Not Over Yet

With only a few days before the New Year, most shoppers are probably done with their pre & post Christmas shopping. Some shops are looking rather empty on the shelves while some are still quite packed! As usual, we don't normally do our dash during Boxing Day due to the large crowds and long queues. It's not like we desperately wanted to buy anything but with so many things happening in December for me this year, more new things just come to me! It's not over yet!

Yesterday, we went to the Cantonese service in Crossway Church at 11am. It's Ok, fairly sized congregations but I think most of them are away on holidays still. Seen their creativity in promoting an outing trip and also wishing people a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (they made a matrix like video of people playing table tennis!). It's a mixture of young and old, typical church settings. Can see from their body language, they yearn to be like their English counterpart which has the largest congregation size in their church. The good thing is, they are not just sitting there waiting for miracle to happen, they actually put an effort to it to be better. Not for themselves, but to be better to be able to bring the good news to the world.

After the service, Yuen Li went to do some shopping herself. She shopped for like 4 hours in Westfield, unbelievable! When I went to pick her up, I was expecting a few large bags where she would struggle to pick up, who knows it's only 2 bags. Should I say, Thank Goodness?! Anyway, she's been thrifty so I wasn't too worried about her spending unnecessarily. She bought me 2 new business shirts because she knows mine are mostly old or too "dull".

Anyway, today is my turn to do my shopping. Not that I have many on my shopping list. I went to MSY for their Nth Melb store opening to get myself some nice IT stuff. I bought a 1TB hard disk and a Microsoft Keyboard + mouse! You know what amazes me? The time I spent there! Not 30 mins, 60 mins but 1.5 hours!~! It's not because I'm browsing through the shelves, it was the waiting time! My gosh!! I had to queue outside the shop before I could get in the shop! It wasn't THAT many people but mainly the shop only open 2 counters to serve people. Not very smart? Normally, people would go in, know what they wanted, then pay for it. It just happens that we have a lot of people asking silly questions! Bugger!
Then I went to Smith Street to get myself a new sport shoes. Went to Adidas, Converse & Nike. My 3 must see shops. In the end, I bought a Nike Lebron V Low. I was going to buy the Air Jordan XX2 (on right) but it wasn't on special! Arghh~! I kinda like that shoes! It has my size as well~! The price is $180.00 so bugger it, can't afford it. Another pair of Air Jordan V that I saw, liked it, on specials BUT no size! Grrrrrr.. I like Air Jordan not because of the brand but because of the comfort and my feet doesn't hurt as much when wearing them. My current Air Jordan lasted me for about 4-5 years now, not bad :) By the way, Lebron V was on special 40% off, so i got it for $84 :) It's worth it ;)


So I spent a total of $263.00 today for the stuffs I bought. Will it be the last for 2008? Maybe, maybe not. Check out the reason why below.

When installing my new hard disk into my PC box, the power supply keeps cutting off after 1 sec. I guess it must be overloaded! Oh No!!! I knew I had some PSU problems previously because each time I add an USB device to my PC, after few seconds or minutes the PSU will overload and shut off. I totally forgotten about it when I bought my 1 TB hard disk! So, I guess I still need to buy a new PSU for my box. Just checked online, it's going to costs me about $134.00. I'll probably buy the Coolmaster Real Power 550W.

There goes my plan of upgrading my PC in 2009. New PSU, new hard disc, new keyboard, new mouse already~! I guess I might need to postpone my upgrades to 2010/11 unless I hit a jackpot or something (I wonder how someone can win if he doesn't buy those things? Found a ticket on the floor? Hmm)!

In the mean time, I just have to stick with my PC which has gone through a few major surgery: Brain (CPU upgrade to C2D, Body structure (Motherboard -actually a downgrade, previous MB damaged so replaced with cheap ones), and eyes (My 256MB display card damaged, replaced with in board graphic card - sucks!).

PIP

One of the greatest 50 players of all time, one of the most versatile player ever. However, today one of his record in the Bulls franchise just got broken.

Ben Gordon made three 3-pointers in the first quarter on Saturday night against the Atlanta Hawks to pass Scottie Pippen and become the Chicago Bulls' career leader in 3-pointers.Pippen made 664 3-pointers in 856 games with the Bulls.

