5th Anniversary

As the church celebrates the 5th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, I pause to think... has it been 5 years? Wow... I remember watching the entire new pope election process on TV totally captivated.

Issues remain, paedophiles priests in our midst and such. I pray that we all guard against evilness, darkness. The church of God will prevail, there is no doubt, we need to watch each and every heart. It begins with the first step for everyone.

I know what my first steps are, I just wish I can do it! Endure Felicia!

The things over and beyond...

Just because I tend to ignore the mysteries in life/unexplained/strange stuff, like how do the huge status get to where they are on Easter Island, or how were the Pyramids built etc... Does it mean they don't exist?

Because of my firm belief in my soverign Lord and God who reigns over everything on and above earth, I'm usually annoyed to talk about other gods/alien beings.. whatever. I find the lack of respect to my God very hard to stomach.

BUT...

If you think about it, it does not mean it does not exist...

Hmmm...

I think I sleep too little and play too much BubbleTown late into the nights.

Good nite.

Weekends in the mountains...

I spent the last 2 weekends in the mountains...

First it was Alishan for fireflies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157623722672971/

Then Hualien, where we tackled 2 trails very breathtaking views
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157623758252739/

The first trip was relatively easy - almost no walking except for a 1-hr hike that turned out to be a 3-hr strenous walk within a thick bamboo forest so green and lush that I felt like a panda taking a walk. And it prepared us for the next trip which was 11k of steep ups and downs day 1 and 28k on day 2 that cost us a long time to complete.

Excellent views and absolutely fantastic companionship. Kudos to the organizers.

Now I need to recover - both in terms of work/emails and also in terms of my aged legs.

Plus my uncle is in town and I've been neglecting him.

So who says lizards are good climbers?

At the rock gym on Wednesday, there was a helpless gecko/house lizard running helter-skelter all over the floor in search of cover.

Obviously it has fallen from the rock wall - methinks the roof... (because Honda was there and yelling at something).

In short, it was a lousy climber. I would grade it a 5a free-solo. It's saving grace is that it's got very pretty tiger like stripes on its body. Kinda creepy, was too scared to go closer for a better shot.

Made belayers a little apprehensive all night, we'll belay, then nervously look around our feet.

Happy Maundy Thursday

And into the final triduum.

Tonight over mass, Father washed the feet of 12 people (men symbolising the 12 disciples). Technically he only washed 1 foot each to save time :)

Father Cary is an awesome preacher, he is very technical plus a dry wit, so his sermons are really good. Part of what makes him good is that he is very particular about details - things have to be done right.

Knowing this and knowing him, I didn't dare step forward to snap this picture. I think it is ok, I should think it is ok, but you never know... I took it from my seat :)

St Rita of Cascia

As part of my lenten preparation, I attend mass/stations of the cross Friday nights.

The good folks at St Bosco are screening movies on the life of the saints after stations of the cross. I got to learn about St Rita. She lies incorrupt, ie her body is still intact and on on display in a glass case in the Basilica of St. Rita in Cascia, Italy even though she died in 1457.

By today's standards, the movie moves at a slow pace and has a lot of war/killing scenes/death scenes. There were many times I wanted to just go home :)

Why am I talking about St Rita in my blog? Because
- she persisted in an atmosphere of violence/warring. Her husband was a knight, ie he went around killing people.
- she used love to win people around her back to God.
- she never gave up, even in the face of impossible circumstances
- she trusted God and stayed in constant communication, ie she kept praying.

Alamak, sounds like what my mom always says to me, you must pray you know, prayers are very important...

Happy Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday everyone! Now we're into the last lap of Lent - Holy Week.

At St Bosco, we start Palm Sunday by assembling outside the church, or so I guess : because I was 10mins late and made it just as everyone was walking into chuch. As I entered church, someone handed me a palm. Perfect timing.

After mass, we had a short briefing by Father Cary, while waiting for him, I casually waved my palm in the air, turned to my fellow-lectors and asked - so what are we supposed to do with our palms? All these cradle catholics start to mutter : my mom puts it over a window/door, stick it on the wall...

I know it's significance, in fact, I explained it to the guys in the climbing gym when I went over, still holding my palm. But really, I still don't know what to do with it! So I left it in the vase of pussy-willows. At least it's blessed - it'll do its thing there.

The gym was empty - as it usually is on Sundays... see all the ropes hanging there forlorn.

So I got busy climbing and earned my first flapper in a realllly long time! I can't believe my eyes when I felt pain washing my hands after. Ow ow... Note the almost blister on the next finger as well. Clearly the weeks after leaving my hardcore friends behind in Singapore has taken its toil - got nice soft tender skin now :)
Almost the end of the weekend, I had dinner with Vincent at Justin Quek's bistro - Just In Bistro. You know, the Justin Quek of Les Amis. He moved to Taipei and has 3 restaurants now - the bistro is newly opened and the most affordable. The food, to my surprise, was not great. It was good, but nothing extraordinary. Not sure I'll return.

Wine & conference call... perfect!

As with all Monday evenings, we have the regular MMM conf call with our Houston counterparts.

Except, Luca, Elmo and myself decided to grab a nice dinner together. Luca as usual, suggests his favorite Italian restaurants, but Emily wanted to try something new. So we went to Bocco, a Spanish tapas place.

Luca brought along this Brit guy who works from some organization in HP which I do not quite understand. Nontheless, Luca said he'll pick up dinner tab, so we just need to play along. Ok.. free dinners are nice :)

So Emily and I swung by in a taxi and picked them up, headed over to the restaurant.

It was a great night, the Brit guy - Ivan, had a wicked sense of humour + his British accent, he had us in stiches all night! We had 2 bottles of wine, excellent stuff that the guys chose. I drank a small portion and was flush and happy by the time we left, rushed home to be 10mins late for the call. And food was good too.

Thanks guy, for making Monday night a great night for once.

Taipei Freeway Marathon 2010

Always a first time,

First time I...
- ran in a sandstorm
- ran against a 16knots headwind for half the race
- ran with an arsenal of a total 8km of training mileage
- ran a personal worst time of 2.49 from my watch (boo hoo, turning 40 this year has implications)
- saw Kenyan runners run with pain on their faces against the headwind. Made me feel that I am not all that crappy afterall!

Here's the article from Yahoo -

AFP/Chinese Taipei Road Running Assoc. Sun Mar 21, 6:43 am ET
TAIPEI (AFP) – Kenyan runners defied a severe sandstorm to win both the men's and women's titles in the Taipei Express Marathon Sunday, organisers said.

Henry Cherono crossed the line in two hours, 24 minutes and seven seconds, ahead of Taiwan's Chiang Chieh-wen, who clocked 2:27:37.

Cherono's compatriot Evelyne Kimuria won the women's title in 2:53:06.

Cherono's time was slower than his personal best of 2:12:11 and the Taipei Express's record of 2:16:41, set in 2005 by his compatriot David Kariuki.

Cherono said his run was hampered by strong winds that covered northern Taiwan in clouds of yellow dust, according to a statement released by the Chinese Taipei Road Running Association.

More than 1,500 people competed in the 42.2 kilometres (26.2 miles) event, while nearly 7,500 others took part in the half-marathon and other events.

Woo hoo!

