A Barbie Fashion Fairytale!

　

The show was short and sweet and many people enjoyed it. I heard that the casts were flown all the way from US. Great job ppl! The stage was awesome... that’s what I liked most! I’ve missed stage shows and can’t wait to catch another one! I’m glad I’ll be going down to Melaka for one next week and I hope it will be way better than this! ROC here I come!

           

The 3 fairies being "flari-napped" (their word for kidnaped)



Barbie looking for the 3 fairies and asking the kids for help... I kinda like it that it was an interactive play.



The main cast: (from left) the 3 fairies, Elis (Barbie’s clothes designer), Aunt ??? (some big name Parisian designer from Barbie world) and Barbie.

The highlight of the play was not a ball, or a prom, but a fashion show! Elis graced one of her designs by parading it herself.

And for course the star of the fashion show is Barbie.
Duh~!

And as all fairytale goes, Barbie meets Ken and they live happily ever after.

Never in my the world had I thought that I would actually watch a Barbie musical and enjoyed it. But I did! LOLs.

Christmas has passed and it was time to go shopping for new year! My mom and I went to Queensbay to do some shopping coz we realized that we had not paid a visit to the grand sale yet, and it will be over soon!... so, on that fateful day, we went to shop... but lo and behold, when we arrived, we noticed banners concerning one “fashion fairytale”... and my mom recalled reading it in the newspaper that it was “quite interesting”... as we neared the center court, little girls were all dressed up and dolled up as little Barbies and had their pictures taken. And I realized that the Barbie musical would be on that day and the little girls were joining the Barbie contest.             

Now if I had went there alone, I wouldn’t have bothered. But mom was kinda excited about it and wanted to “go have a look”. I tagged along behind and was thinking that we’ll just take a peek and continue walking. But that peek lasted about 30 minutes!

Well, just so you get the idea on how it was like... here are some pics :)

An early Christmas Gift

God is great. God is real. God can do wonders.

100 copies of newly photocopied Myanmar song books sit in my study room right now. I’ve just brought them in from the printers yesterday and spent an hour or so folding them into little booklets. I’ve not finished them all yet—maybe around 50-80 more to go. They are thick and hard to fold, but looking at them makes me marvel at how God has brought this entire thing about.

You see, the idea of taking up this project began when I was taking a shower after work. I recalled my pastor, P Dan, talking about how simple it is to bless the Myanmar church by providing them with songbooks for their services. I visited their church once and found that they were lacking of song books. And because they are not very well off, and the song books are thick, it was probably very costly for them to print a book. But as many ideas go, this idea was just an idea... floating around in the air, waiting for someone to catch hold of it and put it into action. And so, I decided that I would be that person to bring this idea into reality. And because Christmas was coming, I made it my goal to have the books ready in time for Christmas.

I SMS-ed P Dan and told him of my desire. He was delighted and said that he would borrow a copy of the song book for me. That was a Monday, the 15^th of November, exactly 40 days to Christmas day. By Tuesday, I had the book in my hand and was ready to get things going! I started typing on Wednesday and found that the task was more complicated than I had initially thought. Due to the difference in language, I had some trouble with the spelling and how the words form from one to another. As a result, it took me longer than expected to complete typing out a song.

As the days went on, and December arrived, it dawned upon me that I was running out of time. Just when I was beginning to panic, Lydia came forward on Saturday, 4^th Dec to offer her help. Apparently P Dan told her I needed help. I wondered who told him about it as I never shared my difficulties with him before, but that was exactly what I needed!  However, Lydia would not be around that week and will only be available the following week, which was the week before the Christmas week. I thank her for volunteering and set about getting some 50 songs photocopied so she can refer to them and type them for me when she comes back from her holiday. At the same time, I bucked up on my own typing to cover for all the lost time before. Lydia came back the following week, I passed her the songs on Saturday, and she had them typed out and mailed to me by Tuesday, as she understood the importance of getting the books ready by  Christmas. I later found out that Samuel helped as well. Those two were a great blessing indeed. By Wednesday, I had all the songs compiled and printed the very first copy. I had some trouble with the printer and the ink; the fonts and page alignment were incorrect too. I had to print several times before I got the final copy right. But due to the many error trials, the ink was running out and so the final copy came in colours of blue and red and whatever colours in between! The alignment was not perfect too, but I was too frustrated and tired by then to print another round.

