Saturday, September 29, 2007

Carebears

Is it bad to be too caring to everybody? One thing for sure is that with our limited attention span, we will bound to disappoint somebody at any given day.

I was in my church's mid-autumn festival celebration earlier. When it came to the final event of the night (walking around with lanterns) I had decided to follow my friends from IPBA (Catherine, Nicky, Anita, Nigel & David) to Kanna Curry House for a drink. On my way out I stopped by to talk to several people. As a result, I never got to have my drink cuz by the time I was out of church, Nicky txt me saying they were going home already.

I'm concerned cuz a similar case happens in my family. Whenever I go back Ipoh during weekend, I find myself engaging in long conversations with my parents - about my job, health, car and all the 'serious' topics. At other times, I'll either be out yumchar with my old school mates or too tired to do anything. All these actually crowd out my time for my brother, whom I care a lot. Right now I still haven't got a solution for this. The best I did was to let him know I care about him a lot despite not spending enough brotherly time with him.

Hence the question - how much should I care for everybody so that I can still care sufficiently for people who matter most?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Conversion of A Presbyterian Into Catholicism

I just can't keep myself from telling all my non-Catholic Christian (I consider you as family, not 'protestants') brothers and sisters out there. Read this...the story of the conversion of Dr Scott Hann into Catholicism.
http://www.chnetwork.org/scotthconv.htm

Also check this out: 1 Timothy 3:15 "..if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulkward of the truth."

Please hear this...Martin Luther hadn't been completely right when he preached about sola scriptura (Scriptures alone) and sola fide (faith alone). If you believe that the Scriptures alone are the pillar of truth, then believe in 1 Timothy 3:15 and believe in the unity of all Christians under one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

[the word 'catholic' is derived from Greek καθολικός (katolikos), which means universal]

To clear up some misconceptions you might have regarding the Catholic Church:
I read an article in the Catholic weekly the Herald that explained how the Church's teachings had remained steadfast despite all the selling of indulgences and a string of bad popes before Martin Luther and John Calvin's Reformation. This just shows that the Church built by Jesus Christ on this rock (St Peter) was never defeated by Satan. And the pope's infallibility applies only to the setting of universal Church doctrines. It was only used once by Pope Pius XII on the Assumption of our Blessed Mother.

And like what Dr Hahn said to his friends...we Catholic Christians DO NOT worship Mother Mary. We simply honour her as our Mother. And, we truly have full faith that we are receiving the body of Christ during Mass (which is the continuation of the Last Supper). Only men can become priests because as representative of Christ on earth, a priest (who should be male) is 'married' to the Church (His bride). Get it?

We are also against divorce (marriage is a sacrament - what God has joined let no man separate), artificial contraceptions (except to curb the spread of AIDS between 2 married spouses, all others should instead abstain from adultery, fornication and multiple sex partners), abortion and same-sex marriages (there's no wrong in loving someone of the same sex, but abstinence from sexual intercourse will be the right thing to practice).

C'mon my non-Catholic brothers and sisters...let's not be divided anymore. It's time to come home, love our Father as a united family and love one another as Christ loves us...

Shalom,
Henry Michael Lim

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Secret

Thanks Ivy for recommending Jay Chou's directorial debut "Secret". Watched it in 1Utama earlier today. Absolutely loved this romantic movie, despite the few plot loopholes and Jay's (improved but still) "kayu" acting. Both the female main characters (Xiao Yu and Qin Yi) were lovely and sweet! In fact, the actress who played Qin Yi bears uncanny resemblance to my uni mate Lisa Leong.

The ending is very much up to the audience's interpretations.

My verdict: 7.5/10. (Planning to get the original DVD when available!!!)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Everything

Earlier today I heard a nice song on radio. Really made my day. Pardon me, for yours truly haven't been keeping up-to-date with new songs lately. I'm sure this feel-good song's not any new to most of you out there. But for me, it's my first time listening to Michael Buble's Everything.

Yeah...got it downloaded. It's playing in Winamp as I type. Luv it!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

ASM Annual Dinner

It's time for another annual dinner again. The whole actuarial department of Uni.Asia Life Assurance attended both the talks and the dinner @ Crown Plaza Hotel...in support of our boss (who's the current ASM president). =P

The first talk was something I could relate to. Mr Teh Loo Hai spoke on product pricing under the Risk Based Capital (RBC) framework. The second speaker is the actuary from CIMB-Aviva. He was speaking about RBC's twin in the UK, the Internal Capital Adequacy Standard (ICAS) and later on the pensions industry in the UK before I left the ballroom until the end (I wasn't being disrespectful, just uninterested).

Anyway, dinner followed right after the talks. Chong and I sat with some Prudential roses (Pei Wei, Yuet Ting, Xiang Yi, Diana and my fellow Ipoh-mali, Lisa Leong). Then each table had to play games where we were given 3 puzzles (a 6x6 sudoku, a numerical & a crossword puzzle) and a word-finding task. Lisa and I managed to find all the words. Anyway my table wasn't in the top 3....we couldn't figure out the numerical puzzles.

The final item of the evening was the quiz. My team was neck-to-neck with the eventual winners MERCERnaries in the first 3 rounds but eventually we even conceded 2nd place to the Prudential team. Tough luck....try again next year lah...

I've always enjoyed ASM annual dinners. This year is no different. Kudos to Johan & his organising team!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Staying L8

Worked till quite late tonight. Haven't been @ office until 10.30pm since end of June. Anyway I'll try to finish work early and make it for the tuition tomoro night. I love the kids there. Besides, Chia Ling is quite shorthanded on Tuesdays. But I dread the traffic from IOI Mall until Puchong Perdana. Last Tuesday, it took me almost 2 hours to reach the tuition centre from KL. It was almost 8.30pm when I had to trouble Chia Ling to leave the kids unattended upstairs and show me where's the centre. Such lack of chivalry is totaly unacceptable!

I pray that all my other appointments this week would happen with minimal glitches (hear me Lord!). Supposed to meet Kenny to pay him for a ticket, also Li Yien who'll be flying off soon (need to ask her to where) & going back Ipoh for da weekend. Whew...fortunately there's neither badminton nor trekking this month!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

First Memory

From Friendster blog, I'm finally venturing into Blogspot (inspired by Nicky, my guardian angel at the most recent Lifeline camp). I guess I'll do what Ivy does lah...double-posting every blog entry.

Anyway I haven't seen any new entries from my old friend the Sampahman for quite some time aredi. Hope to see you back in action, Kenny!

Dunno wat else to write lah....ok since Nicky posted Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (one of my two most favourite poems) I shall post the other poem lah....

Love's Secret - William Blake

Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears,
Ah! she did depart!

Soon as she was gone from me,
A traveler came by,
Silently, invisibly
He took her with a sigh