Andrew 10月忙不忙？

回顾10月，拔牙折腾了我两个礼拜。好累！也睡了很多。之后也没有很积极的去实现我的生命。。。无所谓！放眼11月。我知道我会回来的。因为我是个有盼望的人。说点好的。10月的的确确是休息够了的。牙齿也解决了。情感也恢复淡定。人生的方向也通过这个月的休息更加肯定了。也从中得着力量。10月有认真的学吉他哦！确认我是蛮有天分的^^ 下了很多好棋，新学的棋风也比较适应了。下棋那起初的愉快也找了回来。找了好多人哪！建立巩固的友情这方面做得很好。预备好的朋友就等于预备美好的未来。

放眼11月！这次要说到做到：

• 向神：虚空啊虚空！没有袮尽是虚空。唯有在袮里面我能得着丰盛。
• 工作：确定品牌强项，强攻市场。License 虽琐碎，也要安排时间去做。预备教材，准备打长期战。
• 理财：闲钱找个好counter park 进去。恩赐啊！别浪费。
• 建立人：好好把导师的角色扮演好。好好的去建立你的弟兄。一起成长和扶持。
• 找朋友：好朋友，越久越香醇。要好好珍惜。
• 健康和身材：在泳池里加把劲吧。年底迈向30圈！

My Journey in Chess, So Far...

I started playing in Dec 2010. I remember I was fascinated by all those beautiful combo moves. Sac this, sac that, go for the King, checkmate! You know, all those fascinating maneuvers. I had some very very enjoyable games. With my arsenal, I managed 1600+ within 2 months of my playing. Then I hit the wall. Playing with 1800+ wasn't what I expected. They developed their pieces regardless of what I threw at them. They weren't afraid to make exchanges. And I usually went down to an end game in a hopeless situation. Sometimes, I didn't even know what actually happened. Those types of games were just out of my reach.

I knew I had to up my arsenal to continue playing better players. I stopped my games and started with the legendary book by Irving Chenev. He taught me about development, patience and building small positional advantages before launching a full scale attack. I started to apply his theory and guess what? I lost most of my games... I found it difficult even playing lower rated players. I couldn't understand why! Every move I made, I saw a weakness in my position. Most of the time, the opponents would take advantage of it and I would be in a defending role throughout the game. 

I knew something was very wrong, until I learned of a magic strategy called “Counter Attack”. Yes, I previously got the concept correct: Every piece maneuver creates a weakness. And if I defend well enough, there will be a time when I can give up a pawn or a piece to mess up the opponent’s attack. And most of the time, the attacker’s piece structure isn’t as connected as the defender’s. I am happy with my games now. And most importantly, I am enjoying my games =)

Andy 九月忙不忙？

9月，一个令我讨厌的月份。连续3年了，每逢9月就会生一场大病。今年9月头被牙痛折腾了两个礼拜。月中伤风，鼻涕倒流导致咳嗽不止。希望明年不要再这样了。

剩下的9月，还在忙什么呢？

中秋节庆祝活动 – 教会每年的重头戏。希望明年有弟兄兴起来接班。不然每年由同一组人做会累死。而且也没有新鲜的idea了。

教会音响部 – 新堂新环境。花了一个月去熟悉新环境的声音，也做了很多的调整。对于后阶段的音质，我是很满意的了。我希望听到会众能给予音响部的同工多一些鼓励的话语。我们总是第一个来，最后一个离开的同工。鼓励的话语是几乎没有的。批评是比较常见的。我会有这样的希望是因为现在有好多新人愿意加入这个部门。我希望在他们在起步的服侍中留下好的印象，让他们能够更加积极的面对接下来的交托。

补习中心 – 教学啊教学！

思念 – 感情生活碰壁。在等待的当儿也只能思念。我不想刻意的去讨好你。我只想自然的对你好。做不了情人，成为好朋友也不错。

建立友情 – 花了蛮多时间喝茶吃饭打球的。朋友们啊，有你们真好！

休息 – 身体不行了，不休息也不行了。9月，真的睡了很多。

放眼10月：

要在工作更加卖力。9月生病冲不了。10月加油咯！宣传和license 的后续一定得完成。

10月份的栽培要开始了。希望能栽培出一群爱神和愿意摆上的弟兄。还有音响部的新人们，你们也要加油！

上了第一堂的吉他课。接下来一定要成为一个能玩音乐的乐手。

希望咳嗽快好，回归泳池。

计划享受人生。10月夜间踏脚车。计划一个短期旅行。

Revisiting Tuesdays with Morrie

Revisiting Tuesdays with Morrie after like… 10 years? I remember reading this book as a young adult. I didn’t think much of this book back then. I remember skimming through the topics. It didn’t interest me much. Looking back after 10 years. I start to understand that this book talks about the essentials in life.

