The Abundant Life

Celebrations (Losing My Ethnicity?)

2006-02-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

This year Chinese New Year came and went, just like that. It is my fave holiday when I was a kid - the new clothes, the firecrackers, the kuih kapit, the reunion dinners, meeting up with old friends, meeting relatives which just mysteriously appear once a year and the wonderful smell of freshly minted cash. However this year, it was just another day for me. Just a call to my family to wish them Gong Xi Fa Cai and that was it. Probably there was no festivities here and not many fellow Malaysians here to yum seng with. And there goes my CNY 2006.

Valentine's Day however marks the 2nd year anniversary of my proposal to Lila. Can't believe how time flies and 2 years had passed. I for one think that V's Day is too commercialized where restaurants are packed and roses are expensive. I for one was running out of ideas on what to do and what to get. A friend told me that Jim Brickman (a pianist) is in town and so I got tickets for the night. Of course Lila do not know who he is and I haven't been to a piano concert since I was a kid. It turned out to be a wonderful romantic evening with self-declared Mr Romance. I had liked his music a few years ago but his tunes got kinda same, that is his signature I guess. He had a few interesting guest artist - an electric violinist who could make his instrument sound like an electric guitar and also a male and female vocalist. Jim played a lot of his hits and it is funny seeing him playing quite intensely on the piano. His left leg was moving a bit weird while playing. All in all, he had an encore and ended the night with no surpise, his love song Valentine: ... I will give you my heart, Until the end of time, You're all I need, my love, my Valentine.

Overwhelmed

2006-02-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 1 month since I updated the blog. Time really flies when things started to be busy. Let me see what has happened for the last few weeks... Lila's relatives came to Arizona and we opened up our apartment to them, they got us started on a home-based business, did all the mortgage paperwork for our new house which will be ready next month, shop around for tickets to fly back to Malaysia, my project at work is near its deadline, gave the 60 day move-out notice to the apartment owners, packing all our stuffs in the apartment to ready for the move, do some shopping for things to bring back, tried doing my US taxes myself for the first time and gave up halfway, etc... HELP!!!

And one fine morning, my Camry wouldn't start at all. It was coughing for a few weeks especially in the mornings but I tot it was due to the cold weather. I tot when I come back from Malaysia, I will bring it to its regular checkup. How can Toyota (which is known for their quality and reliability) and especially my Camry which is 1.5 years old fail me? But that morning, it just wouldn't start. So I took a lift from a friend to work, prayed the whole day for a miracle, felt depressed the whole day too. It really felt like my family or someone whom I really depended on every day had cancer or something like that. The next day, it would not start and then I had to call a towing company to tow it to the nearest Toyota workshop. So I followed the tow truck and spent a 1-2 hours waiting for the repairs. The mechanic came up to me and handed me the keys and told me that the battery died and there were no problems with the car. Since the battery is still under warranty, I got a new one for free, I don't need to pay for the towing cost ($70) and they also gave me a free car wash. Phew... what I learnt was that my prayers were really prayers which are convenient prayers - so that I don't have to suffer or go through hardships. But in most cases, it is NO and I need to go through all these experiences. And another is I should not worry unnecessarily. But one thing's for sure, from every experience there is something good which comes out of it.

So when recently, my good non-Christian friend forwarded me some "junk" emails, I normally don't really pay attention to emails like this... but I just took some time to read it and it is an interesting inspiration imagination about someone's chat with God. Here it is:

GLORIOUS CHATTING

God: Hello. Did you call me?

Me: Called you? No. Who is this?

God: This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought I will Chat .

Me: I do pray. Just makes me feel good. I am actually busy now. I am in the midst of something.

God: What are you busy at? Ants are busy too.

Me: Don't know. But I can't find free time. Life has become hectic. It's rush hour all the time.

God: Sure. Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you results. Activity consumes time. Productivity frees it.

Me: I understand. But I still can't figure out. By the way, I was not expecting YOU to buzz me on instant messaging chat.

God: Well, I wanted to resolve your fight for time, by giving you some clarity. In this net era, I wanted to reach you through the Medium you are comfortable with.

Me: Tell me, why has life become complicated now?

God: Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what makes it complicated .

Me: Why are we then constantly unhappy?

God: Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. You are worrying because you are analyzing. Worrying has become your habit. That's why you are not happy.

Me: But how can we not worry when there is so much uncertainty?

God: Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional .

Me: But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty...

God: Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Me: If suffering is optional, why do good people always suffer?

God: Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot be purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but don't suffer. With that experience their life becomes better, not bitter.

Me: You mean to say such experience is useful?

God: Yes. In every term, Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lessons afterwards.

Me: But still, why should we go through such tests? Why can't we be free from problems?

God: Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offering Beneficial Lessons to Enhance Mental Strength. Inner strength comes from struggle and endurance, not when you are free from problems.

Me: Frankly in the midst of so many problems, we don't know where we are heading...

God: If you look outside you will not know where you are heading. Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides insight.

Me: Sometimes not succeeding fast seems to hurt more than moving In the right direction. What should I do ?

