Sunday, January 2, 2011
S2E3: 2011-Let Go Your Plans & Let God Plan...
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 7:53 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 28, 2010
S2E02: The Health Check, Pt 1 - The Hunger Test
- MONEY - are you chasing after money till you don't have time for God?
- PLEASURE - are satisfying your sexual desires outside of marriage (pornography, pre-marital sex, adultery)?
- ACCEPTANCE - are you so eager to be accepted by your peers that you willing to bend or even break the rules?
- COMPANIONSHIP - are you so desperate for a partner, that you simply go into a relationship so that you won't feel lonely?
- MONEY - go ahead and make money, but God takes priority! Make sure that it does not come from something that compromises your faith!
- PLEASURE - abstain from sexual immorality. Keep yourself pure for your future husband/wive. It's worth the effort!
- ACCEPTANCE - you are accepted by God. Never forget that! If it requires you to break God's Word to be accepted by your friends, then it's time to get new ones!
- COMPANIONSHIP - pray for your partner! If you are single, pray for someone that will love God! Not only that, buck up yourself so that you can "match" the one that God is going provide you!
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 6:19 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
S2E01: Childish or Childlike Faith
You know, starting to going for prayer meeting is a new experience, and for today, thanks to Foong Hee, some kind of "inspiration" to write came over me... Haha.. So here's my musings at 1AM in the morning...
- 1 Cor 13:11 - When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
- Luke 18:17 - I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
- We understanding everything...
- Cover all the bases and...
- Take what we call "decisions based on calculated risks"!
- Man sinned
- We all fall from grace
- God loves us
- Sends Jesus who died on the cross
- If we believe then our sins are forgiven
- We are reconciled with God
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 1:20 AM 0 comments
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Interlude: The Days of Mud Sand and Sunburns
Simple, short and sweet. That's the way I would describe HLLC Church Camp 2009. Being held on the Raya weekend, I was dreading the journey down, imagning hours of JAM... But lo and behold, God was good, and it was a beautiful weather to travel and there were only minor bottlenecks, but nothing serious.
- You serve not out of convenience, only when you are free, but you serve out of conviction.
- Set reminders of your covenant with God, be it personal or church
- When you want to leave an impression, do it whole heartedly
- Bananas float in water, they don't sink!
- Banana on skin makes it very very itchy!
- Do not buy cheap and small eggs when you plan to hit people with them - they don't break when it hits you!
- Two fei-cha's makes an unbeatable human juggernaut in the swimming pool
- Manchester will still win despite drawing 3-3 at extra time
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 5:27 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
D.U.K.E S1xE05 - The Nightmare Excel Sheet
MONDAY: Went back home, tried to get some sleep at 8.30PM after a good chat. Yes, 8.30PM. Can't sleep well, must be the coffee. Toss and turned till 9.30PM. Think I finally went to slumberland by then... I WISH!!! As soon as I closed my eyes, I was looking at the same excel sheet I was looking at for the last three working days, and still updating line by line.
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 9:19 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 26, 2009
D.U.K.E. S1xE04: The Day of Rapid Currents
I almost died today. Nope, it's not a joke. It really felt like I almost died today...
16 HOURS AGO: Woke up at 5.30 in the morning. Was looking forward to the event of the day - WHITE WATER RAFTING! Having done the exciting one in Sg Padas in KK, and having one of our friends saying that it wasn't as exciting as the one back in Penisular, a bunch of us decided to rise to the occassion to challenge the currents in KKB (Kuala Kubu Baru).
15 HOURS AGO: We had a simple mamak breakfast of nasi lemak (I had extra half boiled eggs as usual). Before heading off to Rawang to wait for the rest of the people. We had about 19 people that day, and 8 of them are my Maxis colleagues.
14 HOURS AGO: We were waiting in the Rawang rest stop and joking away about "paying for the rain" and "Mr Wong vs Teoh See Weng"...
12 HOURS AGO: We reach our destination, we quickly geared up and listened to our briefing. We had to wait a fair bit as they had to change our boat (not sure why). I ended up in a boat with three other guys - Jae Sun, Terry and Ryan. Having the first two in the same boat almost felt like having Aaron and Jozzy on board, only about twice the fun!
