Transition from BlogSpot to Wordpress

After 3 years of blogging on Blogger’s platform, now it’s time for me to move on  and say goodbye, not to you but to Blogger/BlogSpot. Finally, Eli Shares had moved to a self-hosted WordPress and is  officially registered under a .com domain.

I chose 8th of July to mark the date of rebirth and transition of Eli Shares on a new platform because it is a special day for me. It’s my birthday!! This significant date would be a great anniversary for both my birthday and blog.

Actually I have been considering to migrate earlier but I thought I should wait and set a date, so, in the mean time I could do some research and build some sort of knowledge on the migrating process and also the reason WHY I should consider to migrate.

Believe me, migration is not a simple task especially when you want to maintain the traffic, permalinks, comments etc. Unless you’re planning to start fresh. Therefore, sufficient amount of reading and research is essential.

For those BlogSpot users whom were considering on migrating to a self-hosted Wordpress platform, I would recommend you to read these:

Convert from Blogger to Wordpress

Moving from Blogger to Wordpress: Best Practices

Top 3 Problems on Importing Blogger To Wordpress

12 Steps To Convert Your Blog From Blogger To Wordpress

Maintain permalinks moving from new Blogger to WordPress 2.0

Migrate your Blog from Blogger to WordPress with all the Google Juice

One major obstacle I faced in the process of the transition was to transfer the Intense Debate comments from BlogSpot to Wordpress. There are no plugins available for me to import the comments (it has been disabled), so I have to do it manually.

The Transition

When you’re still young you rely on your “parents” to support you, doesn’t matter which family you’re from – Blogger, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal or Xanga. But as we grew and progress, we might have this in mind…

“I’m grown up now, my “parents” only offers me  limited supports, I wanna go out and explore the blogging world, I wanna expand, I wanna stand on my on, maybe I need to find a partner for myself (Joint Ventures), I think it’s time for me to get out of this nest.”

This is where things starts to become more exciting and more challenging. Seriously, moving over to WordPress was really a big decision and certainly the best choice I have ever made. With abundance of great features, premium themes, plugins and of course FREEDOM, I have no regret.

Although, to be honest, BlogSpot is free and it’s easier to use but you have not much control over your blog. Meanwhile, WordPress might be slightly complicated at first but eventually you’ll learn along the process and you have more control over your blog.

By the way, we humans are control freaks so there’s a good reason why Google wanted to control your blog. Your content and blog are too valuable to be on BlogSpot so why not consider a move? Another bad news of having your blog on BlogSpot is that you’ll also risk having your blog deleted and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen to your blog.

Hosting your own blog is relatively affordable nowadays and Eli Shares is proudly hosted with iPage – a leader in web hosting. With unlimited disk space, bandwidth and email, 99.9% uptime and 24x7 support, and also with addition of other great features, iPage offers you a web hosting plan as low as RM 0.40 per day!

Currently, Eli Shares is still under the process of transitioning phase so please bear with me. I still have a lot of things to do – transferring Intense Debate comments, fixing links, posts, RSS feeds and other tweaks, and also theme selection.

Note: This will be the last post in elishares.blogspot.com. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my readers, bloggers, commenters whom have spent the valuable time reading, linking and commenting in this blog. You guys are awesome!!

See you on the other side @ Eli Shares dot com

I’ve Won the Preliminary Round of the Bloggywood Squares Game Show Webinar

I’m very proud and excited to announce that this is the greatest achievement that I have ever accomplished as a blogger so far…

I’ve WON the 1st round of BLOGGYWOOD SQUARES
Online Game Show!!

… this also happens to be my first experience to ever participate in a webinar as well as online contest.

I would like to say a BIG and HUGE thank you to the sponsor, Beyond Blogging and the awesome hosts, namely: Nathan Hangen, Mike-Cliffe Jones, Jordan Cooper for organizing Bloggywood Squares and chose me as a contestant; and also to the special guest of the day, David Risley.

Since the webinar session is hosted in the US and is online at 7pm, been living in the other side of the world, 12 hours difference, I have to get myself to sleep earlier so I could wake up early in the morning to participate in this FREE webinar.

Yes, you heard me, a FREE webinar plus a chance to be chosen as a contestant for the game show!!

In this one hour webinar, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons on blogging, ranging from marketing to technical advices. I have also learned a new term today, affiliate link cloaking – basically hiding or cloaking your original affiliate link to prevent theft.
BLOGGYWOOD SQUARES
To all bloggers reading this post, I would highly recommend you to participate because you will learn a lot through this webinar. Subscribe to Bloggywood Squares and get instant access.

• Learn how to turn your blog into a highly profitable business and have fun at the same time!
• Get chosen as a contestant and win some awesome prizes!
• Watch as an audience member and participate in the show!
• Grand Finale winner will receive free membership to the Beyond Blogging Project worth $795 ( 2,547.58 MYR )!

