On Top of Gunung Tampin

Yeay! I've finally made it to the top after being pushed, pulled and dragged by Cec. This my second time hiking up the mountain, and I've made a bit of an improvement after two months. Only a bit though, nothing to shout about, but an improvement nonetheless. Would love to cover the hike up in less than 30 minutes. In a year perhaps, if not two. ;)

We enjoyed the climb up, joking and laughing. Snapped some photos along the way, but Cec managed to delete some for reasons unknown to us.






Some significant numbers in my life.


It's a bit misty up here for this time of the day. The atmosphere is serene and we are loving it.



Embraced in the glory of life, I am.

Another Tender Porposal Completed

After a marathon of late nights, strenuous brain-storming sessions and hundreds of pages of dry technical writing, we’ve completed yet another tender proposal. Two proposals in a span of a week can be exhausting. I'm glad that things went smoothly and that at the end of it, I'm still here standing. We are rather early with this one, considering in the past we would normally still be struggling to complete our write-up at this hour.

I hope I could have it submitted early in the morning so that I could take a little nap before going to Rembau to see Cec and her parents. It's been a while since I last visited them. I've been missing Auntie Asmah's cooking and if I'm lucky, there could be the sumptuous sotong sumbat. Emmmmmmm!

I haven’t had much time to exercise, so we thought of taking a brisk walk around Kg. Berkat Chembong. Perhaps if we would be up to it, hiking up Gunung Tampin on Tuesday morning would be nice, too. Fresh air, serene atmosphere and beautiful surroundings; I long to be immersed in the beauty of nature, and embraced by the glory of life.

Silence

A man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
- Thomas Hardy

Would that be a good enough excuse not to update my blog? :)

The Wisdom of Star Wars

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into The Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side." -- Yoda

Shhhh!

We're in the cinema now. Shhh ... no blogging during movies!



He! He! But the movie has not started yet. And we are patiently waiting while munching pop-corns.



OK, here comes the movie! Yeay, Star Wars! God bless George Lucas. :)

Going to See Star Wars Ep. III

I've been up for over 33 hours now, and I'm feeling a bit like a zombie. I submitted our tender proposal at 11:30am. Went to KLCC to buy the 5pm show for Star Wars. I just arrived at the kids place after having a short meeting with a client to discuss his upcoming IT project.

They were already dressed up ready to go, but I told them I needed to take a short nap before we go out. I really don't want to fall asleep in the cinema.


Lisa was surfing the net, visiting Star Wars websites. She has seen Ep. III with her friend over the weekend, but she liked it so much, she doesn't mind going again. I'm glad that they're into Star Wars. I've been a big fan since I was a little kid.


Joey was showing me his dance moves for his pre-school concert. Unlike me, he got the moves. He then made a silly joke, "Daddy, what's the sexiest animal?" And for the sake of answering I just blurted out, "Zebra?" without knowing why. "Yes," he said. "Bukak zip, nampak bra!" ;)


When I was in the shower, Joey snapped a picture of Lisa playing with my PDA. Notice the stylus-free style. :)

They posed for a few shots on the way to TGV.




We stopped by Video EZ to get a couple of VCDs.


Joey wasn't sure what to get.

A Few More Pages, and We're Done (for Now)

We are close to completing our technical proposal for the tender bid. There's another section which need to go in the folder, and then we'll pack them up into boxes, ready to be submitted to the Ministry. It has been a 21-hour marathon of typing, searching the net for information, compiling, copying and pasting, and staring into the blank space looking for ideas. That's how it has been for the past several days. And I'm physically exhausted.

There'll be another tender to submit next week. Before I could fully recuperate, the cycle is going to repeat itself. And I'm already yawning as I'm writing this entry.

But honestly, I have no right to complaint. I enjoy being a salesman, and in selling IT systems to the government (or other large organizations), tender bidding process is part and parcel of the sales cycle. This is my bread and butter. It has fed me and my family for the past several years, and I pray for more suitable IT tenders to bid on.

And a couple of directly negotiated projects would be nice, too. Thank you. :)

It's a Working Sunday

After spending a 40-hour marathon of working (and sleeping) at the office, I took my work home today. There's a lot more to do before we could submit our proposal on Tuesday.


I got the TV on to keep me entertained, as responding to tender requirements could be a bit dry sometimes. There's 'The Making of Madagascar' on TV3 at noon & of course, Monaco Grand Prix on 8TV at 8pm.

