Holy Thursday - Adoration Prayer

Adoration is a moment of silence to experience and be with God.

As of Holy Thursday this year, 17 March 2014, I was sitting in silence during adoration and a silent prayer spontaneously was said somewhere in my heart. I felt like it was a really good prayer and so, I thought that I might share it with the world. It was in Malay but it'll try my best to translate it to the English version.

Malay (original prayer):

Ya Tuhan, aku hambaMu yang sungguh berdosa. Kasihanilah aku dan bawalah aku mengikut jalan suciMu agar perjalanan suciku itu akan menempatkanku di dalam kerajaanMu di syurga.

English translation:

Oh, my God, I am your sinful servant. Have mercy on me and bring me to follow Your path of holiness so that by following Your holiness I will have a place in Your kingdom in heaven.

I think it's a great prayer and you can say it anytime, anywhere.
God bless you.

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Taking Off in Life

In my opinion, the best part of a flight is the take-off. So it is with your life. ~Cynthia Pinga, 2014~

I just love it when the plane takes off. I think it's so cool... And when I'm up in the air, it's like "Woo-hoo!!! I'm off the ground, finally!" But before being off the ground, it does not mean that it will be a smooth take-off. It could be a rough one. Some people even feel so scared due to the drastic acceleration for take-off. But once you're up in the air, you just feel so nice. It's like you entered a different  dimension.

Well. like it or not, this may be the case for your life as well. Many of us want to achieve success, we want our lives to take off, we want to be in the sky. But often, we are not ready for a drastic change, an increasing momentum. No one said being in the sky is easy. You'll have to be ready with what that comes with it.

So, if you want your life to be flying high, don't expect a smooth take-off. Once you take-off and reach your destination, that would be your best life ever. But remember, you must be ready with whatever that you have to face for you to take-off.

All the best!

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Free Courses Online

There are many free online courses. Over the internet it is largely known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Some provide certificate and some don’t. But what’s interesting is, with MOOC you not only get to learn these courses blindly. It is structured with a proper syllabus offered by the institute that is providing it. Courses usually have a duration of 6 to 12 weeks.

Moreover, these free online courses can not only add up on your resume/CV in your field but in fact, it is an opportunity for you to grab as it can actually provide you with other skills outside whatever field you majored in college. Perhaps you could do a course while waiting to get into college or when you’re on the hunt for jobs. There are many universities and colleges who have partnered with MOOCs websites including Harvard University, MIT, Berklee College of Music, Yale University, Brown University and many other major institutes. The courses offered are non-credit courses.

Some of the major MOOC websites are as follows:

• Coursera.org (my favorite one as of now)
• edX.org
• Open2Study.com (based in Australia)
• Udacity
• …and many more of which you can Google.

The Future of MOOC

In my opinion, MOOC might be something that almost everyone will do in the next few years especially in this digital world where every single thing seems to have its own place online. Taking a course in any of these MOOC websites might seem irrelevant to be shown on your CV now. People or employers might take it for granted, but in the future, this will probably be a trend as more people are competing for jobs. The more skills you have outside your field, (sometimes) the higher chance you can get employed.

Besides employment, people of many ages take these courses. For example, perhaps a person at the age of 50 wanted to do something new in his life, MOOC will be one of the best way to kill some time. MOOC will continue to expand and later on, perhaps these courses might be a transferable credit course to the respective institutes.

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PAPA JOHN'S FREE PIZZA (Almost Free)

Get Papa John's Pizza (Hawaiian Papa) for RM 1 NOW before promotion ends!
Valid at all 26 outlets in Malaysia.

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Adventure Sports in Malaysia

Adventure sports often appeal to those who love the adrenaline rush. Some take it as a hobby for the love and pleasure of it while others take it as a career opportunity. There is no doubt that this kind of sport is dangerous. However, the degree of danger in adventure sports may vary depending on the difficulty of stunts, geographical factors and the sport itself. Despite the dangers of adventure sports, many championships have been held throughout the world.

In Malaysia:

• Paintball

Paintball has become one of the most popular adventure sports especially when it comes to hanging out with friends.