Gordon, playing in his 346th game with the Bulls, began the night with 663 3-pointers. He had 15 points in the first quarter and made all three attempts from behind the arc.

Pip needed 856 games while Ben just needed 346th! Hmm...That's even less than 50%!
Ben greater than Pip? Well, in terms of 3 pointers yeah but in general, I think still far away!

MSY - Nth Melb

North Melbourne (CBD) Opening Special Promotion

These 50 Special Promotion Items last for 29th , 30th , 31st 2008 3 days ONLY

Limited 2 (Max. QTY) Per Customer Per item Per day. While Stock Last!



Printer
Lexmark Z1300 Colour Inkjet Printer $15
Up to 22ppm Black and 16ppm Colour Printing
Borderless Photo Prints up to 5"x7"

Memory - Retail Packing
TEAM 1GB DDR2 800 RAM $13
TEAM 2GB DDR2 800 RAM $23
G.SKILL NT 1GB DDR2 800 RAM $15
G.SKILL NT 2GB DDR2 800 RAM $23
G.SKILL NT 4GB KIT (2X2GB) DDR2 800 RAM $48
Kingston 2GB DDR2 800 RAM $28
Kingston 4GB KIT (2x2GB) DDR2 800 RAM $51
Kingston 2GB DDR2 SODIM Notebook RAM $28

Boxed CPU
AMD 5200+ Boxed CPU $79
AMD Phenom x4 9550 Boxed CPU $189
AMD Phenom x4 9950 Boxed CPU $275

Hard Disk Drive
Western Digital 320GB SATA Hard Disk $64
Western Digital 750GB SATA Hard Disk $105
Western Digital 1TB SATA Hard Disk $154


Flash Products-Retail Packing
Kingston 4GB Flash Pen Disk $11
Kingston 8GB Flash Pen Disk $22
Kingston 16GB Flash Pen Disk $42
Kingston 4GB SD $10
Kingston 4GB Micro SD $10


Keyboard-Retail Packing
HP PS2 Keyboard $5
Samsung SWT1000 PS2 Keyboard $7
Microsoft Retail X6 Sidewinder Keyboard $69
Desktop (Keyboard + Mouse)-Retail Packing
ASUS Retail KM-63 Desktop (USB Keyboard + USB Mouse) $15
Microsoft Retail Desktop 500 $19
Microsoft Retail Desktop Business Hardware Pack $25
Microsoft Retail Desktop 1000 Cordless $35
Microsoft Retail Desktop 3000 Cordless $45
Microsoft Retail Desktop 7000 Cordless $91



Mouse-Retail Packing
Samsung Pheomax SPM-710B PS2 Mouse $6
MSI ES-101 STAR MOUSE - Laser Mouse $10
Microsoft Retail 1000 Comfort Optical Mouse $12
Microsoft Retail 3000 Comfort Optical Mouse $16
Microsoft Retail 3000 Wireless Notebook Mouse $22
Microsoft Retail 4000 Wireless Notebook Mouse $28
Microsoft Retail 7000 Wireless Laser Notebook Mouse $49
Microsoft Retail X5 Sidewinder Laser Mouse $49
Microsoft Retail Mobile Memory 8000 Laser Mouse $59
Microsoft Retail ARC Wireless Mouse $69
Microsoft Retail Bluetrack Mini. Mouse $69
Microsoft Retail Bluetrack Explorer Mouse $89



WEB Camera-Retail Packing
Web Camera with Night Vision $9
Microsoft Retail Lifecam VX500 Web Camera $18
Microsoft Retail Lifecam VX7000 Web Camera $59


Power Supply-Retail Packing
A-POWER 650Watt. Single Fan Power Supply $17
A-POWER 720Watt. Dual Fan Power Supply $25
A-POWER 860Watt. Tri. Fan Power Supply $32
Asus Z-45FP Power Supply $44


Internet Headset-Retail Packing
A-POWER Singleside Headset $5
A-POWER Stereo Headset with Volume Control $8

====================================================================
(Business Hours : Mon-Fri 10:30am-6:30pm Sat. 10:30am-2:00pm)
(Melway Ref. 43 D5 or 2A G9 - where the old IT Supermarket shop is)

653 Queensberry Street
North Melbourne VIC 3051 Australia

Tel : (03) 9328 2029, (03) 9328 2377 Fax : (03) 9328 3523

Where's The Good Samaritan?

