Fitna

Watched Fitna the movie (only 10mins) the other day.

The movie is made by a Dutch politician, attacking Islam and its Quran.
The movie shows disturbing verses from the Quran and violent preaches of the imams.
It isn't right to do so, attacking another religion.
And also picking only particular verses and not the whole paragraph or chapter.
However, to him he believes that Islam is evil and should be eradicated.
That is why this 'movie' came out because he thinks it is his duty to show the 'true' colors of the Quran.

I do not have any comments on the Quran as I have not read it in full personally.
But I wonder how many muslims have read the Quran in full and know what they are believing in,
whether the Fitna really shows the true face of Islam and its Quran.
But then I suppose the same goes for every other believers in their faiths.

伸手不见五指

夜。
阴冷。
漆黑。

澡。
停电。
乌漆。

房里漆黑一片，
伸手不见五指，
庆幸热水仍在。

起初也没觉得什么，
澡继续洗，
但久了觉得无聊，
开始想盲人真了得，
可以这样的生活，
什么也看不见。

再过了一阵子，
开始试着想想看过的鬼片，
咒愿里的洗澡房鬼，
鬼水凶灵里的长发水鬼，
心里也就开始毛毛的，
结果就不再拖泥带水的把澡洗完！

电也就在洗好澡后不久回来了。

Been there... Done that... 2 (cont')

Continuation of Been there... Done that... 2

Climbed the roof again just now
this time my steps were quicker
can't b bothered if the roof collapse anymore
didn't go along the spine but went for the shorter but weaker route.

My last 'repair' was a total failure
didn't even last a rainfall
(and I was hoping it will last for a few years)
the spare tile above the broken one was a big mistake
because the water the flows under the tile and into the hole
didn't take into consideration about the water flowing from all the tiles higher than the hole.
a bit embarrassed to mention that I'm a civil engineer.

This time I'm armed with a silicone (glue) gun and some plastic
and off I go roof climbing.
Tear off all the repairs (aluminium foils and tar) of the last repair by the roofers (before my time),
(the repair was pretty dodgy and I guess it was done by the previous owner)
and I substituted the broken with the spare
doesn't quite fit (thats why I did not do it last time) but I guess it'll serve its purpose well.
For another few years at least (fingers crossed this time).

All You Can

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

- John Wesley (1703-1791)

岂能无动于衷

四川省汶川县八级地震
在摇荡中 许多人与亲人永隔
散布在乡间的房屋瞬间震垮
五月十二日是天府之国四川的心痛的日子
主啊！
求你怜悯医治这大地
求你安慰拯救受伤者
重建之路十分遥远与艰辛
我们将与他们一同走过！

- 基督徒社会关怀部

送爱到缅甸

纳吉斯（Nargis）连续十小时的豪雨浸襲
在缅甸南方的伊洛瓦底三角洲（Irrawaddy）及仰光
许多人丧失了生命
无数的人流离失所
谁来对他们伸出援手？
请我们共同关怀他们！

- 基督徒社会关怀部

禅 Zen

我有一个从南美洲来的朋友同事，最近读了一本西班牙语的禅宗书籍，了解了一些禅宗教义，与我分享。到底他对这些教义的了解有多深，有无误解，我不清楚，因我对禅宗了解不深。

基本的部分教义如下：
人生最重要的是“现在”。
不相信昨天明天，过去未来。
人应该了解他们每一刻都在“存在”着。
因此，人应该懂得享受此时此刻。
不但吃喝玩乐要享受，
连劳苦，淋雨，发呆，生病，行走等都得懂得享受那一刻。

我想这样的人的却会比较快乐开心吧！

虽说这样的人比较快乐，但人生中心却在于自身，却非我认同。
享受归享受，但人生中心该在于助人为己任。

（在此叙述的禅宗教义乃来自友人，准确程度未得验实。对禅宗的认识较深的朋友们不妨多留言与纠正。）

Efficient Sleeping

I wonder if one could split our 8hrs sleeping time to 4hrs and 4hrs.
If this is possible, it would make our work and play much more efficient.

Unless 4hrs is not enough to get our body into the deep sleep stage for regeneration?
Any experts on this subject?

水火不容

你生命中是否遇见过一个与你水火不容的人？
即使你对他没有任何恶意，
没做过任何对不起他的事，
没说过任何不中听的话；
但在他眼中你就是那么讨人厌，
使他觉得必须时时防范，时时攻击，
就好像你得罪了他的十八代祖宗，
或前世欠了他人情还没还清！

（当然这只是比喻，我并不相信前世因缘。）

The Gift of Life

The ultimate gift of God to us is His gift of Life to us.

