A Season for Durians

It's durian season again!

Anyone for a bite? This picture is taken at the 'marketplace' of Chong Pang City, at the junction of Sembawang Road and Yishun Ave 5.

By the way ... I hate durians. It stinks, but some people just like it!

Voyeurism

Much knowledge and information have been gained from the Internet, but with each gain also comes the negative effects influencing and intruding the private lives of many.

One of the greatest negative effects that influence private lives is the easy access to pornographic materials on the web. According to the Webster Dictionary, voyeurism refers to "one obtaining sexual gratification from seeing sex organs and sexual acts; broadly: one who habitually seeks sexual stimulation by visual means".

In the information age today, getting materials of visual sexual stimulation is very easy. Pornography in cyberspace is accessible 24 hours a day and available everyday on the web. No amount of measures taken by watchdogs can completely wipe out access to these materials. Whether it is interactive games or web viewing, pornographic materials are here to stay. Voyeurists no longer need to go to underground places to seek such material; they can get it right at home on the computer.

What then have we gained from technology? Is it better knowledge or is it worst? What has become of the world today?

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16 NAS)

Therefore, "do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15 NAS).

Toilet Education

Squatting on Toilet Seats

An educational piece of art dedicated to people in Singapore ...
With compliments from the ... National Environment Agency (NEA)

My Spidey Comic Collection

Places of Solitude

Places of quiet is where I'll go
When I need to calm my mind
To let my thoughts wander
To receive a word divine
To be inspired and know
What next steps to take
While breaking routines
And taking a break
To reflect the truth
In the silence of solitude
Retaining the moments
In life I treasure most

Nothing but FHM

Known for always being close and never closed, the store that is opened 24 hours a day sells many things, including different genres of magazines.

For this outlet up North, however, it appears to sell nothing else, but FHM - For Him Only magazines!

A Place of Serenity

A place I sometimes go
To walk and talk with God
To calm my soul and refresh my thoughts
Away from work and from routines
During lunchtime after a meal

toYs @ foYeR

Where Spidey Lives

This is where I live - in a puddle of muddy wateR!

Actually, the wateR is usually green, but this photo is taken after heavy showers, so you can understand why the color.

Do you know where this is? If you do, you can stalk me if you like, that is, if you are looking for Spider-Man (",)

Sea Shells in the Glass

Seashells, turtles, and a treasure chest ...

from Thailand, Africa, and Singapore ...

under the glass top of my dining table

Painting on the Rock

Spidey in London!

Glad my friend HostSara remembers me even when she is in London!

Picture from HostSara's Photo Album.

Uniquely Singapore

When you see a caucasian rush into a MRT train just to 'fight' for a seat, you'll know he has stayed in Singapore for too long! This is the way Singapore teaches culture to foreigners!

As I attempt to tie-up my umbrella before getting off the MRT train, I accidentally let the umbrella drip some drops of water on the lady sitting at my left. Her face expressed great annoyance, but she failed to realise that throughout the journey, I have expressed irritation, because she has placed her umbrella on her right, wetting the left side of my pants.

A small build man in his thirties crosses his leg and occupies three seats on the MRT train. To his left, he puts his personal things, and on the right, he lets his leg cross boundaries, as he reads a tabloid sized newspaper. The small man hangs his umbrella at the metal pole in front of him, where he allows the rain water to drip a the train floor. When I take the seat on his right, he remains oblivious and continues to put his leg across. When a big guy stares at him and the seat of the small guy's left, the small guy gives up the left seat and let his leg down. When the crowd starts building up in the cabin, many people has to avoid the umbrella hanging at the pole because of the wet floor, and that is despite the scarcity of space.

This is Singapore, the place where graciousness is built on putting ourselves first before others.

The Chronicles of Narnia

My Comment n Review
I have always been intrigued by the story of Narnia because it embodies an equivalent to the Christian truth.

In the story, Edmund is the sinner under the clutches of the White Witch. Aslan, the Lion, has to suffer and die on behalf of Edmund in order to save him from the control of the witch. When Aslan arose from the dead, the powers of the witch begin to weaken and Narnia is eventually restored.