Next, I had to decide which Photostat shop to go best to get my books photocopied. Since the master print was not in perfect order, I felt it was important to go to a good printer to help me straighten things up. After consulting with my mom and dad, my mom suggested a shop at the back of a row of shops in Kelang Lama. I didn’t know which shop she was referring to but promised to take a drive around the next day to check it out.

On Thursday, during my lunch break, I brought the master copy to the shop, selected what I thought were the best and worst pages and told the man in the shop to print a copy. He cautioned that the red ink might be a problem but said he’ll try anyway. He did and it turned out almost as nice as the blue. Then I told him about the page alignment problem, and he said he’ll try to adjust it for me. He did a sample and I found it satisfactory. I asked him about printing the entire book, having it stapled and bind with a thicker cover. He said he could do it. And I thank God I had gone there that very day and not one day late as I had earlier planned, because he was going to leave town the next day. If I had been one day late, I would have missed meeting such a wonderful man! He said he could complete the 100 copies before he left the next day. I asked him to calculate the cost for all 100 copies and was shocked when the figure came up to RM 303, and he immediately said, RM 300! See, when I first started on the project, I made a mental dedication of RM300 to the Lord for it. But as the project progressed, I realised that RM300 would most likely take me only as far as 50 copies of the book. However, after consulting with the Chairman of the Myanmar Church, Peter, P Dan had told me to print 100 copies! I was a little dismayed when I heard the figure, as that would mean I have to fork out double my budget.

When the master copy didn’t turn out alright, and when I was contemplating on whether or not to just go ahead with the printing, regardless of how it turned out, God spoke to me through 3 John 1: 1-8. I repented of my initial thoughts and decided to check the Photostat shop out first. If it was not satisfactory, I would re-print the master copy and do whatever was needed to get the books done in good order. I told the Lord, if it has to be so, let it be so. I had expected about RM 500-600 for the 100 copies, and so it was a really pleasant surprise when the man told me RM300, the exact amount that I had dedicated to the Lord for this project. I sang praises all the way back to the office.

I collected the books on Friday, and was delighted when the man offered to carry them for me to my car. He is indeed a good man. May God bless him and his family and save them from the grasp of the devil! After work, I began the task of folding the 78-pages-thick books. It was hard work indeed, but a joyous one nevertheless! Tomorrow, I shall have to finish folding them all before sending them to P Dan to bring them to the Myanmar church. I’m sure the church will be blessed. I have already been blessed. I’ve seen the hand of God at work and experience his provision first-hand once more. Thank you Lord for this early Christmas gift!

Christmas Wish List

It’s been over a month since I last wrote a post! Guess I’ve been busy after all... hahaha! Or perhaps I’ve just been too lazy to put my thoughts into words, which I believe is the case! I’ve had several ideas that I told myself to write it down but was always ‘not in the mood’ whenever I sat in front of my computer! Ok, I usually get ideas while I’m at work, and even though I face the computer all day most of the day at work, the good worker in me just couldn’t bring me to write personal blogs during work time!

So here I am, all those ideas long gone and I actually have no idea what to write now.

(After several minutes)

Ok... Let’s see... I just came to realize that there are many people out there who have no idea or a much distorted idea about Christmas! I recently spoke to some of my colleagues and was shocked to learn that many of them thought that Santa Claus, Christmas trees and turkeys are a must at Christmas; coz “isn’t it part of what Christmas is all about?”...No, I said, “not at all... it’s about the birth of Jesus!” “Really? So Santa has nothing to do with Christmas at all?” “No!”.... And the same goes for the turkey and good old Christmas tree and those presents under it. I wonder when somebody will start asking me about Rudolf! Years of tradition, cultural assimilation and advertising scams have pushed these things to be part and parcel of Christmas, but really folks, these things have nothing to do with Christmas at all! Which being in mind... someone once told me that Santa was the product of Coca-Cola Company’s advertising campaign. Smart me told this to one of my colleague without checking the facts first. I just checked. Santa is not the product of the Coca-Cola Company’s advertising campaigns. He was around way before Coca-Cola launched their ad-campaign. But they were somewhat responsible for Santa’s red and white suit. Coz before that, Santa had other coloured clothing in his wardrobe!