On hindsight, I think I didn't run a 21k all 2009 (not sure), so this race felt good. Managed to get home, shower and make 10.30am morning mass (early too!). I am satisfied.

Wandering and wondering...

Yeah, I'm still on the same theme. Wandering and tired of doing so. Essentially, I want a new job, want out of Taiwan. But my efforts at finding a new job have met with zero success inspite of my valiant efforts. And prayers gone unanswered. A difficult time indeed. Last night, I went to mass - it was the feast of St Joseph. I was reading again at mass - prayers of the faithful, not Scripture.

I knew St Joseph as the patron saint for the worker. And was thinking, perfect, perhaps he will help my cause. You know, go whisper in Jesus' ear for me to get a new job or something. Guess what the sermon was... (yeah Fr Cary was preaching last night, I love his sermons). The theme was divinity of obscurity. St Joseph is literally obscure - no teaching, no wise words, even nothing much on him in the bible. The sermon was basically that you carried on, kept the faith, even if it makes you totally obscure, you keep going, doing the right thing.

Sigh... Alright alright. I'll endure.

Oh, BTW, on a brighter note. I got published. Straits Times forum page. My 2nd letter. Well, I've only written twice, come to think of it and, both times got published. Straits Times is really careful, they actually called me to verify that I was indeed the author.

Younger brother sent me a text message Saturday morning to say I am famous. I love family - they get impressed over very little.

What an honour...

So I'm a lector at mass this year.

I figured how hard is it to read the scripture readings, right? We all can read :) Well, if you want to do a good job, it involves a little more than ability to read. I'm still yo-yoing between reading too loud/energetically into the mike (too much!) and reading too fast (my usual nervous self).

Just checked emails and saw I'm scheduled for 2nd reading on Good Friday. What an honour! Thank you Lord, on the feast of your most holy salvavic act of dying for us all.

Eating in a A380?

This weekend, we ate in a A380. It's a themed restaurant that Vincent suggested.

Interesting, where the waiter/waitresses greet you with a "welcome onboard!". And they were all dressed in stewardess like uniform, wheeled drinks in a trolley ala being in the air.

Food was passable, but overall quite a novelty.

When we stepped in, I asked for business class seats and the captain stared blankly at me, then he stammered out a 'we're all 1 class of seating here'. No sense of humour.

After dinner we walked over to the nearby dessert place that I really like - 台一牛奶大王. I got to stop ordering the same thing and try something different next time!

Oh and yeah, I did start running. Ran a total of 8km over 2 days - Sat & Sun. Hopefully that's enough training for my lungs. Hope I don't die over the half marathon this Sunday.

I am COLD!

This winter has been mild due to the El Nino effect, plus I had gone back to sunny Singapore for Christmas into the New year and again for Chinese New year when it was the coldest.

So the worst I endured was probably low teens celsius.

It's mid March and probably the last (i hope!) cold snap hit us and the thermometers dip to 7 degrees celsius in Taipei and I froze!

So glad I bought an electric blanket and so wanted to sleep with it switched on thru the night! (not good advice due to fire concerns). Last 2 nights, I actually fell asleep with the blanket still on, couldn't bring myself to switch it off, but I woke again sometime in the night to flick it off before falling back asleep.

Today the sun is back out, a beautiful cloudless day, a nice 20degrees. Ahh...

Mid-lenten reminder

Great reminder!

Mk 12:28
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Lent this year

Somehow Lent crept up on me. Partly because it started while still chinese new year and while I was still back in Singapore.

After returning to Taipei and settling down (I had a lot of work to clear plus Aunty May and Adolfo both came to Taipei), half of Lent has gone me by.

It was sometime last week that I was moaning via MSN to Zi about how God doesn't answer prayers no more... Afterall, He's been ignoring my earnest prayers for years! And the kid in all her 24 years of wisdom says 'aiyah, you need to wander in the desert'. I had forgotten that Lent was modeled upon Jesus' 40 days of wandering in the desert, and of cos, the key message is to refocus, repent and turn back to God.

Zi isn't even catholic!

So yes God, I hear you thru Zi. I will wander and repent, return to God. Just that I feel I've wandered until I'm dusty... *whine* Yet, I will obey, repent and return to God *mumbles to self*

Chinese New Year Holidays

I wished I had booked a longer trip back. It just felt so rushed. Good thing was, I got to enjoy Michelle & Ian's new place longer. Played with Kino more too - he's cute.


Being back with family always feels good. Nibbling on the 'minimal pineapple' pineapple tarts (thankfully I didn't have to be around to help out), dozing in the tropical heat, well perhaps not quite the heat.


Then there was the annual climb trip to KL. This time we did a longer trip, from Thu to Sun and managed to hit 2 climbing gyms : Camp 5 & the new Putra gym. Climbing, it was excellent as both gyms were designed/built/operated by Blocx and these guys are really good. Truly world class climbing. Suffice to say, it was very satisfying, climbing wise. I wished things were smoother in all aspects.

And before I knew it, I am back in Taipei, back to work. Back to being lazy, the weather this weekend was unbelievably beautiful, sunny yet cool 25degrees and couldn't make myself go out for a run. Sigh... Oh well, as I've told everyone, my diet starts in March, and it ain't March til tomorrow. I need to eat a steak now, excuse me...

Thoughts about home

In the 2-ish years that I've been out of Singapore, I've had to experience the recent transformations of the land of my birthplace.

The most obvious being the people of Singapore. We've gone back to our immigrant roots!
Our malls/stores are now mostly Filippino service staff.
India nationals are in our offices.
China nationals are everywhere else, from our hawker center stalls to petrol kiosks.
Even my church has turned Indonesian - both pastors and church members!

The positives of this transformation are visible: higher service levels with a smile, a genuine diversity and a thumb's up that our multi-ethnic/multi-language society is a success.

Economically, we now have 3 new gleaming malls in Orchard, casinos about ready to open and an optimism in the air that is undeniable.

To the new Singapore, gong xi fa cai! And please do not change too much...

Craziness...

Craziness is

Work. With folks here from Houston, our executive VP Todd visiting Taipei, plus endless meetings, I was working my butts off! Plus we needed to entertain the Houston team. That means eating lunches/dinners - such a waste of time! I was returning to work after dinner. Talk about sad.

Saturday.
I went out to BBQ dinner with the folks from work Friday night, got home late, started working on my weekly report and sent that out 4am Saturday! Slept till noon and then our year end party. Part 2, KTV after the dinner. Houston folks refuse to sing, we had to keep singing...

Sunday.
Now, I was beat. Sitting at mass, I felt like something the cat dragged in, probably looked it too. BUT, I was early at mass and a lector was missing (his wife gave birth Saturday). I was asked to stand in, sure I was game, except I looked a mess. Other lector didn't care, she hissed, come now!

Went to rock gym after mass, had to force my sorry ass up the wall. So tired. I didn't think I would be up to dinner, but I ate a whole hamburger - Bravo Burger was pretty darn good. And chatting with Garin/Vinny did put me in a better mood, enough to want dessert before going home to bed. http://blog.yam.com/EPaddiction/article/17199746

What a week.

Back in Taipei

The past few weeks have been pretty unsettling work-wise. Hopes dashed, plans on hold... I'm unsure what I want myself, not to mention surrendering it all to the good Lord. Guess all I can do is keep moving forward and hope in Him.