The story begins with four children playing a game of hide and seek. Lucy, the youngest of the four, stumbles upon a magical wardrobe that allows her to enter into another world in the land of Narnia where she meets a faun. Edmund also enters that world, but refuse to admit it because he was enchanted and addicted to the 'turkish delight' offered by the White Witch. When Peter, the elder brother, and Susan, the elder sister, with Lucy and Edmund finally enters into the world of Narnia, Edmund chose to betray the others and seeks to report to the White Witch their whereabouts. The other three meets with Aslan and the war begins between good and evil, with Aslan dying for Edmund and the world to free them from the curse, and restoring Narnia with the appointment of Peter as High King, Edmund as king, Susan and Lucy as queens.

Revelation 5:5 (NAS)
and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals."

My Collectables

Souvenirs n Collectables from all over the world ...

My Place of Work

Where I work these days ...

Bringing Up Parents

"To teach graciousness to children, begin with their parents."

An example of parents needing parenting:

A father goes to the supermarket and place his trolley in the middle of a passageway with child in the trolley. He then begins teaching his child by pointing to things in the supermart saying, "This is an apple, that is an orange, the other is ..."

This 'anecdote' happened at the NTUC FairPrice Sembawang supermarket in the morning today. The passageway totally blocked, and other shoppers were unable to get through. The stares from the people at the father did not help, because the parent was totally oblivious to surroundings, because his world is the child, not earth.

For help on being gracious, read 'Learning to be Graceful'. For a biblical perspective of building graciousness, read 'Gracefully Yours'.

Bringing Up Parents

"To teach graciousness to children, begin with their parents."

An example of parents needing parenting:

A father goes to the supermarket and place his trolley in the middle of a passageway with child in the trolley. He then begins teaching his child by pointing to things in the supermart saying, "This is an apple, that is an orange, the other is ..."

This 'anecdote' happened at the NTUC FairPrice Sembawang supermarket in the morning today. The passageway totally blocked, and other shoppers were unable to get through. The stares from the people at the father did not help, because the parent was totally oblivious to surroundings, because his world is the child, not earth.

For help on being gracious, read 'Learning to be Graceful'. For a biblical perspective of building graciousness, read 'Gracefully Yours'.

My Faith Profile - Take the Quiz!

My Faith Profile ...

Find out what kind of a Christian are you?

Take the Quiz

Verses for Serious Thinking

Proverbs 16:25
There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 27:5-6
Better is open rebuke
Than love that is concealed.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

When My Buddy Is Hurting

It pains me when my buddy's heart hurts
It pricks me when she is in despair
It saddens me when I know she is ill
It worries me when she is going through surgery

My buddy is one whom I care a lot
One whom I share my hope and joy
When she is unhappy I am sad
When she is down and out
I long to see her up and smiling

When she sees no hope in this world
I will keep on nudging her to hold
To see the world with hope
To encourage her to persevere

When she feels she is all alone
I will let her know she is never alone
Because she has me as a friend
And God Who cares for her and Who is always near

When she lacks the strength to work
I will send a MSN to shake her
With winks and nudges to keep her going
And she will return with a friendly chat

To my dearest buddy and my friend
Your wellness is my desire and my every plan
To insure the joy you certainly deserve
For being such a sister buddy and friend

Father Help Me

Father help me
My life is in topsy-turvy
Turned upside down by juggles
Of faith work and study

I long for the days
I will struggle no more
To hand to You my life
My time and my energy
To do the things
You have planned for me

Gone are my days of joy
As I continually toil
To fulfill the demands of the world
And the needs of the flesh
To live a life in hope
Of riches and needed rest

Fulfill my destiny O God
Let me know what you have planned for me
Help me fulfill my desire to please Thee
For without You I can see no life in me
Let me O God be filled with Your Spirit
Direct me in Your purpose
Lead me and show me
And make me understand
How I can go through this life
To find fulfillment in serving Thee

I Was Attacked By EzuLa

Just when I thought I can rest early last Friday evening and sacrifice my class on Saturday to catch up with studies, then disaster strikes.

My computer was hijacked by Adware EzuLa. According to Symantec, 'Ezula alters Web pages viewed in Internet Explorer and can add extra links to certain keywords that advertisers target. This adware runs under the name TopText.'

