The small town full of surprises

Just came back from Sandakan few hours ago (yea, internet addicted) and am going with dad to fetch mom from KLIA later cause she took a different flight.

Surprisingly, Sandakan was not as dull as i thought it was. I underestimated the wonders this small town could offer.

Firstly was the roads. A highway straight across the town really shorten the time it took for us to travel from one place to another. It was like we all lived in one big neighborhood. My aunt said if we drive fast we could get to the airport from BDC in 5 minutes. But what use is it to drive fast in such a small and peaceful town where everything is several beats slower and everyone is in such a relaxed mood. We could drive 50km/hr on the "highway" and no one would honk or flash lights at us.

Secondly, the sky at night. It's been quite a long while since i was able to look up and voila! millions of stars, shinning so brightly and clearly. The feeling was just so awesome, i could have sat there on the pavement and just stare at the sky for hours. Just so coincidence, i read a book about the night sky in a bookstore few weeks ago. I learnt how to read few of the signs and to my amazement i spotted it right there in the sky, among hundred thousands of other stars shinning just as bright and confuzzling (confusing and dazzling at the same time). This has sparked my interest to learn as many signs i could and the next time i'm going back, i will be ready. =)

Thirdly, the amount of angpao i received in just four days. I can't believe i have this much relatives in Sandakan all these while. Visited almost all of them in four days span and to be honest, i felt quite good to be able to meet them and their family. I used to be ignorant when we visit them during those visits years ago. Normally my parents do all the talking and socializing while i stuck to my sister(s) and we sort of gossiped there by ourselves. This year i was alone, and since my parents were independently sociable, i had to get around by myself and try to fit into conversations. It is still hard for me. Seems like i have lost the ability to sustain a conversation. I shall try harder next time.

Fourth, the Chinese New Year atmosphere here is just awesome. Everywhere i went decorations adore the houses and shops. Lion dances and drum sounds everywhere. Big beautiful fireworks every single night i was there. It's either the fireworks/firecrackers were dirt cheap or everyone was rich enough to splurge on it. Or it was just plainly families spending on something special on this special occasion where all family members gather together.

I have no idea when will be the next time i'm coming back to this town, but this trip surely left a deep mark in my heart which i'll be treasuring it well. Not to mention the fresh seafood, the chewy soft ngao lam mee, the fat juicy tender lamb i had at my aunt's house, the sweet refreshing lung dan fish soup which i can still remember the taste, and on top of all food, is the reminiscence feeling i had whenever we passed by some familiar place i once visited/lived at.

I guess this is why they say home is the place you truly cannot hate and forget.

Pictures up next, after i finish figuring out how to convert the videos in my phone into watchable format.

Xmas still rocks more...

...... even though the wallet bleeds instead of receiving. Just shows how much satisfaction you get by the act of giving.

I dug up some old photos from my phone. Just for your pleasure.

Xmas 2009 in blue

Or red if you prefer

My baby sis and "her" baby son

Life without you is so miserably lonely.

*Smirks*

(Ed: Now no one can stop me from dominating all mankind's attention with my mischievous smile/words/action)

Bones

I have not lie when i said my memory is comparable to a hamster's. I've totally forgotten what i intended to write about regarding the bone topic. So let's just move on shall we?

Chinese New Year's around the corner, when families reunite to eat a wholesome meal together and to update their relatives all the gossips they need to know. To enjoy snacks and cookies without guilt and to ask for money shamelessly. To visit annual friends and to being tortured with questions regarding your relationships.

This year i'm going back to Sandakan to reunite with my grandma and whole bunch of relatives. Somehow not as excited as expected, maybe cause i was thinking of going somewhere else. But i guess i can always rely on photography to keep myself occupied. Although i don't have a huge-ass DSLR, compact cameras are better than nothing. Although i don't have any Photoshop skills the memory still stays captured in stand-still photographs.

Maybe i should just take all black and white pics to show just how gloomy i feel.

Boat and bones

It's one of the few rare posts that i would titled my post even before i write anything. This shows how much my memory has really failed me since i need to associate them with keywords so that i won't get home, eat a yummy cookie and forget all about it.

Btw, the chewy cookies that mom bought home from New Zealand are delicious! Not too sweet and really yummy. Going out in awhile i don't know how much i can elaborate but well, we'll just see.

Boat. How many of us that truly think that we are a devotee to our religion? That our faith stands no matter what happens or who speaks to us. You think you are a good Christian, but is it good enough for Him?

Today father talks about three boats that have evolved since mankind realize the grass on the other side is more juicer and that they need a transport to get there. Of course i am sure they were more interested in the cows that were grazing on the juicy grass instead.

So! They invented boats, using strength to propel the boat forward. Then they decided to make ships, because the boats couldn't fit the fat juicy cows and some other tribes were fighting with them to get to the juicy steak. And the first ships were powered by man, sitting on benches rowing the oars with brutal strength. Then they found out that they have used up all the hunky muscular man so therefore they resort to nature, the wind, to propel their ships. Then one day some guy successfully extracted this brutal strength into the form of engines, which most ships are still using till this day.

Three main forces used to push the ship forward - brutal strength, wind, and engine. The ship signifies our faith in God. And the forces signifies things and people who influences our faith.

Brutal strength are those who sees themselves as a powerful being. That they could be masters of themselves and believe every doings are governed by their own actions. They tell themselves God is there when you need Him, but everything else depends on what they do and act upon.

