Two good movies

I watched two movies in the last two days.

Yes Man

This is a hilarious comedy starring Jim Carrey. It is about a man who became very lonely and inward-looking after his girlfriend left her. He became very pessimistic about life and denied (say no to) every opportunities presented to him. One day, he met a friend that introduced him a new philosophy of life called "Yes". In the first seminar he attended, the guru preached to him to make a covenant to "Yes". Basically, he is supposed to say Yes to everything.

A lot of funny things (both good and bad) happened when he said Yes to everything. He found his new girlfriend, got promoted in his job and helped a few people big time by giving them hope. By saying Yes to everything, he also bumped into some troubles. He was arrested by the authority for being a terrorist suspect as he learned flying, dated with Iranian woman, confirmed his flight and destiny at the last minute, etc...

There are some truths in the “Yes” philosophy. The believers must be positive looking but not blindly say Yes to everything. They must also make sense of the things to make the good judgment. He finally realized that he only graduated from the first lesson.


叶问

这部电影真好看。尤其是武打的部分，演员都打的很精采。它也是中国南部（佛山）武林功夫的一些写实。

我最欣赏的是叶问对朋友的谦虚和忠诚，对国家和民族的爱护和忠诚。他的价值观和做人的原则从不被外来压力动摇。

我去年到过佛山工干，只可惜我没时间去了解当地的武林历史和文化。

With God all things are possible...

Two happenings which I think worth remembering:

Shisha - I was spending time with some of my colleagues in a pub at Arab St on Friday two weeks ago. I tried Shisha. They use charcoal to burn with the selected flavour to create smoke which is filtered by the water in the bottom of the piece of equipment. We have to inhale the smoke through a pipe connected to the equipment. That night, we ordered two Shisha, one is rose flavour and the other is cherry flavour. According to Thiru (my Indian colleague), smoking Shisha is Middle East style of socializing with people.

Sundramoorthy - I played futsal soccer at Farrer Park last Thursday. I didn't know that one of the player in the opposite team is Singapore soccer legend Sundramoorthy. He is now the Young Lion coach.

Last but not least, I like this year's verse at Tang's Shopping Mall. It reads, "......WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE - MATTHEW 19:26"

Christmas Dinner Party - Christmas In The City (New York)

"Christmas In The City" was held at Dome located at Singapore Art Muzium on the 13th Dec. I helped in the RSVP, admin & registration of the event. Our goal was to hit 70 people attending this event. I was not encouraged when we barely had 40+ confirmed RSVP at the end of Nov. The leaders knew the situation and encouraged the people to pray & fast, and work hard.

As the event date drew closer, the number skyrocketed to 70 in days. On the actual day we have 80 people attending the event! We were desperate and God gave us a miracle!

We had game (drawing the meaning of Christmas), caroling, song presentation, sharing, testimony, dance (this part was the funniest), food & city light bus tour.

Christmas Meals

Christmas isn't a Christmas without a good Christmas meal for most of the Singaporeans. During this festive season, I have already had several Christmas meals with friends and colleagues to date. Here I recalled them:

1. Fig & Olive at Vivocity (with QA department) - They serve Halal Western food. I took their BBQ chicken served with pasta. The food is ok. However the service is thumbsdown. The last few persons who got their foods had waited for more than 1 hour after the first few persons got theirs. Because of this unpleasant experience, we decided to "ban" this restaurant for future departmental lunch.
2. Warunglele at Arab St. (with colleagues) - They serve Indonesian Ala Cart Buffet food. The food is tasty and the service is excellent. The price is very reasonable.
3. Dome at Singapore Art Muzium (with church friends) - They serve buffet food for 80 people at our Christmas Dinner Party. The food is plain. It could have been better. The cutlery, bowl and plate used are all plastic which doesn't quite match the standard we expected. Furthermore, there is only one male and one female toilet. People are jammed there for long time. We concluded that this place is not suitable for big event like ours.
4. Grand Copthorne Hotel (with EHS committee) - They serve buffet lunch. Most of my colleagues like the big raw oyster and one of them ate 12! I didn't eat much as my tummy was not well. But I was glad I could take my favourite Jap food - the sashimi. Overall, it is a good and sumptious meal.

Stanchart Marathon 2008

I ran the 10km Stanchart last Sunday. I was excited because it was my first time running such a long distance. My target was to complete the 10km within 1 hour without stopping. I didn't stop throughout the race. However, my timing is 1h:11m:49s (gun) / 1h:8m:42s (net), slightly falling short of my goal. Jian Ming and I ran together at the beginning but we parted after about 2km.

