culture, faith, in Christ, life, love, of God, relationship

A Match Made in Heaven

chicpencil

Finding ‘The One’ wasn’t a smooth sailing journey.

It took a while before we found each other.

I wrote about him last April 2012. It was my last post and went silence in my blog.

A lot of things had happened. We got engaged.

We decided to tie-the-knot on September 1, 2012.

Yes, the very day of my birthday and so does my dad who passed away 19 years ago.

Wedding Day…
My mother’s kiss on my wedding day…

Now, I’m married to my hubby Gnex Ganesan and will be celebrating our first Christmas few days from now.

From hotel to our church…
Wedding ceremony…
Wedding ceremony…

God does has His way of making us meet. We meet in an unexpected place. While I wasn’t searching, I didn’t close any doors in finding that someone.. that someone I’m going to spend the rest of my life with…

And so he came… All the while searching for me… And he didn’t even knew it, until we met and became exclusive.

My husband.. Gnex Ganesan…

Our officiating pastor.. Reverend Simon Ang..

Oftentimes we busy ourselves as an escape of the fear to be with someone. After all the pains, the issues of trust, we decided to just be with ourselves and give up in finding ‘the one’.

Love…

But what if… what if… God is giving you ‘the one’… but you were looking somewhere else… or you were too busy you didn’t realise?

Reflections…
Us…

I hope you will find that someone for you… Someone who will be with you when you wake each morning.. Someone you will argue with the TV remote control… Someone you will kiss when your glad.. Someone who you will make up and make out with after arguments… That someone who will hold your hand until your hair turns grey, the teeth will loose, the blurry sight.. and until you close your eyes and joint your Creator…

My niece and my mother on our wedding day…
Our wedding guest speaker… Reverend Sam Kuna…
We held our wedding in Teen Challenge Singapore…
My mum-in-law.. Ma Maliga..
Mother and daughter..
Our witnesses…
Our family.. our friends.. our pride..
Our cake and cupcakes.. by Sweettooth cake delights..

Time to say goodbye.. Goodbye to singlehood.. Goodbye to the endless and tiring search..

And it’s welcome… to the married life.. to companionship.. to family.. and to eternity..

Til next time..Au revoir..

Credits:

All photo credits goes to Samuel Kwok of Agape Photography

christianity, culture, faith, life, love, relationship

Of Faith. Of Hope. Of Love.

chicpencil

I started drafting this article last February 14, 2012. I’d like to talk love as suits the occasion of Valentine’s day. I’m always mesmerized of my parents love story. So my Valentine’s day is always dedicated to my parents. Second to the fact that it also falls on my mother’s natal day.

February 14th is a scheduled date with Gnex. Sadly, he fell sick. We barely knew each other that time. However, there is an attraction and chemistry. That we can’t deny.

I tried to finish the article.. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to. Like any artist, I wasn’t inspired. I didn’t have my muse.

Life went on as usual. I was succumb to the mundane of life and busy schedule. Gladly, Gnex stayed. We started to get to know each other better. And we didn’t stop. We decided to have faith. We decided to place God in the midst.

Love as they say is as perennial as the grass. That’s according to my favorite Poem – Desiderata.

Love grows in unexpected places…

love is always a surprise….

its a treasure to be found..

it’s a gift to embrace…

~ Chic Pencil

I held on to my faith. I held on to God I know. I followed where I was leading to.

Gnex surprised me. He did surprise me a lot. It started as a friendship, getting to know each other, dates,  and it grew… We followed where God is bracing us to… We never questioned, we were always grateful and appreciative.

As we walk on to the next road of our relationship, we have our hands clasps together. There will always be winds that will try to change the course. However, we have God that will calm the sea during its storm.

And finally, I can finish this article. With tears of joy in my eyes, I can publish it and share it with family and friends.

It all started with FAITH by placing God in the midst.. Relying to God’s hands and believing His will.

It’s followed with HOPE. And to never giving up.

And it ended up with LOVE…

Of faith. Of hope. and Of Love.

