TheTruthSeeker

Revengeful Driving? What the hell is it?

2011-11-07T16:39:00.001-08:00

If you have heard of defensive driving, you might not have heard of revengeful driving. If you're a driver, at some point in time, you will suffer from revengeful driving for whatever reasons.

Less than half an hour ago, I was the victim of revengeful driving. Like seriously? Yeah. What is revengeful driving? Revengeful driving is the driving style that some people use when other people do things that they don't like to them. e.g. cut you off in traffic.

I was just driving slowly behind a tractor on MRR2 this morning on the left lane and wanted to change lane. So naturally, I turned on my signal light and changed lane. There's this van on by my right that didn't want to let me through. I didn't realize it until I've actually completed changing lanes that I realized I have forced my way through.

But to this van driver, it was payback less than 20 seconds later when he cut me off right in front of me and tried to sway next to me. Plain stupidity from the van driver. No wonder Malaysians are labelled as the most notorious drivers in the world.

Convocation: What does it mean to you?

2011-10-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Completing our studies in university has been a milestone for many people in their lives. The only ceremony that indicates to you that someone has completed their studies in university is their convocation. Without a convocation, I believe that nothing tells apart a university graduate from a non-university graduate except for the depth of their knowledge. So if someone reads and learns a lot, he would still look and sound the same as a university graduate as long as he's willing to learn.

A convocation is the symbolic meaning of someone officially finishing his education, mostly tertiary education. For some, it may mean a lot because the convocation marks the end of their university studies and their entry into the working world/into open society.

Then, this question suddenly struck me, "If you have been working for several months, what does the convocation mean to you?" And the answer to that question was "Nothing". Why must it be so? When you work, the symbolic meaning of convocation (entry into the working world) is no longer relevant because you have already been working for some time already.

What do I think about convocation?

The convocation I had was a complete waste of time, energy and resources. There are two primary reasons why I was at the convocation:

1. For my parents and family members so that they can be proud of the fact that I completed my university studies.

2. To meet my friends from university and catch up.

Those are the only two reasons why I went for my convocation. Other than that, I feel like the convocation wasted my time, energy and resources.

Just imagine yourself waiting for 3 hours just so that you can be on stage for 3 minutes to take your 'scroll' which is empty.

After some thoughts, I hope this is not the only convocation that I will be attending in my lifetime. Hopefully, the next convocation will be a more meaningful one for me :)

Madness Knows No Limit

2011-10-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. The last post was about 5-6 weeks ago after checking my blog.

As a matter of fact, I started working about 5 weeks ago and since then, it has been a little crazy somehow. And madness seriously knows no limit. Here's why:

1. In the past 1 month, I have travelled more than 3,000km by car, possibly more than 5,000km. This is a lot considering that all these travels are not because of work (I can understand how a salesman can travel 5,000km). There were even some weekends that I travelled from KL to Teluk Intan, then from Teluk Intan to Seberang Jaya in Penang and finally from Seberang Jaya to KL again. That should be about 700km. And there was 1 day that I travelled more than 500km @.@

2. I have quite recently started running again (last week to be specific). Here's the crazy part: I went running at 11.00pm at night =.=''' And that's because I can't find time to run in the evening.

3. Was in one of the craziest discussions that I have heard. The topic is political, so I won't share about it here.

That's all for today's update I suppose. I'll try to post more updates whenever I am available.

What Does An Orphanage Need?

2011-09-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Based on my experience of doing community work, let me just share with you on some of my thoughts on this matter, "What does an orphanage need?"

The first and most important thing that the orphanage need is of course money. Why money? Because it is the one thing that will determine the life and death of the orphanage. Is it the most important thing? No, I don't think so. Why don't I think so? Because there are enough good Samaritans in Malaysia who wants to do charity but don't know how to do it. Typically, they just give donations to orphanages, old folks' homes and welfare homes. So, the money is not the biggest concern for orphanages because it's lacking only at the 'want', not lacking at the 'need'.

The second most important thing that an orphanage need are the other things like shelter, occasional support in terms of materials and so on. Why is it so important? There are times when things are expensive and money can't buy it. Partially it is also the reluctance of people and companies to give cash straight to the management of the orphanages. So, these people and companies donate things instead of money. With the increasingly prevalent trend of corporate companies having their own CSR programmes, donations in kind don't come in as difficult as it used to be anymore.

The last and most important thing that an orphanage needs is long-term commitment. One example of things that need long-term commitment is tuition for the children in the orphanages. Orphanages typically don't send their children to tuition because they can't afford it. So these children lose out in school because they don't get additional guidance at home (lack of attention from their caregivers) on their education. As donors to homes, I believe that it is difficult for the most of them to commit to a long-term project/programme for the children at the home because personally, everyone of us have our own priorities. More importantly, commitment to the home that they contribute to is not the top priority to the donors.

This leads to a dire need for more contributors, not in monetary or in kind but in terms of energy, time and effort. There are many things that orphans need. But one thing that is lacking for these children is LOVE. By committing our energy, time and effort to love these children, I believe that the children will have a more enriching life. I think that we should try to contribute to orphanages for a longer term which will enhance the benefits of the contribution instead of the one-off cash or in kind contribution.

With Love,

Alex

Another Update - My Thoughts on Employment

2011-09-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

Technically speaking, I have found a job. The job that I have found is a job at Ernst & Young as an Audit Associate.

I have applied to the following companies:
1. CIMB
2. Maybank
3. BAT
4. AmInvestment
5. PWC
6. Ernst & Young (EY)

The only company that came back to me for an interview are Maybank, AmInvestment and EY. I am still in the process of interview for the other two jobs but EY came forward with a job offer for me starting in September.

First of all, I have to commend EY's HR team for their immediate response in arranging for an interview and coming up with the offer within 2 weeks of sending the job application and resume. What I find unfortunate is the fact that a friend of mine who preferred to work in EY only got the call-up for interview after she accepted the offer from KPMG (simply because EY called her late). Too bad for EY for missing out on a good employee,

To the companies that have yet to call me, I guess they're either not hiring or I don't suit their requirement of an employee. The job market at the moment is more of the employer's market than the employee's market. Employees don't always get the choice of choosing the employment of their choice. Only a select few get the option of the employment of their choice.

Having said that, employers nowadays want their employees to pursue professional qualifications during the duration of their employment. I was speaking to a HR Manager from EY and she indicated to me that promotion and progression is based on the performance and progress on professional qualification examinations. To be honest, it's very difficult for employees to be performing and taking professional qualification examinations when they're constantly loaded with jobs and projects.

Then, this question arises: Does it matter that much for an employee to pass their professional qualification examinations? Shouldn't their ability to perform on the job take precedence as a pre-qualification for consideration for promotion?

The lesson learnt on employment: a Bachelor's degree is only like a UPSR exam. There's still professional qualification and other examinations to go.

Update

2011-08-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog. The main reason is because of my laziness to update it. I've been unemployed for some time and I think it's time for me to get back to work. It has been 3 months since I completed my internship and I believe that I have made the most of my break by doing some really meaningful things.

Currently, I have already sent out job applications to several banks that I'm truly interested to be working with and two audit firms. I've just been scheduled for an interview and hopefully everything goes all right in that interview. If things are smooth, I think I will have to start work in 3 weeks.

Wishing things will do fine :)

Random-ness

2011-05-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's starting to feel like there's nothing much to life than work, earn money, spend money and wait for your next pay-cheque. As it is, I'm currently unemployed and I have to admit one thing, I dread joining the workforce.

Here's how I see it, once I join the workforce, the ongoing cycle of going to work everyday to earn money starts. From there on, you only pretty much live from pay-check to pay-check with savings. Once this cycle starts, my fear is that I will be stuck in this cycle, not being able to escape from the so-called rat-race simply because I'm just addicted to my next pay-check and the stability of an employment.

Here's the thing that I realized after internship in my previous company. My wage for one month is RM800.00. However, the company is charging the client RM80.00 for each hour that I put in doing the client's work. This basically means that the company is generating RM640.00 per day from my 8 hours at work. It also means that the company has pretty much broke even after I have worked for 1 day. That leaves me another 21 days more to work for the company generating revenue for the company. Hence, the profit margin for the company from my employment in my previous company is approximately 1500% to 2000%. My thought: why work so hard when most of the benefits of my hard work goes to the company?

This has led me to think of other alternatives other than employment.

Dare to Dream

2011-05-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

Often, we always see people day-dreaming. Now, the question is always: is it good?

Dream is a very important part of our lives. Dream is the place where we can think without using our sense of logic, without boundaries and without limitations. This is where ideas come about and ideas are very important part about being human

I have heard of a story of how a scientist came about with the molecular structure of benzene ring. The scientist who came about with the theory that the benzene molecular structure was in the form of a ring was Friedrich August Kekule. The theory was developed when he was day-dreaming that a snake had bitten its own tail.

No doubt not everyone can be like Kekule. However, without day-dreaming, how can we think about the unthinkable?

Why The Notion of Changing the Official Religion to Christianity Is Not From The Opposition or ex-PKM Members

2011-05-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Based on what I have read, there's only one possibility of such a notion spreading in Malaysia. And I can give you a clear account of why I think the opposition is not involved:

1. DAP members who were alleged to have wanted Christianity to be the official religion of Malaysia are people who had been reprimanded through our dear Internal Security Act (ISA). And that very person is Mr. Lim Guan Eng who was detained under ISA in Ops Lalang in the late 1980s. Being a person who has been to Kamunting, he's definitely not that stupid to say something that detrimental to his political career in public. Likewise, the majority of the people in the opposition party will not be that stupid to say something that stupid. These people in the opposition party are fully aware that if they had said anything like that, they will be in jail within 24 hours for 2 years. That's probably a mistake that nobody wants to make.

2. It sounds even more ridiculous when you think that Christian priests will come up with the notion to change the official religion of the country to Christian. Firstly, Christian priests are people who are not aggressive. Knowing fully well that the religion of the majority in Malaysia is Islam, it sounds totally non-sensical that they would come up with such a notion. Secondly, Malaysians in general are brought up to be people who are 'kiasi'. And people will not want to end up in jail simply because of something stupid that they have said (note: going to jail for at least two years without any trial and subject to extension by the Home Minister)

3. Mr. Ibrahim Ali has come up with the suggestion that ex-PKM people are infiltrating powerful NGOs and pushing for the official religion of the country to be changed to Christianity. Firstly, do Communists even believe in a religion? Obviously they don't believe in religion. Secondly, if indeed they are existent, would it not be more resource-effective to come up with the notion to change our country from a democratic country into a communist one? Why would they want to waste their resources on coming up with such a notion when they don't even believe in the notion? Based on the above two reasoning, it is impossible that ex-PKM members are responsible in spreading such lies'

4. Currently, the Home Ministry has not issued any directives to arrest anyone. Just recall the time when Mr. Anwar Ibrahim was detained under ISA. There was a big hoo-hah created just to detain a 61-year-old man who doesn't carry any firearm. The convoy who detained Anwar was like a convoy to detain 'Botak Chin'. If the notion to change the official religion of the country was indeed said by a person in the opposition party, I'm sure that the same convoy of cops would have been mobilized to detain whoever came up with the notion

Having ruled out the possibilities of the opposition party and ex-PKM members coming up with the notion to change the official religion of the country, there seems like only one party remaining who might just have come up with the notion.

*** Note: This blog post above only represents the opinion of the author and written to neither sway the opinion of its readers nor jeopardize the harmony currently existing in the country. It has been written for the sole purpose of externalizing the author's thoughts and nothing else through his train of thoughts using logic and reasoning skills and is no way a vessel of any parties whether ruling or opposition. The author is a member of neither the ruling coalition nor the opposition coalition and strongly believes in peace and harmony in a heterogenous society where everyone lives in symbiosis. ***

Why Malaysia Can Never Be A Truly Developed Nation

2011-05-02T01:13:00.000-07:00

I have never believed that Malaysia will never be a truly developed nation. It is only recently that I've actually managed to find out why this is as such. First of all, what do you define a developed nation in the first place? The normal definition for developed nation is when the economy becomes a high-income encomony. Hence, I have searched for the definition of a high income economy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_income_economy

"A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with
a Gross National Income per capita of $12,196 or more in 2009"

Yes, we might just be able to achieve this criteria considering the fact that the USD is collapsing and the fact that life in Malaysia is getting better. However, let me just take a different approach in defining developed country

A developed country is a country where the society is developed and refined. What does developed and refined means? A developed society is a society that occupies the moral high ground. Qualities such as courteous, selflessness and patriotism should be emphasized in the society. Why do I consider these qualities paramount to a developed nation? Just imagine a nation with income per capita of higher than USD20,000 but the residents of the country are habitual queue-cutters and demonic drivers, like in Malaysia. If this is the case, what really makes us human as compared to other so-called 'lowly' animals? What is the point of earning more than others when we're morally unsound?

For those of you who do not know, I often take public transport to work during my internship period. Taking public transport really gives you a whole new perspective to the Malaysian attitude and culture. There are times when you feel like Malaysia as a whole has matured as a society with courtesy as one of its core values. However, there are some things that saddens me more than anything else.

The public transport in Malaysia, as you and I know, isn't the most efficient public transport system in the world. During peak hours the public transportations will always be full. However, it only takes a little bit of effort just to go into the bus/train (not hovering near the entrance) so that everyone else behind you can enter the bus. This simple gesture of being considerate goes a long way to letting other people enter the bus/train. If you don't believe what I have just said, take the bus during peak hours and you will notice that you can actually stand very comfortably in the innermost part of the bus when your fellow passangers near the door is struggling to find a place to stand.

The following are the few qualities that I think a high-income/developed societies should have:
1. Courteous
2. Selfless (has big-picture view)
3. Responsible
4. Efficient (maximise use of time)
5. Considerate

With that, I'm signing off for the day

Why is Brain Drain Happening?

2011-04-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Based on my personal observation, Malaysia is a very nice country. We have a peaceful country, unlike many countries where civil war is a commonality. We have a fairly robust economy where everyone is allowed to earn a living. We also happen to be a country that is blessed with not many natural disasters. If you're a citizen of Malaysia, what else could you ask for?

Let me state the fact. We have produced many young, bright and talented people. The list of names of former Malaysians (emphasis on former) who have made it big in another country is almost countless.

It was only recently that a former Malaysian became the head prosecutor in a state in the United States. Now, this is where the media will put that person's name in one of the first few pages in their newsprint. It appears to me that we seem to want to claim credit for having a former (once again) Malaysian serving as a head prosecutor in the United States. As far as I'm concerned, I have no interest in knowing who the person is.

Have we asked why so many bright people left?
I have a theory about why so many people left our beloved country to work elsewhere in the world. A layman would typically tell you one of the following standard answers:
1. Better job prospects overseas
2. Higher salary
3. Better lifestyle

Of the three, there is a 90% probability that people will say the first two answers. But as I thought about it, I discovered that these are only minor factors that led to so many bright students leaving the country to serve another country.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that there are 5 different levels of needs; physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization. These levels of needs are satisfied from the lower-most column in the pyramid to the top-most column in the pyramid. The top-most column in the pyramid can be deemed as the least-important need, or so people thought.

Based on my observation, the average Malaysian would have already satisfied the bottom-most column in the hierarchy. Now, put yourself in the shoes of one of the brightest student in Malaysia. Safety will definitely not be a problem.

Technically, the next point of consideration should be love/belonging (friends and family). However, this is not happening in Malaysia's brightest students because esteem (self-esteem, confidence, respect by others) has replaced love/belonging as the third column. They have valued items listed under Esteem as more important than feeling love/belonging.

Why is this happening?
For those of you who have left your home to study in another place, you will know that it is very difficult to leave your hometown and parents to study elsewhere. It is not easy for most people to leave behind everything that they have built in Malaysia behind; the friends and family who you will dearly miss.

Based on my observation, the brightest students are feeling that their effort and talent is not appreciated by the nation. Yes, the other factors that they left are job opportunities and better income abroad. But in this case, the brightest have felt singled out and not recognized as well as appreciated.

Personally, I have heard of a case where a 4A-STPM student being offered a place in the University to study Biotechnology (Biotechnology is her 7th option in her UPU application form). Last I checked, she has since left the country to study in NUS, Singapore. I'm guessing that she has no plans of returning after completing her studies

There are times when I ask myself, what will happen if this 'tragedy' repeats itself for 100 other students? It basically means that we have lost 100 of our brightest future leaders (bear in mind that they're our brighest students)

Gender Equality: Are We Serious About It?

2011-04-18T05:03:00.001-07:00

It has been many centuries that women has been looked down upon as the weaker sex. From the beginning of civilization, women has been deemed to be weaker and it was in the 1970s or 1980s that gender equality has increased in prominence.

It is not that gender equality has never been discussed in the past. It has been discussed by many great philosophers of the past. In fact, feminism/gender equality dates back to the 1800s where the idea of feminism was started by John Stuart Mill, a philosopher from England who created the 'harm principle'. In the modern world, gender equality has become almost a universally accepted principle and all women are granted the same rights as other men, e.g. right to equal pay. However, there are times that you will see women getting lower pay compared to their male counterparts. The rationale given are numerous.

