The Journey

I'm in the wrong major!!!

2006-02-18T02:24:00.000+08:00

You scored as Philosophy.

You should be a Philosophy major! Like the Philosopher, you are contemplative and you enjoy thinking about the purpose for humanity's existence.

Philosophy

100%

Psychology

83%

Theater

75%

Anthropology

67%

Sociology

58%

Linguistics

58%

Biology

58%

Mathematics

58%

Engineering

50%

Chemistry

50%

English

33%

Journalism

25%

Art

17%

Dance

17%

Wrong major...damn....wasted 5 years of my life...

Christianity vs. The World

2006-01-08T02:33:00.000+08:00

Just came back from a yumcha session with a very old friend who also went to the same youth group in church as I did when I was young. He was trying to get me into some new business proposal, and I responded that I wasn’t very interested. Well, I think I’ve rejected his proposals quite a few times. ( Nolah, not wedding proposal lah, business proposal! You think I gay ah?)

Anyway, along the way, we did get into this discussion on religion and all. He told me that he went to church about 4 times over the past year; whereas I told him I went about 4 times over the past month. I sort of asked him why he didn’t try going to church more often. And we got into this whole discussion about the reason why he doesn’t want to believe in God anymore.

From his point of view, religion is a very good thing to help you feel good about the afterlife and about circumstances, but doesn’t really solve anything otherwise. He said that when you come out to the working world, you will see a lot of problems and issues around you that religion can’t answer. “When you come out to the working world, and you go through it, and you face these problems, you come to me and we’ll talk!” he said. Exactly what were the problems and solutions were, he wouldn’t say, even though I probed. My attempts to acknowledge the limitations and defend Christianity didn’t get through to him.

Hey, I see the point in his arguments. From a non-Christian point of view it’s difficult to convince someone otherwise. “Jesus doesn’t put food in my rice bowl, so why should I believe in Him? He can’t give me money, instead He asks me to give Him a tenth of everything!” Never mind the fact there are successful Christians around. There are even more successful non-Christians as well, so how does being a Christian help you? Serve God or serve your family? Why should I serve a God that is so….intangible over my parents that raised me up? What about sin? Well, I’m not killing, raping, robbing or committing any crime, so why should I worry about sin? Never mind the fact that the Bible says that all are sinners, that’s just another philosophy of life among the many the many that there are. And suppose I actually begin to see the point of view from Christians. Well, I would not trust Christians. Seriously, TRUST THEM?? They can’t even agree among themselves! They are busy arguing among themselves to help make the world better!

I DO have my reasons for believing in God. Yes, I do. But when you look at the viewpoint of the world, it’s easy to see why people can’t believe in God and why so many of my friends in my younger years (OK, so I’m not THAT old!) give up on Christianity. And the way the church grooms young people doesn’t really help either. How are the youth going to hold on to their beliefs when what they are taught in church doesn’t really fit with the realities of the world? Viewed from a non-Christian’s point of view, the ways of the world and the ways of Christ are just two different ways of viewing things, two philosophical viewpoints if you may. And the ways of the world seem a lot more pragmatic, more practical, and easier for application. Christianity may seem to provide the answers to the deeper issues in life, but to most people, they would rather choose the practical looking worldview over the idealistic one. And it doesn’t help that the Christians constantly screw up the image of it either!

Honestly, if I wasn’t a Christian, why would I bother? Someone tell me. And show me the bottomline. I’m only interested in results. No use for your fairy tales.

A new form of government...

