March Check List

Setting monthly target will help much in achieving one year resolution. It also helps to distribute resolution across the month rather doing it in a rush at the end of the year, which will not help to achieve the resolution.
It will be more like a monthly task list :) I will review it every end of the month.


February

1. Daily devotional
2. APAD
3. Excersice at least 2 times
4. Contact family 4 times
5. To know at least 1 new friends
6. Finish reading 1 book
7. To lose 1 kg by end of February
8. To start working

Okay, seems pretty good except the last point. :(

March

1. Daily devotional
2. APAD
3. Excersice at least 2 times
4. Contact family 4 times
5. To know at least 1 new friends
6. Lose 1 kg by end of the month
7. Start saving which mean start working 
8. Start reading 2nd book Finish reading the 2nd book. Seem I read faster. :)
9. To focus more on the new venture business

Leap Year

Today comes only once in four year.
So to commemorate today I have to post something.

Hmm, I have wished that today is gonna be a special day. Well, since it comes only once every four year. There should be something good happen today.
Yes indeed, I have something good happen today :)

I got a free ice cream! Yay!

Thanks to a friend who kindly treated me yummy ice cream.

I got 2 flavors which is Crème brûlée and mango passion fruit.

Sweet and refreshing.

And also, today is the first day I earn small $$. The amount maybe small but it really excites me as I have been not receiving $$ for quite some time. :)

Also I found a quote which encouraged me a lot, I forget exactly how it says but something like this:

When you are expecting a miracle, but seems like nothing gonna happen and God bothers to show you a sign by giving small blessings, it means your miracle is on the way.

Yes I have a lot of small blessings which really make me thankful. Above statement really encourages me and lifts up my faith. I believe that my miracle is on the way.

Project 365: Red Dot Building

Project 365: Tiger & Indomie

Tiger is poor because tiger has no job yet.

So tiger eats instant noodle. It is so yummy and he's still happy. :)

iBilik: Room for Rent

I was stumbled on this website called iBilik (bilik means room) which I found very helpful for those who are looking a room for rent.

It is similar to the other online room rental portal but I find iBilik neater and simpler. There is one feature called ‘Room for Rent’ which listed out all the room available for rent based on area. I can simply browse the area I am looking for and it will give me list of room available sorted by dates.

Well it is very much easier for me because I don’t need to see the whole junk list of rooms which are not in the area that I want. In the list, it also gives a little excerpt, so that in one glance I know whether I should look the details more or not. You know browsing for room can be very tiring and energy draining; it helps a lot when you can use a good website like Singapore room.

Let’s see how the website looks like:

The one that I really like is a very simple straight forward registration to enable me to comment or contact the post owner! 

It allows me to bookmark all the rooms I find it suitable and do the contacting later by opening all the bookmarks I have done at the end of my browsing. This way I don’t need to juggle between browsing the rooms and sms-ing the contact person or worst I have to note it down on paper! The bookmarks really help me to concentrate to browse finish and do follow up thing after that.

It also list out locations and counter on how many rooms they have available for that locations!

Those post with room pictures will have indicator a little camera icon beside the title which definitely attract me to click and see if the room looks nice :)

Once you find the room, you can click contact to make further arrangement and finally seal the deal.

It also useful if in the future I have a room for rent, I can just create a post and advertise there easily.

I think few of my friends will find this website useful for them because a lot of them just bought their HDB unit :)

Project 365: Gloomy Tiger

Tiger is gloomy because the owner is gloomy too.

I got a very bad news today that my 2nd interview for internship didn't pass through.

Well, I really felt discouraged and angry because I did well during the interview.

However the employer wanted to take for granted, wanted me to do big things while paying me peanuts.

Okay, there will be a better one out there. It's really difficult trying to keep the faith while facing a miserable fact.

My Bro Birthday Dinner

Continuing previous post, after dreaming in the library, I woke up because I felt hungry.
So my bro and I proceed to our next place, Ippudo @ Mandarin Gallery Orchard to celebrate his birthday dinner.