I am a believer of gender equality. I have always believed that women should and must enjoy the rights enjoyed by men. However, there are times when women who lay their claim on gender equality AND still want to maintain that they should get preferential treatment by their male counterparts. This is what I would call too much

Not too long ago when gender equality was not something that is in vogue, men used to buy the ladies that they like drinks, presents and so on. Women have always been the passive party in relationships and they have always had and expected men to approach them. And this mindset has continued to be the main belief of many modern women

This is something that I find hypocritical: What is with the double-standard when laying claim on gender equality? Claiming gender equality has always been fine with me. I will always treat my female friends as equals. But women who expect men to do everything for them and still want to lay a claim on gender equality will only be utter hypocrisy. In life, you win some you lose some. You don't win everything and lose nothing. So if you expect to be treated equally, please start to treat others equally

Here's what I think an understanding lady can do:
1. If men offer to buy you something or do something for you, please let them do it. After all, they are willing when they offer. Otherwise, it will be better if you ask first if they're willing. Worst-case-scenario: going dutch. Not that you're going to lose anything anyway. Imagine that you're dining at a very upclass restaurant and you have to pay for two. Your monthly salary/allowance will dry up in no-time
2. Not all men are created equal. After all, we're still humans. Some men are just more timid while others are more confident. Do not expect all men to be the same. If you're interested in a guy, please use stronger indicators, not indicators that guys don't even understand. It's sometimes very difficult for some guys to read women's body language

So, to the ladies, please be more understanding to guys. We're not gods, we're only humans and we're not perfect
For the guys, if you think that the content of this post is rational, please tell your female friends about this

Disclaimer: This post is the opinion of the author alone and does not represent the opinion of any other individuals. It may represent the opinion of some people. You are entitled to your own opinion. The expression of your opinion is entirely up to you

Auditor Passed Away From Overworking

2011-04-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

There was a report in international newspapers that a lady who is an auditor with PwC Shanghai passing away from acute cerebral meningitis infection. Cerebral meningitis is defined as the inflammation of the meninges which is the thin outer layer of the brain. And like all other inflammation, the section of the meninges that is inflamed will swell and be damaged when the cells are pressed against the skull. Based on some of the reports that I have read, it appears that the symptoms of cerebral meningitis is headache / migraine and fever

[Source: http://shanghaiist.com/2011/04/15/25-year-old_shanghai_auditor_worked_to_death.php]

At another report that I read, it is reported that auditors working 100 hours per week is very common considering the peak period for reporting. And it is reported that this girl has worked more than 110 hours per week. I have to admit that this is a little bit too much considering that you only have 168 hours per week for everything (including sleep)

My thoughts
I have always had the belief that auditors in Malaysia should be paid higher than what they are paid now. I can't speak on behalf of other auditors who are not in Malaysia because I don't know how their pay scale is like. An auditor in a medium or small firm will be paid between RM2,000 to RM2,500 (smaller firms pay even less).

This is even lower than Engineers and commercial accountant by a lot. A simple comparison between Big 4 accounting firms and MNC Engineers will tell the whole story. Auditors in Big 4 accounting firms are paid approximately RM2,700 at current market rate whereas Engineers in MNCs are paid at least RM3,000. Some are paid even more. And all this is despite the fact that Auditors and Engineers are both professionals. And both Auditors and Engineers are knowledge workers

It is high time that we reward knowledge workers more handsomely than non-knowledge workers e.g. administrative staff. My rationale that we should pay knowledge workers more handsomely is because knowledge has value-add but administrative work does not have value-add. Considering that the Malaysian government is always talking about Vision 2020, all I can say is "You have to pay for the best brains". Without breaking free from this trend, Malaysia will never become a high-income nation

Recently, my friend said a very interesting quote:

"You pay Peanuts

You get Monkeys"

Disclaimer: This is not a shot at auditors being lowly-paid people. The author strongly feels that auditors should be paid for the amount of work that they are doing, not just paid what their bosses think they should be paid

Earthquakes: What are they?

2011-04-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

I just came back from Trinity Home a while ago and sat down with my sister watching the news on CNN. Turns out that there was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan again, off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The tsunami that struck Japan on 11th of March hit the town of Sendai which is the capital of Miyagi prefecture. The latest earthquake that has just occurred is an aftershock of the initial 9.0 magnitude earthquake that happened on 11th of March

Miyagi prefecture (Source: wikipedia.org)

Just some background on aftershocks for you:

An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock. Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock

(Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/earthquake#aftershocks)

Please support Japan in going through all the difficulty that they are currently going through. Lets gather our strength to pray for the people who had passed on and for those who remain in this world to clean up the mess that was caused by all the challenges that the Japanese are facing. In the mean time, let us also learn our lessons from the difficulties that the Japanese are facing in this troubled times

Straws: Do we really need them?

2011-04-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ahh.... The straw. Always used at the eateries but few people actually pays attention to it. Always thrown away after one usage, it is one of the things in life that many can live without. But for some, it is just life-defining. It becomes a habit of many people that when they visit KFC or McDonald's, they will take straw and put it into their cup. This happens naturally out of habit for a lot of people. I've been wondering for a while now why was the straw created and how does it help us.

So, out of curiosity, I surfed the net to find out more about the history of straws and how is it helping us in our daily life especially in helping us drink. It appears that the straw was created many thousands of years ago for the purpose of drinking alcoholic beverages (must it always be about this drink?) and the very first straw in the world was made of, well obviously straw

After some reading, turns out that straws can actually help us to mitigate tooth decay especially when we're drinking carbonated drinks. It works by funneling the drinks straight into your mouth and reducing contact with your teeth (carbonated drinks are acidic and will corrode your teeth)

My thought
As for me, I will typically pass the straw and move on to get my chili sauce at the sauce counter whenever I visit KFC and McDonald's. I view it as a complete waste of resources since the straw is made of plastic (plastic is non-biodegradeable) and it's only used for a while (approximately 30 minutes or so for normal diners). And after the straw has served its purpose, it will lie in landfills for another several hundred years. My conclusion? It's not like we can't drink from the cup without using a straw anyway

Investment in Education (Part 2)

2011-04-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up of a previous post, I would differentiate education into two kinds, formal and informal. Formal education comes from going to school, college and university whereas informal education comes from learning on the job and self-learning.

To prove that investing in formal education will no longer be beneficial, here's the computation based on the following situation:

Estimate of total cost to complete a Business degree (in Monash University): RM100,000
Monthly salary upon graduation: RM2,500
Monthly expenditure: RM1,300
Monthly savings: RM1,200
Annual increment: 6%
Annual Bonus: 3 months
QUESTION: How long will it take to attain payback?

Then answer is definitely more than 5 years. That is only for payback before taking into account any kind of inflation. With inflation and the time-value of money, the payback period would be so much longer than 5 years

Having said that the cost of education is increasingly difficult to bear for normal middle-class families, all is not lost. The main reason that I'm saying this is because of the increasing amount of information available on the Internet. You can literally learn how to repair a car online if you know where to find. Information is so vast on the Internet so much so that the only problem is for you to find the right sort of information online

However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education. This effectively makes formal education equally as important as an informal education

One simple example is programming. I have a friend of mine who studied Engineering in his university days. He went for internship for 2-4 months in an IT company, doing programming in PHP. After doing internship, he was already doing free-lancing in programming of websites. All the knowledge came from the exposure, the interest and the online sources of information. And all this came from only a little investment in time, effort, electricity and broadband connection.

On the flip side, another friend of mine who aspires to be a medical doctor cannot practise as a medical doctor if he does not go to university.

My thought
However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education. However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education.

Read: http://lexlex-truthseeker.blogspot.com/2010/08/investment-in-education-part-1.html for Investment in Education (Part 1)

April Fool!!

2011-04-02T08:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was April Fool's Day. It wasn't too great for me at best until towards the end of the day. I woke up late for work and was stuck in traffic for a very long time after work. It really isnt't he best combination of things to wrap up my day

I went to 1 Utama after work to meet up with my sister for dinner. We eventually decided to go to "Oriental Cravings" simply because my sister had to eat vegetables and wanted to try out new shops in 1 Utama. So into the shop we went and we ordered our food Chinese-style (several plates served to all with each person having their own bowl of rice). I also ordered 8-Treasure Ice Kacang

When the 'Ice Kacang' arrived at the table, the only thing that came to my mind was it's so small, so small that I think that it's not worth the money. But I didn't really put much thought into it and started eating it. My sister even remarked at one point that it looks more like cendol than ice kacang. I have to admit that it's nice, really nice.. It even reminds me of the Nyonya Ice Kacang I ate in Jonker Street lately

Then suddenly, one of the attendant came over to tell us that the waiter served cendol on my table instead of the 8-Treasure Ice Kacang. And I was half-way through enjoying the 'Ice Kacang' that I let out a loud yelp and was stunned for a good 3 seconds.

Only after that when the fact started to sink in that I told him to change the dessert to what I had ordered. But boy oh boy was the cendol really nice. I'm gonna order that cendol next time we come by that shop

That was some April Fool's Day to say the least :)

Tired and Undecided

2011-03-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I just feel so tired and bored. I've been working for almost 1 year now. 10 months to be exact. 5 months in Monash University, another 5 months in Ernst & Young. I have to admit that it's been a very long 1 year for me and many things has changed

Monash University wasn't that tiring a job because I only had to do my work from 8am to 6pm or so. It wasn't that knowledge-intensive either. Counseling became a routine once you have done enough of it. Parents will always ask the same few questions whenever you meet them, students will always keep quiet most of the time in the presence of their parents. Most of the stuff are only administrative work

I have to admit that it was quite tough at first to move from an Accounting background student into what I'm currently doing which is more related to IT than accounting/auditing. Having learned so many new things in the past 5 months of working in EY really gave me the feeling of gratification. Perhaps I'm just consoling myself for not having gone through the traditional path of an accounting student. Or perhaps I'm just fulfilling my self-created prophecies

After these 5 months of work, I'm asking myself whether I should really stay on to do what I'm currently doing. Part of me just feels so tired of all the work and rush which is not worth it considering the lowly pay despite being a knowledge-based work. Another part of me feels like staying because of the enjoyable work that I can bear with to do even though it's not really the most fun kind of work to do. Relocating to Singapore might be a point of consideration if they have job opportunities there.

As it is, I'm just physically tired and mentally sluggish because of the work and sleeping late. I should've been sleeping by now but I'm still typing away this blog and checking for status updates in Facebook. But before I go, let me sign off with this quote that I've read today:

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

It was Earth Hour 2011 yesterday night from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. I was in Midvalley at that time having my dinner and about to go home by bus (I went there by bus). As far as I'm concerned, the majority of the shops/tenants there did not really observe Earth Hour 2011. And I don't really blame them for not observing Earth Hour anyway

Here's why:
Earth Hour is only a publicity stunt to create awareness. It has one of the largest impact to create awareness of the need to conserve energy, either for individuals like you and me or for individuals to pressure the government to do something about the need to conserve energy (some countries in the rich world has parties that goes by the theme of Green). But if you look at the effect of Earth Hour on the environment, it is pathetic. I'll show you why in the calculations below:

There are 8760 (24 hours * 365 days) hours in in one year
We are only switching off our lights for 1 hour every year
So, the direct impact of Earth Hour to the environment is 0.0114155% (1 hour /8760 hours * 100%)
Which also means that the impact of Earth Hour is almost negligible

How can we make a difference?
1. The first and most important way to make a difference is to drive less and take public transport more. I know that the public transport system in Malaysia is just plain bad. And the government lacks the initiative to improve it because we have a national carmaker and a national petroleum company to feed. However, it would make a minor difference if we just drive less and try to take the public transport more often. It also saves you some money as well. As a large group of people, we will be able to reduce carbon dioxide emission (not much but the impact will still be greater than Earth Hour)

I remember when there was a time when petrol price was RM2.70 per litre not too long ago in the distant past, there was less cars on the road compared to when it was less than RM2.00. It was good for the environment

2. The second way that you can make a difference is to pressure your government to clean up its act, namely establish a policy to control emissions. I have heard of many methods that are used by governments especially in the European Union on how to control emissions. One of the many would be to encourage the use fuel-efficient cars instead of the gas-guzzling cars. Another method that the government can control emissions using policies is through the establishment of clean manufacturing regulations and the enforcement of it.

Hence, as voters you deserve the right to vote for the government that you put in office. It is your right and please exercise your right in voting. You can make a difference

My thought
I would not observe Earth Hour not because of the fact that I'm a pollutant. It's just that I don't see it necessary to observe Earth Hour because the direct impact on the environment is just too minute. It would be more beneficial for us to reduce our consumption of energy throughout the year instead of just reducing our consumption of energy for 1 hour of the year and leaving the lights on for the rest of of the yeare

Nuclear Power: Is it worth the risk?

2011-03-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted anything on this blog. Life hasn't been too kind to me lately. I've been bombarded with work and several deadlines at work. The problem is I'm missing on a lot of them.

The final deadline to complete my work is dawning. Don't know how I'll cope once early April starts. That'll probably be one of the worst times for me because need to wrap up my work as soon as possible. Crazy client :(

Anyway, with the recent developments happening around the world, I feel like I'm losing touch with reality. I didn't even had the time to read deeper into what was happening in Japan because I was too engrossed in my work and I don't typically get to read The Sun (simply because it always finishes when I'm leaving for work)

Since nuclear power is always being put on the newspaper lately, what do you think about nuclear power? Especially in the context of Malaysia

What I think

First of all, I believe that nuclear power should be put in good hands at all times. The reason for this is because there is just so much at stake i.e. public health (not just the citizens of the country but also neighbouring countries). Just imagine a company runing a nuclear reactor slacks on safety and a disaster more serious than what happened in Japan will unravel.

Secondly, I believe that this technology will bring various benefits to the human race if it is utilized the right way. Nuclear power is one of the cleanest energy around (no incremental carbon dioxide emission after the emissions for building the reactor). It is also one of the most advanced technologies for generating power (this is aside from solar and wind energy with very low yields). It would be beneficial for the human race as a whole to exploit the use of this source of energy (with proper restraints), considering the fact that oil prices are increasing ever so dramatically

Nuclear power is in a way safer compared to certain energies because of the fact that it is a heavily regulated industry (the regulator for the nuclear power industry is International Atomic Energy Agency, more commonly known as IAEA). Regulation is tight because of the fact tha the nuclear power industry is a very niche industry (nuclear reactors are very expensive to build) and the industry is small. Only rich countries can afford to build nuclear reactors (if they ever choose to). With the expansion of the industry, I foresee that there will be more slack in terms of regulation

My take: It is beneficial for Malaysia to build a nuclear reactor as an alternative source of power. This is considering that Malaysia is not prone to natural disasters like earthquakes. This also simplifies the nuclear reactor builder because they do not necessarily need to establish safety measures for earthquakes. They would need to establish other safety measures to cope with the local environment (warm weather etc.)

However, I do not believe that the nuclear reactor will be managed properly considering the political situation of the country. Corruption is bound to happen and transparency in public institutions i.e. government agencies and government-linked companies is not good enough to induce proper management of the nuclear reactor

Busy Busy Busy

2011-02-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

I've been rather busy lately to the extent that at one point, I forgot what day of the week it was and the things that I had to do on certain days of the week.

And all this is because of working almost non-stop for a week or so. Even weekends are not entirely spared from work. I suppose this only happens when you're so into your work that you forgot entirely about the time.

I can't complain that I work until very late in office. I typically leave for home around 6.30pm to 8.00pm (this is very good considering the scope of work that I'm involved in). I have friends who are in traditional audit working until 11.00pm at night or later.

I have to admit that their scope of work is very much different than mine. They are required to work with a lot more hardcopy of documents and evidences compared to people from my field. That probably explains why it's not logical to bring home their work.

Although I go home before 8.00pm most of the time, I usually end up working from home after I freshen up until around 12.00am or so. I no longer have the time to do other things that I enjoy, e.g. exercise and so on. At least I'm learning a lot from what I'm currently doing. That's probably the biggest satisfaction that I'm getting from doing my work the best to my ability, with a price

Another 2 months or so and I can take a short break before preparing my internship report. It might be very difficult for me at the moment. I have not done any work yet thanks to my laziness. Will have lots of work to catch up with soon. I guess I'm squeezed right now

Happy Chinese New Year!!

2011-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year!! It's been a while since I was last blogging. Just got back from KL, in TI now. It's been a long while since I was last blogging. It's been a rather busy few months of working. It's been extremely interesting

In the past few weeks, I discovered that it's not a wonder that a brainy person like Bill Gates is hooked on to programming. Programming is in a way quite interesting because it's really thought-provoking. It really makes you think hard on how to execute certain commands etc.

I've been doing some programming lately (more like SQL-related) and felt that it's really interesting, especially when your programming is successful and according to how you want it to be :) So far I haven't gone through the entire spectrum of programming yet. Given the opportunity, I might consider learning at least one programming language, maybe in the form of Visual Basic :)

For those of you who enjoy thinking, I highly recommend learning some programming. It takes some effort to build up the foundation to search for codes etc. but it's really satisfying when you get a hang of it.

Resolution Time

2010-12-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas this year. Now that Christmas is over, new year is coming. And like every other new year, we always start off with resolutions that we're going to underachieve. Perhaps it's just how resolutions are made.

As for me, I will only try my best to achieve the resolutions that I have made. Previous years, I didn't really make real resolutions (as in, I didn't declare the resolutions). I suppose this year, I shall declare my resolution here. So these are my resolutions:
1. Start working to save up to buy a home (estimate saving: RM500 to RM1,000 per month)
2. Accomplish sub-4 performance
3. Keep close friends closer
4. Make efforts to meet high school friends again
5. Remain active in charitable work
6. Continue to actively read The Economist (hopefully)

I suppose these 4 resolutions are quite easy to achieve. It only requires discipline to do it. I'm not sure how I will be able to achieve this but I suppose if you don't try it, you'll never know what the results will be. One thing's for sure, No Pain, No Gain

Life is like a box of chocolate; you never know what you will get

Until then, enjoy yourselves and Happy New Year :)

Random - Internship

2010-12-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

When you go to a new place not knowing anything or any directions esp as a tourist, all you will do is walk here and there without knowing exactly what to do etc. The cost of it would definitely be the time that you have to spend to find what you want. My life seems to have become such a struggle almost every single day at work, not knowing exactly what to do

I guess this is what they mean by: Life is like a box of chocolate, you'll never know what you'll get. I have to admit that since I have started my Industrial Training, there has been moments when I just feel so useless, not knowing what I should do.

I think it's especially so when you're an Aocounting student stuck in an IT-based environment. All the programming and scripts really got me lost at one point or another. I wonder how IT graduates actually do programming. Reading scripts is entirely different from writing scripts. Writing it is definitely more difficult than reading it.

At times, I just ask myself whether I'm in the right department and field. Usually when I'm reading the scripts, the answer will definitely be a resounding NO. But I can't help it because I have to complete my industrial training at all cost. 1 month has passed but 5 dreadful months await. The wait shall be long but I know that by the end of 6 months, it will all feel like a dream.