2005-11-17T10:00:00.000+08:00

I've been thinking...a lot has been said about the way the democratic government works or doesn't work, and how politicians fail to see the plight of the common man. We all say that politicians make decisions without understanding the situation, without heeding the advice of experts. Well why not revamp the way we do government? Why not change it altogether, to run government by the experts and unions?
Okay, here's how it works. Members of parliment are voted in by their respective unions and/ or professional bodies. So let's say we have a medical body or in the case of engineers, we have the IEM and BEM. Let IEM or BEM elect a few individuals from their members to represent them as MPs in our government. Once elected, these individuals can either continue on working both as an MP and a professional, or they can just concentrate as an MP. There would be representation from the doctors, the nurses, the IT specialists, the engineers, the accountants, the labourers, the grocery stall owners, and a few open seats for the self employed. The members of parliment would still be voted in by the people, but you would vote for your MP based on your occupation. In a sense, the professional bodies would be the new political parties. We would still have politics, but at least we would get expert advice on how to run the country. And it would be harder for a group to dominate over the others.
How do we determine the number of seats each occupation possesses? Easy, we determine them by a weighted system, like the number of people in the occupation, the relative education level, the contribution to society and economy etc. We have this system in the World Cup, so why not apply it to our government system also?
As for constituency representation, that one I haven't fully figured out yet. Maybe we can allocate some of the elected members to be sent as a representative for the constituency based on the place they are from? And if a certain town/city doess not have an MP that is from their town, we send them a member from another area. It is at least better for a smart person from another area to govern a town that for a stupid person from the same town to govern the people, don't you think?
This is just an idea I came out with, so I would welcome any feedback from you guys. Any ideas how to finetune this new "government"? Till next time then, ciao!

Working life...

2005-11-16T21:12:00.000+08:00

Being an intern for about one month has really showed me a lot of things about working life. Most people work 5 or 6 days a week, 8-10 hours a day for 30 or so years. That’s a lot of time!! It’s almost half your waking life, more than the time you spend with your family, your hobbies, the luxuries that you accumulate combined. You see your colleagues more often than your wife or husband. When you spend so much of your life at it, it begins to define who you are, how you feel about yourself and your outlook in life.

Day in and day out you go to your work. When you come back, you’re too tired to enjoy the rest of your day. If you don’t like your job, you’re pretty much screwed, cos’ you’re a slave to your job. You can’t just wake up in the morning and decide you don’t want to work today. Unless of course, your job is your hobby, which if that is the case, I envy you. Otherwise it’s bloody depressing thinking that you gonna do it for another 30 years.

I think there’s something wrong about society that tells you to work hard to get a job, earn a lot of money and have a good life. How do you have a good life, being too tired to enjoy the things you earn? Or maybe it’s this country.

The things I want to do before I die are to have my own Porsche , Aston Martin Vantage and/or Pagani Zonda. Things of beauty. Man and machine one. Ah , F**K!! Can’t afford one being in the country that has the 2^nd highest car prices in the world. Guess I’m screwed. If cars were wives or mistresses ( which to a lot of men they are ) , then people in Malaysia are married to a fat, ugly wife with a bad attitude. (No prizes for guessing what car manufacturer I’m referring to) Maybe I can’t have that supermodel wife , but can I at least have one that isn’t so UGLY? Sigh.

My version of the Joshua Beh and “Jessie” Chung wedding

2005-11-15T00:09:00.000+08:00

(Note : The facts presented in this article are taken from newspaper articles and a friend I have in Kuching. The opinions are the authors own, but not necessarily the true opnion of the author. Do read this article with a grain of salt. )

Anyone who read through the papers would have read it by now. Jessie Chung married her Ipoh beau Joshua Beh after his sixth proposal. The couple spent over RM 1 million for the wedding, which included Rm700,000 bungalow, a RM300,000 bridal car, a RM 200, 000 wedding reception and RM40, 000 for the photography.

Wow. What a fabulous wedding that must be. Except that Jessie was originally Jeffrey, a man. Jeffrey went through a sex change operation to become Jessie. How sick can that be? I mean, the guy must be top notch quality material for all the cun chicks out there..And he married a pondan. I mean, he must be super rich if they can have a RM1 million wedding. And what’s more, he proposed 6 times! He must really love Jeffrey…oops I meant “Jessie”. From what I hear, the guy married Jeffrey….oops…why do I keep making mistakes? I heard the guy married Jessie for the money…but seriously…who would marry him/her? (This is quite hard to blog) The guy’s quite rich also, being an accountant in Singapore.

