Yahoo Winning Pics

One life - live it!

Fatherhood - a bundle of joy

Caught in the act!

A Hymn OF Faith

Undoubtedly the passage that sees me through many a barren season...

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls -
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer's feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

True Blue

The clear blue sky taken as it is.
No photoshop editing nor alteration done.

Want the real stuff?
Look up.


They're all found in the Maker's hands

To Mikey

Living today
Uncertain of tomorrow
Everything's blurry

I don't know about tomorrow
I just live from day to day
And I don't borrow from its sunshine
'Cause the skies might turn to grey
And I don't worry about the future
'Cause I know what Jesus said
And today I'm gonna walk right beside Him
'Cause He's the One who knows what is ahead
There are things about tomorrow
That I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand

Biggo Belly

Perk up peeps! Monday blues or not, this is sure to sketch a smile across your beautiful face... taken from the Yahoo Photomail Epic Shots Contest

The Posables (Pose-ables)

The Excitables

Excitable mom-to-be

Excitable hands

Excitable ladies

A. F. Y.

The Last Samurai: Lessons Learnt

Timeless lessons learnt from a movie screened some 2 years back:

A battle is meant to be fought, not run away from

That which we run away from will always return to daunt us, unless we face it head on and tackle it.

There is no true victory without battle

The only way to learn and grow is to fight through and overcome daunting circumstances, without which the cycle of defeat is inevitable.

I Know He Is

I know He is the beginning, so why do I worry about the end.

I know He is the creator, so why do I wonder who will destroy.

I know He can do all things, so why do I say I can't.

I know He will protect me, so why do I fear.

I know He will supply all my needs, so why can't I wait.

I know He is my strength and my salvation, so why do I feel weak.

I know that everything and everyone has a season, so why when someone's season is over do I weep instead of rejoice.

I know He is the right way, so why do I go the wrong way.

I know He is the light, so why do I choose to walk in darkness.

I know that whatever I ask of GOD, GOD will give me, so why am I scared to ask.

I know tomorrow is not promised, so why do I put off for tomorrow what I can do today.

I know that the truth shall make me free, so why do I continue to lie.

I know He gives us revelation knowledge and understanding, so why do I lean on my own understanding.

I know I should live in the spirit as well as walk in the spirit, so why do I choose to live in the spirit but walk in the flesh.

I know that when praises go, up blessings come down, so why do I refuse to praise Him.

I know I am saved, so why do I refuse the word He has given me.

I know He has a plan for me, so why am I rushing it because I am eager to do His will, when it is His time not my time.

Construct This Life

Prophecy these bones to live

Keep these feet upon Thy altar

Construct this life to Thy grace divine

Condeleezza Rice: Part III

A comprehensive report on the life of the world's most powerful woman, according to Forbes magazine - Ms. Condoleezza Rice.

Taken & edited from a Russian online news page, this isn't a dry read, I promise. ;)

Here is a typical dreams-come-true story, which could only happen in the USA. A common girl from Alabama uses her talents, stubbornness and discipline to the utmost and make a sweeping political career. Condoleezza could play the piano at the age of three. It is worth mentioning that Ms. Rice's unusual name originates from the Italian musical term 'dolcezza' which translates to 'with tenderness.' She joined a church choir at the age of four and became a fluent reader when she was five-year-old. The girl would wake up at 4:30 a.m., do her morning exercises and then start practicing music. Ms. Rice led a rather regulated life during her childhood. She always knew what she would be doing the next day, the next month and even the next year.

Condi stayed away from politics during her early years. Her parents turned a blind eye on the issue of racial discrimination in the USA and simply preferred not to pay any attention to it. African Americans did not have any voting rights back then, but Mr. Rice would persistently tell his daughter that she would be able to become the president of the United States if only she had a wish to work hard for it. Little Condi did her best.

Condi's contemporary biographers say that the Rices were an unusual family not only in terms of Alabama alone, but in terms of the whole nation. Ms. Rice's grandfather saved a certain amount of money in 1918 and decided to spend his work savings on education. Condi was sure from her early childhood that knowledge was the most important thing that a human being could obtain in life.

She finished college at the age of 15 and became a Denver University graduate at 19. She originally became a student of the department of music, but her plans drastically changed a year later. She moved to the department of politics and decided to dedicate her studies to the most exotic state that was mentioned on the list of options – the Soviet Union.

