JonesLiew.com

WHAT A WOW DAY!!! Yesterday on the 25th October 2008 was LP77’s WOW Day, and it was a big WOW WOW WOW Man!!

We were at Singapore Flyer and beside having a chance to ride the flyer, there were, Live-performance by acrobats, Magicians, young inspiring dancers, lots of games station with a big bouncy blow-up castle, and there were booths that consist of face-painting, balloon scruplture and soft toys for sale in contribution to charity and they were mascots and cartoon character in costumes!!( Yeah , was Barney the Purple Dinosaur, wahahahaha but the mascot is more in the color of pink man) to top it off, they have laser show and fireworks too!!! WOW WOW WOW!!

Oh, before I go on… A WOW Day, is a community service work/event organised by a group of volunteers that are from different woks of life coming together to create difference to other people. This is the 77th time is happening… I did mine too, I was in the 74th batch hahaha…. Anyway, yesterday, was LP77’s turn, titled Small World, Big Hearts. It was a huge event where they managed to at a least 200 volunteers spending a Saturday evening to make a difference to over 550 other people who were the beneficiary for the event. Heard that the beneficiaries came from different organisation that have terminally ill children who are either mentally or physically  challenges, I’m glad that I have the opportunities again to make a difference to them and their family’s life.

My groups of friends and I did our parts too, we were the Mascots team!!! hahaa We had a few characters starting from Elf, Snow White (which is not that white, oops), Batman, SuperGirl to Little Duckling, gingerbread man, honeybee and not forgetting BARNEY(that’s me, a pirated version, is in pink lah the costume,hahaha)

It was my first time wearing a mascots costume, and I tell you is not a joking matter man!!!, Not only the mascots were heavy, it was extremely hot inside!!! And when I’m inside my whole range of vision was limited to one fine line opening… in another word, I can’t see at all!!! But it was really fun… event though I can see where I was going, I had a team to take care of me and as well as the kids who are approaching me for a hug or a photo taking session.

It was really fun and nice when I see the kids swarm towards me and give me a hug,(I know they are hugging Barney and not me), and seeing their smile through my tiny opening was really priceless.

Even-though, I was “raining” inside with my own perspiration, and on the verge of getting de-hydrated and heat-stroke(dun worry, I countered it by drinking tons of water man, not sure how many bottles of Newater did I drink), I felt that all the effort was worth it. Nothing is more beautiful and heart-warming when you are able to put a beautiful smile on another person’s face. 

Regardless, who is the person, be it a stranger or your loved ones, make them smile and guess what, you will realise that you will be smiling too.

Below are some photos, and I hoped it will bring a smile to you too! SMILE!!

Wow…. In a week, I had completed two training program with two groups of Normal Technical Stream Students from different school, normally known as the the N.T. Students, or put it blatantly they are the 3rd tier of our Singapore Secondary Education.

They are also commonly labelled as the “cannot make it” or “the notorious one”. And as usual, before the training starts, some of the school staffs will definitely approach us and warn us about the students’ behavoiur and want us to be strict and firm with them, telling us don’t need to give them too many information or learning nor go too deep with them, as half the time they will never understand….

Man, do you know that almost every time I will be super turn-off by their comment. In my head. I was like… “Hey, aren’t you guys suppose to work with them and guide them to where they should be and not like now spending energy on complaining about them and putting them down?” Really, Sometime I just don’t get and it doesn’t surprised me why the students are not responding to some of them.

Just ask yourself, will you still be in good terms and will like to talk to people who also tell you that you are not good enough or you are just useless and nothing can save you…. This is crazy man…

Anyway, all I know is I will just do my part to connect with them and see how much I can be-friend with them and see how I can assist them to get whatever they want. Heard me LOUD and CLEAR, is Assist and not Help, they don’t need help at all. From what I see they just need someone to trust them understand them and believe in them. So all I wanted to do is to really connect with them and you bet, connected, we did.

We had an activity that will help us zoom into what are the things we want it can be short, middle or long term, and in the training we had the activities with the N.T. Students. And the Results, I get?? Is Inspiring man!!

