To SP

To my dearest SP, congratulations :)

Humour of the day

It's Dec 26th today. It just know and can't wait to go back to the store room :)
(haha I knew is just co-incidence, it's just humour of the day ;) have a happy day)

Merry Christmas - from an origami xmas tree

Thank you ZL for sharing how to do one :)

Goodbye 2012

Windows 7 display

Sometimes my customer asked why the software product that I am working on display well on Windows XP but Windows 7? I guess screenshot below illustrated using Office Excel and Task Manager is self-explanatory.

Some Malay song to share

In one of the karaoke session with good old friends, we sang some Malay song. Satu Malaysia ;)

If you seldom listen to Malay song, hope you will like it too.

Merry Christmas

Early Merry Christmas wishes :)

* Felt a bit early to say Happy New Year 2013 ;)

Janji Ditepati - 5W1H

When listening to news on TV, Janji Ditepati is always heard. Well, let's apply the 5W1H.

Janji Ditepati + 5W1H

Who - Janji daripada siapa dan kepada siapa?

What - Janji mana satu?

When - Bila? Untuk kedua-dua yang telah dan telah ditepati.

Where - Di mana? Seluruh negara atau pun kawasan tertentu sahaja?

Why - N.A. 

How - Macam mana janji ditepati? Berapa wang telah dibelanjakan? Adakah keputusan memuaskan?

Disclaimer: This is just a simple article in relating something to the common 5W1H information gathering technique. There is none political intention nor criticism.  

Dr RICHARD TEO: Last words on $$$, true joy, God -- and Ferraris

From a forwarded email. Lets us have lots of foresight from other's hindsight.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr RICHARD TEO: Last words on $$$, true joy, God -- and Ferraris

Wednesday, 24 October 2012 21:00

Below is a condensed version of what Dr. Richard Teo shared at a Christian fellowship meeting on 24 Nov 2011, about 8 months after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. He spoke about several key life lessons. He died last Thursday (Oct 18) at 40.

Dr Richard Teo

Hi, good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse from the chemotherapy, so please bear with me. My name is Richard, I’m a friend of Danny’s, who invited me here.

I’d just begin to say that I’m a typical product of today’s society. From young, I’ve always been under the influence and impression that to be happy, is to be successful. And to be successful, is to be wealthy. So I led my life according to this motto.

Coming from a poor average family, back in those days, I was highly competitive, whether in sports, studies, leadership. I wanted it all. I’ve been there, done that. But at the end of the day, it’s still about money.

So in my recent years, I was a trainee in ophthalmology, but I was getting impatient, cos I had friends of mine who were going out into private practise, making tonnes of money. And there I was, stuck in a traineeship. 

So I said, ‘Enough, it’s getting too long.’ At that time, there was a surge in protégés of aesthetic medicine. I saw good money in there. So much so that I said, ‘Forget about ophthalmology, I’m gonna do aesthetic medicine.’ So that’s what I did.

The truth is, nobody makes heroes out of the average GP in the neighbourhood. They don't. They make heroes out of rich celebrities, politicians, rich and famous people. So I wanted to be one of these.

I dived straight into aesthetic medicine. People were not willing to pay when I was doing locum back in those days. Anything more than $30, they would complain that “Wah, this lo kun(doctor) jing qwee (very expensive)”. They made noise and they were not happy. But the same people were willing to pay $10 000 for a liposuction. So I said, ‘Well, let’s stop healing the sick, I’m gonna become a beautician; a medically-trained beautician.’

And that was what I did – liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgeries, you name it, we do it. It was very good money. My clinic, when we started off, waiting time was 1 week; 1 month became 2 months became 3 months. There was so much demand that people were literally queuing up to have aesthetic work done on them. Vain women – easy life!

So the clinic grew. I was so overwhelmed, from 1 doctor, I employed 2, then 3, then 4 doctors, and carried on. Nothing is ever enough. I wanted more and more and more. So much so that we set up shop in Indonesia to lure all the Indonesian tai tai’s. We set up shop, set up a team of people there, to get more Indonesian patients to come in.
So, things were doing well. I’m there, my time has arrived. 

Around some time in February last year, I said, ‘OK, I have so much spare cash, it’s time to get my first Ferrari. So there I was, getting ready for the deposit. OK! There comes my first Ferrari! I was looking for land, to share with some of my friends. I have a banker friend who makes $5 million a year. So I thought, ‘Come, let’s come together. Let’s buy some land and build our houses.’

In March 2011, out of the blue – I was still running around, ‘cause I’m a gym freak and I always go to the gym training, running, swimming 6 days a week. I had some backache, and that’s all I had, but it was persistent. And so I went for an MRI to exclude prolapsed disc. And the day before I had my scan, I was still in the gym, lifting heavy weights, doing my squats. And the next day, they found that half my spine had bone marrow replacement. I said, “Woah, sorry, what’s that?” 

We had a PET scan the next day, and they diagnosed that I had terminal lung cancer, stage 4B. It had spread to the brain, half the spine, whole of my lungs were filled with tumour, liver, adrenals…

I said, “Can’t be, I was just at the gym last night, what’s going on?” I’m sure you know how it feels – though I’m not sure if you know how it feels. One moment I was there at the peak, the next day, this news came and I was totally devastated. My whole world just turned upside down. 

I couldn’t accept it. I have a hundred relatives on both sides, my mom and my dad. 100 of them. And not a single one has cancer. To me, in my mind, I have good genes, I’m not supposed to be having this! Some of my relatives are heavy chain smokers. Why am I having lung cancer? I was in denial.