10 HOURS AGO: It was fun! Unlike KK's teh tarik river, this one's much more clearer. But since, the water was bit low, we've got stuck quite a lot at the rocks and had to use our body's to change the balance of the boat a lot. It was really tiring, but much different experience. KK's water was about quick rapids. This one's about avoiding rocks and really steep drops. Some more, the river's quite narrow, unlike KK's wider flow. So, technique and team work plays an important row.
7 HOURS AGO: We reach this point where it's another steep drop. Think it's called Chicken Drop. As the the water's not that deep, the before us got stuck and had to slowly get out of the currents. Didn't seem dangerous. I was dead wrong. Well, the owner (I think) said to bring our paddles up and we'll hike down while the boat is carried down. Our guide, knowing that our boat's the pretty adventurous one, said we can do it. So we got onto the boat, and mind you, our boat is the smallest amongst the five, and most versatile and well, more unsteady as well.
The tactic was to paddle forward, kneel into the boat while hanging onto the ropes, and tip forward. We did just that. But we tipped too front. When the front of the boat got stuck on rocks as predicted, and we leaned forward as instructed, I think we leaned to front. The back of the boat came forward and tipped left side. All of us fell from the boat. The next 10 seconds felt like the closest call to death I can recall in my entire life.
I was pushed under current, and I tilted my leg forward. But the thing is, I can't surface! I can see the light, but I can surface. I can feel the super strong currents pushing me forward and down at the same time. I panicked as I was running out of air, and still I'm not surfacing. It felt like I'm dragged under and I scared I'm hooked onto something.
The worst happened, I ran out of air. I took in one gulp of water and I still wasn't surfacing. I wasn't sure I was moving forward or not, but I know this, I'm about to drown. It's amazing that what really ran through my mind at that point. Well, it wasn't a flash of my entire life, but at one moment I was thinking how to get out of this, but when that seemed like not going to happen, my mind flashed to "I shouldn't have done this" mode. I was like thinking how am I going to tell my parents and grandma (well, at that point it didn't registered that if i really died, how the world I'm supposed to do that).
And as suddenly as the drop into the water was, suddenly I can feel the surface coming up. I can feel the boat's rope. I tried to get up to the surface. I manage to. It was dark. It took another second to register's Ryan's face. We were under the capsize boat. I quickly got out. I took a deep breath (or a lot). By the time I was getting to the side shore nearby, I was a bit shaking. Jae Sun was clearly a bit shaken, but with a smile, he said, "Let's do that again". I didn't know how to respond. I just smiled.
I never really know why I was stuck under for so long. Maybe it was a short time, but in my panic it seem a long time. I don't know. I only know that I almost died today, and well, life's suddenly in a different perspective.
p/s I'm still planning to go back in Oct/Nov when the current is stronger... :P
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 9:18 PM 0 comments
D.U.K.E. S1xE03: The Days of Stunning Depths
I like the way one of the person who went with us describe this trip - GETTING THERE IS AN ADVENTURE. Yeah, I kinda got my open water license last year and haven't been diving since then, as the motivation wasn't there. So, I was kinda conned into this trip with the promise of chicks joining. So, for the entire months building up to this, I wasn't excited at all. Not a teeny weeny bit. Still, I went along, took the AirAsia plane, and landed in this foreign land. Just a bit of background, I was going to Pulau Wey and Bandar Acheh is the place we land before going to this island which was about 2 hours away.
Background - Bandar Acheh. If you can recall back a bit of history, this was one of the worst hit place when the Tsunami came in 2004. Now, what I didn't know was the history before that. In a simple summary, there was a civil war going on before that disaster. It seemed that you can be easily killed at any time while it was going on. But all that changed since the disaster that claimed >230,000 lives. Peace was restored, elections was held, and tourism slowly grew. You can find out more about the history here.
And hence, the special reason why I can step foot on this place. The picture above is just a glimpse of the restoration that came after disaster. We've gotten the privilege to talk to one of the NGOs that was working there. It seems that after 5 years of restoration, they are finally going to pull out and let the Acheh people continue to heal by themselves. I can only hope that things will go well for this place, and I can have another chance to come back.
