two steps behind

In celebration of the 1 year anniversary of TwoStepsBehind… I chose this Panorama that was taken in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand. The island also known as the Nail Island. The picture was taken on Christmas of 2009; the same day that I was reunited and met many of my long lost family members. It was the family trip that I must have mentioned on previous posts.

Looking back a year to date…  there are many changes in the way I process pictures, which hopefully have improved greatly. A year ago, I believed that there would be a day that I could take a nice landscape shot, a panorama of some sort… as my very first post at TwoStepsBehind, Hello Planet Earth, Welcome to Two Steps Behind!, was a panorama of the Vancouver Bridge, Canada. That belief… brought me to where I am today… with the photo which I am really proud of. To me it’s a really big step that was made of many small steps.

A year has passed and I couldn’t believe how much things have changed… or at least just me.

There was so much to learn in a year, and I can say for certain that life is…

to Live and Learn…
to keep going forward…
to give and to love unconditionally

and most important of it all…

to never lose hope.
because I do still believe strongly that, hope achieves the impossible.

In celebration of 1 year anniversary of TwoStepsBehind… I am going to make a slide show, when I have time, to see where has TwoStepsBehind has visited. I know that Apple has those cool programs, iMovie, iDvd… etc to make the globe spin from one place to the next. Let us see how would that turn out!

But first things first… I must thank you everyone for visiting this website…
First of all, my mother for making me realize that I should write a blog so that she could keep up with my where abouts.
Secondly, Qi for gifted me with “HALF” of the Canon Rebel XSI for my Bachelor of Architecture graduation present.

Thirdly, SCI_Arc for exposing me to the world of APPLE and MACBOOK PRO

Forth, Wordpress + Flickr + Facebook + iPhoto… for making it so easy to blog.
Last but not least… is Trey, the god of HDR for sharing his tutorial at www.StuckInCustoms.com which became a great inspiration for me. Thank you to all of my reader to continuing reading many if not most of my non-sense posts!

THANK YOU!!!

Cheers… on to the next and many more year to come!

Photos taken at Phang Nga Bay, Nail Island, Thailand on December 25, 2009

A year ago…

I believe that everything happens for a reason…

Today post may sound a bit serious and very personal, but it is part of who I am and could and would affect the way I see and do things that may be different from others.

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason… that is simply because of John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life…” said Jesus Christ.

Before I became a Christian, I always needed proof or some sort of evidence to verify each life events that happen to the point that… I always asked myself, “why on earth would this have to happen to me?”

No matter how many “because dot dot dot” for the answer of “why dot dot dot happened?” the question can NEVER be answered in full or totally acceptable to me.

But that has changed

After having put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ… my heart and my mind is at peace because I have stop asking myself “why dot dot dot?” because “everything happen for a reason” or reasons that has already been set by Jesus Christ, after all he is “the way” and “the truth” and “the life”

How could I say that I trust you, Jesus… but to always doubt in him when anything bad happen or when things doesn’t happen the way I – expected – it to be.

By having faith and trusting him, I simply believe that anything that happened is for the greater good and that it was from his best interest in my well being.

I mean… to think about it how heavy it would be if I were to have the burden of carrying all of the problems (or I thought that it was the problems) and try to solve them (maybe it doesn’t even need to be solve in the first place)

The way we do anything is the way we do everything – another phrase that I do live my life by.

I give the same trust and faith that I have in Jesus to all those around me. When I said I trust in Jesus, I meant it and that I would not doubt his method of how my life would turn out because… I simply trust in him.

…

..

.

But we all know that everyone is different and I guess I was wrong to assume that everyone would have the same mentality as I am, hence I create an expectation when someone said “I trust you.” I know that everyone is different because no matter how many reasons explained… it sound like excuses to them.

Elbert Hubbard once said “never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.”

I think he got the point.

But the point is really, why would you ever doubt the person you said, “I trust you” to?

Exactly 2 years ago, on January 11 2008 I had a thought of coming to Thailand to work.
2 years later, I am in Bangkok, Thailand working!

It is amazing how things can turn out… unexpectedly.

Below is the photo I took while I was on the roof of the boat during the trip to Nail Island in Phang Nga, Thailand. To only realize later that, I have been here before… but perhaps it was 15 years ago. Not much have change about the place, but I am certainly getting old!

15 years ago, I visited the island with my mother… as for this year I visited the island with my grand mother! Well, there was no scuba diving this time

While I was taking picture, its remind me of the song “somewhere only we know” by Keane.

