfect because of his pride, hence eternal imperfection - we use "6" to symbolize Satan. See the cause-and-effect argument?

WRONG: 6 = Satan's number/Number of Satan. 6 was created for Satan, hence called Satan's number.
CORRECT: 6 was created by God, hence it is good. It is just being used to symbolize Satan for being an imperfect trying to be but can never be perfect.

Cannot accept it? Think of another way. We all know that in Genesis 3, the serpent symbolizes Satan. However, in Numbers 21, Moses was commanded by God to place a fiery serpent on a staff, so that those bitten, by looking at it, would not die. Can we say that serpent = Satan? Definitely NOT! It is just a case where Satan appearing as a talking serpent (in Genesis 3)! God created serpent not for Satan's sake. It is Satan's choice to appear as a serpent.

So many numbers that was being put up in the video, including 3, 9, 11, 13, and even the letter "F". For God's sake, every single website contains CSS code that contains "FFFFFF"! It is a 24-bit color coding for white background! Tell you what, YouTube uses white background. The video was posted into a white background. And guess what... you are attacking the so-called occultish website using a website that contains the "occultish" "FFFFFF" coding. Gotcha... Sorry pal, all websites are full of 6's and F's! 毋上网啦,笨!

Saying "3" as an occult number is a blasphemy. One true God in 3 persons - Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What say you? 毋信天主啦,笨!

Saying "11" as an occult number means that the 11 Apostles who does not sell Jesus to the Pharisees form an occult. Don't ever use font size 11, moron!

Saying "13" as an occult number means that you are demanding God to stop blessing us with sunshine and rain whenever Friday the 13th occurs. Why not just erase Friday 13th from your own calendar, moron! Btw, there were 13 people at the table of the Lord's Supper.

To a skeptic, every number is cursed. Living a life like that, a life that constantly avoiding numbers, man, is a suffering. An unnecessary suffering which was supposed to be taken away by Jesus' suffering on the cross. Rather, an unnecessary agony at things that are created by God - things that are supposed to be used to glorify God.

The video also asked to "boycott WYD08, feed starving children instead". Isn't it the same argument of the disciples when the woman anointed Jesus' head with an alabaster jar of ointment (Mark 14:3-9)? The disciples argued that the expensive ointment could be sold to get money for food for the poor, but Jesus refuted them. She had just done great work for the Lord. And, with the youth willing to give to the Lord by going to Sydney to do great work for the Lord by serving in WYD, is there not a revival happening?

And one last thing. In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised us to receive the power from the Holy Spirit. Never does the WYD theme state that we receive the power from WYD! Get your facts correct, moron!
____________________________________________

Just to recap, the testimonies shows that it is through the Goodness of God that all these things in WYD happen. It is out of God's love that He works in awesome ways. The love that only God can give. The love that Satan can never be capable of giving.

Stewardship / Longing For Jesus

Last Friday, during SWYF sharing, Andre talked about stewardship - how we Christians are appointed mere stewards of God. This is an interesting topic especially in an era of materialistic world, where we Christians tend to forget that we do NOT actually own whatever we are having now.

He began with mentioning that he is proud of himself being a Chinese, especially after watching the movie Red Cliff, which talks about loyalty, courage, and teamwork. He also mentioned that he is also proud of being a Catholic because of what Aussie people in Sydney experienced during World Youth Day - there were peace across the land, and signs of revival were observed in the land. And, all these happen because people are willing to give themselves to the church.

However, many Christians do not understand the art of giving. As observed in the local churches, many Christians concentrate in receiving or wanting to receive the blessings from God. Most of the time, we would see people holding on to what we already own, as if the very thing we own gives us comfort - sometimes we cast blame on God for failing to achieve what we seem to be rightfully ours.

This led to the sharing of a Scripture verse - Deuteronomy 10:14. It stated that "Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein." The direct meaning to the verse is simple. Everything belongs to God. No exception. Period.

So, who are we in terms of our relationship with our property? Do we really own the pocket money we earn every month/week? Do we possess our apartments? Do we really possess our own car? Deuteronomy 10:14 says all these belong to God. So, who are we? We are mere stewards. If I die tomorrow, I will leave all my 'posessions' behind - nothing will I bring even to the grave.

