INCOVAR Dinner & Dance

How many years has it been since you last met all your friends from INCOVAR?

Wouldn't it be nice to gather again and relive those special memories?

Make time for those who matter...

Come to the INCOVAR Dinner & Dance, happening this 6th September 2008 at Holiday Villa Subang Jaya. For tickets, contact MJ (012-3517615).

Amigos Para Siempre

Friends for life not just a summer or a spring
Amigos para siempre

Spiritual vs Religious

In the recently concluded 3rd INCOVAR Graduate Camp, Bro Tan Huat Chye mentioned the importance of having Spiritual Friends, as compared to Religious Friends. While the 2 words sound similar, the meaning of both are actually different.

What makes a person religious? If that person follows all the religious rituals and practices the form of the religious belief, then he is considered to be a religious person.

But a religious person is not automatically a spiritual person.

So what then makes a person spiritual?

It's the constant questioning of oneself. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing enough? Am I thinking negative thoughts constantly? Would it be good if I helped the needy?

These questions trigger the thought process, and in the process of self reconciliation, he becomes a better person.

A spiritual person is not necessarily a religious person. He may not believe in any god or any religious teacher. But if he avoids evil, does good, and purifies his mind, then he is considered a spiritual person.

And it is these type of people that we should surround ourselves with.

Remember, @ INCOVAR, we can connect you to a network of spiritual friends, thus nurturing a Family in the Dharma :)

Good meeting

Yesterday's ninebugz / rtm / incovar meeting was one of the more productive ones. We managed to chart forward our direction in the different projects. ninebugz is moving forward with the design phase. rtm is reinventing itself into i-Monday. And incovar is pushing forward, merging IDC and IGC to the camp management portfolio. Big picture planning will start soon.

Keep up the spirit!

23idc programmer's meeting

We had dinner in SS2 makan malam, I had tom yam prawns, mango glutinous rice and lobakko (char kuey kak). A whole bunch of us were there, so it was pretty interesting and noisy.

Things started to get a little too quiet when it was time to brainstorm about the camp theme. There were many ideas, many threads of thoughts, but no specific idea or direction to follow.

After some hours of deliberation... here is my idea :)

"Breaking From The Chrysallis: Living Wisely, Rewriting Destiny"
In our daily existence, we tend to see things with a narrow vision. We tend to complain when things don't go our way. We worry about the possibilities that might happen. We whine about the difficulties we face, the bad conditions that we live in. This is akin to life inside a chrysallis; we feel trapped, damp, uncomfortable, dark and cramped.

But if we were to contemplate on the condition, we realize that there is a reason why we are trapped inside the chrysallis. Our past actions have somehow brought forth the conditions that we exist in currently. With this understanding and awareness, we begin to appreciate what we have. Living in a cocooned state, we are protected from nature's harsh environment, insects and other animals looking for juicy flesh to feast upon, natural disasters and other undesirable conditions.

Now with our new wider perspective, we seek ways to enhance our conditions. We make full use of our existence inside the chrysallis, we take opportunity of this "once-in-a-lifetime" chance. We design our actions so that they are wholesome, right and pure, with the intention of creating a better condition for our lives. And so with this, we break free from the chrysallis. By skilful and wise livelihood, we rearrange our lives. We rewrite our destiny.

INCOVAR Blogspot

So the first post has been uploaded. And currently we have 4 team members: MJ, elsf, AR and myself.

How to make it known to the public? I have absolutely no idea. AR mentions something about submitting it to Google, and some other gobbledygook which I do not understand at all. So I guess I'll have to leave it to him.

But what I really want to achieve with this blog is to create a virtual space where any of the INCOVAR Committee can log in and type in anything they want regarding our INCOVAR family. I believe that this can help us maintain the contacts and relationships with our Incovarians. I will be gathering the sheep into the bandwagon and hopefully create something that will be well-known by the world :) *kembang*

On work-related matters, I am having difficulty performing my tasks today. The server is experiencing some slowdown and had to be disconnected from the network. Thus I am unable to run any scripts which are needed. Hence, I can only do the work tomorrow. Which means that I had just spent the entire day unproductively. I guess I can tell how THAT will look in my timesheet this month!

It's just finished raining about an hour ago. I am anticipating frustrating traffic on the way home later. Wishes of best luck to myself and all drivers!

22idc Post Mortem

It was a good post mortem meeting. How good? For starters... it ended before 12! Hehe... but it was a feel-good meeting. There wasn't any harsh feelings... but I truly wonder if we will ever learn from it?

I think this is why there needs to be continuity... there should be some place, some body to look after all the issues that may arise... and that's where I come in-lah :))

This Saturday I'm flying to Pulau Redang for department team building. Hope to relax and get to know more colleagues there. And for a chance to catch a glimpse of hot chicks? Nah, I don't think so... COM-Carrier Operations has no chicks! Hehe... Sad but true...

22idc, steamboat, future

The 22nd INCOVAR Dhamma Camp (22idc) has come and gone... like a swift wind, it just passes by and you can't grasp it firmly... and yet somehow the memories have been entrenched within, a constant reminder of the friendship, and the inspiration.

Just came back from a mini-celebration-cum-appreciation steamboat dinner in BGF Center. About 25 of us (not everyone could turn up) were there to celebrate the success of the recent IDC. Heck, even Datuk was there, congratulating us all on a job well done! :) So we were all there: the committee, the IXP crew, the kitchen helpers, the facilitators... it was such a great environment. For the first time in so many months, we went to BGF not to have meetings or discussions or brainstorming sessions. It was just pure fellowship and fun!

Well, there will still be one more meeting: the post-mortem. It will be the time when we review the camp, and how it has fared. How we have performed, and the things that we can improve on. Only through this honest feedback session can we grow and improve further.

What will I be doing after 22idc? I am not so sure, but I will be involved in the LUSA project definitely. I think it is important to see that INCOVAR grows to become more than a camp. It must encompass so many things which we can potentially do. We have proved it time and time again that, through sincere dedication and effort, we can achieve the impossible! Who would've guessed that the 95%-Buddhist-Thailand could have something to learn from us Malaysians, whose Buddhist population is dwarfed by the sheer numbers in Thailand... this is indeed very inspiring...

For how long will I do this? Again, I dunno. But I do know that I have set my mind into it... And I will contribute my best :)