Last year, a friend of mine wanted to know what did I asked Santa for Christmas. I told her Santa didn’t exist. And when she asked me who gave me all my presents, I told her they fell from the sky. We laughed about it and said no more. After that, I immediately regretted not saying more! I should’ve told her that my presents came from those who love me and care for me. And that I did have a Christmas wish list. And that it was not for Santa, but for my Father in heaven. I had a list of wishes that I asked for, things that couldn’t be held, wrapped in coloured paper, or seen physically, but things precious to my heart. I should’ve told her that God already gave me the best gift there was to be given, my salvation. And I should’ve told her that I got all that I asked for in my Christmas wish list.  I didn’t get everything on Christmas day, but I got them when the time was just right!

A year has passed, and it is Christmas season once more. I’ve set down my Christmas wish list and can’t wait to see it unfold again!

This year’s Christmas is different from the past few years. Back then, I would’ve been busy going for rehearsals in preparation for the CF’s Christmas play and probably won’t have time to write blogs this time of the year. I do miss those Christmas play preparations! It feels so different this year... but at least I’m at the comfort of my own home! Here’s hoping for another wonderful Christmas this year.

Serenity Prayer

So the budget plan is out. Many comments and complains are flying around as usual, some praising but mostly criticizing on what should have been done and what shouldn't have; how would our prime minister build his iconic 100-floor sky-scraper that would rival even the twin towers and how that building is going to be used, (People have come up with some interesting theories about that on Facebook, and some of them are quite entertaining.) blah blah blah...

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm not concern about our country's finances and economy, I am. I earn wages now and have to pay my taxes, so of course I wanna know where that money goes to! But complaining and commenting on what's been done and cannot be undone isn't going to help.

I've mentioned before that the series season is back, and these series have been keeping me occupied. I like to think that watching these episodes isn't just a waste of time, but is in fact an enriching exercise for my soul. Of course, not all of them promote good and uplifting ideas, but some do. There's a particular quote from the first episode of season 5's  "Brothers and Sisters" that I like. It's actually the first part from the Serenity Prayer,  and it goes like this:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." 

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Wise prayer eh? Perhaps we should be focusing more on the things we can change. And pray we have the courage to change them. 

My First Company Dinner!

This is my first company dinner! It being an annual affair, It is also a combined dinner for 10 departments that make up the GPS group---one of the many groups within the company. Pictures speak a thousand words. Since I'm too lazy to write them, I'm hoping the pictures will do it for me... :)

The theme of the night was "Take off to Greater Heights" as the group has been disbanded and the departments scattered to various other groups... so it's kind of like The Last Dinner for GPS.

The organizers decided that the best way to bring out the theme is to give all employees a free air Flight To No Where on a super huge airplane. 

And so the journey began...

Oh wait!!!

 First thing's first : 3 Must-Haves to make a great event such as a Flight-To-No-Where an awesome experience!

1. Your Boarding Pass!

2. The most important ingredient to a super-important event --- the paparazzi-es!

3. Without the presence of the above stars, Number 1 and 2 won't even matter!

And so the journey began...

As i walked through 

The Boarding Gate,

and climbed on board

flight KM GPS,

I was amazed by 

The interior of the plane

Not only was it the biggest plane I had ever seen, but it also had

 an in flight magazine with funny pictures of its passengers, 

classy in-flight dining plates and glasses,

life cultural performances and loud music --- without needing to peer at the small screen in front of your seat and put on gigantic headphones to hear some decent music!

and best of all....

there were really nice passengers

who had an wonderful time together!

T'was an awesome experience.

~All pictures are courtesy of Komunikatin.~

The day the sun stood still

I came back home, swamped from a good day's work, and fell flat on the sofa. As I lay there, a random thought crossed my mind: Is it true that the sun stood still for a day? I didn't know why i would be thinking such things, but i did. Then i remembered that some time ago I was told that NASA made this discovery and proved that there was one missing day according to some calculations that they were doing. But busy me at that time just took it for word and never bothered checking it out to see if it were true. Then another question crossed my mind: If it were true that the sun stood still for a day for Joshua in the Bible, surely, the world at that time would have seen it and experienced it as well. Then surely those people would have recorded it down somewhere too coz let's face it, the sun stood still for a day? That's an amazing event! And if the sun stood still in one part of the earth, surely another part of the earth would have been night for a day! Ironic. Night for a day :P Anyway, if it were to happen now in our time, I think Facebook, Twitter, YM and MSN would explode!

The more I thought about it, the more curious I became and wondered why i never bothered checking out on such things when it has been staring me right in the face for so many years now. Suddenly my mom asked me: What are you doing? That sort of broke my thoughts and I realized that I had been lying on the sofa, flat on my tummy for about 10 minutes now. I just came back from work, my bag was lying on the floor, my water bottle was on the coffee table, I hadn't bothered to wash it yet. I shrugged, said a quick 'nothing!' and went to my room.