I think my regular training before the event helped me to finish the race well. I tried to jog 3km at least once a week. In this way, I trained my stamina and maintained a healthy lifestyle. While I was running the race, I was thinking whether I should sign up half-marathon in 2009. If I were to sign up, I will need to jog at least 8km to train up my stamina.

I was later told that Hope Church (the organization I registered with) got 6th place in the Non-profit Org Distance Challenge and it is the only church that receives placing.

Learning from two good books

I read two good books last week. The first book is Joyce Meyer's "Battlefield of the mind". This book talks about our freedom in Christ in the mind. The content is very practical and useful for personal life. The second book is "The 4th Dimension" authored by Dr David Yonggi Cho. This is a very powerful book for personal life and ministry.

Here are my take-home points from these books:

Battlefield of the mind

1. The smoke of cigarette is disgusting to people who do not smoke. Negative thinking is best illustrated as the smoke of cigarette for those who have the mind of Christ. In order to live a victorious life, we ought to fill our mind with the thoughts of Christ through knowing His Word. Spend a lot of time in reading and studying His Word!
2. When we have judgemental thoughts toward someone, we become a god to the person we judge. Don't choose to become a god to other people, rather learn to love people. Judging people is not our job; it is God's job.

The 4th Dimension

1. The law of faith - a) When we pray, we must pray very specifically. Don't pray vague prayer. Pray and ask God to answer our specific and clear-cut goals. We will know that it is God's answered prayer only when we are clear what we pray for. b) Pray for strong desire to see things happen. c) Pray until we have great assurance from God that he is going to answer our prayer.
2. The 4th dimension - There are 3 dimensions in the material world. The 1st dimension is a line. The 2nd dimension is a plane. The 3rd dimension is a cubic. But it is in the 4th dimension God's spirit works and creates. Our faith also operates in the 4th dimension. We can experience this by creating and envisioning clear and vivid mental pictures of what we want to see happen in our lives. When we do this, God will work through our visions and make things happen.
3. The creative power of the spoken word - Don't always beg with God. We have to learn to command things to happen according to God's word and power.
4. Rhema - Ask Holy Spirit for guidance and direction in our specific situation. Wait upon Him. When God speaks to our hearts He can in one second do far greater than we could do in one entire year. Don't hurry to do a lot of things using our fleshly effort.
5. School of Andrew - Think big. Think miracles. Persevere on when we face troubles and obstacles. In the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, Philips thought of the impossible. In contrast, Andrew had the possibility thinking. He gave to Jesus what he had though he doubted. God can use the little one of us to do the impossible!
6. God’s address – He dwells in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We can tap his endless resource, power and authority to overcome any life challenges.

Improving our languague and communication

We observed that a lot of people in Singapore like to speak Singlish. What is Singlish? Basically, it is English that is greatly influenced by the Singapore culture and languages. Common words used are "mah", "leh", "lah", etc...People here especially the students love to use words such as, "right?", "like" when they construct their sentences. Honestly I sometimes get irritated because a supposedly beautiful language has been poorly spoken and used. In my opinion, the government should create more awareness in the proper use of English.

Speaking proper English is only one of the communication skills. I am not a language expert or gifted communicator. And I only started to use English more frequently when I came to Singaore in year 2000. However, as I want to improve my communication skill, I set some standards for myself in the following areas:

1. Speaking clearly - Don't have to use bombastic English to get our points across. But using the correct word is important. It is fun to learn and discover how one English word can be used in so many ways.
2. Creating simple sentence - Use basic and correct sentence structure. Try not to construct lengthy sentences as it will confuse people. Do away with redundant words. The most basic sentence consist of a noun, a verb and an object.
3. Listening & understanding - Pro 18:2, "A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions". I learned the truth of this verse in the hard way. I seldom sought to understand and clarify other people's point. I focused on airing my own opinions and I always spoke rashly. Now, I make sure I am fully clear of what people say. If what they say is vague, I will seek to clarify and question what was being spoken. In this way, I not only know the issue clearly, but also help people to clarify their own thoughts.

I believe communication is an art. It requires life-long learning process to improve. We can gradually improve through diligent and active listening, speaking, reading, writing (like what I am doing now) and practising.

A Happening Week

I have a happening week. I have many thanksgiving points.

My article 'How to be a recession-proof worker' was published in My Paper this Monday. It occupied about 1/3 of the page. Some of my friends read it and sms me. They commented it is a good article and feel proud for me.

I was planning for my CNY home trip. One-way air fare to KLIA shot up to about $180 and bus fare shot up to about $65 due to high demand. I asked God to provide me the most economy way to go back. I also hoped to go back with people rather than alone. God answered my prayer - I suddenly thought about my cousin which we seldom contact each other. He agreed to give me a free ride to KL during CNY. Praise God!