One cigarette a day

Dr Teo: "We had a PET scan the next day, and they diagnosed that I had terminal lung cancer, stage 4B. It had spread to the brain, half the spine, whole of my lungs were filled with tumour, liver, adrenals… I said, 'Can’t be, I was just at the gym last night, what’s going on?' 
One moment I was there at the peak, the next day, this news came and I was totally devastated." Photo: Internet

Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate. If you add up breast, colorectal (colon) cancer, and prostate cancer (the top few cancers in Singapore for men and women), if you add up the mortality rate of these 3, it still doesn’t add up to lung cancer. Simply because, you understand, you can remove the prostate, the colon, the breast, but you cannot remove your lungs.

But there’s about 10% of lung cancer patients who do pretty well for some reason because they have this specific mutation; we call it the EGFR mutation. And it happens, only 90% of the time, in Asian ladies who never smoked in their lives. Me, first of all, I’m male. Secondly, I’m a social smoker. I take one a day after dinner; weekends, when my friends offer me, I take it as well. I’m a light smoker, not a social smoker. But still, my oncologist was still not hopeful for me to have this mutation. 

The chances of it happening for me was maybe 3-4%. That’s why I was being primed to go for chemo. But through all the intense prayers, friends like Danny, people that I don’t even know, it turned out that, during my waiting for chemo, the results came back that I was EGFR positive. I was like, “Woah, good news!” Cos now I don’t have to undergo chemo at that time, because there’s this oral tablet that you can use to control this disease.

Just to share with you some idea – this is a CT scan – thorax – of my lungs, before treatment. 

Every single dot there is a tumour. You can see all the mets (metastasis) there. This is just one single plane. Literally I had it in both lungs, and I had literally tens of thousands of tumour. That’s why the oncologist told me, even with chemo, at most 3-4 months.

But because of this mutation, they have this oral medication. This is what happened after 2 months of treatment. As you can see over here; this is what God can do. And that’s why I’m still here having this opportunity to share with you. As you can see over here, the difference between before and after treatment.

At that point, I said, “Well, it’s to be expected, isn’t it? The medicine is good.” I’m still not buying the story. Well, the guys prayed for me and the tumour markers started to come down. 90% of the tumours were wiped out, and the tumour markers came down to more than 90% over the next few months.

But still, you know, once you have the clinical knowledge, you know the statistics. One year survival, two year survival... having all this knowledge is not a good thing. Cos you live with the knowledge that even with all this, the cancer cells are so unstable, they keep mutating. They will overcome and become resistant to the drugs, and eventually you’re gonna run out of medication.

So living with this knowledge is a huge mental struggle, a huge mental torture. Cancer is not just about a physical struggle, it’s a huge mental torture. How do you live with no hope? How do you live with not being able to plan for the next few years? The oncologist tells you to bear with it for the next 1 – 2 months. So it’s a lot of struggles as I went through: March, then April. April was my lowest point, in deep depression, struggling even as I was recovering.

Hardship can happen to rich people; it can be physical hardship, mental hardship, social, etc. And also over the last few months, I started to understand what this true joy is about. In the past, I substituted true joy with the pursuing of wealth. I thought true joy is about pursuing wealth. Why? Cos let me put it to you this way, in my death bed, I found no joy whatsoever in whatever objects I had – my Ferrari, thinking of the land I was going to buy to build my bungalow etc, having a successful business.

It brought me ZERO comfort, ZERO joy, nothing at all. Do you think I can hold onto this piece of metal and it’s going to give true joy? Nah, it’s not going to happen. 

What true joy is
 

Chinese New Year... I would drive my Ferrari, show off to my relatives, show off to my friends, do my rounds, and then you thought that was true joy? You really think that those guys who sold you your Ferrari, they share their joy with you? And your relatives, wow, they share this joy with you? In truth, what you have done is just to elicit envy, jealousy, and even hatred. They are not sharing the joy with you, and what I have is that short-term pride that wow, I have something you don’t have! And I thought that was joy!

So what we have is basically short-term pride at the expense of somebody else. And that wasn’t true joy. And I found no joy at all on my deathbed, thinking of my Ferrari – to hold on to it, sayangit?!?

True joy I discovered comes from interaction. Over the last few months I was so down. Interaction with my loved ones, my friends, my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ, and only then was I able to be motivated, able to be uplifted. To share your sorrow, to share your happiness – that’s true joy.

And you know what makes you smile? True joy comes from helping others in hardship, and because I’ve gone through this, I know what hardship entails. In fact, there’re some cancer patients who tell me a lot of times, people come up to them and tell them, “Stay positive. Stay positive.” Yah, right. You come in my shoes and you try to stay positive! You don’t know what you’re talking about!

But I have the licence. So I’ve been going out to meet other fellow cancer patients, to share with them, encourage them. And I know, because I’ve been through it, and it’s easier for me to talk to them.

And most importantly, I think true joy comes from knowing God. Not knowing about God – I mean, you can read the bible and know about God – but knowing God personally; getting a relationship with God. I think that’s the most important. That’s what I’ve learnt.

So if I were to sum it up, I’d say that the earlier we sort out the priorities in our lives, the better it is. Don’t be like me – I had no other way. I had to learn it through the hard way. I had to come back to God to thank Him for this opportunity because I’ve had 3 major accidents in my past – car accidents. You know, these sports car accidents – I was always speeding but somehow I always came out alive, even with the car almost being overturned.

There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. I think it’s absolutely alright, cos God has blessed. So many people are blessed with good wealth, but the trouble is I think a lot of us can’t handle it. The more we have, the more we want. I’ve gone through it -- the deeper the hole we dig, the more we get sucked into it, so much so that we worship wealth and lose focus. Instead of worshipping God, we worship wealth. It’s just a human instinct. It’s just so difficult to get out of it.

I think that’s about it. It’s good to share. Thanks.

