What does it mean to love your country?

A story about a mouse, a cat, a dog

and not forgetting...

the bird? o.o

Disclaimer: This story is not original, I merely adapted, translated and renovated it from a Chinese article I read on Sin Chew's Daily today (>_<)

Once upon a time, there was an old, old lady who lived alone in a cottage on top of the mountain. She was a kind, gentle soul who always feeds half of her meals to the animals around her. Besides, she showered the animals with compassion and love, and hence, the animals came to love her in return.

Among the animals closest to her were Bow the dog, Mew the cat, Chit the bird and Tippy the mouse. Every day without fail, Bow, Mew and Chit would flock around the old lady, waiting for her to feed them. And when she did so, they would express their gratitude - Bow by wagging his tail energetically, Mew by rubbing itself against the old lady's legs and Chit by fluttering and twittering around her. However, Tippy did not accept food from the old lady. Instead, it burrowed into the ground, found some plants or grubs or whatever and fed itself. Only after it is full, it will curl up silently by the old lady, waiting for time to pass.

Days passed, and the animals found out that the old lady's birthday was almost approaching. Of course, the most excited among all the animals were none other than the four. Enthusiastically, they went into the forest and started collecting flowers. Bow found some blue bluebells, Mew found some yellow daffodils while Chit found some red hibiscuses. The only odd one out was Tippy, who was burrowing for his food as usual.

"What an ungrateful soul you are, Tippy!" Bow growled at the mouse. "Yeah, we are here, all busy preparing a birthday present for our lovely old lady, but you're just being selfish and minding your own business!" Chit chirped angrily. "I really feel sorry for her...how would she feel if she knew that you don't appreciate what she did for you all this while," Mew purred, smiling nastily at Tippy.

Tippy heard the insults from the three animals, and it paused in its process of food gathering.

"Well, I am different from all of you. Although now I am not preparing a birthday gift for her, that doesn't mean that I'm ungrateful and selfish. Think of yourselves...every day she has to sacrifice half of her meals to feed you, and hence she goes hungry most of the time. On the other hand, I don't depend on her for my food, instead I hunt for them myself. To me, that is the best way to repay her kindness instead of fully depending on her, and showing your gratitude once a year with a flashy, lavish birthday present."

~-~-~

So guys and girls, loving our country doesn't just mean waving or hanging enormous national flags, singing patriotic songs, etc. Sometimes, being independent and resourceful and self-sufficient is the best you can do for your country, as opposed to taking it for granted and just using all the advantages available here.

But of course, contributing to your country will be an added bonus :D just like negative, neutral and positive, get what I mean?

The rollercoaster journey to UK Visa

So it happens that I'm going to CCCU soon, and so it happens that if I want to study in the UK for more than 6 months, I have to get a visa. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Then, I found out a visa is not just a visa - it's made up of various documents, forms, some trivial and not-so-trivial stuff to be collected, photocopied, filled in and whatnot.

Lemme describe the excruciating process of getting a visa together with the rest of Da Demotivated Retards (Alicia, Daniel, Yuges, Banu and yours truly)...

1st step: Forms, forms and more forms
One would have thought that in order to get a visa, you have to fill in just the visa application form.

WRONG!

There are a total of 4 forms for visa alone, and another form for the supporting documents...
- Visa online application form (VAF9)
- PBS Tier 4 Appendix 8 for General Students
- CAS (a checklist for all the documents)
- Student survey

Before doing our visa, we have to get a Certificate of Good Conduct from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that's another form.

And we did the MAS Grads Card (which enables us to bring an extra 10kg luggage) too, making another form

2nd Step: Wasting paper, killing trees and destroying the environment
The forms are printed out. For all three applications, supporting documents are needed. Innocent papers are used to photocopy the originals and backup forms. That's all.

3rd Step: Journey around Kuala Lumpur
This was the most fun part. On the first day, we went to get our Grads Card and bank draft done. It was quite an easy process as we just needed to bring along RM 976 in cash to CIMB and some documents to the Enrich Centre. The whole process took about 3 hours and didn't cause any headaches at all.

