2011 Resolutions Verdict

1. Read more books (I only read two books in 2010 but so many in 2009). Currently on shelf: Maximize Your Memory, The Power of Body Language, 80/20, Eat Pray Love. 

Verdict: Failed terribly. Listed here are three books, oh well, I managed to read three books but of course it is not my initial intention of reading MORE books.

2. Finish all the remaining 6 FAP modules by March.

Verdict: Failed to finish them by March due to my laziness. Managed to finish and pass everything on January 9, 2012. *wry smile*

3. Pass Advanced Finance and Enterprise Risk Management (my final paper if I pass Financial Economics Theory and Engineering in January) in April.Update: I didn't pass FETE. So AFE will be my second last paper now and hopefully FETE will be my last paper in November!

Verdict: FAILED AFE twice. *very sad* no chance attempting FETE, and I still need to retake them this year.

4. Get associate credential by April and fellow credential end of the year (providing I pass FETE first).Update: I can only get my fellow credential early next year (Spring). :(

Verdict: I managed to get associate credential only by now, of course it was not May, but January 2012.

5. Grow more in career.

Verdict: Passed! Surprisingly, I am able to hop to the largest insurer in Singapore and the learning curve is steep!

6. Go traveling with family somewhere in the year.

Verdict: They came to visit me in Singapore instead.

7. Purchase a house end of the year for investment purpose.

Verdict: Nearly shared a property investment with my friend, but I eventually opted out to buy a house for my parents. I look forward to staying in this bigger and better house. The picture above is the show house unit for the house I bought.

8. Lose weight! I want 50 - 52kg!

Verdict: Passed! I managed to reduce 4kg but yet to reach 52kg on scale.

Though I failed 4 out of 8 resolutions, I still will plan some this year, 2012.
 

2011 was a year I had some breakthrough in my life, though it was still quite far from the milestone I wished to reach. But I am still grateful of what I was able to archive. :)

Boooks Read in 2011

Argh it was one of my resolutions to read more books in 2011, but as always, we don't do what we set out. I think that we I always set the resolutions I wish to to archive, which is more like a fairytale most of the time. So at the end, most of the time, I do not manage to archive it.

All the books read are exclusive of the textbook I read for exam. 

Let's see, in year 2009, I read 18 books! 

In year 2010, I only read The 8th Habit: from Effectiveness to Greatness as well as Think and Grow Rich.  The review was not written by me though. 

In 2011, I swore was determined to read more books. But at the end, I only read The Purpose Driven Life, Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend, and reread Who Moved My Cheese. The first two books are given by saints, if not I would only manage to read one pathetic book! All the books I target to read were left more than half. I am currently reading Eat Pray Love, hopefully I can finish it by the end of this year month.

Arghh... I don't wish to set much to read this year, but with the website set up, I think I would be motivated to read. :)

Any books recommended for me?

Online Books Recap

Okay, this post is about an introduction of a website constructed and maintained by my friends and me. Online Books Recap is a site of reviews on the books we read, consisting of a few genre. Currently, there are science, religion, self-development, entrepreneurship and risk management. 

How can you support us as a friend?! *grin* That is by browsing and bookmarking our website. The traffic driven will bring us money through the advertisements we put in our website.

A few highlights that you may be interested are:

The Purpose Driven Life

Blue Ocean Strategy

Who Moved My Cheese

The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

Thanks :)

Christmas and its truth

According to wikipedia, Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

But the truth is the Bible never intends to command us to remember the birth of Jesus Christ but His death and long for His second coming. A few doubts on whether Jesus was born in winter. 

1.  Weather condition at the time of Jesus' birth indicates that it could not have taken place in December. Luke 2:8 tells us that when Jesus was born, the shepherds were watching over the sheep at night. The cold weather in the evening during midwinter is very piercing; it is the custom of shepherds in Judea to bring home their flocks before the start of November, prior to the onset of the cold winter months. Hence, the birth of Christ could not have been in December.

2. In 4 B.C. the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar issued a decree for a census to be taken in order to know just how many subjects he had and how much taxes he could collect. Quirinius, who was then governor of Syria (where Judea was then part of the great Roman-controlled province), implemented the decree to take the first enrollment for census of Judea that same year. There were no historical records to indicate that the inconvenient harsh months of winter was the time the authorities scheduled for the tax enrollment, which necessitated the population's traveling from all parts of the land to their natal districts to register in the electoral roll, for storms and rain make journeys both unsafe and unpleasant in winter. It was in compliance to this decree for registration that Joseph went up with Mary from the city of Nazareth in southern Galilee to his hometown Bethlehem in southern Judea (Luke 2:1-5). It is also unlikely that Mary, who was pregnant, would travel 190 kilometers from Nazareth to Bethlehem because it was considered not fit for a pregnant woman to travel during winter (Matt. 24:20; Mark 12:18).