Condi's rivals say that she used her knowledge of Sovietology as a springboard for her future political career. They say that she supposedly realized at the age of 16 that relations with the USSR were highly important for the USA. Condi believed that if a person becomes an expert in the field of US-Soviet relations, he or she would be able to approach the doors, to which others will never be able to make even a step forward. Her dreams came true.

At 26, Ms. Rice upheld her dissertation on relations between the USSR and Czechoslovakia and even wrote a book on the base of those materials. The book did not pass White House officials unnoticed. US officials paid attention to another book by Condoleezza Rice, which was devoted to the era of the first and the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev. There were two things, which startled the US officials: Condoleezza Rice, a black woman, became a member of the white Republican Party. Secondly, Ms. Rice could speak Russian very well. Other American Sovietologists knew only two most common words in Russian – spasibo and pozhalusta (thank you and please). Condoleezza Rice, however, would start her working day reading a fresh issue of the Pravda newspaper.

When the father of the incumbent US president introduced Ms. Rice to Mr. Gorbachev during his official visit in Washington in 1989, George Bush honestly confessed that everything that he knew about the USSR he learned from Condoleezza Rice.

Like the majority of US citizens and people of other nations, Condoleezza Rice treated Mikhail Gorbachev with great respect. However, she made the US administration pay attention to the destroyer of communism, Boris Yeltsin. Mr. Yeltsin was not her type of a national hero, but he became one of the world leaders, whom Ms. Rice met in the very beginning of her political career. Since that time Condoleezza Rice became a figure of constant presence among most influential men on earth.

When American journalists asked Condoleezza Rice to list all presidents, prime ministers, kings, sheikhs and princes that she has ever met, she fenced with a question and said that she would not like to be known for her friendship with the powers-that-be. It is noteworthy that no one has ever heard anything about Ms. Rice's friendship with women. However, everyone knows the names of her male friends with George W. Bush on top of the list, of course. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said once that he was unable to conduct negotiations about the regulation of the Middle East conflict in Ms. Rice's presence. The elderly Israeli premier gets confused when his eyes stop on Ms. Rice's slim legs!

Condoleezza Rice's influence on George W. Bush is still a mystery for many Americans. It may seem at first sight that a black woman from a family with limited means and a rich white man have nothing in common. When Ms. Rice was spending her days at school, George Bush was boozing in bars. Condoleezza Rice speaks five languages, whereas Mr. Bush's public statements won him the reputation of USA's political comic No.1.

Needless to say that the incumbent US president met Condoleezza Rice under the guidance of his father. George Bush believed that his son would become the world's most influential man and then convinced Ms. Rice of the same. Condoleezza Rice's goal was to make George Bush Jr. an expert in foreign politics. It was a hard task to do in spite of the fact that George W. Bush holds Yale and Harvard diplomas. They say that Rice made a list of world leaders for Bush to read every night before going to bed. When George W. Bush finally took office of the US President, he proudly told the nation that Condoleezza Rice was the only person, who could clearly explain issues of foreign politics to him.

She spends almost all her weekends with the Bush's family in Camp David. They watch football matches, play golf, do jogging and cook chicken. Bush never calls Ms. Rice by her full name. She in her turn never thinks twice when she needs to call the US president in the middle of the night to discuss issues of state importance. Ms. Rice's status of a single woman is her biggest problem for the time being. She has never been married, which is nonsense for the majority of American citizens, who firmly believe that a family is one of the basic signs of social well-being. Condoleezza Rice turns 51 this year, but it seems that she has absolutely no private life at all. Even meticulous reporters managed to trace only one boyfriend in Ms. Rice's biography: a very brief affair took place in 1970. Reportedly, Condoleezza Rice fell in love with a football player during her school years in Denver. Condi's choice totally complied with her own dogmas: the eight-year-old girl told her parents once that she would agree to marry only a football player.

Condoleezza Rice was a perfect candidate to enter the closed world of men. She successfully used her chance and became a full-fledged member of the club. No one makes any facetious remarks in her presence, but men fall silent when she expresses her opinion on this or that issue. Condoleezza Rice is reputed to have become one of the ideologists of the US-led war in Iraq, tense relations with Iran, North Korea and Libya. A US cartoonist once said that Condoleezza Rice needed to fall in love with somebody to learn how to treat the world nicely. All US media outlets refused to publish the cartoonist's work afterwards.