But until it becomes a dream, I shall struggle

First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality

2010-09-18T05:36:00.000-07:00

Both my sisters are out of town for the weekend. So, I had to eat out myself for dinner. Since I'm alone and there are eateries nearby, I'd rather walk to the eateries than to drive there. It's only a 10-minute walk away anyway.

Turns out that my 10-minute walk today is a very unpleasant one. As I was crossing the road at the traffic light (traffic light was red), I heard someone shouting "Oi Botak". So I looked behind only to notice a Malay dude (I don't know him) shouting (he has a crew cut hair as well) from his car window.

I didn't know why he was so mad at me. I did nothing wrong but I was taunted in public. The only possible reason why he'd shout at me was me crossing the road when the traffic light is showing red.

Everytime a foreigner tells me that Malaysia is a nice country, I have nothing else to say except to agree. We have so many great infrastructures like LRT, smooth highways and consistent electricity (only in city areas). However, deep down I know that the problem that Malaysia is facing is like what former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi says "First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality". I just couldn't agree more.

This leads me to think, is this an isolated case of being taunted or is this happening all the time around Malaysia? For those of you who have been in such situations, please comment. Kindly write about your experience and what happened, preferably in detail. Thank you

You Are What You Eat, You Are What You Do

2010-08-27T00:16:00.001-07:00

For some of you who know me personally, you might have heard me saying that "You are what you eat". It's true to a certain way but there are things that have to be stated to qualify the statement above. This does not mean that if we eat pork, we will become a pig XD

Yes, what we eat will determine how our body shape will be. If you eat more than what your body can use up, then you'll become fat. Very simple concept.

But there are times when you see someone who eats a lot every meal like they've never eaten their entire life but still remain stick-thin. These people are the people who are blessed with very high base metabolic rate which keeps their body lean even though they eat a lot.

The qualifier of the statement "You are what you eat" is "You are what you do". Often times, you see people with different kinds of shape. Some people have larger upper body while others have larger lower bodies. What you do will also determine how your body will appear.

Just take the example of a runner. Generally, a long-distance runner. A non-professional long-distance runner would typically have small upper bodies and larger lower bodies (thighs, calves and surprisingly butt as well). Usually marathon runners would not be too thin (except the professionals) because their bodies need to store fat to supply energy.

Based on the same concept, boxers don't have profound pectoralis major (chest muscle) because they don't need it to throw punches. All they need is the right technique and strong legs, hips and shoulders to throw a powerful punch

Hence, what we eat is not the only factor that will determine how we look like, what we do would also affect how we look like.

Most Important Words

2010-08-24T09:09:00.001-07:00

Everytime someone learns a new language, it is always the foul words that are learnt first. In Malaysia where there is a diverse range of subjects being spoken, it is only natural for us to be able to learn other languages that are spoken in the country

However, when we learn something new in a particular language e.g. Tamil, the only word that actually sticks would be the foul words e.g. su** and pa***. You'd sometimes even listen to non-Chinese who don't speak a word of Chinese swearing in Chinese. That's how quickly someone picks up a profanity

As I was reading through a friend's blog a moment ago, I saw the two very important but usually not remembered words: Thank you. It actually made me think of this one question: What's the most important words in every language?

After a while, I concluded that the words are as follows:

1. Yes
2. No
3. I don't know/understand
4. Thank you
5. Sorry
6. Okay
7. Any combination of the above words

Despite the fact that it's not commonly remembered, just try fitting these words into your daily life. You might notice that you can provide an answer to anyone who speaks to you with the above answers. Try :D

Investment in Education? (Part 1)

2010-08-06T01:17:00.000-07:00

Since I have started working, I can't help but notice that the cost of education is increasing so rapidly that it's starting to get illogical to get formal education. Just to illustrate how expensive it is to study in University:

Fees for each subject
MMU (3 credit hours) = RM952.50
Monash University (Business course) = RM3,812.50

Conclusion: the course fees for all private institution is increasing rapidly. The problem? Salaries and wages are not increasing as rapidly. The effect? More people cannot afford private education.

Is education important? Yes, education is the most important thing that one should have. Even physical possessions is not as important as education. The only thing that I would deem more important than education would be daily needs like shelter and food

Having said so much about the importance of education, how much should one invest in education? Should you invest in education without restriction or should you invest in it sparingly? At the end of the day, what will you gain?

For more about investment in education, please refer to my next post. Running out of time to blog XD

Busy

2010-08-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy month to sum it all up. Really busy at work these days. It's hard to imagine how difficult life is in KL. If you're taking the public transportation, the only thing you feel like doing is vomiting. The public transport system in KL is so inefficient that there are times when I had to wait more than 1 hour just for one bus to come.

One easy example that I can cite is the U72 bus from Pasar Seni to Taman Desa. On regular days, there are no buses from 9pm all the way until about 10.10pm or so. The buses to other parts of KL are there but only the U72 bus won't come. It's frustrating to me especially when I'm there at about 9.10pm and had to wait for more than 1 full hour just for the bus to arrive!!

There was a time when I had to wait for 45 minutes in front of Sunway Pyramid for the U63, U67 or U76 bus to get to Mid Valley while I'm in transit to go home. That was between 8.00pm and 8.45pm. That was only the first part of my nightmare. When I managed to get to Mid Valley, I had to wait another hour just for the U72 bus to arrive at the bus stop. I ended up waiting for more than 2 hours (all the waiting time included)

Seems like there are not many options for travels in KL. I've had to wake up 6am everyday just to get ready and travel for work. I spend about 14-16 hours out of home everyday nowadays. I usually leave home at 7am and reach home at about 10.30pm or 11.00pm. That's extremely tiring but there isn't much that I can do to help me get more rest.

I guess I won't be able to find a lot of time to blog about myself anymore. I spend less than 10 hours online in a week. My life only revolves around work, running and all the other necessities like eating, bathing and sleeping. Hope I get more time to blog again next time :D

What Makes You Think You're Special?

2010-07-03T01:18:00.001-07:00

Recently, I answered a call from someone wanting to apply for something. What I essentially did was to tell her that the application has been closed for two weeks and she can no longer be registered.

Then, this lady told me "Is there any way that you can make exceptions for me?". If I'm the boss, I might consider this question seriously. But the problem is, I'm not the BOSS!! Besides, what makes you think that you're so special to get exceptions? If you're late, you're late. There's no reason for you to request for exception. It's not my fault that you're late!

I guess that's just human attitudes. They always think that they're special, different from other people. But at the end of the day, they failed to realize that they're just as common as the rest of us. And for my case, I'm pretty certain that this person is not that special after all. If you're special, you would've been watching out for the application deadline!

Something that just came out from my mind: "To be special, you have to think that you're average"? Just a wild thought though

Why Malaysian Death Toll From Traffic Accidents Is So High

2010-06-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Today, I have found an answer for why the Malaysian death toll from traffic accidents is so high. And you would probably think that it's because of drunk driving or reckless driving by Malaysians. True, in a way. But one of the many factor is:

RETARDED AMBULANCE DRIVERS

Let me just tell you what happened just now that made me so pissed off. I was driving home from Cyberjaya after sending my friend back to Cyberia. Then, as I was driving, I saw a Kembara completely upside-down and another Kancil stranded in the middle of the road.

So naturally, I went to help and found out that one of the passangers from the Kembara hurt (isn't it obvious if the Kembara is upside-down?). I called the police to make a report and asked to speak to hospital's operator.

As I was talking to the operator, I saw an ambulance passing by (without siren) on the opposite direction of where the Kembara and the Kancil is. So, I thought the ambulance was here to help and told the operator that the ambulance arrived.

After I hung up from the phone, the stupid ambulance driver drove away. If you see a Kembara upside-down and a Kancil stranded in the middle of the road, obviously is someone is hurt! But the stupid ambulance driver decided to drive away!!

And by the time I left the scene, the ambulance just arrived with the siren and all. By then, I think the victim would've already received all the first aid treatment that she would need. Really cannot tahan the ambulance. Luckily the girl who was hurt only had minor injuries. If it was a major accident, I think she could've died on the spot.

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you have a car and someone is hurt during an accident, better send the victims to the hospital yourself. The ambulance will take too long to arrive to the scene. And the victim's life might be put in danger if you wait for the ambulance to arrive

Secret? What Secret??

2010-05-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, I see many people equating being slim to beauty. Girls especially. There are times when I'm asked how to lose weight and so on, there's only one possible answer than I can come up with. And this is the ONE AND ONLY SECRET (probably the worst-kept secret)

Weight Loss = Output - Input

* Output: Energy output, Input: Energy Input

Whether it's exercise until you vomit or not eating until you have gastric, this rule applies. Some people find controlling their food intake is easier while others find exercising easier. It's entirely up to you on which you prefer to use as your method to lose weight

Personally, I find exercising to be a better way to do it. It helps me stay fit and not to mention, develop my muscles. After all, I enjoy eating too much to not eat :)

Training Regime & Diet for Women

2010-05-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Usually, I'm a person who's very direct when I'm talking to friends who are very close. And this includes female friends (usually from my hometown because of the amount of time we've known each other). So when I see someone who's grown sideways, I'll tell them just that.

More often than not, I'll suggest to them on going for jogs. I always suggest this because it's the kind of exercise that I usually do when I need to control my weight.

[Source: http://www.surreywebsight.org.uk/assets/Image/photos/Fundraising/events/]

Here's why: cardio workouts are the best in burning fat. During the workout, your metabolic rate increases, causing your body to burn sugar faster. After the workout, your metabolic rate is maintained at the high level when you were exercising for a few hours. This gives your body more time to burn sugar. When there isn't enough sugar to burn, then fat is used as the raw material to provide your body with the energy. That is how you lose weight.

That aside, there are only two kinds of response that I'll typically get from female friends when I suggest them to go jogging. "Lazy". "Don't want". For those who are in the "lazy" group, all I can say is "No pain, no gain". But for those who are in the "Don't want" group, I've heard of complaints that they don't want their calves to enlarge. In their opinion, large calves are "ugly"

[Source: http://www.girlshealth.gov/fitness/images/stretch_calf.gif]

Since it's a problem, I gave some thoughts into it and Voila! I've thought out a special training regime for women who wants to stay fit and still maintain slim legs. Here's how:
1. Training: Jog for 20 minutes (doesn't include walking) for 3 times a week. Start from slow jog for the first 19 minutes and 1 minute of moderate speed running. Increase the intensity of the jog gradually as your body gets used to the training
2. Diet: Like all other weight-loss programmes, diet is the key. Since the problem is muscle enlargement, I'm suggesting a low-protein diet. This will prevent the muscle from growing in size after exercise. High protein foods include eggs, dairy products, soy products and meat. For results to show faster, it'll be good to reduce carbohydrate intake as well

[Source: www.fitnessandmuscle.net/tag/protein/]

Now, you have the tools to go jogging without the worry of enlarging calf muscle. So have fun exercising. But remember: No Pain No Gain :D

Note: The training regime and diet above has not been experimented on. It is not confirmed to yield positive results. Try this regime for 2-3 weeks first and evaluate the results it has given you. Kindly let me know if the results of this training regime worked :D

Boredom Strike

2010-05-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty BORING week for me. Nothing much to shout about, the only thing to shout about is studying =( Didn't really do that many of exciting things.

I guess most of my uni-mates are also facing this issue since literally everyone is working their ass off during exam week (more so when your exam constitutes 65% of total marks). There's still 1 more week of exams for me. 3 more papers, 1 on Tuesday, 1 on Thursday and last one on Friday. Although the more difficult exams are already over (I had 3 exams over 3 days, all of them are pretty heavy-weight stuff), I still have to put in effort for this final stretch. Once I'm done with this, I won't be sitting for any exams for quite a long time =D

Anyhow, it's going to be a long time before I update here again. Maybe I'll be absent for 1 week, maybe more. Until then, adiós~~

Secret to Longevity?

2010-04-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

It was only yesterday that I was at a talk at SJBA listening to Sis. Theresa Hsu (read profile at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Hsu_Chih/), a 112-year-old lady who behaves like a 70-year-old woman. Very healthy and I think might be able to live up to 120 years old. But what's the secret?

According to her, 'Laugther Is The Best Medicine', which is true. She is an extremely jovial person, telling jokes throughout the night. I believe that she always laughs off her worries and upsets. Scientifically, being jovial helps us to maintain a steady blood pressure. Being angry and emotionally upset only increases your blood pressure, leading to heightened risk of stroke, heart attack etc etc.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Hsu_Chih]

Another reason why she can still stay healthy at that age is because of her she stays active physically, mentally, socially and emotionally

As it is, she's still doing charity at 112. Quite a feat considering that we see so many people falling terribly sick at 60. It keeps her mentally and socially active since she meets a lot of people and it's really not easy running a charitable foundation. She also does meditation to keep herself emotionally calm and peaceful.

[Adopted from: http://seniorsaloud.blogspot.com/]

Aside from that, she keeps herself physically healthy by practicing yoga. Her flexibility can really beat my flexibility by a mile! Other than all the exercise, there is no denying that a healthy diet is very important for health. According to wikipedia, she eats modestly but she claims that she likes to eat vanilla ice-cream! A documentary that I watched some time ago talked about a place in Japan called Okinawa. Here, there is a disproportionately high percentage of people above the age of 80. Their secret? Eating only until you're half-full. According to the documentary, there's scientific proof to it. But I just can't remember what the facts were :(

So the secret to longevity?

1. Laughter the best medicine
2. Staying active, physically, mentally, socially and emotionally

So, I'll see you all 100 years from now :D

Are We Too Superficial?

2010-04-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I meet some people who just become your friends because you have something/you can do something, it just turns me off immediately. It used to be that this doesn't happen to me at all when I was in secondary school. Maybe I'm just too sheltered from all these things and am too naive to understand all these things.

But as I entered university, I felt that the proportion of friends like these have increased quite a lot. These people only stick around you long enough for you to benefit them. Once the benefit vaporizes, so does the friendship. I wonder what is wrong with our society nowadays

These are the categories of friends that I often see:

1. The worst of friends are people who only come to you when you are the only person who can help them. Once you've helped them, you'll become complete strangers to one another in no time! I believe that I've met a few of such people in university so far. I'm just to tempted to say no when they come asking for help

2. There are others who come to you when they need help and treat you rudely when you have nothing that they want. The only thing that they want from you: the advantage that you wield or the help that you can offer. Once the helped has been given, hi-bye is the most that we can expect most from them. These are the people whom I purposely get out of my way just to help them only to get the cold shoulder when the help has been given. I've always thought that they're my friends only to be disappointed. Once you've helped them, they conveniently become hi-bye friends. Even a conversation is difficult to strike when you don't have anything that they want from you. But they instantly become your 'real' friends again when you have something that they want. They usually won't get out of their way to help you, they only expect you to help them!

3. Another type of friends are people who are very obviously hi-bye friends. They only say hi and bye when you meet. I don't really mind if they're people whom I understand are hi-bye friends. I just help them out of courtesy whenever I can. So when the help is asked, I'll just help if I can. If not, I'll just shake it off quickly and do whatever I want.

4. There's the final type of friends that I usually call real friends. They're people who offer help when it is needed most or people who reminds us of who we are. Although they may not be by our sides all the time, they still care about us regardless of the distance. These friends are harder to find these days

What kind of friend am I?

What Happened to Our Identities?

2010-04-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hairdo

These days, I find it hard to differentiate certain people from one another. One of the main contributor to this is the fact that people are sporting the same hairdo most of the time. It starts to get disturbing when everyone just walks around with the same hairdo like it's a uniform!

These are the templates that I often see among men and women:

[Adopted from: www.facebook.com - Jasmine Lim]

First of all, I have to state my stand on this hairstyle. It's not that I don't like this hairstyle, it's just that I find it irritating when so many girls have this hair. Not everyone can sport the same hairstyle looking good in it.

[Adopted from: http://dinodeart.blogspot.com] - I think the picture isn't original after all

The location of the fringe doesn't really matter because somehow or rather, they all look almost the same to me. They look punky to me and that's all that I'll recognize them by

What about cosmetic surgery?

Another situation when everyone will look the same is when everyone engages in cosmetic surgery especially the same cosmetic surgeon. The possibility of one person looking like another after cosmetic surgery is very high.

Just imagine yourself being given a chance to define what's perfect. If you're given 10 opportunities to define what perfection is, chances are all 10 of them are the same. So pretty much the same goes to the plastic surgeon who does more than 5 surgeries a month!

I definitely hope that we start to look more like ourselves than look more like someone else!

P/S: Not many people can recognize me if everyone else in this world is skin-headed (Thank God I'm bald) :P

Reason To Do Something

2010-04-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered why you did something you had done?

Often times, I find myself doing things that are purely emotional. There's just no basis at all to do something but I ended up finding myself doing something, without any reason to do something. Often times, I also find myself regretting or somehow regretting what I had done.

One Example

Have you ever wondered why we drink alcoholic beverages?

Probably we are social drinkers, so we just drink when there is a social activity. On a not-so-nice basis, you can just say that social drinking is another kind of 'peer pressure'. The only difference is that your 'peers' are not so much like your peers after all.

[Image adopted from: blog.aarp.org/shaarpsession/aging/]

If you don't live in the equator, you don't really have a reason to drink. In cold places, people drink alcoholic beverages to keep their body warm. If you live in the equator, there is even less reason to keep yourself warm (it's super hot in the equator, if you know what I mean).

On a rational basis, we are putting a lot of strain on our livers (even if the beverages are for free). Alcoholic beverages can put a lot of strain on the liver and it's generally bad for health. The liver is damaged slowly when the liver cells detoxifies the alcohol that we consume. This can lead to liver failure later in life if alcoholic beverages are consumed in large amounts over a long period of time.

