...yeo-ah-yeo-ah-yeo...

...ultos, dooswaland, rednaval, rewolfnus, syadi, moncanni, dailnendo, minejas...

...lotus, sandalwood, lavendar, sunflower, daisy, cinnamon, dandelion, jasmine ...

29th INCOVAR Dhamma Camp

:: expresssion of individual inspiration ::

but how come all also same same pose one? what i notice is that all the participants have very creative ideas on how to do their group cheer. from the taglines that they shout out to the tune that they have and the action that they do, all are seriously very creative.

not forgetting their super creative tepuk tepuk thingy.from the yeo-ah-yeo-yeo-ah-yeo-ah-yeo to milo peng and teh peng and kopi peng and all sorts of peng and oh sungguh blur that comes with tepuk leng chai and leng lui wah where did they ever got all these from le. and the latest one was oooooooooooo (finger points down) incovar.(finger point out) ok? alright? alright? ok?. like how did these guys think about all these things le. back in those days, where got such thing one? and in the exchange program ice came out with sohtank! whatever it is, it has become the excahnge program sign of peace and love for each other.

but, somehow when it comes to group photo posing, all also same same one. wakakaz. dont you think its boring poses? maybe they should do the heroes pose; standing upright arms folded and act like the heroes or the desperate housewives pose. or the fantastic four pose. hmm, would love to see more of those creative poses next camp. yea, its the expression of their individual inspiration anyway. but oh come on guys, you can do better than that...

...because at incovar, we inspire...

...29idc...

...our centrefold page for INSPIRATION. coincidently, we call this IDC : INCOVAR Dream Committee. and this is how the 29idc committee rawks the world with their passion, enthusiasm and dedication...

...because at incovar, we inspire...

: INSPIRING : NETWORKING : CONTEMPORARY : ORIGINAL : VIBRANT : ACTION : EXPERIENTIAL :

...my rising s0n...

...the programmers came out with the idea of opening ceremony to be held in the early morning. it was like so doh. opening ceremony in the early morning. my gawd! i was so totally not into that. and then mj kept reminding us about change la. u gotta change. the camp is about change. i was more doh than mj i guess. but change is not about changing every single dem thing. really doh. and all the dohness, i was the one outsourced to run it together with ky. seriously i have no idea of what to do for the doh opening ceremony to greet the sun. but since everyone wanted it but didnt want to do it and time is confirmed and too late to change (doh another word change) so the plan has to work!

but because of ky's suddenly motivated attitude that gave me the sudden surge of idea for the opening. though simple session but we spent so much time thinking and conceptualizing to make the whole concept of "7-early-8-early-opening-ceremony-greet-the-sun" thingy work.

first we had a short walk. we trekked to the carpark, walked up to the water tank. this walk is to symbolically remind us (doh the theme was walking the tides of change) that most of the time we get up in the morning and rushed for classes or go to work but how often do we take a slow walk and smell the fresh air, listen to the insects monkeying around, looking at the sun slowly rising and experiencing the change. yeap, ky and me explained the whole thing so many times. and i was so dem pissed off when ppl started to laugh at it and asked me what the heck is this walk for. i just delayed no more time on them. delay no more!!!

then we went to the roof top and did our opening. allex helped to setup all the things, even though really last minute, i am so thankful to the qm for waking up so early and helping to setup the entire place. complete with hifi, keyboard, projector and white screen. and mopping the floor and cleaning the rooftop. wow! and that was like 5am!

i asked MEtz team to help to compile the trailer and make it into an opening ceremony. initially there were not enough time and no2 said, we just have to play 2 videos on media player cos no time to combine the opening template that they built to be incorporated with the trailer. but, the nite before, no2 came to me and gave me the thumbdrive and he compiled everything for me. just as i wanted it to be. i was really touched. and ky saw my tears as i watched the whole compilation. i am so happy to have these sons.

so we played the video by MEtz team, we sang we inspire and we sang my beautiful friend and we knelt down and tie a friendship bracelet on their hands to symbolise long lasting friendship. thanks to mj who last minute helped me to buy the strings and song and team helped to make the knot and weiloong to print the piping of incovar. and just in time when we completed the whole session, the sun came up and greeted us at exactly the same time we complete the whole session. at that moment, suddenly my whole self become so happy. the sun greeted us with a glorious morning and my sons greeted me with with tonnes of happiness. i have three of them that i am so proud of; and a whole team of kids that calls me bapak with one calling me lou-tau! my sun has indeed made me feel so proud; shining ever so greatly. truly they aspire to inspire...