I did however, have a high moment last night. I called my mom, and she said she missed me. Hmmm... that is probably the first time in my life (perhaps she did say words to the same effect when I was away in school in Oz, but it's been so long I forget). Nontheless, I was impressed. The mother-daughter relationship has indeed come a long ways.

Yesterday's sermon by the Italian priest (I didn't get his name) was pretty interesting. From the Gospel on Jesus' first public miracle of converting water to wine at the wedding, key takeaway - sometimes our prayer should be "do whatever Jesus commands us to", even if you don't know what that is, trust.

I hate my job

I have tons of emails, it's only been 4 days of work in the new year! I can't clear the emails at the rate it is flooding my inbox. On top of my current platforms, I have been given a new platform. Highly visible, everyone wants a piece of it, hence of me. I am swamped and increasingly unmotivated as the hours tick by. No increment, no pay rise, no recognition for the hard work I put in last year...

Something has to give...

First day at work in 2010

Work felt like the last few days of 2009. Hmm... I guess no real difference in years, it just flows one into another anyways.

Sigh...

Same old, same old.

While I am holding out for some good news to happen, let's dance to this song. Was listening to my iPOD on the 4 hour flight home on Jetstar and suddenly I love this old but fantastic song.

Enjoy, try not to dance to it if you are listening to this in the office :)

On 2009... and 2010

I should be happier this time of year - usually I am. But this year around, a couple of issues weigh heavy, and I just can't shake it off.

The church teaches that I should do these 3 as year end reflection :
1. give thanks for all the blessings you've had this year
2. say sorry for all the wrongs you've done
3. how else can you provide more, give of more.

So here goes.

Blessings of the year
- travel. I got to do quite a few interesting trips this year : from Jade mountain to diving Palua (twice!), got to see a lot more of Taiwan (from Tainan to far flung islands of Jinmen and Lanyu), the Angkor Wats are just fantastic.
- family. It's heartwarming especially now that my mom is much nicer to me, my brothers are fantastic and Michelle pokes me on FB daily (I love her!)
- work. I should be grateful that job wise, there is much less pressure compared to what I've endured.
- people. It's been an awfully lonely year. I wished there was more I could say in this department, especially with regards to marriage. Sigh. But still for few who stuck around, thank you all.

Wrongs
1. I feel my greatest weakness is people. Re-reading my last year's new year resolutions, I realize I did not make much headway on my relationships with people. Often my arrogance, being so full of myself, I tend to act and then regret. For those whom I have not been nice to, my heartfelt apologies.

2. Discipline. This has totally gone to the dogs.

Looking into 2010, guess the work is pretty much cut out for me. Pretty much the same as my 2009 resolutions, it will remain simplistically 2-fold :
1. love as Jesus commanded us to
2. discipline, discipline, discipline.

And to everyone out there reading this, I wish you a much joy filled christmas and a kicking start to 2010 full of hope!

Third Sunday of Advent - Joy and Gladness

From Sunday's excellent sermon from Fr Cary at the St John Bosco's, Taipei.

Joy is
1. fruit of the Holy Spirit
2. not a passing enthusiasm, it is a gift!
3. endures trial of time. Even in times of suffering, pain and difficulty.
4. generous and contagious. If you are stingy, then your joy is in material things.
5. filled with Hope.
6. filled with thanksgiving. A joyful person is thankful.
7. knowing that one is filled with God's graces. Not a fleeting thing, nor linked to material things, but a grace received from God.

So,
- ask yourself, do I have joy in my heart?
- this Sunday is an invitation to wait joyfully for the Saviour who is coming to save us.
- what do you need to let go/set free to be joyful? Because we are all entitled to joyful lives.

Mendling in other people's affairs..

I hate this.

Almost a year ago, I received a call from a colleague's wife. I was in the gym and naked and reaching for clean clothes in the locker room when I got a phone call. It was long distance. She was distraught and claimed her husband had an affair. My first instinct, woman to woman, plus I was vulnerably naked at that moment, was to reach out to her. Weeks later and many loooong conversations with her, it all started to get really confusing. I realised much belatedly that I should not have gotten involved. And very politely walked away, explaining to her that she should really fix her marriage herself.

The whole business took a lot out of me. I wanted to help, but I realized I may have made things worse. And while I regret, I'm not sure if standing aloof in the first place was the kindness thing to do. My biggest learning at that time was to not meddle in someone's else's marriage. That while I can be a friend, I am not a part of the solution.

Sunday evening I found out that my friend/colleague's boyfriend is someone else's boyfriend as well. Again, I was dismayed, sickened to the core. She was in a relationship that was yo-yo-ing so bad. Some days she was flying on top of the world, some days she would be upset/angry at work. Now he is also in a relationship with a fellow diver? Wtf...

Monday at work she was again not in good mood. He had gone AWOL, again, all night. I tried to gently hint that perhaps he is not ideal for her. Tuesday, she was happy again, they had made up that night. I had wrestled the knowledge and decided she should know the truth. I didn't want to meddle, but she must at the very least know the truth.

Did I do wrong? Should I have kept the knowledge? I didn't want her hurt. Just as I didn't want to see my colleague's wife hurt at first.

One of these days I will learn to keep my big mouth shut, regardless.

Of sharks and turtles

I was a little sick just before leaving for Palau. And there was a passing typhoon, so conditions were not exactly ideal.

Nontheless, it went well. Visibility wasn't as good as my first trip, but I still had a great time.

Every dive, we saw sharks and turtles freely swimming by us. On day 2, manta ray! Visibility was terrible, but we were so happy to see the manta! Even though I couldn't justiably take a good shot of it.

More pictures on my Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622832887735/

Excellent sermon at Mass

Father Gary gives pretty good sermons. I've taken to bring a small little book to write down his sermons.

Yesterday, 2nd week of Advent, the message was
1. Prepare the way of the Lord
2. Imminent 2nd coming of Christ, the Parousia.
3. Prepare yourself, remove all obstacles.

Those left behind from the Parousia are promised these 3 things
- Salom : prosperity and world peace
- no more unfairness : true justice and equality
- unfailing affection & friendship : no more quarrels, betrayals

Reflections for Advent
1. What are your obstacles? That prevent Jesus from entering your heart?
2. What are your sins - making the road to salvation rough and difficult?
3. What are the crooked ways in my life that needs to be straightened?

Last 5th Sunday of the year

I woke up late this Sunday, it was terrible since I was due to be installed (as in prayed over formally) during Sunday mass! 10.30am mass and I opened my eyes and my alarm clock read 10.30am!!

I got dressed in 10mins and was in church at 11am, just in time for the Eucharist part of mass..

That's when I realised, we're into first week of Advent. Yay!

Someone at work had given me tickets to an exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum by Cai Guoqiang. Pretty interesting and definitely better quality than the mock art pretentious stuff previously there. But whoa, the guy's violent. And I found it hard to stomach since mass was all about love, peace and joy in Advent.

Went home for a nap before a Chilli's dinner with Garin and Vinny.

Happy Advent to everyone!

Ecclesiastes
Chapter 3:1 to 8
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Palau - here I come!

My 2nd trip to Palau!

This time I have camera!

