Am I wasting my time here?

Where am I going?
How do I go there?
Am I wasting my time here?

These questions suddenly popped up into my mind when I read a dear friend's blog .
I see friends movig around me so fast , some are already doing their Masters degree, some are flying overseas for business trips sponsored by their companies, some got married, some are doing well in their work .... all of them below 25 years of their lives.

Is this success? Is this what God wants me to be? What does God want me to be? Who does He want me to become? Am I running too fast? Am I running too far? Does God see me by my resume at the end of my life? Am I living my life to what He accords me to?

Why is it that I feel that I'm running too fast ; sometimes out of the orbit ; sometimes it's the other way round - that I'm too slow and everyone else is running ahead of me? Is this kiasuism and the need for accomplishment killing me slowly, but surely? Or has God's presence and peace left me?

Maybe I should just live my own life as if I don't care about others. Not to think of lost opportunities , but focus in running according to Him? How do I do that? Would my desire to do that run out before I even reach there?

So many questions, so little answers.

Setup of FTP server

This is one thing which was never attempted before. There's so many things to think about :
First : functionality. Second: Authenticity. Third: Security.

Still working on it. Lots to try on. Well, at least the week is not boring... :)

One Week without IM

.........is like one lifetime without it!

Effects as below:

• Work efficiency : increased.
• Accompliment of the week : FTP server set up , emailing typing speed increased , IQ (allegedly) increased according to a research reported by BBC without IM.
• Failures of the week : Time passed very .. verrrry slowwwwleeeyyyyy.... , need to eat chewing gum and talk more crap , need of more MP3s , need of more handsome lads in my office - current count : nil.
• Thankful for : Friday is here, finally!!!!!!!!!
  

Times The Bookshop Warehouse Sale

Date: 29th April - 8th May
(Preview day for Times privilege card-members on 28th April)
Time: 10am - 7.00pm
Venue: 4, 2nd Floor, Jalan 13/4, Section 13, Petaling Jaya (behind Colgate-Palmolive)

So Juventus lost.
And Liverpool moved forward to advance and meet Chelsea.
Two English teams in the Semi-finals of Champion's League.
History is made.
Who will advance to the finals?
We will not know.
But watch the game - first leg of the two. Stamford Bridge.
Tonight : 2.30am Malaysian Time.
Sing the song if you will :)

London Bridge is Falling Down

For those travelling to the capital for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg, here's a classic Kop anthem to you in the mood...

London Bridge is falling down Falling down, falling down London Bridge is falling down Poor old Chelsea Build it up with Red and White Red and White Red and White Build it up with Red and White Poor old Chelsea

Read more news here

Acceptance of the truth

In life, there are always things which you can change and some which you cant.
I saw a very interesting prayer last weekend which sounded like this:

God, grant me the serenity to accept things which I cannot change,
Grant me courage to change things which I can,
and the wisdom to differentiate between the two.

It's time we move on and live a life, and not just existing.... Harbouring ill-feelings against someone brings more adverse effects to yourself than to others.

Melaka is famous for....

1. Food: Satay celup, cendol, beef noodle, chicken rice balls, nyonya food(tak makan),yam cakes, currypuffs.
2. A lot of night spots but they are all empty at night.
3. There's plenty of food spots in Melaka..... but u gotta find them.

Spent half the travel budget on food... I'm in self denial now because I have not gone on the weighing machine. Maybe later.. hehhehe

New Pope is elected : Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is officially elected by the Conclave as the new Pope Benedict XVI.
Have no knowledge about him, but read the CNN and they said he is the "head prefect of Pope John Paul II" ... close confidante of the late pope.... things like this. It also means he holds strongly all the traditions of the Roman Catholic church . The 78 year old pope, oldest in the history of St Peter's is seen as "an enormous disappointment for all those who hoped for a reformist and pastoral pope" , in short, someone who is more liberal and open-minded to tackle issues such as :

.sexuality and the role of women in the church
.birth control
.stem cell research
.ordination of female priests
.usage of birth control methods especially in AIDS-stricken countries like the African nations

I suppose the new pope isn't going to rest his laurels, especially when his predecessor has done many firsts as a papal in history (think about bringing down communism, went into a mosque and a synogogue , speaks ten different languages, held inter-faith dialogues, initiates a unification of church between the Protestant sect and the Roman Catholicism sect, focus on the youths as the new face of the Church and the list goes on...) .

