God has not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives thro’;
God has not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
God has not promised
We shall not know
Toil and temptation,
Trouble and woe;
He has not told us
We shall not bear
Many a burden,
Many a care.
But God has promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the laborer,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.
(Annie Johnson Flint)
God is always faithful, regardless of our faith. God is always listening, whether we talk to Him or not. Most importantly, God’s grace is always sufficient for us.
Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love.
(1 Cor 13)
Some time back while having coffee with a couple of friends, one of them happened to put the following words together into a sentence, “Thio Li-Ann”, “Teach” and “Human Rights”. We laughed.
Till now, I still can’t help but snigger at the thought.
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Sometimes when I feel like giving up, throwing in the towel, or kicking the bucket, I’ll always read this beautiful prose by Marianne Williamson and be reminded that we’re born to manifest the glory of God within us.
As I’ve have been listening to dance remixes, I always wondered how DJs transition and mix between each track, while maintaining the tempo at a constant. Obviously, with technology these days, it isn’t that difficult but still requires some bit of skill. Imagine the days of turntables and a mixer board only.
I guess DJs are a spontaneous bunch of skilful sound engineers.
One of the things I’m trying very hard to improve is my expression through written and verbal methods. I find it troubling and difficult to express what and how I feel in accurate and concise terms. Unintentionally, it leaves people with an inaccurate impression of what I originally intend to mean. The implications aren’t so bad when the subject-matter is largely technical, but when it comes to things that matter to the heart and soul, unintentional problems and misunderstandings can arise.
Although I’m an INTJ according to some personality tests, I have great passion in trying to empower people I meet to be able to do “meta-learning”. Rather than knowing as much data as possible to be knowledgeable, why not know as many possible methods of seeking out information and solutions instead? That way, whatever problems that you come across, you’ll have the tools and skills to discover the solutions and answers yourself.
As I hand over my work in the current organisation, I’d spent almost all available time trying to impart thinking ability rather than rote-memorisation abilities. The nature of my work is largely ad-hoc problem solving and fire fighting; being able to know how to come up with solutions when you’re out of ideas is the key to surviving comfortably.
Little did I expect however, in the words of Henry Ford, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it”. I can only resign and sigh, wishing them all the best.
One of my good friends once asked how I seem to be able to have access to timely intelligence information pertaining to everyday life and happenings in the organisation. I’ve always maintained that it’s the result of a robust “Int[elligence] Network”. The concept is extremely simple—people volunteer interesting information of what they see and experience during casual conversations. As long as you do more listening than talking, you’ll be able to gain a wealth of information. It sounds awfully like gossip but it isn’t as long as you don’t volunteer nor listen to unreliable information about other people behind their back.
With a little bit of induction-deduction and a lot of listening, you’ll be able to obtain a lot more information than most people. A plus if you are observant as there’s as much information volunteered as restrained; double-plus if you ask the right questions; triple-plus if you know the right people for the right type information. With a good memory and pleasant working relationships, you’ll be powerfully connected.
So really, these are the little things in office that keep me mentally entertained in an alternative way; true to Apple, Inc’s philosophy—Think Different.
Having been in Australia for 3 weeks, I haven’t been doing much physical training as the conditions, i.e. dust, sand and all, are extremely bad for my asthma. Upon touch down, I must take my IPPT before ORD-ing in just 7 days.
Today is the day I cleared it finally in the far west; To God be the Glory.
Today, something rather bizarre happened. While I was ordering coffee, I felt like having a hot coffee as the environment was rather cold there and drinking something warm would feel good. Little did I realise, I made an order for an iced version instead, without even realising the thought inconsistency. I was offered a packet of sugar which I promptly refused as my drink to come is cold.
It was only when my coffee arrived that I realised that the coffee is cold and that I actually wanted hot coffee instead in the beginning. All these happened within the span of 20 minutes.
This is really bad; I’m severely sleep deprived and still jet lagged. I shall have a sleeping pill tonight and hope that I don’t wake up at 4 am tomorrow morning again, as it has been the last 4 days.
If this still doesn’t help, I need to find a way to reset my Circadian rhythm, fast.
I’m freaking myself out these days as I realised that I can hardly conduct a coherent conversation without pausing too much to think of the appropriate word to use for expression. This is kind of strange as I always believed that my train of thought is based on any language that I have access to. I have thus discovered that it is not entirely so. I can actually think of an idea or concept and not have the words or language to express it without intensive thought.
This isn’t a good ORD present.
Not to mention, I seem to be losing control of my thoughts as they speed past so fast that I hardly know what I just thought about. Not to mention the absentmindedness and really short linguistic memory. It also seems to have a side-effect of causing insomnia. Feels like the mental degradation that I’ve started experiencing since Sec 2. Could it have been OM training that once stretched my mind and that the lack of it now which is causing this mental dystrophy?
Another costly by-product of NS.
With my logical reasoning out-of-control at time, emotional management goes haywire. Things that I don’t have to consciously deal with starts to come in and pile up. Then, my mood gets awfully affected. I’m glad I don’t have the urge to drowning myself in alcohol as it’s an unfortunate positive feedback loop. Imagine feeling depressed and one keeps consuming depressants?