God: Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction is a measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more satisfying than knowing you rode ahead. You work with the compass. Let others work with the clock.

Me: In tough times, how do you stay motivated?

God: Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are missing.

Me: What surprises you about people?

God: When they suffer they ask, "why me?" When they prosper, they never ask "Why me?" Everyone wishes to have truth on their side, but few want to be on the side of the truth.

Me: Sometimes I ask, who am I, why am I here. I can't get the answer.

God: Seek not to find who you are, but to determine who you want to be. Stop looking for a purpose as to why you are here. Create it. Life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.

Me: How can I get the best out of life?

God: Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.

Me: One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.

God: There are no unanswered prayers. At times the answer is NO.

Me: Thank you for this wonderful chat. I am so happy to start the New Day with a new sense of inspiration.

God: Well. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Don't believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. Life is a mystery to solve, not a problem to resolve. Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live.

The World's Most Exotic and Rarest Coffee

2006-01-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

My oh My. This is dedicated to all the coffee lovers out there. Was watching VH1's The Fabulous Life: Top 40 of 2006 about the ludicruous and extravagant indulgences of the rich and famous. Then to my surprise, among the Top 40 was shown a map of the island Sumatra, our dearest neighbor Indonesia. Hmm... it seems like the world's most exotic and rarest coffee does not come from Starbucks, Coffee Bean or Costa Rica but from the poop of the luwak animal. Lawaknya! Haha! It cost USD$300 for a bag of those coffee beans and supplies are quite limited. I am not sure whether those poor farmers in Indonesia knows about how much those beans fetch in the USA and I guess they can be millionaires just collecting luwak droppings. The luwak eats only the ripest coffee cherries and since it is unable to digest the coffee beans, it will graciously deposits them on the jungle floor. Seems like their stomach acids and enzymatic action involved in this unique fermentation process produces the beans to make it the world’s rarest coffee beverage. So if you do happen to travel to Indonesia, make sure you try out kopi luwak. Perhaps you can also experiment with kopi manusia at home. :)

2006

2006-01-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

As I type the year 2006, it reminds me of a Chinese movie I watched recently called 2046. I just watched way too many movies recently thanks to Netflix and the empty weekends (probably will blog on that later). 2046 is a room in a motel where the writer based his futuristic story in the year 2046 about the people he met. 2006 for me is not a room but probably another year waiting to be surprised. I was quite amused by the preaching last Sunday when the pastor mentioned that our current Gregorian calendar came to existence 400+ years ago. For us, it is the year 2006, for the Chinese it is the year 4073, Hebrews 5000 something, Muslims probably 600+, Indians I'm not sure and probably for God just a few seconds?

Ok, for the fun of it... I did not celebrate the dawning of 2006. Probably I'm old and wanted some peace and quiet at home with my wife. The city of Tempe hosted a huge block party nearby because the Fiesta Bowl (a big college football championship) is in town. Blues Traveller the group is performing and there's projected to be 150,000 people. So I'll just forget it and stay at home because I don't intend to fight for a parking spot somewhere. Plus there's church service the next day and Lila is teaching in the children's ministry. For the US, the definitive countdown place is in New York City where a big ball slowly descended and when it reaches the bottom, lights will flash out brightly. Yeah, those lights are sponsored by Phillips (go figure how commercialized everything is). I'm also not sure what is the significance of this ball on New Year's? Perhaps when someone ask how are you feeling this New Year? Your reply will be "I'm having a BALL!" Anyway, they will record that segment and when Arizona reaches 12am 2 hours later, this segment will be shown again. That's the gripe I have for staying in the west coast instead of the east coast. Many supposedly live events like the Oscars, Grammys and even American Idol finales are tape delayed in the West coast so by the time we watch it, you can actually know the results earlier if you surf on the Internet.

Hmmm... sounds like I'm getting more cynical as I grow older. Anyway, as I was laying in bed with my wife, we tried to think of what have we accomplished last year. We have:
1. Travelled a lot. Portland, North Dakota, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas plus many 2 hour trips to neary San Francisco, Napa Valley. Finally sat on a Greyhound bus for the first time on my butt numbing 1.5 days journey to North Dakota.
2. Relocated to Arizona and bought a house here. Also had to take care of my own apartment in the meantime and buy my own furniture.
3. Found 2 nice Chinese churches. 1 in Sacramento before we left and 1 in Chandler.
4. Made new friends and luckily no new enemies. Prob a few frenemies (a phrase from Sex and the City describing your friends who are also enemies).
5. I think quite a lot of other stuffs after looking back. Can't complain too much and need to count my blessings one by one.

Since I have never fully fulfilled any of my previous resolutions... will just list them down. What the heck!
1. Be a good husband and family man. Not really up to expectations so far and had been quarrelsome, impatient, bad, hurtful. Yeeks... need I say more and you might wonder that is Ernest? :) Hope that I can also help my parents back home in some way.
2. Daily devotion and read through the Bible at least once. In my quest and lust for the world, God has taken a back seat. Are you still there in my car, God? Perhaps should either let God drive or sit beside me in the front seat.
3. Further my education by taking an MBA. Not that Married But Available course but the real degree in the hopes that it could help in the future somehow.

