I was browsing thru my old MP3s. And then I
happen to scroll some Malay songs which i use to love. Honestly speaking, I use
like the typical Mat Rock music. U know those bands with male singers that
scream with a high pitch. I think its really cool.

Yea… it sometimes gives you the feeling like you’re in Puduraya or Komtar. But hey… I
love it. I am a fan of the Malay band WINGS… when Awie was still there.

Mat Rock bands have this distinctive sound which separates them from the rest.
I notice that they have a tendency to use minor chords in their songs. The
malays call this lagu jiwang. A lot of their songs gives you the feeling like u
just putus cinta. And one thing that is a must is the lead guitars. These malay
bands must GORENG no matter what. And they like to tarik the lead guitar with a
high pitch. Lagunya ada kala penuh dengan "feel". Guitarist, Joe
Wings remain one of my favourite guitarist. Elegant and full of feel. A left
hander who plays the gibson les paul.

Awie remains one of my favourite Mat Rock singer. He has this manly voice. I
just love the way he screams. I got introduced to Awie when I saw his movie
"Sembilu" when I was a teenager. That show was aired during Hari
Raya. The theme song, "Di Ambang Wati" is still my favourite.

Fyi, Awie left Wings for a solo career. There was once when he returned to the
band to produce the album Wings - Naga Kramat. One of my malay friend kept
reminding me to buy that album.

"Eh… Jason lu jangan lupa beli itu Wings-Naga Kramat. Awie sudah balik
la… "

Keke… those were the days. Listening to the song "Di Ambang Wati"
certainly brought back some memories to me.

Malay bands also have a trademark of being "creative" with their
names. It may sound stupid… but i really think its cool man.

Take for example the band "Kamikaze". I like this band too. It was
introduced to me by my long time buddy abang Cornelius from

Sabah

,
the guy who introduce the guitars to me. The name of the band’s singer is
called "T-Rex". When I hear T-Rex singing, he was the typical Malay
Rocker singer with the distinctive high pitch voice. T-Rex has this long hair
which he ties. Hes quite dark. Guess what, it was later part that I found out
that he was actually CHINESE. Must have grown up with a bunch of malays.

The songs these Mat rock’s songwriting can be really creative at times. You
gotta check out their song names… "Bazooka Penaka"(Wings),
"Pontianak"(XPDC), "Intisari Taming Sari"(Kamikaze),
"Ranggi Metropolis", "Simbiosis cinta pada mu"(Ella),
"Suci dalam debu"(Iklim), "Akar dan Bumi"(Amuk)… and many
more.

HAHaha… I was playing one of the songs by Amuk, "Ingat ingat". Just
the introduction… even before the vocalist started singing… my brother
immediately recognized it and said… LAGU MELAYU?

A lot of us lived in

Malaysia

…
I wonder how many of us ever tried to explore other people’s culture?
Think about it again. Theres always a beauty in other peoples culture. All we
need to do is to be open and explore. And then appreciate it for their own
uniqueness. Maybe not everyone will agree with me… keke… so be it.

Handling a floorball team is never easy. What more handling the whole club alone. I always say, I dun have the skills and credibility to do what Im doing. Who am I?

Anyway… God has granted me vision and wisdom to make things happen.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

When I took over the club, I saw many problems. The first question I ask myself is, (not what i want to do but…) what needs to be done?

COMMITTED ABLE,COMPETENT AND TALENTED MEN AND WOMEN.

First step, was to collect able and competent men and women of all talents to aid me in building up the club. These group of people have to be committed no matter the cause.They are my right hand people, the leadership of the club. I have been constantly challenging people to rise up. Some have taken the bold step to answer the challenge.                                  
                                    

Unfortunately life is not a bed of roses. To start up some thing, it is hard for people to catch the vision. People have many desires. They want many things. Some are good at prioritizing. Some are not.

A problem that I face is people getting involved in too many things. Be it in a band, studies, CF, basketball, football, girlfriend, boyfriend. To me, its all distractions. But this can’t be helped. They need to realize it along the way. If one desires to see success, sacrifices must be made. One has to be focus or else they will run it thin.

In spite of these inevitable circumstances, I must say that my group of leaders have been supportive and committed. And they are very very helpful to me. They did a great job with calling the players, collecting the fees and updating our floorball blog. I don’t write it anymore. I am planning to get more manpower after the youthwave tournament, as we enter Phase 3.

SENSE OF BELONGING.

Second step, was to instill a sense of belonging amongst the current players. In my personal view, this is the most important group of people, they are the customers. It is the critical success factor(CSF) of the whole club. If they aren’t happy, no matter how determined you are, you are bound to fail. The whole clubs fate is in their hands.

The problem gets complicated when you get people from diverse backgrounds. Some are here for the friendship. Some just come for fun. Some come for personal development. Some come purely for the sake of playing floorball. Uniting their goals is the test of the leader’s ability.

I always believe that when you feel belonged, the skills will automatically come with it. Because when you feel belonged, you tend to be more committed and passionate about something.

Its beginning to take place now. Just look at the updates on the blog. Commitment is beginning to take place. I got 21 people playing for the friendly match against Contactsports(though we lost 8-3, we had fun, everyone got to play, new and experienced). We have an average attendance of 12 people weekly during training. Sometimes its even more. I guess thats encouraging.

TAKING THE PINCH

Thirdly, knowing that this is a complex process, thus, unexpected disappointments are prone to happen. I have to tell myself that I have to take the pinch every time this happens. For the past 4 months, I have tested my patience to the max. People cannot turn up for training, parents don’t allow, school having activities, criticisms and insults that come along the way. I also know that I can never make everyone happy. I have to be the bad guy at times.

