The KYM Students Are Back

How do I know that the KYM students are back? There is a sudden increased in the sales for the past 3 days. Which means, the students are back! Praise the Lord. After the Hari Raya holiday, they will be back with assignments and projects to print. I hope this will continue till the end of the month as we need the extra income to fix my house roofing and buy silver bullion if still for extra money. We need money to make more money. That is why the rich is becoming more rich and the poor stays poor. :(

Looking back at the past.

People say that it is not good to look at the past. Why? I think otherwise. It is good to remember the past. Yes, especially the good ones. Also the bad ones. The good memories will keep us alive, strengthened and rejuvenated. It reminds us that life is not all bad. It reminds us that it is possible to have good times. It gives us hope that things can be good. It gives us self-worth, knowing that we are not total failures. It keeps us sane.

And we need to remember the bad memories too. Not to dwell upon it. Not to be discouraged by it again. Not to make us feel worthless or inferior. BUT to remind us of the mistakes that we made. To teach us that we are not perfect or the cleverest person in the world. It keeps us humble. And if we are humble enough, the bad memories will be our assets in helping others to avoid the same mistakes we made.

I made some bad mistakes in my life. Mistakes that I wished I could undo. But no... I could never undo it. I'm not proud of it. It is now forever in my past. Mistakes made by unwise thinking and uncontrolled self. I fell down ... deep down... rock bottom. Never thought I could ever do such things but yes I did.

But now I am standing. And walking and moving towards a goal in life. The bad mistakes have taught me that I'm not perfect. It will always remind me of my imperfect life. Many times, I remembered my past mistakes and remind myself to be more careful, not to make the same foolish mistakes again. And I know that remembering my past (even the bad ones) has helped me to be a better person today. And I will strive to be better for days to come.

... + + ... I am not perfect..... just forgiven by Jesus Christ... ++ ...

Relationship.

It is true that man are not born to be alone. We are created to
communicate and to have the bonding with others. It is natural,
God-given nature to every human being, just as God himself commune
between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So it is natural for a man to fall in love with a woman, to have that
bonding, that close communion with her. Indeed, it has become a life'
quest to find a partner. Some had it easy, but some had it hard. We
can find many who are struggling in this life's quest.

Nowadays, it is not easy to find a partner. Not just that, it is not
easy to find a partner that you can relate and suits you. Then, if you
manage to find one that you like/love, you have to introduce that
partner to your family. This is where most people find that marriage
is not about two people only, but its about two families being
connected through them.

It is easy to get one person to like you, but to get the whole family to like
you would not be so easy. The task is daunting. Even an extrovert person
who can talk well may not be liked by some of the future partner's family members.
Even a person's genuine generosity may be misconstrued as trying to gain favor.
The list goes on and on.

Prejudice is the worst of all relationship hindrances. Prejudice is a
psychological wall that separates two people. And the bad news is that
ALL of us have it whether we admit it or not.

Racial prejudices exist from time immemorial. Right from the start of
Biblical account, we read of clans fighting other clans, race against
another race. When we have certain bad experiences with a certain
race, we tend to develop certain prejudices about that race, even
though it may not be true generally.

Are all Malays lazy? Are all Chinese materialistic? Are all Indians poor?
Are all Americans sexually active? Are all Orang Asli still living on top of the trees?

This prejudice sometimes run deep in the person's heart and affects
him in all his decisions and actions. To encounter such prejudices
against you is hard. More so when it comes from your future partner's family
members. The task then is to prove that you are not like what they
think you are. And this is good for you because generally prejudices
are negative or bad perceptions/impressions of a person's character.
We all will do well to prove that we are otherwise. At the end of the
day, the question remains, "Do we want that person bad enough that we
are willing to overcome every obstacle?"

Relationship... above all else, guard your heart.

My Eldest Daughter's Drawing

This is one of Annabelle's drawing. I am very proud of her because she is not only smart but artistic too. Unfortunately, she is more into drawing cartoons! Like what my wife always said, "She has the Bong blood in her." No doubt, most of the Bongs are very good in Arts. :D

I hope these talents would be able to help her in the future. If she can't sell her artwork, she can always start an Art Class and earn good income from it. Then she can invest in gold bullion and get better returns in long run. ;)

Sinus Remedy

My wife has sinus. I told her to take the USANA Essential so many times but she just refuses it until her sinus became so bad that she felt like something moving in her nose then only she reluctantly take the pills.