[Image adopted from: www.watchmojo.com/blog/lifestyle/tag/Beers/]

This is aside from the high price that you have to pay for these beverages (in Malaysia). I don't know about other countries but in Malaysia, a can of beer that can be sold at RM1.50 is sold at RM5.00. That's a mark-up of more than 200%. Doesn't make any sense to me to pay so much for something that can be available at RM2.00 locally (minus tax but includes the seller's profits)

Decision?

This phenomena has been happening a little too often for me of late. I make a decision to do something that is purely made on emotions and ended up regretting what I had done. Now, I'm pretty certain of my stand on all these things and I'm determined to put a stop to all these stupid decisions!

Pain-Phobia?

2010-02-11T11:06:00.001-08:00

We are humans. And our attitude leads us to avoid pain as best as we can. This is a reflex reaction that is ingrained in our brains over the centuries of evolution

However, that is the least effective way to grow ourselves. There's a saying that goes "something that doesn't kill you makes you stronger". This is in fact a very true situation. I believe that there are times when I have put myself through unnecessary situations that has made life more difficult for me. Ironically, these situations have helped me to grow as a person

As it is, I'm a person who's very academically daring. I believe that I'm not afraid of making mistakes and learning from such situations have helped me to improve academically. There's also a part of me that is always reluctant to put myself into difficult situations. One example is to approach people. I have to admit that I'm a social idiot. Although I appear to be calm for most of the time when I approach someone to talk, I find myself very reluctant to do so. Perhaps I'm just a naturally shy person or an introvert

As much as I'd like to improve myself on this point, I don't really work hard enough to improve myself on this. I sometimes tell myself I wanna improve this but the real effort doesn't really come in. That's where the plan to improve my sociability fails miserably. I'm starting to feel that I'm not trying hard enough to improve myself on this sector of my life. Stepping up will be difficult but it's a necessary choice

Education Key To Control Birth Rate?

2010-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was watching a rather stimulating (somehow controversial) documentary about "How Many People Can Live On Earth?" For those of you who are in touch with this issue, I'm pretty sure that you'll know that there are presently more than 6 billion people in this world. As it already is, the environment is already finding it difficult to supply the basic needs for humans (water, food and energy). One of the remedies that were introduced during the documentary to reduce birth rate is to educate the people especially the women.

According to the documentary, educating women can help humans control the population. The reason being: with education, women will tend to control the size of the family. It's still logical in the way that as women become educated, they aspire to provide high-quality education for their children as well. Thus, they will limit the size of the family so that each children can obtain quality education.

However, I have to say that this definitely doesn't apply fully in Malaysia. As it is, I believe that Malaysians are a fairly well-educated lot. With free education being provided in government schools, I think it is safe to say that this assumption holds true.

But the problem that I see is that many people who are educated (e.g. teachers) are expanding their family size almost every few years. It really amazes me why some of my teachers can actually be away on maternity leave for more than 3 times during my course of study in the school (5 years).

As much as contraceptives are concerned, it may just be a good way to control the family size, provided that the women are educated enough to take the contraceptives regularly. If they do not take it regularly, then they may conceive. And this adds on to the already crowded population of 6 billion.

There are times when some crazy ideas would pop into my head and I'll start thinking about a war just to reduce the headcount significantly. I know that nowadays, it's not really a physical war anymore. It's becoming more of an economic war going on and this doesn't reduce the global headcount. I have to admit that warfare has been the most effective way to reduce headcount significantly. One example is Genghis Khan to shrunk the human population by 1/10 during his reign. World War 2 is another example of a major shrinkage of world human population.

I know that some of you are thinking that I'm a sadist. If I'm given the choice of the death of millions (or possibly billions) of people or the complete annihilation of the human race, I'd definitely choose the death of millions of people. It's just a matter of which is better than the other no matter how bad both circumstances may be

What Shoes Can't You Run In?

2010-02-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

For most of you who know who me well enough, you'll definitely know that I'm an avid runner. It was only less than 4 hours ago that I was running, not in my usual running shoes but in my worn out FUTSAL shoes. And now, I'm having a slight sore under my toe. It feels like a blister though

The cause of the sore is the heat that is generated by the sole through the friction when running. For those of you who know futsal shoes, most of them have rubber soles. And because of the friction between these rubber soles with the ground that you're running on, the rubber heats up. To make it worse, futsal shoes typically have very thin soles and poor ventilation. It's like rubbing salt to the wound. You might end up with a terrible blister if you continue to run with futsal shoes. This typically happens only when you run pretty fast for a few rounds. If you're running slowly, the heat will cool off fairly quickly as you're running. Hence, you won't get a bad blister if you just jog

It must also be noted that expensive and cheap running shoes also make a difference in running. Typically, the better running shoes have lighter materials (the difference isn't that big if you ask me) compared to the cheaper shoes. But the difference-maker really is the ventilation system within the shoes and the padding around the shoes (note: not just the soles).

The thing about better shoes is that the ventilation within the shoes is so good that you feel as though you've just worn the shoes even though you've run in it for 1 hour. Cheaper shoes don't have this kind of ventilation and your legs will typically sweat and feel warm when you're running. It won't feel hot like futsal shoes with rubber soles but it still feels warm inside.

The other thing good about better shoes is that it feels like the entire shoe is hugging your feet as you slip them on. It's as though the shape of the shoes will adapt to the shape of your feet as you put them on. As for the cheaper shoes, the materials are a bit harder. So your feet either feels uncomfortable a little or changes its shape to fit the shoes. Either way, it's still a loss situation

So, for those of you who are planning to buy running shoes, consider about how long you'll be wearing the shoes. As for rough users like me, adidas will only last me 6 months before its first wear and tear shows up =(

If He Goes, Then I Go

2010-01-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

I was recently extremely intrigued by the "If He Goes, I Go" attitude that some people give me when I invite them to do something together (group activity). Usually, it's all right if one or two people does it. But when 5 people does it, it'll definitely wreak havoc.

Here's what happened to me:

I asked A-E if they wanna do something together. Then the "If He Goes, I Go" cycle when A says that he'll go if B goes. Then B goes on to say if C goes, I'll go. Ultimately, basically everyone will depend on the last person (E) to decide on whether to go. Then, one fine day, E decides that he'll not go because of something that he has to do. So, here's what will happen:

If E doesn't go, D doesn't go
If D doesn't go, C doesn't go
If C doesn't go, B doesn't go
If B doesn't go, A doesn't go

This usually ends up with everyone not going. Personally, I don't mind it if they each have their valid reasons for going. But when I get lame excuses for not going (and I feel like you're giving me lame excuses), I get a little frustrated. It gets more frustrating when you can't do a group activity simply because people give you lame excuses and you don't have enough people to do the group activity. PLAN CANCELLED

The thing that I don't like about this attitude is when I have the question of "Can't you decide yourself?" in my head. Then, the next question will automatically come "If E eats shit, you wanna eat shit?".

All of us are born and brought up differently. Hence, past experiences and core principles in life will definitely be different. There will be times when people have different interests and such. But when people want to do the same things with their friends simply because their friends are doing so, then I think they're making a very big mistake.

To quote Steve Jobs from Apple Inc. : "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life". Cheers ^.^

Grouses

2010-01-28T11:03:00.001-08:00

Today, I just had some sort of an outburst at my friend. I'm not really sure why I had started to become an angry kid. I've not done anything much for the past 2 weeks since university's trimester started and I think I won't be able to do what I want to do most until after Chinese New Year. This gets upsetting to me when I have some things to do but I didn't even start doing it in the first place.

Now, I'm not sure where I should start. Firstly, I'd like to apologize to all those whom I've been rather harsh or rude to recently. More so to my friend Elvin.

Maybe I'm having a character crisis. Sometimes questions that arise in my head is, who should I be? Should I be the loner that I have been, or should I be the party animal that enjoys every bit of fun available? The temptations of thrill-seeking is really strong. And it is real.

Rationally, I understand that being boring is better than being overly adventurous. Emotionally, it's a battle against all these temptations is losing the fight. There are times when I don't know who I want to be and how am I going to be the person that I want to be?

There are also times when I feel as though I'm just so alien. Probably this has got something to do with my principles on life. But then again, is it applicable? Maybe I'm just surrounded by people who have different backgrounds from myself. Aside from that, there's also the possibility of me being different from other people. This could well be my biggest worry: being a social outcast.

It is very scary to be a social outcast. To be alone when you can be with other people who are like you, to be snubbed by people when they think you're wrong and to be thought of as weird. I'm not sure if I was ever a social outcast throughout my life yet. But there are times when I felt like a social outcast altogether, isolating myself from friends.

I guess it is time for me to get my act right. Set goals and so on. Maybe go as far as to define the person that I am to get me to where I want to be.

Partners and Marriage

2009-12-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I updated my blog. I have to say that it's been a whirlwind of a month for me but I will not disclose the details over here in this blog. The good news is: I have something that is very sweet to share with all my fellow friends. So, here goes :D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PARTNERS & MARRIAGE

Eduardo Calasanz was a student at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, where he had Father Ferriols as professor. Father Ferriols, at that time, was the Philosophy department head. Currently he still teaches Philosophy for graduating college students in Ateneo.

Father Ferriols has been very popular for his mind opening and enriching classes but was also notorious for the grades he gives. Still people took his classes for the learning and deep insight they take home with them every day (if only they could do something about the grades...)

Anyway, come grade giving time, (Ateneo has letter grading systems, the highest being an A, lowest at D, with F for flunk), Fr Ferriols had this long discussion with the registrar people because he wanted to give Calasanz an A+. Either that or he doesn't teach at all...Calasanz got his A+. Read the paper below to find out why.

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

PARTNERS AND MARRIAGE

By Eduardo Jose E. Calasanz

I have never met a man who didn't want to be loved. But I have seldom met a man who didn't fear marriage. Something about the closure seems constricting, not enabling. Marriage seems easier to understand for what it cuts out of our lives than for what it makes possible within our lives.

When I was younger this fear immobilized me. I did not want to make a mistake. I saw my friends get married for reasons of social acceptability, or sexual fever, or just because they thought it was the logical thing to do. Then I watched, as they and their partners became embittered and petty in their dealings with each other. I looked at older couples and saw, at best, mutual toleration of each other. I imagined a lifetime of loveless nights and bickering and could not imagine subjecting myself or someone else to such a fate.

And yet, on rare occasions, I would see old couples who somehow seemed to glow in each other's presence. They seemed really in love, not just dependent upon each other and tolerant of each other's foibles. It was an astounding sight, and it seemed possible. How, I asked myself, can they have survived so many years of sameness, so much irritation at the others habits? What keeps love alive in them, when most of us seem unable to even stay together, much less love each other?

The central secret seems to be in choosing well. There is something to the claim of fundamental compatibility. Good people can create a bad relationship, even though they both dearly want the relationship to succeed.

It is important to find someone with whom you can create a good relationship from the outset. Unfortunately, it is hard to see clearly in the early stages. Sexual hunger draws you to each other and colors the way you see yourselves together. It blinds you to the thousands of little things by which relationships eventually survive or fail. You need to find a way to see beyond this initial overwhelming sexual fascination. Some people choose to involve themselves sexually and ride out the most heated period of sexual attraction in order to see what is on the other side.

This can work, but it can also leave a trail of wounded hearts. Others deny the sexual side altogether in an attempt to get to know each other apart from their sexuality. But they cannot see clearly, because the presence of unfulfilled sexual desire looms so large that it keeps them from having any normal perception of what life would be like together.

The truly lucky people are the ones who manage to become long-time friends before they realize they are attracted to each other. They get to know each other's laughs, passions, sadness, and fears. They see each other at their worst and at their best. They share time together before they get swept up into the entangling intimacy of their sexuality.

This is the ideal, but not often possible. If you fall under the spell of your sexual attraction immediately, you need to look beyond it for other keys to compatibility. One of these is laughter. Laughter tells you how much you will enjoy each others company over the long term.

If your laughter together is good and healthy and not at the expense of others, then you have a healthy relationship to the world. Laughter is the child of surprise. If you can make each other laugh, you can always surprise each other. And if you can always surprise each other, you can always keep the world around you new.

Beware of a relationship in which there is no laughter. Even the most intimate relationships based only on seriousness have a tendency to turn sour. Over time, sharing a common serious viewpoint on the world tends to turn you against those who do not share the same viewpoint, and your relationship can become based on being critical together.

After laughter, look for a partner who deals with the world in a way you respect. When two people first get together, they tend to see their relationship as existing only in the space between the two of them. They find each other endlessly fascinating, and the overwhelming power of the emotions they are sharing obscures the outside world. As the relationship ages and grows, the outside world becomes important again. If your partner treats people or circumstances in a way you can't accept, you will eninevitably come to grief. Look at the way she cares for others and deals with the daily affairs of life. If that makes you love her more, your love will grow. If it does not, be careful. If you do not respect the way you each deal with the world around you, eventually the two of you will not respect each other.

Look also at how your partner confronts the mysteries of life. We live on the cusp of poetry and practicality, and the real life of the heart resides in the poetic. If one of you is deeply affected by the mystery of the unseen in life and relationships, while the other is drawn only to the literal and the practical, you must take care that the distance does not become an unbridgeable gap that leaves you each feeling isolated and misunderstood.

There are many other keys, but you must find them by yourself. We all have unchangeable parts of our hearts that we will not betray and private commitments to a vision of life that we will not deny.

If you fall in love with someone who cannot nourish those inviolable parts of you, or if you cannot nourish them in her, you will find yourselves growing further apart until you live in separate worlds where you share the business of life, but never touch each other where the heart lives and dreams. From there it is only a small leap to the cataloging of petty hurts and daily failures that leaves so many couples bitter and unsatisfied with their mates.

So choose carefully and well. If you do, you will have chosen a partner with whom you can grow, and then the real miracle of marriage can take place in your hearts. I pick my words carefully when I speak of a miracle. But I think it is not too strong a word. There is a miracle in marriage. It is called transformation.

Transformation is one of the most common events of nature. The seed becomes the flower. The cocoon becomes the butterfly. Winter becomes spring and love becomes a child. We never question these, because we see them around us every day. To us they are not miracles, though if we did not know them they would be impossible to believe.

Marriage is a transformation we choose to make. Our love is planted like a seed, and in time it begins to flower. We cannot know the flower that will blossom, but we can be sure that a bloom will come.

If you have chosen carefully and wisely, the bloom will be good. If you have chosen poorly or for the wrong reason, the bloom will be flawed. We are quite willing to accept the reality of negative transformation in a marriage. It was negative transformation that always had me terrified of the bitter marriages that I feared when I was younger. It never occurred to me to question the dark miracle that transformed love into harshness and bitterness. Yet I was unable to accept the possibility that the first heat of love could be transformed into something positive that was actually deeper and more meaningful than the heat of fresh passion. All I could believe in was the power of this passion and the fear that when it cooled I would be left with something lesser and bitter.

But there is positive transformation as well. Like negative transformation, it results from a slow accretion of little things. But instead of death by a thousand blows, it is growth by a thousand touches of love. Two histories intermingle. Two separate beings, two separate presence, two separate consciousness come together and share a view of life that passes before them. They remain separate, but they also become one.

There is an expansion of awareness, not a closure and a constriction, as I had once feared. This is not to say that there is not tension and there are not traps. Tension and traps are part of every choice of life, from celibate to monogamous to having multiple lovers.. Each choice contains within it the lingering doubt that the road not taken is somehow more fruitful and exciting, and each becomes dulled to the richness that it alone contains.

But only marriage allows life to deepen and expand and be leavened by the knowledge that two have chosen, against all odds, to become one. Those who live together without marriage can know the pleasure of shared company, but there is a specific gravity in the marriage commitment that deepens that experience into something richer and more complex.

So do not fear marriage, just as you should not rush into it for the wrong reasons. It is an act of faith and it contains within it the power of transformation. If you believe in your heart that you have found someone with whom you are able to grow, if you have sufficient faith that you can resist the endless attraction of the road not taken and the partner not chosen, if you have the strength of heart to embrace the cycles and seasons that your love will experience, then you may be ready to seek the miracle that marriage offers. If not, then wait. The easy grace of a marriage well made is worth your patience. When the time comes, a thousand flowers will bloom...endlessly

Hallmark of A Great Individual

2009-11-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

It was only yesterday night that I was in Hari Ramulu's class and once again, he has made me think hard. What really triggered such a thought? When Hari started comparing the CGPAs of two different individuals (they have very high CGPAs), I started thinking of what really makes great people great? So I kind of came up with this short list of what really makes us great

1. Cognitive capacity (Intelligence)

Well, needless to say, we always relate the greatness of people to intelligence. I have to say that this belief is partially true and partially false. I think the reason for saying this is very simple isn't it? There are many things in life that can be misused and intelligence is one of them. Otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing hackers who hack into servers and destroy files (not all hackers are bad). However, I wouldn't go far enough to say that people with average cognitive capacity to be mediocre in their lives. There are people with average cognitive capacity doing great things as well. Although it is evident that not all of us are born with the same cognitive capacity, nurture also play a very important part of the development of the cognitive capacity. I believe that sound cognitive capacity is not a pre-requisite, but an advantageous trait to have in order to become a great individual

2. Emotional Control

I have to say that being emotional is something that only makes us human. I feel that some of you might argue that:

Without emotions, we'll be less of a human. Being a human is all about having emotions. If a dog can show emotions, why not humans? If a human can't show emotions, it only means that he's even worse than a dog

In my honest opinion, there are many times that emotions will take the driver's seat in our mind and we do things that turn out to be irrational. I have personally been through such situations where emotions took control of me and I ended up making decisions that I regret. I have been lucky at times when the mistake didn't cost me that much but there are times when such mistakes did quite a severe blow to me. All these are pretty much based on my personal experience where there was poor upholding of my discipline.