I have a girl, that want to take over her parents biz so that they can retired, 2 boys that want to go into aerospace industry, 1 girl and 1 boy wants to be an accountant, 1 girl want to be head-nurse, 3 boys to do automobile engineering, another one want to be a chef, 1 girl want to work in the hospitality line, and many others wanting to do different things like 1 girl just want to be promoted to NA and then Express. OH, in case you forget, there are still our N.T. Students.

Now, I just want you, the readers, to be aware, what was your first thought that came to mind when I shared their dreams and ambition with you?

Was it “Okay, they are dreaming too big, Dun think they can make it” or was it ” Cool Stuff, I hope they will achieve what they want” Well, no right or wrong, is just a thought.

For me, upon hearing all that, “WOW’ was the word that came to my mind. It is like, this guys has big dreams man, and the next question that come to my mind was. “OK, Now I know that, how can i assist them to get what they one.” So as a facilitator, where I suppose to facilitate learning and at he same time, I don’t want to give a false hope, I decided to bring them back down on earth and give them their reality check. I told them that “Look people, great that you guys know what you want now, But do you know how to get to what you want?” 

Silence, was the next thing I heard from them, and that Silence let me realised that, “Hey, this bunch are actually quite lost, they knew what they want but they are unclear or unsure how to get there.” and thats whats was worrying me, hence I continued, “Study dude, Study, I know you don’t like to study but hey, this is Singapore, You need to get that piece of paper to start with man. Regardless of where you want to do in the future, be it Nursing, now you are in N.T. make sure you go ITE then go on to Nanyang Poly and get a Diploma in Nursing. Same thing for you, young man, Aerospace right? Make sure you go into ITE, then aim for either Singapore, Nanyang or Ngee Ann Poly and get a Diploma in Aerospace. Young lady, you too, Hospitality, Right? Heard of Shactec? No, go find out, if not, make sure you can go to poly too, Temasek poly and Ngee Ann Poly has Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism. Guys, If you are not aware of this possiblity, I can tell you, you can kiss your dreams and ambitions, GoodBye!” ”So people,  Studying is not only about making other people like your teacher, your parents happy, it is more of making yourself happy!! Studying is one of the fastest way to get what you want in life and to be who you want to be. Treasure the opportunities and work hard guys, and soon you will be living your dreams and ambitious. If you really want it, we are here to support you”  

Yup, that’s what I told them, well I don;t know whether it will give them some lights but based on what I saw on their face, I’m sure some thoughts are going through their minds and I’m happy to see the “deep-thinking process” mood on their faces.

Ha so Dreams and Ambitions huh?, what was yours back in Secondary School? Are you living it now? or do you have one in first place? I didn’t, but is okay, the more important is I have it now and the good news is i’m living it and building on it as well. Are you?

WTH!!! Last night, while my mum was cooking dinner,  the glass cover for my house gas stove exploded!!(Refer to pictures below)  . Luckily, My Mum was not hurt in the process, but she got a fright though. Took her to the living room and asked her to calm down first while I cleaned up the mess.

Gesh, we had been using the stove for almost 20 years and yesterday night was the first time that this happened…. oh well it had to be the first time right haha if not I will be talking about it many years back already,, anyway…. thank god, the material used was fibre-glass, hence when the accident happened the glass did not flew straight up, if not my mum could be badly injured. However it still created a big mess.

Ha you know what, the best part, my mum, A Mother being a Mother, instead of worrying about herself, she was worrying about the wok of fried noodle that she was cooking, and she say in madarin’ “怎么办? 面里都是玻璃，你饿吗? 饿了就去买东西吃先，我来收拾..”

Man…..Don’t believe it, she say that just after a few moments after the accident. She was more concerned about my hunger than herself…..And at that very moment, and once again in so many time in the past, I could feel my mum’s care and love for me.

Again, I can see and feel why that the greatest LOVE in the world is still a mum’s love for her children. 

Of course upon hearing her asking me to go and buy dinner for myself first, I replied, “不用紧，我来收,收好了才一起吃…”

And yup, after cleaning, off to the dinner we did. Ha well, guess it is always better to have a happy ending regardless of the situation, right?

Hmmm oh oh, only 5 posts and I have had broken my commitment that I had made in my first post. Thanks to my friend, Siew Cheng’s reminder, I realised that I had totally forget about my 2 post per week commitment to this website.