The sky was so blue, the clouds were scattered by the wind, the trees were waving along with the breeze of fresh air and I was just laying there, on the stepping stones. Letting the day drift away slowly and just simply staring at the clear blue sky wondering why… why do I think about “why” so much! And then I just kept on why”ing”.

It was then, when I captured the view while I was visiting the Retiro Park, as I laid down by the pool and waited for my friends to finishing rowing the boat.

One of the questions I had was… Who is this man?
After zooming at the picture, then googled the name… I found out that he was the King Alfonso XII of Spain reigning, from 1875 to 1885. The amazing thing is that he was born in1857 which mean that he became the king while he was only 18 years old.

One amazing King!

Ever feel like when the day is gonna be over so that the night can begin? I guess everyone must have one of those moments as I have been feeling that way for weeks now. Sure work is very interesting and I do enjoy working and learning new things but there are times to work and times to relax.

Each day… is about 12 hours at work then home for another 8 hours.
The gap between work and home is really something worth looking forward to.

Not at work nor at home… that’s the place to be!

Blogging has been really hard recently due to problems with the hosting server (dreamhost) that has been very unstable due to “unknown reasons” according to the DH representative. Most of the time that the problems occur, it happens just right before my bed time (the time that I normally blog)

So I end up only uploading photos to FLICKR and believe it or not… FLICKR was down the other day too, so I couldn’t upload the pictures or even blog on Flickr! Sigh…

All these uncertainties that seem to keep happening non stop are really driving me to the edge… of a river… to REST, and just fall asleep some where, with the breeze from fresh air, sounds of the chilling wind, and the soothing scent of the nearby flowers. I need a really good rest sometime these days!

Just can’t seem to find any opportunities for it yet.

This is the result of another drive by shot while Simon was driving us to Madrid, Spain. No, he wouldn’t stop the car because he believed that if he do stop at every place I wanted to take picture, then we would never make it to Madrid. Silly but I think that he may be right.

The image is a bit blurry, yet I love it. I wonder what this building was once before, a warehouse was my wild guess. Whatever it was, it has such a nice location and view for the entire valley below and that it refuses to collapse.  Just stood there, perhaps one day someone will see its true value and come back to renovate it? Well, I would if I could… renovate, recreate and fill it with joy and life as it should be the same as when it was created.

I took this photo 2 weeks ago, the afternoon of the graduation ceremony. Knowing that it was going to be the last afternoon I spent at Les Roches Marbella, I took the photo just to remember it. I am sure many of the 28# share this same view! Great view isn’t it?

The walk / run today at the park in the neighbourhood reminded me of the school as I sometime go for a walk / run to Puerto Banus. I came to find out how exhausted it was to run! After barely making 3 laps without collasping, I was soaking with sweat… and it was 8:00PM !

Anyways, it feels good to run! Next time I’ll be sure to bring my camera to take photo of the park to share it here. ^_^

First of all… my website www.TwoStepsBehind.com is having technical problems right now after trying to update it… and then it just gives an ERROR! sooo sigh…..

But that is not going to stop me! Here I am, blogging on Flickr!!! muahahahaha. I’ll fix TSB later. Hey if it doesn’t work? Just be patient and slowly fix it… how? I really don’t know yet, but… I’ll have it fixed in a week.
And if it can’t be fix? I’ll make a new one! Just like that ^_^ If I had one before, this time I know how to make the next one… much better

So the picture… that bright shine is the lovely moon of ours that we all share. Due to the double or triple glass of the airplane, it produce the image as you see it before your eyes.
I LOVE IT!

During the trip up to San Francisco, on the beginning of the trip, I snapped away at many things but then… everything becomes just another picture of the landscape… EXCEPT this one!!! The moment when I saw that tree… I feel its loneliness, yet its strength has encourage me to see life differently. From the shape of the tree’s branches, it must have been through so many storms, rain and heat day after day and yet it refuses to give up. It strives to grow, while uncertain about its future and to survive anyway possible.

The picture reminded me of a quote I saw back in High School, 2001, that said…

Stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone.

So… what are you stand up for?

Asking myself, what am I doing, why am I here, when am I going to reach my destination and WHERE would I end up? Why so many questions??? I really don’t know, but the only thing I am certain of is that I am doing my best every single step of the way. With Hope, Love and Faith… I will keep walking forward to the unknown, I will only be two steps behind.

With that mood, today, I chose this picture. A picture that was taken somewhere in Canada on the way back to the United States border. I wonder, where would that take me if I were to keep walking toward the mountain where the golden light are shining, how long will it take, will I be able to make it and why do I want to go there?

Curiosity will take you to many places, but it is Hope, Love and Faith that will guide you to the destination… and with that, “the well will never run dry.”