The guy proposed 6 times. Yeah, 6 times for a pondan. But he finally succeeded after 6 times. He wrote the proposal to Jeffrey and Jessie in his own blood. And so Jeffrey and Jessie were very touched and agreed to marry Joshua Beh, the groom. Girls, if your boyfriend proposed to you in blood, would you be touched or would you be freaked out? Sicko.

At the wedding which was blessed by the peninsula-based Charismatic Church and presided over by 3 pastors from Bountiful Harvest, Shepherd’s Centre and Assembly of Love ( I must remind my friends and family going to Singapore not to go to those churches ), 800 family and friends were there to celebrate this occasion. (Hmm..are those really pastors? I know that a lot of churches in Europe and in the US are quite twisted, but Singapore? I shudder.) The guests gave them a standing ovation ( Perhaps they were bribed, hmm..) The couple then cut a seven tiered wedding cake and donated RM50,000 to seven organisations ( You see, I really think that the guests might have been bribed)

Jeffrey and Jessie Chung run a natural health farm business in Kuala Lumpur. Anyone been to that place before? Jessie has released two Mandarin albums and reportedly has raised some RM 500, 000 for orphanages, single mothers associations and other worthy organizations. ( Very good. I wish all the normal people could do half as much as “her”, myself included ). Last bit. I also heard Joshua’s parents don’t like the “girl” very much. ( Duh! How is that news? Ah, but you see, it proves that the parents are at least normal )

Lessons from today’s news

If you want to marry a rich husband/wife, make yourself into a pondan.
All the rich eligible bachelors are gay.
Pastors support gay marriages.
If you want to make sure your girlfriend accepts your proposal, write it in blood.
Think twice before you use natural farm products. YOU could end up like Jessie or Joshua.
Make sure of your boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s gender before you tie the knot. You don’t wanna find out after the wedding that Jessie is actually Jeffrey. Let me repeat this question. Dude…are YOU absolutely absolutely sure of that? Make sure of it. Do a physical inspection. Better still, do it yourself.

Read to find out what it is about UPDATED

2005-10-21T21:50:00.000+08:00

Back after an absence of a few weeks. Quite a few things have happened in my life since then, final exams, going back to my hometown and starting on my industrial training. I’ve got a few things I want to blog about, but I’ll blog about the thing that’s most on my heart, or rather, more like the thorn twisting in it.

The water issue. Which Malaysian hasn’t heard about it? But some may not be aware of this: Kluang, Johore, which is my hometown, has been on water rationing for many months now. Even now, even during the rainy season, the water levels still remain low in the Sembrong Dam. The same goes for the entire Klang Valley and Selangor, in spite of rain falling almost daily, the water levels in the dam remain low. How can that be possible? For one matter, before this year, there has never been water shortage issues(There have been water cuts before, but they were not due to water shortage). The people concerned claim that this is because the rainfall did not occur at the water catchment areas. Some people say that it is due to global climate change. Until recently, I’ve accepted these explanations, like most people.

But recently in a local Chinese newspaper there was an article giving a different theory (or is it a fact?) about the water shortage problem. It alleges that the water problems being faced by Kluang are actually due to mismanagement and corruption rather than nature. It says that the water problems are actually because the flow of water from the water catchment areas are being siphoned off by local farmers for agricultural purposes, and this with the knowledge and approval of the authorities! What’s more, agricultural activities are being allowed near the dam, possibly contaminating the groundwater with fertilizer and/or pesticides!

Though the paper did not provide solid proof of the claims that it made, the paper that publish it is taking a big risk publishing that article. A false statement(mebbe even a true one) could land the publication in hot soup. I read in the Comment section of Star about a week ago, a writer said that the published rainfall amount for the early part of the year in one of the catchment areas in Selangor was over 1500mm and that for such an amount, the dam should be 80% full.(If someone can provide me the actual article, I would be very grateful ).