Will he be a conservative pope, or a contemporary pope who adheres to the latest world events -think stem cell, condoms and morning-after pills, euthanasia,gay priests -

Will he follow the foot steps of Pope John Paul II?
-think inter-faith talks, unification of churches-

Will he focus on the future?
-think youths and women-

Will he be pro-Jesus or pro-tradition?
-think Islam , traditions of the church-

Will he stand on a side or be the strong voice against world issues?
-think terrorism, racism, AIDS , sexuality problems -

Waiting to see the next episode. Byes!

What on Earth am I here for?

Pose this question to myself .... the answer didn't emerge clearly... Perhaps that's what live's all about? :)

Spyware Dreamzzzzzz

If you think a spyware can only penetrate your computer system and hide within your hard disk or your memory, then you are VERY WRONG.

They go into our brain system and hide within the subconscious mind too!

A friend testifies to this.He woke up rmembering that spywares crept into his computer ; in his dreams . It must be "because of my ongoing anti spyware crusade in the office..." Muahahahaahhahaaahhaaha farny tale man!

Choose

Forgive and forget .... or revenge?
Which way is tougher? Which way would be the best?How to tackle that?

Uniten graduation ceremony

Attended Uniten's graduation yesterday.Among the news:
. Rumors had it that the only reason why Uniten is having a graduation at this time (the normal time is End of Aug/Early Sept) is because we have a new Chancellor and therefore to usher him into our lovely uni, we throw a nice party for him .. in the form of the graduation party.

. A few friends had to fly all the way back form overseas just to attend this convocation ceremony.Else, they will NOT be allowed to attend and participate in the ceremony anymore in the future. What a way to get the pupils to graduate... If you cant persuade them, you can always threaten them!

My PC keeps crashing

Just don't know why this is happening, but the computer seem to be playing tricks with me. It keeps crashing on me the whole time today - every 20 minutes to be exact. I'm just wondering what is wrong with it... :(

Virus? Worm? DOS? Someone trying to sabotage me? Weird...

Broadband in Malaysia

TMNET is so screwed up.I can't believe how they can maintain their customer base with such a bad service. Maybe we should just all switch to other providers or to get a leased line, whatever..... If they keep on having problems like this , and backup lines are useless anyway, we might as well go back to the prehistoric days where dialup was fashionable. At least network and system administrators don't get blaimed!

Bad bad Thursday

Morning : Juventus lost.
Noon : MSN lost.
Evening : Cool lost.
Night : Temper lost.

Disappointing game

Juventus paid the price during the first game in Anfield. We lost, and they won. I dont know what else to say. Congratulations to Liverpool for winning, hope they will beat Chelsea in the next round. The ball is round .. it has always been, and will always be. Juventus players will get a nice lesson from this. Unpredictable unpredictabe world of football.

A word from a friend.

The richest answers are not the speediest. Your prayers may take a longer time because it brings a heavier blessing. Delayed answers are not only trials of faith , but give us the opportunity to honor God with our steadfast confidence in Him. God's answer never come too soon and never too late. Always on time!

A word from a friend.

The richest answers are not the speediest. Your prayers may take a longer time because it brings a heavier blessing. Delayed answers are not only trials of faith , but give us the opportunity to honor God with our steadfast confidence in Him. God's answer never come too soon and never too late. Always on time!

TM Net explains cause of outage

PETALING JAYA: The outage that disrupted TM Net Sdn Bhd’s Internet services on Thursday was caused by a failure in the APCN 2 submarine cable link between Hong Kong’s Lantau Island and Chongming Island off Shanghai, said TMNet chief executive officer Datuk Baharum Salleh.

He said the cable failure which occurred at 6.20am that day in the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 - a 19,000km-long fibre optic cable system connecting China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan - made it difficult for Internet users to access websites hosted outside Malaysia.

It was reported yesterday that the outage affected TMNet’s streamyx, dial-up, prepaid, WiFi hotspot and leased-line services, and caused service degradation at some of its international links to Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the United States.