Love is patient love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 corinthians 13:4-7

And lastly… to the love of my life…

I love you Gnex…

A Blessed Lenten season to my fellow Catholics and Christians in faith…

Til next time. Au revoir.

christianity, faith, life, relationship, singapore, society

A Visit to Teen Challenge Singapore

chicpencil

Singapore has been known as the fast-moving cosmopolitan in South East Asia. High rise buildings, non-stop trains and buses, and people hurrying up to report to work in the mornings are but the usual scene.

Aside from Singapore’s reputation for being the cleanest city, the country is also famous for security where crime rates are very minimal.

It is not surprising to see Singapore in the 2nd Rank of Global Competitiveness Report from World Economic Forum. From the last year’s 3rd place, the country has overtook Sweden. Though there are a lot of criteria for the said competitiveness rankings; as a resident in Singapore, what’s visible in the naked eye is the country’s initiatives in making Singapore an attractive habitat for the best talents.

Within the buzzing city of Singapore, is the habitat for the different cluster of citizen. The said cluster are those who need understanding, those who need another hand to continue living, those who were hurt like us, and those who need forgiveness from us.

With a very hectic schedule, I was invited by Gnex to come and visit the church service in Teen Challenge Singapore. It was the very nourishment I need with all the concurrent happenings in my life.

Nothing’s more important than hearing God’s words.

So I agreed and went to visit Teen Challenge. It is located outside the central business district – in Boon Lay district.

Teen Challenge Dare Center is a drug and rehabilitation facility. The mission of the organization is to transform the lives of individuals having been addicted to substance or alcohol and restore them back to being the law-abiding citizen and continue living to Singapore society.

It was quite a distant from the city but it was worth the travel. When I reached the place, the folks (residents, staff, and management) are still playing football in the field. While waiting for Gnex, I decided to take a little tour of the area.

The said facility is a calm and quiet place which gives the individual the opportunity to reflect just about anything. Once a primary school, the facility has been transformed to cater the needs of residents who need the nourishment for the soul.

Front office and waiting area.

Residents of Teen Challenge whether walk ins and those mandatory would undergo a program designed by the organization.

I must say I’m impressed with the facility of Teen Challenge. Staff are warm and friendly. With a smile in the face, I met Mr. Dave Chai, the center director of Teen Challenge.

A snapshot of the center’s programs and activities.

Finally, the church service began. Interestingly enough, the church is located inside the center’s facility.

Prepping for the service.

I was fortunate enough to hear Reverend Jim from Teen Challenge’s headquarter who delivered the service that night.

 Singing praises through the worship songs.

 

Worship songs in Mandarin.

The church service was insightful and reflective. It was a very good experience.

It is often that we get swayed by the mundane aspects of life. To gain a different perspectives of life we have to look at our brothers and sisters who need our understanding and support.

Like any ordinary being, the residents of Teen Challenge have undergone hurt and betrayal too. However it is not our position to judge but rather understand  them by giving them second chances.

All comes from Him and all is through HIM…

 For more information about Teen Challenge, please visit their website:

http://www.teenchallenge.org.sg/

Til next time. Au revoir.

culture, life, relationship

Blessed Sunday

chicpencil

Sunday has always been known as the Sabbath day – a day of rest. Though different regions have different day of rest, at least one day of the week is dedicated for the soul. A day of faith and spirituality. A day dedicated for our Creator.

No matter how busy we are in our daily schedule, the Sabbath day should be observed.

Have a blessed Sabbath day everyone.

Til next time. Au revoir.

Uncategorized

I love you mum: Ramon & Jovita (Reblogged)

chicpencil

Valentine’s Day is all about my parents love story.
A very happy birthday to my mother – Jovita Ipanag… I love you mum.. Always..

chicpencil's avatarlife's but a journey

World War II started in 1939 and ended up on 1945. During the war emotions are at the weakest while everyone is struggling for survival.

The Philippines have undergone few colonizations and liberalizations:

  • Spanish regime (1521 – 1898)
  • American period (1898 – 1946)
  • Japanese occupation (1942 – 1946)

Ramon and Jovita met during their teenage years within the circa of World War II. In their hometown whilst the country is under the Japanese occupation and war, they fell in love.

