Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Tagged

I was tagged by Nick Larkin of Mysterium Fidei. The rules are:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was in my final year of high school, the Penang Free School. Good times…. Good times…. Sigh… =)

Five things on my To Do List today:
1. Prepare music for choir practice this evening
2. Finish up some engineering experiments

3. Prepare for the upcoming confirmation camp this Saturday (!!) I’m supposed to facilitate
4. Buy food for Grandma
5. Talk to my brother

Things I would do if I were a billionaire**:

1. Give money to the Catholic Church in the form of direct sponsorship to parishes, religious orders, Christians in the Holy Land and various noble causes (such as undoing the renovation of Churches and getting real noble vestments and vessels for the worship of God), anonymously, of course. (I don’t believe in just giving money to the diocese but directly to specific causes and needs)
2. Do Church work full time. Teaching, missionary work, be a sacristan etc.
3. Give money to the poor. Again, directly, through handouts and setting up scholarship funds, anonymous donations to those in need, etc.
4. Give money to grandma, parents and ensure that all their needs are taken care of.
5. Go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to Rome (and Italy), Compostela (and Spain… way to go Reconquista!), Constantinople, Damascus, Alexandria and the Sinai.

**I plan to give it all away before I die and to make a difference, so if anyone has a spare billion lying around...

Three of my bad habits:
1. Laziness
2. Frankness
3. Over extend myself (this is particularly bad)






Five places I have lived:




1. Penang, Malaysia











2. Penang, Malaysia




3. Penang, Malaysia






4. Penang, Malaysia







5. Penang, Malaysia


Gandalf: The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass......And then you see it.
Pippin: What, Gandalf? See what?
Gandalf: White shores . . . and beyond. A far green country, under a swift sunrise.

That always reminds me of Penang.



Lived in the same house my whole life and thank God for it. I feel really blessed to be here in this beautiful place. As you can see from the photos above, Penang is really beautiful and, as a small island, it has everything you could possibly want, all within a short drive. Besides the beautiful beaches, Penang is a metropolis with skyscrapers and highrises but manages to retain her green lungs and rustic, heritage charms. Penang also has highlands where one can still escape the heat. Though it's a a huge high-tech manufacturing base (Intel, Dell, Motorola, Bosch, Agilent, Avago, AMD, Sony etc all have their bases and design centres here), a shopping paradise with malls galore, having her own international airport, port, bridges and ferry system, Penang still retans its the 'small town feel'. And the delicious food!!! Don't get me started on that.

Before I took this job, which required some travel recently, the amount of time I spent away from home and the nights I slept out of my bed could be tallied on my hands and toes. And I liked it that way. Add a couple of hands and you’d cover all my days away from home.

Five jobs I’ve had:
1. College tutor
2. Intern at an engineering company
3. Engineer.

Sorry, that’s about it.

If you include my unpaid jobs:

1. Parish Website designer and Webmaster
2. Youth Leader
3. Schola Director (current)
4. Camp and Retreat Facilitator
5. Confirmation year Catechism class teacher (current)

PS
Would like to add Superhero, but that would blow my cover. Shhh… don’t tell anyone.

People I tag.

Warinthepocket
MarkWilliam
Arch
MarkServiam
Byztex
Tigerishwaters

8 comments:

Archistrategos said...

Finished :)

BTW, I would also like to be a superhero. Only I would wear boxers, and not briefs, outside my tights hahaha

Rita said...

I've left you with an "award" of sorts over at my blog.

I can remember Penang before the Komtar tower, and before anything high rise on Gurney Drive. It is amazing how it still keeps its atmosphere.

Anonymous said...

Penang seems a very nice play to visit...

Byzantine, TX said...

Finished!

Whew... that's an involved one.

Kathleen Joaquin Burkhalter said...

Hi Andrew! Great blog! I am a Catholic mother of six. Grew up in the Philippines. One of my dear friends is in Malaysia. KL, I believe. Love your Catholic images.

Unknown said...

Dear Brother in Christ,
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, recently posted two videos on YouTube in which he describes and demonstrates the two most common abortion procedures, using plastic fetal models, the actual instruments of abortion, and the words found in medical textbooks and court testimony.

You can view these videos at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_y9GP_-DA (Dismemberment abortion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOAPleF1t0 (Suction abortion).

These videos are part of a new project called, "Is This What You Mean?" It aims to educate the public about the nature of abortion and to challenge public officials and candidates who support the legality of abortion to admit what it is. A full description of the project is at www.priestsforlife.org/action/abortion-procedure-revealed.htm.
Also watch the song “ Mama” on youtube which I wrote sang and composed. Below is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YdgAnArusk

Anonymous said...

Hey, Andrew,

What do you reckon is the chance we will ever get the "Extraordinary" Form of Mass (ie. 1962) Mass back in Malaysia again? Or, at least, the Novus Ordo in Latin? I'd travel hundreds of kilometres for the former and a long way for the latter? Why have Mass in four languages when we can have it in one beautiful and universal (in both time and place) language, which is the official language of the Church and equally accessible, even if equally difficult for all of us? After all, we all managed it prior to the 1970s! Even medieval peasants did!

Andrew said...

Dear Sabu,

Thank you. Fr. Pavone is a great and model priest.

Dear Kajang Parishioner

We can all pray and dream, but a dream it still is despite the Pope and Summorum Pontificum. I sometimes wonder whether the Church in Malaysia operates as the local fiefdoms of the local bishops and the parishes as the local fiefdoms of the little Napoleons whose words are law, the universal law of the Church not withstanding. Whither Archbishop Pennachio? I don't know. Seditious words? =)

But pray, and pray hard we can still do, despite all the frustrations. But there are also little victories, such as our local schola, the black cassocks, etc. If God wills it, it shall be done, sooner or later, despite all efforts to thwart us. I just hope that chooses to will it in my lifetime LOL!