That's it I guess. No need to write more and then be disappointed next year that I didn't achieve any of them. There's 11.5 months to go now and before I end, Happy Gregorian New Year!

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

2006-01-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have been deciding for the past few days whether to write the second part of our Christmas trip to Las Vegas or just let it stay secret (like the tagline from the Las Vegas ads). There were certain aspects which I like about Las Vegas. As a recovering shoppaholic, I was impressed with most of the shopping malls within the Las Vegas strip (especially inside the hotels) which open till 12am and they still stay open on Christmas Day. There were also plenty of partying clubs with cover charge above $100 to countdown to the New Year with invited stars like Goo Goo Dolls, Shannon Elizabeth, etc. And also due to the explosion in Las Vegas tourism and real estate, there were many resorts/hotels which opened or got into this thing called timeshare or vacation ownership. In a nutshell, vacation ownership is a multi-billion $ business and it is something like joining a vacation club and then able to vacation anywhere in the world for a cheap price which can also be passed over to the kids after we die. However the cheapest membership option is around $11k which is not cheap. The good thing about attending this vacation ownership presentations is the many free gifts they provide. But for me, the hardest is to say "no" because I'm a person who can't say "no" easily. We were tempted a few times to join the club but eventually I stuck to my ground and decided not to get it. We attended 3 presentations on the same day in the morning (because there's nothing much to do in LV in the daytime) and the fruits of our wasted time were $50 Planet Hollywood dinner, $100 shopping voucher at the Treasure Island hotel, $50 free slot play (which my wife used to win another $50), $200 tickets to watch a show called Zumanity, another 3d/2n stay in Las Vegas which can be used at another time plus a 5d/4n stay in Hawaii. So not too bad for a hard day's work attending talks.

Since prostitution is legal here, there were many hispanic people passing out callgirl cards. They have a certain style of hitting the cards (with a clicking sound) and passing it out. There were many topless pics strewn across the floor, not to mention there were many unwholesome shows too. So before long, the surroundings would influence the mainstream. The show Zumanity by Cirque du Soleil was an example of that. Cirque du Soleil was formed by a group of poor street performers in Canada and now they have taken over Las Vegas and the world with their mixture of circus and fantasy. Each big hotel has their own Cirque show: MGM Grand hotel with Ka, Treasure Island hotel with Mystere, Bellagio hotel with O and New York New York hotel with Zumanity. Even one of the ex Cirque bigwigs, Franco Dragone, is the creator of Celine Dion's A New Day show at Caesar's Palace.

My friend told me that he saw Zumanity before and it was different. Since I got those expensive tickets for free, I was looking forward to see what it was all about. We took our seats for the 10:30 pm show after enjoying ourselves at the Irish pub nearby. Zumanity is a cabaret style type of show with a woMan emcee. S(he) was quite foul-mouthed funny and made dirty jokes. The show was all about exploring our sexuality with many risque circus fantasy performances and some funny ones. There's no outright full frontal nudity but lots of topless ones which after awhile, doesn't seem unique anymore. The people giving us the tickets said that it was supposed to look tasteful. One of the performance photo which I found on the internet is the one called 2 lilies of the pond, which is something like topless chinese female acrobats doing their weird body contortions and stunts just like water lilies. Normally on family oriented shows, they are fully clothed but now you can see their ribs bending at odd angles because they weren't clothed. Gross! There were other weird characters in the show like a pair of fat lady twins, a dwarf, a half man half beast, plus others. The funny parts are the jokes and audience participations. There were other performances which I think is not good to be mentioned here. In the end, Zumanity is not just another side of Cirque du Soleil but it also brings out the dark side of our humanity.

Becoming Santa Claus

2005-12-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas. Much has changed since the last time I was here in 2000. Just 5 years and there seemed to be some noticeable differences. Nevada has been the No.1 state for population increases for many years whereas Arizona is No.2. In all, since 2000, Nevada has grown 20.8 percent, compared with Arizona's 15.8 percent (Arizona's population is now nearing 6 million people). That doesn't include the 37 million tourists cramming the Las Vegas strip every year, plus all the red-hot real-estate developments around which had made many people rich. Traffic was bad and the drivers reminded me of Malaysians. There are many shopping malls on the Strip and who needs another Chanel, Gucci or Tiffany's just a block away?

One of the most influential people who transformed the Las Vegas strip today is Steve Wynn. Who is he? Not like Donald Trump who is very famous, Steve Wynn is a low key real estate developer. He is the owner of the hotels Treasure Island, Mirage, Bellagio and the newest one Wynn. The Wynn hotel has a Ferrari and Maserati (lower end) showroom in front whereas the Bellagio was featured in the movie Ocean's 11 and it is my favorite hotel because of its beautiful posh interiors and its delightful waterworks show. The water danced to the Christmas music every 15 minutes and the performance of Handel's Messiah (the one with the famous Hallelujah, hallelujah) was spectacular with the waters shooting off to the sky with thunderous symphony.

