Treasures in Jars of Clay

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed from every side, but not crushed; perplexed. but not depair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For who we are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

How significant is Jesus' death to you? Will you hold on and stand up for Him during trying moments, after what He's done for you?

I am beginning to learn to be firm through peaceful acts. My principles on certain matters have not changed. But God told me to always trust in Him and gain peace, to follow His instruction obediently. I am quite an out-spoken person sometimes. I tell people what I think. But I've learnt that I don't have to be loud to prove a point. Showing peaceful and consistent personality is the way to go. Standing up doesn't mean to fight back against human, but against the temptation which desires to let anger and hatred control our actions and words. To still have a heart filled with love and peace even when we're treated otherwise. Jesus does not only preach, but His kindness is also portrayed through His gentle actions. I want to have a heart that beats for Jesus. I want to have a heart that beats LIKE Jesus'.

The all-surpassing strength is from God, so ask Him for it, and He will give it to you. If you are thirsty, ask God to fill your cup with living water.

John 4:13-14
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Have a nice week, people!

Kids in my house

I've introduced Michelle to you in one of my previous posts. Her birthday was on 20th Nov. While Reza, an Iranian student from Taylors College (also mentioned some where in my previous posts, among conversations with my lab colleagues) is moving out this coming Sunday.

We plan to have a little belated birthday celebration cum farewell for both of them on this Sunday afternoon - lunch and movie at Sunway Pyramid.

To cut the story short, we settle with watching Rapunzel in the normal screening. Reza is not a fan of Disney cartoon when it comes to watching movie in cinema. He also doesn't like Unstoppable, a movie which I surprisingly enjoyed very much. It still puzzles me because I don't know how exactly does it catch my attention for 1 hour 30 minutes. I always think I have short attention span, like only 20-30 minutes (normal people have 40 minutes I guess).

Anyway, after we've finalised out decision, Michelle went all the way to Pyramid to get us the ticket this afternoon, for Sunday afternoon show. She then text us about it. I met Reza when I just got back from work this evening.

Reza: So we're watching Rapunzel this Sunday?

Me: Yup! You received message from Michelle, right?

Reza: Yeah.. bluek!

Me: HAHAHAHAAHA! C'mon! It can't be that bad! What was the Disney cartoon you last watch?

Reza: Rapunzel :p

*p/s: Rapunzel is not yet released at this point of time.

Michelle is the kid who still loves Disney cartoon (actually, I do, too!) and is eager to watch it in 3D. Reza is the kid who cannot wait to grow up, or show that he has grown out of cartoon.

Bluek!

My laptop is really nuts!

1. battery life is only 10 minutes, since ages
2. screen is dimmer than usual - but still can project image
3. speaker has lost its "voice" - but still plug in earphone and listen to audio files
4. cooling fan is not working - bought a cooling pad for it
5. quite often my mouse pad doesn't detect my tap, and I have to use the button for clicking an item, which is very troublesome :S
6. even the keyboard is less sensitive now, many alphabets need to tap a few times on the keyboard to register it
7. now: it keeps popping up the Critical Battery message to remind me to plug in power source. Of course I've done so or else what makes you think you can survive till you pop up that message? The annoying part is: I've cancelled the reminder but it still keeps popping up.

I've always loved my laptop because of its size and look - simple and light yet not too tiny. It's gone through about 2 formatings throughout these 5 years, no repair on hardwares, yet. But I guess, it's time I start to look around for new babe? Sigh, Mac Book Pro is very expensive..

Settle Down

I've stayed in Subang for more than a month now. Until today, many have asked me if I've eventually adapted to this new place, or "settled down".

The word "settle down" always brings a calmer tone to whatever situation we're referring to. Settle down as in the snow slowly descending from the sky and settle down on roof top, ground. Settle down as in getting married with your steady girlfriend and build a family, not looking around anymore and spend less time out there but more focus in managing household affairs.

To me, I am settled down when I do the opposite, I think. When I've got to know the new place, familiarize with the public transport system, make some new friends to hang out with and get in touch with the happenings around here, it's when I feel comfortable. I've eventually getting back the habit of filling up my schedule a week ahead, yet still allow some room for impromptu plans. I'm back to the tak-boleh-duduk-diam-diam-kat-rumah me, hee hee.

So yes, I have settled down. Life has been exciting! :D

Being helpful by not helping

We always say when there's an accident on the road, please don't slow down and observe the damage because we may cause the traffic jam and probably cause another accident as well, which in turn, cause more traffic jams and attract more unwanted attention, and the cycle goes on.

It just occurred to me that sometimes it's not just the onlookers that cause the congestion. The "helpers" summoned by those involved in the accident could cause the same situation, too. It's not alien for us to hear that someone called his whole village of relatives or whole gang of friends to the scene to "give support" to their side.

Well, if you have a lot of space around the scene, then maybe it isn't a trouble to do the above. But if it's not, then please only pick the most useful person to help.

Drive safely, if you don't like to star in a show for free.

