Life, Travel, GRACE

We had not really celebrate Christmas this year. We didn't go to church either. Let alone any dinner or lunch with friends. So what did we do? We spent time with family members at home and hyper mart. But the essence of Christmas is still within our heart. One commented why non Christians are so excited about Christmas. Do they know what Christmas means? They should ask this to their fellow Christians friends. And that's the time the gospel can be shared. Mum was told Christmas isn't about going to church. You remember the purpose of the birth of Jesus. You remember the sacrifices of Jesus to us. You remember that we have a loving Father. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Some of the pavilions which didn't manage to visit due to time constraint and crowd. So just took the picture of the buildings instead. Both the UK and Germany pavilions had huge crowd. The queue could easily stretch to few kilometers. It was really crazy. After these few photos, my DSLR battery drained out. So the subsequent photos were taken with iPhone4 (not mine though).

More Ikea's furniture and decoration stuff. More publicity on what was made / discovered / created in Sweden.

Went to this event with colleague and friend last Friday. Overall the exhibition was over-exaggerated. The first booth by Perodua was a wow. But the momentum continued to drop as we went from booth to booth. Better off with ordinary auto showroom. Note: The photos have been enhanced contrasty. The Perodua Bezza which looks like Iron Man mask. Though the design is pretty futuristic, it doesn't have an engine on it. One of the Lotus cars. Proton Emas - the electric car - to be used by Putrajaya folks? Another Lotus cars - posterior view. Lekiu by Proton Chevy Camaro Wait a minute, they have the actual Bumblebee too.

What would you associate Sweden with? Ikea? That's right. That's what you will see inside the Sweden Pavilion. Some of the Ikea stuffs are on display. After all, that's Swedish biggest success apart from Sony Ericsson. In one of the halls, there's big portrait display, kinda 3 dimensional portrait with the theme of environmental awareness. If you view from the right side, it tells you the impact of the environment pollution. If you view it from the left side, you'll have a sunny day. The difference is just a few steps of your action.

T his is a movie about Facebook. Don't expect to see love story or how-to-find-your-love type of movie. In fact, it tells the story behind the creation of Facebook. It was told that Facebook was created out of dissatisfaction and anger of Mark (the founder) after a breakup. Subsequently, he faced lawsuits from the creation of Facebook - illegal hacking of university's system, intellectual property, ownership of the corporation. Personally, the narration of the movie is quite fresh. Thanks to director David Fincher (he directed the previous Benjamin Button and Fight Club). At the end of the day, maybe we should emulate the creator passion and determination of doing what he thinks is right and then perfect it. And fight for what is yours. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Read two inspiration sharing from Daily Bread which I think both are very related. It tells about our sinful nature and how to resist from sinful urge. Phil 3:9 tells us that we are found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is from the law, but which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. When we receive Christ, we are set free from the penalty and the power of sin. We are able to say no and yes in our daily decision. We can say no to the desires of the flesh or "youthful lust" (2 Tim. 2:22). Hmm....what kind of "youthful lust"? Is it the lust that most of the youths experience? So when they grow older, the desire is not there? Maybe partly because most youths commit more wrong doings, at least that's what reported in the newspaper. So the heart of the youth is wild - need to be tamed :) We should flee from the "youthful lust" (figurative speaking) and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. S

A documentary about Afghan version of singing competition (a la American Idol). As reported, since 1979, the Afghan people have suffered foreign invasions, civil war and Taliban rule. During that time, music was considered disrespectful and sacrilegious by the ruling body (yup, Taliban). From 1996, it was a crime to dance, listen to music or even watch TV. In 2001, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was formed. In 2004, the first elections were held. Restrictions on music and dancing were lifted. Afghan Star is the country's first televised talent competition. Its first inception was in 2005 and the show is still running as of this year. Despite continuing conflict, the TV station is searching the country for a new generation of music stars. Male contestants outnumbered female contestants. Yet, the people support their favourite stars regardless of ethnic. The documentary features four contestants journey throughout the competition - their glory, fame and persecution. One of

Welcome to Denmark Pavilion. You have option to hire a bicycle and explore the pavilion or you can choose to walk. It said its city is the bicycle city - everybody moves around by bicycle. Don't know how true is this. The original little mermaid statue was relocated from Copenhagen to here. This could be the main attraction right after you entered from the main entrance. What would be Danish export to the world - none other than its famous Danish beer, Carlsberg. Well, no free beer here. Besides Carlsberg, Lego is shown here. I didn't know Lego is from Denmark. Do you? Overall, Denmark Pavilion did not offer much. Its selling point was the environmental conscious city - the bicycle city. At least it's no ordinary tourism exhibition.

I've heard people investing in gold lately. Particularly because gold price has risen sharply. This year alone it has risen 20% or more. I read an article and couldn't help to agree with the analysis about the weakness of gold investment. Here are the lists: 1. It produces no income. This should be a bad news for gold investor. Don't expect to receive dividend from buying/ investing gold. If you are lucky, you will get appreciation of the gold value. 2. It has witnessed a long periods of underperformance. History speaks it all. As quoted: after gold price reaching a record high of $850 per ounce in January 1980, gold prices fell over 40% in two months. It took gold 28 years to reclaim the $850 level. Will we see a repeat incident of gold's historical head fake? 3. It has high ownership cost. Unless you invest gold in paper form, you will certainly have to pay higher ownership cost for acquiring gold (physical gold -be it gold bar or jewelery etc). Transaction cost, comm

Came out from Norway Pavilion, no plan where to head. Next to Norway Pavilion were Sweden Pavilion and Latvia Pavilion. Denmark Pavilion was nearby too. Hmm...it was getting dark, so better decide soon.

The theme for Expo 2010 Shanghai is "Better City, Better Life". So one may think each country would project or present its interpretation based this theme. Now I can't comment what's the them for Malaysia Pavilion as I didn't manage to pay a visit. But report has it saying Malaysia Pavilion does not meet the theme, looks like pasar malam , and even the brochure has wrong English spelling. No comment on that. Norway Pavilion has it's design focused on minimalism; even the building itself looks nothing extraordinary. The entrance is spacious though. As you step inside the main hall, there's big screen projection about Norwegian people and it's interpretation of better city. On the exhibition are Norwegian costumes, utensils etc - daily stuff which used by Norwegian. One must not forget Norway's biggest export - Nokia. It's on display too. Rather than showing the latest mobile phones, it only shows the concept of future communication.