Bruised Apples

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner.
 
Well, as such things go, one thing led to another.
 
The sales manager went longer than anticipated and the meeting ran overtime. Their flights were scheduled to leave out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, and they had to race frantically to the airport. With tickets in hand, they barged through the terminal to catch their flight back home.
 
In their rush, with tickets and brief cases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of baskets of apples.
 
Apples flew everywhere.
 
Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding.
 
All but one.

He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
 
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
 
He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping, and no one to care for her plight.
 
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more.
 
As he did this he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
 
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $20 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."
 
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...."
 
He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.
 
She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
 
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his mind.
 
"Are you Jesus?"
 
Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
 
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's Actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
 
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
 
Let's start living like we are worth the price He paid.

Streamyx

It seems that everyone uses broadband internet for either fast browsing or for young people like me, to download torrents. Unfortunately, there were some complains that downloading torrents can affect web-browsing. How true is this???

I think my luck with streamyx is not that good for I had connectivity problem for the pass few days and finally 2 days back, I can't connect to the internet at all. I called the technical department and made a report with them. When I ask them if the modem have problem they say no it shouldn't be. But from their side, I wasn't login to the internet when I was connected here at home. Weird isn't it?

They then asked me to do some checking and still refused to ruled out the most obvious problem. I wasted 40 minutes trouble-shooting what they asked me to do which isn't the main reason of the problem. I wonder if that is one of their ways of getting money from my phone bill??? Since I'm using Celcom, they still earn from me -_-"

Aside from that, I asked the technician how come they cap the downloads of torrents. It seems that the staff themselves also download torrents. But they know which IP address are cap and know how to set the port to enhance their own downloads. Is this fair then??? I was furious but what can I do.

After that phone call, I was left internet-less for the whole day. But the very first thing on the next morning, they called up to come check. When they came, they went and check if my phone was working. It was. Then it came back to modem. And of all things, it was the modem problem -_-" I asked them if it is and they keep saying no such thing.

The worst part is, I was con by them also. When I first subscribe to them, the modem that was given to me was spoilt. When they change a new one for me, it was a different brand and they didn't inform me that that particular modem do not have warranty. So they went happily charging me RM80 for the new modem if I want to be connect to the internet immediately. What a con-job.

I think I learned my lesson from them. I'm going to keep a spare modem so that I can use it to test if it is modem problem or not in future. If it is, I can save my phone bill calling their hotline and also giving them money for new modem which doesn't cover warranty. Streamyx is really a rip-off but I have no choice for they are the one who gives the fastest line and less problem compare to other broadband services.

MUFY old gathering

Kean Leng SMS me for a meet up on Saturday night. He is the planner for the gathering this round. We were to meet in Asia Cafe at 9.30pm but I asked him to change it to 10pm for I have an appreciation dinner to attend in church.

I was late anyway for the yam cha. When I reach there, he was already there with Senan, King, Kavinash and Kevin. It seems more like a guys gathering with a girl suddenly appearing there. Thanks to Kevin who say that I'm considered a guy -_-" Anyway, we catch up a lot of what we miss out and it was nice to catch up on one another. Interesting news was Senan had bought a house. Wonder when we would receive the red invitation card from him ^_^ The next best gossip we got is, King was hit on by a older woman. I think that is old news ^_^ It is either underage girls or older woman for him. But anyways, King add oil lor ^_^

It seems a bit small a group though from our usual MUFY group in 2001. I can say that some have gone a different direction from us while one of them is married ^_^ The married one is Merlye who is now in Kuching. How are we to meet up with her then??? There are also a few who can't make it for they have family function to attend.

Anyway, towards nearly the end of our gathering, we have a good laugh on one of our friend whom we all agree upon who is a jerk and an asshole. I think a few would know who we meant ^_^ Hint??? A very loud person. I think Melanie, if she read this can guess who it is.

It was a fun night but we have no idea when we would next meet up. So far, the last few among us who drag longer to finish our degree are finishing soon ^_^ That includes me ^_^ Hopefully the next gathering we would have more people then.