Watch this video below for more detailed information about the webinar

Very useful TIPS
Like any other seminar or webinar, you need to get yourself prepared mentally and most importantly, get your “recording” tools prepared. I would like to stress the issue because I didn’t prepared well before the webinar start, thus, losing some valuable information. Basically, you just can’t rely on your brain to help you memorize everything.
I would highly recommend you these useful tools:
Pen and paper
This is the most basic and most important recording tools. The paper will act as your memory. So before the webinar starts, make sure you have your pen and papers prepared.
Audacity
Audacity is a free audio recorder and editor where you can record live audio during the webinar. Start recording before the webinar starts and you won't miss a single conversation for the whole course.
CamStudio
Not satisfied with audios only? CamStudio, another free software, is able to record all screen and audio activities on your computer. Start recording before the webinar starts and you won't miss a single conversation and activities for the whole course.
Print Screen and Paint
You might have heard of this before, the PRINT SCREEN key allows you to capture an image of the entire screen – what you see is what you get. Open the Paint application and paste it. Now you’ll have an image of the activity during the webinar.
You might have been wondering what I’ve won in the preliminary round. Honestly, I only remembered one out of four – Linchpin by Seth Gordin. That is the reason why I highly recommended you to get your recording tools well prepared before the webinar. By the way, I’ve also qualified myself to participate in the Grand Finale.

Wish me luck for the Grand Finale!

Again, here is the link to Bloggywood Squares.
Subscribe and get instant access to the webinar.

stadiumASTRO World Cup Fantasy

Despite in the amidst of preparation for final exam, my attention and focus are mainly on the South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010. On top of that, since I can’t engage in sporting activities yet due to my ankle injury, the only way to satisfy my crave on football is by playing FIFA Manager 10 and other virtual football related activities.

And for the first time in my life, caused by the excitement of the World Cup and also the attractive prizes awaits, I gave online football fantasy a try. Though there are tons of World Cup fantasy league out there, I chose to participate in a contest which are from my homeland, the stadiumASTRO Fantasy – a contest organized by MAXIS and ASTRO. In conjunction with this contest, Sarawak Bloggers host their very own Fantasy League Contest, the Sarawak Bloggers World Cup Fantasy League Challenge. But this contest is only for registered Sarawak Bloggers members and entries are already closed.

But don’t get disheartened, you still have the chance to join the stadiumASTRO Fantasy Contest and stand a chance to win attractive prizes which includes a 40” LCD TV, a Sony VAIO Laptop, Blackberry Bold 2, an iPhone and also meet up with Lionel Messi in Barcelona or Frank Lampard in London.

To know more about the stadiumAstro World Cup Fantasy contest, click the image above.

Does School Destroy Our Creativity?

Photo taken from Education.

First of all I would like to wish all the teachers Happy Teachers Day!!

I really appreciate and grateful to these great group of individuals whom had devoted their life to educate us to be a better person in the future. Despite of our mischievousness and ignorance, they never failed to educate and bring out our potentials through knowledge, skills and values.

But there lies a problem that has significant effect to all those who had gone through the educational system. The question is…

Does school destroy our creativity? 

I still remember when I was in the kindergarten, education was fun. I love to go to school. I love to explore and I have a loads of things that intrigued me. In the kindergarten that I’ve went, the teachers were great, though they were strict they promote critical thinking and also do encourage us to do mistakes in our learning process. It does build up my interest in all the subjects that I learn. The best part is we’re constantly rewarded if we do well in class.

I believe most of you have this kind of similar experience too. That is why when we were kids, we will take a chance. If we don’t know how to do something, we will have a go on it. We are not frightened to do mistakes. We are not frightened to be wrong because there’s no punishment unless we are naughty.

As I entered primary school everything turned out to be completely different. Obviously the educational system was way different compared to what I have experienced in kindergarten. This time, teachers discourage us to do mistakes. Every single mistake will result in punishment. Under this educational system, we are trained to be like a parrot. “MEMORIZE THIS!” instructed by the teachers. We’re thought to memorize, but not to understand. Don’t ask why, just memorize! If wrong, spank you!

I and many others do understand and appreciate the good intention of our teachers, but this is not an effective way to educate the students.

Here is an interesting video that I would like to share with you. Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of innovation and human resources, has an interesting point of view on how destructive is our current education system.

This video is 20 minutes long and was recorded at TED Talks in 2006. I’m sure you’ll love his humour and great thoughts.

Here’s another video of his lecture at UCLA. This video takes about 1 and a half hour, but believe me it worth you the time.

If you like and enjoy this post please share it around in Facebook or tweet it so that the message could reach a much wider audience.

Connect with Me on Facebook

Finally, Eli Shares has officially launch its own page on Facebook.
Eli Shares Page would be a great channel for me to connect with you, the readers and bloggers, to build an online community where we can socialize, interact with each other and maximize our relationship.

You can easily ‘Like’ Eli Shares by:

1. Visiting Eli Shares Page
2. Clicking the Like button on the side bar

Some quick updates:

I have removed the cBox widget from the blog because in my opinion, after a couple of years having it embedded in my blog, I discover that:

• cBox doesn’t function as an effective method to connect with readers.
• It had caused delay in page load time.
• People tend to comment in the cbox rather than in the post itself.
• It has hidden pop-up advertisement.
• Worst, YOU CAN’T CONNECT WITH OTHERS (Bloggers)

Alternatively, if you would like to leave me a message, you can just drop me a Holla in the Facebook page or you can also email me.

Another widget I have removed is the Top Commentators Widget. The main purpose of me having that widget is to promote comment, in the same time helping the commenter/bloggers to promote their blog.

But after I’ve switched to Intense Debate, I notice that the Top Commentators Widget doesn’t record the comment count in Intense Debate, therefore I have decided to scrap it down.

Are You a Multi-Tasking Monster? Practice Mindfulness and Slay the Monster

 

 
I am a multi-tasking monster!