It was a whole different story on the 2nd day. The schedule was to get a stamp and signature from a commissioner of oaths, then go to the MOFA to get our Cert. of Good Conduct. The commissioner was located in Damansara while MOFA was in Putrajaya. So, what did we do?

First, we woke up late, and gathered at 10am. Then, we took a taxi to Damansara and got our forms stamped. Had lunch at KFC while waiting for the uber-famous 'government lunch time' to pass and made a move to KL Sentral. From there, we took the ERL to Putrajaya Sentral and hopped on a bus towards MOFA. The whole trip took about 1 hour and when we arrived, we still had to wait for the doors to open at 2pm. The application process took another hour, and then we took the bus back to Putrajaya Sentral, and another bus back to KL Sentral. Except that we missed the stop and ended up in Pasar Seni, making an extra LRT station x) By the time we got back in IPBA, we were all so tired we could just curl up and sleep on the floor.

On the third day, we finally went to Ampang Park by LRT to submit our application at the UK visa centre at Wisma MCA. It wasn't so tiring as much as unnerving, as there were three security guards at the entrance, and we had to go through body scans and stuff. Comparatively, it was a simple process though, and took just a little more than an hour~

Step 4: Free for All
Yeah, after submitting the visa application, we are basically free to do anything we please. So then, see ya =)

False Alarm O-o (and I'm a No0B)

My trustworthy Dell laptop (Inspiron 1420) has so far given me minimal problems after two years of using it. The only beefs I have about it is that it's too heavy, not fast-performing enough and the Window Explorer problem.

Today, I switched on the laptop as usual and left it on the table while I went and tinkered some on my piano <3>"Interactive logon process initialization has failed. Please consult the event log for more details."

The first thing that came into my head was 'How the heck am I supposed to consult the event log when YOU won't even let me look at my FRICKING desktop!' (Of course, I didn't say this out loud ^^)

Then I started to panic. I've heard things like this happening to other people, but never me. I think my laptop is clean enough (at least I've never had to send it for repair before) and I use an antivirus, don't surf suspicious websites and all those, so I don't think there would be any major problems with it.

Anyway, my initial reaction was to shut down the laptop forcibly (i.e. by switching off the power source and pulling out the battery). Now that I think about it, that was incredibly stupid. It's just like showering halfway and having no water while shampoo and soap bubbles are still all over you, or watching a movie and having a power outage just before your favourite scene, or...well, you get the idea xD My point is, this is an idiotic, thoughtless thing to do, even to a lifeless laptop.

So, I turned on the wireless Internet in my house and surfed the Internet using my phone (bless the Nokia Xpress music 5800) for any tips to solve this problem. First thing I saw, I wasn't the only one who experienced this on my laptop. So, I went and dug out all the manuals and backup discs that came with my laptop just in case they could be in handy.

I read through what the other users did - restored the system, ran the computer on the DVD, reboot, whatever, blah blah...and I went O_O Someone help me ! I'm absolutely clueless on how to do all these x_X

Still, I mustered all my courage to gave it a try. I rebooted my laptop, missed the time where I was supposed to press 'F12' to go into a system, and was brought to the screen where it asked me whether I wanted to start Windows normally or in Safe Mode (prolly because I shut down the laptop forcibly xD).

To be safe, I chose the safe mode :P

Miraculously, I saw my desktop materialise on the screen with the title 'windows in safe mode', without a wallpaper and with extremely ugly graphics. I was so happy I could have kissed the laptop. So then, I ran System Restore and reverted all the updates back to the last point I updated the laptop.

Hopefully this will solve all the problems --> coz' now my laptop is functioning normally, but I don't have the foggiest idea how it would turn out the next time I power it on again.

Till then, adieu~ >_<"

P.S: I know I'm being a little over-dramatic, but my laptop is my love :D

Hypocrites...