Determined to satisfy my curiosity once and for all, I Google-ed "sun stood still" and got about 2,420,000 hits. I scanned for NASA and found "truth or fiction - NASA and the missing day". Well, the truth is,the guy (Harold Hill) who claimed that NASA found computer generated evidence about the missing day IS a real person and claimed to be a consultant for NASA. But apart from Harold Hill, there is no other known source that backs the NASA story. In fact, NASA even denied that Harold Hill was one of their consultants! I was quite disappointed.

Going back to Google Search, I clicked on another site. If the sun did stood still, surely others would have seen and wrote about it? My questions were answered. The next site (http://www.s8int.com/page35.html) revealed that many people wrote about this long day or night! The Chinese, the Latins, the Egyptians, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, the Indians, the Persians, the aborigines in America all had  records or legends about a day that was extended or a time when the sun stood still or when the night did not end for a long time... So there was it, my questions were answered. The sun did stood still and the world saw it. Although science would say that it was the earth that stopped rotating due to a cosmic effect.

in 1950, a Dr Immanuel Velikovsky published a book called "Worlds in Collision" and produced records from all over the earth which agrees as to the time and as to the altered portions of daylight and dark in each area. He went on to explained that if a big enough comet were ever to near the earth, the encounter would slow down the earth's rotational speed, thus causing people at that time who thought  the sun went around the earth to see as if the sun and moon had been halted. Dr Immanuel even went on to say that this cosmic event in Joshua's time was actually the second comet visit already. The first comet visit being during the time when the Isrealites wanted to free themselves from the Egyptians. And so resulting in the plagues and the parting of the sea! He basically used cosmic effects to explain many of the miracles in the Bible.

Coincidence or not, I can only conclude from my reading that God is indeed the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He has the whole world in his hands, therefore he controls the cosmic motions too!

Not that illusive after all...

Look at the picture, what does it says?

Stand a few feet away and look again, what does it say now?

I was looking through at some optical illusions on the Web and came across this that I particularly liked. Not because the statements are provoking as in humans complain that people are too close when they are close to them, but then feel that people are too far away when they keep their distance. But it describes the fact that when we are close to someone, or something or a situation, we focus on the details. We often cannot or do not see the things behind it, the colors and shades that make up the picture. To us, it's just the background, not very important. But take a few steps back, we begin to see the bigger picture. Suddenly we can no longer see the details (the lines), and the background (the colors and shades) becomes the only thing we can see, and lo and behold, the picture is totally different than what we thought we were looking at when focusing on the details, the tiny-whiny bits. Once in a while, we should learn to take a few steps back to see the big picture and let all the tiny-whiny troubles of our live melt away.

On another note, I've watch two great movies recently that touched on optical illusions, namely Inception and Temple Grandin  (an awesome and touching show that everybody should watch), now here's a picture to tease your mind.

Is the building facing inward or outward?

The first step

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, but somehow never gotten to doing it...I've always been waiting for the best time. But I guess the best time to start would be to just sit in front of the computer, sign up for an account and type away!

You see, the reason why it took me so long to actually get down to writing is because I always had this fear that there would be some crazy person out there trying to pry into my thoughts and might actually cause me more harm than good. But after 4 months out of University and getting a grabs of the working life, and leaving in a small town, in the comfort of my home, but far from my friends, I'm finding it a challenge to keep my mind occupied. My bro's just left for further studies, and the house is even quieter now... I just hope that he does well and comes back with lots goodies for me, or better still, buy me a ticket to UK too!

I've been watching lots of sitcoms lately, with Rules of Engagement topping the list as it's one of the regulars on Astro these days. Thankfully, now's the beginning of the series season, so maybe that'll keep me busy enough. If you don't see any post updates here anymore, then you'll know what I'm up to! Funny though, I never thought I would love Rules of Engagement so much. Looking at the 5 friends, each with funny habits of their own, sometimes they avoid each other, and take advantage of each other, but at the end of the day, they just can't keep themselves too far away from the rest, makes me wonder if I'll have that kind of relationship with my friends as well.

The recommendation of the day is to find new friends whilst I'm here, but let's face it, real friends aren't easy to come by. It took me 5 years and lots of grace from the Lord for me to find good friends in Uni, and now I'll have to do it all again? I'll try and make new friends, but I'd rather keep my old friends for as long as I can!