Can't wait for a break from the depression at work. My supervisor told me that I won't be getting a pay increment nor any bonus and this has affected my motivation at work bad.

Can I please get a good night's sleep?

Saturday night I couldn't sleep well cos my ab muscles were killing me...

Sunday night I was woken up by what I thought was an earthquake - had to confirm later with a co-worker that I didn't just dreamed it. It was actually a 4.9 earthquake, epicenter off Yilan.

Tonight I will sleep like a pig! As soon as I get off this long draggy conference call...

zzz

Never cede a century to a country that censors Google

Great article in the New York Times.

Advice From Grandma
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman

Why not? It has to do with the fact that we are moving into a hyperintegrated world in which all aspects of production — raw materials, design, manufacturing, distribution, fulfillment, financing and branding — have become commodities that can be accessed from anywhere by anyone. But there are still two really important things that can’t be commoditized. Fortunately, America still has one of them: imagination.

What your citizens imagine now matters more than ever because they can act on their own imaginations farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before — as individuals. In such a world, societies that can nurture people with the ability to imagine and spin off new ideas will thrive. The Apple iPod may be made in China, but it was dreamed up in America, and that’s where most of the profits go. America — with its open, free, no-limits, immigrant-friendly society — is still the world’s greatest dream machine.

Who would cede a century in which imagination will have such a high value to an authoritarian society that controls its Internet and jails political prisoners? Remember what Grandma used to say: Never cede a century to a country that censors Google.

But while our culture of imagination is still vibrant, the other critical factor that still differentiates countries today — and is not a commodity — is good governance, which can harness creativity. And that we may be losing. I am talking about the ability of a society’s leaders to think long term, address their problems with the optimal legislation and attract capable people into government. What I increasingly fear today is that America is only able to produce “suboptimal” responses to its biggest problems — education, debt, financial regulation, health care, energy and environment.

Why? Because at least six things have come together to fracture our public space and paralyze our ability to forge optimal solutions: 1) Money in politics has become so pervasive that lawmakers have to spend most of their time raising it, selling their souls to those who have it or defending themselves from the smallest interest groups with deep pockets that can trump the national interest.

2) The gerrymandering of political districts means politicians of each party can now choose their own voters and never have to appeal to the center.

3) The cable TV culture encourages shouting and segregating people into their own political echo chambers.

4) A permanent presidential campaign leaves little time for governing.

5) The Internet, which, at its best, provides a check on elites and establishments and opens the way for new voices and, which, at its worst provides a home for every extreme view and spawns digital lynch mobs from across the political spectrum that attack anyone who departs from their specific orthodoxy.

6) A U.S. business community that has become so globalized that it only comes to Washington to lobby for its own narrow interests; it rarely speaks out anymore in defense of national issues like health care, education and open markets.

These six factors are pushing our system, which was designed to have divided powers and to force compromises, into the realm of paralysis. To get anything big done now, we have to generate so many compromises — couched in 1,000-plus-page bills — with so many different interest groups that the solutions are totally suboptimal. We just get the sum of all interest groups.

The miniversion of this is California, which, as others have noted, is becoming America’s biggest “failed state.” Californians had hoped they could overcome their dysfunctional system by electing an outsider, a former movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He would slay the system, like the Terminator. But he couldn’t.

Mr. Obama was elected for similar reasons. People had hoped that his unique story, personality and speaking skills could bring the country together, overcome paralysis and deliver nation-building at home. A lot of the disappointment settling in among Obama voters today is prompted by their dawning realization that maybe, like Arnold, he can’t.

China’s leaders, using authoritarian means, still can. They don’t have to always settle for suboptimal. So what do we do?

The standard answer is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens. We need citizens who will convey to their leaders that they are ready to sacrifice, even pay, yes, higher taxes, and will not punish politicians who ask them to do the hard things. Otherwise, folks, we’re in trouble. A great power that can only produce suboptimal responses to its biggest challenges will, in time, fade from being a great power — no matter how much imagination it generates.

Grandma said that, too.

My abs hurt...

Tried this supposedly easy route on Saturday, under the overhang, you stretch out your right hand above the overhang while you're way over on the left side under the overhang, control the swing out, then without a foothole, somehow reach out above and over.

Now my problem was every time I cut loose, the swing out impact due to my big fat butts is so great that it'll pop my left hand. Repeat this a few times of flying out and forcing abs with a big grunt to put feet back on wall to smear a little and then reach up and over...

Tadah - wake up on Sunday with painful abs. It's not even that I did this many times, I tried that fall/stick back/fall/stick back routine perhaps 5 times before quitting...

I will be back. Damn that route, and ow ow my abs sure hurt.

Switchable voltage on a hairdryer

Many years go, I exchange my Esso points for a travel hair-dryer thinking it would please my mom. It didn't. She thought it too small.

So when I moved to Taipei some 2 years ago, I took it along (it was in cold storage anyways). First time I used it here, it was on such low power it was barely spitting out any air. I concluded then, that for a travel model, it doesn't switch voltages and that Philips (the maker of it) sux. Woe to the poor friends who visited and stayed with me and tried to coax it to work...

Now fast forward to last week, I had taken a shower at the rock gym at Wanghua. And the folks there are so nice, they passed me a hair-dryer - similar to what I had but old model. As I was using it, I noticed this knob that says "voltage - 110 / 220" and you can switch between the 2.

A lightbulb went off in my head.

I went home and true enough, I had the same knob but in dark plastic so that it totally obscured itself within the handle *slap forehead*

I pronounce myself : woman with working hair-dryer.

Melancholy

Birthdays never used to bother me, I hated the fuss and always felt that it was just another day to me - big, fat, hairy deal.

And growing another year older never made a difference to me.

Until now.

As I approach the big 4-0.

Suddenly, I'm depressed. I've been depressed since November began.

Thankfully, there are comforting/uplifting videos -

Last Sunday of ordinary time for this year

I attended mass at Holy Family to get an earlier start to the day and was rewarded with a good sermon.

The Jesuit priest talked about this Sunday being the last sunday of ordinary time in the liturgical year and about how to take stock of this year now that we're almost to the end of it. Based on the Ignatian spirituality exercises, he suggests doing this 3 :

1. give thanks for all the blessings you've had this year
2. say sorry for all the wrongs you've done
3. how else can you provide more, give of more.

Very inspiring, I need to give this more thought.

the politics of taiwan

I think most non-Taiwanese people looking into Taiwan's political scene would find themselves being more sympathetic towards the current ruling party - the KMT. For the simple reason, they appear to speak better/sound more intelligent, have better accents (at least not heavily accented Hokkien sounding peasants).

My colleague had a friend who's a DPP activist and well educated. She helped me setup a lunch with him and he explained the DPP's cause and a little of their history. Mostly he explained why Taiwanese are so emotional about the DPP and it's always said that the DPP loves Taiwan more.

For one hour, Harry spoke non-stop, with such intensity I didn't dare argue with him. He presented to me, in that 1 hour, a whole lot more intelligence and compelling reason why the DPP is such a popular party, especially in the south. The KMT's biggest supporters are in the city, and most Taipei.

Most of it is historical baggage I feel. From the KMT's earlier discrimatory preference for the Nationalist army and their family, whom the KMT rulers felt gave up everything they had for the ROC's cause (Republic of China) - the same party founded by Sun Yat Sen. Who is viewed as the founding father of Taiwan.