It is already worth giving thanks to be alive,
and all other things we have in life should be considered as a bonus,
whether it be our family, relatives, or freinds...
or the butter on the bread that melts in the mouth when we have breakfast every morning,
or the mattress that we sleep upon comfortably every night,
or simply the shelter we have over our heads every day...

This way we can be easily contented,
and always have a grateful heart,
no matter what we have in this life.

Life is His beautiful gift for us.

Aussie Greeters

I find it very annoying when Aussies 'greet' you.
They'd say...
"How's it going mate?"
"How'r ya today mate?" etc
If these were opening lines for a conversation then its okay, I use it too.
If they mean what they say, usually they don't, its okay too.

However, they seem to overuse these lines as a form of greeting even to strangers and whoever they see, and everytime they 'ask' these 'greetings' I'd have to say 'great' and 'ask' him back. Then he replies the same and heads off because we're just passing each other. I find this meaningless.

Nowadays, we're just walking too fast to pause and reply-then-ask. So usually I'd just reply and not 'ask' them how are they anymore.
Or I'd just say "g'day or g'morning" (or whatever's appropriate) and they'd do the same. I find this works quite well. More so for mates that have worked with me for some time. They hardly say "How's it going mate?" anymore.

Hope this blends into the culture soon. =D

Whats the Difference?

Whats the uniqueness of Christianity to others?

It is not the incarnation, nor the resurrection,
though these doctrines are essential to the Christian theology,
they are not unique.

The law of Moses,
the eight-fold path,
the five pillars of faith,
are all ways and practices to gain salvation by self works and deeds...

Christ taught something unique...
He taught about the grace of God,
that salvation cannot be earn by deeds or works of man,
but is the gift of God,
which all we need to do is to accept it...

Are We ...

... too proud?
... too boastful?
... too fake?
... too materialistic?
... too full of ourselves?
... too competitive?
... too egoistic?

We may not see ourselves that way most of the times...
but deep down everyone of us are guilty of that...
and we know it!

Been there... Done that... 3

Didn't think that I'd write this so soon after the previous post.
Matter of fact is... I've done it again!

Drowned my company's handphone last night.
It was a deadly fatality...
Hot boiling water and high speed (5xG-force at least?) spin...
Don't think it even had a chance of survival!

It lived a short life,
but it had served me well...

Washing machine VS mobile phone
the obvious winner --> w. machine

Don't try this at home!

Eat, Drink, and Enjoy Life

Can you believe that this verse is from the bible?
I would carry this sentence from the bible with me all my life to justify my enjoyment in life with food, drinks and pleasures.

So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. (Ecclesiastes 8:15a)

Unfortunately, what looks like its too-good-to-be-true can't be true. This is the problem nowadays people breaking up the scriptures to sentences they want to hear.

This is the second part of the verse:

That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15b)

Take note of the words 'hard work'...
No wonder life is hard...

Been there... Done that... 2

Climbed into the ceiling yesterday.
Dusty and creepy (because I watch too many horror movies? haha).
Found the source of the leak but unfortunately can't be fixed from inside the ceiling.

Therefore,
I climbed the roof today.
Walked the roof.
No, I should say I 'crawled' the roof.

The main roof beam tiles was full of cracks...
Looking at the cracks and listening to the tile-on-tile-frictions upon each step sends chills down the spine...
People say 心里不踏实,
I say 脚底不踏实...

In order to increase safety, I decided to use all four to crawl along the roof,
Not forgetting to imitate spider-man (to look cool not dodgy) just in case a passer-by see me.
The point with 'crawling' is to spread my full weight to my four limbs to different beams, roughly halving my weight on each beam.
(standing straight will concentrate all my weight to a certain point on the beam which I don't think is good)
At some weaker points, I even try sitting on the roof so I have five points of contact, so I can distribute some of my weight thru my butt as well.

Finally managed to crawl to the small crack in the tile.
Took a spare tile and cover the crack.
The spare tile was lying on the roof - don't know why.
That should roughly fix the problem and hopefully last for a few years.

Life is fragile...
Each step on the roof, the only thing that runs thru my mind was...
If the tiles break...
If I fall off the roof...
There would not be anything I could do to save myself at that point.
I might get some minor scratches and bruises,
or some fracture bones and rib,
or become paralyzed and even die.
All I could do was to take whatever safety precautions I can,
and be as careful as I can,
and say to God, 'the rest I leave it to your hands'.

I suppose the same goes for every other things we do in this life...
We can only do the best we can, and leave the rest to God.