..my battle stance..

this life is a series of bouts. endless one. which is exciting if you think about it. we do not always win. inevitably we will lose. and it sucks to lose. but here's the thing. we do not have to win all the fights. in fact.. we do not have to fight all the fights. in obsessing over the trivial losses (and most of them are trivial in the end).. we lose our focus on the few fights that really matter (only a few of them really matter in the end) all it takes is that one clean hit. the only thing i have in mind is that one strike. there is only one fight that matters at one time. that is the present. you may have lost countless bouts before. but this one fight, this one win- it can change everything. and after that.. you start all over again.  because there are still thousands bouts awaiting you.

In the midst of  'Our Times' fever (the OST in youtube has hit close to 30million viewers), I thought I would like to pay tribute to Crescendo instead. It's our local drama production. Oh my I just said 'our'. Yeah I love 93.3, I love TCS, and I love Mediacorp, as well as 8 Days! So Singaporean.. For sure Singapore's production can't quite match up to their Taiwan counterpart in many ways. To begin with, Taiwanese accent is just .. ugh. And of course, they have strong pedigree in romantic comedy genre.   But.. I love that flawed, homemade effort that is apparent in our local production. Sometimes they try too hard and that kinda turn me off. Like a singer trying to hit the high note and fall flat. But at times, they hit the balance right. Between playing safe and pushing a little bit beyond the boundary. Crescendo is one fine example. The senior actors have solid acting and poor singing (which is funny coz they are supposed to be som...

tried to download tinder recently. been hearing a lot about this app from friends. a friend got to know a guy from this app and they got on quite well. and another friend.. now this one is weirrd -__-" his brother one day suddenly sent him a girl's phone number and asked him to chat up the girl. a total stranger. turns out that  this older brother went on tinder to look for a girl for his single younger brother. this is matchmaking in 2015. it was quite fun initially to swipe left and right. and occasionally you spot your own friends heh. but after a while it just feels pointless to me. or rather.. there is not much feeling to it. it feels like job application to me. except the 'No One Night Stand' warning. which is always amusing :D tinder is one of the things that highlight the irony of today's generation. this generation which uphold 'do not judge' philosophy is also the very generation which judge too quickly, too superficially. not t...

you made me glad.. Adonai :)

There is something about November that make you feel .. good. Maybe coz its the thanksgiving mood. maybe its like prelude to a holiday season. but then again I was not a huge fan of Christmas. Well.. as of now, we have decided to move on. To a new house. Bigger, nicer, but much much further from town @_@ Try not to think too much about it. Hope we get along well with the new housemates set up. I hope by the end of our lease at this new home, which is May 2017.. I would have something life changing to report here. Not that life is not changing now. Yeah.. rough sea. But this boat is sailing on like a good old Thousand Sunny. Have booked tic for an impulsive trip in Dec. Oh my.. I also do not want to think too much about it now. Seems that I can't escape winter, ever missing out on autumn. there is a reason for everything eh? I did say that this year.. I wanted a trip to an Asia country after my Europe trip. And I even stated the country I wanted to go to. But a...

'the guy with the most freedom in this whole ocean is the Pirate King !' - Monkey D Luffy, One Piece This manga is about one thing. Race to the Grand Line, where the ultimate treasure called 'One Piece' is hidden.  All pirates understand 'Pirate King' as the one pirate who manages to get to the treasure first. Well.. almost all. Because there is Luffy who seems to care nothing about the treasure's content. For him.. the man with the most freedom in this whole ocean is the King. How true it is. I think the happiest man in this world is indeed the man with the most freedom. And such a man is truly a king. In another manga, Naruto, there is an excellent character named Itachi. A smart, kindhearted boy with an immense burden he was destined to carry. Well.. he could have chosen to be selfish and follow his heart desire. And no one would have blamed him probably. He chose to carry the burden though. And with that, he compromised his own freedom....

cute is always always better than pretty. just saying. “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ― Louis L'Amour so yeah.. even a random statement is good for a start. speaking of L'Amour, I never knew this guy before. Turn out he is quite a good writer! “The Apache don't have a word for love," he said. "Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?" "Tell me." "Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.” ― Louis L'Amour , Hondo     How about that? I do think that 'at the marriage' is probably the first time we should attempt that word.. forever, that is.

'Christmas song? Like now?' 'Yeah.. it's October now.' 'Oh.. yeah...' 'Fast huh?' 'Extremely.' 'So what do you say?' 'about what?' 'shall we end this year with a bang?' 'it deserves nothing less..'

in life, in games, in wars... sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. we go from battle to battle in life. and at any given time, the only battle that matters is the one ahead of us. i once read a gem titled 'the present', written by the author of 'who moved my cheese'. which is another gem everyone should read I think. the message of the book is simple. the importance of being 'in the present', no matter what season of life you are at. no matter how bad or great your yesterday was, or how exciting or frightening your tomorrow seem to be. nothing matters more than to be in the present. that kind of discipline takes years and years to master. still learning.. keep failing.. but it does help when you are sitting in front of your laptop, inside a cosy and spacious JW Marriott hotel room. feels like staycation. though I am here only for a friend's wedding. in less than a week, attended two weddings in JW Marriott hotels.. One in Jakarta an...