MAKAN MAKAN: OK, so let's move on to the most important thing - FOOD! The most interesting, and nicest, of the entire trip was AYAM TANGKAP. We've tried it when we arrive, and we've tried it just before we left. In simple terms, it kinda like ayam goreng, but much much more nicer. On the island, most of the time it's nasi goreng, mee goreng and mee sup. When you have that for five days in a row, it become scary...
THE "RESORT": Let me tell you this, Pulau Wey is not your typical getaway tourist spot. Don't expect hotels, or air conds, or even proper taxi. To get there, we have to take a ferry, then a taxi, and then still walk another 20 minutes till we reach our home for five days. And this is how our chalet looks like (and I can tell you it's the best house in the entire Rubiah Tirta "resort"):
THE DIVES: When it came to the dives, I can say one thing - it kinda restarted my interest in diving. I manage to do a night dive (diving in the dark with only a torch is creepy but very, very fun), a drift dive (try diving against a current and your mask almost coming off), a wreck dive and a dive near a volcano site. The total of dives was 7, although we could have done 9 but it seems the locals take their Fridays as very serious day to not work.
And the best thing is since this place is not as commercialized as places like Redang and Perhentian, the fishes are not scared of you. Too bad I don't have an underwater camera, but the things you see underwater is amazing! There's school of barracudas & jacks, a lot of murrays, sea urchins, octopus and I finally saw my first nudi. It's simply breathtaking under the water. I kinda vowed I'll get better so that I can improve my breathing to stay longer underwater.
Well, in summary, I wished I could have done more dives. I will definitely recommend this for divers, and well, I hope I can come back again. Here are more of some interesting shots from Pulau Wey and Acheh:
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 8:00 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
D.U.K.E. S1xE02: The Day of Difficult Heights
The day started before 2AM. Someone's alarm (well, it was found out to be an SMS) had to ring on 11.30PM the previous which woke ONLY me up, while rest my cabin mates slept away (there were four of us)!!! And it had to be 3-minute song!!! And if that's not enough, someone had a BASS symphony going on, and well, that's about the sleep I was to get...
2AM: We got off our bed, put on our winter clothing... (it can get as chilly as 4-degrees)... and started our walk to the peak. It was only 2.5KM, so how difficult could it be? The word impossible came only after 5 minutes of walking. It was UP, UP and UP all the way!
It was dark, and there was a lot of people. We had this headlight thingie up our forehead, and that's they only source of light we had. Well, far over the horizon, you can see other people's light, indicating how FAR more you have to go.
It was getting tougher and tougher. We reach this part where had to use the ropes, cuz on the other side, it was a LOOOONG WAY down. And can you believe it? The mountains was just strolling past our side like nothing, all while we're holding to the ropes for our dear lives. Below is the photo taken when the light came up...
4AM+: At some point in time, I was alone, separated from the rest. I was like walking ten steps and sitting down one minute. It was getting too difficult, why did I get myself into this? Well, there was one time, I sat, and just lied on my back. I was going to give up. I just lied there, looking up to the stars. I can tell you, in the midst of this suffering, God gave me one of the most breath-taking commercial break. It was about His great creation. The sky was so clear, and it was so dark all around, you can see so many stars up there!
5AM+: I am almost cursing myself at this point. Imagine you take 10 steps, and take a 1-minute break. Every 10 steps!!! That's what you get for not training at all! Almost really gave up if not for Phang arriving and motivating me on. It really makes a difference when you have a buddy to walk with...
6AM+: The sun has started to rise... Argghhh... I missed the peak sunrise. Sigh, guess my promise to "deliver" a sunrise has failed miserably. But well, at this time, looking around, these are the beautiful scene. Just another 500m more!!
7AM+: Finally! The top!!! The very top! The end of the suffering! The highest top in the Malaysia and I'm there! Wohoooo!!! Well, Wai Yee & gang was starting their descent as I reached, so, I'm pretty late actually. Anyway, the rest of the group is there! And it was half an hour of resting, photo-taking and celebration. The was that sparkling juice we brought up (which weight like a tonne in the midst of the execise).
8AM+: The rest of the journey was much simpler than going up. We finally reach the bottom of the mountain (the very bottom) at about 3.30pm. All in all, we've walked 19KM+, for about 18hours!