One of the famous Las Vegas attractions is the food. There are many world class restaurants here with 5 star or 5 diamond ratings. Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse are a few world class chefs who operates their restaurants here and it cost around $75 to $3-digits for a 3 course meal. So did some research on the top buffets in Las Vegas and decided to have dinner at The Buffet at Bellagio which some voted as the #1. Whereas 5 years ago I went for the cheap buffets, this time I am going for the higher end... probably as taste buds grew older, they get more picky. For $45 (after tax and tips), I stuffed myself with all the king crab legs, kobe beef, foie gras, sushi, lamb ribs with mint apple jelly, wonderful desserts and other exotic dishes. According to the buffet statistics, it took 88 chefs to prepare all the food. On Christmas day, we went for the #2, the champagne brunch at the Carnival World buffet at the Rio hotel where it cost $30 (after tax and tips). This buffet had a lot of food choices compared to the Bellagio but the food doesn't sound as posh. Nevertheless was able to sip champagne with a plate full of crab legs which I never had the luxury of doing before in my life at this time of day. I do love all chocolates with hazelnuts (Ferrero Rocher, Baci's) and had been searching futilely for hazelnut icecream for a long time and they had hazelnut gelato. Yummy!

After awhile, all the crab legs and prawns doesn't taste too good anymore. They used to be my favorites and I feel like vomiting every time I think about them now. This is so sad - gluttony. It is kinda ironic that I am paying so much to eat and put myself closer to my grave. Having cholesterol on the higher side doesn't help either. The good thing is we had to walk a lot from one end to another and that burned a lot of our calories. Haha... I think I can become Santa Claus next Christmas with my growing belly. Some food for thought: With all the hotels combining all the excess food, I think it is possible to solve world hunger, but why poverty still exists? Perhaps the rich keeps on getting richer while the poor keeps on getting poorer.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men

2005-12-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

First of all, to those who reads my blog... MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yeah, Christmas is sometimes a bit depressing for me. Why? Since I'm getting more Americanized or perhaps Westernized, I always don't know what to buy when Christmas approaches. This is true especially fwhen it comes to my wife and her family and this adds a lil bit more pressure. I do buy things for my wife throughout the year and what is so special about the Christmas gift? And my wife's family who is now my family is very fruitful and had multiplied tremendously... so I have to think of what presents to get for each and everyone of them. Not sure whether they like this or that... why can't they be chinese and I can just give them an angpow without thinking too much?

There are many efforts in the US now to take out the religiousness of Christmas and to make it a secular holiday. There were reports that some major stores are replacing the greeting "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" and even renaming the "Christmas tree" as the "Holiday tree". Talking about Christmas trees, my wife likes decorating for Christmas and I seem to think it is a waste of time, effort and money to buy a tree and other decorations since we don't have our own place yet. Ahhh... my inner Scrooge is manifesting now. These are some of the cultural clashes that we have. To add to my Christmas misery, malls are so packed with shoppers and most of the time, it is hard to find parking. And yes, I think that Christmas is now being too "commercialized". Haha... my wife hates this word when I mentioned it. :)

But Christmas isn't always that bad. I like the Christmas parties, Christmas songs and Christmas movies. For some people in America, Christmas season doesn't start until their Christmas movie "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is shown on tv. This cartoon classic was first shown in 1965 and it has been showing every year since. I have not really seen it before but I read that it has religious undertones in it which really perked my interest to watch it this year. It was funny and the jokes radiate even though it is now 40 years later. It was a movie which nearly didn't make it to the tv screen because television executives hated it from the start. It was criticized as being too religious—Linus quotes straight from the King James Bible (Luke 2:8-14). It was criticized for featuring contemporary jazz, an offbeat choice for a cartoon. It was criticized for not having a laugh track. It was criticized for using the voices of real children. So many criticisms but yet eventually it ignored all these negativity and became an unforgettable classic. How true this is in real life and this can teach us a valuable lesson to endure all criticisms to excel in what we believe in.

Anyway, I'm taking a vacation tomorrow to Las Vegas for the Christmas weekend. Hahaha... how ironic, celebrating Christmas in Sin City. So to end this blog, just wanna wish you again "have yourself a merry little Christmas", world peace (ala Miss Congeniality) and also be good to your neighbors. Here is one of the best scenes in A Charlie Brown Christmas...
Charlie Brown: [shouting in desperation] Isn't there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?
Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please. [a spotlight shines on Linus] "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'". That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie brown.

I Can Only Imagine...