Condoleezza Rice is a very feminine woman in spite of the fact that many people call her “a man in a skirt.” Her assistants say that she always wants to look immaculate. She likes expensive designer clothes by Armani and Oscar de la Renta; there are legends going about her impressive collection of shoes. Everyone in the USA knows that Condoleezza Rice uses Yves Saint Laurent lipstick, likes high heels shoes and Led Zeppelin's music.

Ms. Rice posed for Vogue magazine during George W. Bush's latest election campaign and answered readers' questions for Glamour magazine. White House spokespeople explained that the sessions were meant to attract the votes of glamorous ladies, but Ms. Rice obviously had her own reasons to pose for Vogue. Being in her fifties, Condoleezza Rice can boast of her slim figure and almost the absolute absence of wrinkles.

A lot of observers say that Ms. Rice has a very good chance to amaze the whole world in 2008 and become the USA's first female president.

I will be so proud of you, Ms. Rice, upon your election. As it is, I already am. :)

Condoleezza Rice: Part II

20 things about Ms Rice, affectionately known as "Condi" (from the NY Daily News & Time Magazine):

1. She's a fitness buff who likes to unwind by working out to music by heavy-metal legends Led Zeppelin, according to People magazine. She wakes up at 5 a.m. and hits the treadmill right away.

2. She was a college graduate at 19, getting a degree from the University of Denver.

3. She once had a Chevron oil tanker named after her when she served on the company's board of directors. After concerns that her name made the ship a more inviting terror target, the tanker was renamed Altair Voyager.

4. She loves to shop. "On a Sunday, don't be surprised if you see me at one of the malls in Washington, D.C.," she once told Glamour magazine.

5. She has been telling friends she's tired of the rat race and will leave her job at the end of the year to return to academia.

6. She began playing piano at age 3. By 10, she began studying at Alabama Birmingham Conservatory.

7. While in high school, she was a competitive ice skater who rose at 4.30 a.m. to spend 2 hours at the rink before school & piano lesons.

8. She turns 51 this year.

9. She's the daughter of 2 Birmingham, Alabama, high school teachers.

10. A kindergarten classmate was among the 4 girls killed in the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church by white supremacists.

11. She was a Democrat until 1982.

12. She speaks Russian, French and Spanish.

13. She's a huge football fan and loves the Cleveland Browns. She's said her "dream job" would be NFL commissioner.

14. When she was 14, a guidance counselor told her that her standardized test scores showed she wasn't college material.

15. She's single and laments she has no private life. A sometimes escort at official functions, however, is former San Francisco 49ers star Gene Washington.

16. In 1993, at 38, she was named provost of Stanford University, the youngest person, first woman and first black to get the job.

17. In February 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters he was distracted the first time he met her. "I have to confess, it was hard for me to concentrate in the conversation with Condoleezza Rice because she has such nice legs."

18. She loves to serve up Southern cuisine and is a master at seafood gumbo and fried chicken.

19. She says she can fall asleep just about anywhere — even once in a helicopter flying over the Gaza Strip.

20. In 1993, after Rice left the White House, where she worked for the current President's father, to join the Stanford faculty, she told the San Francisco Chronicle the advice she'd give to President Bill Clinton about Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein: "He is an outlaw, but I would be careful about trying to do anything to act to overthrow him."

Condoleezza Rice

Ms. Condoleezza Rice, current U.S. Secretary of State and former National Security Adviser & Chief Foreign Policy Adviser.

A letter to Ms Condoleezza Rice:

Dear Ms Rice,

I open this letter with a heartfelt gratitude for your drive, determination & achievements in life which has so inspired me personally.

Your story of discipline & success instills a fighting adrenalin within me to achieve beyond myself as I see you have. Battling racial and gender discrimination, you have excelled and achieved where many have failed or dare not even try.

I wish to fight through my obstacles courses to find myself in a place of fulfilment for the hands and legs I put to the pursuit of my dreams.

I am writing with no other agendas, but only with the humblest view to acknowledge & thank you for faithfully displaying the very traits that you have been bestowed with.