So when I went to review what I wrote on my first post and I found out that, in deed I really did mentioned that I will post at least 2 post per week… and based on results.. I failed!! I didn’t post at least 2 post per week… I’m one posting short!!!

Gesh, I’m not going to make any excuse for it. All i know is I didn’t keep my words to it. Then again, I will also not going to beat myself hard for it….as I’m clear that I really didn’t meant to break it and the 2 posts per week really just skipped off my mind. In fact, this episode actually let me learn and see how fragile an agreement or a commitment can be…..Well… it really just shows that how commitment and agreement can be broken so easily. 

Really and I swear I’m really committed to writing in this post and I really totally forget about the “at least 2 post per week” thingy.

Granted I was busy with work for the past weeks, granted I was tired but that make no excuses for not writing the 2 posts. A commitment is a commitment.

I’m a bit disappointed with myself but at the same time I’m glad that this “forget to write a 2 posts” thingy actually make me learn something too. 

For one is that, once you put your mind and energy away from a commitment that was made, the next thing you know is that you will break your commitment. It is just so easy.

Secondly, it make me realises the importance of being focus and discipline, as once you are not focus and discipline enough to do the things you plan to do, other issues and stuffs will just start creep in and take up your time. Again it is just so easy for all this to happen.

ha.. so were there times like this for you too?, like when you promise or make a commitment to do something but end up you spend your time on other things and in the end nothing was done??

Does it sounds familiar to you. If it is a yes, then maybe, at that point of time, you are not just as focus or discipline as you should be.

Of course, when it comes to breaking a commitment, there can be many other factors too. But as for now at this instance, what is real for me is, the lack of focus, discipline and the easily distracted mind and energy can really take you further away from the things and goals that you are commitment to.

So people, it is time to take note and be aware of that man!!!

Yeah Yeah!, I bought a new shoe for myself recently. It’s a Salomon’s Latest Model called the “XT Wings”, whose retail price is at S$229.00. And Guess what? I bought it at S$190.30 and it still comes with an entry to the Salomon’s inaugural X-trail 10km, plus the goodies bags with includes a Salomon Running Tee-shirt and a Salomon’s shoe bag.

Not too bad a package right!! hahaha.

Need to thank the World of Sports(WOS) Sale Assistant and of course my own observation, if not, I will never get to chance upon such a good deal(actually to me, to me it is more of a marketing blunder that I spotted ha).

What happened was, my adventure shoe that I used for work, give way last weekend when I was helping with my friend, Joanne’s adventure race event called, ACE Adventure Challenge V. and that the reason why, I need to get a new pair of shoe, if not I got no footwear to wear to work.

Anyway, as I was shopping around on Monday(13th October 08), I decided to settle on the Salomon brand since I never own a pair of Salomon before. So I ended up at WOS as they are the only sports shop in major shopping mall that carry the brand nowadays.

After going through a few models, I decided to go for the “XT Wings” even thought it is the most expensive at S$229. I’m quite a sucker for shoe, I will buy the shoe as long I like the design and i feel is worth it.  Plus Thinking that my Sister is a WOS Member, I thought I could ride on it to get a 15% discount for my new purchase and hence I decided to buy the shoe. so lets do some math calculation here.

As a WOS member the shoe will cost S$194.60 and I was ready to pay for it until the sales assistant told me that my sister’s card has expired!!! and if i still want the shoe I have to pay the full retail price at S$229.At that point I was like “What? if it is S$229, I don’t think I want to buy the shoe.”

So as I was deciding whether should i continue to make the purchase, the Sale Assistant suggest that why not called any of my friends who is a WOS member and he will still give me the member discount.  I was like “OK, if you don’t mind waiting I will call a few friends to see who is a member.” So as I was walking around the shop making some calls, I saw the Salomon X Trail Run Poster and on that poster I saw the following print”

It says” sign up now to get a limited Salomon Racing tee, A Salomon shoe and a 30% off any Salomon regular priced product.” and immediately in my mind, I was like” Wait a min, if i sign up for the race and i use the 30% the shoe that I want to buy will only cost me $160.30 (30% discount on S$229). plus the registrationfee of $30, I still get the limited Salomon Racing tee and a shoe bag. Doesn’t that make it more worth it?”