...29idc trailer...

...the original trailer that made me so proud of my sons in which i called no1 up to ask him to help to compile something for the 29idc opening ceremony. not something so out of reach, but simple yet inspirational...

...walking the tides of choices...

...29 incovar dhamma camp

walking the tides of change

it took me so long to design the logo. i didnt expect that i will be the one to design the logo although i knew that i will be the chosen one. and yes, again it was me to design the logo. in a way, i feel honoured to be given the opportunity to design the logo and tshirt for the 29idc. head wrecking process and mind constipated ideas. it was pevin who gave a book that struck the idea for the 29idc camp logo and a sudden twist of some of the functions in illustrator that made the logo. here is the evolution of the logo. it took me more than a month to think of the idea and trying to conceptualize the design, but only took me less than a day to materialise the design. quite happy to see the final design. and the color is not bad too. considering i wanted bright skyblue to begin with and ended up as turquoise blue.

the word change can be read the same upside down. that was the initial concept that i wanted to use and because of the change, which mj always kept reminding us that the camp is about change (i still cant accept the fact that so many changes were made without much justifcation).so i had to change my mind to make a change. so doh.

the logo can be viewed as - so direct symbolically matching to the theme but i think it is different in many ways. doh, quite a number of people dont see the tides. allex said, it looks like the evolution of men from a phoenix. wakakaz. i love the logo. its nice. i love the tshirt design too. its very commercial i would say. but too bad, the quality is seriously seriously doh. do buddhist people wear these kind of tshirt materials? doh again. anyway, turquoise blue is a nice change of color compared to the conventional chee onn's black and white symbols. yah, it is so so soooooooo chee onn! the design i mean...

...because at incovar, we inspire...

...nineteenth.floor...

…standing at the balcony of nineteenth floor; overlooking the skyline of kuala lumpur, soft breeze blowing at my face, cooling weather in the middle of summer and indulging in a quality chat. indeed that was a tranquil time and peaceful moment. the soft breeze calms the mind, the chatting soothes the thinking, the view transcend beyond any words could comprehend. the air were full of laughter, full of happiness never a dull moment. the magnificent view and awesome company wipes out all the stress and frustration. amazingly that is what cloud nine is all about…

...@klia...

...arrived at klia just before midnite. the flight was good. i have a wonderful seat. the plane is huge. 2-5-2 seater. the stewardess - short hair, sharp chin wonderful complexion; just beautiful however abit rude. wakakaz.

arrived at the international landing and wanted to get some chocolates. so went in the duty free and purchased some chocolates and paid for it. mana tau! they say i cant buy because i dont have a passport. i was like wtf, i took domestic flight worr, where got passport? she lady at the counter said, its our policy and u need a passport to buy. really wtf. then i walked away. suddenly i remembered, hei i do have my passport with me. i forgot to take it out when i was in singapore a month back. so i went back to the same shop and sway my passport infront of her and say, looks like i have a passport after all. stupid basket duty free in klia. shucks services.

then, as i was walking to collect my luggage, i notice that shit, i have to pass through immigration. wtf, i didn check in, so how do i check out from the airport using my passport. i was searching high and low for my boarding pass; not knowing where that blardy girl at the duty free shop placed it. shit, i got my passport but no boarding pass. how am i going to get thru the immigration. then phew, that duty free lady put it in my passport in between the pages. so i went to the passport check and place my passport in the slot to verify. thank goodness, can go thru. no alarm no guard running after me. wakakaz.

took a cab and went home. farking long queue waiting for the cab. reached home just slightly after midnite; tired and exhausted. but had a long quality mobile chat with my no1 with so many stories to update on the complication of life. choices, choices, choices. which one to choose and how?...