Drives me nuts.
Maybe all the above are just side-effects of my trip to Australia. We had really poor sleep cycles as we were subjected to 26-hour shifts to maintain 24-hour manning of the place. In addition, during the off-shift periods, the only time when it is possible to sleep is during sun-down timings. Coupled with a horrible, narrow and short cot bed, sleep quality is no make-up to the deprived sleep.
Back in Singapore, I still have “Jetlag”, wanting to sleep at 8 pm (10 pm), waking at 4 am (6 am) the next day. I’m trying my best to readjust my sleeping hours by sleeping later, hoping to wake up later, but so far it isn’t successful. I still wake up at ~4 am. I believe that I’m sleep deprived to some extent.
Mental service injuries?
I think my action plan for the next few months immediately after my ORD would be to engage more in thinking conversations or witty games (which I missed since school ended). Maybe (re)learn a language? German or Japanese looks easy enough. I’ve got all the necessary reference materials in my shelf already. In addition, I think musical (re)development would help in some obscure way — I shall give my piano and guitar some good tickles.
Then I was wondering, would rearranging a new bookshelf for my overflowing pile of books help? It sounds pretty fun and would make things a magnitude neater. Hopefully driving some order back into my subconsciousness.
Emotionally, running back into the embrace of our Heavenly Father works all the time. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”
My trip overseas was difficult, not in terms of unfamiliarity with the terrain or conditions as I’ve been there before, but in terms of my mental health. Being trapped in the desert with such boredom, having hardly anyone to converse with intellectually almost drove me into the abyss.
Fortunately for me I could still think logically and that wireless internet connection was available via social engineering and thus I remained sane. Reading is hardly possible as the conditions were not suitable — I did finish half a book though.
Even through all these, I felt God with me, carrying me through with his Love; the joy in Him is my strength.
Now, I’m glad I’m back.
The song by Hillsong, You Hold Me Now, reveals his Glory and His new Kingdom.
On that day when I see
All that You have for me
When I see You face to face
There surrounded by Your grace
All my fear is swept away
In the light of your embrace
When Your love is all I need
And forever I am free
Where the streets are made of gold
In Your presence healed and whole
Let the songs of heaven rise to you alone
No weeping, no hurt or pain
No suffering You hold me now
You hold me now
No darkness no sick or lame
No hiding You hold me now,
You hold me now
In this life I will stand
Through my joy and my pain
Knowing there’s a greater day
There’s a hope that never fails
When Your name is lifted high
And forever praises rise
For the glory of Your Name
I’m believing for the day
When the wars and violence cease
All creation lives in peace
Let the songs of heaven rise to you alone
No weeping, no hurt or pain
No suffering You hold me now
You hold me now
No darkness, no sick or lame
No hiding You hold me now,
You hold me now
For eternity
All my heart will give
All the glory to Your name
No weeping, no hurt or pain
No suffering You hold me now
You hold me now
No darkness no sick or lame
No hiding You hold me now,
You hold me now
It’s been nearly two years since my enlistment and I’m glad that I’m on my last mile. Throughout these 2 years, some people would claim that it has been a thorough waste of time, others would say that it’s an experience of a lifetime.
I’ve experienced a fair share of both claims and can testify that 50% of the outcome lies in my hands. There are certainly some sights to behold, trials and tribulations to endure, friends to be made, time to be wasted, problems to be solved, along the way of ORD.
The trick to your time being wasted is to make good use of the time when people are wasting your time. Although I am working in an organisation that prides itself for being timely and decisive, people are routinely late for meetings. I fit books in my iPod Touch or paperbacks in my side pocket. If I were to forget or be bored by rumbling drones, I’ll take out my mobile phone and look up the latest from Reuters and Google Reader. Of course, having the secret to prevent people from wasting your time should mean that you’ll be mindful of taking up the time of others.
Another trick to a time waster in another context is that people would insist that you do certain things using primitive and time consuming methods. I’ve learnt to give equally lengthy forecast of completion, use modern methods, and use the time saved to do my other more important things. I’d learnt this cool trick from one of my school teachers.
That’s the gist on the time savers I’d learnt and employed.
As my work moved into the HQ, time wasters are no longer the biggest enemies. The new and powerful word in use is Politics. Putting it upfront, I thoroughly hate it. Navigating through the minefield of politics is a skill to be learnt and polished in any office environment.
I’ve learnt how to smile when you’re boiling furious, make friends and be friendly toward deadly enemies, capture and understand the nuances of intent and sentence structure in instructions, reading the truth of smiling lies, and most despicable of all, cleaning up after people’s defecation. Sometimes I wonder, am I working too much and hard for what I’m paid? Then again, it’s the price for the development of alternative mental faculties.
On the other hand, I’ve learnt a lot more about myself that I could ever have. I’ve noticed that my subconsciousness is like a sponge, soaking up everything around me — the good, the bad, and the ugly, slowly assimilating collated information into my behaviour.
I avoid certain people only because I don’t want to pick up their traits.
As with all politics, I have to deal with lies, half-truths, and white-lies. Knowing how to distinguish between them is important as it gleams significant information which can be of great use.