I’m not bragging neither being proud of being a multi-task monster. It’s a horrible feat that I possess. Even when I’m writing this post, I have the urge to do other “unfinished” tasks. I’m thinking on writing my assignment essay paper, preparing slides for my class presentation, writing email, writing a blog post for my other blog, to read blog posts and watch videos that I have abandoned, and check my Facebook account.

Procrastination and multi-tasking is a mechanism that kicks-in while you’re unaware of it until it’s too late, especially when you’re not focused enough. – Elisha Batuncang

Doing too many things at a time doesn’t do any good, you will loose focus, kill your creativity, get yourself overwhelmed with tasks because your brain too will soon run out of memory and this will sap your energy. Productivity = negative.

Currently…

I have 3 of my web browsers on and each of them have extraordinary amount of tabs open.

34 Chrome tabs open
27 Firefox tabs open
15 Opera tabs open

4 Words documents are open. 2 of them are my essay assignment and the other 2 are the instructions. I have wrote a bit and abandon it to write a blog post, not this post, which I get myself loss in Wikipedia and strayed to watch videos in youtube.

And believe me, I just got myself strayed… Again…

Multi-tasking has really wasted my energy and my precious time. My attention span and concentration is thinning down. Before I could finish one of my task I start another new task.

My Mission

Today is the first day of the month, often to be the best day to implement something – a task, goal, etc., and for my case, I need to change my habit and start practice mindfulness.

Mindful means one thing at a time.
If you want to get more things done, be mindful.
If you want to have more time, be mindful.

I’m getting excited now and this would be a very challenging month for me. All these while I’m so used to be doing a lot of things in a time, switching from task to task.

To train and reprogram myself to do one thing at a time would be challenging but it is a rewarding habit for me to acquire. It will sharpen my focus and improve my attention span.

If you have any tips to share with me on being mindful, please don’t hesitate to share with me. I really appreciate your help and advice.

Train Your Writing Skill

Photo courtesy of Corporate Training Solution 

I’m a very active person. For the past few weeks I was heavily involved in football and futsal. In football, I was representing Swinburne for the IPT League organized by FA Malaysia. Meanwhile in futsal, I played for my team, Mercurial (Swinburne) FC, and we’re competing in the KFA Champions League.

In order to get fit and to improve my skills, I need to train everyday so that I can get myself ready and prepared for the challenges that are yet to come on every matches. Training is the fundamental principle which applies to all kind of skills development , be it for the purpose for sports, education, self-improvement, music, communication and also blogging.

Talk about blogging, in fact I’m very active in the virtual world but just that my focus was somewhat strayed away nowadays. Instead of producing contents, I slowly shift into the “consumers” category. This happens to many bloggers out there too.

Watching tons of videos on how to kick a ball won’t help you to become a good footballer if you don’t do your part which is by training. Same goes to blogging, by just reading blogs and doing nothing is very unproductive and it won’t get you anywhere. Let alone being the best blogger in your own region or being an A-List blogger.

Train Yourself/Myself to Become a Better Blogger

I might not be an A-List blogger but I would like to share with you a couple of writing methods on developing your blogging skill. No worries, I will explain them short and simple.

The first and foremost important skill in blogging is – WRITING SKILL.

Have you heard of the 10,000 Hour Rule? Alright, you may never heard of it but it is quite straightforward for you to understand its meaning. The more time you spent on developing a skill, the better you’ll become on it.

The more you write, the more you will improve your writing skill. It is just simple as that. Because as a blogger you need to clarify your ideas, convey your message and ideas, and release your thoughts. If you don’t train your writing skill, you’ll risk of losing your creativity and your brain might get rusted because you’re not doing anything on your thinking.

“Writing is basis of all wealth. If you never write it down, it never happens.” – Scott Ginsberg

So, my suggestion is to: write, write, write and WRITE.

Journaling

The most basic writing skill training is to start a journal, where you records all your of learning, mistakes, feelings, victories, dreams, ideas and reflections.

Buy a small notepad that can fit in your pocket or just use your mobile phone, bring it everywhere you go. Because sometimes ideas pop out anytime and you need to quickly record it down before you forget it. At the end of the day, write the ideas or thoughts into your journal and do some reflection and elaboration on the idea.

Brain Dump Method

Another method is the Brain Dump Method. This is a fantastic method I’ve learned from Become A Blogger lesson. You can write it down on paper or better by using Microsoft Words or any other typing application.

1st, you need to come up with with a topic to write.
2nd, do all necessary research.
3rd, turn off your monitor screen. If you’re using laptop, reduce the size of your typing application’s window into a small box so that you can’t see what you’re writing. (Make sure the application is active!)
4th, start writing with the intention of creating an article.

Just write everything down that comes into your head. Don’t worry about spellings, grammar mistakes and structure, just focus on writing without stopping.

After you’re done, turn on your monitor or maximize the window of your typing application, I guarantee that you’ll be amaze with the results. You might have already written a 7000 words article! Now you can proceed editing the article – spell check, grammar and structuring the article.

Train Your Other Blogging Skills Too

Writing is the fundamental skill that a blogger must develop but there are other skills that you as a blogger need develop too. 31 Days to Build A Better Blog, written by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net, is a workbook designed to guide and teach you in working out your blogging training regime for over a month.

With a promotional price of $19.95, you’ll develop techniques that A-list bloggers had mastered and transform your blog into a valuable online asset.