May you venture forth to greater heights with confidence & triumph. As Alexander the Great rightly puts it, "Fortune favors the bold", may God bless & prosper your endeavors.

Determined to succeed,
A.T.

Below is a detailed biography of Dr. Condoleezza Rice, from the official web page of the US White House during her swearing in as the 66th Secretary of State on January 28, 2005. May you catch on the fervor towards this great lady as I do:

Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001.

In June 1999, she completed a six year tenure as Stanford University's Provost, during which she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer. As Provost she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students.

As professor of political science, Dr. Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors - the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching.

At Stanford, she was a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control from 1981-1986 (currently the Center for International Security And Cooperation), a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions.

From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender - Integrated Training in the Military.

She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.

Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C.

I Believe I Can

Vital excerpts from R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly:

I was on the verge of breaking down
Sometimes silence can seem so loud
There are miracles in life I must achieve
But first I know it starts inside of me

If I can see it

then I can do it

If I just believe it

there's nothing to it

I believe I can fly

I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar

I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly

I wake, live and sleep to a poster in my bedroom with this simple line:

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

I succumb not to defeat, simply because I'm reminded daily that a great pleasure in life is to do what others or myself say can't be done.

Break Of Dawn

Beauty is all around

If you take time to marvel...

The first 9 pictures were taken at the break of dawn from between 0650 to 0700 hours at where I live at BNV...

(1) Notice the slight pinkish hue and a solitary star left of the tree?

(2) & (3) Capturing the pinkish hue still

(4) Arising sun? Nope, that's just a fragment of the street lamp. :)

(5) Now that sure looks like the sun, doesn't it?

(6) The street lamp in full view

(7) Circle of Light

(8) Horror of horrors! The sun crashed into a HDB block at the break of dawn!

(9) Cosmic Shot? Far from it. Bottom left is just a street lamp disguising as the sun. The star at the top is real though

1030 hours Kranji MRT, S'pore










1915 hours Taman Pelangi, JB

Joseph - From Pit To Throne

Gen 37:1-2

V.1: "Now Jacob dwelled in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan."

V.2: "This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flocks with his brothers."

Note especially verse 2, "This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old..."

It's interesting to note how the Bible sets out to speak about Jacob, but immediately turned around and introduced Joseph, Jacob's son. And the remaining chapters of the book of Genesis henceforth from chapter 37 to 50 (except for chapter 38 where it talks about Judah & Tamar) detailed out Joseph's amazing lifestory.

The glory of Jacob's old age was his son Joseph. Dwelling in a foreign land where circumstances overwhelm the household of Jacob (as strangers in a foreign land under foreign government, system & culture, during a time of famine & lack), Jacob's son, Joseph, thrown into a pit of destruction (under the conspiracy of his jealous brothers), rose to a position of power & authority (in Pharaoh's court) to deliver his family from being ruled by circumstances (in Canaan) to ruling in triumph (in Egypt).

The hand of the Lord was with Joseph in all that he did because he walked his highs & lows with the Lord, never once turning resentful or spiteful for the injustice inflicted upon him.

Indeed, attitude determines destiny.

Not so amusing quotes

Growing up under my father's tutelage, he constantly tells me this, "One man's meat is another's poison."

Here's what I came across today from 2 popular sources - Forbes.com & Time Magazine:

"When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet." - Stanislaus Lec

"For me, ambition has become a dirty word. I prefer hunger." - Johnny Depp

"Ambition makes you look pretty ugly." - Radiohead


Now, those are their takes. Mine's contradictory. Already, I'm laughing myself silly at the first quote by Stanislaus Lec. I reserve my rights. I'm sure you do yours.

So, my dad's right. As he always is.

Imagine

Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities.



So I believe that dreams - daydreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing - are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to invent, and therefore to foster, civilization.

- L. Frank Baum

Beautiful Peeps

Beautiful Peeps (*People)

*Excuse me, are you a model?*
Babes awaiting audition... ;p

Celebrate Life

May you behold the beauty & innocence of a new born

And be enthralled by the wonder of this gift we call "life"



* Joshua, born 8 Jan 2006 to KY & AP

Drummer Review: Carter Beauford

Notice I'm onto a different flow here these days yeah? Yep, this is the 2nd drummer review in a row. More to come I suspect. ;p

My inspiration of the day: watching Carter Beauford do his stuff for the song Say Goodbye with Dave Matthews Band. Such fluidity & agility in his strokes, playing with both arms. A true ambidextrous!