My first experience with MacBook Pro

In Cantonese say, when something doesn't work well for you, your birth date probably doesn't 'match' with that something. That's what my friend said is happening to my new MacBook Pro and me. 

Well, when I first got it, downloading and installing Google Chrome took me few hours and the process was very frustrated. The root cause was the downloaded file was corrupted although it said download completes. Oh well, maybe it is Google Chrome birth date doesn't match with MacBook Pro or Apple, I hope. But after using the machine for few days, on one day the Text Edit hang. I pressed the Spotlight shortcut key few times and it also was hang. Out of a sudden, display color was inverted. I have to go to preferences > Accessibility to check Invert Color in order to view RGB color. The painful part is that the pixel is out. The screen display was very blurry. Called to Apple Care helps to make the display slightly better, but... it is still painful looking at blurry screen and text!

I am now backing up data at Switch center, to send the MacBook for repair. It may took 2-3 days to diagnose the problem, another 3 or 5 or 7 days to fix the problem. Sounds a bit long right? Another 4 min for the data to be backed up. Bye. Finger crossed and hopefully the MacBook after repair has a new birth date that we can live happily ever after haha.

Look back 千金难买一回头

有一句广东话俚语：千金难买一回头。比如说：
- 出门前，回头看看，可能发觉忘了关风扇电灯，而可以节省能源。
- 偶尔走在街上，回头一顾，那人原来在灯火阑珊处（写这样的句子好像有点被阿保的style影响，哈哈，一零，是不是啊。）。
- 当你在向前冲时，回头一看，原来家人一直在后面守候及支持你。
- 当你向钱冲时，转一转头颅，良心有没有跟上来呢？
- 当你向前望，回头一顾百媚生，脸上的笑容如春风吹过，或许让某些意志消沉的甲乙丙丁感到一丝丝温暖。

嘿，‘废话’说完，哈哈。拍照时我时常向后望，也拍到了这个。

希望你有愉快的一天。也希望你时常回头。不是说停滞不前，而是随着前进的脚步，偶尔回头一顾--看看我，哈哈，好冷吧。

Double arc rainbow

Double arc rainbow photo taken few months ago. Have a happy and lucky day :) (Rainbow bring luck some people said)

世界宣明会槟城2012/10/20爱蔓延义走

马来西亚世界宣明会 爱蔓延-让世界更美好 在2012年10月20日举办一个义走。
如果你赞成儿童是未来的主人翁；如果你希望做慈善；如果你想运动以下筋骨；如果你想有一个快乐的群体义走；又或者什么理由也不需要；10月20日如果你没有节目，参加这个有意义的义走吧，你有能力改变一些:) 也希望你可以广邀家人朋友一起义走。手牵手，义起走！（没有手牵手也可以的啦 :) ）

更多详情如下：

1）报名爱蔓延义走   http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGReg （截止日期: 2012年10月17日）
2）捐款支持   http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGform （自行缴交报名费RM30，或支持朋友义走，受惠单位：世界宣明会儿童发展基金）
3）筹款点子   http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGFndrsng （参加义走者，您可以用这个点子向亲朋戚友募款！）
4）莅临现场    http://www.facebook.com/events/286825511422165/

（别错过10月19至20日假Gurney Plaza进行的巨型相展和摄影赛，欢迎男女老幼到场支持） 想要了解更多？请拨 (03) 7880 6414, 或电邮 Ninian_Tian@wvi.org, 或浏览www.worldvision.com.my。

World Vision Walk-a-thon in Penang on Oct 20, 2012

World Vision Malaysia is organizing a Walk-a-thon in conjunction with Hands Up for Children Campaign.
If you agree that children is the future of the world. If you wish to do some charity. If you wish to do some exercise. If you wish to join the fun. Or, for no reason at all, if you are available on that day, I encourage you to register and join them. Feel free to share this with your family and friends :)
More details are as below.

1) To Register: http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGReg (closing: 17 October 2012)
2) To Donate: http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGform (minimum RM30 to participate or support a friend, beneficiary: World Vision Children Development Fund)
3) To Fundraise: http://bit.ly/HndsUpPNGFndrsng (Participants, check out how to get your friends to support you!)
4) Be There! http://www.facebook.com/events/286825511422165/ Don't miss our Giant photo exhibition and photo contest at Gurney Plaza, 19 - 20 October 2012

For more info, contact us at 03-7880 6414, or email Ninian_Tian@wvi.org, or visit our website www.worldvision.com.my

If you're happy and you know it (clap your hands)

Did you watch badminton game sometimes? If you did, you probably aware that Lin Dan do have a certain action after he won a point. That could be one of the NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) that we will do certain things or action, subconsciously, under certain conditions.

Long story short, I figured when I am happy, I like to tap. For example when the car is stopped waiting for traffic light to turn green, if I am happy I will tap on the steering while listening to music. Or sometimes tap on one's shoulder or back. I realized the tap was influenced by this happy song. Well I cannot clap all the while, so tap instead. Have you figured your NLP? ;)

Have a happy day :D

Inspiring mother and kid conversations, "Sometimes we can't always get what we want in life."

In one of the cable car ride from Genting Highland, I was with a foreigner couple with a kid looks around 4 years old. The mother explained to the kid about the tropical forest, and how is it different from their motherland's. 

The mother then passed a yellow colour water bottle to the kid. The kid declined and insisted on a green colour. The mother patiently tell, "Sometimes we can't always get what we want in life, we just have to accept what we've got." The kid asked why. The mother just repeat the same sentence as answer, patiently. The kid accepted the answer and happily take the yellow colour bottle. I found it inspiring, sometimes we can't always get what we want in life, we just have to accept, love and appreciate what we've got. If I was the kid and it was my mom, I think the answer I will get is just "Don't ask." lol. 

