What type of manager am I?

I came across this article about the 7 types of managers and was intrigued to find out just which one I belong to.

I have just started at my new workplace, making my debut as a manager of one of the most important teams in the office. This is the first time I am a full-time manager at an organisation. I realise during the days when I was an executive, I always had visions of what type of manager I will become. I always think I can be very firm and will not bother about whether I am popular, as long as I achieve the organisation's objectives and complete my job.

Now that I'm part of management, I realise just how easy it is to say it, but difficult to implement. I think I will eventually be such a manager, but certainly not right at the beginning. After all, I'm the newbie in my team, regardless of my position. I need their help more at this time.

As of this moment, I'm leaning more towards being The Passive Manager (please refer to te above link). But I must move along fast to being The Proactive Manager as soon as I can in order to produce results.

Being here gives me a whole new perspective on things. It is a brand new challenge, from a brand new angle. The challenge is huge and the stress different but present nonetheless. And it is something that I'm looking forward to.

Wish me luck, and pray for me. Just as I will, for you.

Christmas time

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

I'm sure all of you would have heard the famous tune blaring out in shopping malls by now. Indeed, it is my favorite time of the year - Christmas.

This year, Christmas is more meaningful to me then the previous 27 editions of my life, bar one. It is my first Christmas as a baptised Roman Catholic. And I'm feeling the Christmas cheer much more than ever before.

I had Christmas midnight mass on the eve at the Church of the Holy Cross, where I got baptised. Following that, I had a celebration at a friend's place with my best buddies and I went to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour for a Christmas concert. All in all, eventful and memorable.

I've been listening to the radio with the deejays sharing their most meaningful or memorable Christmas and after some thought, I've decided to share mine here in my blog.

My auntie Belinda was smart, beautiful and immensely capable in her chosen field of work - architecture. She was single and thus, spent most of her hard earned cash on her nephews and niece (my brother and sis and myself). As she reached her late thirties, something terrible happened - she was diagnosed with cancer. At some point before that, our relations strained due to her obvious preference for my elder brother. She said something that hurt me real bad that I remember to this day. Being young, ignorant and rebellious, I decided then to give her the cold shoulder. I was being jealous of my brother.

But when I first received the news, my heart broke. Yes, she doted on my siblings more than me, but that does not mean she didn't like me. She just liked someone else more. I felt it wasn't fair for her to be down with this condition. She was still very young, and she was the biggest breadwinner in the family. And most of all, she doted on us.

Not long after, auntie Belinda became a Christian. But she was never baptised. I remember once during her emotional outbursts, my brother - whom she doted so much on and pinned so much hopes on - hurt her feelings by saying something I thought was most irresponsible. She was upset for days.

In the days leading up to Christmas 1999, I bought a few Christian books as a present for her. My brother didn't visit, and I decided to make my peace and to offer her the books to show her that we did care about her. Her smile was the best gift I received that Christmas. I understood then why when we do something right, we can see our Creator.

A few weeks later, right into the new millenium, auntie Belinda passed away. My whole family was devastated. But looking back, that was the most meaningful Christmas for me. I'm glad I managed to make peace and bring some joy to her while I still could.

When was your most meaningful Christmas, and why?

Blog revived

It has been a long time since I last blogged, and I feel like doing so tonight. So here goes.

Since I last blogged, the following major events have happened:
- I was baptised as a Roman Catholic at Church of the Holy Cross, and my new Christian name is Lewis.
- I moved on in my career to join a biotech company as a Senior Marketing Executive in November. Quite a big change as I was at IFFS for most of my career to-date.

Notice I didn't mention my current company's name because I'm under contract not to blog or write anything about the company online. It won't matter anymore after next week because I'm leaving again! It's really difficult to imagine just 2 months ago that I would get any job offers. Since then I actually found two, which is really really lucky.

So here I am, serving notice for the second time in 2 months. I'll be joining the new place officially in January. Brand new year, brand new start. The offer was too good to turn down and honestly speaking, it was a real blessing to be joining there after quite a culture shock I've experienced in my current company.

My advice to my former colleagues who are looking to leave as well: Hold out for the ideal job, don't jump for the sake of jumping. January will be a better month, have faith!

Ok, enough about my job updates. Next is my religion.

Ever since I was baptised a month ago, I really feel God's presence in my life. There were quite a few difficult moments the past month, but just as te priest has said, even if our lives weren't any better, or maybe it might be worse, but one thing that will change is that God will be there by our side. And I'm feeling it more and more each day. Being baptised is the best thing that happened to me this year.

Today, I found out one of my closest buddies, Jackson, is engaged and will be getting married in February. I'm having mixed feelings. I mean I'm delighted for him. He's a good chap, an honest hardworking, resourceful dude. He deserved this break.