Fast-forward to Sunday Mass. During the Homily, a visiting priest - Fr Mark - told us a story that went like this. There was an elderly man who had a vast collection of beautiful paintings from some renowned artists. He had a son who was out in the battlefield. The son eventually died because he had saved the life of one of his comrades. Later, this soldier who was saved came to this old man's house, and out of gratitude of the old man's son having given his own life to save himself, he handed the old man a portrait of the son that he painted. The old man wept, and yet he thanked the soldier for his mindfulness. He hung his son's portrait in front of his house, and would invite his visiting friends to admire the new portrait before he allowed them to look at the rest.

Later, the old man passed away. He left a will, where it stated that all his portraits was to be auctioned. The auctioner, acting on the will, began with the auctioning of the amateur painting of the dead soldier - the old man's son. The guests were appalled at the decision, for they thought that they should not waste their time placing what was seemingly worth least to be auctioned first. The auctioner just responded that it was part of the old man's will. At last, the portrait was sold to a poor farmer sitting at the back of the hall - the farmer could only offer a small amount of money, which was apparently whatever he had. After that, the auctioner closed the auction session, and revealed to the rest of the outrageous guests that, in the old man's will, whoever takes possession of his son's portrait would inherit his entire collection of portraits.

And this is the message - the person who receives the Son, receives everything (from God).

It is amazing that, under God's providence, the talk during SWYF meeting and Mass Homily were pretty much connected! We do not own anything. Rather, we owe our stewardship of worldly material to God. However, if we long for Jesus Christ, we would receive everything from God! Rather, we would be entrusted with many things from God.

Our challenge is how are we going to use the everything that God provided. Use it for the building of the Kingdom of God, or just leave it there to rot? Multiply the gifts, or leaving it alone? Allowing the gift to benefit others, or holding on to it as if it is too precious to be let go?

The parable in Luke 16:1-12 stated clearly that the one who invest the gifts (talents) and multiply it will be entrusted with more by God. However, there is also a danger - if one is unwilling to invest the gifts and make it fruitful, God will take it away from him, and God will keep His presence from him forever (eternal separation, Hell, gnashing of teeth...).

Pseudonyms No More

I have been having problems creating funny names for my friends in my past blog posts. And I think I want to stop it, due to five reasons:

5. I want to give credits to the people that I blog about, especially those who gives great impact, positive or negative, to my life.
4. A person should be proud of his/her name, so hiding real names kinda dishonor him/her.
3. I'm lazy to think of pseudonyms.
2. I'm lazy to think of pseudonyms.
1. I'm lazy to think of pseudonyms.

Yeah... and did I mention I'm lazy? I am indeed! So, no more false names. From this blog post onwards, I will use real names. So, to my fellow brothers, sisters, friends, acquaintances out there, please let me know if you want to remain anonymous - I will continue crack my head and give funny names or just ignore you in my blog posts. :-P

3x3 Rubiks Solution

Before reading, you need to understand some notations that I use here. This notation is actually borrowed from the contents of the leaflet found in a 3x3 Rubiks Cube that I bought from Toys R'Us.

[ In addition, I have posted some pictures below, in between the steps. for easier illustration. ]

Diagram	Notation	Description
	F	Turn the front face clockwise (if you have the cube in your hands so that that face is towards you - this also applies to the turns below).
	F'	Turn the front face anti-clockwise.
	R	Turn the right face clockwise.
	R'	Turn the right face anti-clockwise.
	L	Turn the left face clockwise.
	L'	Turn the left face anti-clockwise.
	U	Turn the top face clockwise.
	U'	Turn the top face anti-clockwise.

There are 12 steps to solve a 3x3 Rubiks Cube, which are listed as follows. And mind you, one step does NOT mean one movement on the cube!


Step 1:
Make one side same color. Also, make the row nearest to the side same color.
FYI, no specific formula to this. In short, you have to think 3-D!! :-P


Step 2:
Make the center of the 4-sides same color as the row nearest to the side that you fixed in Step 1.



Step 3:
Make one of the center cell in row furthest to the side you fixed in Step 1 same color as the center in Step 2.



Step 4:
Use this formula to make the cell in Step 3 fall in place.
- U’ F’ U F U R U’ R’ (Frontside's top row center cube falling to Frontside's center row rightmost cube location)
- U R U’ R’ U’ F’ U F (Rightside's top row center cube falling to Rightside's center row leftmost cube location)

U = Upside, R = Rightside, L = Leftside, F = Frontside. With prime (‘) counter-clockwise.