Later the mother asked the kid, "xx, where is Jesus?". (Nah I am not a Christian but I think this is meaningful to share). 

Kid: Mmm, I don't know.

Mother: Remember, when we were in Africa, Jesus is up there in the sky.

Kid: Yeah.

Mother: Now Jesus is up there in the sky too, watching us.

Mother: And Jesus in deep inside here in our heart too. Jesus is everywhere.

Mother: So can you tell me where is Jesus?

Kid: Jesus is up there in the sky (He pointed to the sky), and also here (The kid placed his palm near his heart).

The mother continued to tell the kid more about life, but I can't recall the contents.

I do not know if the kid really understand it but I think the mother did a very good job. As long as a religion lead a person to be kind, humble, and other good moral values, it is a good belief. A religion is far beyond the statues and statutes. 

The conversations stopped here because we'd reached the base station. However, the inspiring dialogue stayed in my mind till today. 

In one of the volunteer session at autism center, a clever autistic kid insisted to get a green color tambourine. He cried and yelled to die for one. The mother just let him cried and yelled. The noise affected other kid then I went to get one for him. He stopped making noise and happily follow the musical session. One of the mother later told me I should have not did that. Sometimes we need to be assertive for the autistic kid to learn "Sometimes we can't always get what we want in life, we just have to accept what we've got." This will avoid a kid to be spoil. I think the same applies to all kid. I tried and it works. Education starts when one was born and cease on the last day in life. 活到老，学到老!

Happy learning everyday!

When the sun meets the moon

Can you see the moon in the middle? It was 8am and the moon few days after mid-autumn festival was having a vacation during daytime.
Have a good day :)

Customer relationship management

How important is customer relationship management? WWF Malaysia has been doing that since I joined. World Vision Malaysia has started to do that as I can see. Even charity body is doing that, needless to say commercial business. If you are a business owner, give it some thoughts. Keep a record  of your customer's birthday and send them greeting email/sms on that day or in prior. Do the same during festive seasons as well. I heard there is software program in the market which can ease the job, although I am not sure about the price. 

Are we catching up?

When I was in Beijing in year 2009, there were comments flying around that China's technology might be one of the top in the world. Infrastructure development in Beijing was surprisingly fast and well. However, when you still see residents spit on the street regardless of their age, you will know, their culture is not catching up with the speed of urban development.

Looking back at Malaysia, there are still LOTS more to be developed and built. Are we, both culture and development really catching up approaching 2020?

P/S: The rubbish bin is actually less than 50m away.

Carmen by Norwenn Leroy

This is really nice when listen loud in a closed environment i.e. inside the car while driving.

When Windows task bar meet Metro...

When the Windows task bar meet Metro style application icons, the squarish block is what we would be expecting.

Well, I still like it when it is not too Metro, like those at the right. Too metro could be a bit too much. Not every building in the city is square in shape. Not every car is  square in shape . Not every sign board has square corner, some is rounded.

So do you like Metro?

Low's Gully, Mount Kinabalu

Looking for challenging hike in Malaysia? Check out Low's Gully http://mount-kinabalu-borneo.com/blog/chronological-history-of-lows-gully-expedition.html. It's interesting to know such an adventurous hike in Mount Kinabalu. Thanks to PP.

Entertaining emoji

These two are more than 15 years old hand drawn emoji by a customer.
The left is a smiley face (When the product is working fine).
The right is a sad face (When the product isn't working).
Small thing but it makes reading customer's issue email job entertaining sometimes ;)
Let's make the life fun :D

  

Lonely Goatherd

How do you handle stress? Songs and musics works for me. The Lonely Goatherd is cheerful. I hope it will cheers you up too ;)

Who moved your cheese? Who moved your smile?

Someone may moved your cheese, but no one can moved away the smile on your face, except yourself :)
Have a happy day :D
Thanks SH for the picture!

Guess the showing time...

Look at the schedule above, can you find what is the actual showing time for the news?
I can see user centered design and usability improvement in general, however, the content should be accurate as well :) Hope they have fixed it.

Nowness

In the meditation class I attended, it mentioned Nowness. The past is past. The future is an unknown. More importantly is Now.



And all that counts is here and now

Hmm, after finished the song, it doesn't really sounds related though lol.

Ashikaga Flower Park

Ashikaga Flower Park. I think I can stay here for many hours :) Nope, no plan to travel yet.

Winamp got 'shocked' in Windows 7

While winamp is playing music files, if I go to copy some huge files (> 500M I think) then there will be a very short period of special sound effect in the song. It happended when the copy operation first started, probably when Windows preparing the buffer or what. It sounds like Winamp got 'shocked' when copying large file ;)

Not sure if it will happened on Windows Media Player (WMP). It never is my favorite player and do not bother to find out.

Well, there is also special sound effect when sign-in to msn sometimes. The muted speaker will be un-muted for a very short moment. Can't remember the details now.

Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit with SP1.

X

When you see X, what appears in your mind?
X-Men? X-ray. I guess Don't Care seldom appears in one mind. During college study on digital electronics subject, the X value represents Don't Care. Nah, I am not trying to say anything technical, it just meant Don't Care ;)

Allow me to shift the focus a little. I read from a forwarded email that in this world, there are only three type of matters.