...708pm...

...7.08pm. at airport. boarding in a few minutes. haih. buttocks stuck at this chair for almost 2 hours adi. luckily my partner cube helped me thru this boring hours. catch you guys later. boarding now...

...my side of the coin...

...people are just so complicated. dealing with them makes it even worst. plain facts. white facts. but facts is only true to what you see from your angle. the fact is that it is also a fact from my angle. why is that so difficult? all of us have our own viewpoint. its a matter of what i say is valid from what i see and your point is valid from what you see. incovar teaches us that seeing things from different angle. a coin has two sides. ksb insisted that we do reframing. looking at different angle. how difficult can it get? its like duh, yea i know how complicated it is. we all fall into the same trap most of the time. arghh, super boring. super tired. and its 2am now and i still have yet to complete the jigsaw puzzle...

...standard=boring...

...everything is so standard. standard is boring according to success. my gawd, no wonder everything seems to be so boring. aiks. actually i am referring to kota kinabalu. my second time here in kk for work. stayed in hyatt and office in sadong jaya. daily commute by cab to office. so what is nice in kk? wakakaz. but, i enjoy the travelling to work. the boringness of the place becomesa sensation.

finished day 1 work and went shopping at philippines market. and everything is so standard. everything is the same. every single stalls sells the exact same thing. every corner of the market showcases the same stuff. the whole market is so hot, so crowded and so pathetic. imagine chatujak selling all same pearls, same tshirts, same handicraft stuff. enuff of the boring market. then i went to the wet market. oh my blardy gawd, exactly the same. one zone of the market sells food, there are more than a dozen rows of stalls that sells the exact same thing. chicken wings and seafood, exact same arrangments, exact same food. feeling bored and stinky due to the smoke from the hot barbeque chicken wings, i decided to move on to another zone, the zone selling seafood. this time it is not the same. wakakakz. but the site is spectacular. how i wish i have my camera with me. no more leaving my camera with someone else adi. me and my camera. and i missed those beautiful colors of life. standardized color, mixed in nature with the sea as the background and the sunset as the backdrop curtain. simply stunning.

its my first encounter with the zoning and standardisation of the arrangements of the market. and i think these ppl are just plain same same. no difference from the crowd. standing out and making a difference is not what is in their mind at all. or maybe there is not a need to do so. why compete if everyone can live happily together; harmoniously. ya, like a fairytale town. duh, kk is a fairytale town. cos its so standard and standard means boring...

...happy wesak...

...today we celebrate the birth of the buddha, the death of the buddha and the day the buddha achieved enlightenment. it is also a day i celebrated this auspicious moment with my no1, no2 and no3. no1 became the emcee for the nite. he started off shivering with nervousness, heart pumping with anxiousness and voice trembling with uneasiness. his words and his expression just did not come out. he was not his usual self. his sample speech was remarkable i should say; able to relate to the people around them and telling them that; hei the future is gonna be bright when we learn to see it bright. yea, i think its clear.

no2 and no3 sneek out for a byte of cheeseburger; only returning to ask me a simple question that they hesitated to ask. no3 asked. and i agreed to him. and just before we left, we offered lights - from MEtz team. wakakaz.

later that nite the 4 of us headed down south; wanting to take a peek at another organization and how they celebrate wesak. unfortunately due to my poor planning, there were no nite activities when we arrived. and since we were there, why not i show them where i stay and the whole university campus.

first we went for a nite tour to my old flats and jack daniels started to feel better for himself because he has much better facilities than mine. mine was pretty much a run down place. jack and daniel were jealous about the size of the whole campus itself. yea of course, upm is and still is the biggest university in malaysia (in terms of land size). heck, it was so old story. also showed them to the campus, showed them the residential college i used to stay in (3rd college) and we just drove around the place. going down this father's memory lane. wakakaz. am just glad that the 4 of us spent the first wesak together.

now wherever i go; i will sure be asked about my 3sons and how we have helped each other to grow. ky sent me a very beautifully sculptored sms about my 3boys. the wesak eve ended with a mouthful of kfc's and wedges stuffed into us at one.am. simply amazing!

happy wesak to all...