So today is the first day I try Batik Air. The full fledged flight version of Lion Air. After finding myself stranded at Changi Airport last week for four hours (initial departure 9.20pm, eventual departure 01.40am) I vow to always avoid budget airlines to the best of my ability. Well.. sometimes u just have no choice. I end up booking Jetstar for my upcoming flight to Surabaya from Singapore. What can I do? The non budget flight are not feasible either due to the timing or the price (twice Jetstar's price). Back to batik air. Few things that matter when it comes to flight experience 1) seat comfort and leg space the seat is so much more human than Lion's. I always end up with neck pain every time I take Lion Air (and that's for a less than 2 hour journey from Sg to Jkt). As for Batik Air, the angle for the head rest part is comfortable enough. leg space is also good enough. 2) food! sadly, you can give their food a miss. they had choice of nasi goreng o...

actually I never really knew her. but she used to be in the same church with me for a while. so somehow.. I know her. somethingg like that. its somehow entertaining to watch.

"do you know what this means? it means you completely expose your throat to someone you can't trust, yet you have no way of avoiding it." - Mr Xiang indeed Mr Xiang, indeed.

Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.  - CS Lewis, Grief Observed yesterday was a problematic one. What could go wrong did go wrong. But hey, I am still in one piece after all. and there are still ways to solve the 'problems'. So it's not so bad. And did something for the first time in my life too. Attended the young adult service hah. today I did another, Attending Stephen Tong gospel rally. The very same rally that my mom went to as a teenager :) forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead. (Phil 3:13) she never forgot this verse spoken by Stephen Tong. probably 40 years ago? looking back there were many things I wish I had done differently. or wish I had made a different choice. 'if only I didn't go that way, I would not...

Came across this drama on TV. Half willing to watch as the title is just too.. discouraging. Not a fan of tragedy love story. But Chen Qiao En is one of the few actresses whose acting I enjoy watching a lot. Can't believe she is 36 @_@ And Huang Xiao Ming is just good at playing a badass like his character in Cruel Romance. I suspect these two's love story will end in the most cruel and tragic manner hah. Oh crap.

first of all.. i have won free tics from this lovely website for the 3rd (or is it 4th?) time! halleluyah! I won free screening for some artsy French movies before. this time tho, its a rather mainstream K-movie. see you tomorrow Jeon Ji Hyun! You gotta love that sassy girl. Thank you God ^__^ Been thinking about being happy. or the ability to make someone happy. how important is it? In this life.. you will meet someone with whom you feel deeply happy about. that someone without whom you suspect you will no longer know how to be truly happy. that very someone you wish you can bring happiness to. you wish you are that person's greatest source of happiness. because that is exactly how you feel about that person. but as fate will have it.. you will come to learn a precious lesson. you don't get to control much in life. inevitably, you will learn that no matter what you do, you can never control another person's heart or happiness. and similarly, y...

"you must be very upset then?" she thought for a while. "not really. I just felt drained ." i find myself nodding in agreement with her. that is quite a trouble. more troublesome than being upset indeed.

yeah thank God! we just managed to get an 'Option' for my listing at CCK. ^_____________^ It was not easy. we took months. the market was not in our favor. neither was time. we raced against time, in fact. and I feel sorry for my friend who has entrusted me to help him with this. but we finally got our buyer two days ago :)) The process is still ongoing. Not fully completed yet. But just like before.. we commit this to our Lord Jesus. He is always, always.. our very present help in time of need. for many years I have mostly been doing private sales. I had my doubt when my friend asked me to help him with marketing of his hdb flat. and I openly admitted to him that CCK is not exactly an area I was familiar with either. but I knew that God is with my friend, and He is with me. So yeah.. let's do it. I thought. And after working on this listing.. suddenly I start getting friends who ask me to help marketing their hdb flats. This has not happened for the...

so after JP spoke about the year of restoration, today Mr Ocampo shared about the prophetic claim that this is the year of divine reversal. that certainly sounds great.- the divine reversal. I don't want to be too much into the numbers thing. but spiritually I do sense that it's true. that this is the season of restoration. and by faith I see that it is happening. the thing is I am not even sure how much was stolen from me. all these years. but i know that I have lost much. far.too.much. so.. there you go. counter attack time. Over to you.. Lord of hosts.

September marks the beginning of the -ber months. The origin of the word is Latin word for seven. So.. here's to the realisation of a perfect and wholesome restoration in Jesus. Still proclaiming by faith that this year is the year of restoration. Here's a faith that refuses to 'get real'.  Oh yeah!    

Today is one of those days. Incidents with some people. A graphic designer who doesn't give a damn to send me the AI file of the design work I paid for. (after ignoring my email for weeks) and her boyfriend who, in the most Indonesian way, tell me politely that he is not interested to do my business. A client who said I told him a different story about my commission rate. I thought basically he just wanted to negotiate for a discount. (thankfully, I emailed them as written record of what I said over the phone four months ago.) and last night, an email from mall management to deny us the right to add more menus to our outlet. the reason? some bullshit that was also, very Indonesian. hah. yeah.. as long as we live, we will never run out of this kind of incident. or people. and to look at it from different angle.. I have been an asshole client to the designer. Now blacklisted by the graphic designer and her bf as one of those small time but troublesome clients to avoi...