2005-12-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

I have been counting down to the joint Mercy Me and Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas concert at the Glendale Arena where the Phoenix Coyote NHL ice hockey team normally plays. Finally Dec 11 arrived, we went there early to avoid the traffic and also look at the booths. There were the usual merchandise booths as well as the Christian radio stations giving away freebies. The concert started with a friendly banter between Bart Millard (lead singer of Mercy Me) and Steven Curtis Chapman. Most of the time, Bart teased Steven about his age and the Arizona weather - no white Christmas. Steven doesn't look too old, probably in his 40's and he is the most honored Christian singer with more than 40 #1 hits in Christian radio plus Grammys, Doves (Christian music awards) and other accolades. Then they played a short medley of hit songs that won't be sung in this concert like Word Of God Speak, Homesick (one of my faves), Dive, Livin' Out Loud. Awww... was kinda disappointed but it made sense that the 3 hour concert will not have time for all the hit songs and this is called a Christmas concert... and it should have Christmas songs! Bart joked that some of Steven's slow hit songs were during his parents time and then took over the first half of the show while Steven sang at the latter half. Then the techno fireplace and falling snow outside the window came on the LCD screens to give Arizonans a feel of what a white Christmas is and the show began...

There were a few touching moments in the concert. Steven sang a song called All I Really Want about kids who don't want the latest toy but a hope for a family. Towards the end of the song, a group of Phoenix adopted/foster children came onto the stage to sing the chorus and that was very tears inducing. Steven is a champion for adoption and he formed an organization called Shaohannah's Hope (named after his adopted daughter) to provide help to those who plan to adopt. He himself had adopted 3 girls from China and his message of giving hope to unfortunate children this Christmas spurred me and my wife to do something. Even though me and my wife are planning to have kids of our own, we are now considering adoption. We are taking the first steps towards foster care and adoption by applying for a license in Arizona. Adoption is expensive, it would cost $15k for a baby girl from China and about $10k for local American babies. Adopting Arizona's kids would be free and they will be slightly older. So now, we are dreaming of probably 3 kids of our own and 3 adopted ones. I can only imagine... that could be a lasting legacy I could leave in this world.

One of my favorite songs was Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine. Whereas John Lennon imagined about no heaven and no religion, Mercy Me imagined about being in heaven and meeting Jesus. This song was inspired by Bart's dad who died of cancer when he was in his teens. He then wrote this song about loved ones who had passed away and why they would choose heaven instead of earth. Towards the end of the concert, he sang a new song, Joseph's Lullaby (and cleverly splicing it with I Can Only Imagine), about the love of Joseph for his son, Jesus, who is not his own flesh and blood. Seeing Jesus' tiny head and cradling his tiny body, wondering about the future of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as Jesus lay soundly asleep, Joseph imagined what will it be like in heaven, "Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine..."

Home

2005-12-12T00:48:00.000-07:00

“Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home” – excerpts from the song Home by Michael Buble

My music taste has been more adult contemporary these days. I do prefer the old fashioned mature skewing music from the likes of Michael Buble and Norah Jones instead of the manufactured pop sounds of today's younger artistes. Imagine my surprise when I saw Michael Buble's tv concert for the PBS tv channel last Sunday. (PBS is a public broadcasting channel supported by donations from the public and they air nice programs occasionally like concerts, theater, etc). Though some might argue that probably his career was due to his svengali David Foster (who also has Josh Groban under his wings as well as help produced hits for Celine Dion, Chicago, etc)... I do think that he is talented and has a good voice. During one of the donation breaks, a PBS broadcaster mentioned that he was discovered when David Foster attended a wedding in Canada and was impressed by this wedding singer. Haha... not just Adam Sandler's a good wedding singer. So David Foster gave him a contract and the rest they say is history. Sometimes we might just need one shot, one big break to succeed but unfortunately most of the time I am not that lucky. Arggghh, now I got my wife hooked on him and she thinks that he is cute.

Actually, I've been thinking about home. It has been more than a year since I've went back to Malaysia. Always wondering how my family is doing even though I do call back occasionally. As I might be there next February or March, I'm really looking forward to it and I do wonder has anything changed. Before that, I do hope to complete all my house stuffs before I can leave with peace of mind. Recently, I've discovered a South-east Asian restaurant called Oasian (which has Malaysian food) in Mesa, about 15 minutes drive from Chandler (where I am staying). It is owned by an Ipoh-born cook and now it has become my temporary fix when I miss Malaysian food. When I was in Folsom California, I had to drive 3 hours to San Jose to get Malaysian food and now I don't have to do that anymore now. Pictured here is roti canai and it cost $2.50. Kinda expensive for some cheap floor and dough.

I'm slowly trying everything from the menu. Here is the nasi lemak and it cost $7.50. I think it is ok and I find it not really special because it seems kinda simple to make. Hahaha, I remember last year I was bunking in with a good friend Mak and our nasi lemak was a disaster. Tried to blend all the chili to make the nasi lemak hot gravy but it was too spicy and in the end, I think we threw it all away. The ikan bilis on this nasi lemak is not bad though.

However my favorite is this curry mee. It is not too expensive at $6 and the bowl is huge. It has all the ingredients you can find in a Malaysian curry mee including the green beans, yellow mee, tofu, fish balls. However it is better because it has several big shrimps and it is very filling because of its big portion. Now my mouth is watering thinking about it as I write. This weekend I will try the prawn mee (or in Penang called the hokkien mee) and later on, the ipoh bean sprout chicken, kow low yook (tall man meat) rice, duck rice, fried noodles, etc. Perhaps home is not too far away after all.