So what have I learned from this? 1-Old scout motto: BE PREPARED, train before going for this kind of stuff. 2-Enjoy the journey, even though it might be tough.
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 11:00 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
D.U.K.E. S1xE01: The Day of Long Walks
Recently I took on a trip which totally not my kind of activity - hiking. And guess what, it's not any typical kind of hiking... I had to go and jump into the deep end of the ocean, well, in this case, I went to highest possible peak in South-East Asia. Yes, as some of you know already (since I've been ranting about it for the last three months), I went to climb Mount Kinabalu. Can you imagine that? Me? Climbing Mount KK??? It's almost equivalent to Chee Wai taking siu-yok!
Ya... Ya... I had my extra "motivation" to go in the first place, but when that motivation kinda vanished, well, I kinda went for the sake of going. Li'l did I know what was ahead of me...
To give you a brief intro, you need two days to climb this hunk of rock. The target is to reach Laban Rata about afternoon of DayOne, and then move on to climb to the peak early (really early) on DayTwo, and come back to the bottom by afternoon of DayTwo itself. Sounds easy? Well, it's just a 19km walk up and down. How hard can it be?
I meant look here, within one hour, I'm already seeing this scene here. I've almost puked by KM1.0! [Note: To Laban Rata from Mersilau is 8.0km+]
That's what you get for NOT TRAINING at least! (My excuse is that I've only done 1 x swimming,2 x jogging, 3 x football... in the span of three months!!!). It was an uphill (literally!!!) climb, and I was thanking God all the way that He gave me really long legs.
By the time we reached about 1.5km+, it was a much, much more easier downhill trend. Well, it was then I thought, "Hey, I should be able to do this!", after the pschological shock I had earlier. The whole group of us that went up comprise of 15 people. Our smaller group here, is termed as the "B" team. Why? Cuz we were the middle team. There is a super-fit "A" team of five who went waaaayyy ahead of us, and well, there's a slightly less-fit team who's trailing us... You the see uncle there? He's 55 and he's more fit than me!!! Talk about looking for a hole to hide...
Ok.. By now you would have enough of the whining that I have... Well, you see this kid here? To him, it's like a walk in the park, just about the same as Chee Wai taking a Bukit Jalil jog.. And you know what? He's carrying like 10-15kg worth of our stuff!!! On the plus side, there are some nice scenes when I remember to BREATHE and look. It's no joking, these are the kind of rocks we have to climb up, which became a river when it rained heavily.
Oh, did u see that 5KM again? Nope, it's not a mistake, it's because we took another trail up. Effectively, this is 7KM. Only 1 more KM!!!! At this point, I've abandoned all thought of picking which rock not to step to avoid drenching my legs. I'm already WET!!! Just a bit more, I can really sit down already... Just a bit more, I can have a HOT cup of tea, and some DRY clothes... Just around the corner... FINALLY!!!
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 12:30 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
D.U.K.E. Season 1 - Pilot
Time didn't just fly for me - it went through a blackhole and now it's MARCH 2009!!! Well, it's 2009, and instead spending time playing games, I thought, well, time to revamp my DEAD blog a bit. Searching, searching for ideas... Ha!! Since I love series soooo much, well, will try a new approach.
And hence the new title... D.U.K.E. - Do U Know Everything? (sounds corny, well, gotta think of something, and not to be confused with the local highway named after my nick). Not that I'm gonna blog that often, but gonna be doing so whenever something kinda "momentous" happens...
Come to think of it, life is sometimes like a long-running series... It has its build-ups across a season, and climax at the season finale, before coming down again in the next season. And so the cycle continues... Sometimes the season are short, they are sometime long... Well, how will my season be?
