Merry Christmas y'all

I thought this year's Christmas was pretty much just a festive and holiday season that everyone enjoyed without giving much thought to the deeper and true meaning of Christmas. This was reflected in various ways. In Prime Minister Najib's Christmas speech, he mentioned that Christmas is a time of spreading goodwill and cheer and that Malaysians must understand each other better. Exactly how is that reflective of the birth of Christ I'm not sure. A friend even commented a few times, "Sigh I dont really feel very Christmas-sy.." to which I did not reply. In my mind, it's not about us feeling christmassy, about eating the right western meal to suit the occasion, it's not about the new remix of "All I want for Christmas is You" by Justin Bieber...

It's like hey, wait a minute, I think we all are forgetting something here. Christmas is about when Christ was born and hope was born to this world, and it's about how we can find new life, restoration and healing all in Jesus.

I think the world has commercialised Christmas to the point where everything around us seems to calling out to us to divert our attention from the true meaning of Christmas. So much noise to silent the truth. Take Santa Clause. Funny how the Bible didn't mention Santa in it, yet when we think of Christmas, we think of Santa. Kids - especially Western kids- are lied to about how Santa comes down from the chimney, knows that you've been good (stalker much).. how he exists. Also, take the word "Christmas". Isn't Christmas supposed to be about CHRIST(mas)? Yet we've replaced CHRIST with "X". Merry X'mas? Why? Are 3 letters more such burden compared to what God has done for us?

I think that it is time to put a halt to all the partying to reflect on what's true this Christmas. Merry Christmas people!

Kawan dan keluarga.

One thing that constantly keeps me going is the people around me.

Time and again, they've been there for me. When they were at their down moments, I was there for them. But I didn't expect anything in return honestly. But I see the effects of it. Because for once when I needed my friends around me, they are here. All around me.

I thank God that I am so blessed with many friends and family that surround me constantly, painting my life with beautiful colours just being there and being true.


On another note, I anticipate next year to be an exciting and interesting year. I'm gonna be starting my first real job, in the busy city of KL. ( : Can't wait to be called 9 months later, but i want to enjoy this ride too. ( :

Dont mind me, I'm just rambling

If you were given a million dollars today, how would you spend it? Would you know how to spend it? Would you immediately sit down and list down a things that you want to do with the money? Half for the poor, quarter for mom and dad, and well, the rest to splurge of course!

I cant say that all of us would be good stewards of money if given such a large sum in a single moment. Heck, I cant even use my time properly, what more money!

TIME.

Gone in a fleeting moment. Either leaving you with regrets or contentment. Given so much of it this year, I only wished money were attached to time.

Sigh. The two come hand in hand dont they? If you have money but no time to spend it, it's pointless. If you have got time but no money, you can't do anything as well, unless you work (or live of your parents).

Friends

Sometimes, when I smile or laugh, it does not mean that I am okay. So it ticks me off when friends think they can treat me like I have no feelings.

Anyway let's not spoil my blog with upsetting stories! (:

Got a few pictures to post my beloved iPhoto library! (: Mostly from UK/ Europe.


This was beautiful Hyde Park, Leeds sometime in March when winter was ending (or ended lol) and the flowers blooming.




Disney Land, Paris during the Easter holidays.




Montague Burton, the placed that I lived in, all covered in snow during winter.

That's all folks (plural, because I like to believe there is more than ONE person reading my blog :D)

Carpe Diem

This was taken in quaint York. (p/s by now you would have worked out that I am gonna post irrelevant pictures just because I think I have many beautiful pictures that deserved to be showcased rather than collecting dust in my iPhoto)

Everyday it really takes something of me to really just get myself to move and make the day productive, but I know I gotta do it. Seize the day, as they say. So I'm happy that I managed to clean up my room today, oh the dust and filth when you leave things there for ages! Threw away two big bags of things.

On another note, last night I stayed up reading about how the Euro currency is facing challenges that some anticipate it as being the next major thing that will fall (comparing it with what we saw happened to US a few years back). Could it be? The article talked about how this would affect the USD as well. I wonder how this would affect us. Can this be near the end?

Wow such deep questions. :/ I really ought to be sleeping now.

It is darkest before dawn

This was happy me last year, in Perlis. (So irrelevant right the picture?)