That was exactly what happened. I started seeing links at my own web sites that I have not placed, and this is activated by some malicious program which has hijacked my IE browser. What I did next was to get an anti-adware program to clean up my PC which detected over 300 parameters in my Windows registry containing ad codes. As if this nuisance is not enough, my operating system suddenly crashed while I was attempting to prevent further damage.

Restoring my PC took two days. On Friday, I have to worked through re-setting up my Windows Me operating system while eliminating the adware, taking up till 3am the next day. On Saturday, I have to reinstall all my software applications, and redo many things, only to discover that my OS update has somewhat been partially damaged, and hence failed to process essential updates of Windows subset of patches and service packs. Coupled with new discovery that my notebook hard disk needed thorough ScanDisk because of bad sectors with data within, I am left with working overdrive again through Saturday night till Sunday morning 3am.

That was a real pain, and I was left with few hours of sleep before I attend the early morning church service. Now, I am back to square one with my studies running out of time, couple of study assignments awaiting to be done, many chapters of text books yet to be read, and an early morning awaiting on Monday at 8am in the office to settle some IS issues. I am really burnt out.

If you ask what has the IS duties to do with me, well, I am not merely employed to be a Technical Writer. I am also a backup for the company's IS. This is how it is these days. Many things come bundled in a package when you apply for any new job. No one is assign to just doing their main work, and many has added duties to cover staffing cost. If you don't take the additionals, or what is termed as 'add value', you don't get the job. That is the reality of life.

For now, I am just a Spidey, heavily laden with many challenges of life without much leisure nor any time for an ordinary life. It's all work and studies - no play.

My Buddy's Favourite Fruit

I came to know my buddy cyberSis through moblog.com.sg, just by a mere greeting to welcome her. Things have changed ever since, and when I found out she likes strawberries, I dedicated a page of my personal web site to posting photos of strawberries with background music, just to make sure she has a strawberry day, everyday.

To cheer my buddy friend, I sent an MMS to her moblog, of a strawberry picture i painstakingly search through the Net, making sure it is of high quality, pleasant to the eyes, trimmed down to size, to prevent copyright from being recognized.

Each time I see strawberries, I think of my buddy sis, and each time I think of my buddy sis, I will always smile. When I travel overseas and visit a strawberry farm, the first thing that comes to mind is to send my sister some. But since I can't, I take photos instead, to post on blogs, hoping the pictures will enchant, memories of me and of strawberries, to my buddy sis.

The things I do for my buddy sister, the one whom I sincerely care, is something no man, I believe, can comprehend. For it is she that cheer my days and make my stay at moblog such a pleasant place.

My Buddy Cyber Sister

I have a buddy cyberSis I know on the Net
Whom till this day I have never met
Yet there are many things we share in common
Only God could have made this arrangement
For us to know each other
As brother and sister

We have the same surname
And share the same faith
Study at the same academy
Attend the same church
In her present and my past
Crossing our lives
Often in similar paths

Like the pair in You've Got Mail
We need not meet
To share a kindred spirit
To know within
The trust we share
That no one can
Except in Christ understand
With hearts intertwined
The way only true friends can

To my cyberSis in Christ
May you stay happy your entire life
For that is my sincere prayer for you
Let our friendship stay ever true

Apprehend vs Apprehension

To apprehend is NOT the same as apprehension.

One is to catch hold, the other is to worry about tomorrow or something awaiting in the future, which may or may not happen. Are you catching hold or are you stricken by what awaits?

When an obstacle or something awaits ahead, fret not! If you cannot go through it, just go around it! Let God show you the way!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths
straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS)

My Inner Being

There are times
When people think I am at peace
Unperturbed and seemingly at ease
But deep down within
In the realm of my mind
Is filled with turmoil
No man can comprehend

The juggles in life
And the stresses in mind
The years of honing
To keep oneself alive
With sanity in check
Blood pressures in place
No measures of precaution
Can keep up with the blurring pace
Of stresses today
And stresses at the moment
To keep intact one's spiritual faith

In earnest of heart
At points of despair
When desperation prevails my mind
I cry out to God in prayer
Sometimes requesting
For Him to end it all
Like Elijah in the book of Kings
Who expressed to the LORD
He has enough of everything
I sometimes express the same
And ask God to take me home with Him
Occasionally forgetting
The meaning of life
The things God has in stored
The plans and purpose He has for me

O LORD forgive my lack of faith
Renew my spirit
Fill my innermost being
With flowing rivers of living water
Empower me with your Holy Spirit
Guide me in my ways
Teach me to take each day
A step at a time
To live my life
A sanctified and holy sacrifice

My Friends

I don't have many friends,
But whom I consider as friends,
They shall be my friends indeed,
And I will value them
And take them as my own!