Grab Yourself a Copy of 31 Days To Build A Better Blog NOW

Click here to view more details

Cool Things You MUST Know About Facebook

 

Majority of us spent massive of our time surfing the world of Facebook - updating our status and profile, add/remove friends and pictures, and play games. But we are not aware that actually there are a lot of other cool and advance features from the regular stuff that we see everyday.

In this article, I would cover interesting information, tips and tricks which is related to Facebook.

We know that Facebook have million of users from all over the world, and you might wonder how much is the “population” of Facebook if we compare it to countries. You might be amazed that Facebook is the third largest country.

Can’t show much emotions in Facebook chat? Did you know there are actually a lot of Facebook chat emoticon available? But of course, not as much as what you have in your messenger. Here is the complete list of Facebook chat emoticon, now show your feelings to your friends and families.

For those who would like to take their Facebook experience to the next level, here are 51 Facebook tips and tricks that you can learn:

20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know
25 Great Facebook Tips and Tricks
Useful Facebook Tricks People May Not Know About 

SHARE IT: Share this article to your friends and help to spread the word. Just click the share button below or click this.

How To Track Your Spending And Get Control of Your Personal Finance

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Chai to all my Chinese friends and readers. And to all you love birds out there, Happy Valentine’s Day.

During special occasion like this, even at this time of economy downturn, I believe that we just can’t stop spending. You can see this through the massive fireworks display on Sunday night, the preparation of foods and beverage for guesses, and for the love birds, expressing their love by presenting flowers, exchanging gifts and a visit to the restaurant.

But not to forget the hand full Ang Pao that most of us youngsters had received, we have money coming in and out of our pockets.

The question is,
“Did you keep track on how much you have spent and how much you have earned?”

I have created a poll in facebook and the results are:
22.86% voted YES
60% voted NO
17.14% voted SOMETIMES

It is no surprise that most doesn’t keep track on their spending. Keeping track on your daily transaction is a very vital money management skill that you should start now.

To get started, you need some handy tools to record every penny that comes in or out of your pocket. I would like to divide it into two recording method, the mobile transaction log, and the data storage log.

Mobile transaction log:
The first step is to record down all the transaction you have made into a log. It can take in any form but I would recommend you to either use one of this three:
+ Mobile phone (Smartphone, Symbian operated, iPhone etc.)
+ Small pocket notebook (Make sure you always bring a pen along)
+ PDA

I personally use my mobile phone to record all my spending because I don’t carry notebook and pen around with me all the time. It is very handy and easy, I Just write them down in the Notes application. I didn’t download software into my phone because I prefer to store all my data into a personal finance software that I have installed in my PC.

Data storage log:
At the end of the day, all you have to do is to input your daily transactions into a proper transaction log. You can either use an accounting journal book that you can buy in any stationery stores or, for those computer savvy, you can use Microsoft Excel or a personal finance management software.

I recommend you to use a personal finance management software because it has an organized system which has a function and ability to keep a better record of your transactions. It gives you a clearer view of how much you have spent in particular category such as – dining, entertainment, gas, etc. by using a pie chart and report.

These are two personal finance management software you can get from the internet (No worries, they are free to use):
Mint, Quicken’s Online Software 
– You need to signup for an online account for this. But keep in mind, you need to access the internet to manage your finance.

GnuCash
- GnuCash is a desktop application. You need to download the software into your computer and Install it.

In my case, I’m using a personal finance management software, Quicken Home & Business 2010, bought from the local PC-DVD stores. Believe me, it just only cost a little compared to the benefits that it brings to your life.

But, my system might not works for you, so as always, do what works for you. The most important thing is to make this as your daily routine for at least 2 months. By then, it would have developed as a habit and congratulation you have now took control over your money.

Performing Blog Autopsy on Eli Shares’ 3rd Bloggivesary

Eli Shares is now 3 years old but still far away from being a well established blog. With only 24 blog posts being published last year, I can’t say much about the goals that I have set and what improvements that I have done for the course of the year.

The only improvement in Eli Shares was the amount of traffic that has increased tremendously starting from the 3rd quarter of the year. With an average of 48 visits per day the site meter has recorded a hit of 16,183 visitors, 6,183 above the milestone that I have targeted.

In order to get Eli Shares to the next level, first of all I need to get myself into C.S.I mode - performing an autopsy on it and examine what are the causes that choke off the development and find a way to fix it up.

1. Inadequate amount of blog updates
A blog without regular blog updates can be considered as a lifeless blog. Google and other search engines hates lifeless blogs because their main purpose is to supply users with the most up-to-date, most interesting and most accurate information. It is clear that providing new fresh contents regularly is a must!

Let’s dig deeper to the roots…
I was quite active in writing new contents in the first half of the year -with 21 out of 24 of my posts were published during that period of time. But on the second half it slows down from turtle speed to snail speed.

To be exact, it started during the end of semester, also during the examination period, where I spend most of my time studying for my papers. For that reason, it’s acceptable for me not to post up new contents. But the halt continues on through the semester break until the beginning of the next semester. I was elected as the president of Swinburne Sarawak Football club, since then my mind and time was fully occupied with football and futsal. The content production has suffered and my studies as well.

Solution
+ Set a schedule for writing on daily basis.
+ Must publish at least 3 fresh new posts every week.
+ Speed Linking on every Sunday.