* this does not apply to people to are involved in fields that are related to emotions like arts. I agree that there are many artists that make a living with their emotional expression and I truly respect these great artists *

3. Spirituality

For a person to identify and answer his higher calling, he must be in touch with his spiritual side. What is spiritual? Spiritual means of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature. Essentially, to be able to identify and answer the higher calling means that that person is able to add value to his life by having a purpose in life. By having a more fruitful, purposeful and meaningful life, everyday seems to be so colourful. A person will have the determination to accomplish what he set out to do everyday simply because he is answering his calling, a greater and stronger reason to accomplish what he wants to accomplish

Having highlighted three hallmarks of a great individuals, I must admit that this is an incomplete list of all hallmarks of what makes an individual great. There is no definition of what constitutes a great individual because the scope is just too wide for me to cover in its entirety. Greatness is something that I don't know how to gauge. If you have any of your own opinions to add, I'll be very happy to share my views :D

* this post is only an opinion of the writer and should never be treated as a fact *

Good Leader, Great Leader

2009-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

"A great leader may not be a good leader but a good leader is a great leader"

Quoted from: Hari Ramulu

This quote really got me thinking harder. One of the classic examples cited by my Professional Ethics lecturer is Adolf Hitler. Well, coming to think about it, I started thinking of the other side of the coin instead of the side of the coin that he was referring to.

Let's take Adolf Hitler for example. Adolf Hitler as we know him is painted as a very cruel German leader who wanted to conquer the entire world. As someone who has killed so many people throughout the entire duration of World War II (WWII), this guy will most definitely be the bad guy.

But then, think again! Despite his notorious reputation, Hitler is a highly reveled figure in the Nazi Germany back in the 1930s. His leadership has brought Nazi Germany to become a very developed nation after all the destruction that Germany suffered after its loss in World War I (WWI). Germany even organized an Olympic Games in the 1930s and won many medals during the Games. In the eyes of his supporters, he is a great and good leader.

Let's take an example that is simpler, Dol Said of Naning who fought the British during the imperialist period. Our history books have told us that Dol Said is one of the first few freedom fighters and risked their lives to obtain freedom for not only themselves but also for the country. Hence, he is portrayed as a good leader in our history books (written by the Malaysian government). However, just look deeper and you will find that in the eyes of the British, Dol Said is just another terrorist, a ancient-day Osama bin Laden to the United States.

There are other examples where there are two sides of the coin in what constitutes the term that we usually use, GOOD. An analogy can be used by looking at cylinder from the top and from the front. From the front, the cylinder is a rectangular while from the top, the cylinder is a circle. We only need to change our perspective and many things will change dramatically.

Moral of the story: try to have a 3-dimensional (3D) perspective to life :D

*This blog posting is not to show my support for figures like Adolf Hitler. It is only intended to show the different kinds of stories that you will hear when two opposing sides tell their stories*

Vacations

2009-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

When we talk about vacations, many people will have various different kinds of impressions of happier times. One person might be thinking about the 'sun, sea, sand and girls' of a vacation to the beach while another might be thinking about the getaway out of the busy-ness of city life. Sometimes people go for a shopping vacations (especially true to rural folks because I consider myself a country bumpkin from the small town of Teluk Intan).

Some people look for thrill, excitement, fun and adventure in their vacations. Some people look for peace and calamity in a vacation. There are others who seek a combination of both. All these are based on each person's perspective and I believe that not everyone will have the same kind of preference for the same tourism spot.

Examples of my preferred kind of tourism spots would be Cameron Highlands and Fraser's Hill where I can just get out of the city and not think about anything at all. Then, I can do anything I truly enjoy like sightseeing for the entire day during the vacation. Another reason I like these tourism spots is because of the cooling weather (I feel warm all day and I usually perspire a lot).

However, having been on a few vacations with friends, I find that the thought during a vacation is to maximise the time during a vacation by reducing the number of hours of sleep during the vacation pretty stupid. Sometimes, they even resort to not sleeping at night during the vacation so that they utilize their time during the vacation. Wouldn't it be paradoxical to do so?

What are the objectives of a vacation? The most important objective of a vacation is to take a break and unwind. It would always be paradoxical for us to take a vacation and subject ourselves to not sleeping to maximise our vacation time. We'll just end up feeling more tired after the vacation instead of feeling refreshed. It would then be better to not have gone for the vacation in the first place.

However, all these are only limited to anything that happens to you physically, not mentally. Will have to look more in-depth to judge on the mental side of this matter

Philosophy of Life and 3Cs of Happiness

2009-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Due to the circumstances that currently cricles this blog, I've decided that this blog will be my public blog, which means for everyone to read. The reason for this move will not be disclosed here. For those of you who are interested to know more, you can pm me at my MSN.

Now that this is gonna be my so-called public blog, what would I post in it? The materials here will be mainly and strictly about philosophy (not that previous posts didn't contain any elements of philosophy). I know this subject is kind of boring to many people, but I just find joy in learning more about philosophy

3Cs of Happiness

The first C: Counting Your Blessings. This C is possibly the most important element of being happy in our lives. To be more precise, this C signifies contentment. Happiness is not gauged by having what you want, but wanting what you have. It sounds paradoxical but when you think deeper into this, you'll find that there's a lot of truth to it. By wanting to have what you want, a person then becomes like the greedy dog that already has a bone but wants to have the bone of its own reflections. To say or even blog about this is easy to do, but to practise this is far harder than many think.

The second C: Character. The end result of education is character. We may see many people who are highly educated but morally poor. Don't believe me? Read about the current financial crisis and you will understand what I mean. I would rather people uphold the highest degree of integrity despite not being highly educated. Without a strong character, happiness is difficult to be achieved because of the more temporary nature of the happiness obtained. That is why character is one of the Cs of happiness

The third C: Comparison With Thyself. Comparison happens everyday. We always want to compare ourselves with the people who are best at something. The truth is: there is no point comparing ourselves with other people. The reason: we are all unique and different people have different capabilities. There is no point for us to try to live someone else's life. We'll ultimately end up wasting our time. Why compare ourselves with our own then? Comparing ourselves with our own helps us to continuously improve ourselves and be contented with what we have. Why cause heartache to yourself by comparing with others? We'll feel happier if we just compare ourselves with our own. After all, the ultimate goal is to be a better person than we were yesterday

As for me, I'm still trying hard to practice the 3Cs of Happiness. Wish you all good luck!

P/S: I have to give credit for the 3Cs of Happiness to an elderly friend of mine, Sita Ram

Let Not Blind Faith Blind Us

2009-10-16T02:20:00.000-07:00

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

~Buddha~

Thank you very much to the person who just reminded me of this: Chiew Ee

(cropped from http://chiewee.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/let-not-blind-faith-blind-us/)

Folly of Gambling

2009-10-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

I just came back from Genting Highlands a few hours ago after a 2-day-1-night trip with my coursemates after our exams ended on Monday. I really had a great time, the weather and the excitement of the outdoor theme park was just amazing. I'll update this trip next time.

Well, the main point here now is any adult who goes to Genting Highlands will definitely go into the casino. I was no different and was in the casino, not gambling but watching (no money to even spend for myself, how to gamble money away?).

Now, most of the people who gamble at the casino are looking for entertainment or winning money (winning money isn't impossible but you need a lot of good luck and self-control to do it). Other than that, I just can't think of any other reasons why someone would gamble

So, if you're looking for entertainment, would it be all right if you gamble? The answer is of course a YES, but then again how would losing money affect you? The whole objective of entertainment is to de-stress. But if you lose money and you feel even more stressed out, wouldn't it be counter-productive to gamble? You'll feel more stressed out after the so-called 'entertainment' than before the entertainment. Unless you won't lose any sleep from the losses at the casino, why gamble in the first place?

I believe most of us have learnt probabilities in high school (unless you're a high-school dropout or you don't study Mathematics at all *only limited to Malaysians*). If you analyse all the payouts and the probabilities of winning at every casino, the expected returns for the long run is less than your original capital. This means that if you play 1000 games of roulette and all the results turn out according to its expected probabilities, then you'll certainly lose money (how else could Genting have grown into such a big conglomerate if it wasn't because of this?). So, if your objective of gambling is to win money, then why gamble when you're more likely to lose your capital than winning money?

Such is the folly of humans that act according to their emotions that bends logic. Many times (not all times), the emotional thought will do us more bad than good (there are times that being emotional does more good than being rational). As for me, I'd be much happier being rational than emotional =D

Introduction to PAD

2009-09-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is the video that I've prepared for Parents' Appreciation Dinner 2009(PAD '09). Enjoy~~

Facebook and MSN Chats

2009-09-22T07:34:00.001-07:00

I'm currently in my study week at the moment. Exam weeks are coming and there isn't enough time to study anymore. But I'm here blogging for a reason. That reason is to talk about Facebook and MSN

Recently, I was just pondering about how I've been spending my time (I have 24 hours like everyone else but I don't seem to have enough). So after some deep thoughts, I found out that I've actually been spending WAY too much time on Facebook and MSN. Just to quantify it to you, I actually spend an astounding 3-5 hours on Facebook and MSN combined!! The only one thing that came to mind is: if I had used the 3-5 hours on Facebook and MSN more wisely, I could've done so much more with my life instead of complaining with not enough time.

For those of you who know and do keep track of the amount of time you spend on Facebook and MSN, do let me know. I've seen an acquaintance who is so addicted to playing Restaurant City on Facebook that they spend at least 3-5 hours on that single application (not counting the other applications and MSN/YM chats). I can't blame him since Facebook is one of the latest BIG thing on the Internet.

Well, with this realization, I'm currently trying my level best to reduce my time on Facebook and MSN while trying to utilize my time better by doing something else like reading, playing sports etc. Let's hope everything turns for the better. All the best to my fellow coursemates for finals too!

An Iranian International Student

2009-09-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Today, I would really like to share my experience of meeting an Iranian lady who is also an International Student in my University, MMU. She is a very nice young lady with a very open mind. I really enjoyed talking to her on various matters because of her open views

First of all, I'd like to stress the fact that she's an Iranian. Iran is a Muslim country. Therefore, she MUST be a Muslim. Her country does not allow renunciation of the religion and this is a matter of the nation's choice. I do not have any problems with that. However, what fascinates me the most is the fact that she's really open to other religion. Despite being a Muslim, I really enjoyed her company because she is very receptive of other people from another religion. This really awes me since usually circumstances change when people mention about religion

Secondly, what amazes me is of course the fact that she really reads a lot about other matters. She claims that she reads about Christianity (which I'm not in a position to judge her knowledge) but she really knows a little bit about Buddhism. All this is despite the fact that she's only been exposed to Buddhism for a very short period of time. She even knows about metaphysics which truly fascinates me because I didn't think that many people would know about this matter which is very heavily related to scientific knowledge

Having said that, it really puts the average Malaysian to shame. In terms of Constitution, I strongly believe that the Malaysian Constitution is more liberal compared to that of the Iranian Constitution. However, to see such lowly mentality from Malaysians (especially in the recent cow-head protest in Shah Alam) really brought down the reputation of Malaysia. For Malaysia to boast so much about racial and religious tolerance but not implement it is only mere lip service to the rakyats. It has been 52 years after Malaysia has attained Independence. It saddens me to see that 52 years of physical development was only followed through with 25 years of mental development.

Come to think of it, I wonder how long will it take for Malaysians to be such a racially and religiously tolerant nation? Realistically at the present rate that Malaysia is progressing, I guess I'll be lucky to be able to see a racially and religiously tolerant Malaysia before I die. Hope I won't die prematurely of course =P

Why Rich People Are Rich?

2009-09-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

As I sit in my hostel room writing this blog post, I've just only finished doing my laundry for the week. As usual, I'll always think of something else when I'm doing my laundry. So, this time around, it was about this million-dollar question: "Why rich people are rich and why poor people are poor?". So I came up with a hypothesis about this question

Rich people are rich because of their thoughts

Well, as stated earlier, this is only a hypothesis. In my honest opinion, I think that the reason rich people are rich is because of how they think. So what do they think about anyway? Once again, hypothesis: "How to make more money?". Such a thought helps rich people to create wealth, not only preserve wealth. Maybe some of you will get rich by just thinking of this particular question. The reason I'm saying this is because of the fact that it's the thoughts that make us do what we do. Thoughts put into actions will reap results. So, if you always think about how to make more money, chances are some of the thoughts will be put into actions and results will follow.

What makes a person poor?

Then, what are the thoughts that actually make poor people poor? The reason for such an occurrence is poor people always think about "How do I spend money?". There's a friend of mine who is always thinking about where she should go on holiday next time around (whether it's in the country or overseas is not important). I believe that such a thought will only drain wealth out of poor people. People as such are too busy thinking of how to spend the money that they have currently or in the future (use of credit lines) to satisfy their wants. Such a behavior will not create a rich person because any accumulated wealth will be drained by expenses

Other kind of thoughts?

There's also another kind of thought that creates your next-door millionaire (millionaires that we're usually not aware of). Next-door millionaires are people who spend like an average Joe in spite of the amount of wealth that they have accumulated. They live in average houses, spend not too lavishly and do normal stuff like what normal people usually do. These people usually think about "How can I save more?". By thinking so, they preserve the wealth that they currently have. Even though they're not creating enormous wealth by doing so, they are preserving their accumulated wealth at the very least

The conclusion? None XD Since it's a hypothesis, so I can't really claim that what I'm saying is true. So it's entirely up to you to believe what I'm saying. Please let me know how you feel about this matter

When Exams & Assignments Come Along

2009-09-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've been having exams and assignment due dates for the past couple of weeks. From two assignment due dates (CA1 and Adv AIS), CISA presentation and CA1 mid-term to International Accounting assignment and Adv AIS mid-term. It's been rather stressful for me, I have to admit. The assignment dues are especially stressful because of the various compilation work. However, I still managed to find some time to go for sports, go to class etc.

There's one very weird pattern that I've observed in MMU: Everyone just disappears when exam and assignment dues are reaching. The reason? Revision or finishing up assignment. I sometimes don't quite get it why everyone wants to ponteng when there's an assignment due date or mid-term exam coming up

Is it necessary to ponteng to do last-minute revision and assignment work?

Proponents will definitely say it's necessary. The most likely reason why there's last-minute work will be early-of-semester lazi-ness which will usually drag on until less than 1 week before the assignment due date or mid-term exam. Then when all these work comes in, all last-minuters will stay up all night just studying or working on the assignment until the next morning, skipping classes. I know that for some of them, staying up all night is a routine for them. As for the rest, staying up all night is only a necessity.

From an opponent's viewpoint:

Based on past experiences, last-minute work will never turn out good. The reason? You just can't compose yourself to focus on the task at hand. When I stay up overnight, my body will be so much more tired than usual, causing it to slow down. To stay up for that 1 additional hour is always a difficult task for me. Productivity drops and I don't think that's the most productive way of studying or doing assignments. So, I'll just go to bed since it's the most productive thing possible for me to do. In fact, it is advised that we sleep between 11pm and 3pm because that's the time when detoxification occurs the fastest. I have problems with sticking to such timing because of my habit of sleeping at about 1am. Since I'll usually sleep quite early, I'll just wake up and go to class in the morning. I don't skip class because I don't see a reason to do so because studying an additional few hours won't change that many things unless you've not studied at all. Stduying 1hour on a continuous basis throughout the semester is obviously far more effective instead

So, what kind of person are you? Last-minuter or early bird?

Kids Getting Richer Or Just More Willing To Spend?

2009-08-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

As a youth, I just can't help but notice the fact that other youths actually spend more nowadays. There are just unlimited examples of youths (some barely 18) spending on designer products and wine-dine. These activities can easily cost more than RM50 and it's not cheap. Even if I'm working, I would never spend that much money on such activities unless it's a special occasion (call me cheap but I just won't buy designer products or wine-dine)

Just a Klang Valley thing?

Just to put it into perspective, I've seen a group of secondary school kids dining at Sushi King in Mid Valley. First of all, the food at Sushi King isn't particularly cheap. A meal for 1 person can cost at least RM20-RM30 per pax. I'm not sure whether they dine in Sushi King on a weekly basis or only once in a while. For secondary school kids to dine at Sushi King often is rather unacceptable in my opinion. However, I would still accept it if it's once in a while for special occasions.

Even kids in my hometown Teluk Intan practice it too!

Sometimes, my father likes to have supper in the new Old Town White Coffee outlet in Teluk Intan. As I was dining at Old Town, I would always notice that there are youths younger than I am dining at Old Town too! A cup of Old Town White Coffee (one of Old Town's signature beverages) cost more than RM2.50. A cup of coffee at the kopitiam in town costs at most RM1.20 (most kopitiam in my hometown doesn't serve white coffee)

What do I think?

I think it's totally absurd to spend so much on premium products (despite the higher quality). To pay a higher price for a product which function could be satisfied by another cheaper product just doesn't make any sense to me. Using the Old Town White Coffee as an example, I could get 2 cups of coffee from the normal kopitiam to satisfy my craving for caffeine compared to the 1 cup of Old Town White Coffee. I used to think that a Nike shoe is so much more comfortable than a 'chapalang' brand from the 'pasar malam' (which explains why I wear a pair of Nike sneakers and a pair of Adidas running shoes). After ripping some of the branded shoes in world-record times, I decided that it'll be more worth it to buy 10 pairs of 'chapalang' brand shoes from 'pasar malam' worth RM200 than to buy a pair of Nike/Adidas worth RM200

Conclusion? It's still up to you whether you want to keep buying high-end products. As for me, I'll just stick with all my cheap products :P

Dying In Your Own Home Isn't Cool!!

2009-08-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

The photo above is the bench that my father had bought for the house very long ago. I can't remember when he bought it but it was so long ago that my memory. I started using this thing only not too long ago since I started lifting some weights at the gym

My home's bench

MMU had its mid-term break about 2 weeks ago and I was, as usual, happily having fun at home away from my university. Well, as usual, since I can't have access to any gyms in my hometown, I think it'd be fine for me to use this bench to workout a little bit. I'd typically stay up late until 1am in the morning to workout because that's the time that I feel I can concentrate. The bench is at the back of my home, easily 10 meters away from my family member's rooms (hope it didn't wake them up).