I've decided to blog as often as I can during this period of time to keep myself sane and healthy. When I pen down my thoughts, at least I am keeping myself accountable of things I do everyday in order not to waste the air that I breath in everyday. (I did not just say that out loud, did I?)

So today I kept myself busy with doing a lil bit of cleaning up at the porch outside, and then went off to the Bathroom Gallery to get some stuff for the toilet with mom, and then we headed to Giant to buy groceries as dinner at night will be cooked by mua. I decided to make pasta, seeing as I have been cooking Chinese dishes for two days. Olive oil based spaghetti, campur a bit a beef bacon and mushroom. OH YA, sorry of my life today, I discovered that Giant doesn't sell pork bacon?! Worse still, when i ask the people there where I can bacon, they dont even know what it is. -_-' Macam mana lah, Malaysia? Nak maju kah tak?

On another note, I read something quite interesting today. It was the testimony of Os Hillman (http://www.intheworkplace.com/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=25957&columnid=1935). This man had had a really successful business and at the peak of it, he lost it all. Business AND marriage. And a man told him that this situation was really common, and they even have a name for it! - "The Joseph Calling". If you haven't read the Bible, Joseph was a man who was really kesian in the first half of his life. He was his dad's youngest and 'favouritest' son, and so his other brothers really despised him. They eventually sold him to some merchants, and lied to their dad that Joseph had died. That was not the end of Joseph though. The merchants sold him to Potiphar, the Pharoah's guard captain. As though that all wasn't enough, he was falsely accused of sleeping with Potiphar's wife, and eventually landed in prison. After the series of unfortunate event, one night Pharoah had a dream and he sent for Joseph to interpret them, since he has heard that Joseph's God could reveal such things. In the end, he became Pharoah's second in command and saved the whole the land from a severe famine.

Wow that story was long. But if you read Os Hillman's testimony, his life then turns around. Thus, 'Joseph Calling' is supposed to explain darkness before the dawn in our lives.

I dont know about my life. I sure had my share of downs. Is this all geared up to the dawn in my life?

Bumming is a full-time job

So if you haven't already heard, I have been given about 3 weeks of total freedom to do whatever I want. Most people I know will jump at the chance to be able to be so free. "Go for a holiday!", they say. "Go shopping!", I say. But really though, all these wonderful bumming activities requires just something - money.

So here I am. Sitting at home, planning out what I should do during the next few weeks. And it is just as though someone has just hit me on my head when I realised hey, I don't really know what to do with free time. I could go looking for an office job but that just takes too much effort- what with all the interviews and stuff. Did I hear you say "lazy"? You are just about right. Sorry but I am not exactly the kind of person who would apply to 10 places to get one job. I target where I really want to go and then go for it.

Another thing at the back of my mind is to climb Mount Kinabalu, what with all the time I have now. But I had no prior planning. It usually requires about 3-6 months of booking. Plus, I have no friend who will go with me at this time of the year.

This year has really opened up my eyes to see what kind of a person I really am. The answer is this: I don't know. I have so many dreams and things I want to achieve, but they are all scattered. And I don't know where to start.

Maybe at the back of my mind, I think that opportunity always comes looking for me, and not the other way round. Wow, now I do sound really lazy, don't I?

There's always the glam + fun dream to be involve in musicals - composing music: something I had a chance of getting my hands into when I was involved in church musical productions. With completely no experience of writing music, they roped me in to be in the composing team. I think my love for musicals started there, and I think this will always be something that I will be passionate about. The creative side of me.

Then there's this part of me that wants to be a writer, a columnist of some sort of magazine or newspaper. I have always believed in the power of words. Words allow a message to be sent across, it inevitably allows people to be influenced and subconsciously connects the reader to the mind of the writer and helps the reader to shape his view accordingly. Yes, words are that powerful. If you don't believe me, just read an article on something interesting (or not). At the end of that article, you will have most likely to believe whatever the writer says, or you may think that whatever that was written was utter rubbish, OR you may think that in some parts the writer was right but not in others. In just that few minutes of reading, the writer would have changed your perspective on life. See how true is it? That's why I want to be part of this, part of this group that challenges people towards positivity.



As you can see, my thoughts really are scattered. A variety of things that I want to do, but somehow, I need the push.