2. Procrastination and Multi-Tasking
Procrastination and multi-tasking is a mechanism that kicks-in while you’re unaware of it until it’s too late, especially when you’re not focused enough.

Let’s dig deeper to the roots…
While I was writing a post, sometimes out of nowhere, there’s a urge for me to do something else – check email, check facebook, chatting, read other blogs or articles and so on - doing a bit here and a little bit there until I realize that I have gone out of track. In the end, there is nothing really get done and time has been wasted.

Solution
+ Close the facebook tab on writing time. This is the main source of distraction.
+ Close the email tabs.
+ Set messenger status as busy along with “Do Not Disturb” message.
+ Set a schedule for writing on daily basis.
+ Do research before writing, NOT while writing.
+ Do a proper writing planning, research, and brainstorm ideas.
+ WRITE NOW!

3. Fear of Making Mistake and Perfectionism
The perfectionist have their inner critic frequently warn them against making a mistake. Each time when I wanna start writing a new blog post, with fresh new blank page, the first obstacle I have to tackle is “how to get it started”. I would spent hours constantly revising, editing and rewrite the first paragraph until I feel satisfied. It doesn’t stop here, I’ll be doing the same thing – revise, edit, rewrite, until I finish writing the whole article. That’s very time consuming and it certainly took away the fun of writing.

Let’s dig deeper to the roots…
When I was a little kid, my parents and especially my school teachers always remind me not to make mistakes. Every time when I make a mistake, I was often scolded, punished and caned.

I still remember when I was in Primary 3, my mathematic teacher once instructed us to memorize the whole 12 times multiplication table in one week and expect us to recite all the 12 times multiplication perfectly without a single mistake. Or else, we will get ourselves caned for every mistake and we are subjected to repeat until we can recite it perfectly. Because of the pain inflicted I was afraid to even make the tiniest mistake.

Often when I was writing, I would have this “false illusion” going on in my head, afraid that my writing aren’t perfect that people will criticize, judge, reject and ridicules my ideas.

But, for one thing, I can never be perfect. So I should brush off the feeling of fear and keep on going forward.

Solution
+ Think positive. Allowing myself to make mistake and don’t think it as a failure but instead an opportunity to learn.
+ Accept that I can never please everyone.
+ Un-link the association of mistake from pain, humiliation and rejection.
+ Conquer the fear.
+ JUST DO IT & WRITE NOW!

In Summary of the Autopsy,
Through the examination performed on the blog I realized that what keeps holding me from writing was the fear of making mistakes. It then leads to procrastination and in the end causing a choke on the development of the blog.

Therefore, I need put in full commitment and work out with the solutions. Keep on moving forward, have faith in what I am doing and treat mistakes as an opportunity to learn.

Reflecting back on 2009

I personally would like to wish you all a Happy New Year 2010. May happiness, health, prosperity and the best keeps on coming throughout the new year. Cheers and God Bless You.

Our life is like a stream of water that flows constantly. Life keeps on moving forward but don't forget to reflect back both your sweet and bitter moments, memories, and accomplishments. As we reflect back on what we have accomplished, we can learn from them and these allows us to grow.

Here are some of the best moments and memories happened in my life in year 2009.


University Life

1.

After studying Engineering for 7 years I have decided to put it to an end. It was the best decision I ever did. I don't want to waste my time studying something that I never like. Honestly, it was so depressing. Even my aptitude test result shows that my "career personality" is never close of being an Engineer.

So I switched to business studies. Now my university life is much more interesting and everything is going great.


2.

Acted as a prince in my management class group presentation. And we called ourselves the SwinEagles.
Acted in Swinburne for the first time.


3.

Job well done. Having steamboat dinner with the SwinEagles.


4.

Went for my first prom.


Sports

5.

My first time to:
Joined a cycling convoy. Took part in a cycling event for charity. Go mountain biking at Mount Mike, Kuching.


6.

My first involvement in Irau Aco Lun Bawang activities. Representing the Lun Bawang Kuching football team and we got 2nd place.


7.

Represent Swinburne in the UniMed Futsal Tournament. We got 3rd place.
My first time to represent Swinburne in any sporting competition.


8.

Represent the Business School in Swinburne Sports Carnival. We are the champion.
My first time to play in the Swinburne Sports Carnival.

9.

Became a club president for the first time - Swinburne Sarawak Football Club.
Organized an event for the first time - Swinburne Futsal Tournament.
Organized the first competitive event for the football club itself.
My team, the Wild Devils, got trashed in the group stage. Although the losing was a bit painful to accept but I was glad that the tournament went on successfully.

10.

Joined the Red Bull 7 competition and unfortunately we got eliminated in the group stage.
My first time to join a futsal open tournament.


Other Accomplishments and Great Moments

11.

Went to Stadium Negeri and watch the Sarawak FC trashing ATM FC. Happens also to be my first taste of local professional football.


12.

Bought my first laptop. Mobility is my priority. I have decided to switch from desktop to laptop and bought this gaming machine - the Acer Aspire 6935G


13.

Participated the Earth Hour Campaign and voted Earth by switching off the lights.


14.

Adopted Mickey and Minnie. Decided to breed them and they are blessed with 10 litters.


15.

Adopted Pogo and Daisy. I made the cage by myself.


16.

Performing in the bamboo band for the first time. To be honest, majority of the Lun Bawang and also the Kelabit youngsters nowadays never played any of the traditional musical instruments or involve in traditional activities.