...mr butterfly...

...they call him the butterfly man. mr butterfly. wakakaz. why is m.y aka mr butterfly. sos farnee. i tot that m.y is into flowers and butterfly loves flowers. wakakaz. then i thought again, why? why? why? wakakaz. mj told me that butterfly flies from one flower to another flower to another flower. and m.y is like a butterfly in dinners or weddings, hoping from one table to another table to say hi. that is about the most farniest thing...

...smsc...

...what is that? how does it work? lately i have been witnessing many people who are into sms-courting. what do they do in sms-courting? ok lets call it sms-relationship. in sms-relationship ppl send sms. ppl send really short messages which is really inline with the system - short messaging system. sometimes it can be really short with a one-word response or it could be too long grandmother stories. these days sms-ing is simple, smartway and affordable.

my no2 has been in a sms-courtship few months back. and with his intelligent mind and inquisitive nature; he has managed to download all the smsc to his laptop. how did he do that? just an inquisitive mind and an explorer nature i guess. this chemical engineer knows more about computers than any computer freak out there. from time to time he will update me on the status of the database size. with his persistency, his determination and his perseverance i am hopeful that this courtship will become more than just friendship beyond comprehension (wakakaz).

i have also noticed my other 2 boys doing the same thing. less in frequency, never in the headturning mind boggling mentality of saving all of them but in many ways similar to each other. its amazing how smsc can become something to replace the realworld live chat face to face conversation. indeed the mobile phone has become such a necessity and the price of the service provider really does matter.

no matter how close you guys are either in the next room or even sitting next to each other in the same room, smsc never fails to make an appearance. it works though abit annoying. heck i do that too. wakakaz...

...birthday wish history...

...happy birthday delon...

time passes really fast. been a year i was back from the states. exactly this day i was packing and getting ready to leave the states. heck its tomorrow back home in malaysia then. so being the cheeky me i had to be no2 to wish him happy birthday. i called him up from the states. 2 years ago i was so embarassed to even forget about this day that i said tht i want to be the last person of the day to wish him. even worst was one day where i was having lunch wih fred and i met him at nandos. and i got the guts to ask him why is he here? he said it is his birthday. my gawd that was super embarassing. how could i forgot. and from then on, i put a reminder in my phone so that i will always remember. and this year i was really early to wish him hoping to be no2 again. wakakaz. what a silly thing to do. because delon is a special friend, i am never going to miss this simple thing in life; that is to pick up the phone and call to wish happy birthday.

happy birthday delon. i wish you the greatest things in life and many happy returns. take good care of yourself there dude...

...3+1...

...i have 3 kids. wakakaz. my no1 is the most responsible and mature among the 3 siblings. being the big brother my no1 takes good care of his younger siblings - giving them direction and guiding them thru. being the eldest gives him alot of opportunities to lead. and indeed being elected into the students council is a huge feat apart from his other achievements lately. too many headlines makes my head turn these days. my no2 is as what no2 is; oh sungguh blur. a title awarded to him by his siblings because he is indeed blur. however, in the blur moment he has this special ability to turn on his ears and pasang his telinga to listen attentively. my no2 has tonnes of patience. loads of perseverance and bulks of stuff in my carboot. his greatest virtues is that he never fails to expound his vast knowledge and concrete understanding to his other siblings; patiently. something which i do not have in me. his careful choice of words and beautiful sentence structure never fails to amaze me; moreover his persistentcy in learning mandarin really impresses me. my no3, yea being no3 like myself the no3 is something that automatically provides him with a license to rawk. yea, like myself too - same same. we have so much in common that sometimes i see myself with him just that my favourite quote was not dunnoler. yea man, no3 rawks. hei its just me. but of cos i m much older now. wakakaz.

these days have been very rough with work. stupid timeline crazy schedule. just plain petty. but being able to spend quality time with them is the highest blessings and greatest joy. yesterday i had a short chat with my dearest friend and i asked him a simple question which appears to be silly at first; what are you up to lately? and his sweet simple answer tirggered my senses and knock the hell out of me. i go back early to play with little matt. and indeed the simple act of kindness the love for matt brings him all the joy in the world. i am indeed touched. just after that i had a superlong quality time with my no3, msn chat with my no2 and a mobile conversation with my no1. indeed it is a joy. i have 3 kids too and i am so proud of them...