People must understand that floorball is not football. In football, the players look for you. In floorball, we have to beg people to play. For the sake of the vision, I did all those things.

No matter how bad things turn out, as a leader, one must always be optimistic and move on. Even if I am depressed, the whole vision is always bigger than me. I must still operate even though I dun feel like it. To give up because of your emotions is a sign of weakness.  It takes a lot of effort to fight your emotions, but when u got over it, it is rewarding.  When you have answered the challenge, there is no turning back. That is my philosophy. Hokkien people say.. phak si bo cau(even if u whack me, i wont run away).

DEPRESSION

When I went to KL last trip, I finally got into a depression period. Perhaps it is natures way of telling me, its enough. In fact I still am in my depressed state.  I did not talk about floorball for a few weeks. My only way of cooling myself down is to immerse myself in other areas of interest. I view this as a means to reflect back on whatever that took place. Maybe I just needed some time out.

In my depressed state, i tend to be pessimistic. Pessimist can see things that an optimist cannot. In my case now, I see both sides. To fight this state may not be a wise thing to do. But to be open to what my intuition tells me, is to take time to reflect on things. It really got me thinking a lot. But again, i like to think. So its fine with me.

FEEDBACK

After discussing with some people, many have viewed that things are better now than before. The club is moving forward. While it is taking one step back, it is also taking two steps forward. There are people whom told me that Ive achieved all i said above. Getting people together, uniting their goals, sharing the vision. While we still cannot compete with the top teams, our players are improving. Slowly but surely. Some even question, why am I depressed in the first place?

hahaha… Im only human. Thank you for the encouragement. This depressed state is only temporary. Once I bounce back, I believe, we will go to the next level. When it comes, get ready, for there will be lots of work to do.

I just came back from KL. My lecturers from UK once again come all the way to Segi College Subang Jaya to conduct a workshop for us. This trip was kinda cool. I had so limited time, and praise GOD i got to meet up with a few people. Time is scarce so i had to prioritize. This trip i stayed at Adrian’s place in Puchong.

GRANDFATHER STROKE.

This trip i visited my maternal grandfather in Putrajaya Gov.
Hospital. He got into a stroke. His right side is paralyzed. Everyday
after classes i went to visit him. Wasn’t long, cos the visiting hours
is only until 8pm. Got to visit my relatives there as well. Its
touching to see my uncles and aunties being a filial son and daughter
making an effort to visit my grandfather everyday.I also visited one of my uncle who got himself into an accident. It seems he has passed the critical stage.

ERIC LIM

Other than that i got to meet up with some geng lama. On the first day i got to meet up with Eric Lim my kaki lepak while i was in Inti. Had a nice chat at the mamak stall and starbucks in Central point. (Thanks for meeting up, i know u’re tired due to the changes from aussie to malaysia. Appreciate it).  He still has his aussie slang with him.  But nevertheless , pretty much the same. Only difference now is… he dances salsa… hahaha… keep it up. Wish that you will get a good job as u r searching for it, i believe GOD will provide u.

YAZID

The next day i got to meet up with my old buddy from sabah, Yazid. Its been 6 years i lost contact with him. Again I had a great chat with him. He even introduced his friend, Sazif to me. 6 tahun tak jumpa… masih tak ubah-ubah… hahaha… its really good to meet up with friends after a long time losing contact. This is almost like "Jejak Kasih"….

LYDIA LEE

The following day, I met up with Du Lee yang maha mulia… Lydia Lee San San. This fellow is another tired  person who made the extra  effort to meet up with me. Being a lawyer is not easy. Lots of work… which is tiring… Thanks a lot for meeting up.

AH PORK

The same day itself, I also got to meet up with the legendary Raymond Pork… my ex-ICF buddy. Its great to see him again meeting me up with his "lepak mobile" aka BFM 9389. Had a short chat cos time does not permit us to chat kow kow.

SIB KL

On the final day itself, I finally got to visit SIB kl church. Its quite a big church. Its at least 5 times bigger than RGBC in terms of its number of members. Most of the Frontliners that left Penang are regulars in SIB… so i paid them a visit there. After church, Marcus parents, Uncle Yat Poh and Aunty Sally belanja all of us Ngah Choy Kai.

CHONG WEE

Immediately after that I went to Klang to meet up with my ex-classmate from school, Chong Wee. We chatted for 2 hours in Jusco Klang. Its good to hear that hes picking up in his career as an auditor. We sort of updated each other wats going on with our life especially career plans. After that i sent him back to his house.

JESSICA YAP

That night itself i got to meet up with Jessica Yap for dinner. I got to eat the Jalan Gasing, Satelite , Ngah Choy Kai again. She spent both me and adrian for dinner. We did a lot of catching up. Looks like life in KL as an auditor is quite stressful… haha…tats life.

FRONTLINERS

FINALLY… at night at 12am, i got to meet up with former FRONTLINER leaders, Joel Vergis, Marcus Lau and Gwen. Had a nice time crapping. Its very encouraging to hear that they are maturing in the LORD. Chatted all the way to 3.30am. We were supposed to leave earlier, but somehow we engaged ourselves with a good discussion on the topic of Co-habitant and 21 year old ruling… keke…thanks a lot for coming out so late.

Back to Penang

So finally im back here in Penang. Home sweet home. KL was good. I enjoyed the good food there… the Jalan 222 Hokkien Mee.. now tat im back in penang, its time for Char Koay Teow and Asam Laksa.