That's me!

My Earnest Prayer

Over the last month
I've sought and prayed
That God will bless me
Day after day
To cope with my studies, work, and faith
To manage my life by God's grace
To rely on Him in my weaknesses
To draw from Him
Strength in all circumstances
To exercise miraculous power
To do what is humanly considered impossible
To make things happened
The way my employer wants
Even when my knowledge of it is next to none
In faith I seek God's help
To meet my earthly master's demands
To do what is right
To do it well

In dazzle I walk each day
Because of endless nights
And blurring days
My studies are overdue
Going down the drain
With untouched textbooks
Unattended classes
Things are not performing
According to the needed pace

Grant me O God ability to perform
The things I know not how
Bestow to me Your wisdom
Especially when I am unsure
Let me know and make me clear
Let my life be Yours to do
Wth me the way you want it to
Let me know Your presence and Your grace
In whatever I do and at wherever the place
Teach me O God to include You
in all my plans and in what I do
To live my life just for You

Memories

Memories are things we cannot hide
The things we sometimes hope to forget
Yet there are things we hope we'll always remember
Or our achievements and our past will be gone forever
For if our identity is erased without a trace
It will be hard to live by the mercies of God's grace

Without memories
We will not know
What we have lost
Or what we have gained
To appreciate the things in life
That keeps us alive
To know what is worth
And what is not worth keeping
To give more than receive
To do good things
To live and appreciate
The things we have
The nature and the air
The beauty of God's creation everywhere
The water we drink
The air we breathe
The things we take for granted
And assumed always there

O God bless our memories
To remember the good
To learn from the bad
To move on to live our lives
To the fullest we know how
In ways guided by Your Spirit
In faith and love
In fruitfulness and charity
To do the right things
To bring good memories

How Spiders Work

An orb-spinning spider puts its elegant traps together pretty quickly, proceeding easily from step to step according to the instruction manual preprogrammed into its brain. The diagram below shows the major steps.

Every web begins with a single thread, which forms the basis of the rest of the structure. To establish this bridge, the spider climbs to a suitable starting point (up a tree branch, for example) and releases a length of thread into the wind. With any luck, the free end of the thread will catch onto another branch. If the spider feels that the thread has caught onto something, it cinches up the silk and attaches the thread to the starting point.

It walks across the thread, releasing a looser thread below the first one. It attaches this thread on both ends and climbs to its center. The looser strand sags downward, forming a V shape. The spider lowers itself from this point, to form a Y-shape. This forms the core support structure of the web.

The spider easily grips the thin threads with special serrated claws, a smooth hook and a series of barbed hairs on the end of its legs. As it walks along the initial structural threads, it lays more frame threads between various anchor points. Then it starts laying out radius threads from the center of the web to the frames. The spider does not coat the frame and radius threads with sticky material, since it needs to walk across them to get around the web.

After building all the radius threads, the spider lays more non-stick silk to form an auxiliary spiral, extending from the center of the web to the outer edge of the web. The spider then spirals in on the web, laying out sticky thread and using the auxiliary spiral as a reference. The spider eats up the auxiliary spiral as it lays out the sticky spiral, resulting in a web with non-sticky radius threads, for getting around, and a sticky spiral for catching bugs.

The spider sits in the middle of its web, monitoring the radius threads for vibrations. If an insect gets caught in any part of the web, the spider will feel the motion through the radius threads and make its way to the vibration source. In this way, the web extends the spider's sensory system over a much wider area. The spider might also leave the web, to retreat to a separate nest, while monitoring the web via a connected signal line.