1. The universe nature's matters
2. Other people's matters
3. My own matters

Can you instruct the sun to goes down or the stars to come out?
Can you stop the earth from spinning?
So we can't control universe nature's matters :)

Can you control what people think about you? Oh yes you can do/say something to change one's mind slightly, but you have no control over one's mind.
When you see someone fell down and you offered your hands. If one's decided to stay there, your hands will numb in the air.
Okay, you have no control on other's matters.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's quote to support this ;) By the way, to control other is never in my list :p

Can you look at the mirror and smile?
Can you blink your eyes?
Can you now sit down and stand up?
Yes, we have control's on our own matters. However, sometimes there are still things that we ourselves lack of control.
Sometimes you can't help falling into someone when first met.
Sometimes you can't help following one's word/path.
But you will realize one day you can actually control how you think, what you say, what you eat, etc.

In summary,

Whose matters	Can you Care?	Can you Control?	Will you Care?	Will you Control?
1. The universe nature's matters	Yes	No	?	?
2. Other people's matters	Yes	No	?	?
3. My own matters	Yes	Yes	?	?

For the blanks, it is your choice to put X, or Yes :)
But keep in mind, things changed, and we will changed depends on situation and environment too. Nothing is absolute.
As long as you are happy :)

How tall do I need to be?

How tall do I need to be to put things on the shelf? It is a 2x2 wall tile, so I think the shelf is around 6 feet height from the floor. My height is around 5 feet. I have tried every possible jump I could make, but to no avail. I gave up, just ignored its existence and keep praying hard it won't fall on my head while using the toilet... It looks solid but after flyover collapse cases, I am less certain :p

It reminded me of Hacken Lee's song, enjoy :)

Sometimes this will drive you crazy when using Visual Studio 2010

This came out more frequent than Visual Studio 2008. Well, new version of the software doesn't mean it is more reliable although it has more features. How will the Visual Studio 2012 perform?

你累了吗？

刚刚看了一篇朋友的心路历程，手也痒痒要在键盘上跳舞。啊，以前用的稿纸布满了横竖线，所以都说爬格子。现在都是在键盘上狂舞。

上天是公平的。每个人都有24小时。你的时间都花在你想做的事情上吗？

扣除睡觉和工作/事业，所剩的时间不多。在过去一二年，在这仅有的时间里，真正留给自己的不多。好久没有只用一二天看完一本书，很久没有去爬山（怕单独爬山被打劫，哦，马来西亚的治安。。。）。都没有时常好好和自己的身体交流，感谢它们陪我这么多年，好想好好清理家里的一些杂物，写一些以前旅游的部落，整理旧照片，和自己交谈，看看朋友的部落，看看朋友的近况。所幸的是，身边围绕了很多朋友知己，学了一些东西技巧，很开心做义工，还是尽量10.30之前入睡，更加了解自己，更加了解快乐和幸福是 inside out，等等。没有付出，没有收获。或许，我想的是有可以有好几个周末都可以好好地做自己想做的事情，享受生活。

啊，我要去享受做书虫了。至少今天我要做书虫 :)

祝你有一个快乐的周末。

Gangnam style?!!

The Gangnam style is getting popular. Here's some.

The Korean (maybe original) style



Penang Style. (I like its innovation of having Sadako embedded :D It may be is there in the original style but I didn't see it :p )



KL Sytle

Orang Sabah Sytle

Thank you SP :)

This will sometimes cheer us up in work

When "Customer is very satisfied to our support." came out from other country colleague's mouth.

Lenggong is now a world heritage site

In July few friends facebook me saying my hometown Lenggong is now declared a world heritage site by Unesco  "Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley". I guess I should write more about Lenggong. Give me some time, I need to dig if I can find photo about the topic I wish to share, or else I will have to take some in future trip back home.

More on Luang Phor Thuad

Today there was one reader came to my blog using search keyword "why Luang Phor Thuad dies in Lenggong", so I think I hope to share what I have heard from the villagers. According to them, the location where he reaches nirvana belong to Thai in many years ago. Then gradually the border line moved up and up which no one know the reasons (maybe there will be historical writing about this but we are not passionate to find out :p ), then that place belong to Malaysia now. So I am a Malaysian, if not I will have to say Sawadee Ka or Sawadee Kap instead of 你好吗 or Apa Khabar ;)

Arhh, if you wish to know more about Luang Phor Thuad temple in Lenggong, you may be interested to read Luang Phor Thuad Temple, Lenggong, Perak 霹雳州玲珑龙普陀  :)

Enjoy.

EPF Nomination

If you have a Malaysia EPF account, it is good to check your nomination status from time to time although you may have submitted the nomination form. EPF updated their system recently and my nomination is shown Incomplete. I strongly recommend you to check yours and update accordingly, to protect your love ones :)

Before and after meditation...

The above bring different meaning to me before and after attended the meditation classes. Before meditation, it will mean my goal, my will. After meditation, it means the reactivity when things happen, yes, awareness, knowing what happened when it happened. Watch my own reactivity when the thoughts come; Watch my own reactivity when I deal with people; Watch my own reactivity when I deal with myself; Watch my own reactivity when.... 

Try to attend some when you have chance. Try to attend those with practice + practical theory. What changed you from time to time? Meditation changed me the most although I am just beginner and have not practice it formally :) 

Have a good day; Have a good life ;)

Laputa...

Just to share a music that has not been listen for long.



Have a good long weekend :)

开心的歌？

最近看一套香港连续短剧爱*回家。闭上眼睛听一听主题曲。听完以后，你觉得开心吗？歌词内容很好，可惜我听不到喜悦，如果不需要用‘哭腔’来唱，而用比较开心/感恩/喜悦的唱调，我想我会比较喜欢 :)

同样的，古巨基的爱回家亦是。



最近都比较倾向听英文歌，因为听起来比较开心，正面积极 :) 正如一下这首，虽是死亡，可是并不觉得悲哀，只是有一些淡淡无奈而已。。。



祝愿华人歌曲的唱腔可以更加开心正面积极 :)

争?!