A Gradual Change of Perspectives

2005-12-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have realized that as I became older, I have not just become wiser but also more cynical, negative and passionless. I remembered the first few years as a working adult, friends would ask me, "How's life?" and my reply was always, "Life sucks". And life was indeed like that. Was it because of the circumstances around me which really suck or was it because of my internal perspective of life?

I finally decide to gradually change my perspective. This blog started with the title "The Mundane Life". My perspective was that life is boring and uninteresting. But when I looked around me and some of the things I wrote, there seems to be an abundance which I had not appreciated. The simple joys, the nitty bitty details and the people whom I love are just a small portion of it. I've realized that my perspective actually personifies my character. So I've decided to change the title of this blog to "The Abundant Life" to view life with positive lenses. Since Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly". Hence I should start living my life like that.

Talking about lenses, there is a powerful NASA telescope called the Hubble which takes wonderful pictures of our galaxy. Many of the pictures can be found at www.hubblesite.org (at least some of the hard earned tax dollars are put to good use here). I became interested in astronomy after attending a Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman concert whereby my interest was piqued by the message from Louie Giglio, the founder of the Passion movement. He talked about the vastness of our universe and the awesomeness of our God. One of the more exotic galaxies shown was the Whirlpool Galaxy (or scientically called M51 or NGC 5194) which is 31 million light years away from our planet.

At the core of this Whirlpool Galaxy is this X structure. I find it pretty amazing when this picture is compared to the picture of the Cross above. Just like the lyrics of the song Indescribable:

"Indescribable, Uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name, You are amazing God. All powerful, Untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim, You are amazing God."

Beyond The Gates of Splendor

2005-11-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Kiasu. It has been quite a long time that I have used this word. Probably living in America, the general feeling is that most Westerners are rich and affluent so much so that they do not need to be kiasu. Haha... not like us Malaysians. But that is wrong especially the day after Thanksgiving, it marks the date every shoppaholic would never miss. All these avid fans of discounts, freebies, rebates will line up in the wee hours of the morning biting the cold until the store opens at 5am. Imagine the splendor of the ultimate must-have (limited X-BOX 360s, big screen plasma tvs) beyond the gates.

I for one is guilty of such idiosyncratic behavior. Getting a set of handsfree telephones for my family back in Malaysia is one of my priorities this year. Cheap recent DVDs at $4 (normal price is $15-20) is also one of my targets, even though that is much more expensive than those pirated DVDs back home. It is especially hard for me to buy some big heavy stuffs since my house is not ready yet and I would have to move it again from my 2nd floor apartment to my house when it is ready. I hate moving and carrying heavy stuffs. However the lure of a heavily discounted 32" lcd tv proved too hard to resist. The notion that it is the only one left fueled my inner gizmo lust which had dwindled long time ago. I had trouble deciding whether I should go for lcd, plasma, DLP, lcd projection, projector or LCOS or 20", 32", 37", 42", 50", 55", 60", whatever. There are just too many choices. Why can't things be simple? Without hesitating, I snapped up the last one and waited a total of 3 hours in line to pay for the tv and my other stuffs. The queue was so long but the good thing about buying stuffs in America is if you regret later, you can still return it and get back your money. Anyway, nowadays watching TV and DVD movies has never been the same again. Really, moving from my old 17" tv to this one certainly is worth it. Like the old saying, size does matter.

Whereas I was jostling beyond the gates of the store to get the things I want, actually there were a few who were eagerly awaiting to get beyond the gates of heaven. It was yesterday that the weather turned a few notches colder. It was church as usual and then we watched a touching and tears-inducing DVD documentary during adult sunday school called "Beyond The Gates of Splendor". The link to its website is attached in the Linkz list. It is a real life story about 5 missionaries in the 1950's who were martyred in Ecuador by the Auca Indians (also known as the Waodani tribe) whom they were bringing the gospel to. This tribe is famous for their brutality and homicide rate. If they don't like someone, they can just kill them and their family. Yeah, kinda like the Stone Age. The missionaries were all killed because of a lie and conflict within their tribe which has nothing to do with them. One of the 5 killed was Jim Elliot. He is someone whom I heard his name mentioned before but don't know what he did. Now I know. He had a famous quote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose".

Most of the missionaries were around my age when they died. They were college educated, dedicated to do God's will, married, some with children, talented and it seems such a waste to have died like that. However good things can come out of bad because their deaths sowed the seeds of the gospel in that tribe. Elizabeth Elliot (Jim's wife) and one of the missionary's sister eventually went back to live with the tribe. Through God's power and forgiveness, the tribe was led to Christ. The murder rate dropped by 90% and even the murderers (and their offspring) became the elders and pastors of the church. Later, even one of the grandkids of the murdered missionary eventually embraced and called one of the murderer of his grandpa - Grandfather. This incident also spurred many American missionaries to go out in the '60s and a colleague's father was one of them who brought his whole family to Guatemala. One of the best quotes in the documentary was when a child asked his dad whether they will use their guns if attacked by the Indians. He replied, "We would never use it to kill them because they are not ready for heaven...we are." When the authorities flew in and recovered the 5 spear-ridden and machete-hacked bodies from the river, not one of the Indians were found hurt.