On the other hand, I'm wondering where I'm heading, relationship-wise. I'm losing faith about being attached by the day.

But I'm happy to see my friends going through some major events of their own. I take this chance to congratulate my pals Cindy and Marcus for expecting their first child, Jackson for getting engaged, and also my brother and sis-in-law, for expecting their first child as well (I just found that out 2 hours ago).

This is going to be one exciting Christmas! Merry Christmas to all!

Does Purgatory exist?

First of all, there is a lot of talk and urban legend going on about Pope John Paul II declaring purgatory to be incorrect. That in itself is incorrect and indeed nothing more than an urban legend. His words got twisted out of context. In reality, Pope John Paul II said in 1999, that the term Purgatory does not indicate a place, rather, Purgatory is “a condition of existence”. He is trying to say Purgatory exists for the dead to be in, but not exactly particular location.

Now we cleared that up, let us take a look at why we should believe Purgatory exists, as Catholics.

Purgatory is the condition or process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is an idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature. The Catholic Church gives the name Purgatory to the final purification of all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.

Though purgatory is often pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, this idea is not part of the Church's doctrine. As I mentioned in my very first paragraph, Pope John Paul II himself said it is a “condition” or process.

Secondly, the Catholic Church believe that prayers should still be made for the dead. If a person’s soul has already been decided to be entered into heaven, or hell, then prayers for the dead will not be necessary. So, to pray for the dead, there must be the existence of Purgatory.

In Hebrew, purgatory is referred to as Sheol. This has appeared a number of times in Deuteronomy, a book that was taken out by the “solar scriptura” Protestants to conveniently say Purgatory does not exist.

Now, let us look at some prominent quotes from the bible to support the above.

2 Timothy 1:16-18
“May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me - may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day - and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.”

Onesiphorus was dead at the time St. Paul writes this letter to Timothy. St Paul was praying for the dead.

1 Corinthians 5:5
“with the power of the Lord Jesus he is to be handed over to Satan, so that his sensual body may be destroyed, but his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

His sensual body was destroyed where? In Purgatory, not hell, as if one enters hell he cannot be saved.

Matthew 5:22
"But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, "You fool!" shall be liable to the fire of Hell. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will NEVER GET OUT TILL YOU HAVE PAID THE LAST PENNY"

Meaning upon cleansing in Purgatory and “paying the last penny”, one can then “get out” and be saved and accepted into heaven.

And now, perhaps the most convincing of all the quotes I’m providing here: our Lord Jesus the Christ Himself:-

John 20:17
"Do not hold on to me for I have not yet returned to the father"

John 24:25
"Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory"

Jesus tells us that he will be in the underworld (sheol) for three days when he declares to the Pharisees.

Matt 12: 40
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”

I can go on and on but this will then take more than a day to write.

However, the above is a summary by which the Catholic Church stands its ground on Purgatory and we Catholics (I’m soon to be) should believe as well in our defence of our faith.

Hope the above helps. God Bless!

Appraisal

I wonder why my company's annual appraisal gets later and later every year. To make things more mysterious, the HR's efficiency decreased with increased headcount. Overused utility?

Anyway, I had mine done today (finally) and it was probably the shortest I've had in my 3 years plus in the company. It was over in ten minutes. We went through every KPI and I got marked up instead of down so I have got to be happy. And finally, I asked about certain prospects and am glad to hear what I want to hear.

Overall, this has got to be the best appraisal ever. I haven't felt this good in a long time.

Thank God!

Now I just need the final approval by the top management and I can look forward to the rest of the year.

First step towards baptism

I have been attending Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) since February, and thinking back I had really had a lot of chances to have began this much earlier in my life having been educated in Catholic schools since kindergarten. But I only really accepted the faith when I was 15 and I had been a protestant since, church hopping most of the time.

There really are a lot of things that had happened that when you look at it, cannot merely accept it as coincidence. For example, I only had this strong urge to go for RCIA one week before the class commenced and it came at a crucial time of my life in which I badly needed divine guidance. It turned out to be the best thing that had happened to me this year at least, and I'm enjoying every moment of being reconciled with the Catholic faith.

Yesterday, I took the first step towards baptism when I was officially accepted as a Catechumen through the rite of acceptantance of Chutechumenate. Although many would think this is a minor step, to me it marks a major milestone of my young Catholic life and I'm now looking forward to learning much more until the end of the year, as I prepare for baptism.

My Lord, I will always be grateful for your call to me to return to the church.

Segregating my Arsenal musings

I have quite a number of postings on Arsenal in this blog over the last 4 years and I've decided to separate it to another blog focusing just on Arsenal. This will ensure that my personal stays personal, about my own thoughts on my own life outside of Arsenal.

The new Arsenal blog is called Son of a Gun, check it out at http://sonofagunner.wordpress.com/