Jovita is arranged by her parents to a man who is capable of raising family. She was only in her teens. Ramon’s family is not well to do but he is determined to accomplish for a better life. However, during the war, the primal duty is to survive and bring the family to safety. They were not able to complete their education. Ramon finished primary school that is until 6th…

View original post 574 more words

culture, food, singapore

Food Blog Singapore: Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice (Mei Chin Road)

chicpencil

Chicken rice is one of the all time favorite dish in Singapore.

During my first visit to Singapore while implementing an IT project last 2004, my Singapore counterparts have introduced me to this dish. Later on I see myself getting hooked on eating chicken rice.

Chicken rice preparation involves boiling the entire chicken from the chicken and bone stock. The rice is cooked from the chicken stock as well. However, the chicken stock used for the rice cooking is different from the former chicken stock. The stock used for rice cooking involves production of oily chicken stock to make the rice rich in flavor.

There are a lot of known best chicken rice shops in Singapore. One of them is the Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice which I came to know due to my colleagues – Jeffrey & Chee Yong. Previously, this chicken rice shop is located in Margaret Drive. The shop has then relocated and is now posted in Mei Ling Market and Food Centre in Mei Chin Road.

Coming from Queensway Road, Mei Chin Road is before reaching Alexandra Road.

At the Alexandra junction is IKEA. If you see Ikea, and you’re coming from Queensway, it simply means you missed Mei Chin Road. Lol.

This is Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice shop at Mei Ling Market and Food Centre.

This is Sin Kee’s Chicken Rice. As of this writing, the solo chicken rice cost SGD 3.00. White chicken rice is offered by Sin Kee. I believe they do not serve other than which chicken rice.

One of the good combination of chicken rice is the hawker center’s home-made Ice Lemon Tea.

Sin Kee Famous chicken rice also serves porridge. I haven’t tried the porridge offering; probably one of the upcoming days I can taste the famous porridge.

Til next time. Au revoir.

culture, food, life, singapore

Dragon Year 2012 Lo Hei

chicpencil

Working in Singapore exposes a foreigner for variety of cultures. As we all know, Singapore comprises of three races: Chinese, Malay, and Indian. With these three races in harmony, the propensity of racial and culinary fusion is inevitable.

Each year, mostly in the earlier part, Singaporean celebrates the Chinese Lunar New Year. Each year corresponds to a Chinese animal zodiac which symbolizes the Chinese Lunar calendar culminating a 12 – year cycle. The 12-year period belongs to the 12 different animals (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, & Pig) . Chinese culture believes that people belonging to each animals exhibits the same pattern or set of behaviours. The animals would symbolize the compatibility and which animal would show a sign of good luck for the current year.

The Chinese lunar new year celebration would last for 15 days beginning from the start of the new year. It is during this time when the Chinese would commence the family visits, gatherings, dinners, and the like. Hong baos or red pockets given by the married Chinese are of abundance at this time of the year. Businesses will definitely celebrate the good will and the good start of the Chinese lunar new year.

Lo Hei or Prosperity Toss is prominent this time of the year.

This year is the Year of the Dragon – 2012.

For the last couple of years, I had the chance to experience the Lo Hei celebration – Malaysia and Singapore combined. It is a jolly gathering and tossing as it is said that you have to have a wish during your toss and the higher the toss, the greater the chance of making your wish possible! (Wink!). Sometimes, it is your friends who will wish for you during the Lo hei (tossing)!

During the Lo hei celebration, you will be served with Yusheng (it is also called Yee Sang). It is a very colorful raw fish salad with shredded vegetables, oils, etc. It is served in big plates with a longer chopsticks which is used during the tossing.

You will notice there are 2 chopsticks in this picture. The chopsticks in the most right of image is the longer chopsticks used in the tossing celebration.

The Mandarin oranges are present everywhere during Chinese new year. Mandarin Oranges symbolizes good fortune and abundance. In a traditional manner, the Teochew delicacies are served in this restaurant.

 

This is the colorful Yee Sang. When served, the celebrants would wait for everybody in the table to be present before the ceremony begins.