Baharum said restoration was in progress and service was expected to resume by tomorrow evening.

“We are doing everything necessary to restore services. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“TM Net has diverted some traffic to other unaffected submarine cable network systems,” Baharum said in a statement.

A notice had also been posted on TMNet’s website to explain the outages.

**News exerpt from The Star . Read it here.

Cold Turkeys and Withdrawal Syndrome

It's confirmed. I'm an addict to the Net ... or more specifically the MSN Messenger and the YM.This is bad...

Morning: MSN Msgr kept bobbing in and out of the server. And it irritates me so much , I had to start troubleshooting it. Reinstall it , uninstall it , and then REINSTALL IT AGAIN .. and then download the latest version of the MSN because the version 7 doesn't work anymore. And then the download doesn't work because it keeps disconnecting me off the page, so I have to redownload it many times but it still didn't work in the end. So OK fine.... I went to the MSN page, redownload the thing again and again.. because the downloaded file was not completed. Got stuck at 34% for a very long time............. zzzzzzzzzz.............. and then it says DOWNLOAD COMPLETE which got me overjoyed.Alas, it was a false alarm , and I had to continue to download it, probably already repeated the same steps 1o times!

And once I got the latest EXE file , *oh boy, I was so excited to see a picture of a box unfolded* I quickly installed it, and tried to connect it back to the MSN server. And of course, what can be worse? When it cannot connect back of course! :(

Troubleshoot everything - scan for virus and spywares , check the version , call up Streamyx and Maxis lines , check the FW and the NELB.And nothing was wrong.

Finally I gave up, plug in the modem and just tried on Maxis alone.Turned out to be excellent speed. So it's either the Streamyx or the load balancer.

Answer tomorrow.

- -

Pukul 8 malam

Kerdipan bintang tidak kelihatan
Hanya pancaran lampu kereta senja
Aku memandang ke arah cahaya buatan
Memikirkan apakah kita sudah lupa
Alam buatan Tuhan.

Kereta-kereta manusia yang begitu sibuk
Saban hari saban malam masih berkeliaran
Adakah sesiapa memandang ke arah langit yang pekat
Melihat bulan yang tidak mencemburui kita
Lambaianku kepadanya yang kesunyian
Nyata tidak ada pulangan.

Hatiku tidak resah , namun ia tidak juga riang
Cuma mengingatkan kehidupan insan yang sentiasa kesibukan
Mata kita melihat, jari-jemari pula sibuk mengais wang
Mencari sesuap nasi, secebis kehidupan
Agaknya inilah sebenarnya kehidupan
Sibuknya yang tiada kehujungan.

MSN and YM have gone crazy in my PC

Someone please tell me what's going on with my notebook!
There's nothing wrong on the network.... Is it the work of the spyware? i've scanned it and it's clean! Is it some virus? I dont know but I dont think so... Maybe I should scan it..

Ahh lousy lousy start on a BLUE Monday! Dang!!!

MSN and YM gone crazy

Why ?
I'm so disconnected.. Someone come save me!
I'm dying to figure it out here.... ;(

It's Pope John Paul II's funeral today. Some facts:

• Where : A grotto beneath St. Peter's Basilica.
• What happened between his death and funeral :
  The pope died Saturday, and his body has lain in state since Monday in the basilica, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and dozens of world leaders have come to pay their respects.
• At least 2 million people were believed to have paid tribute to the pope since Monday.
  Some waited in line for up to 12 hours for their chance to see the pope's body for a few seconds.
• How many will attend the funeral : From 100,000 to 115,000 members of the public in the square, along with hundreds of dignitaries, including U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, as well as the Secretary of State , Condoleeza Rice.
• When will the Conclave begin : April 18. To be attended by 117 cardinals -- all younger than 80 -- are eligible to attend.
• What did the Pope's last will wrote?

( i) Noted that he left no material possessions behind

( ii) To ensure his personal secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz that his personal notes are burnt.

( iii )"Day by day the 20th century closes behind us and the 21st century opens."

A Lifetime Adventure

"Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life -- facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown and in the process, discovering our own unique potential."

~ Unknown

Extra Responsibilities = Bigger Paycheck ?