Photo Source: http://mstar.com.my

People of various ages tend to engage in this sport for leisure. Competitions have been held at national levels and state levels, usually organised by the Malaysian National Paintball League (MY- NPL). Paintball centres in Malaysia are usually open to public throughout the year. However, early bookings have to be made.

• Bungee Jump

Discover Sunway Lagoon’s Extreme Park (in Selangor) which offers Malaysia’s first bungee jump in the country. Feel the rush when you free fall from 22 meters above the water.

Photo source: TimeOutKL

• 4WD

For those who may love the jungle with some dirt, experience the 4WD off-road driving in the terrain of Malaysia at Endau Rompin National Park, Kenyir Lake, Taman Negara and Kuala Kubu Baru. Off-road driving is a year round activity but if you prefer a less muddy experience, the best time would be between the months of March to October.

• Whitewater Rafting

The difficulty of the Pedas and Slim Rivers is graded as Grade 3 (difficult) while the Selangor River is graded as Grade 4 (very difficult). The Kampar River which has 14 rapids, range between Grade 1 (easy) to Grade 3 (difficult).

Photo Source: Oxbold.com

• Kitesurfing

Tioman, Balok, Tanjung Resang, Gorek Bay and Cerating are perfect sites between the months of December to March with winds up to 20 knots.

Photo Source: http://www.explorer-asia.com

There are a lot more of adventure sports such as scuba diving, windsurfing, rock climbing and paragliding available in Malaysia. Oxbold, for instance, with its mission to “develop and make extreme sports available, affordable at anytime, anywhere in Malaysia” offers a variety of adventure sports ranging from rock climbing to a one-day pilot aircraft experience. Lessons such as car drifting, stand up paddling and windsurfing are also offered by Oxbold. The complete list of activities with their prices is available at Oxbold.com.

In conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014, events such as the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) Asian Paragliding Accuracy Championship, World Paintball Players League, Asian Circuit Wave Surfing and Pahang River Rafting Explorer will be held in Malaysia. Also, feel the spike of adrenaline at the KL Tower International Jump Malaysia 2014 which will be held towards the end of September 2014. For more information on where and when you can experience a great time of adventure sports during the Visit Malaysia Year 2014, please logon to http://www.vmy2014.com.

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Gospel Sermon: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Today's sermon was a good one (Gospel Reading, Matt. 5:13-16). So, I decided to write a summary of it. It made me realize that a lot of us do not know what we are capable of in being a messenger of God. So, I'll basically summarize the sermon here.

Generally, salt has two functions - as flavour & to preserve. The Bible does not say that "you are like salt." Matt. 5:13 clearly says "You are the salt of the earth..." Hence, us being Christians, we are supposed to spread out and add the "flavour of Christ" to our community so that others may know Christ. Also, in the current world with all bad things happening here and there, we as "salt" should preserve the good things and the good news before it vanish with the worldly things. 

Matt. 5:14 says, "You are the light of the world." With technology advancing in our world today, we do not depend on sunlight that much. At night we have lights to bright up the place. But what if one day, there's no electricity? Then in darkness, light, the source of light becomes very important. There's a lot of people in this world who still live in darkness. As Christians, we have to be the source of light to people so that those who are in darkness may see their light at the end of the tunnel. We never know if even being the dimmest light, could help a person in need in many ways. Matt. 5:16, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." 

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be salt of the earth and light of the world. Amen!

God bless you all.

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How to Create A Static Homepage on Blogger

I'm not from a computer science background, so, everytime I change my blog template and tweak here and there, play around with HTML and CSS, I always learn something new. Today, I'd like to share with you something I just learned.

Blogger does not have a built-in static homepage feature like how some other platforms have. However, it is not  impossible to create a static homepage on Blogger. So I did my research and found out, which to me is the simplest way to create a static page on Blogger.

So, find out how you can create a static homepage. Remember to disable the comments feature on your homepage (because you probably do not want any comments on your homepage, unless otherwise). To disable the comments, go to Pages and select Edit on your Homepage. (Click image to enlarge)

And you're good to go! Have fun!

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