Since I am still jobless and being a poor student, I forced him he kindly treated me a sumptuous meal. What a nice bro I have, right?! :)

Since we both were quite hungry and tired from shopping and walking around, we ordered quite a lot of food.
He even thought to order extra ramen for himself.
So here the food we ordered:

Shiromaru Tamago Ramen

This ramen taste miso, salty and gingery. I like it except the ginger part.

I don't fancy ginger in my food :( bleh.

Akamaru Tamago Ramen

I love this ramen, taste garlic, miso and shoyu. I like garlic more than ginger obviously.

It looks oily, but the black sauce is shoyu I think. I recommend this for those who are okay with garlic.

Since reading the review from foursquare, a lot of people recommended pork bun, we decided to order too!

Basically similar like the normal pork bun you can find outside, but the pork is quite tender and they add in mayonaise inside to make it more Japanese.

Mini gyoza. Actually in the menu never stated mini but it came in a mini size.

It quite tasty, so recommended as well!

Thanks to my brother who treated me such a nice meals :) thus to thank him I shall post his picture here and promote him so that he may get girlfriend soon (but not too soon, maybe after me. I already got a lot of pressure from my parents, hope he didn't get one before me :p else I'll ... ask him to treat me more nice food) hahahaha... just kidding..

My bro.

I shall end this post with a picture of mine. :)

XOXO

Shopping Day and Dreaming!

Today I woke up as early as previous week, 8 am  in the morning. I quickly went shower and got ready to go to church while waiting for my landlady. But until 9 o'clock, she still didn't come out from her room yet. Which I suspected she would not go to church today.
Then I decided that I would not go also as I had attended church yesterday and it would be the same topic. (True enough after I confirmed with Deb about today's sermon)

Then, Ike asked me whether I wanted to go shopping with her. She wanted to buy a shirt for her beloved boyfriend. So I tagged along, thinking if I could get a b'day present for my brother.
She got the shirt and I got a polo shirt for my brother, then another friend joined us for shopping.
We went for lunch after that wanting to eat Thai food @ Shaw tower, but unfortunately it wasn't open during Sunday, so we settled with Indonesian food @ Waroeng Penyet.

I wanted to shop @ Tecman, a Christian bookstore, so we went to Bras Basah Complex.
Then being impromptu, we decided to encourage our friend to change his spectacles. :)
Well, being a guy, he decided things fast as he didn't want to go to another shop to compare price or to look for another spectacles models. So new specs settled. My brother joined me soon after that.

We finally went to Tecman bookstore and browse some books.
Last time I wanted to buy some relationship book, but when I went there again today, I have no interest to buy already.
I was looking a book that captured my attention, usually I have to build interest before I have the excitement to read the book. The book should like call me and beg me to read it. "Please read meeee I am very interesting. You won't regret to read me. Pick me." the book said. Hahaha...
I still got a lot of books unread in my box, so maybe the urge to buy new book was not as big as before.

Still got some more free time before dinner, I decided to visit National Library as it only just besides Bras Basah Complex. Browsed some travels book, and I have decided that one day I will visit Maldives and its beautiful beaches!
See, the beach resort is tempting me. It's like calling me :p (again) to visit them...

See the crystal clear water! Gosh!

I wish I could just floating like that *heavenly*

Or laying on a hammock, or maybe not... being exposed under the bright hot sun. :)

Staying in a hut like that... surrounded by the crystal clear water

Or like the one above?

Dining under the sea while the fishes swimming around 

Or maybe having above room also not bad, gazing the fishes and sharks maybe... :)

Swimming with fishes and enjoy God's beauty creations under the sea... *no swimming with shark please*

Dreaming. :)

Ok I decided, holidaying to Maldives will be one of my goals in life.^_^

I will not die until I visit Maldives. Wkwkwkk...

