I had built 2 of my own computers before and helped to build 2 others for my friends, so off I went...to market to market to but some spare parts. Had Mark Chang for company to Sim Lim. Mark's gona help me build this computer. He's an IT guy...and there are 3 things that's really good about Mark.
1) He's a great guy
2) He's also a great guy
3) He's still a great guy
So, we got the parts and we built the computer. We connected everything, and plugged in the switch. LO-and-BEHOLD! No power. Hold your breath. Now picture two guys smacking their foreheads and then rolling and pounding their fists on the floor. Ha. Ok, no, we didn't to that.
We had spent hours...from travelling to buying, to building, and then trouble-shooting. Time-Out! We decided to try again next time - buy more tokens first. I was gonna bring the computer down to Sim Lim for the "pros" to have a check, and maybe get a change of parts within 7 days of purchase.
I brought the blardy...I meant bulky computer to Sim Lim on Thursday. Told the guys my problem. Was explained to me that if there wasn't any problem with the hardware, I had to pay $10 service charge. Yar whatever. I bought the entire chunk of metal from you guys, and it was only 5 days prior...and now you guys wana charge me.
I said ok, but I whispered to Casper (my invisible friend), "Yeah right, $10...like I'm gonna pay. No way Jose. I'll think of something. We'll use this $10 and go buy ice cream later k?"
Now, as I handed over the computer to one of the "pros", a thought came to mind. "What if there really isn't anything wrong? Wah liew...then so pai seh!"
The guys plugged it in. Turned on the switch.
I imagined I had heard a distinct voice saying, "Let there be light!". Because...KAOZ!! Instantaneously the pc came to life with the screen being illuminated, and at that same moment I almost had a cardiac arrest. WAH really PROS siah!! Lidat oso can!
Cursed thought! Why? Why??! Why must I geh kaing and go think such a thought and used my magic to make it come true?? Dumb me..!
All this while, as I was smacking myself on my forehead inside my head, my eyes locked onto the screen that had been illuminated by the presence of "life" from the pc. Then my eyes shifted rather unwillingly to the technician.
(points at the screen...looks at me with a "What? Ok leh"-bewildered-expecting-some-big-challenge-but-got-a-perfectly-working-computer look)
(I looked at him, I looked at the screen...I looked at my shoes trying to my best to find a that gum that seemed to have gotten my feet stuck there. NOT. Ha. I didn't do that lar. I was cool...cooler than cool...I was ICE COLD)
I swaggered over. No lar. Where have so hao lian. Ha. I just described to him my troubleshooting process and he said that there could be various reasons why the pc might not have powered up.
Maybe it was asleep...or maybe it just needed a special touch from a pro.
Anyway, thank God they were gracious enough to not charge me. Also thank God that I came up with a legit reason that the pc might not have powered up...
"Erm...hmmm...maybe it's the power cable you think? Maybe the power cable you guys gave me was faulty...erm...you know? Like, wire's loose? No connection?" (trying my bes to sound like I TOTALLY KNEW what I had done and what I was saying. I was way cool).
"Aiyar, just give him a new power cable."
"Thanks." (I'm still COOL like that).
"No, thank you. Ok now ar? No problem. You go home and check again. Anything just bring back. Please come again."
Got into my car and laughed at myself for coming up with such a lame "reason"...but thank God my mind was working mar. The technician said before there were MANY reasons why it didn't power up, so I had ONE GOOD REASON...
Ha. Like the pros are dumb pros lor...I'm sure they had a chuckle themselves that I had managed to save that $10.
Well, Casper didn't have his ice cream. I kept that $10. Ha.
Last night, found out for myself while trouble-shooting and trying to figure out where went wrong...that it was actually a short circuit on the motherboard. I just had to remove ONE wire.
Just say NARF!!
*DoH!!*
Oh, and that new power cable? It's still unopened. A brand-new power cable, FOC.
Do you really believe what you believe?
Charles Peace (1832 - 1879) was a notoriously prolific and clever burglar whilst being wanted for murder in Sheffield despite his appearance as a well-dressed, violin-playing, respectable man. After being caught by PC Edward Robinson on his beat at Blackheath, Peace was sentenced to death - and then confessed to a second murder - of a police officer - in Manchester 2 years earlier.
As he was being escorted to his execution, a man callously was reading prepared passages of scriptures, when Charlie Peace stopped and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Chaplain. Where are you reading from?"
And the Chaplain said, "The Bible."
Charlie Peace said, "Do you believe it?"
"Yes."
"Do you really believe it?"
"Yes."
Charlie Peace said, "Mr. Chaplain, Sir, if I believe what you and many Chrisitians claim to believe, even one-tenth of what you claim to believe about Hell, I would crawl across England on my hands and knees...even if it were to be littered with glass pieces! And I would count it worth my while to save one soul from that Hell, that you, Sir, so glibly talk about."
D.L. Moody - "Never, ever, preach on the doctrine of Hell without breaking down in the middle and weeping over it...because of its enormous implications."
Ravi Zacharias - "We cannot have meaning in life until we believe the truth about who we are, who God is, and what Man's destiny is. We cannot have meaning without a sense of wonder in God, Truth, and lastly, Love."
How great is the Father's love
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk; she would never talk; she would probably be blind; she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation; and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live -- and live to be a healthy, happy, young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.
David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements, Diana remembers. "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on; but I just wouldn't listen. I couldn't listen. I said, 'No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine,and she will be coming home with us!'"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure; but, as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw,' the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort -- so, they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
And, two months later -- though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero -- Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, Danae was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. There are no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more -- but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet; it smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands, and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of the first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest -- and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
God showed His love, both for the child and her parents. I cannot imagine how heavenly those memories were for the little girl all those time when the Father was holding her....
"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matt 19:14