Seasons of Love

2005-11-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

It was the year 1998 in London, the year I graduated and also that summer when I fell in love with the musical Rent. The musical came to London after the success in New York and 4 of the original Broadway cast were in the London version. I was a big fan of the show which they call a renthead. Rentheads are fans who lined up in the theater 3-4 hours before the show starts to sit in the first 2 rows, which other benefit was the price of the ticket is cheap (around 15 pounds compared to more than 30 pounds for good seats). I loved Rent so much that I watched it twice and also played the soundtrack all over and over again for a year until I knew all the songs by heart.

When I saw the movie trailers that the movie is opening the day before Thanksgiving Day, I was ecstatic. So on Thanksgiving morning, I went to watch the movie. I was waiting in anticipation for the first chords of the piano playing Seasons of Love. The movie is a rehash of Puccini's opera La Boheme with AIDS as the disease instead of TB. It is also almost similar to the stage version but now we get to see everything magnified on the big screen and also avoid the saliva from the singers showering me (they really sing very passionately on stage and you can see the tiny shiny saliva droplets falling when you sit on the 2nd row). The 4 actors whom I saw on stage has aged a bit, which makes me thinking that I did aged too as well. I realized that 7 years did changed me. At that time, I wanted to be like them, a bohemian and going against the norm - rebellious, unconventional, controversial and all those bad stuffs. Now as I am older and more mature (ahem ahem), I am wondering - what was I thinking then? The movie still had its moments which made my eyes well up though, probably those are nostalgic tears or perhaps I'm crying because I'm older by 7 years.

Since this is the season of love, this is also the season of gaining weight. We went to our young adult pastor's house last night for Thanksgiving dinner and today we held a Thanksgiving party for my colleagues at our apartment. I do need to keep my cholesterol level in check because it is a bit high and I need to have another checkup in another 4 months. If I was 7 years younger, I do not need to worry about this now... sigh... :)

A Love So Beautiful

2005-11-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

As we are preparing to break for the Thanks giving holidays (4 day holiday weekend, Thursday to Sunday), I received an email titled "Wedding Invitation :-)" from an old friend from college. I had known her for slightly more than 10 years. I can still remember I was a pimply, blurry-eyed teenager then, trying to grow up and become a man. It was my first time leaving the comforts of home and fend for myself. Housemates, roommates and friends began to replace family. Coming from an all-boys school, it was also my first time being in class with girls, and also having girls for housemates. It was new and weird! She was one of the few girls in our male dominated engineering foundation class. It was also the first time that I went into a girl's room other than my sister's. Ahh... college days was one of the best years of my life!

Anyway, back to Miss D. We met her on our stop in Singapore during our honeymoon. It was nice to see her again together with another college friend Miss I. I can still remember what D mentioned to me over dinner. She has been a Christian for a long time and as she grew older, Mr Right hasn't come along yet. There were times when she felt that she felt desperate to just simply grab anybody but eventually she waited patiently. Finally one day she met her prince charming in the caregroup. It was so beautiful and I can feel the joy in their union and picture. I pray that they will have a wonderful marriage!

I have a few good single female Christian friends. They are attractive, intelligent, friendly, Godly and very eligible. Every church I attended even including the one in Chandler, this trend seems to continue. What does Christian women want? What does Christian men lack? Is Christian dating a taboo in church? I did ask a few female friends and their answer was just simply 3 words: good Christian man. That doesn't seem too hard but unfortunately in most churches there's a lot more "good Christian"s (but not man enough to lead/initiate) , "Christian man"s (but not good enough in his daily walk) and also "good man" (but not Christian) than the whole package - the "good Christian man"s.

To end, I do like to attend weddings especially Christian weddings. Probably that is why I have an inner desire to matchmake my Christian friends. This reminds me of my wedding 1.5 years ago which seems to be an eternity ago. Marriage brought out the best and worst of me and it opened up my eyes that our other half can look different if they know how to apply make-up to bring out the best of their features. Where's my personal make-up assistant?

Forget regret or Life is yours to miss

2005-11-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

Since I have been blogging for 2 days, friends had been advising that the best way to go is to post more pictures as a picture is worth... about $0.17 at Costco. That shows how cheap our thousand words are.

One of the things I am looking forward nowadays is to one day move into my own house. A place where I can truly call home. Up till now, I feel like a nomadic leaf, travelling aimlessly wherever the wind blows. Ever since leaving Ipoh at the age of 17, I have never stayed put in a place for more than 2 years - KL, London, Kulim, Penang, Folsom (California) and Hillsboro (Oregon). Why did I choose to finally settle down in Arizona? Wife, job, cheaper housing, nice chinese church, nice weather 7 months of the year (not the 5 hot 120'F summer months), people our age, accessibility to malls/restaurants, night life and IKEA.