-are those who say one thing and do another

-are those who say one thing and mean another

-are those who dresses like nuns yet behaves like prostitutes

-are those who preach religion yet commits heinous acts of sins

-are those who say 'never mind' yet indulge in back-stabbing their friends

-are those who say 'I'm sorry' and don't mean it

-are those who say 'Beauty is only skin deep' and spend hours on makeup

-are those who say their religion are the only true religion and their God the ultimate supreme whatever

-are those who say they believe in religion yet take part in all kinds of superstitions

-are those who pray only to absolve their sins

-are those who criticise others over things they secretly do themselves

-are those who advocate feminism yet gets offended when they're asked to do things guys do

-are those who advocate male chauvinism yet say 'ladies first' when confronted with things guys don't want to do

-are those attention-seekers who do things just to attract people's attention

-are those who wear headscarves yet do not cover their body parts they're supposed to

-are those who blindly imitate what their friends do just to 'fit in'

-are those who labels people with terms like 'nerd', 'geek', 'dumb blond' and so on

-are those who don't swear openly but curse non-stop in their mind for the sake of appearing 'civilised'

-are those who smile while plotting something evil

-are those who discriminate homosexuals just because they aren't one themselves

*and the list goes on forever So, I guess almost everyone is a hypocrite =)

And it's Canaan Online FTW!

Recently, I started playing Canaan Online.

How did I know about the game?
Through an MMORPG site - I was searching for a browser-based game, which means that I don't need to download heavy clients with high requirements that takes up space in my laptop.

A brief overview
Canaan Online is a RPG (role-playing game) in which you assume a character and do quests, have pets, form teams, join guilds and go on adventures. There are four classes - priest (I'm one), ranger, warrior and mage to choose from, each with their advantages. Frankly speaking, I had doubts about the game when I first started playing, as compared to some other games, this one comes across as being pretty easy.

However, once you reach level 30, things start getting complicated. One interesting, but hard thing about this game is that you can forge your own equipment, and depending on the quality of the materials you use, the equipment will be stronger or weaker. Besides, mages and priests share the same type of materials, while warriors and rangers use another type, so it's always good to make friends and exchange materials. Also, the quests start to become harder and harder, so friends are important to help you finish them easier and quicker.

Besides, there are also pets, not to play with, but to help you in battles. Depending on your character class, different pets can either heal you, fight along your side, increase your stats or add to your hp. The pets variety is huge too - almost all the monsters you fight in this game can be captured as pets. Like equipments, pets are divided into classes too, from normal, smart, genius, supreme to ultimate (need I say which is the best?)

Last but not least, there are many small but interesting details in the game, such as dressing up the characters, joining guilds and going into mazes, and marriage (which brings along lots of benefits ^^). Also, I believe that furniture, mounts (vehicles) and houses are becoming available soon.

Plus points
+ Canaan Online is free to play
+ It runs in a browser
+ The controls are easy
+ The graphics...while I won't say dazzling, but they are above average
+ You can level up your character by paying (in-game coins) and leaving your browser open

Minus points
- Sometimes it takes a long while to load the game
- System gifts cannot be traded
- Moving around is slow (but fast with mounts)

So yeah, I have been playing Canaan Online with every spare time I have. My name-in-game is Reicorleone and I'm married to Justinn (which explains my strange status update in Facebook) XD

~C'est moire~

A Period of Mourning

On 15th June 2010, Tuesday, 12.45 a.m., my grandmother from my father's side passed away because of intestinal cancer.

According to Chinese/Buddhist/Taoist (probably a mixture of all three) tradition, when an old person passes away, we have to mourn for either 5 or 7 days. During the period of mourning, all the close relatives are expected to wear white shirts and black pants, and pin on small pieces of cloth and/or burlap on their right arm as well as tie a white ribbon around the right wrist to indicate that they are mourning for the passing of someone in their family.

Usually, a funeral is supposed to be a sad affair, but in this case, I didn't feel too much sorrow, as my grandmother was already 88 years old, and she passed away peacefully and with minimal pain.

As a matter of fact, this funeral gave the whole family a chance for reunion, as most members of the family came back from all over Malaysia, and some even from China to pay their final respects to my grandmother at my uncle's house in Kuala Muda.

Alright, let's proceed with a brief description of the ritual process...