A very sad truth indeed that I was once felled into that category but now I could reclaim my pride back.


17.

Went for a beach party with my course mates.


You might have noted this. Most of the thing I share here with you was something that I did for the first time. The experiences that I have gained through these are priceless. Everyone has their own dreams and things that they want to accomplish but we are too busy. Or maybe you think that the challenge is too hard for you to bear.

If you just cling yourself in the comfort zone, you won't accomplish anything. Opportunity always knocks on the door, but it is your job to identify it.

On top of this, I'm very grateful to God for He has blessed me throughout the year. It has been a great year for me. Also I would like to thank my family and friends whom had supported me through the ups and downs of my life.

Something for you to think of...

No matter what you have done for yourself... If you don't even have the time to reflect back what you have done, you might forget and lost it. So what have you really accomplished?

Be proud of your accomplishment even though it is small.

Merry Christmas 2009

Photo courtesy of Larry Bodine

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all readers a Blessed and Merry Christmas!!

One of the reason why we should be grateful of being Malaysian, we are blessed with "free foods" festivals year round. At this time you can see people flocking around like a zombie with one purpose...
 
 "Festive Season's Mission" - Free foods, Eat Eat Eat.

Warning: Make sure you exercise after festive season. Get them unwanted fats burned or else they will stay permanent! You might consider hitting the gym.

Eli is 24: Looking back and Planning Ahead

Birthdays is an anniversary that signifies that God had blessed and being with us since we're born till today, and now I'm already 24 years old.

Years before, what I normaly do on my birthday was just celebrate and party. I never even bothered to look back and reflect on my past nor planning ahead. After years I realized it was unwise not to reflect what I've did in my past and plan ahead.

Looking back now...
For over the past 12 months, I have learn a lot of life lessons and experiences which are both bitter and sweet. These life lessons and experiences has indeed significantly changed me from someone who I was than the years before.

I can consider it as a critical phase of change in my life.

I could say it was the bitter experiences that has gave me the wake-up call. It wasn't anything easy to swallow but amzingly it has thought me loads of valuable life lessons.

Just few days after my 23rd birthday I was shadowed by depression which was caused by my failed relationship. I hit rockbottom and it was really hard. Guilt, sadness, anger and despair haunts me day and night.

As the day goes by, again "time" has proved itself as a good healer. Wake up, it's time to rise and get back up on my feet again. I realized that I would get worse off if I am not going to change because the world is a constant change and life is going on.

So I began a quest to search for the "cure" of this misery. What I needed next is a road map which can guide me along this journey. No doubt it is the bible that has guided me and my favourite readings are from the book of Proverbs. These ancient poetry thought me wisdom and discipline, and also gave me knowledge and purpose. I would recommend you to read the book of Proverbs weekly or even better daily, and I promise you it will benefit you a lot.

I've also went for a self-improvement seminar. It's a seminar about the development of self which requires me to EXPLORE, DISCOVER, that govern my thoughts, feelings and action, and lastly to CHANGE.

Another amazing thing happened, I've started to stuff my book cabinet with self-improvement books. It wasn't any big collection like what you see in the library because I spent most of my time reading online materials such as blog which are easy to find, locate and of course free. There are millions of self-improvement blogs out there in the space of blogosphere but these are my favourites and recommended reads:
1. Zen Habits
2. HELLO, my name is BLOG
3. LifeDev
4. Michael Hyatt
5. The New Man of Action
6. Motivate Thyself
7. Goodlife Zen
8. Eli Shares

Through these I have learned to look deeper into myself and discovered many faults. Not only in relationship alone but also in other factors such as habit and attitude.

"The GREATEST discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind!" - William James

It's a moment of decision to re-shape myself. Every mistake or problem that I did in the past won't part, but what I can do is to learn from it and find a way to repair and improve. To behave in the same old way over and over, and expecting different result is just crazy.

Self-improvement ain't a 1 day or 1 year journey though, so don't expect things to change just in a click of fingers. You can't conquer Rome in just one day!! Self-improvement is like re-programming yourself through repeated action just like how a footballer practice and harness their scoring and passing skill.

"If you do not by force program yourself positively, by neglect you get programmed negatively." - Napolean Hill

Looking forward and planning ahead...
I could say that I'm lucky to be born around the middle of the year. Why? Compared to those born early and end of the year, I have the opportunity to checkup my yearly goals that I've setted up, in the same time improvise them.

Though you can do the same thing as me, checking up your yearly goals in the middle of the year but for my case, I consider it as special. Just like when you set goal on new year's eve - you're charged up with motivation.

So far, honestly I've just successfuly accomplished one goal only - watching Sarawak FC in action. Last couple of weeks, the result of my 1st semester final exam has been published out and thank God I passed all the papers. Another semester to go and I'm looking forward to pass all the papers and get a better result.

How about the other goals?
Thinking back earlier this year I was on streak of hype full with passion and motivation. I was more organized and focused back then. But as the days goes by, month after month, the fire of passions slowly burned out.

I'm back to square one again. The fact is, it's not hard to get started with all of the goals which I have setted. It's maintaining what I have started is the where I failed. Staying motivated is indeed quite a challenge.

What is my next plan?
As you can see,  everything falls into a circle. Staying in the same circle won't help me to move further on. Just like doing the same thing but expecting different result. Isn't that just insane?