做人要争气！

你觉得这句话有问题吗？年轻时这句话是我向前的动力，现在我倒觉得，为什么要争呢？好像非得拼个你死我活的样子。‘气’那儿都有，只是我们肯不肯花精神时间努力去取得。所以现在与其说争气，我会说有出息；与其说争光，我会说增添荣耀。至于争取，我还没细想。。。

这番话，或许对于中国同胞不太恰当。因为在北京公干时当地的同事说在那儿，很多东西都得快，都得争，因为，人太多了，僧多粥少。

无论如何，祝大家心仪，开心 :)
如果争到多少，如果不会珍惜，心情不好，拥有多少，也是徒然。

programming's abcdefg....

When you make any phone call which requires to spell out word alphabet by alphabet, what word do you usually used for an alphabet? I've used to use country name for that. But if I will be calling to software company, let's try to have fun by using software/programming term :)

A - array
B - boolean
C - character
D - decimal
E - event
F - false
G - goto
H - heap
I - integer
J - java
K - kernel
L - long
M - module
N - null
O - object
P - pointer
Q - query
R - return
S - string
T - true
U - unsigned
V - void
W - while
X - XOr
Y - yield
Z - zcat

Finally the gaps are filled. Thanks for the feedback!

自救救人

光阴似箭，哈哈，好老掉牙的开场吧。不知不觉，在自闭中心当义工也已经一年半。在最近这几个月，陆陆续续都有新孩子加入，当然偶尔也会有旧人慢慢离开。今晚有一个新小孩，在新的环境里哭闹个不停。渐渐的，好像细菌传染，这个不安焦急的情绪散发给其他的孩子。有些孩子跟着哭闹，跳跃，抓狂。。。所幸，今晚有几个教师在控制场面。孩子们也逐渐安静下来，跟着节目的活动学习。

有时候，我会问自己，为什么当义工？现在我的答案是：自救救人——这一个循环。当我们能力许可帮助其他人的时候，在帮助别人的过程当中，我们得到的喜悦，满足，学到的人生道理，如何体谅，关心等等。。。更重要的是，更珍惜自己及身边的人、事和物。

在抵达家里的时候，听到收音机播这一首歌，和我的心情也挺贴切 :)



歌词（The lyrics taken from here）

Seems like everybody's got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night.
When the sale comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop, for a minute and Smile :)

Why is everybody so serious!
Acting so damn mysterious
You got your shades on your eyes
And your heels so high
That you can't even have a good time.

Everybody look to their left (ha)
Everybody look to their right
Can you feel that (yeah)
Well pay them with love tonight...

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Ain't about the (ha)Cha-Ching Cha-Ching.
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

(Listen, Okay.)
We need to take it back in time,
When music made us all UNITE!
And it wasn't low blows and video hoes,
Am I the only one gettin... tired?

Why is everybody so obsessed?
Money can't buy us happiness.
If we all slow down and enjoy right now
Guaruntee we'll be feelin' all right.

Everybody look to their left
Everybody look to their right
Can you feel that (yeah)
Well pay them with love tonight...

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Ain't about the (ha) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching.
Ain't about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Happy Teacher's Day, Happy Every Day

If you can read picture above with no difficulties, please be happy :)
If you can easily write sentence above, please be happy :)

Some of the kid in Lions REACh may not be able to. I would be more than happy if the kid above can write the sentence on his own :) All the best to all of them, and of course you as well :) Have a good day!

WWW car plate numbers....

From http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/301720_10150870069888031_2122301854_n.jpg

Kindle or iPad or Tab or B&N Nook?

Hmm, it is 11pm and I have not go to bed. Just would like to write this before I forgot. If not this will never be written if I do not do it today. Arghh, still pending on the writings of Koh Lipe and Europe sharing.


Back to the topic. The consumer tablet market has been getting more and more competitive. I personally feel it is good, more choices. If you love to read, shall you buy an ebook reader or a table? If you google "kindle vs ipad", there are a lot of opinions on the web.


In short,
buy Kindle or B&N Nook IF:

1. you are a serious text-based book reader 
2. you are looking for device mobility where it is light and small to carry around 
3. looking for e-INK technologies device. There are claims this technology is less harmful to eye. Well, when I google about that, there are actually some opinion saying backlight and e-ink make no difference. However, I personally felt e-ink is more comfortable for longer reading period. 
4. don't mind the book is in black and white (text-based book is usually black and white anyway)

buy ipad or tab IF:

1. beside reading, you hope to do something else, e.g. movie, game and surfing.
2. beside text-based book, you hope to read magazine and newsletter with color as well.
3. don't really bother about the size and weight. Nah, you won't take the device out, you usually use it only at home.
4. you just like the user experience of the finger work when using ipad or tab. (That is the coolest thing in my younger colleagues world)
5. it's trend to use tablet, why bother the black and white reader?

I have chosen an eBook reader - Kindle Touch. 