I have personally sowed on two colleagues and have wanted to bless them with a meal during this Christmas season. I did it on Friday. I hope they are blessed. I will invite them to our Christmas service. I hope I will lead them to know Christ soon.

I stayed back in the company this Thursday. My Japanese colleague taught some of us how to make 'Okonomi-yaki'. We mixed flour, egg, ginger, cabbage, water & cheese, then grilled them. We put some typical Japanese source (can also use typical BBQ or curry source) and fish shred on the top and ate it with wasabi/mayonnese. Yummy!

CG is on Friday. We shared a lot of testimonies and answered prayers. My heart is filled with awe. Yanyan prayed that her boss would praise her this week and it happened! Her boss is busy most of the time. This week, he reviewed her work and said to her, "good work!" Kae prayed that God would provide something for her to eat in one rainy day. Out of her surprise, her neighbor brought dinner for her that evening.

We had a 'Eating Marathon' today. We had a few new faces. They are Deo, Kran (Mark's Thai friend) & Shi Wei (James' Myammar friend). We ate our Beef Hor Fun at Geylang Lorong 9. We then moved to Kallang Leisure Park to play bowling. It is Mark and Kae first time and we really had lots of fun. After that, we moved to Golden Mile Complex to have Thai food dinner.

Attempting Small and Ad-hoc Business

MeiBeng (my younger sister) is going to run a small business soon. She will set up booth to sell cookies at One Utama end of Dec 08 till end of Jan 09. This will be her first time. She called me to ask for financial support. At the beginning, I hesitated to help her. I worried this could be a rash decision and lack of careful business planning. After talking to her, I found out that she is indeed serious about it and had done her homework.

She is a very extrovert girl by nature. She has good track record in her retailer sales job for the past few years. Her previous boss promoted her and entrusted her to supervise a team. I always feel very encouraged when she did well and I always believe she can do very well in this area. I always hope to sponsor/partner her to start our family-owned business one day.

Here are a few things to be considered on this business opportunity:

• Strategic locations – The shopping mall is always crowded in normal days and holiday seasons based on past experience. The booth will be set up at ground floor. We don’t have to worry good human traffic passing by our booth.
• Quality food – The food is tasty. She managed to sell quite a lot via direct distribution to friends last CNY. She will get the food from the same source and has faith on the food quality.
• Good price – We have to prepare to adjust the price as I foresee fierce competition during that period. There will be a few stalls selling CNY cookies as well. We have to manage the price carefully to ensure maximum profitability. Depending on customers’ behavior, we can sell the goods differently, e.g. buy 2 free 1, buy 3 50%, etc...to be more flexible and creative.
• Excellent sales person – She and Ah Heng will still work on their current job. Their availability to man the booth is very limited. Initially she planned to get Ah Heng’s mum to help. I was very concerned as the mum is quiet and slow. She will not do a good job. She is now trying to hire an experience sales lady. I advised her to pay the lady commission based on sales volume on top of the basic pay. In this way, she can motivate the sales lady to boost the sales volume and increase profitability.
• Aggressive advertisement – If possible, we have to give out flyers at different entrance to attract as many customers as possible. There is power in good advertisement. I already observed how my company’s neighbor does it.
• Good operation and management – Ensure supply of food is on time and sufficient. Plan off-day wisely to be available at the booth during peak-hour/peak-day of the week to boost sales.

Recession-proof Our Jobs

There are many bad news in the business world lately. We heard of many factories closed down in China, demands for goods slowed down, stock price everywhere plummeted, corporates reported losses, widespread retrenchment started, etc...most of the business news are very gloomy.

My company is no exception. They recently repositioned and rebranded themselves to focus on the recession-proof businesses. The so-called recession-proof business are human health and environmental health businesses. They want to sell off one of the core business (consumer lighting business) in Asia which will have direct impact to our Singapore operation. The employees here are generally concerned about future their job security and uncertainty in this company.

I believe retrenchment may be inevitable during bad times like this. However, as worker, we should make ourselves recession-proof so we can survive the bad times. Here are a few tips:

1. Be excellent in our job. Be a star performer. Company would not release a star performer. This is quite common sense. We should always strive for a high standard in the work we produce.
2. Be volatile and flexible. We should always be ready to take on new roles and responsibility, adapt to changes, work beyond our boundary when needed. Some people are very narrow-minded and rigid, they will never move beyond their well-defined job scope and never learn new things. These people will be the first to go when there is redundancy in the company.
3. Don't worry, be happy. Happy workers are effective in their work and they produce quality work. They are contagious and they spread their happiness to people who work with them. They build good rapport with their colleagues and bosses. In contrast, some workers are not happy. They are power-hungry and always want to be in control. They frustrate their subordinates and do not build good rapport with other colleagues and bosses. These workers are in danger during retrenchment.
4. Add value to our job. We have to innovate and improve our work daily. We must always reflect why we do what we do. Does the activity I am currently doing add value to my company's business? We should always be proactive in thinking of new ideas. We shall not wait until our boss gives us instructions.