Well, since I still wanna continue dreaming and admiring Maldives, the next after library will be continued in other post some other time... :) (My Bro B'day Dinner). :)

PS: All the pics above are from Google. Sorry forgot to copy the link. :)

Project 365: Gyoza

Hot piping oily gyoza. Yummy and sinful :-)

Project 365: Random Flower

Project 365: Hindu Temple

Along Serangoon Road. Taken inside the bus :) thus a bit tilted.

Project 365: Self potrait

Self photo on my way to catch bus to Kinokuniya.

I found a set of clothes where I have forgotten. If I didn't dig my wardrobe, I maybe completely forgot that I have this long lost shirt and a new short which I never wear before.

I have a habit to always pick the clothes on the top stack rather than looking the one at the lower stack one.

So that day I went out early to buy a book at Kinokuniya, but to my disappointment it was out of stock.

It ruined my plan that whole day, because If I could get the book, I could get it shipped to Indo at the same day and I might get some commission.

Okay, so the book was sold out and I had another 4 hours to kill.

So I decided to take bus to China square to visit another bookstore, a Christian bookstore which I often visit when they were still in Orchard area.

Then I sat @ Spinelli coffee and read my material for exam for 2 hours plus before I moved to Maxwell food court where my friends and I would have dinner together.

Okay, no commission money that day, but I got free dinner, thank to my friend who pity me because I am still jobless. :)

For Women/ Men Only

I want to recommend these 2 books by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn:

1. For Women Only: What you need to know about the inner lives of men.
2. For Men Only: A straightforward guide to the inner lives of women.

These 2 books are so true. I have read both of them and I find it interesting and true.

The women's one I have confirmed with the guys whether the content is true, and it is! The men's one that is written about women is also true.

Even the author's note to the woman reader that read the book 'For Men Only' has convinced me.

She said: 

Women tend to process things by talking them through. So when woman read or listen to the findings in 'For Women Only', they often turn to their husband/ boyfriend/ guy friend and say "Is this true?" which lead to a lively conversation (or rather I call it juicy conversation) , and feeling a new closeness with their man.

Men, however, tend to process things by thinking them through, and not saying anything until they fully understand what they are thinking. So when men read or listen to the finding in 'For Men Only', they usually get real quiet. They are processing internally and simply aren't capable of talking about it for some time - or maybe much at all. Which... doesn't lead to a lively conversation!

They key difference could lead to a disappointment if women didn't know how to  expect it. We could easily think, 'He didn't learn anything about me', or even 'He must not care about me'.
Neither is true. It is so hard to do, but if we women will let men have the time to process, we've found that while men may or may not talk about what they learned, they usually start doing it.

Well these books may give a new revelation to all the readers be it men or women.

Read it, and you will love it.

Project 365: Laughter

Laughter and fun during gathering.

Project 365: Wonderfully Complex

Today's quote.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;    your works are wonderful,    I know that full well.Psalm 139:14

Faith

I was reminded during the late dinner today with my classmates about faith.
I was telling my classmate that I went for my 2nd interview but I had no confidence with the result, even though I was very confident for the 1st interview.
Then she told me this story of her college friend who also went for interview and celebrate interview rejection afterward even though they don't know the result yet. True enough, they were rejected.
So her point is, why not celebrate acceptance instead rejection? If it will happen as you believe, why do you believe you will be rejected instead accepted? Might as well celebrate early for acceptance!

Well, I got her point.
She was saying about faith.
Faith is believing what you have not seen yet.
I was reminded to believe that the result will turn out good instead of worrying unnecessarily.

I was reminded also about the story regarding praying for rain and bringing umbrella to the prayer meeting.

There was a drought in this particular city/ village. Where the citizen decided to gather together to pray for rain.
A lot of people came for prayer but only 1 little boy came with an umbrella.
This little boy believed that God would give them rain in the end of the prayer meeting so he prepared an umbrella for him not to get wet on his way home.
While the rest of people didn't bring any showing they didn't have faith that it would rain.