SO with the that though in mind I went up to the Sale Assistant and told me about what I had found out on the poster. Together with him and a calculator, we calculated out the following solution.

Solution A) Buy the shoe with WOS member discount will cost me S$194.60 and I will only get the shoe only

Solution B) By signing up for the race at $30, I will get a Salomon tee and a Shoe bag plus a 30% discount for a new Salomon purchase and that mean the shoe i want to buy will cost me $160.30 only. So plus the registration fee. At S$190.30, I not only get the shoe, but also an entry to the race, a race tee and a shoe bag, plus I save S$4.00 more!!

So need I say more??? Of Course, I went for the solution B and I went home a happy man on Monday hahaha!!!

Oh boy, it’s been such a long and busy week for me ha!, not that I’m complaining, in fact I’m enjoying every single minute of it. It has been 13 days since my last post, and I almost failed to keep to the promise and my commitment to my 1 post per week.   So here it is… ha

For the first time in my short 5 months plus working  at The  Absorbent Mind, I get to train and facilitate 5 days straight and with 4 different groups of audience! It all started from Tuesday and below are the list of program I’m involved.

• Tuesday (14^thOctober 2008) I was leading a training program at Ang Mo Kio Secondary School,  Using movie clips to train the Normal Technical (N.T.) student on a few values that I hope will serves them in their life.
• Wednesday(15^th October 08) was a ice-breaking session with Shines’ new batch of “O”-levels student with students coming from all parts of the world from nearby Thailand to China, to Uzbekistan and  even Russia. It great to see different nationality coming together and have lots of fun. It was great working with them.
• Thursday (16^thOctober 08) I was with a corporate company, a car-grooming company, it was a team bonding session at the Safra-Yacht Club at Changi, have a challenging time there as I was alone dealing with 35 adults that don’t really know each other, and my job was to break their ice and have them talk and mingle with each other. I believed I did a good job as when the session end, I saw lots of happy and smiling faces and I received lots of thank you from the participants. I so glad that I had been able to make their day happy.
• Friday and Saturday (17^th &18^thOctober) were fun too plus it is also a great learning session. It was a 1½ day team building training with a chemical company. The participants went through a series of activities including the intermediate rope elements. Again, taking a group of 15 adults that are holding management post and are older than me, presented me  a certain level of challenge.  Despite that, as the sessions went on, I was able to get their respect and trust and it turns out to be one of my best facilitation session. In fact, one of them, a foreigner gave me a pat on the shoulder and say thank you and say that I have let him learn something valuable from this 1 ½ day training. I tell you… that’s was such a morale boosting for me.

So what the point typing all these on the net and frankly it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone. But for me, it does and there are certain learning points for me to take note.

Taking today to rest and reflect back on the week, makes me realised, that indeed, I do love my job. And I do enjoy working with youth and adults more than anything. The feeling of able to be part of another person life, able to put some laughter  and see people getting bonding more than before, puts a smile on my face.  It makes my world feel peaceful and full of hope.

 The world should be like that, where everyone should be happy and everyone will give a damn to another human being.  That’s really one of my dreams to see that happen, but you know what a lot of people tell me??

 They say don’t be stupid and I’m dreaming. No one really have time and care for another person. They will only care for themselves and their own family, other than that who cares!

Well for me, I just beg to differ. That’s because I’m not like other people, I’m Jones, I believed that the world can be full of love, care and hope for anyone and everyone. Just Image what the world will be if that is the real reality and the real world we all live in. Don’t you want to live in that kind of world? J

Yeah!!, Finally!! ha I have started to repay the money that I owed…. ha.. It a moment worth celebrating.

My Journey of studying and running my own biz, in the last few years had left with a loan debt of approx. 10 Grands and left me quite penniless for some time.

Well, Maybe to somebody, 10,000 dollars is not a lot but it is not a small sum either. Given my current income, It might take a while to clear it totally, but I glad I have started clearing it in this month.

Like I had mentioned in my previous post, the topic for the is month about Commitment and Discipline. Beside committing to write on this blog. There are many tiny things that I’m committed to get it done..