As I was bench pressing (for illustration, refer below) that night, I felt a fatigue that was very intense that I could no longer lift the weights up anymore. The weights almost came crashing down on my chest and almost killed me T.T All my family members were asleep since it's 1am and I had nobody to help me. Fortunately for me, I was able to twist and put the weight on the floor first to stop the weights from falling on my chest. If I had died that night, it'll be totally uncool to not only die in your own home but also die doing bench presses =.='''

Bench press

So, the lesson for the day? DON'T BITE OFF MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN CHEW!! It's not particularly cool to die that way. Appreciate what you have in your life

Cheating Won't Do

2009-08-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from the gym at college and I've realized that cheating will not bring us anywhere. The reason? It will only be a matter of time that someone will find out or you will realize that you don't benefit at all from cheating.

I've been trying very hard in the past to chisel my abs into a 6-pack. I've done so many crunches (for those who don't know what the crunch exercise is, refer illustration below) that I can't even remember the kind of training regimes that I've been through. At some point in the past few years, I've consistently done 50 crunches at one go almost every single day. The result: only a 4-pack instead of my desired 6-pack. It was really disappointing that I couldn't acquire the 6-pack that I want (I didn't say that a 4-pack isn't good, it just isn't good enough). Then, only today did I seriously attempt to do crunches from the flat-on-the-floor posture to the elbow-touching-knee posture (hope you can imagine what I'm trying to say). The result? I only managed to complete 25 crunches continuously and I had to take intermittent rest in between to complete the 50 crunches I set out to do. My abs really hurt so bad that it almost cramped. We'll have to see what happens to my abs after a few weeks of doing this exercise :P

As I was thinking it through, I felt that there's really no reason to cheat anymore (be it exams or in other aspects of life). Just use the example of cheating in exam. Even if you get better grades in your exam by cheating, there's really nothing that you've gained. You don't learn anything by cheating in this instance. There's so much to lose i.e. getting caught cheating and so little to gain i.e. you get better grades but learn nothing but to improve your cheating technique. Therefore, in the spirit of prudent risk management XD, it'll be better to not cheat

As for bluffs, I think most people do tell lies. It's either the urge to be more dramatic or to save yourself. In courtship, guys typically tell girls stories with the element of hyperbole to make stories sound cheesy and entertaining (while claiming the story may be true - sometimes done consciously or unconsciously). Girls may also lie to guys during courtship (I'm not sure how it's done, should get girls' perspective for this). From my personal experience, honesty is not the secret to success, bluffing is. The catch is: DON'T EVER GET CAUGHT LYING.

As for me, I'll still try to stay honest in every single element of my life :D

Of Football, Television, Computer Games and Sports

2009-08-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

Only this past weekend was I at the MPH Warehouse Clearance Sale at Dataran Hamodal with both my sisters and my 10-year-old cousin brother. Well, of course we were hunting for bargains there since many of the books would be marked down by about 30% to 70% (mostly were marked down 30% though).

As we reached Dataran Hamodal, my cousin was already looking for some books for kids (Transformers and Dragon Ball - I don't blame him for looking for those books). Then as we were browsing through the football section, we saw many autobiographies about Wayne Rooney and David Beckham. My cousin brother said that he would prefer to buy a Wayne Rooney autobiography than the book that I bought that day, "The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life". I wouldn't blame him to not see the value of the book and say that he'd prefer to buy the Wayne Rooney autobiography but the funniest part is, he doesn't even play football at all!!

Why watch football when you don't even know to play the game?

I've seen many people who watch television for entertainment but it doesn't make sense to me when we watch something that we barely understand at all? Even if we spend the time watching it, I think more time and energy will be expended trying to understand what's happening than truly enjoying the entertainment. The fact that non-football players play football-related computer games does not add value except for the entertainment. As in the case of my cousin brother, it would be equally as illogical to spend so much time trying watching football and buying books on football. Other than the common jargons like 'free kick', 'goal', 'goalkeeper' etc., I doubt if he knew anything other than that. There's no addition in value for him by watching football anyway

I'd rather play football than watch people play football

For me, I would yield more fun by playing football myself than to watch people play football. The time used to watch a game of football can be used more efficiently by playing a game of football which consists of good exercise and fun. Playing football-related computer games do not add that much value except to facilitate the understanding of the game. Wouldn't it be more productive playing football than to watch football only?

Well, if you do not agree with my opinion, that would be fine with me. I understand that everyone has reasons for their own choices of entertainment but as for me, I wouldn't trade a game of playing football/sports for watching a game of football/sports or playing a football-related/sports-related computer games

Best B.M. Essay In The World!!

2009-08-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Just sharing this piece of essay with you:

Long Time Never Blog

2009-07-20T07:17:00.002-07:00

It's been some time since I last blogged. I just don't know why but I seem to either have a lack of stuff to say or lack of tomotivation blog. It was only yesterday that I went to Taman Pertanian Malaysia (TPM) in Shah Alam with MMU Buddhist Society (MMUBS)

My comments: EXTREMELY TIRING but FUN!!!

Well, when we reached TPM, the very first thing we did was to cycle all the way to the deepest area in the park which is Empangan Sungai Baru (photo below). Cycling up the hill was truly tiring but the journey down is really exhilirating. I can just feel the cool breeze flowing through my face (and my head) while cruising down the hill. Truly refreshing! (it's the first time I'm cycling outside my hometown of Teluk Intan =P )

Empangan Sungai Baru (direct translation - New River Dam)

Then we played a couple of games after returning the bicycle, followed with lunch (McDonald's). All these games and fun, coming in at only RM12, really worth every penny (I mean cents). Next time, join MMUBS's club activities and outings. They're fun and very economical for those of you who are limited by budgets

'Wong Fei Hung' pose

Taman Rempah-Ratus (direct translation - Spices Park)

The only un-fun part was the fact that we had to wait so long for the bus, not only MMU's bus but the bus in TPM. I had to wake up at 5.45am and get to STAD Building by 6.30am, then waited the bus for a bit until I decided to hop onto Chun Nang's car that will be leaving early for TPM. I don't really blame the committees for the bus driver coming late to pick us up since it can't entirely be their fault anyway. Then, we had to take bus to move around TPM and some of the bus driver didn't want to stop the bus after we've flagged him. Really bad attitude from the bus drivers. Haizzz...

SS-ing while waiting for TPM bus

Group photo

One day in TPM has really been fun. I don't regret having spent my Sunday in Cyberjaya =P

That Which Doesn't Kill Us Only Makes Us Stronger

2009-06-30T09:20:00.001-07:00

It's been approximately 3 days after the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. The results for the run has been released and I got number 271 for the 21km Men Open category. I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with the results, having finished running 21km in 02:03:11.06. But my comments about the run : "Why does the run feel like it's not going to end? It's really really FAR!!". The run really almost killed me because of its length. I feel damn lucky that I didn't sign up for the full marathon. Otherwise, I would've died on the spot XD

Having breakfast at Lum's home

SS-ing before leaving for the run

Group photo before run

If you ask me about how I feel about the run, all I can say is that there are very many good runners around. For the first time have I seen so many people who are able to run as fast as I can, if not faster and for as long as I can, if not longer. Having said that, I'm totally impressed by some 'apeks' ('apeks' means middle-aged or senior men) who can run faster than I can. I'm totally humbled by their performance. Too bad I didn't manage to get a photograph of the 'apeks' running past me. Otherwise, I can show you how damn good those 'apeks' really are. You'll be shocked at how fast they are running.

With Spiderman :P

Everyone posing with their finishers' medals (mine is in the bag)

Various poses after race (everyone too 'high' already)

After the 21km run, I have to say that I was freaking exhausted. I sustained knee joint pains, muscular pains and minor foot injury. Now, less than 72 hours after finishing the run, I've overcome the joint pains. Only my thigh is slightly hurting from the muscular strain. Not to mention, I'm actually able to run 4 laps at the MMU track. Not the best that I could do but I think it's all right considering my fatigued legs.

P/S : All the photos in this blog post are courtesy of Wan Yian's Facebook profile :D

Feeling Blue

2009-06-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

I honestly don't know what to blog about at this moment but I really wanted to blog. So, I decided to write about things that are going to happen in the past and next few days. I just didn't have the idea on what to blog of late because of my busy-ness with reading

As for the past few days, the most significant thing that I did was splurging RM100 on books alone at MPH Mid Valley!! I felt that I just had to have those books and after confirming with my sister over the phone, I bought 3 books for a price of RM100 (although the exact amount is closer to RM99 XD ). I have to say that those books really cost me a hand and foot. I really wish that I could own a bookshop for renting out books since I somehow or rather hate splurging on books considering the fact that they're so expensive

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Fast forward to today, I had a friend who started a small-time business under Amway (name not to be disclosed) sharing her experiences with me. Well, she was a really honest person and tried really hard to sell. What intrigues me is that she did what she did (start an Amway business) was because of Rich Dad, Poor Dad written by Robert T. Kiyosaki. In my opinion, she really took a big step in starting her Amway business even though her business is still in its infancy. I have to admit that I failed to take that big leap in learning and staying loyal to the process that Robert enthusiastically promotes. Anyway, I wish her good luck in her Amway business

SS-ing after BHP Orange Run (first time running 11km)

SS-ing as usual :P

After 'kubur' Run

In the next few days, I'll be running in a half-marathon (21km) in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon. I've trained for the run but I'm just not quite sure whether I'll be physically ready to run 21km. So far, I've run at a few running competition like the BHP Orange Run and the 'kubur' Run (we ran at a cemetery near MAA Tower - forgot the name of the cemetery). All this is excluding the training I've done in Tmn Desa Park (Tmn Desa, KL), Tmn Bukit Jalil (near OUG, KL) and Speedy Field (Teluk Intan). I'm starting to feel a little anxious about the run since it'll be the first time that I'll be running 21km. I have my own physical concerns since I've been having a weird feeling on my right hip, both my knees and both my ankles. Just hoping those are not injuries

Anyway, it's almost 2am already and I have a class tomorrow morning. I'd better sign off first

What A Dream...

2009-06-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

It was only last night while sleeping that I had the weirdest dream that I've ever had (it was the dawn of 10 June 2009). This is just too unusual for me because most of the time, I'll just drop dead on the bed without dreaming much. Even if I do, I'll just forget about it completely when I wake up =P One of the significance of this dream is the level of vividness even after I've woken up. The details of the dream was still quite clearly etched in my mind when I woke up

Besides the vividness of the dream, the other significance of the dream was that it was regarding my Mum. As far as I can remember now, the dream was about parting with my Mum. Although I often live apart from my Mum for the past 2 years, I feel that the parting in the dream is 'for good' instead of temporary parting like now. This made me feel very emotional because when I woke up, I realized that who would I be without my Mum.

Well, just so that I don't emo too much over here, I'd better sign off and remind all of you that WITHOUT OUR MUM, WE ARE NOBODY

Exam Week Blues

2009-05-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

It's Exam Week now and usually, I become more active at blogging during Exam Week. I just feel more stressed during Exam Week and the urge to blog is just unbearable

Just feeling a little blue these days with Database Administration, Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Finance gone. Management Decision Science is next 2 days from now and I hope it isn't really a big problem for me since it's mainly about calculations that I'm pretty confident about.

The BIGGER problem? Taxation, Auditing and French. Well, as for Taxation, I believe that most people who has taken Taxation with Dr Nakha will understand how I feel right now. I think this lecturer really has some serious character problems. Now that I'm at it, I'll tell you why I think so:

He likes to ask questions and end up not answering the question. Not that I'm saying that he's supposed to spoonfeed us with all the information but he should at least feed us with the fundamental information. I'm a strong believer of "If you wanna know more, go and read the textbook" but for him to tell us to read literally everything from the textbook is a little too much. If he does that, WHAT"S THE USE OF HAVING HIM AS LECTURER ANYWAY?
The second problem that I see with him is that he likes to harp about the past. He's been talking about people complaining about him using BM since Week 1 and he still complains about it until now. What's really wrong with him? I have no interest in what complaints he had in the past. As long as he changes his ways for the better, then I'm more than happy
He's always saying all the parts in Taxation is difficult. What then is easy? What I suspect is that he does not have the interest in Taxation from the very beginning. For someone who's interested in Taxation to feel it's difficult is simply too pathetic to be true. So my conclusion? HE'S NOT REALLY INTERESTED IN TAXATION

Well, when I'm thinking about Auditing, all I can really say is that Mr. Hari is a good lecturer and never ceases to capture my attention. However, Auditing is somehow a little extensive and it takes some time for me to finish revising this subject. Not really a big problem I guess. Just that the exam itself is the day after Taxation exam.

As for French, all that I can say is that I can barely speak any French at the moment. To expect me to go for my finals will definitely be fatal for me. I just hope next week will go as smoothly as I had hoped for

Now that I'm done complaining and whining, it's time for me to go back studying Management Decision Science. Wishing all my classmates all the best in their respective exams

It's The End of The Academic Year

2009-05-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

It's already Week 13 of Trimester 3 2008/2009. I'm studying my FSA as my roomie is currently coughing his lungs out (I wonder it's for real) while surfing the net (prolly on a social network site with DJ Club members)

Sometimes, I just feel it's pretty annoying to be facing a lack of attention. I just feel that my roommate is rather noisy even though I never tell him personally. I believe that he has his liberty to do whatever he wants in the room that makes him happy. But for him to leave the sound on while he's watching videos or TVB series when I'm going to bed or studying is rather inconsiderate imo. Sometimes he does something less annoying like singing or talking to me (at least he'll stop after he's tired). If he does it once in a few weeks, that would still be tolerable but for him to do it weekly is rather annoying

Another weird part that I've observed is that my present roomie simply likes to cheer, clap and sing even when he's surfing a social network website . Not that I'll respond to him since I'm not with DJ Club anyway. I used to respond to his clowny acts in the room but now that I'm so used to it, I just ignored it. After all, I'd rather treasure my time in my room since I have quite a lot of things to do.

Since he has almost stopped coughing away, I just can't help but wonder what he's thinking in his head. I think I've heard those coughs since last week (if my memory serves me well) and I'm doubting if the coughs will stop anytime soon. Now, the main question comes "Why doesn't he seek consultation from the doctor?". If it's financial problems, he wouldn't be spending so lavishly on other things like food. If it's no time, he wouldn't be sleeping his daytime off.

Since this is the end of the academic year, I'm definitely glad that I'm going to have a more considerate roommate for the next academic year. All I can do is just wish my present roommate all the best in finding his perfect roommate. At least I've found mine =D

Tough Week

2009-04-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Well, as I'm writing this blog post, I'm feeling depressed about how I performed in my Financial Statement Analysis. Only 1 word to express it all, "DISASTROUS".

But before I continue, let me just explain how my week went so far. From Monday all the way to Wednesday. First of all is of course my sore foot that I had during Orange Run in Damansara only a day before. Really not the most ideal situation where I had to walk all about 10 minutes to class in XR, then walk 5 minutes to a shop in HB4 to bind my assignment and then walk another 10 minutes to class in FOM ALL WITH A SORE RIGHT FOOT. It's already considered far even when I didn't have a sore foot, let alone with a sore foot. Was literally limping all around campus that day. And when I asked my friend to help pass the assignment up for us, I ended up handing in the assignment to the lecturer. All I could say was that it was a tough day for me

Tuesday was slightly better than Monday. At least I had my first class at 4pm :P I felt I didn't do particularly well in Management Decision Science (MDS) exam but still it was satisfactory for me I guess. There's only 1 minor glitch that I thought I didn't do which was answering one single intepretation part that I (believe) I forgot to do. Anyway, at least the rest of the paper was fairly okay

As for Wednesday, my primary concern as of right now is my MISCALCULATION FOR TIME ALLOCATION for each question. I was happily completing question by question on the timing of 2 hours for the whole exam. Then suddenly, the lecturer announced that exam is over at 1.5 hour =.=''' I had just started answering Question 4 and didn't really have time to complete the remainder of the questions nicely. All I managed to do is to salvage whatever marks that I could by writing a few short notes on the last few parts of the question. Anyway, it didn't really mattered after all. I'm just angry at myself for not seeing the whiteboard which clearly showed the 1.5 hours on it T.T

So this is how my disastrous week went by. Just hope things take a turn for the better

Are We Doing Enough?

2009-03-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

It's 2.26am, 29th January 2009. It's almost 5 hours after Earth Hour 2009 and I'm spending this eventful hour in my hometown of Teluk Intan. I spent 15 minutes in my house, approximately 10-15 minutes driving from my house to McD's where I'm supposed to meet my friend at 9.00pm (I'm supposed to meet them there, with or without Earth Hour) and another 30 minutes eating Fillet O'Fish at McD's

I started turning off most of the lights in my house at 8.25pm. By 8.40pm, I was scolded by my grandma for turning off literally all the lights in the house :( So much for the Earth Hour spirit. I just kept quiet out of respect for her since she doesn't know about 'earthly' matters.

Since I had so much free time, I decided to leave home early for McD's. As I drove to McD's from my house, I was sightseeing and looking at the response to Earth Hour 2009 in my hometown of Teluk Intan. All I could say is that all the publicity of Earth Hour FAILED!! Most of the houses that I passed by did not turn off their lights. Even the Petronas gas kiosk nearest to my house did not turn off any lights. Now, I'm praying very hard that they were indeed using the lights that they turned on.

When I arrived at McD's, I was pretty much stunned by what I saw. McD's is operating as usual. If I'm not mistaken, McD's is supposed to participate in Earth Hour 2009 and yet, not one unnecessary light was turned off. Now, McD's sounds like it's trying to get public attention by having its US-based operations join Earth Hour 2009 while its Teluk Intan operations continue as usual. When I was sitting alone in McD's eating my Fillet O'Fish, this one particular question came to my mind:

Are We Doing Enough?

After this question came to my mind, I started to recall certain awful events that happened to Mother Nature.

A friend of mine who sometimes talks about going green ALWAYS 'da bao' food from the cafeteria in University
Green Club organizing a Food Fair in campus but the food stalls there sell food in styrofoam plates, containers and plastic spoons. To top it off, I see a garbage bin FULL with styrofoam plates and containers
I ate from a styrofoam container last morning :( I'm feeling guilty right now

With Earth Hour being the main buzz in town (actually it's on Earth), we certainly need to do something to rejuvenate OUR Earth.