You may ask, "so? Even though Jesus was not born in winter, but since everyone is celebrating, why can't I do so too?" 

A friend of mine gave me this explanation - we, christian should not be thought by others that Christmas is what a christian about, it is the matter of testimony. 

In his message REMEMBERING CHRISTMAS, Brother Watchman Nee said, 'According to the opinions of many believers, it is a good thing to have a day each year to remember the Savior's birth....Apart from one's opinion, God's Word, the Bible, is still the only standard and the highest standard. Our concern lies not on what man speaks, but on what God has spoken....Does the Bible have a command to remember the birth of Christ?...Only one who believes in the Bible will know that the things God did not command and the things God did command have the same significance ....Many say that God never put a stop to the celebration of Christmas....It is sad when Christians search the Scriptures to give a basis for their sin and an occasion to the flesh....May God give us more strength to enable us to say, 'How do we dare do what God has not commanded?''

Illuminati 2012 End of the World Conspiracy Predictions

Many Christians are longing for the Lord's second coming. I am very reluctant to accept this fact thinking thousands, millions of people will die in sorrow during His return. 

It is really a hard-feeling when I watched this video especially when the fact and our current happenings, all are reflective of what is in the bible. I was thinking what can I do besides being forlorn for this coming "doomsday". But after a while, if we were to be rational, we will clearly know that what we need to do is to repent and turn to the Lord. Argh, but soul and spirit like to contradict each other every time. Exercising our spirit and repenting seem to be easier said than done. 

How to reject our self, and follow the Lord? Can I do it? 

Fresh Steamed Escargot

I never ate fresh steamed escargot before but only cheese baked one and I thought it would be yuck to be freshly steamed. It amazed me.. It is really fresh and you can thoroughly enjoy the seafood/sea water freshness!

Cheese may cover the escargot if it is not fresh, but fresh steamed one is entirely naked for you to savor...

Congratulations!

My idol, Timothy Tiah is going to marry his princess! Though he had been saying marriage is not for him, at least for these few years, but love reigns! 

Congratulations, Tim and Audrey! I wish you to dance on your grandchildren's wedding day!

Here is their sweet proposal video:

Meme Proposal | Tim * Audrey from Crazy Monkey Studio on Vimeo.

Braise Teaser

I got this teaser wrong. How about you?

A binary cell is put in a bottle and it take one minute to split into two; it fills up the whole bottle in an hour.

How long will it take if 2 binary cells are put into the same size bottle to be filled up?

RSS

Can someone share with me how RSS work? 

Let say, I have a website, and I would like to let people subscribe to my updated post, how can RSS help me?

I know common blogging platforms automatically include for us, how about website?

Search Keywords Being Hit

Without my realization, time flies, and I have been blogging for the holly 5 years, with the fewest posts of 63, and average of 70 posts each year.

And to amaze me that with the pure intention of sharing what I eat, what I read, where I go, what I hate, what I treasure; my blog does provide some pretty information people are looking for.

These are some of my blog keywords being hit last month:

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These are some of my blog keywords being hit last week:

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These are some of my blog keywords being hit this week:

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Pretty cool huh?

What is Stress?

Stress is when you have to do things within a very tight deadline and the things you produce are affecting others' work. Everybody is like asking for your things every few seconds minutes.

Pretty cool huh? I experienced that when I was modeling a government scheme. @@ Everything seemed to be fine as I was too focused of making sure the coding has no bug. Not to forget, and I need to admit that I was too confident with my coding that I did not realize it shared an indicator which crashed with some products. That is the whole holy shit! Fixed the whole thing in two hours.. Rerun 300++ products in more than 12 hours, and god bless, things flow smoothly.

And finally I have a restful day today and enjoyed the department dinner :)

Lesson learnt: always be conscious, full testing on modeling is very very very important!

God and Science

I am reading a very interesting book called Beyond Opinion, Living the Faith We Defend. I am particularly impressed with the section Challenges from Science. 

Perhaps from young, I have been too into Science knowledge, I believe in Science, I even believe what the scientists said. It really leaves me struggling between science and God.

Until I read this part, I think I am convinced now. 

I am not good in putting the text in points, but here is roughly the gist:

Example 1: Science can tell us how a car operate, how a car is manufactured, but it does not mean that Mr Ford does not exist. 

Example 2. I bake a cake, cut them into pieces and give a piece to biologist, chemist, physicist each. They will come back telling me the cake is consisted of amino acid, how much energy is inside, how is the molecule and the bonding of the cake. But all the scientists cannot tell me what is the purpose of me baking the cake, I am the one baking the cake, I know what is the purpose.

Same applying to God and this universe. Scientists tell us how the universe look like, how it operate, but it does not mean God does not exist. Same applying to the second example, we may know everything about the universe, but we may not know the purpose of the Creator creating this universe.

What do you think?

I shall continue reading and post more if I find something impressive. :)