Come this Friday and the days after Friday, I will be filled with three major uncertainties. First, I have no idea where I will be stationed for my job. Second, I know not how long I have to stay put at one place. Third, how much do I earn for living as an engineer?

BUT I am already feeling adventurous. Finally, I am a practising engineer. In the mean time, as I venture into the working world, at least for the first month, this “Sticky Friday” post will stay sticky to commemorate 09-01-09!

In the mean time, I’ve been very much “unsociable” of late. I kept myself distance from MyBlogLog, Plurk, Entrecard, BlogCatalog, KuchingBloggers.com, BlogMalaysia.com, and many more. It is not that they are not good despite being a good place for people to socialize, but there’re just too many accounts for me. I deleted all of them.

I’d prefer sticking to Facebook and Twitter. So only Facebook and Twitter I shall join. One thing is I can control the privacy level. Good! If I have not already added you, bug me please.

There’s one more uncertainty, when will I be able to blog? It will only be known on this Friday.

PS: Arial looks more honest instead of Helvetica though both are in the sans-serif family. Don’t be surprised with the change of font, I made some minor changes.

PSS: Look at the footer as well, it reads “A young man who loves simplicity but is hit with insufficient memory. This bluebook is my chronicle.”

To all Malaysians,

Whether you are a driver or a passenger, remember to buckle up! It’s not that hard to buckle up your seat-belt if you can wear your own leather belt around your waist.

On MPVs
All seven or eight passengers in a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) must belt up under this new ruling. Exempted are vehicles with seats for one driver and eight or more passengers. Also exempted are passenger vehicles registered before Jan 1, 1995, and those weighing more than 3.5 tonnes.
(Source)

On pre 1995
Vehicles which are exempted from the ruling are those registered before Jan 1, 1995; vehicles which do not have anchorage points for rear seat belt fitting; and commercial vehicles such as buses, taxis and rented vehicles. Vehicles registered after 1995 that do not have rear seat belts have a three-year grace period to get them installed.
(Source)

On the fourth passenger
The fourth rear passenger might get away for not wearing the seat belt but the driver could be fined for overloading his vehicle. (I’m puzzled..)
(Source)

On fine
Only the driver will be fined, not the passenger! What the heck! Drivers, make sure you are influential enough to “force” all your passengers to buckle up. I won’t want to pay for someone’s fault.
(Source)

Have a safe journey on the road.

Peace, love and -_^,
Daniel

Talking about which Fr Jojo Fung had said in his sermon during the thanksgiving mass last night, I’d like to take time to reflect on the people and events in my life that I feel God moulding me and guiding me. Understanding that we are the light and salt of the earth (Matthew 5: 13-16), the salt whom shall not lose its taste and our light that shines before others, it is of significant to reflect our past in a more spiritual way rather than earthly.

This first post on the very first day of 2009 is lengthy! 2008 marks a year of ups and downs, hopes and frustrations, joys and pains. I regret not for all the things that happened. Those events and people opened my eyes, shed light to what I want to achieve in life remembering those life lessons.

Allow me to rewind back to January 2008. I made 10 resolutions of which I achieved 6 of them. This month was what I called plain normal. Not that normal actually as I started out as a Sunday School teacher and also involved in the SCC Chinese Apostolate. Hmmm.. I wonder how I got myself into this?

After a cosy month, I moved on to February 2008 with much shine and glimmer. It was then Chinese New Year cum grandma’s 81’s birthday. Many relatives flocked back and that made the celebration joyful. Spending my longest break, three weeks, I went back to University to present my research progress. To my surprise, the panels were very critical yet kind in addressing their comments.

Then cameMarch 2009. Edwina, my second youngest sister, went to Australia to take up nursing. Also in this month, we observed Lent and the Holy Week. This year was a very special one as Friar Joseph Goh, OFM, had ask of me to translate his sermon from English to Chinese and have the translation read out after his sermon during the Mass.

April 2008. Yahoo! I got my first dotcom. If you are wondering what a dotcom is, it’s danielliew.com! It was also in this month I started to lament why I took up masters in the first place as things were not going as I initially planned. You get to understand the plight of conducting research life from a postgraduate student. This is not the end of the story… Read on…

I think May 2008 is the month with the less “me” dealing with life. It’s more of about events or some random jumbled words squeezed into sentences.

June 2008 never fails to visit little Daniel. Let’s talk about the sad thing first, after two months of hosting my blog on a server something bad happened. All my database was lost! Mad I was at my host at first but then it’s my fault also for forgetting to backup my database regularly. Sigh… The good thing is the narcissistic side of me managed to recover most of my posts (except comments) from my RSS feed. Moite!

Oh July 2008 was such a lazy month, so to speak! It was my first teaching experience in the university which I subsequently learned that this is not what I really wanted in life. It’s good also to know what I want and wanted not at a more early stage. Would you mind to look at the numbers beside the months at my right sidebar? Did you just see 35? That explains I was too free this month doing absolutely nothing. Darn…

After indulging in laziness, August 2008 proved to be a hardworking one. The Danish company confirmed their decision to sponsor my their material for my research. Also this month my three years old St Paul’s Youth organized their very first camp. After which I joined the Jesuit for a vocation camp. The Ignatian spirituality really attracts me, I want to know more on how to apply this spirituality in my life. Eddie left the apostolate and I were to carry on his task. Was very afraid you know!

Apart from July, the next laziest month was September 2008. Having born this month on the tenth day, I really really was lazy in the sense that I procrastinated a lot! A darn month also! But one thing uplifting is that I was so close of being chosen as the best post in one of Nuffnang’s competition.

Next came the third quarter of the year, October 2008. Apart from attending an interview for a post in the civil service which I doubt I could get it I also made my first Youtube video on Catholicism. A lot of people commented positively on my video presentation. This video was premièred in an inter-religious gathering between Catholics and Buddhists.

Wah! Two months left, November 2008. I emceed at my cousin’s wedding reception. Syok! A wonderful experience. Once again, I plunged to a very down mode as my research material has yet to arrive. I waited and waited and had no more energy to keep waiting. I cried. Prior to the Colours of Life Children Camp organized for the children by all Sunday School teachers I had the worst diarrhea and fever. However, I managed to pull it through as recovery was fast. Was the camp master leh! Loved the experience and lessons learned.

It is about time to come to an end. December 2008. I made up my mind to join the civil service for the first six years of my career. I’m finally working! Caroling 2008 went smoothly despite being handled by first timers. I forgot to tell you that the sky just smiled. This smiling sky gave me all the upbeats to continue my life.

Through the ups and downs of my life I am thankful to God for “The Lord my God is with me WHEREVER I go” and “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who TRUST in Him”.

Lengthy it is.. To all my friends there, thank you for being there with me through your presence and your words. Haven’t really drafted my new year resolution, I don’t think I need one this year. Even if I have, it would be about improving myself to be a better man. =_^ \/

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!