My Sister's ACCA Graduation Ceremony

I took flight to and fro Singapore and KL to attend my sister's ACCA convocation last week. It was my first time travelling with budget airlines on this route. I saved a lot of time and energy though I had to pay a little bit more. It's worth the value as I have spent quality time with my families during the trip. Normally, I take more than 9 hours (with 6 hours in the bus) to reach home, as a result, I get myself physically exhausted. Last week, I only took approximately 4 hours (with 45 mins in the air) to reach home. This is the effect and benefit of technology. In the future, I will take plane for short-day home trip and take bus for long-day home trip. To make my time more fruitful, I will get friends to go back with me when I take bus to build friendship.

My sister's graduation ceremony was held on 8 Nov 08 at KL Convention Centre. My sister has done the family proud. Her boss sponsored her part of the tuition fee and she took the course on a part-time basis. She never gave up completing the course despiting facing numerous set-backs (failed exams) throughout the course.

My Thoughts on Using Pirated Product

I bought a laptop 3 months ago and my Microsoft Office trial version has expired after two months. I now cannot use all the important and critical functions of the software and require to purchase the full version. I knew the price of the software is considerably costly so I hesitated to purchase it without looking for other options. My good friend knew my problem and he passed me his pirated Microsoft Office 2007 to install. I did not feel very right to do so without giving some thoughts on the piracy issue.

In the movie commercial ad, we are told that piracy is equal to stealing. The widespread of piracy activities are affecting the profittability of many businesses who sell their copyrighted products. When we use or buy pirated products, we are indirectly supporting the proliferation of piracy activities by encouraging illegal manufacturers to produce more such illegal products. We are not only doing wrong to the affected business people/product owner, in fact, our action is against the law.

From the biblical perspective, I thought of the following principles:

• "You shall not steal" is one of the 10 commandments in Moses' time. Stealing is wrong. Stealing is getting for ourselves something that does not belong to us.


• Jesus says in Matt 7:12, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..." Just put ourselves in other's shoe, if we don't want people to do this (supporting piracy) to us, then we should not do this to others!


• Violating law intentionally is not submitting to authority and is wrong. In Rom 13:1, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."

Is it worthwhile to compromise the biblical principles to gain a little money and conveniences? I seriously doubt so. What other alternatives for me now? I hope I can get a shared licenced Microsoft Office 2007 with other people.

My Prediction on American Decides '08

1. Barack Obama

(Advantages)

• He is leading 5 ~ 11% in major national polls. I think racial discrimination is not an issue in this election as I believe majority of voting Americans are open in their thinking. If there is some components of racial biasness and people polled dishonestly, I think the lead may be reduced a little bit only.
• I think his tax-cut policy is good despite greatly criticized by the Republican. He will give tax relief to the middle-class and tax the rich more. Majority of Americans belong to the middle class, the working class people.
• Because of his young age, he is appealing to a lot of young generation voters. He won the support from well-known leaders in the high-tech industry, like the CEO of Google.
• Collin Powell, the respected and influential former secretary of state of the U.S. openly endorsed Barack.
• Hillary Clinton, the respected Democratic presidential nominee, openly endorsed and supported Barack. Those independent voters especially the ladies who would vote for Hillary will vote for Barack.
• He chose a very safe vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden. Joe is a steady and non-controversial in his Senator career.
• He is a very charismatic leader. His speech captured the audience. That's why people praised that he does not speak at you but to you. The word 'change' they use is very powerful and captivating throughout the campaign.

(Disadvantages)

• He has much less career achievements.
• He lacks of executive experiences to run a government.
• He lacks of foreign policy experience.
• He was relatively unknown or unheard of until 2 years ago. A lot of people might still doubt his background and link him to muslim, terrorist, and the like.
• He can talk well. People doubt whether he can effectively put his words into actions.

2. John McCain

(Advantages)

• He is regarded as national wartime hero. He was involved in Vietnam war and nearly lost his life for country. He is regarded as a tough fighter and will fight till the end. He bore the scars of his sacrifice for his country.
• He has more career achievements compared to his opponent.
• He has foreign policy experience.
• People who support him have the confidence he will put the country first.