The DPP however, views Taiwan as home, unlike the KMT who up until recently, viewed Taiwan as its temporary home, all things China are cool, all things Taiwanese are well, temporary and of a lower importance.

And for this reason, most in Taiwan feel that the DPP genuinely loves Taiwan (爱台湾), a very common refrain.

While I think Harry's an idealist and that in reality the KMT no longer harbours any notions of reuniting with China, there's a lot of emotions still. Worse, these emotions are borne of war, up to as recently as the 1950s, communist China was still lobbing bombs towards Taiwan, and people remember, all too vividly.

So now I know why Taiwanese politics is so melodramatic.

Fireworks!

Emily bought a place and she was supposed to collect her keys on Saturday. I went with her and we conducted an OOBE (out of box experience) on the apartment. I know, that's normally what we do, a marketing audit on our notebook PCs at the factory. Ditto apartment, we had a list and went down the list, e.g. check floors, check no scratches and panels are aligned.. yeah, it was really detailed. We were super anal and proudly so.

As you can tell, product managers are very detailed people :)

The whole affair took 2 hours and a cracked floor tile meant that they had to replace it another time, so the apartment is still with the developers.

After that I went to Wanghua gym to climb. I thought I'll be tired after the OOBE, but actually I climbed pretty well. By the time I was done, it was 8pm, time to grab a bite and home right? I offered to watch the gym for a bit while the gym owner (who is a very nice guy and belays me patiently when he really doesn't have to, since everyone comes in pairs but for lonely felicia), so that Ah Jing can go grab dinner. He felt bad and so just packed dinner back, and was back so quick. He told me that the fireworks were about to start, if I wanted to watch it. I was like, eh? Seems like Saturday was Taipei Fireworks Festival Day. Well.. and the display was going to be over the Danshui river, which was, yeah, right by the gym!

Sure, I grabbed my camera (for doing OOBE earlier, how convenient) and we climbed to the roof, climbed up the water tower and lying there on it, I got to video most of the display. It was simply magical. Now if only I weren't lonely Felicia, and if only I got to watch it with someone I loved. Sigh...

The prennial complaint - "no time"

It's about time management. We all get the same 24 hours in a day, and don't we all admire those who can make the most out of it?

It's a wimpy way out to just dismiss things with a 'no time' excuse.

If you feel it is important enough, repriortise and make things happen.

Stop wimping out or making excuses for yourself.

Happy All Souls Day!

Exasperation is pouring yoghurt into tea...

I wish the dairy section folks at Amart supermarket by my home will stop putting yoghurt where the milk is supposed to be!

It doesn't help matters that,
1. clearly I can't read the chinese characters too well
2. milk doesn't translate into 牛奶 in Taiwan, they use this word instead, 乳. Argh.
3. there's often a shortage of milk since June of this year. Whenever that happens, to fill the gap where milk is supposed to be, they fill up with yoghurt.
4. Yoghurt and milk are in identical 1.5litre milk cartons. *slap forehead*

Happiness on the other hand, is planning to go for mass on all souls day and actually making it. I hope all souls make it to heaven tonight - hey, it was tough, getting off my ass, overcoming that small voice that wanted to go home, relax until the late night conf call tonight.

And finally, halloween is an American thing. But nontheless, happy halloween!

Disillusioned and uplifted

The opening screen reads 'don't be disappointed when God doesn't give you what you want... for He knows the best time for you to have it'.

Sigh...

Monday I was whinging to Steph,
Tuesday I wrote the entry on my blog that started "In a perfect world," which basically was asking God to fulfill all my prayers/dreams.
Wednesday I was riding the MRT to rockclimbing and the thought hit me that I should surrender my dreams/wish list to God. Like how Abraham was asked to sacrifice what he wanted (his precious son).
Thusrday (today) Steph sent me a comforting prophecy she heard and gave me a Youtube video which touched her. It didn't for me, but it played thru and then I hit the next video and there it was, my answer.

the sufferings of this present time are as nothing...

I was whinging to Steph earlier this morning and then guess what today's first reading is,

Rom 8:18-25

Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

The Pope reaching out to the church of England

I was also a skeptic initially, the new Pope is too old, too austere, surely not in sync with modern times?

But Benedict proved himself different.

From his red Prada shoes to his new style of leading the catholic church.

Telling Anglicans that they are welcome to be catholics? Wow...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/opinion/26douthat.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

At least he is proving to be respected church leader that the church of England lacks today. With the US epicopals allowing gay pastors, and the rest of anglican church leaders remaining silent on that... Surely that is not the Christ way of doing things. But I don't want to judge, I do however, salute Benedict for reaching out with wisdom, decisiveness and love.

In a perfect world...

In a perfect world,

- Grace is cured of cancer, completely.
- Ian has a great job he enjoys and pays well.
- Michelle is expecting a baby girl and they will name her Felicity after her aunt.
- the Elmo is happily attached to a CEO
- Steph and Felicia both find a perfect guy and get married
- Gi and Alex gets married
- Taiwan's politicians stop quibbling over the inconsequential and work for the greater good of Taiwan
- Zi gets a reinforced body where she can never overstrain any body part into injury.

Sigh...

Everybody wants to rule the world..

This is how it feels like working in a multi-national organization sometimes. When you go cross country/culture/continents.. 1 thing remains - the need for power.

Relaxed on a Monday night

Sitting here just before our routine monday night call with our Houston counterparts. Have Enya playing on my computer...

Kinda relaxed. I know, not the right mood for conference calls with Texas. I'll summon up aggression in just a moment - usually I get into the right mood with anger :)

Right now, it's nice. Beautiful blue skies and it's a cool 22degrees out. Nice. Almost too nice to have to be doing something as mundane as work :( I almost wanted to walk up the hill behind the office for a picnic.

Pity I had to miss Saturday morning's Nike Human Race, 10k. It was still raining from a typhoon that was veering away from Taipei. I just didn't feel it was worth it to run with the rain in my face and not enjoying it a bit. Should've been Sunday morning lah.. Sunday weather was excellent.

Time to jump on the call. Sigh.

Inside Steve's Brain

Written by the Wired's editor, it gives a pretty good account of Steve Jobs and Apple. Being in a product development team, it often hits me how different the Apple world is from our Wintel world (Windows and Intel stranglehold on the PC world).

Like this week, we quibbled over a plastic box to hold a stylus pen - how can we further cost down to save us a dollar at risk of looking er.. cheap. Fortunately, the marketing product manager, me, remembered the book I've been reading and so put my foot firmly down. No cheap look, no cost down. We'll take the $ hit. Sigh...

Stark different worlds. Of course our profit margins are also starkly different. We ship millions of notebooks versus iBooks, but their profit margins are also many times what we make.

Enough intelligent reading... my next book is on rockclimbing. Hee hee.. I only really have 2 loves in life - the catholic church and rockclimbing.

Rocking Woes...

No, not rockclimbing, not rock music either, nor rock on, baby!

The notebook I am working on right now has a balance issue. It's a touchscreen NB and if you poked it's screen, it rocks on its haunches. Poke it hard and it might even flip totally over. The engineers have no alternatives other than adding dummy weights to the other end to counter-balance it.