Sadly I've not quite mastered the technicality of inserting a video on my blog, otherwise I'd gladly share that awe inspiring video of Carter Beauford with you. I'll not stay ignorant for long, I promise. The video and more will be up soon. Hang in there. Till then, groove on ya'll peeps. :)

P/S: A big warm thank you to JO for his love & effort in downloading some 90 over videos of drummers' specials for my learning & inspiration purpose. I thank God for causing our paths to cross. You play an important role in my musical pursuit which has otherwise stayed dormant for the past many months.
Yee-haa.. here I come a-blazin' with fresh fire for 'em grooves!

Drummer Review: Stewart Copeland

He is a drum prodigy. Started playing professionally a year after he picked up 'em sticks and thumping away for 8 hours and more each day in his home.



Shot to stardom playing for the band Police & the man Sting.

Impossibility is nothin', I tell ya.

Streets of JB

Random shots of JB - admittedly, justice undone. Promise to do better the next time round.

Railway station in the heart of JB

Dirty backstreets at noon

Swirling noon clouds above

Crash

From the movie "Crash":

when you're moving at the speed of life

we're bound to collide with each other

River Valley, SG

Great World City

A piece of the cottony evenin' sky

Rain

Looking outside a broken window into the rain

Above All, Let Your Love Shine

Made an astute observation today. My aunt was saying that her granddaughter, Summer, is the most brilliant one in her play school. The other kids, left by themselves, are self sufficient, but Summer, left by her own, cries for attention. This brilliant kid can't be left by her own.

Immediately a couple of names flash through my mind and got me thinking - names like Isaac Newton & Vincent Van Gogh.

This is my take:
Despite popular belief that geniuses and brilliant people are recluse and loners, I'd like to think that deep inside they are actually unsettled individuals seeking assurance and comfort, because their expression having been the tremendous talents shown forth and poured out, are really empty within longing for a fresh infilling of affection & assurance, in recognition of their output.

Yet the conforming nature within which desires to live up to the social expectation of brilliant ones being self sufficient and independent, they cry out not for that which they so long. The constant repression gradually forms within them a security found in seclusion.

This is deception, if I may so boldly state. That which has caused the sanity and lives of many a great man and woman. Isaac Newton struggled with long term depression to the day of his death. Vincent Van Gogh struggled to be accepted & loved, and paid for his pain with his life. Ingeniuty wrapped in torment & agony.

This is my take... what's yours?

My Delight

With meaning, many things are bearable. -Ravi Zacharias

With love, all things are possible. -A.T.

"Love never fails." 1 Cor 13:8

Modern Day Patriach Job

Possibly the modern day patriach Job's poem of lamentation:

Down at Your feet
This life is but temporary
Obstacle but a lesson
Pain but a learning
My joy in You
My reward in heaven
You have given
Even if You take
I will worship You

-A.T.

My Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

The greatest passion of my life is to _________ but I never quite achieved that.
I have not the discipline & concentration to practice & persevere through.
I am excitable but not sustainable.
You say the miracle is in the house.
Where is my miracle for _________ breakthrough?
My soul is starved.

I look fear in the eye and smash it into a thousand pieces with the Spirit of God.

1 Sam 3:10 "Now the Lord came and stood and called..."

Who God calls, He equips. Who He equips, He anoints to do the job. No matter what the level of my ability, God has equipped and anointed me with more potential than I can use.

And I shall go forth rejoicing, for my God reigns from Zion.

When Tears Fall

My heart is wrenched
My hand is empty
I come to You

When hope is lost
I'll call You Savior
When pain surrounds
I'll call You healer
When silence falls
You'll be the song within my heart
When tears fall
Still I will sing to You

When I run
Let it be into Your arms
When I hide
Let it be under Your wings
When I fall
Let it be deeper in love with You

Permas Jaya, JB

Overlooking S'pore from Permas Jaya, JB

Check out the dinner crowd @ 6pm

Best nasi lemak in JB @ Senibong, Permas Jaya

Side profile of Roy