...my father my son...

...my very first father-son outing. spent two full days with my eldest son; engaging in heart-to-heart talk and lots of "wht does my future looks like" planning and mentoring session. with lots of talking and eating and arguing, listening and watching movie. it was a fun day out watching ironman though. i guess its not easy holding that position afterall. later sent him back to his hostel. mission accomplished? nah not so fast. the journey has just begun. its great to have a teenage son; skipping all the waking up at nite, changing diapers, feeding time, not enough sleep time. somehow i am glad i have this son, not one but three of them.

just a while ago, my phone had ring and it displays a picture that i have not seen in a very long time. a voice i have not heard for quite some time. i had a call from another father. i am so glad that he called and we chatted for like 5 minutes plus. though short but really meaningful chat. its been more than 5months already. and little matthew is already 5months old now and i have yet to visit him. suddenly i realised how much i have missed matthew's growing up and his giggling and his laugh and his cry. heck, i have not even met little matthew. and i was so moved to tears. tear drop start falling thru the sides of my eyes. face become pale. and that i did not spend more time with the people i care and the friends that i called my buddies, my dears. its been 5 months already. matthew has grown from a little fat kid to a long kid (according to the father). i will visit matthew soon. and have his picture taken. matthew, i miss you...

...ibye...

...they are back from ayutthaya thailand from the asean inter cultural youth exchange program. am sure there are many stories to be told. ty has told me tonnes of it already. xiaothoong apparently looking happy and sad. maybe tears of joy. mighty tor is here to conquer! denphong told me that he is so proud of the guys performance in ayutthaya and that we have trained them well here. indeed. wakakaz. looking forward for the next session of story telling...

...1234...

...finally. finally. 11-may-2008 at 12.34pm right in front of so many people, so many witness, family, friends, its done. journey settled. mission accomplished. nah, its not about the proposal plan, not about proposing infront of the gf in the centre of the once biggest shopping mall; but its about the particular ring. that simple yet futuristic enough design that have attracted my good friend there. yeap, he paid for it. and finally he has made up his mind. congratulations to my good fren there...

...my second marriage proposal...

...my second marriage proposal. indeed a shocking news and surprising moment. yeap, i am getting involved in a second marriage proposal; invited by my best friend to be part of the organizing team to assist him in anyway possible. wakakaz. heck, he is my best friend and who else better to choose your engagement ring with…

i have the greatest honour and opportunity to be asked in hand to help choose the engagement ring. off we went to search for jewelry outlet to select not one, not two but three different engagement rings. not that my good friend is getting engage to 3 people; but a small traditional game that his future wife always play on him when it comes to surprise; and now its his turn to return a favour to his soon-to-be wife.

we stopped at d&p outlet on the first floor and this young sweet down to earth lady came and serve us. started to flirt with her; hoping to get some good bargain for this good friend mine and some really good deal. my friend had a difficult time selecting 3 rings that he thinks his future wife may like. he opted for a simple designs. the first choice was a really simple curvy design; which i think is really nice too. the second ring was simple diamond with a little heart beside the diamond while the third design has 3 little cute diamonds arranged in a slight curve parallel with the ring.
3 rings – 3 choices. and 3 more days. that is to take advantage of the special promotion for mother’s days that comes with tones of free gifts. another visit to 3 other outlets; tomei where we saw one of the nicer ring; simple straight classic and looks really great on the salesgirl hand compared to the curve one. tomei has pretty nice classic designs. next was another outlet which was d&p also but located in the centre court doing promotion and the salesguy came to serve us which was like duh. he started telling us how his grandma got proposed to his grandpa and how his grandpa got married and have kids and duh! the whole grandmother stories about diamonds. he sounded very sly and we felt cheated.

thus we went back to d&p; the original outlet and met with the same girl again where she came running back from her toilet break to serve us. now that is what i called good customer service. yea, we eventually exchanged number and chatted and my friend explained his proposal plan to her and she agreed to help.
totally happening day. and congratulations again to my best friend. may he be ever success-ful!...