Trip To Melaka and Birthday Doube-Header

2009-03-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (7th March), I joined the trip to Melaka for the InterVarsity Accounting Quiz (IVAQ). I wasn't a participant, I was a CHEERLEADER!! XD

Well, I must say that the trip to Melaka was somehow enlightening. The main reason for that is because:

MMU Melaka has A LOT of beautiful women!! Althougth I had somehow expected to see many beautiful people there, I didn't really expect the organizing committee itself to have sooo many beautiful women!!
ACCA students from Sunway and TARC are REALLY good in their Financial Reporting Standard (FRS)!! As much as I had heard about this myth from my sister, I didn't expect them to be this good in FRS. They literally know almost every single FRS and all the qualifiers, accounting treatment etc.

We left Melaka rather early because I had something going on at night, which is Wei Wing and Han Keong's Birthday Double-Header XD I have to give credit to Jerry for making sure that the trip left Melaka on time. My sincere thanks for her effort.

After coming back from Melaka, I left for Hulu Langat. With a map from Google Map that I had literally memorized and a few tips from Wei Siang and Wei Wing, I managed to get to Wing's house without getting myself terribly lost. Not bad for a first try XD

Now, I'd like to wish both Wei Wing and Han Keong HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Hope you all have a happy and prosperous year ahead.

Barbeque Chicken Wings

So many things to eat...

Barbeque-ing hot dogs and fish balls

Birthday Cake

Make A Wish?

Me and Epic Zheng

All these photos are courtesy of Tuan Tynn a.k.a. TTT a.k.a. Pink Terrorist XD

I truly had fun with D2Y at Wing and Jason's birthday. That's all so far..

Friends

2009-02-26T00:23:00.000-08:00

Well, this thing caught my attention for some time already. The thing that I was referring to is "What does the word FRIENDS mean?"

From my perspective, I think that being friends means that we're willing to share not only our happiness but also our problems with each other. I put a lot of emphasis on this especially when it's related to BEST FRIENDS because I've met a lot of people over the course of my life, both in Teluk Intan, KL and Cyberjaya. However, I think that I do not really have truly close friends that I can share all my problems with.

As for what other people think about the term FRIENDS, I'm not really too sure. However, some people are not so comfortable with sharing their problems with their friends. Some people might say that but I've faced the problem of people not comfortable sharing their ups and downs in life. From my perspective, I don't really see anything wrong with sharing it with friends as long as they do not let the whole world know about it. I truly don't understand why someone just likes to be secretive about their life.

Kindly drop by the comments section and tell me about your perspective of Friendship

Loving February

2009-02-12T04:26:00.000-08:00

The time of the year has come again. Love is in the air, as usual. With Chap Goh Mei and Valentine's Day happening 2 weekends in a row, seems like every couple is going to be busy for this week. As for me? I'll be spending my time at home, doing nothing. I think that I already used to spend my time at home on Valentines anyway.

After the CNY celebrations at the end of January, Chap Goh Mei arrived. Popularly known as the Chinese version of Valentine's Day, it is usually less celebrated as it's 14th February counterpart. According to tradition, it is said that single women used to go to the river to throw Mandrin oranges. I don't really know the significance of this activity though. What I do know is, FREE ORANGES!! LOL... Just joking

As for Valentine's Day, all I can say is that roses are a must. No matter how you look at it, women just love to be given flowers on Valentine's. Although the price of each rose can go as high as Rm7-8 on Valentine's, it is always wise to spend some money on buying roses, the traditional red roses especially. What about presents? Presents are complimentary to the roses as gift. The present will of course depend on which stage of the relationship you are in

Now that it's 2 days before Valentine's, go get your stuff ready ASAP. Otherwise, there will not be anything left

You Just Can't Teach Commitment

2009-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

You Just Can't Teach Commitment
-LexLex-

Well, before I move on to explain myself, let me give you a brief history of the whereabouts of this quote. The other day, I was talking to Wing about camp stuff directly after camp post-mortem. He said that he was frustrated about some of the committees coming for the camp for their very own SS agenda. I do admit that it's very frustrating and concluded "You just can't teach commitment". So this is roughly how this quote came about

As for why I said that, there were just too many reasons. My first experience of such situation is back when I was in Form 6. Back then, I was a fairly active Interactor and organizing events was a very difficult thing to do because of the lack of commitment from other fellow committees. They were usually slow in performing the tasks given to them, poor or even slow reporting. Most of the tasks were actually done by the person in-charge instead of the committee as a whole.

Another situation where commitment was an issue was when I was organizing Dhamma Youth Camp in PBHP (Persatuan Buddhist Hilir Perak - Teluk Intan Buddhist association). Still had the same problems of committees not being committed to get the job done as soon as possible. Really frustrating at that time

Both these situations led to last-minute work, uncompleted tasks and so on. Now, let's fast forward to the years after I joined D2YC as committee. Same old problem, same old outcome, not much difference. The difference : it wasn't me who was burdened really badly. It was Chung Kai and Wing who were hit badly by all the workload. As for me, I had my secretariat role occupying most of my time.

Now, I wonder why people want to call themselves committee all that much. As much as it sounds cool being the organizer of an activity or event, it also means that you have to commit to completing the tasks at hand. Since the key word here is to commit, then let us have a comparison check : COMMIT-TEE. Let me give you something to think about

Trainer-trainee (trainee means someone who is being trained)

Employer-employee (employee means someone who is being employed)

Offeror-offeree (offeree refers to someone who is being offered)

Now, back to the root word of commit, there should be commitor-committee (committee referring to someone who is being committed). Therefore, it can be concluded that a committee MUST only be someone who is committed of getting the job done instead of someone who isn't committed

My main frustration is of course the fact that some committees are not committed to the job at hand. My advice : MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAN COMMIT TO THE TASK AT HAND BEFORE BEING A COMMITTEE

Holiday In Hell

2009-01-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

I wonder why I feel extremely miserable today. I'm supposed to be happy because I'm having my holidays. Instead of feeling free and happy, I'm condemned to this feeling of misery. Probably it's because of the weather that really got to me emotionally. It miraculously rained at 6pm when I had wanted to go jogging, making me unable to go jogging T.T Sometimes I get a little cranky when I don't get my fair share of physical exercise. Feeling a little tired, bored and moody today

Signing off,

LIfe Is Full of Bitterness

2009-01-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of mixed emotions. Started the day rather delighted with the end of my examination week after Human Resource Management finals, ended the day helping a poor uncle from China who is lost in Putrajaya Sentral when he's supposed to head to Bank of China in Jalan Ampang.

Well, let's start from the examination. The examination was fairly easy as compared to my previous two examinations, Public Sector Accounting and E-Commerce. Because of this, I'm truly delighted by that. Did the feedback master list for D2Y's post-mortem for camp and went to 1 Utama to window-shop. Although it was merely window-shopping, I truly find satisfaction in my very own shopping therapy (LOL!!). Kind of upset when the McD's employee and supervisor told Kah Seng that he cannot refill our drink because it's a take-away but the nightmare has only started.

While we were at the bus stop, we just noticed that there's a Chinese middle-aged uncle in his 50s. We never really bothered to talk to him since he's just a mere stranger at that time. When we boarded U43 to Putrajaya Sentral, he was in the bus with us. Then, when we were about to reach Putrajaya Sentral, he spoke to Kah Seng asking to ask for directions. Realizing that he was speaking Mandrin with a strong China accent, we tried to help him since he's a Chinese national. He had a strong stench of sweat on him. We could only help him after getting down from the bus. He had 3 pieces of paper that says KL Sentral, KLCC and Bank of China (Jalan Ampang). He told us that he's going to Bank of China and was instructed to go to KL Sentral and KLCC first before that but he's in the middle of nowhere in Putrajaya Sentral!!

Since E1 buses were no longer in service at that time (11.20pm), we had to send him to take ERL to KL Sentral. He didn't really have money though. Only about RM10 consisting of RM1 notes and coins. So Kah Seng decided to contribute some money to his ERL trip to KL Sentral. There were a few things that I noticed about poor man:

neither could he converse nor read any form of English
he sported a very strong stench of sweat, leading me to conclude that he has probably been stranded for a few days (possibly surviving through money begging)
his personal belongings: his passport, Bank of China account book and a few pennies without any clothes (all in a sling bag carried around his shoulders)

After we sent him off at the ERL station and reached Cyberjaya, Kah Seng then realized that he forgot to tell the man where to get down from the train T.T That was really unfortunate for that man. We certainly hope that the poor guy doesn't get himself stranded again

The Best Things In Life Are Always Taken

2009-01-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Of late, I've been noticing something that is happening quite often in my life. The good things that you want are always taken (not really always but pretty often). From good investment opportunities, to the best seat in class, whatever is good will most probably be taken.

I don't blame anyone for having the desire to own something good but when this thing occurs to you so often, you find that it's somehow frustrating to really seek for something that is good. As far as I'm concerned, this is not an excuse to settle with mediocrity (at least not for now). I honestly don't know which direction I should head to, without anyone's guidance. All that I can do right now is to pull through with my very own patience. I don't know how long my patience will last but there's only one thing that I know, which is to endure. I certainly hope that I can pull through this period of frustration though

I guess I'm pretty lost for words right now. Signing off now (study for HRM finals)

Miracle of Education

2009-01-05T08:55:00.001-08:00

What makes education so important to us? That's one of the main questions that we should be asking ourselves on a daily basis. Without education, what will we be? What is the meaning behind all the education?

To answer those questions,

1. What makes education so important to us?
It helps increase our knowledge and assist us in living our lives and help us become better people
2. Without education, what will we be?
We will be like barbarians in the olden times, ever so ignorant of our surroundings

Now that you already know the importance of education to us, we have to relate the education that we have all been subjected to all our lives, whether it's formal or informal, whether it was taught by our parents, teachers or friends, whether it was received in the form of visual media or audio media.

When we relate all the education all these years, I realized that in the earlier stage in our lives, the education that we receive is primarily informal education in the form 'learning by doing' taught by our parents. This form of education plays a very important role in the earlier portion of our lives.

However, as we grow older and enter our school life, I find that the higher we study, the less meaningful the education is. From the differentiation and integration of Additional Mathematics, to the various chemicals in Chemistry, to the various calculations in Physics. As a student majoring in Accounting, I find that all those education is not necessary since they are no longer used in my daily life. With a sense of regret for all the education in the past, I discovered that I have wasted a lot of time in the past.

Until recently, I have read a very important book that called "Rich Dad Poor Dad" that almost changed my life completely. The book is written by Robert Kiyosaki who has written a few other books. The content of the book stresses that we have a very important financial choice to make in our lives, which is to join the 'Rat Race' or to be on the 'Fast Track'. If you read this book, you will find that it will almost change your life completely as long as you're willing to change for the better.

After reading the book, I have decided that it is of utmost importance for me to invest not only my money but also my time on my education. Therefore, after some reading on the Internet, I have found a book that I'm quite keen on reading which is entitled "Security Analysis" written by Graham and Dodd. After some search, I discovered that the book is worth RM300 on the MPH online bookstore @.@

Anyway, I'm still determined enough to invest on that book. Hope that I can learn a lot by reading the book ^.^

Humility

2008-12-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

According to http://dictionary.reference.com, the definition of humility is as follows:

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Manager of the England football team, Fabio Capello talked about the football team having a form of humility before achieving success. Malaysian badminton doubles' coach, Rexy Mainaky talked about national doubles player, Koo Kien Keat as being too arrogant and wanting to develop him into a player with humility and good attitude in The Star.

Next, we'll talk about someone who is humble, Datuk Nicol David. I'll just let the article speak for itself.

Now, the reason I wrote this blog posting was because I have some problems with this matter. I have been under-performing in various matters in the past few months that I think that I need a wake-up call in the form of humility. In life, we need to be humble because humility will teach us to respect others, opponents and whatever we're doing. This removal of ego will help us to do our very best to achieve success, no matter how many times we've done it.

As for my case, I find that my problem is because I take things too lightly especially when it comes to my academic matters. I have yet again failed in my mid-term examination for Public Sector Accounting. Something that I regard as a failure even though many people failed in the mid-term examination. The reason for this was because I took the examination too lightly and as a result, I failed in it.

Apart from this, I have also done lousy presentations in the past few months. Starting with my Public Sector Accounting presentation to my Cyberpreneurship presentation, I have not really prepared well for both the presentations. I felt bad because I didn't know the subject of my presentation well enough and I was talking cock during the presentation. For the record, I actually had time to prepare for the presentation better but I decided to do something else the night before the presentation.

Now that I've highlighted the importance of humility to you, I hope that I can improve myself by having a form of humility

Birthday Week

2008-12-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me sincerely say "Thank you" to all those people who have celebrated my birthday with me. From 16th December to 22nd December.

With D2Y

With Cyberpreneurship gang

Getting Aluba-ed by the gang

End of A Busy Week

2008-12-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

Finally, the week has ended. I must say that it has been a whirlwind of a week for me. It's been a long, long week and a couple of days seem long like a week. With D2YC and Cyberpreneurship assignment on my mind, I really had no time for other things

Well, the week started off with the start of D2YC 2008: Do Something... It have to say that it was pretty tiring, but not as tiring as those who had been in camp throughout the week. Really respect those of them who stayed in temple for the whole 5 days of the camp, waking up every morning at 6am even though they only slept at 2am. Now, enough talk and let's go for the pictures

In Conference Room for Pre-camp Part 1

Asoka Hall on Pre-camp Part 2

Standing under the light. They say looks like being enlightened =.=

Birthday celebration with Fui Kean and Dick Weng

Now, let's move on to our Cyberpreneurship project, pre-Christmas Buffet Dinner Party. It was held on the 18th December at FIT Atrium from 8pm to 11pm. The response was fairly okay in my opinion. Really had fun that night

The Stage

Group photo

First time presenting prize to people ^.^

Photo with the 'gang'

Chiew Shi and ME

Me and Pei Chun

ME and Kak Mee

The 'gang' too many 'pattern' already

Countless 'patterns'

BYE BYE CyberP =)

All right, that pretty much sums up my week =P (A single picture tells a thousand words)

Priorities

2008-12-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

When I saw a few of my friends with different goals in life, the one thing that popped up into my mind was "So close but yet so far". Two people may be very close to each other but in the end, they might have different views on the way to lead their lives. The same goes to the priorities of different people.

Based on my own personal observation, some people will have a higher willingness to splurge money on certain things. The most common spending ground for Malaysians is the textile industry. This industry is usually leveraged by the insatiable hunger to groom oneself to be physically attractive. The reason for such a behavior is also leveraged by the television through commercial advertisements, films and movies. This is an ongoing trend especially among the younger generation where money seems to be abundant. Such behavioral patterns have bred a new generation that has never been through tough times. Due to the lack of experience, there is a mindset that says "Money is abundant, so there's no need to worry about it". As a direct result, many youths these days either have no savings at all or has accumulated large credits with their credit card providers. It was only last Sunday that I witnessed a shopping spree by a fellow lady-shopper who splurged almost RM300 at a G2000 shop, purchasing only clothes. This is truly an eye-opener as to how terrible this syndrome of not saving and accumulating debts.

Now that I've talked about the spending priorities of different people, let's talk about the priorities of different students. As a university student, I have seen many different people from different walks of life coming together at one place. I have seen many students who basically took an elective paper just for the sake of increasing their CGPA. At the end of the day, there's completely no learning curve at all in that sense (at least that's what I think about). A student's only motivation when taking the subject will only be increasing their CGPA and nothing else. On a personal note, I have tried to take elective papers that are expected to be more educational, irregardless of whether it's easy or difficult. As students, we are also bound by the assignments given by the lecturers. The problem that I see is most prevalent is the fact that people put different things ahead in their daily lives. Some put their family ahead of everything else whereas some put their friends ahead of even their families.

Goals

2008-12-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

Whenever I see someone who doesn't know what he wants to do, I feel awfully sad especially when that person is 21 years old. Then, the next question pops out of my head, what does he want to do with his life? "No idea" or "I don't know" seems to be the most common answer. I truly don't know why this is happening to so many people especially among my group of friends. They just appear to be satisfied and complacent about their answer of "I don't know".

What is wrong PEOPLE?? I have to admit that it's very difficult to find goals for ourselves. There are just too many things that we can or want to achieve. However, the biggest problem will of course be which direction do you want to head to? This comes the harder part. Even if someone has the goal of being rich in their life, the goal that they have set does not have specific details as to the measurement of the goal as well as the time-frame for the goal to be achieved. Therefore, in this case, having a goal is equal to not having a goal at all, or probably even worse. Having a vague goal is bad for you because it will stop you from going into a journey of self-discovery. You just are complacent with your goal in life and focus too hard to achieve it but end up not evaluating your effort of achieving your goal. A vague goal is also equal to not having a goal at all because at the end of the day, a proper evaluation of the efforts put in to achieve the goal cannot be conducted. Therefore, there's not really a yardstick even though there's obviously a direction

Having a clear goal is one of the most important element in every success. These goals are usually specific, attainable, measurable and have time-frames. All these elements will contribute to the direction and the amount of effort put in to achieve the goal. This direction will ultimately lead you to where you want to be over the time-frame set in the goal itself. Additional effort can also be put into achieving the goal when the goal-setter feels that the progress of achieving the goal is slightly behind time. This motivates the goal-setter to put in more effort. One easy example of a clear goal is "To be worth RM 10million in 10 years". From here, it can be clearly seen that the goal is measurable in monetary terms, RM 10million and the time-frame of the achievement of the goal is 10 years. In the mean time, the goal-setter must also come up with a plan on how to achieve the target within the set period of time. This will identify the steps that needed to be taken to achieve the goals set before this.

Finally, the most important aspect of goal-setting is to implement the plans of achieving the goals that has been set prior to the implementation of the plans. At the end of the day, a goal-setter can also have big plans for himself but end up without anything because of poor execution of the plans that has been outlined prior to the implementation.

With goals, then only can one be truly motivated by his will to not only perform better but also serve better.

Mobiles?