Lies are rather easy to detect from non-compulsive liars. What’s written in body language books aren’t very useful, as I believe, every person has ‘fingerprint actions’ when he’s about to lie. Taking reference from an obvious lie, one can capture the ‘fingerprint’ and hence match it to whenever it occurs again. To be especially effective in finding the truth and to identify lying, use binary questions while watching out for the ‘fingerprint’.
Nevertheless, I will sorely miss my fellow mates whom I’ve met in one way another, having tried my best to know (and make friends with) as many of them as possible.
Yesterday, I was given an interesting problem to tackle.
We were given a bunch of laptops, 8 of them to be exact, already cloned but missing almost 15 GB of important user-end data. There’s no way to re-clone all these machines, as the source image is not available to us. The only way is to copy the 15 GB of files to each machine, no two ways about it. The 15 GB of files lie on a 500 GB external USB harddisk. I have Ethernet cables and 2 Ethernet switches.
The big question is how?
Of course, copying from the harddisk onto each laptop one after another, manually, or via Sneakernet, is the favourite answer, but no. I can only call that desperate, physically constrained, or intellectually apathetic.
I’m a person who loves processes, systems, and automation. Having to copy a bunch of files serially and manually, and onto so many computers repetitively is unacceptable, especially when you have to rinse and repeat a whole 8 times. Suffering a little pain to get any infrastructure up, just to let it copy automatically painlessly is what I’m looking for. 先苦后甜.
Out of ideas, I pinged a few people via sms, “Hey, what is the most efficient way to transfer 15 GB of data onto 8 different laptops, without cloning.”
Portable Harddisk / Sneakernet, Samba CIFS were the few answers that came in. Someone suggested copying from one to two, two to four, four to eight, but that’s too tedious and not scalable, equipment wise. But what if the media used is the Ethernet?
I probed further, “multicast network solutions?”
“BitTorrent”. Bingo. Thanks to cflee for that great suggestion! That’s the term and I knew it would certainly work. I did read up on the BitTorrent protocol some time back and am quite disappointed that this didn’t occur to me earlier. He also mentioned that uTorrent provides a built-in tracker, and that there’s a handy guide available.
Spent 10 minutes reading through and successfully managed to give it a trial within my home network between 2 computers. Conceptually, a prototype has been demonstrated and there’s no way it can fail the next day.
Spent the following morning with a few co-workers digging up rarely used networking equipment and proceeded to wire-up the machines. The two 4-port switch cum wireless APs were miserable — they only leave us with 6 usable LAN ports. The other 2 machines had to do with 802.11G wireless. It’ll work, but just a little slower. I was hoping to complete this whole ordeal before the day is to end, i.e. 5.30 pm, and go home on time. After all, copying 15 GB from the portable harddisk onto one of the laptops already took a grand total of 60 minutes. If I had to do this serially and linearly, it’ll take no less than 8 hours. Portable harddisks are rare too, especially for filesizes that huge.
I configured the DHCPd and got the whole network running nicely and proceeded to install uTorrent on all the machines (skipping the rubbish, ad-supported nonsense). That took hardly 10 minutes as Samba CIFS came into play. It’ll be cool if there’s a automatic install distributor but I’ve not got time for it.
Created the initial seeding torrent according to the guide and that process took almost 15 minutes. Thousands of tiny files, coupled with gigantic files, whatever you can imagine, the limits of the filesystem are being tested here.
Started the seed on the tracker, turned on ‘Initial Seeding’ while I distributed the newly created .torrent to the rest of the machines.
Changed back to standard Seeding once all the machines have entered the swarm.
Thinking about the 8 hours that I would have to take, going by the conventional advice, I grinned and went on to do other work, while giving my forecast of completion to ‘End of the Day’.
The seeding started at around 9 to 9.30 am. I drove out to buy breakfast for everyone and came back at around 10.30 am.
I took a peak at the progress and I got a shock of my life.
All the wired Ethernet clients are now seeding! 100% download complete! With only the 2 miserable wireless clients left struggling with the slow connection. I exchanged the wire and wireless connection with 2 other computers and I saw the download speed race to the roof.
12.2 MB/s. It works out to ~100 Mbps.
Every 30 seconds, the download speed will slow a little and a uTorrent would pop a warning at the status bar, “Harddisk overload 100%”. Wow, a solid harddisk LED.
I’m impressed.
Darned. I thought the transfer would take the whole day, giving me time for a well deserved break, but little did I know, the transfer had completed before I even had lunch!
So, now you know. BitTorrent is extremely efficient in one-to-many, many-to-many, and many-to-one distribution tasks. As long as the overhead of installing and running uTorrent on every machine is well distributed and / or paid for, this is an extremely useful piece of software to add into any sysadmin’s arsenal.
Some other hidden benefits of BitTorrent are that it is resumable, repairable, distributed (many to many, any seeder / peer can enter or leave the swarm without much disruption nor require any human rectification), lightweight (300k installer), and automated (once past the initial start, and handles disconnections gracefully).
Really, BitTorrent has its legitimate use as above, quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.).