Hello, this is a thin and light, mobility NB - no extra weights just because you screwed up!

Perhaps we should really consider the idea of suction cups instead of front rubber feet. Ala fruit juicer machines.

Or more drastic measures

It's days like this that you sit in geekdom and wonder why are the geeks here all idiots?

Which C-sport - Cycling or Climbing?

I really like this editor from the Rock and Ice magazine. Pity I can't get a subscription into Taiwan and it's not available in the bookstores here (nothing in English here, it sux). But I get their regular emails whenever Andrew writes, it absolutely kills me. Now don't get me wrong, I love both - rockclimbing and cycling my bike. But he puts in such a manner, it's a blast!

No Respect

By Andrew Bisharat

I admired the perfectly crafted cappuccino before me, especially the artful mocha brush strokes through the white foam. The warm Sunday morning sun and dry air made the roast’s aromas and chocolate smack all the more piquant. The patio of an Italian café is a fine place to begin any day in Boulder.

The tranquility of the moment deformed like the foam in my drink when I suddenly found myself surrounded by a gang of extra-large lycra-clad road bikers. The incongruous sight of bulbous, sagging flesh in XXL spandex instantly razed any impression that this was an athletic lot, yet here they were, stretching their old groins, mindlessly chattering and feeding on coffee, juice and croissants, which I assumed would fuel a ride of some insignificant distance.

“Gawd, these people are disgusting,” I said to my friends Sam and Emily. It was an awful thing to say, but they agreed that the jiggling belly fat, pizza-dough man-teats and sausage-and-meatballs spaghetti-crotch — all squashed into a body-condom covered in company logos — was at least a little unappetizing. It was not their fault, per se — no one looks good in lycra, not even me (two obvious exceptions, of course, are Megan Fox and, my favorite, Giada di Laurentiis).

I studied the rotund roadies, which is not to say that I looked at them, but rather that I analyzed my own feelings about these carefree boomers, their glasses affixed with protruding rearview mirrors and their $8,000 carbon-fiber frame bikes, which I overheard one guy refer to as a “steed.” These people were like everyone else: just looking for an outlet — social and perhaps even physical — to somehow fill a gap in their lives. It’s like the old saying, “Biking: it’s something to do.” I actually don’t know if that is a saying or not, but it should be. Who can blame them for that?

What was most interesting to me was not the padding that makes it look like you’re smuggling a loaf of crap in your pants, but how at ease these people were with it. Lycra is part of the biking community, and it makes them feel comfortable in the same way that European climbers wear manpris. Who cares that no one else shares their aesthetic?

But at what point does exchanging the mores of mainstream society for the queerer set held by your fringe community make others lose respect for you?

One thing I’ve recently realized is that if people respect you, you can get away with a lot. Lose that respect and suddenly, nothing is permissible any longer. For example, one friend is down on his luck. He has joined the “Lost Generation” of young, bright, overly educated 20somethings that is experiencing an astronomic unemployment rate of 18 percent. As such, he’s adopted a “certain moral flexibility,” as he calls it, which permits him to steal food and clothing that are not his. It was no shock that my respect for him diminished, but I was surprised by how this decline directly correlated to how funny I found his already immature humor.

Soon, the roadies were off on their ride, and the café was once again peaceful. Twelve hours earlier, I was on a flight home from the Red River Gorge and had the pleasure of sitting next to an attractive woman. That had always been a dream of mine—every time I get on a plane, I pray that Giada boards the flight and takes the open seat next to me and we spend the rest of the flight making plans to crush juicy tomatoes together—but the hairy human dregs that smell of broiled meat have always been an abrupt and cruel end to my fantasy.

This girl was no Giada, but close. After telling me all about her giant diamond engagement ring and $40,000 wedding, she asked about the “gross” scars on the back of my hands. I explained what gobies were, and what rock climbing was all about.
“Look at your fingers!” she said. “They’re all knobby and swollen.”
“Yeah, if you think my hands are bad, you should see my toes,” I said.
“Ewwwwww!” she said. “Oh, yeah, my fiancé tried rock climbing once. He had to squeeze his feet into these tiny little girly ballet shoes!” She seemed tickled by the memory of her masculine Venezuelan boyfriend doing something so effeminate as rock climbing.

I thought about it and realized that climbers aren’t much less odd-looking than lycra-clad roadies. We’re a bunch of messy-haired and smelly weirdoes with the perpetually scabby, gross hands of a leper. We even wear harnesses that accentuate parts of ourselves that should never be accentuated—no different than bike spandex.

Maybe this is why, like Rodney Dangerfield said, we can’t get no respect.

A good hike

Over the weekend, I went with the HP mountaineering club to Wuling Farm - nestled at the foot of Snow Mountain. I was here last year as well, we had this aborted attempt to climb Snow Mountain - 2nd tallest in Taiwan. No permits were issued that weekend because of a nearby typhoon even though the weather was perfect then. Sigh, beaurocracy... *shrug*

The weather this time around initially didn't bode so well, even as we drove in on Saturday it was heavy mist (didn't help that I was just watching this horror movie called the Mist on HBO).. But it was perfect on Sunday - climbing day.

Had an ex-Houston based colleague who's now working for a Taiwanese software company in town and he wanted to join too. Except he had a meeting til noon on Saturday. So we arranged a separate car (which cost a ridiculously exorbitant cost of 5000nt!), it was a nice Mercedes Benz (a little old though, with a driver that kept getting lost!) and I offered to ride with him since I speak Chinese and also means that I get to sleep in a little and not have to leave with the HP folks at 7am :)

Our driver got us to Wuling Farm by 2.30pm (he was in a rush as he didn't want to drive home alone in the dark and in the mist - chicken shit! and I suspect he feared getting lost as well).

I skipped the shower (hey, I was in the Mercedes Benz for most of the day anyways) and we were all in our sleeping bags in our tents by 9pm. I shared a tent with 2 other women (slim, petite) who snored like men! Both of them! Yes, I caught no sleep all night. Sigh.

Waking up at 4am, we started for Chiyou Mountain 池有山which is one of the 4 biggest mountains in that range. It's also a 百岳, a list of 100 best peaks in Taiwan. Not that I'm bagging peaks, but this makes my 3rd 百岳.

It was perhaps a 7km walk to the foot of Chiyou, and then a 4km hike up, sounds easy? This 4km plus 1km elevation means it's a steep hike. It's also mostly rocky, pebbly path, so it was a slow slog up for me. We took 8hours to get up, and 4.5 hours down. Yeah, we walked for 12.5hours.

Frank was really nice, patient, we walked slow and he was really good about it. And we rested a lot too. Took numerous pictures. I could enjoy nature and the walk up... It was really nice. At a rest spot, we were surrounded by 黃鼠狼 or Chinese mink or weasel. They ran around us, but were too shy to come close when we tried to bait them closer with food.

We had excellent views of Snow Mountain, Daba Mountain and all the beautiful peaks surrounding us - most of the way up, which helped as a distraction when your legs are so tired.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622615968746/

Thank you Jesus. This will be the last hike of the year, I was going to say last tiring activity, but then Blues just MSN asking if I wanted to go Palau, Dec 5 to 12? Hmm...

Waiting on the Lord...