I've promised myself to take Lisa & Joey to watch Madagascar when it opens. After the tender submission on Tuesday, I've planned with them to catch Star Wars Ep. III at KLCC. Current workload has kept me away from my loved ones. They are always in my heart, and I pray that the can always feel my love for them no matter how far apart we are. Love is boundless, and like the 'force' in Star Wars, it penetrates, binds and surrounds us. Love is all around, and I hope Lisa & Joey could always look inside of them and be able to tap to the source of love within. That is all that we need to live by.

Daddy loves you, Lisa and Joey. Always. Hugs & kisses to you two.

Now My PDA Has Gone Transparent

It's late and I'm still in the office writing and compiling a couple of tender proposals for government IT projects. It's going to be long nights until the bids are submitted next week. In between work, I would humor myself to keep awake and make sure that the bulb up there is still working.

Or perhaps I've gone bonkers. Either way, I'm feeling marvelous. :)

Joey Exploring Digital Photography

I let Joey, my five year old son, played with my Canon IXUS 500 one day. He snapped tonnes of images, but these ones turned out interesting.






Given the tools to express, kids can be very creative.

Transparent LCD Screen

Inspired by mlife.at, I've now switched to a transparent LCD screen for my notebook. I think it's cool because I could see what's behind my screen when I'm using it. But my cubicle does require some spring-cleaning.

Catching Up with Hazman

I'm back in my apartment now. It's 40 km away from my office in Bangsar. It usually takes me 30-40 minutes of driving down south on the Seremban highway. I like this place for the tranquility that it offers. I might be spending a lot on fuel and tolls, but the money I save on rental is worth it. The lengthy journey also give me a chance to catch up with phone calls.

On the way home, I had a long phone conversation with Hazman, a good friend. I first met him online through Ryze a year an a half ago. We clicked right away. We are in the same IT industry, and we discussed about doing projects together. It's unfortunate that until today, we haven't been successful on getting anything together, eventhough on our own, we've managed to strike some sizeable deals.

Recenty, we were going through similar situations with our lives. And somehow, in facing the rough episodes and dealing with our own challenges, we drifted apart and weren't as close as we were in the beginning.

It was really nice to have a long chat with him again after so long. I'd like to write more about him, but I'll save that for another day when I have a proper keyboard as transribing using my index finger (after losing my stylus for the fourth time) is tiring. In the mean time, you could read his popular blog.

Now I'm going to clear my thoughts, and take that peaceful inner journey within.

It has been a wonderful day. I'm grateful for all the blessings. Good night to all.

Mobile Blogging

Yeay, this is my first post using PDA & GPRS. I've been looking for ways to do mobile blogging after failing to create new post through Blogger Dashboard. Somehow the IE browser on my PDA would crash everytime I try to open the 'new post' page.


I then tried to install PocketBlog, but I couldn't make it to work. It failed to connect to blogger server and some error messages would pop up. :(


Finally, I found AvantBlog. Simple & completely browser-based, which means there's no uploading/downloading of data outside a browser which Celcom would charge me 1 sen for 1kb (don't ask me why, the unlimited GPRS package only allows me free browsing using IE but downloads are chargeable).


So, I'm happy to be a mobile blogger now. I could post from whenever I am. Pictures and other stuff could be added later on once I have my notebook (it's an old Dell Inspiron and it's heavy, which is why I don't bring it around too often).

Adios then for now. Gotta get back to work. Rest assured that you'll hear from me more often from now on.

Technology. You gotta love it. And I'm grateful.

Be Strong, Control Your Anger

What is Real?

"What is real? How do you define real?" Morpheus asks Neo at one point. "If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

I love The Matrix for its portrayal of mass unconciousness in our world today. Humanity today knows very little about life beyond what we can smell, taste and see. We think the physical world is real, and solid, because we can smell, taste and see it. We would wake up everyday, wondering who we are, where we came from, and where are we going. Sometimes, we even stop wondering, and simply going along with the flow, which most of the times, are not flowing too nicely at all.

Fortunately, there are the splinters like Neo and Morpheous, who could peek beyond the obvious. They understand the essense of life beyond what is interpreted by the limited mind. They are like the fire burning in the night. And the fire is slowly spreading, lighting up our world out of the darkness. More and more souls are becoming concious to see the light, and to escape the matrix.

If you were offered two pills like Neo was, which one would you take? Red or blue?

Just for Today

Thanks Tania for another inspiring message in your e-mail today.