 

When the ceremony starts, other ingredients will be added to the Yee Sang. While the hostess is pouring the ingredients, she recites the ingredients and the symbol of such. Ofcourse, all languages spoken are in Mandarin…

 Once the Yee Sang ceremony is finished, the prosperity tossing will begin. There can be loud noises depending on the crowd celebration – that is the Lo Hei event…

After the tossing is complete, the proper meal will be served. And this time, traditional tea will be poured unlimited.

 

The unlimited pouring of tea…

You will be served with the set of meal catered for the event.

 All in the menu is served. Do not be worry on your diet… the food in the menu is served in a conservative amount… (wink).

 Wishing a prosperous Dragon Year to all!

Til next time. Au revoir.

Uncategorized

My 2011 Blogging – In Review

chicpencil

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,700 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

how to, server, technology, windows

Building Domain Controller For Windows 2008 Server

chicpencil

Lots of features has been added since I handled and administered Windows NT Server.

Now, the concept of Primary and Backup Domain controllers were replaced with the introduction of Windows Forests. Both or multiple domain controllers are active and supports the highly available AD authentication of users.

Creating of domain controller in Windows 2008 are now as follows. The steps provided here are for building a simple domain controller or in short — promoting an ordinary Windows 2008 server to be a domain controller. In production environment, of course there should be a proper design to support the service level agreement (SLA) required by the business and operations.

1. Run the dcpromo.exe from command:

2. The Active Directory Domain Services wizard will appear to assist you in building your domain: 

3. Specify whether this domain controller will be a member of an existing Forest or this is the first DC of new Forest:

 

4. Since I’ve chosen a new Forest, I have to specify my Forest Root Domain Name. The forest root domain name must be fully qualified.

5.  Set your Forest functional level. Do note that each release of Windows operating system adds up new features supported by the Forest.

For more information about the Forest features on different editions of Windows, refer to this link summary.

6.  Choose the functional level of your domain controller. Remember that the function level chosen here affects the addition of your domain controllers. This supports upward compatibility. Meaning, when I choose Windows 2008, I can only add another domain controller of Windows 2008 and later.

7. Additional DC options would provide you the chance of configuring this DC to be the DNS server as well. If you already have a DNS server, you can introduce the DNS server to this DC at a later time.

For the DC that I’m building, I’m configuring it to be the DNS server as well.

 

8. Specify the location of your database data and log files. As recommended, put it in a separate drive with hard disk configured for RAID 1 (Redundancy).

9. When your DC becomes unavailable due to planned and unplanned downtime, you will need to start the DC in restore mode. Restarting the DC is restore mode makes the DC locally available. As such, you will need to specify the DC Restore Mode Admin password.

 

10. Finalizing your DC Configuration:

11. Configuring your Domain Controller.

12. Active Domain Services is now installed.

13. Restart your machine and login as the Domain Controller Administrator.

Til next time. Au revoir.

how to, technology, tips & tricks, troubleshooting

Remove Control-M In Your Unix Script

chicpencil

Another tip to document:

I was once a victim of wanting to run my shell script only to realize one of the reasons why I can’t run it is because of the presence of Control-M character all over my script!

Why is it so?

The cause of such Control-M presence is due to the fact that the script was created using Windows based Notepad or any non-Unix editor. Now, the scripts have to be uploaded using FTP or SFTP to the target Unix server.

Currently there are largely available GUI based tool to perform the FTP or SFTP. But one thing isn’t clear is when you FTP in your scripts, you have ensure that the mode is in ASCII. If you missed it out, you will end up having Control-M characters in your scripts.

Back to the business of removing the Control-M character, just type this command using your ‘vi’ editor. Follow the key strokes:

:%s/Control-v-m//g

After pressing the key strokes, you will see this in your ‘vi’ editor:

:%s/^M//g

Now you can review your script and satisfied that the Control-M character is gone.

For safety, before even editing your shell script, you can back it up first using the cp (copy) command:

cp -p original_file backup_file

This command will copy the file to your target backup_file with the same permission as your original_file.

Til next time. Au revoir.