This Week

On Monday, I worked like it's a Monday.
On Tuesday, my department was relatively under-staff compared to usual days. So the remaining team members worked like it's a Monday, too.
On Tuesday night, I felt like it's a Friday (not-working-on-Saturday kind of Friday) night. Because the next day is a public holiday. And I remember that I'm not working on a public holiday. What's more, I've had an awesome plan of meeting Xu Vin for lunch and then Harry Potter 7 movie with Dev, Pau, Pei Sun and two other medic girls, in MidValley.
On Wednesday, plans worked out accordingly. And went to church for prayer meeting at night. I did feel like it's a weekend.
On Thurday, I felt like it's a Monday again, due to good "weekend" the day before.

Tomorrow is Friday. I hope it'll just be a normal working day :) Nonetheless, this is the kind of more-fulfilling work/life I was looking forward to have ever since I made up my mind to work in a laboratory. I may seem complaining but actually I am not. In fact, I am not holding back the workaholic part of me to work as much as I like. It feels good to be this obsessive :D

Lost Count of Days 2

So it happened again, during our awesome post debate training camp dinner over Domino pizzas.

Darryl: Cher Linn, will you be free this Wednesday?
Me: Wednesday? (mind thinking: Wednesday is a week day. I work on a weekday.)
Me: Night time, yes!
I'm not sure if Darryl's expression was "puzzled" or "sweat".
Darryl: Wednesday is a public holiday.
Me: OHHH, yeah yeah yeah, I'm free the whole day! Are you planning to go Meeples again? :D
Darryl: Yeah, I'm thinking of asking Jim if he's free for Meeples on Wed, too.

I need to announce it here that: No, I am not working on any public holidays :) And if I do go Meeples, I hope we can play Ubongo agian :p

How do you know if you really love someone?

When you're involved in an accident with them, and was actually glad that other than the fact that no one was injured, you were THERE with them instead of being safe and unharmed at home already. Check and see the damages. Pushing cars to the road side with the sky drizzling on us. Go to police station. Go to another police station that has Traffic Offense department. Wait in police station for the necessary procedures. Settle necessary reports for the night. And whatever mess, only to reach home at 12:30am, knowing well that you're working on the next day.

Feel me and fill me, Lord

When you're wrong and rebuked, what else can you learn other than from the mistake you did?

The art to rebuke.

But hold it right there. First, we need to define what is seem appropriate or acceptable manner to rebuke. Some people don't think it's too harsh to yell: "Can you use your brain ah?!". While some do. I've seen it in my lab. From a colleague of mine to a clerk who is over 50 years old. Even if he could mean it in a joking manner, I don't think it is appropriate to utter such words, to anyone, not just towards elderly. Especially when he raises his voice.

Working with people who don't have the culture to say "Please" is quite a challenge.





...
Lord, it is SO hard ;-(

Lost Count of Days

I notice I have this tiny forgetful problem when it comes to public holidays since I started my working life. It tends to slip from my mind that some days are public holidays and I don't work on public holidays. Some of my colleagues may be scheduled to work on that day, but not me. For your information, I don't even have on-call.

When I was still with previous company this calendar year, everyone was excited about their Merdeka day holidays. It's some sort of like an extended weekend and many took leave on certain days to make it even longer. Colleagues were talking about their plans and trips with their families. I listened to them and was being asked about my plans, too. And it was our MERDEKA Day, I couldn't possibly overlook this day in my calendar, right?

Not really.

I needed to be reminded on the day before that I didn't have to work the next day because it was Merdeka. When my colleague asked me was I going home for the weekend I went blank and said it'd be too rush to go back Penang then come back on the next day, then she went blank after hearing my reply, too. And we managed to gather that I had forgotten that the next day was Merdeka day.

The same happened during the last Deepavali as well. That time I was already with my new (current) employer. The same thing happened as aunty Collene asked me for lunch on that day and I told her I couldn't do lunch before 12 noon as that's my lab's schedule. Well, if I don't work on that day, there's no lab schedule to follow.

However, the part that get worse is; I even lost count of the days in a week now. I nearly forget that today is Friday. And I only work half day on a Saturday, which is a day after Friday. I keep it at the back of my head that there's a debate training camp this weekend, but it always seems so far for me that I can't believe it's here already. And I also have forgotten that the BigBadWolf book sale starts from tomorrow, too! Sigh, guess I never have the chance to go for the crazy book sale. But the main reason is because of transport issue.

Seriously, working on a Saturday really kills my Friday-night-and-the-weekends mood. I no longer shout Yay Friday because it doesn't mean anything to me now. Neither do I shout Yay Weekends because after work, I barely have time to go anywhere during weekday nights, and barely have energy to go anywhere during the "remaining" weekends. It's slowly coming to be that every morning as I wake up I have to get ready for work. If not because of public holidays, I don't have chance to sleep past 8:30am now as I'm also waking up early for church on Sunday morning.

I am starting to think that Wey Wen is right. It's time to get a good calendar notebook. I used to use Google calendar. But now I barely have time online and I am actually thinking I should cut down time online so that I can spend more time on daily quiet time. Hence dependence on virtual calendar/ planner maybe isn't a good idea.