We can do anything
for just one day. So,
just for today, let us
be unafraid of life,
unafraid of death which is the
shadow of life; unafraid to be
happy, to enjoy the beautiful, to
believe the best.
Just for today let us live one
day only, forgetting yesterday
and tomorrow, and not trying to
solve the whole problem of life
at once.

Interactively Navigate 3D Terrain over the Web

The current advancement in today's technology has now made it possible to navigate through 3-Dimensional terrain interactively, and may I add, easily, through the web. Using complex streaming algorithm, whereby only viewable images are trasferred through the internet, 3D navigation becomes fast and engaging. Previously, it would take hours do download and view huge terrain data over the web.

Visit Skyline Software's website to try out TerraExplorer. Here are some images from the demo dataset:







Hopefully we would be able to bring this technology to Malaysia soon, so that the availability of local terrain data could assist government agencies in their decision making process. Applications such as land use management, planning and administration could benefit from the fusion of Geographical Information System and 3-dimensional terrain database.

Reaching for Better Thoughts

When you try to justify where you are by pointing out how bad things are, you are headed in the wrong direction. Reach for the thought that feels better, And allow the natural Well-Being that is yours. - Abraham Hicks

Yes, there could be a million 'bad' things in our life situation. And sometimes we could feel down if we let them affect our thoughts. Don't give those bad thoughts more energy than what they deserve by putting your attention on them. Instead, simply observe and accept them for what they are, merely illusions existing in time and space, without any reality.

What is real is your essense, your very being, eternal and infinite, existing beyond time and space. You are gifted with the natural well-being, not affected even one iota by problems in the illusive physical realm.

Thus, whenever you feel down, stop going in the wrong direction, and reach out for the thoughts that feels better. Go within, feel your essense, and allow the greatness in you to enpower your life.

When I was born ...

Be Present and Enjoy Being

Life is too precious to be spent worrying about the future, or regretting the past. Past problems and future worries merely exist in our minds. They are not real, only illusions. Free your mind from past and future, and only the glorious and eternal NOW is present.

"When you surrender to what is and so become fully present the past ceases to have any power. The realm of Being, which had been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfathomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy. And within that joy, there is love. And at the innermost core, there is the sacred, the immeasurable. That which cannot be named" - Eckhart Tolle

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, but today is a gift. That's why they call it 'the present.'" - source unknown.

Can you feel your presence? Are you aware of your being? Quiet your mind for a moment. Be still. Stop those incessant chattering going on in your head. Focus on your breathing instead. Feel every part of your body. Let the inner realm open up. If you can reach that point, you'd know that there's nothing else out there which could ever top the feeling of immense joy.

Miracle Water Speed Up Healing of Wounds

It's nothing short of a miracle.

"A California company has figured out how to use two simple materials -- water and salt -- to create a solution that wipes out single-celled organisms, and which appears to speed healing of burns, wounds and diabetic ulcers." - WIREDNEWS

The super-oxygenated water, known as Microcyn, is ion-hungry, and thorough osmosis, it ruptures the cell walls of single-celled organisms such as bacteria, viruses and even hard-to-kill spores. People, animals and plants are multicellular organisms, and there's no negative impact on us as the water is prevented from surrounding the cells.

Clinical trials are currently ongoing in various parts of the worlds. Many more applications for it are being explored. I look forward for the day when it's available of the shelf.

It's simply a miracle. All of life is. How can we not be grateful?

Happiness is a Decision

According to Stephen Covey, between action and reaction there is a space called choice. In that space, you can decide how to react to anything that happens to you. Most people would ignore that space, giving away their freedom to choose. Thus they would automatically react to a given situation with reflexes previously conditioned through their early upbringing and life experiences. When irritated, they would react in anger. When disappointed, they would be upset.

I'd like to be able to exercise my freedom to choose. To free myself from conditioned reflexes. To be able pause between action and reaction, and use that precious space to decide for myself what I want and how I want to react in a given situation.

Cadbury would say, which I agree, ...

Dancing in the Moonlight

Celebrate your life! Dance in the moonlight ...

When that moon is big and bright
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark and they don't bite
They keep things loose they keep it tight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

We like our fun and we never fight
You can't dance and stay uptight
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight

We get in on most every night
And when that moon is big and bright
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

-Toploader

Thank you Cec, TAd and Elaine for introducing me to this wonderful song.

Download the mp3 here.