Sigh.. I feel like being in a holding pattern.

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." [Isa 40:30-31].

Faux pas

I like to believe that I've been in Taiwan long enough (2 years and 2 months) and that my language skills have come a long way since...

Then I discovered my reading skills are er.. not quite there as well. Sigh.

Honda had asked me via MSN to look out for a "拉鍊的粉袋"

while in Singapore and to buy it for another person at the rock gym. He mentioned that I have one of those... I somehow read it as a chalk bag with chilli design (Red Chilli has one just like that), but it's er.. actually, a chalk bag with a zipper mouth.

Sigh... So chilli and zipper looks alike to me. I think I just can't read the traditional chinese character too well. In anycase, fortunately for me, I didn't find the chilli design chalk bag.

I found out after I came back and was explaining that the chilli design is past fashion, what's fashionable in Singapore are the Prana branded chalkbags.. blah blah.. but they kept asking about zipper. I'm like, what's with the zipper questions.. and then it dawned on me.

living by the river

Decided in Jun that I wanted to move, to stay by the riverside.

With Taipei being such an urban city - read cities, scooters, cars, buses... too much pollution and noise. I wanted to live close by and yet be by a riverside.

It's actually quite possible considering that the rivers crisscross much of Taipei and that there are a lot of vacant apartments. Just a matter of sieving out what you like and how much you can afford to pay in rent.

I think I started viewing apartments in July and yesterday, Oct 1, I finally saw something I liked. (alright, so I was in Singapore most of Sep), but still, it's been a lot of apartment viewing.

This one I like not because of the apartment, but because of location. It's right by the riverside (I mean beside!) and it's just a 10min taxi ride into office which means it is not in the boondogs. http://rent.591.com.tw/rent-detail-333447.html

Alas, the lady wanted too much in rent and refused to budge.

First weekend back...

It's amazing how the minute I'm back in Taipei, I snap back into the sluggish self I am.

I spent most of Sat lying in bed watching my favourite program - Sasake on JetTV. It's one of those telematch games where contestants jump through hoops (literally) and it's really hard! You need to be very strong athletically and a lot of people train all year for it. The muscle fest I really enjoy :)

Then I had dinner with Garin before we caught Inglorious Bastards. Been a long while since the last Tarantino movie and it didn't let me down. It was a blast! Great movie!

Woke up to morning mass on Sunday before climbing too hard - my arms are so sore now.... ow, ow...

Measurements

The Chinese Taipei running association had sent me an email asking me to verify if I indeed wanted my race tshirt size XS. Within the email, they also listed the tshirt size versus the dimensions.

This is for the upcoming Oct 24 Nike Human Run race.

XS would be 80cm, S is 87cm.... My first thought was, yeah, of course I'm still XS. And then I started to doubt myself...

Turning to Emily, I asked, so, would you know if I am 80cm? She looked at me nonchalantly and said, well, we could just measure.

Amazingly, we found a measuring tape (truly the office of geeks, remember we had filter blocks in the pantry on the day the huge lunar eclipse happened?) and stood in a corner of the office and measured myself.

Then, I replied the email to tell that I'd take size S afterall :p

And back to reality...

I had a really good trip back in Singapore this time around. Most of it from the first week of being on holiday in Krabi. For that, I am grateful to Zi, Fong & my uncle - so much fun!

Also this was the last of my miles on SQ too. From here on, it'll be Jetstarasia and budget travels. Sob!

Michelle asked me on Sunday why I like Taiwan. This is the same person who has not yet come to visit me since I moved here 2 years ago. :(

I was wondering to myself why too... In Singapore I get to indulge in my 2 biggest fave activities : RC & RC - rockclimbing and the Roman Catholic church, often on a daily basis. In Taiwan, these 2 activities are curtailed to weekends.

So why do I like Taiwan? Hmm...

Incidentally, I've been thinking of that hamburger place Michelle suggested : http://www.thehandburger.com/. It's in the basement of Raffles City, and it is VERY VERY good. Sigh...

Reality bites

I was just thinking and probably commented to a few friends that I was beginning to like being in Singapore again.

Then reality came along and socked me one in the jaw.

As usual, I met up with my financial advisor as I do whenever I am back. Afterwards, we were just making small talk, about property prices and trends etc and then he commented that Lim Hon now has 2 kids, the second new-born shares his birthday etc...

Even though there are songs about this, and I am well aware, heck, I even joke about it. But to realise that it's reality... at that moment. I felt like Darth Maul sliced in half by Obi-wan's lightsaber. Once I recovered, I was preoccupied with macabre time calculations, how much time does it take to get over someone, get married, have 2 kids...

Truth is, I'm over it, over him. Guess now, that remote tiniest of hope dies too.

Property pricing...

Expensive, expensive, expensive...

I should've returned to buy in Jun or Jul this year. Now it's all gone on a little peak. Will it continue to go up? Are we max-ed out?

All this talk about V-shaped recovery or W-shaped recovery confuses me.

How, how, how?

Oh, and last night I was viewing some apartments. This 1 unit at Symphony Heights, there as a little altar center of the living room. Feels different. I didn't look at it, avoided being too close as well. And I was in the apartment only 10mins max. Didn't like the apartment in any case. Last night I was sleeping and I was awoken to feel afraid - related to that apartment? I was tired, I prayed and fell back asleep. But then something fell in the room, and I was awakened for the second time. I looked around, saw nothing out of place, very sleep-laden, I prayed again and this time crossed myself for good measure, then fell back asleep. This morning while preparing for work, nothing was out of place. Nothing fell to floor. Hmm... and the creepy thing is, being able to attribute it to that apartment.

Sigh.

Perhaps Emily is right afterall. You need to be rich. If I'm rich, I'll be viewing brand-new expensive apartments. Sigh.

Yahoo questions...

All week we've been talking about Yahoo moments. A Yahoo moment is one where either Fong, Zi or Fel would ask a question that nobody would have the answer to. We'll all then yell 'ya-hooo' in unison, and still be none the wiser.

So I'm finally going to list out the questions. Alas my memory is no longer very good and I only can recall these.

1. Why do mosquitoes exist?
Answer - they pollinate flowers (after bees, they are the most prolific pollen distributors). And we all know how bees pollinate because we watched the Bee movie at least twice in 1 week. But that's another story altogether.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito

2. What's the difference between the monsoons in Krabi versus Singapore/Malaysia? Why are they different times of the year?
Answer - Krabi is affected by the south west monsoon rains which is now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

3. What is SPF and what's the difference with PA?
Answer - PA is the Japanese standard and measures UVA rays. PA +++ is what we were using. Or rather what vain Fong had to apply daily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunscreen

4. How would a cockatoo cycle? Or an Egyptian, for that matter?

does God hear you?

It all started because Francis mentioned he needs a test-subject for his psychology course. Zi agreed to be it and she was going to talk about bad friends. I have had more than my fair share of bad friends and it all came back to me last night - about Moo, maybe cos I saw her at the climbing wall Tuesday night.

Last night, I was bothered enough to pull this book from my bookshelf titled - When Friendship Hurts. I flipped through it again and started to feel all indignant & huffy again.

Came into office this morning, and was reading this morning's readings. Guess what...