A side story. When I travel MAS from KL to Penang, I accidentally left my Kindle in the front pocket. I am so happy that MAS worker reported it to Lost and Found department and I got back my unit after visit their office by bringing along my boarding pass and IC. Thumb up to MAS! Just wonder if it was Air Asia, will it be the same? 
Lesson learnt. Always check the front pocket before leave the seat.千金难买一回头

别问我是谁--春娇与志明

在春娇与志明的片尾，记得别急着离场 :) 啊，还有，蛮好的一把声音。

双亲节快乐

翻开旧相片，看到十年前父母的照片。哦，天，在这十年里他们苍老了许多。时常回家乡看到他们，在循序的情况下，是觉得他们头发日渐发白，可是那些震撼力远不及和他们多年前的照片相比。才从家乡回到工作的地方，但是我竟然就想念他们了。或许是旧照片的余震未了，让心里的涟漪在离开他们以后自己独处之时才开始扩大泛开。 有很多生活习惯是我们潜意识中不知不觉做了出来。我母亲有她的特制辣椒酱。在家乡时，我都少吃。但是在槟城时，只要是在家自己备餐，我都自动沾点一些母亲辣椒酱。或许在我潜意识里，母亲的辣椒酱，就好象父母陪在我身边一样，陪我吃完每一餐爱心餐。（感恩GL强烈介绍我上了静坐课程，否则今时今日我都还未发觉隐藏在自己心里的感受）。离别聚散，在工作生活下选择甚少。但是我学会了珍惜。在家陪他们观看经典名句歌唱大赛、一起观看电视剧、羽球赛，家话闲聊，都比上网来得有意义。为他们洗碗烧菜，洗衣晾衣，我相信也都比任何一份用金钱买回来的礼物更珍贵。 亲爱的读者，希望你也学会珍惜。 只要有爱，天天都是双亲节。双亲节快乐。

"You don't need to be colossal to be a great heart." It touches me. "And the kings are all fools. Where is the honor when a solemn promise is just a pretty lie, and the mighty mock the courage of the humble" It reminded me of my country. The movie scene.

RM15的价值

在现在这个社会，RM15可以做些什么呢？例子可多了。
- 看一场戏+玉米花
- 吃一餐普通的午餐/晚餐 （抱歉，吃的比较好一些RM15是绝对不够的）
- 吃1/4餐自助餐
- 买3包薯片
- 吃2餐KFC/McD
- 买半本、1/4本书（马来西亚的书都挺贵的 :( ）
- 买。。。

说实在的，RM15，套句香港人的话“跌了也不知道”。如果RM15可以帮你增进口才、自信、聆听技巧、评论技巧、时间管理、遣词造句、演讲急智、幽默感、管理演说、沟通技巧，等等，这RM15值得吗？当然，那不是一次就买到，而是一个月训练二次，连续几个月或几年的训练累积而来的成果。如果口才靠一二堂课就可以学会，请问世界上还会有人吵架吗?

一个苹果手机打比方说RM2000，同样的钱可以去5年半（2000/15=133次=5.5年）的训练，同样的价钱，花在5年半的训练比较值得，还是一个苹果手机值得？当然，如果工作需要买一个苹果手机，那没办法。但是眼观身边的朋友同事都是因为潮流，而给自己买了一个奢侈玩具（luxury toy）。凡非基本需求（吃、水、住、穿、行等），而且工作上没有需要，一律定做奢侈品）。但是肯为学习，不管什么技巧/运动，甚至烹饪摄影的学习都可以，肯为学习付出的，实在不多见。认识一个什么课程也上的女企业家，她年过40，认识她这些年，她的学习及学以致用的精神，实在是让我汗颜的。一个拿过金牛奖的成功企业家，为了学习，以空杯子心态，放下面子身份追求学问，‘抵’她有钱有朋友。

身外物可以给到我们一些娱乐，可是一不小心就会掉了的。脑袋里的知识，可以帮助我们的家庭事业人生，赚更多的钱。你要哪一个？供养这些身外苹果，还是长期投资自己脑袋的知识？

如果你曾经读过塔木德，答案很清晰，就是别人怎么抢也抢不走的知识技巧。

祝愿这是一个学习，积极向上的社会。爱×感恩。

×在帮忙筹办一个口才班，有人致电询问价钱时觉得一年RM360太贵了，而有感而发。我的钱，花在学习，帮助有需要的人、或家人父母身上，永远也不会嫌多。贵/便宜见仁见智。脑意大发涂鸦，绝无冒犯。一切纯属个人看法，如有雷同，纯属巧合。善哉善哉。

NTV7 圆游会 2012 @ Auto City, Penang

是不是有点奇怪，在深夜时分，我竟然还没有睡觉，而且还上网。因为我希望愈早摆上网让多一些读者可以去支持世界宣明会，同时也提一提这个NTV7 圆游会。

第一次参加NTV7 圆游会，首先先给一个赞。因为我看到了回收箱！




这次 圆游会有好几个摊位，卖食物的，纪念品的，报纸的，按摩的，健康产品的，推广环保意识的，儿童书籍，等等。当然更加少不了世界宣明会的摊位。

偶尔还有小孩子很喜欢的卡通人物。


户外摊位。


户内摊位。


一直都有好几个活动在不同的活动角落进行，心灵加油站啦，生活小栈啦，讲座，示范，分享，煮食，台湾旅游分享（原来去台湾旅游别错过购买鞋子，呵呵）。也有儿童绘画比赛，唱歌比赛等等。


来到尾声，当然少不了世界宣明会的摊位。每年做这个义工时，有一些感受一直没机会写下来。爱睏了，希望可以尽快分享我的心声吧！


星期日的开放时间是3-10pm。祝你有一个愉快的周末 :)

扁人...月暈效應

收到这个转载电邮，觉得挺有意思的。共勉之 :)

當您扣錯第一顆扣子時，千錯萬錯都先指責別人或者指責事情的不對，還是真正用心找出原因來解決呢？被狗吠的人，不一定是賊； 留長鬍子，也不一定是藝術家。 但有了「 偏」見，就會把「 人」看「 扁」了?

