Life, Travel, GRACE

Adapted from Graceworks eCommentary 20/14 Many of us are very upset and pained by the recent decision of the Malaysian apex court on the “Allah” issue. We see this decision not so much as a loss for Malaysian Christians but as a betrayal by the government of the day and the highest court of the land — well, at least four of the seven judges — to protect and apply the constitution, which in this case leaves non-Muslim minorities in the land vulnerable to the dictates of the increasingly aggressive Islam championed by growing numbers in the country. How do we respond when evil wins? This is a question the Bible takes seriously. It is the focus of Psalm 73. In the face of the triumph of evil, the Psalmist says: Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. (Psalm 73:13–14 NIV) Here is Craig C. Boyles’ useful introduction to the Psalm: This Psalm is a favouri...

It was the 5th year for Micah. Bought him a panda cake instead of a pufferfish cake. Grandpa and grandma were here to celebrate his birthday too. As usual, the kids were the happiest.

Due to limited time, I was only able to visit Taj Mahal. Did not go to Agra Fort, just passed by. Everyone know Taj Mahal was built in memory of a king's beloved wife. It took many years to completed. The interesting part is, as told to me by someone, that the king who built Taj Mahal was imprisoned in Agra Fort by his own son. So the king could only look out from the window to gaze at Taj Mahal. What a pity. Anyway, Taj Mahal itself is great but I found no excitement to shout of (ok, I must admit that the colour reflected by the building changed with time). To me, it's a waste of resources to build such tomb. But because of this great act, India has a great tourist spot today. And it is listed in UNESCO's world heritage list. I guess this is a must-visit place for anyone who will visit the northern part of India.

After read Outliers, I picked up another old literature by the same author. This is another good book, according to some reviews. Well, in some points, yes. This is a book about unconscious decision making based on rapid observation (in a blink of an eye). In a nutshell, the author brings out two main theory: thin-slicing and snap decisions. Then the rest of the chapters are examples, evidences and what's  the weakness of such approach. To be continued...

Just came back from Delhi for a conference. Not much place I've visited considering the short stay and following the crowd (that means I was well taken care by the conference organiser). When you hear about India, what's come into your mind? Taj Mahal. Yup. That's the only thing I can think of when I was told to go to India. Is that only that place in a big country like India? Well, you may wonder a big country like India had registered only over 6 million tourists in 2012. Compared with China (over 100 millions, Thailand was over 22 millions, and even our beloved Malaysia had 25 million tourists in 2012). So what's gone wrong in India? I do not have the answer. But from my observation in airport and visa application, I could only make an intelligent guess.

[UPDATED] This book is indeed interesting and an eye-opener for me. The author presented us an alternative view why some people succeeded and some did not. Generally, a successful person is perceived to have achieved such status based on his down-to-earth attitude and relentlessly hard work. Hard work is, of course, part of the ingredient of success. The real reasons for success are opportunity and legacy - as presented in this book. The first part of the book deals with opportunities in successful people’s life. The author argued that those elite sport teams are selected based on unfair cut-off birth date. For example, Canadian junior hockey team selection is confined to children aged between 9-10 years old. Usually the cut-off date is on 1 Jan. Other countries may have different cut-off date, 1 Aug in US. So for the same batch of children who were born in the same year but in different months, that matters. The author has observed some interesting statistic of the players whi...

We had a family trip last two weeks. This time we went to Bali. We chose Bali because we like Ubud so much. This time we went with SY's parents and her brother's family. So it was kinda bigger family trip. We took Airasia flight. The flight from KL to Bali was served by Airasia Indonesia. My only complain was the crew did not distribute the disembarkation form to the passengers. So we ended up had to queue and fill up the form before the immigration clearance (at the arrival hall). The immigration clearance could have been a smooth process should we have the formed filled beforehand. Overall, there was no extraordinary experience during the trip since we've been there few years ago, except for some high priced meals. Will share the trip in the next few posts.