...jack won...

...jack won in the election for nilai international university college student's representative council. indeed i am impressed with his determination and perseverance to make a difference. rawk on jack...

...touching lives...

...tiring and exhausted. it was after igc when suddenly everything just become so much lighter. my shoulders are off limits; at least for the next few days. oh gosh. right after igc the few of us went out for dinner at the gardens. amazing how the gardens brings back so much memories of yesterday. with 9 of us sitting around the table chatting and yakking away; i was asked to interpret the profile for hungjen and chunghwa. phew tiring mind le brudder! but chunghwa was so interested to know of his profile and hungjen cant get her eyes of her traits and ranking.

later sent my eldest back to nilai. though far far away, really really far away. far away. but what the heck, i travel that road so often last time that i can remember it at the back of my hands. when we reached the campus, my eldest was so eager to show us around the campus building. his younger sibling was impressed witht he surroundings; especially the toilet where one can wash their clothes. apparently this brother of jack have not seen the toilet where people can wash clothes. and he thought all clothes must and can only be washed by washing machine. wakakaz.

jack brought us around to his room, around his building block, showed us how clean his top floor toilet was, down to the canteen to show us where he hung the posters. wakakaz. yeap, he was running for students representative council (src) for nilai college. his posters were seen all over the campus. from the canteen to the hostel to the notice board to resource centre to everywhere anywhere where you see people walking. i think he conquered the whole area. indeed his campaign was simple; with no manifesto but one simple message: 2 different individuals, 1 vision, making a difference. not sure what difference he meant there, but i guess with both jack and his roomate; contesting in src both making it simple and their posters shows that they both are able to work as a team.

jack was so happy to have shown us around the place he called his second home. his face was glimmering, his emotions where overwhelmed, his smile were big. yea, indeed if he is not proud of the college, he wouldnt be feeling like this. and i am dem sure nilai international university college is dem lucky to have my eldest son studying there. and he will definitely make a difference to each and everyone there; as alextan put it he will be able to touch a 1001 more lives there...

...3IGC...

...3rd IGC. bringing out the corporate buddhist in you...

maha karuna subang 2

...bapak vs datuk...

...gathering at datuk's house. really nice place considering the amount of money spent in the renovation. with green feature wall and a huge heavy gigantic wall sculpture, a water feature, nicely done dining hall with extended kitchen. a balcony with a view and the nicely crafted master bedroom. home sweet home datuk. but the whole gang came, conquer and had fun with datuk.

it was a gathering of the committees and excos; seeing more than 2/3 majority of the committee are incovarian. yay, we've got 2/3 majority. the whole afternoon saw all of us introducing each other and giving a brief introduction of who we are and what we do; some may over extend their time limit and talk too much; some are men with few words, while others like me dunno what to say. datuk started to handout the music festival tickets for free. ya, free and we could not go because we have igc :).

metz team were represented too. with ty and jack both appearing smart and confident; chatting with datuk and the excos. they have made their mark with incovar and bgf now. elsf suddenly throw me a question how come i have 3 sons but without any daughters. wakakaz. dunnoler elsf.

the afternoon was hot; hot discussion about history and we never knew history could be so interesting. good food, great companion, nice people, exceptional friends. towards the evening, we went to nalanda's party! in datuk's car. munyee drove datuk's car and pulled up right infront of nalanda and wow, someone actually opened the door for us. hmm, very yau yeng! riding with datuk can be so yau yeng. the nite ended pretty slowly, the weather was hot and we went home feeling tired and i gotta design the front cover of igc handbook! yikes!...