Right now, I need to climb up from the bottom again and get back on track on what I have started. I loose track with my goals because they're out of sight which equals out of mind. I should write them down, not only in my blog post but put them and paper and stick it on the wall. Just like a constant reminder, it will help me to stay focused and motivated.

Staying motivated takes practice, but it is a skill that everyone can learn. Although I could just see some small changes in my life at first, but this is an incentive for me to tackle more and more goals, and the more changes I would see in my life.

If I can change my life, you definately can change yours too. No matter what situation you're having right now, you have the power of choice to change.

The future is in you own hand.

Irau Aco Lun Bawang 09 - Do' Ruyud :: Part 1

It has been three years since I moved to Kuching, and for the first two years I didn't go back to my hometown, Lawas, to celebrate the rice harvest festival - Irau Aco Lun Bawang (translate the Lun Bawang Fest).

Photo courtesy of Sektor Kebudayaan

My stay in Kuching has brought me to experience my first ever Gawai Dayak celebration - both urban and village style. Back in 2007, Sarawak hosts the National-Level Gawai Dayak open house and I didn't miss the chance to see it myself. It was undeniably a grand occassion, even the prime minister and the Agong (King) was invited.

On the other hand, Irau Aco Lun Bawang is uniquely different compared to the Gawai Dayak. It is more about the Lun Bawang itself. Thousands of Lun Bawang from the district of Lawas and other various places such as Brunei, Indonesia and Sabah will be gathering in the small city of Lawas.

This 3-days fest showcases much more comprehensive events like the Bamboo Band performances, traditional music performance, traditional dance, traditional sporting competition, handicraft exhibition and tradisional costume beauty contest. Also not to forget the modern sports competition like football, badminton, volleyball, golf, etc. and also Lun Bawang music band performance.

Football

The irau this year has marked a history in my life. It happened to be my first involvement in the irau's activities, representing Lun Bawang Kuching football team.

Although being in the team is something so exciting but it isn't any honeymoon either, running around the pitch for 15-minutes under the unforgiving hot sun in the same time making an attempt to outclass your opponent is indeed a very big challenge.

Wait... Only 15 minutes?!!

Yes, I spend most of my time on the bench cheering my mates but I can consider myself lucky too, I was given the chance to give a shot in the final match. Being a substitute, I know that I only have 50% chance to play and it's kind of a emotional experience.

After I was introduced into the pitch, I started to feel the heat of the game and the sun as well. The weather was so hot until the saliva in my mouth dried up!! To think of my mates who got fried up for 90-minutes, I can't complain much when they slacked up a bit and became sloppy. It was just unbearable.

In the game, I've just managed to do few passes and runs, and I even almost scored the winning goal in the final minutes. In fact I've screwed it up, I should have just pass the ball to the striker who is well positioned for a shot on goal.

 Photo courtesy of CNN

I was hoping for a great "debut" as the like of Fedrico Macheda where he scored the injury time winning goal for Manchester United. Lesson learned, make sure you're good enough to perform an action before you execute it, which also means - MORE PRACTICE.

The game ended up with 1-1 and then proceeded to penalty shoot-out. This time, luck isn't on our side, we lose the penalty shoot-out by 4-2.

Despite of the lose another history was made. For the past 10 years, Lun Bawang Kuching never reached the final stage. What to say bringing a cup back to Kuching?

This year, we reached the final and brought a smaller cup. Next year, we aim bigger - lifting the championship cup.

Hattrick: Lun Bawang FC

Photo courtesy of Republik of Mancunia

After watching Sir Alex successful achievement, I felt bit excited and wanted to manage a football club of my own. Of course in reality, it won't be possible since I don't have that much experience in the football world, but I can of course do it virtually.

I've been playing Championship Manager series and FIFA Manager series for quite a long time. It was indeed a great game but one thing the game lack is that you don't play with other human manager. Which I think will make the game more fun and challenging.

So I Googled up for "Online football manager game" and to my surprise there are a lot of them. Being offered with a lot of choices and I chosed the best 2, Hattrick and Manager Zone, to compare which one is much better. After a week of playing, I personally prefer Hattrick than Manager Zone because I was dissapointed with Manager Zone's poor gameplay system. Infact, Hattrick is the first online football management game.

I named my club Lun Bawang FC and currently playing in the 5th Division, which is the bottom division in the Malaysian League. It's a long hard road to climb up and reach the top table, everything will depend on long term strategical plans and of course luck.


Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

For those who likes football management out there I would recommend you to play Hattrick. Live up your fantasies and lead your own club to the top. But please support and play in your local league.

Hatrick for Manchester United

 Photo courtesy of the Republik of Mancunia

Manchester United has again being crowned as champion of England for 3 consecutive years and they're not just only champion of England, but also Europe and the world!!!

Thanks to Sir Alex Ferguson's brilliance management where he led the team to win the title and in the same time leveled Liverpool's record - A record which they are dying to protect.

Photo courtesy of Neil Jones from sport.co.uk

United had only 7 titles when Sir Alex became the manager of Manchester United and now had won 11 titles under his reign, which then equalize the Liverpool's successful 18 titles record.

The glory is unacceptable and a disgrace for the bitter Looserfools and the most interesting part is that they still boastfully claim that they are the champion of England even though they never won the title since 1990. Well, it's a trophy-less season for them again, but they have 28 reasons why they should be proud of their 2008-09 campaign. At least they have something to cheer about.