I’m not sure what are the real reasons behind the water problems in our country, but thinking with some commonsense, could it really be possible that the rain falls in the wrong place all the time? It’s been raining heavy almost everyday here in Kluang and from the times I was in the Klang Valley, it was raining almost everyday, too. The reasons given by the authorities in Kluang have changed over the past few months. Initially it was that there was little rainfall, then they said the rain was not falling in the water catchment areas, then they said that there were faulty equipment etc. It really irks me that the problem persists until now, and there is no end in sight to our water woes over here. It irks me even more that if the part about the agriculture being planted near the dam were true, the authorities would actually endanger our health by allowing the risk of water contamination. What’s next, mass killings being made legal? The way the recent haze problem was handled didn't do much to help my lack of faith in the authorities where issues like these are concerned. Lack of transparency not only hurts us economically, politically and socially, in recent years it’s been shown to even literally foul up the air we breathe.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I’m not sure if I’ll get in trouble for posting this, but this is a risk I’m willing to take.

*UPDATE*

Apparently the news has been published on the Star...here's the link
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/30/nation/12191705&sec=nation

I hope something gets done about it soon. I would be very disappointed if it wasn't.

I'm in love...

2005-09-25T17:09:00.000+08:00

Yea, you heard it rite...I'm deeply in love. I didn't think that I could feel this way about her. If you were to talk about practicality, she's not the most practical one around. There are many others around that would serve me better. But, oh! She seduced me with her looks and her charm. God, she's beautiful. I'm usually a rational sort of person and don't get swayed by emotions easily. But I guess, love is blind. I understand what those people meant when they said it. Yeah, I really want her. I so want to hold her in my hands, right now. Just one look, I'm captivated. I guess you probably want to know who made me go ga-ga over her. Maybe you will understand after you see the pictures. Maybe you won't. But whatever the case, I'll show you the pictures now.

Yea, it's the new Ipod Nano. (Yeah, it may be lame, but you didn't seriously think that I would post about my love for a human girl, would you?) Anyway, back to my blog on the Ipod Nano. It's seriously a thing of beauty. I've never really been a fan of Ipods( I'm more into the Creative Zen), but when I saw this Ipod I really started liking this one. Aesthetically, this is simply the most beautiful of all the Ipods, and in my opinion, the coolest, which is quite an accomplishment, given that Ipods are considered the coolest mp3 players you can buy. It's incredibly small(should fit in the coin pocket of your jeans), has capacities of 2GB and 4GB, which should be enough for a portable player for most people, and comes in white or black, the black one being in my opinion, simply amazingly cool. The downside? It doesn't come with radio, it costs RM969 for the 2GB model and RM1219 for the 4GB model(gasp!), and the headphones only come in white. Actually it's alot cheaper in the States and in Singapore, so if I were to get one, I would probably get it from Singapore. It's the smallest player in the Ipod range besides the Ipod Shuffle and the Ipod Flea (My friend actually thought it was real, can you imagine?)
Well that's all for now. I thought it might be good to have a different sort of post for this time. C'ya next time!

Biography of Horatio G. Spafford and related thoughts

2005-09-10T23:02:00.000+08:00

*WARNING* This may be disturbing for some readers out there, especially Christians.

Horatio G. Spafford was a lawyer in Chicago that lived during the 19th century. During his later life, he experienced many personal tragedies. The Spaffords were pretty well known during the 1860s, not only for their law practice, but also because Horatio Spafford and his wife, Anna were close supporters and friends of D.L Moody. During the 1870s things went very wrong for the Spaffords. In 1870, the Spaffords' only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later in 1871 they were ruined financially by the Great Chicago Fire. Horatio Spafford decided that he and his family needed a break from the events from the events that had happened recently and so they went to England for a break.
In 1873 when Horatio Spafford's wife and four daughters were leaving from New York to England, the ship that they were travelling on, 'Ville de Havre' struck another ship and sunk, killing his four daughters.His wife, the only survivor, sent him a telegram 9 days after the ship left the harbor of New York, with two words, "Saved alone".
Horatio Spafford, upon hearing the news, left for England to join his wife. As the ship he was on passed the place where his daughters perished, the captain called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." That night, in his cabin, Horatio penned the lyrics to one of the most famous hymns of all time.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, Horatio G. Spafford penned. It is well even tho the grief is so great. The Spaffords went on to have two daughters afterward and founded a ministry in Jerusalem, where they founded a ministry and devoted the rest of their lives in service to the poor. The ministry did many good works and lasted long after their deaths.