Step 5:
Continue step 4 till the row that crosses the center of the 4-sides have the same color.


Step 6:
There must be an L-shape with same color on the Upside. Orientate the L so that the edges of L is pointing Leftside and Backside.
- If there is no L, but an “I”, skip steps 6 and 7. The “I” must be horizontal and pass through the center of the Topside.
- If there is 4 L’s (a cross), skip steps 6-8.
- If there is no L, nor “I”, nor cross, add one additional step 7 to form an L or a “I”.



Step 7:
Use this formula to make a horizontal “I” that passes through the center of the Topside.
- F R U R’ U’ F’



Step 8:
Use the same formula in step 7 to make 4 L’s (a cross).



Step 9:
Make one leg of the cross match its side. Then, use this formula to rotate the other 3 to make the 4 legs of the cross match their sides.
- R U R’ U R U U R’ (counter-clockwise)
- R U U R’ U’ R U’ R’ (clockwise)
- Tip: 2 counter-clockwise = 1 clockwise



Step 10:
Find one corner where the 3 sides of corners have same color with their corresponding sides. If all corners are found to match, skip step 11.



Step 11:
Orientate the corner in step 10 so that it is on your top-right-front. Rotate the other 3 corners to make them match by using the formula:
- U R U’ L’ U R’ U’ L (counter-clockwise)
- L’ U R U’ L U R’ U’ (clockwise)
- Tip: 2 counter-clockwise = 1 clockwise



Step 12:
Use the following to rotate 2 corners at the same time.
The 2 corners must be on your top-right, one front, one back
- L U L’ U L U U L’ R’ U’ R U’ R’ U’ U’ R (front clockwise, back counter-clockwise)
- R’ U U R U R’ U R L U’ U’ L’ U’ L U’ L’ (front counter-clockwise, back clockwise)



P.S. I was caught in action solving the 3x3 cube. :-P

Unbelievable I's

I was working halfway on one fine Friday (yesterday lar), when my colleague sent me a hyperlink to one of TheStar news, which stated that MIMOS will be launching the Bolehland's basement priced laptop and PC, named i-Dola and Jean-i respectively. I read and re-read the news, and ended up having stomach muscle cramp laughing!

For those lazy to click, let me quote the news here. I hope I won't get charged for copyright, the website is FREE anyway!!

--Quote--

LUSAKA (Zambia): Three months from now, Malaysians will be able to buy the i-Dola laptop and Jean-i personal computer (PC) at basement prices.

Mimos is now ready to licence the production of the Malaysian computer codenamed Mak Cik, which it took two years to develop. The laptop and PC are named after the Prime Minister and his wife.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said the laptop would cost RM1,000, and the PC RM500.

“I have tested the computers and am happy with their performance,” said Dr Ongkili, who was here to attend the Global Southern Africa International Dialogue.

“They are wireless, Internet-based designs and need not be connected to fixed lines. To reduce costs, they do not have hard discs. You use a thumb drive instead.”

It is understood that the i-Dola and Jean-i will be as fast as computers using Intel Pentium 4 processors.

Dr Ongkili said that the King and Queen have already been presented with a pair of i-Dola laptops, which were previewed at the WCIT in Kuala Lumpur recently.

He added that several manufacturers were keen to make the computers, and were targeting selling about a million of them.

“The computers require broadband access and I have told the relevant bodies to speed up the roll-out of broadband coverage,” Dr Ongkili said.

He said the computers are targeted at students, businesses and housewives.

He revealed that Zambia and five other African nations have expressed interest in making the computer. In Zambia, laptops cost as much as US$3,000 (RM9,600).

--Unquote--

Here, I just want to talk about the thumb drive thing. Since there are many blog posts 'hantaming' the notion on some other aspects, I won't be embarking on their same aspects of other bloggers in due respect. Let me elaborate how stupid is the thumb drive idea. The next four paragraphs would be an elaboration on my 4-fold points of the stupidity of the above idea.