I want to have faith and might as well preparing to start work soon.
God's timing is never late.

Project 365: Chicken Rice

Yummy Chicken Rice from Boon Tong Kee.

It's one of Singapore famous chicken rice restaurant.

Project 365: Pot Luck

Pot luck @ friend's house.

I actually quite amazed that there were a lot of food, heavy food!

I thought they would only bring snacks :)

A lot of left over because we were told to bring 3 portions per person, but somehow we managed to force some unlucky people to eat more or tapao the left over :D

It was quite fun to play the game but the punishment were making us fat. 

We had a good laugh for today. ^_^

God's Perfect Timing

Thank God that today I have done my programming exam.
I think I have done well today. :)
Thank God for He is with me always.
I wish I will get the job soon.
I believe God knows best for me.
He'll give me the job that I need at His perfect timing. :)

Oh, I received a Valentine card today also, which wishes me:
To be found by my true love,
in God's perfect timing,
by God's perfect person,
at God's perfect place.
Amen.

Alabaster Jar

Like You spilled Your blood
I spilled my heart
As an offering to my King
Here I am take me 

As an offering
Here I am giving
Every heartbeat for Your glory
Take me, take me

Worthy, worthy,
You are worthy
Worthy is the Lord 

Above is a few paragraphs from Alabaster Jar song.
This song was sang during the service today.
It reminded me to offer myself to God as an offering.
A total surrender to God, to let God use me as He wants to.
God is worthy to have us as an offering.

I am giving every heartbeat for Your glory.
Even when I have to die to myself, even when I have to give up my dreams, my desires, my plans for God.
To let God to interrupt my plan, to give me new dream, new desire according to His.
Yes Lord, I am willing.

Project 365: Kimmidoll

A cute gift from dear friends. 

Its name is Ryoko which means 'Elegant'

It says...

My spirit is gracious and refined.

Your refined elegance emulates my spirit.

By valuing the simple and enduring things in life, and nurturing within yourself both grace and refinement, may you live an elegant life.

Thank you friends.

Project 365: Night View

@ Boat Quay

Project 365: Empty Shelf

Empty shelf @ Pageone. One more bookstore down. :(

Project 365: Babysitting

Playing with my owner's kid, Sofia.

A bit blur, coz she kept moving... :D

Sneak Peek Our Room

I have this request from our dear sister, Chin to let her see sneak peek to our room (Debora & Me).
I haven't taken any pic of our room since we moved in last June. :D Of course I have tidied up the room this morning... :D So here you go, our small simple room.

Our bed, my bed on top, and Debora's underneath.

For this photo purpose I push in her bed inside...

Usually her bed will not be pushed in completely as she needs little space to put her bolster pillow and blanket. 

She wakes up earlier than me everyday and not possible to throw her things on top of my bed la.. :D 

Yes I'm a lazy piggy :p

Behind the bed is my barang2 which I put a box full of books and basically everything I can throw in.

My guitar which is now collecting dust, I did take it out and play once in a blue moon.

Behind the bed frame, scattered our books... 

I need to bring home those books I have finished reading and I have to stop buying new books, I feel every year I go back home I always bring a stack of books!

This is the opposite wall from our bed.

We have 4 drawers container which belong to Debora, but she kindly share 2 drawers with me.

On the left there is mirror for us, and my scale to monitor my weight.

On the right there is ironing board, my box of handcrafts thingy which I wanted to put in the storage room but no space. On top of the box is miscellaneous thing like plastic bags for our dustbin.

On top of that misc thing is snack, instant noodles stock. Again no space in the kitchen to put all that...

At the other corner you'll see Debo's barang2.

Oh, our wardrobe is at the end of the bed... Hmm, should I post the photo?