The picture above was taken 2 months ago whereas the one on the left was 2 weeks ago. The builders here are quite efficient and they can finish a house in less than a year. I just regret not buying the house earlier when I had the opportunity. I finally made the decision 3 weeks later and it cost me an extra $12000. The property market during the summer was crazy with huge waiting lists and lotteries. According to reports recently, houses in the Phoenix area increased 45% in value from last year. Unfortunately the property market now has kinda cooled off due to higher interest rates and more homes availability. I really really wish that my house price would continue to increase meteorically but anyway, I should be contented that it is $20000 higher now after 6 months.

Here is da 'hood where our new house will be. It is in a community called Maricopa Meadows in a small sleepy hollow town called Maricopa. This city was incorporated in 2003 and population was around 1000 then. Not sure what the number it is now, probably around 5000 people I guess. Yeah, to put it Malaysian perspective - Maricopa is much smaller than Kulim. It is around 20 miles (20 minutes to Chandler) so we do get a mixture of small town and big city living. Ahh... then I do get to spend some private time alone driving to work with my second wife, my Toyota Camry. :)

The picture here is how our house will look like when it is completed (Snapped a neighboring house to give you an idea). Our color will be a coconut husk color and will have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with 3212 square feet of space. It will always be open for visitors who wants to stay with us. It is such a blessing that next Feb/March we will be able to move in. Ever since I was a child, I had stayed in small rented homes and also in a small house. So this is a dream come true, thanks to God.

In the meantime, I'll just be contented staying in our rented apartment with our IKEA furniture... and with my wife. (She has been such a blessing to me, cooking and cleaning and doing all the things wives are supposed to do ;) )

Hey you Ernest, I'm the real Ernest here

2005-11-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

My quest to have the real "Ernest Cheah" (me, of course) searchable through google or yahoo ended in futility. The somewhat goal of this blog was to achieve that dream but somehow that doesn't seem to work. Just like in real life, it should work theoretically but most of the time it doesn't. Anyway as a certain popular American Idol cast-off said, "I already gave my best and I have no regrets at all."

Seems like there are 2 other Ernest Cheahs in this world, making it 3 overall. One seems to be a 18 year old guy in KL and another seems to have put his name in a guest book in a Langkawi hotel while the last one is you know who. Ernest is a not so common name and I could never have imagine another Cheah would name his son Ernest. Personally, I do know a nice Ernest from my hometown Ipoh but thankfully his last name is different. That is so surreal. One time I was in the elevator at work and I was so surprised to see "Ernest" printed across a chinese guy's employee badge. I was so tempted to say, "Hi Ernest, I'm Ernest. Nice to meet you."

Imagine in the Book of Life, a few Christians across history with the name of Ernest Cheah and a few other very sinful Ernest Cheahs. Since it was mentioned in the bible that our names will be written in the Book of Life, then I do wonder whether the Book of Life has other information to differentiate all these Ernest Cheahs? Birth cert #, IC #, Social Security #, date of birth, pictures, thumb prints. Imagine the population of earth to be billions and not counting those who had died long time ago. What is the possibility of a 0.00000000000000001% error? A mix-up between a holy Ernest Cheah and sinful Ernest Cheah would be preposterous - the good one would be sent to hell and the bad one to heaven. Imagine a cunning Ernest Cheah might also steal the identity of a holy Ernest Cheah during judgement day. Haha... When we stand judged by God for a sin we might have forgot or refuse to admit, we can reply, "God, errr... I did not do it. Errr... is there any possibility that it was done by the other Ernest Cheah?" At least for those destined for hell, there's a possibility of the judgement being delayed since God has to search the big database and gather additional witnesses for a re-trial. Ahhh, it might also be a good idea for churches now to have a very profitable business and even increase attendance by selling after-life identity theft protection.

OK, the last paragraph is just some vivid imagination and written in a joking way. Our God is all-knowing and we can't even fathom His greatness and majesty. Amen?

Genesis

2005-11-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

I have been reading my friends' blogs and I have been amazed by the writings. I would say that it is like reading someone's diary but with permission. Perhaps times have changed and blogs are the in-thing and diaries are just oh-so 5 minutes ago. I do journal in the past but now I do not anymore. Lazy, tired and no time seems to be my answer nowadays. My wife always asks me to exercise with her or even clean up the apartment. All my answers are always "I'm tired".

Anyway, back to this blogging. Since this is the first time I'm blogging, I guess I need to write a catchy introduction or at least an interesting epilogue to signal my entrance to the digital writersphere. But I guess I won't today because I'm tired. Ahh, that phrase again. By the way, it is almost 11pm now and I had a tiring day walking, jogging, window-shopping and watching tv. Actually I'm just interested to see whether I could google "ernest cheah" and see my name in the search results and also see a website with ernestcheah.blogspot.com. At least I can have my own domain without paying for it or spending numerous tiring man-hours working on my own website. I do hope that some long lost friend might google my name, find out about me and then send me and email. Hopefully someone from my primary school, secondary school, college or even university. That's my dream... :)