Suddenly it dawned on me that I'm shouldering many many responsibilities! Network , help desk support, email server , network security , purchasing , repairing , troubleshooting , technician, tea lady , communicator, scapegoat ...and the list continues to grow... And a host of things, and yet low salary!

Someone suggested that I ask for a higher pay, but I'm wondering if it is the right time to demand for more.... After all, I'm not a skilled worker yet , and I don't have enough experience or accolades to claim. I wonder what I should do to claim it. Hmm....

The equation should be :
Extra Responsibilities + Bigger Paycheck = Bigger headache.

Friendly match.. Michel Platini and Ian Rush to commemorate this historical event after 20 years of not playing against one another Heysel event).  

Full Time 1 : Liv 2- Juv 1

Full Time 1 : Liv 2- Juv 1
Venue : Anfield, Liverpool.

First Half for Liverpool : Attack and Control wellCool corner tries and tackles. Scored two goals before 30 minutes are up! Plenty of opportunities because most are on the forward mode.

First Half for Juventus : Defend mode , dont-know-how-to-play mode.Didn't get much of the ball. Too busy defending as Liverpool was very fierce. Midfield didnt send much up for Del Piero or Ibrahimovic. Not much chance to score.

Second Half for Liverpool : Defend strategy
Although defending , Liverpool played well with a few corner kicks and free kicks. Gerrard and Baros even tried on the goal but they were either too high up or too far away from the goal post.

Second Half for Juventus : Attack !!!
Attack would be their natural action since they have been playing like kiddos on the street in the first half! However, they seem to lack the punch. There were a few wild shots from afar from Juventus , but that was that. If it wasn't for the 'lucky' goal which Cannavaro sent into the goal, I bet Juventus would be crying their way home. :(:(:(

Overall :
Good match , with Liverpool returning to its full form. The coach must be really proud of his boys. Juventus has to buck up in the second leg of the match , else I'll definitely have to fork out money already here! The goal conceded by both Liverpool players (Hyypia - 10' and Luis Garcia-24') were beautiful compared to Cannavaro's second half header.

Man of the Match: 19-year-old Scott Carson from Liverpool, goalkeeper.
This guy is a third choice as the goalkeeper it seems. Replacing Dudek who was injured , he went well in defending many tries of Del Piero and Ibrahimovic. Firewalker salutes u!

Future game next week:
Juventus : Juventus need to score one goal ahead of Liverpool. They better NOT let Liverpool score anything first, or at all. They must maintain a point ahead of Liverpool to be able to take advantage of the 2-1 aggregate since they have the upper hand in scoring the away goal.

Liverpool : Liverpool needs one more goal to seal the faith against Juventus to make it 3-1 or 3-2 aggregate. They need to attack early and then just enter defend mode after that to cruise into the Semis.

Key point for both sides: Attack early for both teams . Defence is important for Juventus as well.

Half Time : Liv 2- Juv0

Juventus at Half Time:
1. Bad game for them.
2. Run like ducks- helter skelter
3. NO coordination between center and attacking side.
4. Del Piero hardly got any chance on the ball.
5. Ibrahimovic tried his best - but not good enough.
6. Coordination and speed is the key!
7. Not much chance under the pressure of Liverpool fans in Anfield.

Liverpool at Half Time:
1. Luis Garcia is very lengchai!
2. Speed and coordination - good.
3. Baros can play some football.
4. They just need to defend in the second half.
5. Many corners and free kicks for Liverpool in the first half.

Juventus Versus Liverpool

It's almost 10.30pm now, and I'm supposed to go to sleep later and wake up at 2.30am to watch the match.

Please God, let this match be a good one. Amen. And please help Juventus to win and let those LiverFools walk back alone.. muahahhahahah *evil evil*

A dove and the man.... Just beautiful. 

Prayer for the Selection of the new Pope

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The Conclave is starting soon in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope , the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Let us all pray for the College of Cardinals ; for its members to be fully God-inspired to select the new Pope to replace the late Pope John Paul II. At this age of silent wars and selfish hearts, we need a man of God , of compassion , full of humility and a sense of understanding of the current times to lead one of the greatest forces of morality on earth. Let's pray to Jesus that the Holy Spirit will guide the College in performing God's will.

In Jesus's name, we ask and pray humbly, Amen.