Col 3:12-17
Brothers and sisters:Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,bearing with one another and forgiving one another,if one has a grievance against another;as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.And over all these put on love,that is, the bond of perfection.And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,the peace into which you were also called in one Body.And be thankful.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songswith gratitude in your hearts to God.And whatever you do, in word or in deed,do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Sigh...

And the psalm of the day was the same song ringing in my head as it was the last song on my MP3 player riding the bus into office. 'Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!'.

So yeah, I guess the good Lord hears everything... and Amen for that.

Bunnie Edwards

Bunnie was the admin at Houston. I remember when I first transferred to the consumer Notebook team, and had to travel to Houston to meet the extended team there. I had lunch with Bunnie - you'll like her. She's quick to laugh and just has an easy word for everyone. Start to tell a joke and she'll be roaring with laughter before you hit the punchline.

I got into Singapore this week and Monday morning, I had a really bad feeling when I saw an email titled 'Bunnie's update'. Last night, I was trying to call someone in Taiwan to get a conference call going and I saw Bunnie's name on my phone show up.

Sigh...

It was supposed to be removal of a growth on her face, which turned out to be cancer and within 3 weeks of diagnosis, she was gone.

I remember how she was really helpful when I was trying to organize the later canceled marketing summit. We spoke almost every night, working out hotel/food/event arrangements.

I will miss you Bunnie. Play an extra heavenly song on your harp for me as you sit by Jesus.

Ecclesiastes
Chapter 3
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Krabi magic

Thank you Zi & Fong, I had a great week climbing/eating excessively at Railay, Krabi.

As a 3rd trip there, and being much older compared to my earlier trips, I surprised myself by being able to still climb 6b+ routes.

Climbing log :

Day 1 - 123 wall

Make a Way - 6a+

King's Cobra - 5 (top roped this)

We Sad - 6a+

Day 2 - Wee's Present Wall

A man can tell a 1000 lies - 6a

Hello Christine - 6a+

Same same but different - 6b+

Day 3 - Thaiwand Wall

Circus Oz - 6a+

Monkey's Bum - 6b

Day 5 - Eagle Wall

Totem Pole - 6a

Where Eagles don't dare - 6a+

Sea Monkey - 6b+

Speaking out loud - 6b (Fong only)

The climbs in orange colour are classic climbs as highlighted by the climbing guidebook.

Other than the excellent climbing, the companionship was really nice. I really enjoyed all the easy bantering and laughter.

Evidence of the really good holiday :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622177621203/

Reminder - how to lead our lives

In the excitement of being home and being with old friends again... a timely reminder.

Col 3:1-11

Brothers and sisters:If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.When Christ your life appears,then you too will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,and the greed that is idolatry.Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.But now you must put them all away:anger, fury, malice, slander,and obscene language out of your mouths.

Stop lying to one another,since you have taken off the old self with its practicesand have put on the new self,which is being renewed, for knowledge,in the image of its creator.Here there is not Greek and Jew,circumcision and uncircumcision,barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;but Christ is all and in all.

On being poor...

I feel poor. I wanted to buy my mom a watch - perhaps Christmas or her birthday next year. Mentioned this in passing to Emily and she dragged me to the Taipei 101 to look at Rolexes.

That's when I started feeling poor. The classic Rolex Oyster Perpetual DateJust looks great and it's also greatly out of my league. Try 230,000nt. Ouch!

Sorry mom, one day I will be able to buy that for you. That day unfortunately isn't going to be today.

Then I came home and ate more of my cheesesticks and I feel fine again.

Floods in Taiwan

The last 14 days or so.. I lie awake at nights watching the disaster scene replied on our tv channels over and over again.

The full extent of the floods are really quite horrible. 2 entire villages were washed away by the mudslides. In the worse of the 2 : Xiaoling village, some 400 people out of 1000+ were buried alive. They still lie there, under 4 storeys of mud. Soldiers are digging - initially by hand, now by bulldozers in a recovery process of pure pain, dragged out pain to the surviving familes and even the rescue workers - mostly 20year old conscripts.

Everyone in Taiwan's hurting from this. The Taiwan president and his government has faced widespread criticism on being slow and ambivalent about its efforts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24taiwan.html?ref=asia

Initially I was thinking we can't fault the government since in Taipei, the typhoon effects were mild. In fact, Saturday, the day Xiaoling village was wiped-out, I had gone out to climb at my usual climbing gym because it wasn't even raining. Taiwan has basically gone on a witchhunt, demanding the resignation of the president (for being slow and cold about his reaction), premier (for going for a haircut & then dinner on Saturday evening - even though he had on Saturday morning gone to the affected area), secretary-general of the cabinet (for eating a Father's day dinner at a 5-star hotel). Saturday 8 Aug, was celebrated by Taiwan as Father's Day (88 sounds like Papa).

My colleagues later explained to me that if you were a public servant, your salary comes from the people. More is expected of you.

I suppose that makes sense.

Please send your prayers to Taiwan, it's leadership for wisdom and speedy recovery of the affected areas. That the survivors are re-settled and their future taken care of by the government or by any necessary aid agency.

Wet and shaken

And the earth shoke again. I was shaken awake again this morning by another earthquake at 8.05am 6.5magnitude. And just a moment ago, another one.

It's a very unnerving experience when you're sleeping and you get shaken awake - not sure if you're dreaming or it's for real and you should get up, get dressed and run for safety.

Emily & I are convinced it's linked to the recent eclipse. Not good omen. Hmm...

I spent last weekend splashing about in a stream off Yilan. It's called 溯溪 or river tracing. You literally walk up a stream to the source - a big waterfall, then turn around and in parts, slide downstream.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622064718634/

The company we used this time around was pretty professional - Cloud9.

Luca, our Italian colleague who spends most of his time eating/drinking and picking up cute nubile Taiwanese women, was totally out of his league. Most of the time... except when he tried to pick up one of our instructors - she's this really totally cool person. Awesome in the water. Glad he was around to provide the laughs cos after a while, when you're wet and cold and tired.. watching Luca makes you laugh.

We thought this event would be cancelled initially - because the terrible floods we have in central/southern parts of Taiwan. But it continued. On day 2, the 2nd stream, the initial part involved crossing this muddy river with fast-moving waters - it really looks like a scene on TV, and us roped up trying to cross it. Made us all feel guilty and sad. May God bless the recovery/continued rescue process, give us all strength/wisdom in the rebuilding process and most of all, bless the souls of those who lost their lives. Amen.

Floods in central/southern Taiwan

It has been pretty horrific and the pictures continue... It's day 7 since the typhoon hit us last Friday, but on TV we're still getting pleas for help from villages in the mountains.

HP has a website for donations to help these villagers but the aid agency they chose, er.. nobody around me has heard of it. Not good... Hmmm...

President Ma has been really slow to react to the crisis. Move quicker, declare a state of emergency if you have to! Accept assistance from other countries! Do something quicker. I cannot even start to imagine not having a hot meal for 7 days, not to mention what these villagers must be enduring and for the for last 7 days.

Whole villages have been swept away, thousands are missing.

While Taiwan has typhoon recovery experience - it is afterall a very mountainous country and typhoons are a yearly occurrence. However, the scale of this typhoon has been something Taiwan has not seen in the last 50 years. It's simply not able to do enough, quickly enough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13taiwan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home