Clearing my loan debt is definetly one of the bigger commitment i gave myself. A minimum of $500 dollars from my monthly income must be used to clear the loan debt. and thats the commitment I have made.

And to help me to keep track of the balance. I have also done up a spread sheet. Ha, I know It might not sound like a big deal, but for a man like me who is not that organise and discipline, it is already a big step for me.

So, yup a minimum of $500 a month is put to clear the loan debt, starting from this month. and I have also set a time frame that I will clear it in 12 months time and by 1st October 2009, I will be celebrating together with all the children in Singapore, as they will be celebrating Childrens Day, while I will be celebrating my debt-free day!!!! Anyone care to celebrate the day with me??

(Total Amount left to clear: S$9114)

Get Real!!  is the message that I have for myself today.

Life is a roller coaster ride, there are high point and low points. It has its bright and dark side.

Right now, I don’t think any one’s life is just filled with all the high points and nothing else, nor I believed any one’s life is just filled with just all the low points and nothing else.

One’s life definetly has its bright and its dark side. and hence the reason why I choose this theme that able to contrast the feeling and the thoughts I have for my life, my thoughts and my experience for the world.

Be it Bright or Dark, Good or Bad, High or Low, Warm or Cold, Right or Wrong, Pleasure and Pian, Life should go through it all, the most important is that We, humans, can feel and must learn from all the experience.

If you never been experienced what Warmth is? How can you ever understand how warm feels like? Same thing if you never experienced what pain is, how can you explain pain?

The key here is it is only when you been through both extreme then you can totally understand whats the difference in life.

To me, to be happy and sad is a choice and it is only a fine line that separatehappy and sad just like this wordpress theme design that I chose and the fine line theory applies to many other things too.

 Life is a learning journey, the more experiences you been through, the more learning you gather and you grow. And when you grow you have more power to make choices. So learn now and choose now; do you want to be on the bright side or the dark side; choose now; is it to be happy or sad? The choice is yours.

I’m having a fever a running nose and a cough while I typing this post. but you know what.. I choose to be Happy and Motivated to share this thoughts with you.

This is really going to be a joke to many. I had mentioned to others that I will start writing my blog and make full use of my www.jonesliew.com since August 2008 and till now.. my blog is still so empty.

Infact, I had have my name to this site for the past 2 years and yet nothing much is done.

I have been giving excuses that,” I don’t know how to start”, “don’t know what to write”, or “I still can’t find the correct theme that I want”…. man.. I really feel ashamed of myself. To think that I actualy encouaged my friend to write his own blog in past and now, he already had 15 posts!! and I have none!! Ergh!!

Talk about inspiring others but yet struggling by myself. This is all Bullshit man, Bullshit!

“Enough is Enough! Jones!” Time to walk the talk and and it will starts from today.

Once again, it might sounds “NATO” —-> (No Action, Talk Only)from me, but frankly I really dun care now. I’m not going to care what people going to say, all I know now that the state I’m in now is not what I want.. and I want to change it…..

To be honest, I know the answer or how to change my mental state, I know alot, is just that I afraid to commit to it or I just refuse to do something, dun ask me why? but for now.. the only thing I know is I don’t like it at all… and for sure that there are certain values of excellence is definetly not in me and I want to change that.

Two of the many values in achieveing excellence that I am strongly weak in is ” DISCIPLINE and COMMITMENT”.

Take my blog for an example, 2 years on, nothing, nothing is done.

Reasons?? I don’t have the discipline to blog and i don’t have the commitment to blog, is as simple as that.

And, where else, does the lack of commitment and discipline show up in my life??? The Answer?? Everywhere!!

Is time to take my life serious… the past few weeks, i have been talking to too many people… the message they send me is that “I have all the potential to be great but what the F@#K am I waiting for?”  

Enough already, really but I not going to rush things… for Now, I will work on the values on “Commitment and Discipline”

This first Commitment and Discipline I going make?? You guess it, it will be my commitment and discipline to blog on this website. I will commit to at least 2 posts per week and I will have the discipline to do so.

I remember my friend, Dennet, says this to me ” DISCIPLINE equals FREEDOM”.  and today I feel free once again!!