the end is near! that is, 2004.
i haven’t yet sent out my christmas cards, and i am battling with my procrastination streak. the days feel rushed, almost choking. i can’t wait for 2005. it is important for me to spend time thinking about what just happened. if i don’t get my hour’s worth of wall-staring daydreaming, i might as well be a robot.
this year has been a year of waiting. i proposed to lee lian on the 13th of february, which is friday the 13th to some of you. actually i proposed to her much earlier, but i made a public proposal with my cell group and i wanted to bless her at the same time. i wanted us to remember that moment. i’m glad it was joyfully celebrated and well-received. i’m glad i did it with these bunch of folk, whom i have gotten to know much better over the last few years. it is very different for me, being in a church family… it’s something i treasure and don’t take for granted. they are a great blessing, in small unspoken ways.
every relationship has its stages, and lee lian and i have had a 7-year history of courting. we’ve reached the point where we needed to move up to a higher level of commitment. i’m glad that things worked out between her family and mine, and that we seem set on being married. i’m thankful for ps. koon hee who guided us through the counselling sessions, which taught us a lot. struggling with ourselves and with each other, we know that marraige isn’t always going to be a straight road. but we’re sure it isn’t just for the both of us. our plans and hopes rest in the God who is making us and leading us.
i’m thankful that i was placed in a project which sent me to bangkok in june. it was a good change of pace, and i got to see a lot of the new stuff i was working with go live on a large scale. in some ways, i’ve been given many degrees of freedom. and it was challenging to start from a blank sheet of paper and go all the way to a full-blown system… but i think it wouldn’t have been better other ways, considering that i work mostly alone on my module. i have my boss and supervisor and teammates to thank, all of which i’ve grown to have a really great working relationship with. thus, my working environment has improved since the last year, where things were in transition and the work was arduous and seemed insignificant.
while most comfort comes from human relationships, inanimate items do help some. my car, now 2 years old, continues to serve me well. i just dig the leather seats that come with it and ICE i purchased last year. somewhere around mid-year, i bought a sony TJ-37, and that has been useful and entertaining. nevermind that i sometimes wonder if i spend too much time on something that is supposed to help me save time and add convenience to my life… this gadget really puts in the ‘personal’ into PDA.
with whatever time i had left, whenever i wasn’t with lee lian or at home on the computer, i spent with friends. even though we talk meaningless gibberish most of the time, whether it is about cars or work or about how bad malaysian idol is, it had the equivalent of group therapy to some level. each of us bore silent burdens of different kinds, and we get to kind of let loose a little and give grace to one another. thanks, guys.
i’m looking forward to next year because there’s a lot of stuff waiting there. the wedding will be just crazy. we’ll finally move into our own apartment, that is just mind blowing. i can just go nuts on the different ways i can furnish and decorate the place. and i’ll finally have a reason to get a 12V wireless drill. hopefully, work will be better too. i’ve got a lot of plans lined up for some heavy duty software churning systems and processes. first i’ll need to speak to my boss… after all, it was him who gave me the freedom to improve on software development in java. and hopefully i would have also finished half life 2, nfsu2, nolf2 and achieved some degree of wealth and prosperity in sims2, simcity4 and pirates!. onward, ho!