The read started with friends talking about this book. And just so coincidently, another friend gave me a copy of a DVD version. I had no reason not to read it. What stunned me was how well this book portraits the normal lives of normal people so vividly. Our day-to-day lives which seems absolutely normal to us would seem to Morrie, out of track. He would question the social norm, shouting, “What’s wrong with being number two?!” Or dance Tango in a disco hall just because he liked to do that and ask, “What’s wrong with that?” He doesn’t believe in following the tide, he believes that he is part of the tide. “If the culture is wrong, don’t buy it!”

Another important lesson I learnt from this lovely professor is that we need to live at the present. If we are with a person, be with that person. Pay full attention to him. This applies to work as well.

And sometimes you know, when I feel sad or don’t feel good about myself, I tend to shrug the feeling away, as if it makes me weak. Morrie, on contrary, encourages us to soak in those bad feelings. “Let them in completely”, he would say. Then detach. And he calls that living. I learnt that I need to be true to myself, and that includes my feelings.

Another thing I took from the old professor is: Love goes around, comes around, and you know what? Love is all that matters. As Morrie quotes Auden, “We must love, or perish.”

Talking about dying, Morrie taught me that learning to die is synonym to learning to live. Acknowledging death gives us a reality check that our time is limited. Most of us never think about this and believe that we have all the time in the world. Thus I learn to use my time more wisely, cutting down my daily activities to bare essentials.

幸福哪里找？

这几天跟几位好友聊天，有20几岁的，30几岁的，40几岁的，70几岁的。他们都以不同的形式问了个同样的问题：幸福哪里找？


我沉淀了几天想这个问题。我在想，我自己的幸福是从哪里来的？很多时候幸福是当我成就了一些事情，心里得到了满足，尤其是当我得到他人的肯定的时候，感觉很被重视，我很幸福；被家人呵护，被朋友关怀，那被疼、被爱的感觉，我很幸福。

那幸福在那里吗？在工作、家人和朋友那里吗？如果是的话，那为什么幸福的感觉来了又走？幸福走掉的时候，我又要去寻找它。走了又找，找着了又走，这个循环生生不息，我也跟着它绕着团团转。。。


真正的幸福不在那里。。。


于是，我开始去思考。我发现到以上幸福的来源有个共同点。那就是，它是建立在第三者的身上的。于是，我开始去想，如果把家人和朋友从我生命中挪开的话，我还能幸福吗？如果把工作和成就挪去的话，我还能幸福吗？我的答案是：我相信我能。

这些年我想，我把我幸福的盒子交给了别人。。。

我发现到，我们都有幸福的筹码，那筹码就藏在我们每一个人的心中，等待着我们去寻找它。我们都有一个装着“幸福”的盒子，藏在我们心里的某一个角落。开启它的钥匙的名字叫做“相信”。当我发现到这个的时候，我发现我比较能够坦然的面对自己。我不需要为了任何人去做任何事或是去扮演任何的角色。我可以做回我自己。我开始诚实的去面对自己，肯定自己的优点，接纳自己的缺点和面对自己的伤痛。

所以如果你也在寻找幸福的话，你必须问自己这个问题：你相信你会幸福吗？你相信幸福的盒子就藏在你的心里吗？相信的话，就开始为自己而活吧！肯定自己，接纳自己，疼爱自己。你知道吗？当我学会了这些，爱我疼我的人更多了！我很幸福。希望我也能把幸福传给你们。

Learn Good Habits Young Before Our Bodies Deteriorate

I don’t have eternity to do the things I want to achieve. I’m already on the course of expiry. Make every moment count, especially in my spiritual life. The reason is simple. If I cannot honor my God today, say in reading the Word of God, in meditation, in giving thanks, in living a Christ-centered life, in spreading the gospel, how can I expect myself to do these things at my old age? When I am old and fragile, filled with sickness. And sickness will become our companion as we live much longer lives than people a decade ago.

So, make it a habit to honor God, to honor our parents, to serve, to continuously improve ourselves. Start young, and life will be easier when we get old.

A Taste of Being a Science Stream Student

Today, Hui Xian’s brother, Jia Ming came all the way from Kluang to teach us how to make a water rocket. He’s a sociable boy with tons of science knowledge in his skull. They are very fun (and very noisy) to be with. I can only imagine how their home operates…

At about 2pm, we brought him to lunch and then headed off to buy the materials needed to make the water rocket. In the course of the project, I still can’t believe that we made 4 trips to get the things that we forgot to buy! OMG!!!

Nonetheless, I had the chance to play with the drill, participate in the making of the rocket, enjoy the team chemistry during the assembly, listen to firsthand experiences of their school days and get wet. They led me into their world of science. I had always dreamt what would happen if I chose the science stream instead of the commerce stream. Today, they gave me a glimpse of that dream. I am very thankful that Jia Ming came. These two siblings truly are a joy to be with. I hope that he enjoyed this trip as much as I enjoyed his company. I’m sure that these two will make great teachers and wish Jia Ming all the best in his future studies.