We hang our towel on the wardrobe hanger, as again no other space to hang... :p

Looks neat huh? But once the wardrobe is opened, it is very veryyy full.

The first 2 door from the left we share to put our clothes and things...

Can you imagine my clothes squeezed in just 1/3 of the wardrobe while previously I have 3 doors wardrobe for all my clothes?? 

The third door, we share to put our bags, and other things... you know...

Oh if you can spot our door room, we have extra lock which look like hotel room extra lock.

Debora requested for it and the owner kindly install it for us. :)

My fav corner in the room of course my bed. I did everything basically there, reading books, doing assignment, playing computers, blogging, and devotional.

I wish I can arrange those barang2 of mine behind the bed frame and I hope I can squeeze everything there...

I hope it works like Doraemon's pocket. :D

Project 365: Sky

God's Calling

I maybe not knowing certainly or clearly what God calls me for. What is my calling?
What God wants me to do with my life? How can I suppose to use my life to be at service for Him?

But one thing I know for sure.
For whatever God put things in front of me, I want to do my best.
What God let things happen in my life is not beyond my capacity and strength.
Every struggle, every circumstances, every ministry, every broken heart, God gives me strength.

And through faithfulness in every single thing in my life, eventually I am walking and doing my calling. I may not know my calling yet but I am currently walking and doing it.

Keep doing your best for everything God put under my care on my way.
Whether I walk or sink, God is always with me.

Project 365: Pose

A friend of mine trying to do a funny pose.

Looks like he clung into the cave ceiling... but not, it's just the angle...

Project 365: Rainbow Pillar

Rainbow pillar @ Boardwalk Sentosa

It's a nice ambiance and atmosphere to walk to and from Vivocity - Sentosa

You can admire the nice scenery along the way...

Writing Assignment

Studying requires a lot of energy.
I was comparing my usual free day to today when I did my assignment of 3000 words.
I took lunch at about the same time as my usual, but I felt hungry earlier than usualll...
And I only manage to write 600 words T_T. In total I have about 1000 words. Lucky the due date is extended til 29 Feb instead the original 21 Feb.
The tedious part was writing referencing, it's really time consuming... I have to flip to another document to read the guideline doing referencing. Well that's a research paper, I have to read the whole article and think whether I will use it as reference or not, if yes, then I have to write the proper referencing before I construct my own words for my paper from the articles. How easy if I can just write and write, but I have to have a reference for every sentence except for common fact.
I hope this is last paper can give me mark 85 out of 100. ^_^

Project 365: Crane Dance

Crane Dance @ Resort World.

It does look like a goose :)

Project 365: 3D Painting

Look real rite? :D

Project 365: Giant Lantern

Project 365: Sunset @ Vivo

Pretty sunset @ Boardwalk Sentosa. 

Lady in Waiting

I have finished reading this book!
When first I saw this book I was curious with the little subtitle, becoming God's best while waiting for Mr.Right.
After reading this book, I learned a lot and being challenged a lot while reading, so here you go what I learned from this book.

There are a few chapters that discuss about characteristics we need to build while waiting for mr. right.
In summary I learned:

• I am complete in God even without mr. right, because I have found MR.RIGHT which is God himself that loves me more than anything in this world.
• Be diligent in doing your calling.
• Trust God wholeheartedly because God knows best and He has the best interest for us, we do not need to worry. The only thing we need to worry is get in God's way and try to write our own love story instead letting God writes our love story.
• Put your security in God, do not compromise and have conviction. Conviction that you don't need to lower your standard (godly and biblical standard) in order to have mr. right. Do not compromise your standard just because your biological clock is ticking. Trust God.
• Develop patience. Remember that you do not need to be married to be happy and complete. God timing is perfect and God is never late.

This book is very assuring for all singles. It taught you to understand that you are complete as single.