2008-10-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Now, the first question I want to ask you is, Do you have a mobile phone? The answer is obviously a big YES!! If you answered no, someone might ask you "Where do you live? In a cave??"

With the latest technologies dominating the world today, the list of models of mobile phones has increased so rapidly that every few weeks, there will be a few new models introduced to the market, ranging from conventional phones to flip and even slide phones. Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, you name it, they've got it.

Now, the question comes, Do we really need them? The answer to this is obviously YES. Everyone argues that we need mobile phones to stay connected. Since we started having mobile phones, our social network has changed drastically since we can now be reached from almost anywhere. It used to be that we can't be reached when there's no telephone around us but now, we can bring our mobile phones anywhere we like and still be able to be reached (that's unless you go somewhere without network roaming). This significant change has changed the lives of many. With the incorporation of camera, radio and even WiFi facilities into a mobile phone, a mobile phone is bound to be an indispensable must-have in everyone's life.

How dependent do we have to be on our mobile phones? I have seen people who are so dependent on their mobile phones that they can't even live a few hours without their mobile phones with them. From my personal experience, I have even seen people who exercise with their mobile phones close to them. Some even TALK on the phone when they're exercising!! How ironic can it possibly be?? I strongly believe that we can actually afford to let go of our mobile phones once in a while. I myself do not bring my mobile phones out whenever I go to play sports unless I find it necessary. Why can't we let it go for a few hours? What is so important that you can't even leave your mobile phone alone for a few hours? This questions are for those who bring along their mobile phones when they go exercising.

With such a high level of dependency on mobile phones, I cannot help myself but think of all the hazards that the radiation from a mobile phone cause us. Let us depend less on our mobile phones (this doesn't mean that you should ditch your mobile phone for good)

Aarrggghhh!!!

2008-09-19T04:16:00.000-07:00

It's 19th September 2008, 3 days after Malaysia Day 2008. It is also 3 days after the supposed takeover of the Federal government by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Now, I'm currently in CISA001 class, Computer Programming for Auditing feeling a little bored.

Let's forget about all these things. My main concern now is the fact that my final exam is coming in 3 more weeks. This is really bad news because I have not be studying hard enough as I'm supposed to. So many things is going through my head when I think about final exams. There are about 10-15 chapters in Financial Accounting and Reporting II (taught by Nazim T.T ), another 15 chapters in Managemenet Accounting II (taught by Abadan T.T ) and lots of cases in Business Law. The good news is that holidays is coming. The bad news is, I have lots of studying to do before holidays (Aaarrggghhh!!!)

As far as all these subjects are concerned, I have almost finished Management Accounting II. Next up will be Financial Accounting and Reporting II which is a little bit boring. One thing that I'm pretty sure about is that all the recognition and treatment methods will definitely kill me. Not to forget Business Law is on the last day of my exams (17th October). There's so many case laws that I need to revise on. Carlil vs. Carbolic Smoke Ball is the only case law that I remember so far. The rest, ZERO idea about them @.@

I must now admit that I have a pretty good lecturer in Ms. Teh Pei Lee. At least, I feel that she's one of the best lecturers I have this semester. Mr. Azmir is pretty OK to me but he teaches too many things every lecture that everyone will be so damn blur. Dr. Marthandan is also pretty okay but I always get distracted by the computer (like what I'm doing right now, blogging during class ^.^ ).

I think that's all for now. I better get to work with designing my programmes.

It's Been A Long Time!!

2008-09-09T04:24:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted in this blog. It's only less than two weeks since my last blog posting and it feels like it's been ages that I haven't updated my blog. Lots of things has happened in less than two weeks but the constant search for inspiration to share on this blog carries on.

First of all, I've lost my handphone in a KTM train. It was really an unfortunate turn of events for me that day. I went ot Perdana Lake Gardens to help Haw Lun to plan the things for the D2Y gathering and everything went fine. When Wing forgot to drop me at the Mid Valley bus station, he dropped me at the Seputeh KTM station where my nightmare began. Got onto a crowded KTM train as expected, with my handphone with me. When I left the train and out of the Mid Valley KTM station, it was gone... GONE!! I can't do anything considering the number of people at the KTM station. I couldn't even recognize the guy who was standing behind me in the KTM train. I ended up taking the bus to Sunway Pyramid to meet my sisters. We were supposed to go back together to Teluk Intan for the National Day break.

D2Y Gathering also happened during the course of this 2 weeks. It was a pretty fun day for everyone. I was assigned the role as one of the stationmaster. What I didn't like most was the fact that I felt like I joined a blood donation drive. So many mosquitoes were there and I just couldn't bear it. It was really horrifying that sometimes, there can be at least 3 mosquitoes biting me at the same time!! ARGHHH!!! I was kind of lucky that day because it was raining and being the stationmaster, I can get to find some shelter in the nearby 'pondok'. It was a very enjoyable day, all thanks to Haw Lun (main organizer)

Until then, I shall share with you all the future updates

Finally!!!

2008-08-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

After two full weeks of struggling, I finally have some time to really blog about my thoughts again. Well, I must tell you that it's been a long two weeks since I've been struggling a lot. Let's report about something important that happened recently, Beijing 2008

Firstly, something significant that concerns Malaysians. Malaysia managed to get 1 Silver medal in the Olympics after missing out from the podium for so many years. The Silver medal was contributed by the then Lee Chong Wei (now Datuk Lee Chong Wei). Although Chong Wei contributed to the nation's ONLY medal haul, I must also highlight that he lost to Lin Dan in the finals after a 'hard fight' (one of the most one-sided badminton matches in a final of an Olympic). I expected that Chong Wei will lose in the finals when he beat Lee Hyun-il in the semi finals. From the way he celebrated the win against Hyun-il was as though he had won a Gold medal for Malaysia. That was the first sign of him losing to Lin Dan. When he qualified for the finals, he lost the hunger to win. That is the main reason for his downfall. Although Chong Wei and Lin Dan are both physically and technically equal, Chong Wei simply could not compete against Lin Dan when it comes to mental strength and hunger to win. Now that the Olympics is over and Malaysia singing his praise, I think that Chong Wei do not deserve to be honoured Datukship because deep down, I know he can win Gold

Now, let's move on to other highlights of the Olympics. Michael Phelps winning eight Gold medals, surpassing Mark Spitz as the man who won the most Olympic Gold medals in one Games. He is now the greatest Olympian of all time, having won 14 Gold medals in a total of three Olympic outings. Although he did not win any medals in his first outing in the Olympics, he won six Gold medals out of eight events in his second outing in Athens 2004. This time, he went the distance and won eight gold medals out of eight events. You can refer to Michael Phelps for his autobiography

Another person that I would like to highlight in this post is Usain Bolt from Jamaica (with a population of less than 3 million), the fastest man on Earth. Nicknamed 'Lightning Bolt', he definitely lived up to the expectations. In Beijing 2008, he surpassed the expectations set on him by winning three Gold medals in three events (100m, 200m and 4X100m). Not only did he win three Gold medals, he won them with style by setting three World Records in all three events. This says a lot about how good he really is at sprinting. You can refer to Usain Bolt for his autobiography

Now that I've highlighted to you about Jamaica's Usain Bolt, I feel sad when a country with the population of Jamaica can produce a triple Olympic gold-medallist when we, Malaysia have yet to produce an Olympic gold-medallist. With a population of 27.5 million people, we have failed to produce an Olympic gold-medallist. Jamaica has won more than 40 medals in Olympics and Malaysia has struggled to even get to double digits. The problem with Malaysia : we have failed to produce an athelete with the heart of a champion. Technically, I believe that these some of these atheletes (especially badminton) stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the world but mentally, we are a long way towards winning our first Gold medal.

I yearn to hear Malaysia's national anthem being played at the Olympics. After Beijing 2008, I'll have to wait for another four more years to get another shot at hearing our national anthem at the Olympics in London. Before that, I hope that squash will be declared as one of the Olympic sports. Hope we have a better chance of winning an Olympic Gold medal with Datuk Nicol David

What A Lecturer!!

2008-08-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that initially, I had no intention of blogging about this 'guy' that I call lecturer, Abadan Jasmon. I saw Chit Pei blogging about him, describing his most recent tantrum. However, I will not talk about what he did before the mid-term break but rather what he did after the mid-term break. (All the photographs in this blog is cropped from Chit Pei's blog)

Before the mid-term break:

He said that we will have to do a presentation during tutorial to get 20 marks for our final marks. He also said that the submission date for our homework file is in Week 10.

After the mid-term break:

He also announced that the submission date for our homework file will be Week 9. He said that he will no longer have presentations during tutorial. The last tutorial for presentation was before the mid-term break in Week 7 (3 weeks before the initial deadline). He made these announcements during the tutorial. In the lecture later that day, he announced that he will make arrangements for the students who did not have the chance to present before the mid-term break (Pheww.... Lucky for me that he changed his mind)

First of all, he broke both his promises with regards to the presentations during tutorial and homework file. I won't blame him for bringing forward the submission date of homework file because he gave us an earlier notice about the change. However, what I don't like about his announcement is that the cancellation of the presentation weeks were done without prior notice. He claimed that the reason for his cancellation was because the quality of presentation have been deteriorating over the weeks. Whatever his reasons, he should not cancel the presentation weeks without prior notice to the students.

The moral of the story: Don't mess with Abadan Jasmon whatever your reasons are. This joker really likes to change his mind

......

2008-08-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

The previous week is by far one of the worst weeks in my life. Two unfortunate events combined to make my week a 'memorable' one.

Firstly, I lost my wallet early in the week. Lost about RM200 that was supposed to be in the wallet. By mid-week, I had another unfortunate event happening. I was down with fever and stomach wind. For me, I won't fall sick easily and when I do, I'll be down with a couple of illnesses. This time around, I didn't have that many medication around me. So, I was down for a couple of days. This seriously hampered my preparation for Technology Management and Accounting Information Systems II mid-term. Although I didn't do extremely well in those mid-terms, I was pretty satisfied considering the fact that I was sick for quite some time and I couldn't really revise.

Although I was sick for half a week, I'd like to express my gratitude for Chiew Shi who took care of me pretty well. She cooked porridge and barley drink and brought it for me in hostel. She also gave me an ENO and two packs of medication for my stomach wind. THANK YOU, CHIEW SHI!!! I will treat you big time when we get back to MMU ok??

All in all, that week was pretty bad. I'm fully recovered now and having mid-term break. Don't want to go back to Cyberjaya this soon yet. Haven't really have enough fun in Teluk Intan =P

Lost My Wallet.....

2008-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Everything was supposed to go well today until I went to the HB2 food court after exercise to have my dinner before I go up to my hostel room. When I opened my bag, I couldn't find my wallet which was supposed to be in the back right-hand side pocket of my jeans. When I stuck my hand into the pocket, I was surprised to find that my wallet was lost.

I never gave up hope and tried to find it in my bag. Perhaps it was lost when it fell into the bag. NOTHING!! Now, I started to panic a little. I tried to remove my T-shirt from my bag so that I can find my wallet more carefully. Still nothing. Now, I already know that my wallet is lost... T.T

Then, with the hope that the wallet fell somewhere between the gym and the futsal court, I went back to find the wallet. NOTHING. My next suspect is the lecture halls. STILL NOTHING. Seems like it really is lost.

So, I posted a forward message into YM to tell people who found my wallet to return it to me (just in case it is found). Then, I contacted my mom to break the 'news' to her.

Seems like another bad day just had me when I was not alert

Bon Odori

2008-07-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

It's the 12th of July 2008 and it's the day of Bon Odori, celebrated as a reminder of the gratefulness one should feel toward one's ancestors. The location of Bon Odori is in the Panasonic Stadium in Shah Alam. It so happened that there's free shuttle service from Shah Alam KTM station to the Panasonic Station during Bon Odori.

I went to Mid Valley with both my sisters by car after lunch. From there, I took the KTM from Mid Valley to KL Sentral and proceeded from there to Shah Alam KTM station. When I arrived at the Shah Alam KTM station, there were many buses waiting to send us to the Panasonic Sports Complex. I just boarded the first bus that I saw and off I went to the Panasonic Stadium. When I arrived there, it wasn't 5pm yet. The stadium is not open for the public to enter just yet. When the stadium opened, we went in and looked around happily

I was about to leave the stadium before 7pm but I was told that there is no free bus shuttle service from the Panasonic Stadium to the Shah Alam KTM station at that time. So, I was forced to walk to the nearest bus stop (which wasn't near at all) but to no avail. I finally paid RM5 to take a taxi to the nearest KTM station (Batu Tiga KTM station).

Although it wasn't an easy day, travelling all the way to Shah Alam and getting stuck there, I felt pretty happy that I went there. It was a good experience. Besides, what the heck.... IT COULD BE WORSE

It Could Be Worse

2008-07-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

The following video is a video about a high school wrestler who has inspired me so much that I couldn't hold back my emotions

In life, there are so many things that will upset us. The first time I watched this video, I was almost overwhelmed with emotions. Just imagine this high-school kid who lost all four of his limbs and still manage to be a wrestler. That speaks a lot about guts and determination from a high school kid. I doubt that I myself can do it.

Having said that, I believe that we can achieve what he can achieve. If he could achieve that much with so little, I think we can do much more with what we are today. All we have to do is to have the DETERMINATION, BELIEVE and finally PUT IN EFFORT into the thing that we want to achieve. From there, we will be able to improve ourselves continuously until we achieve our goals. In life, there are so many things that we can achieve just by saying "I CAN"

That's all for today. I hope that this video has inspired all of you to continue to be the est that you can be

Awakened!!

2008-07-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Now that the Awakening Night 2008 has just ended, I feel so relieved. There will be no more commitments to events as such in the near future. This is an indication of good news considering the fact that my assignments are starting to pile up. I'm finally awakened from my 2 weeks organizing Awakening 2008

Technology Management assignments have been given out. We are required to finish our individual assignment and pass it up by Week 6. This is definitely not good news considering the fact that I have yet to do anything and this is already Week 3. It will be Week 4 before I could start anything on this assignment. Looks like I'm all set for a tough semester this time around. Not forgeting the fact that I have another group assignment to complete. We are required to complete a case study on technology and innovation management for technology-based companies in Malaysia. The work is made tougher since we have to contact the people from the company and meet them. This might take some time though.

Other than all these assignment work, I also have to work on my Management Accounting II. The problem is that Abadan Jasmon a.k.a. Anwar Ibrahim likes to throw us a lot of homework without really discussing about it. So, all the work has been piled up right now. I'm currently thinking about delegating the jobs to many people and gathering all the answers once we're done with it. It certainly seems like the easiest way out from this subject.

Apart from that, I am also troubled by the fact that I have to study for my Computer Programming for Auditing (or more commonly-known as CISA). Programming hasn't come in easy for me this semester and I know that I'll need to work extremely hard before the finals or else........... God knows what might happen. After all, the programming codes are not really consistent all the time. The writing method and all the texts can be the same but when you play the programme, it won't work really well. This is kind of upsetting especially when you've done quite a lot of work on the programme

Well, that's all for now. Will update you guys about the happenings in my life next time around

Malaysian Public Transport System

2008-06-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

It was a Sunday. I was on my way back to Cyberjaya via public transport (bus and KTM Kommuter). I left my sister's house in Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur at 6pm and waited for the bus to pick me up to Mid Valley. The bus arrived after about 20 minutes and off I went to Mid Valley to take the KTM train to KTM Serdang.

I arrived at KTM Mid Valley at 6.30pm. Much to my displeasure, the train was delayed. I had to wait for 30 minutes for the next train to arrive. However, there was too many people in the train at that time that I couldn't board the train. It was displeased by the fact that many of my fellow Malaysian commuters couldn't wait to get into the train. Some of them didn't allow the people inside the train to get out of the train. Although some of the people expressed their intention to get out of the train, the commuters outside refused to allow them to get out of the train. This really highlighted the lowly mentality of Malaysian commuters.

I decided not to enter the train and wait for the next train. That decision made me wait for another 30 more minutes before I could get into the next train. When the next train arrived, there was still a crowd at the platform. I was one of the few people in front of the line when the train opened its doors. Someone had pushed from behind. Although I didn't want to board the train this quickly, I was pushed into the train by force. I didn't like it but I couldn't complain more because had I not been pushed into the train, I might have to wait for another half an hour before the next train arrives.

With the recent increase in price of petrol, it is high time that the Malaysian government upgrades its public transport system. The current situation of KTM Kommuter will not ease the burden of the public. The least that the government can do is to increase the number of trains servicing the KTM Kommuter line and ensure that the service is consistent and reliable. The inconsistency of the service has caused the crowding of people at the platform. This, I believe has caused a lot of uneasiness in not only me but also many other members of the public. I was wondering what would happen to the physically-challanged, pregnant women and children.

As a good and responsible government, I urge the Malaysian government to overhaul or upgrade its public transport system especially those that are in bad condition like KTM Kommuter. The time has come for Malaysia to upgrade itself and transform into a developed nation by the year 2020

Trip Back to Teluk Intan

2008-06-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

During the weekend, I went back home to Teluk Intan. The following video shows the photographs that I've taken over the weekend.

First Post - Introduction

2008-06-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, this is just the introductory post for this blog. I hope that I will have the time, energy and commitment to maintain this blog and hopefully make this blog a blog that is read by many.

Firstly, let me introduce myself of who I am and what I do. My name is LexLex, currently 20 years old. I am an Accounting student in a private Malaysian university called Multimedia University, MMU (a.k.a. Money Making University because of its expensive tuition fees despite being a subsidiary of TM). The course that I'm enrolled in is a four-year course with a six-month industrial training programme. I'll be graduating from my University in year 2011.

When I graduate, I plan to work for a medium-sized Accounting firm so that I can learn more about the corporate world, specifically learning how Accounting jobs are done (Accounting jobs include Taxation, Audit, Accounting etc etc). The period that I intend to work for is only three years. After that, I intend to either become a free-lance investor and learn more about investing. My dream is to emulate my idol, Warren Buffet who is also the richest man in the world. The way he achieve that feat is through investing.

All right, that's all for now. I shall post more often when I get the inspiration on what to talk about