If you ever heard this story in a church, this is where the story ends. A truly moving story, certainly a good story to tell before an alter call or before singing the hymn. But that was not the end of the story. The truth was, it was not well with his soul. The details of what happened after the incident are conflicting at times, but this is a rough idea of what happened.

The Spaffords’ were so overbourne by their grief that they and the group they founded began to define themselves by their tragedies, calling themselves the “Spaffordites” or the “Overcomers”. In 1871, being convinced of a concept known as the “Replacement Theology”, the Spaffordites moved to Jerusalem and founded a colony there known as the American Colony.

True, they may have done many good works over there, but the colony was known to have cult- like practices, among them was forcing even married couples to live apart to “devote them to the cause”. They had another two children, and only one of them survived. It was another huge blow for them. Other stories say that near the end of his life, Horatio began to suffer strange delusions, believing himself to be the second Messiah. He died in 1888 at the age of 60. The cult practices of the American Colony continued after his death, taking decades to undo the damage.

This story can be an indicator for us of several things. Firstly, it strongly suggests the fact that the prosperity gospel is all wrong. God may not bless you with good things even if you love Him and follow after Him. He may allow terrible tragedies to occur, great sorrow even to the point of despair in your life. You may be ruined financially, emotionally, mentally and physically. The tragedy may even be too much for you to bear. It may not “Work for the good of all those who love Him” personally, at least not in this life. This is for some of us, the price and the call of the gospel, to be willing to follow Him not just to the point of death and suffering, but even to the point of despair. To be a true Christian, perhaps this is what God requires of us.

Secondly, it is perhaps not wise to oversimplify or overspiritualise our trials and tribulations. I don’t think anyone can truly blame them for the mistakes they made later in their life. I couldn’t imagine how I could possibly cope with such tragedy, if it were to happen to me. But I do not think that the Spaffords were able to deal with their grief properly. I think it may be unhealthy to deal with grief by saying that it is well even in spite of great sorrow. In the book of Job in the Bible, we have the example of Job blaming God for his suffering. In Psalms, at times you hear so much anger and frustration at God, even vengeful words at David’s enemies. Perhaps this is the more healthy way to deal with your sorrows, to not suppress your feelings within you.

I think what we need in Christianity is less of “Christ is your secret formula for everything!” Things in life is not that simple, this preaching can lead many others to have unrealistic expectations and be disillusioned. We must acknowledge that perhaps Christianity has a very very high price to pay. That’s what I think. Whether I can handle it is another matter. I’m still on the process of learning in this journey.

Kluang's website

2005-09-10T00:24:00.000+08:00

For those of you who don't know, my hometown is in Kluang, Johor. Recently the municipal council opened a website. Here's a snapshot of the website at http://www.johordt.gov.my/mpk/biversion/mpk.htm. Question: Kluang's mainly Chinese, but why are they trying to Islamise the image of Kluang? I figure, even if you ignore the fact that Kluang's mostly Chinese, there's no reason to put those things up on the website. Makes it look less professional. What do you think?