The body of the deceased is placed in a coffin, with the cover revealing the face through a glass. A wreath of white flowers are placed at the feet area, while joss sticks are burnt for the whole period and the children of the deceased stay up all night to ensure the main long one is never burnt out (i.e. replaced when it gets too short).

Day 1 to Day 4: The main family members just stay in the house and sometimes chant prayers from morning to afternoon. At night, a few monks will come and lead the chanting of some more complicated prayers from different 'sutras' which we follow. On the 4th night, the family members will burn offerings to the deceased, including a huge house made of paper for him/her to use in the afterlife.

Day 5 is the day for the body to be buried or cremated (in my grandmother's case, cremated). The family members arrive early in the morning and there are also other friends and distant family who came for the final farewell. Then, the coffin is brought out of the house and into the van where it is sent to the cremation site. The whole process is quite complicated as a series of 'rules' have to be followed, and what I did was just to follow what everyone else did.

One good thing that came out of these 5 days was that I realised that I actually have a number of cute kids under me -- my cousins, nephews and nieces.

My cousin ... i call her Chloe but actually it's just her Chinese name that sounds like it xD My youngest uncle's daughter

A moth or butterfly that hung around the house until unfortunately, it got stepped on and died by my eldest aunt's husband o_O

flowers from various people

the 'house' which was burnt as an offering

my nephew, the son of my cousin, Zi Yao. He kinda looks like Edison Chan, no? xD

and his sister

Joelle Chin, the youngest present during the funeral (2 years old). My cousin's only daughter

Qian Hui, another one of my nieces. Has a smart mouth, sometimes good, sometimes bad xD

As I probably mentioned before, I'm not a devote Buddhist. In fact, I don't believe in religion (note: that doesn't mean that I totally reject the existence of a god, but that would come later). To me, I follow all the rituals and do what I'm told as a sign of respect for my grandmother and elders who are there, that's all. Still, attending this funeral let me witness the power of religion and how it brings everyone together. That is something to be respected, and also feared when abused.

Personally, I still think that it's more important to take care of the living rather than lavishing rituals, riches and whatnot on the dead.

I also got some 'souvenirs' from this incident - a whole load of mosquito bites on my feet and legs =.=" I can actually see constellations on my left foot.

Warning: Chinese Wedding Dinners Might Cause Deafness

NOPE, I'm kidding. The above is just a photo of a traditional Chinese wedding function. Just a note - until now I haven't been to any weddings in which couples dress that way :D


Going to any Chinese wedding dinners has always been an ordeal for me - never mind if the groom/bride is my closest relative or a stranger. The pattern is almost always the same: the amplifiers will blast the emcee's voice, music and stuff at full volume, while the guests do not dare to complain for fear of offending the newly-weds or their parents.

Last Saturday (22 May), I went to the wedding dinner of the daughter of a seafood restaurant's owner, who was a close friend of my father's family. I don't know the father or the daughter personally, but to 'bagi muka', I had to go too =.="

Anyway, when I reached there, I was appalled to see that the restaurant was crammed with people like sardine in cans, and a lot of guests actually had to sit OUTSIDE the restaurant. Then I started wondering:

1) What's the point of inviting so many friends and family over if the place you chose cannot accommodate all of them?
2) What's the point of sitting outside if you see what's happening on stage?

The food was just tolerable, some cooked to the point where I pity the animals who were slaughtered to produce the dish, which was just edible.

...

Back to the title of the post, that Chinese wedding dinners might cause deafness, the reasons are as follows. If you've gone to such a dinner before, whether it's at a hotel or restaurant, you might find that you've had similar experience.

1) The speakers and amplifiers are turned on at full volume.
2) The emcee, knowing that, cannot stop talking for fear that his salary might be cut.
3) He keeps on talking and talking and talking nonsense.
4) When he stops talking, the noise is replaced by music, still at full volume.
5) When he doesn't talk, he sings.
6) When he doesn't sing, he invites other guests to go up the stage and sing.
7) Most, if not all of the guests are not professional singers - they either sing out of tune or out of rhythm. This time, I was lucky that the singers did not screech or shout. I'm counting my blessings.
8) The amplifiers were only lowered during the 'yam seng' (cheers) session, where everyone lifts their glasses and toast the newly-weds at the top of their lungs. It's equally bad, by the way.