The Chronicles Of The Puppet Master

To celebrate my 100th post in this blog, I'll be summarizing how 2008 has been for me. It's just a coincident that the 100th post is so near to the end of 2008. No better time to look back and evaluate on what I've been through in 2008.

Financially
The year of the Rat also the first animal sign of the Chinese zodiac, promises the following:

In the "Year of the Rat", we can expect 12 months of plentiful opportunities and prospects not to mention being relatively free of turbulence, (which is great to know especially if you're planning on making some long-term investments, starting new projects, or keeping the home fires burning brightly).

Surely enough there were lots of opportunities that existed or missed by me. Done quite a bit of first time investing in currency, shares, properties, etc. There're all long term investments anyway so not reaping anything anytime soon. However, the last 1/4 of the year was not without turbulence as the world economy collapses and might last well into 2010 before it recovers! Nonetheless, as previously stated before, crisis also bring opportunities along. So, I'll be looking for more opportunities in the years ahead. Looking for business partners as well, anyone interested? :)

By the way, I don't believe in all those zodiac stuffs nor am I superstitious!

Church LCEC
Anyway, in my church I guess is where all the dramas are. I started out as the Chairperson, trying to bring some changes and reforms as we desperately needed them. Met with quite a few large oppositions as we all know, human are against change most of the time. So, I voluntarily gave up the position to be just a normal member to avoid more "confrontations". A lot of unexpected things have happened for the church as well. For good or bad, it's too early to tell. Nonetheless, my efforts and sacrifices are not totally wasted though for some people, they might think I've over-reacted. Someone also labelled my movements as "Shawnism". Ha Ha!
Gospel Camp 2008
Have led a bunch of young kids in organising the Gospel Camp for 2008 as well. I think it should be one of the most successful one ever as we had about 20 or 30 (can't remember now) non christian friends with us in the camp. Also, we had a few that accepted Christ in the camp. By the way, my role was an advisor in the camp. Maybe I advised too much in some sense, other leaders who are not in the camp committee felt like I'm the puppet master controlling the minds of the young kids! Ha Ha! Nonetheless, all credits due to those young boys and girls who spent about 12 months preparing for it. Hats off! :D Are they ready for the next BIG one? 2013?
Work
After a year in the Hawthorn Office, I feel like it's time to move on to greater challenge in work. I heard about Micasa8 coming online in 2009, so I thought I might give it a try! Most people would have preferred Hawthorn as it's less busy and more relaxing! However, I know the directions I'm going and where God wanted me to be. So, City here I come! Finally move to the City office around December 2008. It has only been less than a month, but I'm loving it! I had to give up an hour's sleep though! All worth it~ :)

Spiritual Life
The 11/12 months of 2008 has been a great year for me. Spiritually growing with minor setbacks. However, December has been really slack for me. I hardly read the bible or talk to God. I don't really know what He wants me to do in this month. Not that I asked Him anyway :P Maybe I haven't adjusted to my new lifestyle working in the City as it can be very tiring. Or perhaps because of all my prayer group members have gone back to Malaysia? It's hard to be one man standing these days! Was hoping to end 2008 on a high note but I guess a streak must end somewhere, and it just ended right before the year ends.

However, I know I'm ready to make a comeback. My determination and love for God should be able to overcome my laziness & slackness. Looking forward to another breakthrough in 2009. Had some plans in mind, now I just need to organise it with a few friends and we should be able to do more things for the people in the City of Melbourne!

Conclusion
There're so much more that I can share but I thought I better keep it short. Some of my 2008 memories can be found by reading this blog.

Anyway, if you asked me, what would I change if I can go back into time? Probably I'd say....I'd be more firm in my decision making as the chairperson to avoid the mess that has happened today.

2009 here I come!! Before that, I'll be going away on the 30th Dec to 1st Jan, so won't be posting anything then.