I am working in a semiconductor company - although the product I am working on is not of Flash technology, I know a bit here and there from my other fellow colleagues on how a Flash write-read operates. Also, I had obtained a Certificate degree in a computer systems and programming course when I was in my high school, so I can still remember how fast a RAM, magnetic storage devices and EEPROM/Flash can store data. From what I learnt, Flash is super slow as compared to magnetic storage device. Which means, thumb drive is a snail as compared to a HDD. If you don't believe me, try copying a video, say 20MB of size from a your HDD to a thumb drive, and then copying the same video from your HDD back to your HDD. See which one is faster!!

Also, a HDD in a system (PC or laptop) uses the IDE transmission cable (or rather, ATA cable if you feel that the term S-ATA is more familiar). An IDE cable is made of 40 parallel cables. So, naturally I would assume that the IDE transmission bus would consist of >1 data lines... which means 8 at least, perhaps 16 or 32. I know, I should have done more research on this before I compose, but I just want to make a quick comparison. Meanwhile, a USB (short for Universal Serial Bus) is a 4-connection bus. And guess how many data lines are there? Make a wild guess. See, it is named serial for a purpose - all data is serialized. So, the answer is one. One data line. So, in comparison, IDE is faster than USB.

Third, we are talking about a gigabyte or even terabyte storage device. In current market, it is easy to find a 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB thumb drives. 16GB is rare, yet it is possible that we start to hear people talking about it in near future. On the other hand, HDD capacity ranges from 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, 250GB, or even 750GB. Well, it sounds like in terms of capacity, thumb drive is out of the question. However, people do use thumb drive for two reasons - portability and convenience. If you want to store a PDF, or even a couple of folders of audio files, you would choose a thumb drive rather than a black box of mounted magnetic disks. On the other hand, if you want to install a software or game, say Warcraft III - do you use a 16GB thumb drive? No... You would no doubt install it in your C drive (HDD lar).

Lastly, price comparison. Just a quick assumption on local computer market (no research done). An 8GB thumb drive would cost, say, RM80. A 250GB HDD would cost, say, RM250. Well, these figures appear reasonable at this point of time, right? No? C'mon, just a few bucks difference. Now, let's do a simple calculation. RM80/8GB thumb drive, so, RM10/GB for a thumb drive. RM250/250GB HDD, so, RM1/GB for a HDD. Wow!!! See what I got? The storage of a thumb drive is relatively 10x more expensive than that of a HDD!!! Why? Simple - thumb drive storage is made of Flash, which is a semiconductor (you know, p-doped and n-doped silicon); while HDD is made of magnetic disks, which requires the technology of magnetic coating, and magnetic head reader. The latter technology is, no doubt, cheaper to-date.

And now what - the i-Dola and Jean-i are not using HDD, and instead we use thumb drive (Flash). Imagine, having our Operating System and all other necessary software in a Flash!! The system takes forever to boot up man!!! Also, do you really think that a Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 could fit into a 16GB thumb drive? Yes, in Dreamland, perhaps. Or, perhaps students, businesses, and housewives, which comprises of the market, would be advised to only use MSDOS and WordPerfect - oh my... you are asking people to time-travel back to 20 years ago!!! Sorry, doc, you are 20 years behind time!!! No wonder the code name Mak Cik (means auntie) came out.

And, what a bullshxt to say that thumb drive is used in order to save cost. Read above once again and find out yourself!

I don't want to talk about the Intel Pentium 4 microprocessor. Okay la, talk a bit. People are now talking about Intel Core 2 Duo, moron. And you are still comparing with Pentium 4. What la...

What a disgrace to our 'beloved' PM and First Lady, by naming a cheap and lame system after them! And what a dishonor to our late First Lady, as if those who are dead should be forgotten!!!

And oh, I forgot that I did mention that, to some Bolehlanders, Bolehland is Dreamland. Anyway, sorry la brader, this is not Dreamland. So wake up! As an ultimatum, I will not buy i-Dola or Jean-i. Try imposing difficulties in sales of ASUS, HP, Compaq, Dell and Acer - Malaysians will end up hogging Sim Lim Square!

Some other blog links:
http://www.chanlilian.net/2008/08/01/siapa-nak-beli-komputer-i-dola-dan-jean-i/
http://cry4freedom.fm/blog/2008/08/01/i-dola-and-jean-i/
http://mrbadak.com/2008/08/01/mimos-to-produce-cheap-computers/