Web-spinning spiders have an innate ability to tell the difference between vibrations from insect prey and vibrations from other sources (a leaf falling into the web, for example). Many species can also distinguish the characteristic vibrations of dangerous insects, such as wasps, from their preferred prey.

When the orb web has deteriorated and is no longer useful, many spider species will destroy it, eating up all the threads so it can recycle the raw silk material. Spiders may leave the heavy bridge thread so that they can easily rebuild the web at a later point.

For an animated illustration of how spider works, and a more detailed write-up, please visit: How Stuff Works.

Work of Passion

There is a passion that man knows not
A passion only employers seem to understand
The passion they call passion for the job
That accepts all things beyond boundaries
Mediocre pay and many other duties

The dictionary defines passion
Of a very powerful feeling
That goes beyond love hate anger and emotion
The drive to reach and achieve
The unseen impossibilities
A suffering that endures inflicted pain
The state of being acted upon
In subjection to external influence
A disorder of the mind
A kind of madness
To which we choose
A state we express our passion
Of madness or of drive
Is up to employers to define

To a person who wish to join
Only the passionate will they employ
Of one who works the extra mile
With passion and love to die for
Of expressed willingness to take
Beyond ascribed duties for position engaged
The one who is unconcerned for wages paid

The passion only employers understand
Is not a passion any heart can comprehend
It is a passion underlining sufferings
That endures inflicted pain
From external influence imposed
To mean passion in subjection
In bringing disorder of the mind
To drive us crazy far beyond
The state of madness for simple minds

Creativity With EZ-Link Card

The thing I like about using a public transport stored value card is the freedom to decide even at last minute my final destination. If I board a bus and change my mind where I wish to go, I freely choose to go some place else to disembark. I need not worry about the discrepancy I did not pay or have overpaid, because with the card, charges only deduct when I disembark. So I frequently change my mind where I wish to go in order to build flexibility to cultivate creativity.

Creativity is about observing things differently, seeing things as we have not seen before, reading details we frequently ignore. We sit on a chair daily, yet we seldom really care, to explore and see what material it is made of, whether there are any loosen screws or cushion tear, what mechanism is in it, how it turns, what type of rollers is used, because we fail to see things with a creative mind.

Creativity is also about being always ready for changes, a circumstantial or deliberate act to be different, to do things differently, and to break from routines. We can go to a regular destination by a different route on a different day, or walk a different path to where we work. We can take public transport instead of driving, or take a bus instead of the subway train.

Creativity is about listening or hearing the things that surround us, the noises and conversations people share, the sounds of nature and music everywhere. It is about smelling things in our surroundings, of fragrance and flowers, perfume and odors, food and many others. It is about being sensitive to our five senses.

In a busy world today, the things we see, smell, and hear, we seldom care more than superficial. We take for granted the things we have, and we fail to stop and listen. We do not pay attention because we are too busy, and it is for this reason I occasionally take a break, away from society, to get away from routines, to retreat, recreate, and rediscover self, to restore my soul, to make myself whole. As travelers for a little time while on earth, we need to regularly calm our souls, to enter into a mood of relaxation, to pay attention at all occasions, to close our eyes and ear all things, the likes of birds chirping, cricket and grasshopper calling, the dragonfly buzzing, the pin dropping, even the clock ticking.

Death of Spider-Man ... by Baygon

A very funny ad by Baygon, the insecticide that kills all bugs, including ... Spidey! :D

Photos of Inspirational Nature Walk

As a writer I often make time to go for nature walks to think and to get inspiration from God. I walk in early morn in solitude with nature, to calm my inner spirit and to heighten my senses in listening, smelling, touching, feeling, and seeing.

I hear the birds chirping, the insects flying, and the sounds of waves hitting shore. I feel the breeze and wind caress my face. I smell nature and the fragrance of flowers in the air. I see falling leaves and flying birds and ants marching the floor endlessly without despair. I see chameleons crossing my path and I see squirrels climbing trees.

In nature I discover myself, a human being created to love nature and co-exist with others as well. In nature, I discover my inner love for writing, a longing desire ever growing, to pen my thoughts and share to the world, how great is our God, Who created us into being.

Walk with me and share my thoughts, view the photos of my nature walk.