Google and related stuff

2005-08-28T06:05:00.000+08:00

In case you haven't been aware of it, Google has been in the news a lot lately. The most recent news would be the launch of GoogleTalk and the opening of Gmail to the US public. Where previously Gmail accounts were only offered based on invitation, the launch of GoogleTalk prompted Google to open up Gmail to anyone in the US having a mobile phone. That's pretty much everyone I suppose.
Other developments of Google over the past few months would include the alleged poaching of staff from Microsoft, the launch of Google Earth, a very interesting tool that lets users zoom in to geographical locations over pretty much any location in Earth and Google Desktop, which is a sidebar with news headlines, stocks, weather reports, photos and a search tool. Even older news would be the incredibly successful IPO of Google, and the launch of Gmail with 1GB of storage space when most others at that time only offered a paltry 2mb of storage.
Google is one of the most revolutionary Internet startups. They have one of the most talented staff around, one of the most profit making startups and always manage to make headline news. I use Google. In fact, I was one of the early users of Google back in 1999 when the search engine wars was going on. I like it a lot. I use Google for pretty much everything I'm looking for, whether it is work related or for leisure purposes.
Recent things that Google is doing worries me, however. Google scans your Gmail account and uses it for marketing purposes. Coupled with the data they collect about you when you use their search engine, Google has an immense amount of data they possess about the online community. It's something that scares me. A large, impersonal corporation knowing your life habits, your interests, your location. Imagine what they could do with that.
I guess for the most part, we all don't mind that. How ironic however, that in this era where we are increasingly individualistic, shun community, and tell others to mind their own business, we allow a impersonal entity to gather this amount information about us.
For that reason, I don't use Gmail. I'll rather use Yahoo mail instead. Who needs 2GB of storage anyway? Yahoo already offers 1GB. That's more than I will ever need. I probably won't use Google Talk either, since you need Gmail to use Google Talk.
There's a lot more to talk about these privacy issues, but I guess that I'll leave it at that for now. Perhaps next time I'll talk about Internet privacy. Good day!

Sunday blog

2005-08-21T12:29:00.000+08:00

Was in church today when some thoughts came to me.
Why aren't the Christians in the Christian Fellowship(CF), doing better in their studies? I know that my seniors that were before us did well in their studies. But somewhere along the line that changed. People in CF generally do not excell in their studies. Some are doing very badly indeed. That speaks volumes about us. Does God not want to bless us in our studies? Is only "spiritual" stuff what He is concerned about? Does He consider our studies unimportant?
No, I believe we've been making excuses for ourselves. We consider our studies unimportant. We've been avoiding responsibility for our studies, making excuses like "At the end of the day, when you work, your results don't matter." " God calls me to serve Him, and that's my top priority right now."
I always believed that you can usually see a lot about one's walk by looking at how one does at school. To do well in one's studies, it takes effort. And responsibility. And setting priorities right. And proper time management. All of them very important qualities in one's journey with God. In my opinion, if one does not do well in studies, it could be due to a) I'm not gifted in that area of studies b) I'm doing things wrongly c) I haven't been responsible enough to work at my studies d) God is trying to teach you something through this incident. I think for most of us, c) is true. Running away, not taking ownership, that's what a lot of us are guilty of. In a CF culture where studies is scoffed at and DOTA is hailed as the most important thing in life, it's no wonder we are so screwed. I know alot of girls will have something to say about this. This is not to say that they aren't as responsible as the guys for the problems in CF and in our personal lives, but I can't speak concerning them in this issue, not being one of them.
Or perhaps we have not allowed God to be king of this area of our life? Having a form of godliness but denying its power? Perhaps, we do not do our best because we have not surrendered this part of our life to God yet.
In closing, I think we need to take a good hard look at ourselves, our so-called spirituality and return to a wholistic way of redefining ourselves and Christianity. Happy Sunday.

Bourne Again

2005-08-21T12:06:00.000+08:00

Hello, you have reached the blog of Kevin Tang. It has been a long year, and I have not been blogging for a while, but I'm back. Hopefully for good. With this new blog, I hope that much good will come out of it and that you all will enjoy the contents that come out from this blog.
For the benefit of those who have not read my previous blog and do not know me personally, I will provide some details about myself. I am a Malaysian student studying Computer Engineering in MMU, and am in my final year. Interests include reading , listening to music and computing, so some of what I blog might be related to those things about me.
That's about it for now, nice meeting you!

The Journey

I'm in the wrong major!!!

Christianity vs. The World

A new form of government...

Working life...

My version of the Joshua Beh and “Jessie” Chung wedding

Read to find out what it is about *UPDATED*

I'm in love...

Biography of Horatio G. Spafford and related thoughts

Kluang's website

Google and related stuff

Sunday blog

Bourne Again

Read to find out what it is about UPDATED