I highly recommended ladies to read this book whether you are single or in relationship or even married, this book will teach you Godly characteristics. All of us is far from perfection and we are not best yet, there is always a room for learning, a room for improvement. Why not you equip yourself by becoming God's best while waiting your mr. right and keep refining yourself by becoming God's best even when you have found your mr. right.

Project 365: Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Publishing Drafts

Tonight I publish some of my draft post. The thing is I publish them backdated. According to the date and time the last time I saved the draft.

They are entries which I felt difficult and troubled publishing during that time. But now as I go through I feel bl harm to publish them. I publish them backdated also because I do not want to lose the date. I want the entry to be a relevant reminder when I re-read it again in the future.
Another good thing, they don't trigger new update in google reader. :)

Breast Cancer

I am doing research for discussion this Wednesday about woman health and the topic I have is about breast cancer.
So, since I am researching I will also post it here. :)

What is breast cancer?

Breast cancer is a malignant (cancerous) growth that begins in the tissues of the breast. Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells grow in an uncontrolled way. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but it can also appear in men. (Pam Stephan, 2011 a breast cancer survivor)

Type of breast cancer

• Ductal Carcinoma
• Lobular Carcinoma
• Inflammatory breast cancer
• Paget's disease of the nipple

More of type of breast cancer you can read here.

Symptoms

• a lump or a thickening in the breast or in the armpit
• a change of size or shape of the mature breast
• nipple fluid (not milk) leaking
• a change of size or shape of the nipple
• a change of color or texture of the nipple or the areola, or of the skin of the breast itself (dimples, puckers, rash)
• More details about symptoms of breast cancer.

According to Lisa Fayed, a freelance medical writer, cancer educator and patient advocate.

Ten ways to prevent breast cancer

1. Reduce alcohol intake. Studies have determined that women who drink alcoholic beverages develop cancer at a higher rate. How much is too much? Based on studies, ladies who consume 2 to 5 drinks daily have about 1½ times the risk of women who don't consume alcohol.
2. Don't smoke. Although there has not been a direct link between smoking and breast cancer, studies suggest that smoking at an early age can increase a woman's risk. Not only can it be a risk for breast cancer, smoking is a definite risk factor for lung cancer.
3. Exercise more. Physical activity may reduce your risk of breast cancer. Studies by the Women's Health Initiative found that women who walked briskly 1.25 to 2.5 hours per week reduced a woman's breast cancer risk by 18%. 
4. Be aware of your family breast cancer history. Having a family or personal history of breast cancer may increase your risk.
5. Avoid hormone replacement therapy if possible. Studies have shown a link between long time hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer. This link suggests that combined HRT's (estrogen and progesterone) raise the risk factor. Five years after discontinuing HRT's the risk factor drops. HRT's also make mammograms less effective.
6. Check your breast every month. Checking your breasts every month may not reduce your risk of developing breast cancer, but it may help detect breast cancer early. 
7. Try to keep a low fat diet. A diet low in fat not only decreases the risk of obesity, it can reduce your risk of breast cancer. We know that estrogen plays a majot role in the development of breast cacner. Fat tissue contains small amounts of estrogen and may increase your risk. 
8. Don't forget to get a mammogram. It can't prevent, but it can detect.
9. Have children earlier in life. Those who have no child or having first child in the mid thirties or later increases the risk.
10. Consider breast feeding instead formula feeding.

World Breast Cancer Statistics

Age 20-29: 1 in 2,000

Age 30-39: 1 in 229

Age 40-49: 1 in 68

Age 50-59: 1 in 37

Age 60-69: 1 in 26

Ever: 1 in 8

Source: American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Facts & Figures, 2005-2006.

If you are interested to donate/ be supporter you may visit pink ribbon website.

Let's be aware of our own health women and live a healthy live cancer free. :)

Project 365: Parade

A glimpse of  Chingay if not wrong.. :)

Project 365: Yu Sheng

A bit late, but we had yu sheng today in the last day of CNY. :)

Project 365: Lantern

@ Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Project 365: Red Pepper