每星期五晚上，小吳都開車送太太到火車站搭車，去探生病的媽媽。十分鐘後，小吳妹妹所乘的火車就到站。他接她回家幫忙他們料理家務。 每逢星期日整個程式正好相反。小吳妹妹的火車開出十分鐘後，他太太才到。有一晚，他的妹妹剛走，小吳正等著接太太的車，一個站務員慢慢走過來。他笑容詭異地說:「先生，你真有辦法。難道你不怕有一天會被她們逮到嗎?」

和別人相處時，我們都慣於戴上一副「 先入為主」的眼睛，將別人放進一個「 框框」裡，再用這個框框解釋此人的角色與行為他是好人、他是壞人，他好像有外遇、她很愛佔小便宜...我們甚至把想法投射到對方身上，以致經常偏離事實真相。

也許你也聽過這則故事...
有兩個女人，坐在同一張桌子喝飲料。其中一個，把雨傘靠在桌邊，另一個在喝完飲料時，迷迷糊糊的，順手拿起雨傘就走。雨傘的主人大聲叫說:「喂!妳拿了我的雨傘。」前面那個女人一臉尷尬，紅著臉向對方道歉，說是忘了自已沒帶傘，一時誤拿。這件事，讓她想起需要買把雨傘，順便也買一把給孩子，於是她便去買了兩把。回家的路上，她正巧又跟那位之前被她誤拿雨傘的女人坐在同一輛公車上。那女人注視著那兩把雨傘，說:「我看妳今天的成績還不錯嘛!」

人們在判斷別人時常有一種傾向，就是把人概分為「好的」或「不好的」兩部分。當一個人留給人的印象是「的」時，人們就會把他的言行舉止用「好的」角度去解釋，反之， 如果一個人被歸於「不好的」的印象時，那麼，一切「不好的」看法都會加在他的身上。這種現象稱之為「月暈效應」。意即當人們看到月亮的同時，周邊的光環也會被注意到。當一個人的「印象確立」之後，人們就會自動「印象概推」 ( Halo Effect) 將第一印象的認知與對方的言行聯想在一起。

成見」能有多荒謬?

有一名年輕猶太人和老猶太人坐在同一列火車上。
年輕猶太人問老猶太人說:「先生，請問現在幾點了 ?」老猶太人卻默不作聲。
「對不起! 先生，請問現在幾點了 ?」老猶太人還是不答
「先生很抱歉打擾您了! 但是我真的想要知道現在是幾點鐘。你為什麼不回答我呢 ?」
老猶太人答道:
「 孩子，下一站就是最後一站了。而我一點都不認識你這個陌生人。如果我現在回答你，依照猶太人的傳統，我就必須邀請你到我家坐。你長得很英俊，而我有一個很漂亮的女兒。你們倆一定會愛上對方，然後你就會把我的女兒娶走。你告訴我，我為什麼要一個連手錶都買不起的女婿呢? 」

幾乎每一分鐘、每一件事，我們都依憑著過去所得的知識、經驗在作判斷。
比方，我們常聽說(或認為):
「生意人都很狡猾」、「女人都是爛駕駛」、「男人都很不衛生」、「 猶太人都很吝嗇」、「 美國人都很浪漫」 ........等等。
此後我們心中就會建立一套刻板的印象，並用這個「 成見」去解釋或評斷週遭的人事物。

一對男女若看到一個男人拿把花走在街上，女的可能會想:「 哦 !他真體貼、好浪漫。 」男的也許會認為，「 天啊 !我看這傢伙完了 」

有一則故事，大意是這樣的:
有一位先生初到美國不久，某個早上到公園散步，看到一些白人坐在草坪上聊天、曬太陽，他心想: 「美國人生活真是悠閒，有錢又懂得享受生活。」走了不久，又看到有幾個黑人也悠閒地坐在草坪的另一邊，這位先生不禁想到，「唉!黑人失業的問題還真是嚴重，這些人大概都在領社會救濟金過生活。」

艾斯曾有這麼一段妙喻，
當你暗夜走在街上，看見某扇窗亮了一盞燈。也許有人會說:「這一定是母親為還沒有回家的子女在禱告」也有人會說:「老天，一定有人在偷情。」哈茲立特有句話:「 偏見是無知的孩子。」說得一點都不錯，「 人」「 扁」為 偏，人一旦有了偏見，就會把「 人」看「 扁」、看「 偏」了。

大多數的人並不瞭解你，你也不完全瞭解這些人，既然如此，我們就不該輕易地去論斷他人，當然也不必在意別人的論斷。因為，每個人都可能扣錯第一顆釦子，不是嗎?

很宅

最近很宅，很少看新闻，很少听新闻。

翻开报纸，还是某政党吹嘘自己多么多人支持，做了许多政德，空口说谎话，空口说白话。不想看。所以只是看国际版，娱乐版，副刊。

打开电视新闻，前10分钟都是某政党吹嘘自己多么多人支持，做了许多政德，空口说谎话，空口说白话。不想听。只听后来10分钟的国际新闻。现在更缩短了只是8-9分钟，因为竟然连某电讯公司明天即将有新配套，都当作大新闻播放，更不想听。

可以被政党和商业机构左右新闻内容的新闻，怎么听下去，怎么看下去。非礼勿视，非礼勿听。

还是谈凤飞飞

很多艺术人士去世后，作品价格会飙升，因为都成了绝版。是不是失去了的，才是比较珍贵？希望大家都可以把握当下，珍惜眼前。

在中学时期，听到了凤飞飞的追梦人。啊，那个流行卡带的年代。那时候，认识她二首歌，追梦人和掌声响起。后来，就没有听到她的新曲了。当时单纯的我还在想，怎么她的歌曲这么好听，只唱了二首歌，就不唱了呢，太可惜了。孰不知原来我有眼不识泰山，不知道这个前辈啊。

到今天，我还是喜欢她原唱的掌声响起，醇厚的声线配着丰富的感情。。。今天，想和你分享追梦人。

你，还在追梦吗？“没有梦想，人和一条咸鱼有什么分别？”希望你实现梦想。