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 8:43 PM 0 comments
Friday, December 26, 2008
№17. My Christmas Gift
Lord,
Thank you for your awesome gift on Christmas day. As I scratch my head to think of what I can give back, I see that there nothing I have that's not already yours. And so, I offer my life again. As the new year approaches, I have not any resolutions, but just a prayer. A prayer to restart my life, to rebuild it to become a pleasing offering. Lord, I pray that:
- Character is changed in Christ's values
- Health is built and given more thoughts
- Relationships are mended, restored and renewed
- Strength is given for victories in my struggles
- The white dog will be fed more, and the black dog will starved to death
In Jesus' Name, Amen
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 10:18 AM 1 comments
Saturday, November 8, 2008
№16. Winning Feels Good & Some Self Reflection
Sometimes I wonder, what is my favourite past time? Most of people would say... PLAYING COMPUTER GAMES... And my answer is WRONG!!! That's the impression I give people anyway. It's just a misunderstanding because I must be busy as my brains cannot be idle from the moment it wakes up till it shuts down in exhaustion at nite... My actual past time is actually reading fiction books, especially those on fantasy (like Forgotten Realms, Harry Potter) and science fiction (like Stars Wars) and military/spy fiction (like Tom Clancy). I can stay more focused on a book than a PC game. Well, this kinda led me to another hobby which I indulge in time to time (but again, giving the impression that I always do it) - TREASURE HUNT!!
Started joining it about four years ago, with my first one being the Maxis Hunt 2004, where we went to Pangkor!!! Surprise, surprise, our team got Number3!! That was a good feeling. Well, the rest is kind of HISTORY, with two times a year in the Maxis Hunts, and the yearly TheSun Hunt. Well, this year was a special surprise as we joined theSun MotoHunt 2008. We manage to secure the first position due to a lucky guess on one of the questions (well, in my opinion, hunts are a combination of "luck", "brains" & "brawns"(you kinda run from time to time, or drive 120kph on LDP). It was an exhilarating feeling, beating over 200 other cars, and special thanks to my team mates - CP, Prasath and Raj. Oh, by the way, the prize was GOOD. The photo below shows it, and each of us got one.. :)
Team Mates (from left): CP Tan, me, Prasath & Raj
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 5:45 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
№15. Entertainment Overload
Ok, by now, all the series have started, that means a lot of hours of entertainment per week:
Heroes, Season 3: Sylar gains a human heart, while Peter becomes evil? Hiro killed Ando!!!
Gundam 00, Season 2: Setsuna is back and gonna change the world again...
CSI, Season 9: Warrick is dead, Sarah is back...
Smallville, Season 8: Lex Luthor is missing, and Clark now works in Daily Planet!
House, Season 5: House loses his close friend Wilson...
Chuck, Season 2: Chuck is still the Intersect...
Prison Break, Season 4: Scofield & gang now tries to take down The Company..
The Big Bang Theory, Season 2: Still as funny...
One Piece, Naruto, Bleach: Still on-going...
Would you look at that? That's more than 340 minutes (or 5 1/2 hours) of series per week!!! Almost 3.0 GB of HDD space/week!!! On top of that... Red Alert 3 and Fallout 3 is coming soon!!! Wohoo...!!!
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 11:47 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 13, 2008
№14. Wah loa yeh....
[5.59PM] Can't wait for 6PM. It's another one of those "cold" Mondays. Sigh, sometimes I just wonder why I even bother. Lookey, lookey... It's raining... Arghh... Another day of gloom.
[6.05PM] Got to my car finally. A bit soaking, sighing all the way. I'm quite sure I'm gonna end up dead one day sighing myself till I'm short of breath. Well, little did I know that a grand show was on it's making.
It was a sunny late evening, with light rain. Yes, the perfect combination for a RAINBOW fiesta. I manage to catch about 6 rainbows (well, some of them might the same one, but at different places). And as I enjoyed the show (I somehow took some shortcuts that happen to make my journey longer, but gave me more time), I can't help but recall what Josiah commented about my blog being dead until I see a rainbow. Well, I DID post three days earlier.
I was just overwhelmed as I drove back. One after another. These are the things that remind me how BIG He is. How MAJESTIC. How GLORIOUS. It reminded me that my problems now, even though how GIGANTIC is it to me now, how DAUNTING it is, how IMPOSSIBLE it is now to overcome, well, it's just so small compared to HIM. And I can't believe He took the trouble to display so many rainbows to prove His point...
p/s I know... It's very dangerous driving and taking photos at the same time, so don't try it!!
Posted by Douglas Ho 何建信 at 7:02 PM 0 comments