That's all from me today. I just came back from Young Adult Cell Group [YACG] with a bunch of church mates from Subang Jaya Gospel Center [SJGC], the church that I am attending now. It's a fruitful evening :) Still, I am struggling to finish this note of expression here before I collapse on bed. If you're new to my blog, this could be the first glimpse of yours at how important a blog to express is to me.

Cheers and have a good weekend, people! *yawn*

Nice room!

I just saw this picture from someone's Tumblr site and I want to share it here. Don't ask me question about this picture. People don't explain much in their Tumblr anyway hence I know nuts about the story behind. And very likely it isn't their original post either. Still, this picture makes me feel good :)

Serious colleagues

Conversation 10

Rodzi accidentally cut his finger with penknife. It didn't bleed at all as it was just a small wound. But it hurt nonetheless. He then put on a plaster over the wound immediately.

Rodzi: Ish, sakit la..
Me: Kesian you :( Sakit lagi ke?
Rodzi: ... macam ni boleh dapat malaria tak?

And I tried my hardest not to laugh too loud.

It's funny because apparently Rodzi knew exactly how one got malaria. He's been working in hospital lab for 25 years! That's even before I was born! And he was probably asking it while hoping me could support him to take MC for this cut tomorrow. Haha :)

Culture Shock After Moving To Subang From KL

Ever since I moved to Subang Jaya 3 weeks ago, I rarely had a good experience dining in Subang, except this afternoon when aunty Collene brought me to USJ for Yong Tau Foo in a restaurant she frequents.

The hawkers' attitude in preparing the food is very disappointing. I am not making fuss just to show that Penangites are used to being served with good food or we have very delicate taste buds that are only pleased by real good food. Because I never have this problem when I was in KL for 5 years or more. If there's anything, I'd say KL food is acceptable, while Penang food is delicious. Here in Subang, the food merely pass the edible standard.

In fact, I am more pissed by the way food are served. I feel like the hawkers (including mamak store) cook just to prepare something that is edible. There is not spirit to woo customer, and they don't care if the customers will complain. Because you know what? I think one of the reasons is, the customers just don't complain! The customers here eat just to fill their stomachs and they are not particular about good dining experience even from a hawker! Food is not just about the consumption part. But it's also about the relationship between the cook and the consumer.

First incident that irked me was when I found cucumber slices were not peeled off their skins when served with chicken rice. Maybe it's normal for most of you. But it's annoying for me to find it served in this manner, not to mention the cucumbers were bitter. The first thing that came to my mind was: How could they serve this kind of food? That day was my first time trying out hawker food in Subang. Many people told me I am lucky to stay in SS15 because there are a lot of hawker centers around for good food. What a disappointment. There are a lot of dining outlet alright, but they are not necessarily "good" food. To be fair, after I went back and thought about it, I reckoned that maybe I've over-reacted over the small slices of cucumber.

Second incident was at this huge mamak restaurant. Their fried rice was so salty that I couldn't remember if I finished it. And I don't usually doubt if I finish food, because I usually do. Just when I've forgotten about this incident, I went there again, ordered different type of fried rice. It , too, was too salty, and it reminded me to learn from my past experience and not to order any of their fried rice again. Not to mention the price here is much higher than those in KL.

The mamak restaurant my colleagues and I frequent during our lunch time is actually much better. At least their food is at the acceptable category. But I just hope Subway restaurant could be nearer to me. I'd rather (or have the choice to) eat their Sub-of-the-day everyday than eating mamak food during every lunch. At least the former is healthier. We go to the same mamak restaurant during every lunch break because the food isn't that bad and it's the only few options around the hospital and they give discounts to hospital staff. And they have friendly waiters. That is the good dining experience I am talking about. Not just the high end restaurants have to give good service. But every restaurants which wants to keep customers, they have to bother to give this level of service.

The incident which prompted me to write this post happened just now. It's the same mamak restaurant which serves me fried rice that was too salty. I still visit that restaurant because it is on my way back home from gym after kick-boxing session. I ordered Claypot Sweet&Sour Fish Rice.

Their service tonight was slower than usual. But that's not the main issue. When the food was served, it was in a claypot alright. The fish pieces tasted sweet and sour as promised, with white rice. But the instant I scooped up the rice, I noticed the rice did not stick to the base of  the claypot like they usually would as a claypot dish. Suspiciously I touched the base of the claypot from outside, and it was warm, not boiling hot. Then it hit me that they didn't cook the dish in the claypot. They cooked it separately and then put it in the claypot. And they have the guts to call it CLAYPOT rice. What..? *slap forehead* If they cook the rice in the claypot on stove, the pot would be so hot that even the hawker has to carry the pot with a holder when serving it on the table. And some of the rice at the base will be burnt and stick to the base, and they have this special smell that can only come from claypot dish.

I felt cheated and disappointed. I ate my dinner sorrowfully.

I guess most people in Subang eat home cook food. Or because they are rich people, they eat in high end restaurants which give good service and dining experience. They eat real claypot rice dishes. And poor people are not suppose to be picky about what we eat and should just be satisfied with what is served.

I am shocked that this is the culture widely accepted and practised around my area.