(Disadvantages)

• He is representing the Republican which has 8 years of failed policy. The '8 years of failed policy' is used countless times by Barack in his speeches and it is deeply imprinted in my mind, and in many people's mind as well, I believe. Many people are scared that the failed policy will continue.
• His selection of the vice-predential candicate, Sarah Palin, is not impressive. It is a risky and surprised choice. I personally believe she is not ready to run a big country like the U.S. as vice president and she is barely known by the White house elites. She also lacks of foreign policy experience and exposed herself too much to the negative media publicity. I think it is a risky and unwise choice.
• The republican spent too much energy and time attacking Barack's identity, associating him with terrorist, or etc. There is no proof to what they claimed so it is a waste of time and resouces. They should focus on their campaign message instead.
• He is old and does not seem to appeal to the modern-generation voters. He does not even use computer, does he?

Based on my analysis, I predict a landslide victory for Barack Obama on 4 Nov 08.

Dinner at Adam Road Hawker Centre

We went to have dinner at Adam Road Hawker Centre after CG. The prawn noodle stall is famous as the queue is long and there are many posters of recognition and publicity. They have small, medium and big prawn for customer to select. I ordered pork rib medium prawn and found that the sliced prawn and soup is tasty. The food there is not cheap. I paid $5 for my food.

During the dinner, I had a good time discussing how to improve men's 'market values' with David and Florence. I must thank them for giving me some good recommendations:

1. Dressing - Blue, white and black coloured top will look good on me. Dull or brownish colored top is a big NO NO.
2. Physical Look - Swimming will help give good body shape especially the chest will be enlarged and more muscular. Spiky hair would be good on me.

Besides above, I think having self-confidence is of paramount importance to attact a girl. Girl will be attracted to someone who is clear of his goal and purpose, who can lead her and who can provide her security.

Soaring Amidst Financial Crisis

1. During the recent financial turmoil, many investment banks have collapsed and their investors make losses of their investment.

2. The interest rate was very low and many people were able to buy new homes. As the demand for homes increased, the price of home also increased.

3. The low interest policy was designed to ease the credit and help people get new homes. However, they did not realize that many homeowners could not afford to repay their loans to the banks. As a result, at the forth quarter of last year, the banks started to feel the credit shortages and were forced to take back their mortgages. In order to get credit, the mortgages (or asset) might be sold off at a cheap price. They eventually did not get back the investment return they intend to make. They called it 'sub-prime mortgage' credit crisis.

4. In the first place, where did the banks get the money to loan out to the home buyers? From the public, or from other banks. They do it through selling bonds to them. In Singapore, the investors bought 'mini bond' of Leighman Brothers through local banks.

5. As the cash liquidity problem surfaced due to the 'sub-prime' crisis and the banks cannot afford to pay back their creditors (creditor is investor who buy their bonds or investment products hoping to reap a return), they filed for bankcrupcy to protect themselves legally and declare they could not pay back their creditors. As a result, the public make losses of their investment.

6. What is the lesson I learned on investment and money management through this financial crisis?

a. There is risk in whatever investment we make. The banks or financial planners are well trained and equiped to persuade people to buy their products but they never emphasize on the risk involved. Therefore, when I decide to invest, I have to study the financial product they offer thoroughly to make an informed decision.

b. I read Matthew 25:14-28. This passage teaches me some very important principles in terms of personal financial management.

• Our money does not belong to us. They are God's asset. (v.14) This is a very important understanding and value we should uphold.
• God gives us money according to our ability. Some get more and some get less. (v.15) This is God's sovereity.
• God wants us to be faithful to reap a return for His money. We do not please Him (v. 26) if we are lazy and do nothing about our money. (v.16-30)

c. The followings are my personal monetary policies and I want be a faithful servant of God's asset:

• Rom 13:8 teach me to let no debt remain outstanding. I will aggressively to pay off my tuition fee loan by year 2009 or earlier.
• I will give to God faithfully. The money I give to Him will be used to run the church's operation and extend His kingdom.
• I will spend to bless people and do God's ministry.
• I will continue to support my family financially and pay the home-loan installment.
• I will save money to invest and grow myself hollistically to be an effective servant of God, e.g. I will save money to go for Thai Camp '09, Adult Camp '09 to refresh myself spiritually. I will save money to go for short term holiday in Thailand after the camp to relax and build friendship with people I travel with. I will spend to buy a digital camera for blogging purpose. I will buy books and whatever that is useful to help me grow.
• I will review my saving / investment in financial products soon.

7. What are the things you learned through this financial crisis? What kind of investment you think will reap good return in future? Gold, property, etc...? I would like to hear from you.