Praise God, after almost 3 weeks taking it, I don't here her complaining about itchy nose and her sneezing also reduces. I hope she will religiously continue to swallow the pills. It is for her own good.

What is certain?

There is nothing certain in life. Maybe death is certain and heaven and hell is certain. Salary, income, job, position, family and the things we see with our eyes are definitely not certain. My income from the business is certainly not certain. I wished it is but that's not the reality. One day the sales could be so high, the next so low. Uncertainties. Even my wife's work is not certain. One day in good terms with the boss, the next doubts and mistrusts occurs.

Well, people loves to look at money as their security. The more money you have in the bank, the more secure you will feel. But that is also uncertain, false security. One thing that all of our human nature want is that feeling of being secured. Secured of having a fixed income, secured of our job, secured of our family, SECURED.

I too would love to have this feeling of being secured. But then I realised that being secured is not about how much money I have. It is being certain of who I am in God. I have to remind myself and tell myself often that my security is God Himself, not my business, not my family an definitely not my bank account or the insurance policies. As Job said, "Naked I come into this world, naked will I die". So what is certain? GOD! And with Him, I find peace of heart.

I'm so bored, boring.

Annabelle has been saying that phrase often nowadays. She gets bored easily. I think it is more that she wants to play computer games. And since we do not allow her to play computer games everyday, she would use that phrase to "persuade" us indirectly to allow her to use the computer. When she said that phrase, we often suggested to her to do other things like drawing, cycling, reading or even doing her homework. Most of the times, she would do what we suggested but only for a while. Then she would come back to us and complain again about being bored.

This simply shows that when she wants to play her computer games, all other things are boring to do. Even if I give her a gold bullion or a gold earing, she would not be interested as her mind is on her computer games. I bought her 1000 pieces of jigsaw puzzle for her to do but she has yet to start it. It would be no surprise if she says that she is bored with it also.

Back pain

It has been almost two weeks since the back pain started. This would be my second time I experienced back pain. I still not sure what trigger this back pain. I can only assume the cause to be the increasing weight of my bulging stomach. Add that to lack of exercises and bad posture, it is just a back pain "bomb" waiting to explode.

I also noticed that the pain would be more in the morning after I woke up. Then by noon, the pain lessened and by night time the pain would be minimal. I can only assume that when the back muscles have already been "exercised" and warm-up, the pain would lessens. If the pain continues till next week, I'll go see the doctor.

Cycling Adventure

September 14, 2010, Tuesday. Cycled for more than 10km with Annabelle. Started at about 6pm. Annabelle cycle her own bicycle while Clarissa sat behind my bicycle. From our house, we cycle to the residential area beside our house. Then to the paddy field, using the stone graveled road all the way to Sungai Lereh. Upon reaching the river, we cycled at the river bank and passed through Kampung Hj Jambol (I think that's the name of the village, can't remember exactly). And the road lead us to the coastal main road, came out opposite of Restoren Spring Garden, the main road where the Monday pasar malam is held.

From there, we cycled to Batang Tiga. Stopped by at the sundry shop to buy drinks (Clarissa complained of thirst or maybe she just made it up when she saw the shop). After quenching our thirst, we cycled back to our home, passing by beautiful sunset sceneries along the way.

Hahaha...can't imagine that Annabelle cycled that far. She didn't complain at all about the long journey. In fact, she wants to do again and has been bugging me to for for another cycling adventure.

Searching to be sure

My brother sent me a link about the hidden story of Jesus. I guess he is still seeking to find out more about the kind of faith that he wants to have. The problem of watching youtube video clips is that he has to be very careful on determining whether to believe what is being shown there. Most of the information given in that particular video clip are more of suggestive thoughts and not proven. They only show the parts that reinforce their theory and totally left out other contradictory facts. Thus it seems to portray the truth when it is only an unproven theory.

Advised him to do more research on the topic especially on biblical apologetic. Well, it would be good if he has completed his research degrees as he would be able to discern the proven facts from mere theories. As for now, he has to learn such skills on his own. And may he find the truths that he is seeking.

Time to move on

It has been 4 years since starting the cybercafe business. How time flies! I still can remember the days when I had to sleep over at the shop so that I can get the extra income. The beginning days are tough, not enough to even cover the cost. Michelle's income had seen us through those "tight" times.

Really thank God for His faithfulness and providence. He has brought me through this 4 years and indeed I can confidently say that God has never forsaken me. As I made a deal with God that I would put my focus on the business for 4 years, I'm now open to what may come next for my future. It is time to move on.