Wind, the people whom are easily influenced by others. This is more commonly seen in outsiders who come into a new city to work or study. The people who could influence them the most are the strangers who they come across first when they reach this foreign land. Being treated kindly and welcomed by them, it would be natural they would follow their religion in due course. Wind also signifies people who are fickle-minded. They are not able to stand on their own principles and easily swayed when other people question their faith in their religion. These are the ones most probably jump fence when time comes.

Lastly the turbo engines, as father put it. These are the ones who have faith in God and trust that they are in good hands. They put their faith in our Lord whom influence people with His teachings. And by His teachings, came out with creations like the engine, which would have been known as God's miracle if it were to exist in the B.C. era. In a way, Lord's teachings has shown us what human are capable of achieving. And this is what the people faith is.

By now you would have known which category you belong. I would shamefully say that i'm between the first and second. That somewhere along the way, after coming across people of different religion and hearing their teachings, i have strayed off from my path of faith. That i will question God, telling myself that i am a master of my own doings and God is merely there who threw me down to Earth (from Heaven =D) for some kind of duty that i have still not come to know yet. I believed that fate is long decided, and we could have the power to change its course.

But after today, i come to know that we are mere soldiers of God who are sent here to do something, and learn something. Maybe something that we did not come to know previously, some important lessons we are to learn, and pass it on to people around us. Religious speaking, to enlighten people around us with the lessons we learnt. In the way, we might stumble across our mission on Earth and one day report it back to Him of our findings, so to say.

In blogging this and telling you, i am in a way fulfilling one of His tasks. I shall finish this off with a typical sentence you would expect to hear from your "preaching" friends (as you put it).

Come join us, we have COOKIES! =D

Edit: I forgot about the bone part, will share about it next time. =)

Seeing myself in you

How much rejection could you afford to handle, before it turns into a knife and slices your heart? The more you treat it coldly, the more it hurts. When everyone is called for except you, what would you think of the next time you sees the person?

All these while you've been treated equally, sometimes more than you wished for. You take pride in it, you have more of the person than anyone else. That was what you thought. Was it the pride that brought you down? That hurt you so badly, so sudden. Makes you reevaluate just how much do you stand in that person's heart.

Nothing hurts more, than to physically receive rejection. A strong push, telling me to stop it. Rather than telling it to me with your mouth. What were you thinking? Am i really that annoying? Did my actions to caution you make you feel disgusted? I was just doing what i am supposed to do, as an adult. Or am i just too overreacting, too concern over accidents that would only stand a 10% chance of it happening? Were you telling me, that i should had risked it, so that you would enjoy life just a second more?

Seeing you fall to your knees satisfy me. I told you so. But was it the satisfaction that i yearn for? To see you fall? No. Did you even cared bout it? No. So why am i the only person feeling bad about it and fretting over matters that i know, i assume that you would have forget about it the next day?

Seeing you putting on masks for different people disgusts me. But that's just how human is.

On a different note, kittens pwnz.

Sourced from cute overload

http://cuteoverload.com/feed/

(put this link in your feed, the pics bring warmth to any cold heart any day)

Let's just stick with... Slacking Chapter 2

Waiting for Kaspersky scan on my laptop to finish scanning my files. It's been kinda slow lately, i'm not sure it's caused by the game i downloaded or just because i've been using the comps at uni too frequent. The comps at the labs really load fast, sometimes i feel like "bringing" one home, too.

Oh, Kaspersky just detected some threats. Oh lookie look. Trojan detected from, guess what. My MATLAB files. (Throws a "i-told-you-so" look at him.) That's what you expect to get from "free" software.

I'm bored. Done with Facebook, Youtube, Google Reader feeds, blog surfing.... what else. Okie maybe a reality update.

Back home this evening, found cousin still around (after like, two weeks? ) and wow, uncle's staying over too?! Great. I feel like i'm back to my motel house. Well, at least someone's utilizing the bandwidth.

Uni's been an ass, having screwed-up timetables, moderator meeting coming up, slow FYP progress, headache cause of lecturer's THICK indian accent, wasted free time, have i mentioned SLOW FYP progress? Darn it.

I could really use some (academic) semangat-boost pills right now...

Self-realization: Omg. Week 2 didn't just passed by, did it?

Slacking, yet tired.

Judging from my absent of post for the last two days (or so..lost track of time) and the last two posts you should be able to guess what happened by now.

Yes, i was able to launch the game successfully, login successfully, create a character successfully, and play successfully. Hence.... my absent. Hehe.

Game is largely quest-based and PVP-based, since right from the start you have to choose between two kingdoms. I was expecting a straight forward game play which is to pick up a bow and kill some mobs, so to say. However, i never expect that i had accidentally chosen a difficult class to play, the "rogue". So now i had to learn sneak attacks, buff attacks, etc. And instead of bows, i'm now wielding a huge-ass sword...... yea, way to go. Btw, i got killed on the first day of playing. PVP sucks.

Virtual world aside, went for movie+bowling session @ MV today with Kinno. I was thinking of blogging bout it yesterday but i was afraid it will jinx me again so i decided to just keep mum. However, i still have backache now but is due to the bowling session. Hah... i suppose if i went for the badminton session this afternoon the result would be the same.

Kinno started playing this game called Spore, i guess most of you would have heard of. It's similar to playing God as you are to create a creature. From there you eat other creatures that are smaller than you, and also gain new parts that you can add-on to your own body, sort of like a evolution. Quite an interesting game, but one thing putting me off from playing is how close it is to reality because you have to go about hunting other species and eat their dead body to gain energy to survive. Like..... eww....

Anyway, have a screwed up timetable therefore you see me free at weird times like this. Gotta head back to campus in a moment. Two days of class, and i can go home already. Mom's back on Thursday! Weeee~ the cook's back!