Photo courtesy of dailymail

But there's nothing to cheer about for Rafa Benitez, everything is bitter for him, he refuses to congratulate the most successful manager in history but instead ranting and talk nonsense about Sir Alex and Manchester United. Such a pathetic, unprofessional, and childish manager. I can imagine that those Liverpool players and fans will suffer mental breakdown if he stays longer there - You'll never get bitter alone.

Hatrick for Manchester United, Hatred from the Liverpool boss.

Do You Have a Pet? I've Adopted a Pair of Panda Dwarf Hamster

 I used to have a cat, dog, bantam chicken, scorpion and gerbil before but now they're all just memories. My favourite choice of pet is dog because they're men's best friend, but since I spend most of my life living in government housings, I wasn't allowed to keep a dog as pet.

Another problem is that my mum doesn't like me to have a pet due to some health issues that they may cause. Both me and my mum have a sensitive nose (allergies).

She'll happily give away my pet to our relatives or her friends and only discovered that one of my mate has gone when I reached home (you know how I felt).

If you ever still remember, in the 90's, cyber-pet console was once a big hit. It was very famous that almost every kids in town has one, and I don't want to be left behind so I bought myself a cyber-dog. I was so excited, at last I have a "dog" of my own,  I can play with it anytime and bring it anywhere I want!!!

Photo courtesy of Thoughts from the Edge.

It was quite fun at first, I though I won't be lonely anymore but after a few months I realized that something was missing. The problem is that you can't create mutual relationship with a digitalized pet, which is the main reason why you keep a pet.

So it has been awhile I don't have a pet and I really love to have one. Last year I've bought 3 gerbils as a birthday present to my ex-girlfriend but then she decides me to keep it because she have a lot of cats - wasn't a good idea too because I didn't prepare a proper cage for them.

Anyway, it was my first experience having rodents as pet. I've already spent most of my money to buy them so I can't afford to buy a proper cage. With the lack of knowledge about their behaviour I put them into a plastic basket. This is when the "The Three Gerbils Prison Break" series begin.

So I borrowed my uncle's aquarium and used it as their new home. It just solved the problem for a few weeks until they found a new route to escape. It's the wire netting on top of the aquarium, they jump to the net at bit it off - they're gone again!!

Although I did found them, put the back into their cage, replaced the wire netting with a card box with holes, bought them threadmill to play but in the end destroying it which then I remove from their cage, they still managed to escape.

It was a bad experience for me, but I did learn a lot from them. They're so persistence on their escape, don't wanna be held "captive" and find a lot of way to solve their problem if one of their method failed. I think they did inspired me on my "escape from the engineering course".

I've learned from my past experience with the gerbils, so this time I've decided to adopt either hamster or guinea pig because they can't jump and doesn't have "bite-what-you-see" syndrome - I did my research.

So I went to Satok Night Market browsing for hamsters and guinea pigs. I thought of adopting a guinea pig at first but I didn't placed a book, it was sold out the next day when I came with cash. I didn't bring cash during the browsing session, this is to keep me out from the tendency of impulsive purchases.

Since there's no guinea pig breeder in Kuching, it was imported from Sarikei, I have no choice but to wait for the next batch and proceeds with my other option - to adopt hamster.

I decided to adopt the Panda Dwarf Hamster. It wasn't any ordinary hamster that you always see in the pet shop. Their size are much more smaller and they're way more cuter and adorable!!! I was informed that hamsters will be okay without a partner but I don't want it to be lonely so I bought a pair. In the same time having the thoughts of breeding the hamster.

I named them Mickey and Minnie. Welcome to the family.

Labour Day Special: Red Lobster

My family and I went for a family outing last Thursday night at our church's retreat centre at Pedaun, Bau. As the next day is Labour Day, it's a good time for city dwellers like us to escape from the hectic life in the city and to get connected with mother nature, in the same time gettting together with other church members.

Although the building has stand stood for quite a long while but it was my first time to spend a night at the retreat centre because of my "busy-weekend-city-life-activities".

Being far away from the city, mother nature has offered us fresh air and cool breeze at night, which I like, and creepy insects who flies suicidaly trying their best to hit you (imagine gorilla and the planes), which I totally dislike.

The church retreat event on this Labour day was aimed for water baptism, symbolizing repentance and the burial of the old life. On that very special occassion in Christianity, 37 has been born again and now are beginning their new life in Christ.

After done with the water baptism ritual, everyone especially the men and youths jumped into the water while the ladies were busy preparing for lunch.

If you ever realize in these past few days the weather is getting extraordinarily hot during daytime and the sun shines extremely bright - caused by the equatorial heat. Although I was happily splashing in the cold mountain water, I can feel the burning heat from the sun and I even have to put on my shades to protect my eyes from the bright reflections on the water. Which in turn makes me the "hottest" dude who turns up to be red as a lobster.

I was quite surprised to get a sunburn in the middle of the jungle and I think it is quite extreme. I never experience this back in hometown since Lawas is quite far from the equatorial belt.

Maybe some of you, especially my classmates, might wonder why I always seat at the coldest spot in the lecture theatre. It's bloody hot out there and I'm trying to keep myself cold so that I won't sweat execively and smell like someone just came out from the gym.

Although I wasn't enjoying the heat it turn to have a positive effects too, it's an opportunity to get along and having a good time with the church members who I met only on Sunday during church service, it was all great.