With all this, I'm thankful that both my ears are still functioning. Sometimes, I wonder why everything has to be so...loud. Probably, the point is to make it hard for guests to talk to each other so that they will focus their attention on the newly-weds instead of themselves.

All looking to the stage for the grand toast

My mom and I...yeah, we

a blurry shot taken with my phone of the bride and groom. The bride is the one in the purple dress...duh XD

~Happy Teacher's Day~

THE CREATION OF THE TEACHER

The Good Lord was creating teachers. It was His sixth day of 'overtime' and He knew that this was a tremendous responsibility for teachers would touch the lives of so many impressionable young children. An angel appeared to Him and said, "You are taking a long time to figure this one out."

"Yes," said the Lord, " but have you read the specs on this order?"

TEACHER:

…must stand above all students, yet be on their level
... must be able to do 180 things not connected with the subject being taught
... must run on coffee, coke and leftovers,
... must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be right most of the time
... must have more time for others than for herself/himself
... must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, problematic children, and worried parents
... must go on teaching when parents question every move and others are not supportive
... must have 6 pair of hands.

"Six pair of hands, " said the angel, "that's impossible"
"Well, " said the Lord, " it is not the hands that are the problem. It is the three pairs of eyes that are presenting the most difficulty!"

The angel looked incredulous, " Three pairs of eyes...on a standard model?"

The Lord nodded His head, " One pair can see a student for what he is and not what others have labeled him as. Another pair of eyes is in the back of the teacher's head to see what should not be seen, but what must be known. The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as he/she 'acts out' in order to reflect, " I understand and I still believe in you",
without so much as saying a word to the child."

"Lord, " said the angel, " this is a very large project and I think
you should work on it tomorrow".

"I can't," said the Lord, " for I have come very close to creating something much like Myself. I have one that comes to work when he/she is sick.....teaches a class of children that do not want to learn....has a special place in his/her heart for children who are not his/her own.....understands the struggles of those who have difficulty....never takes the students for granted..."

The angel looked closely at the model the Lord was creating.
"It is too soft-hearted, " said the angel.

"Yes," said the Lord, " but also tough, You can not imagine what this teacher can endure or do, if necessary".

"Can this teacher think?" asked the angel.

"Not only think," said the Lord,. "but reason and compromise."

The angel came closer to have a better look at the model and ran his finger
over the teacher's cheek.

"Well, Lord, " said the angel, your job looks fine but there is a leak. I told you that you were putting too much into this model.
You can not imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher."

The Lord moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher's cheek.
It shone and glistened in the light.

"It is not a leak," He said, "It is a tear."

"A tear? What is that?" asked the angel, "What is a tear for?"

The Lord replied with great thought, " It is for the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even the smallest task. It is for the loneliness of children who have a hard time to fit in and it is for compassion for the feelings of their parents. It comes from the pain of not being able to reach some children and the disappointment those children feel in themselves. It comes often when a teacher has been with a class for a year and must say good-bye to those students
and get ready to welcome a new class."

"My, " said the angel, " The tear thing is a great idea...You are a genius!!"
The Lord looked somber, "I didn't put it there."

*copied from http://www.songs4teachers.com/inspiration.htm*

~A very Happy Teacher's Day to educators all over the world~

Milkshake's Videos Up~ *Finally*

Although it's not our best performance yet; in fact, it's our FIRST performance, I don't see any wrong in uploading the videos to Youtube. Comment, praise and criticise all you like :D That will help us improve =D

Milkshake - Intro of Canon in D Rock *simplified* and Seize the Day by Avenged Sevenfold



Milkshake - Silly Lily by Bunkface

Milkshake FTW!

Yee ha! In my last post, I mentioned that my band, Milkshake will take part in the Rhythm of the Champions in my college, ne? So, here I am with updates of the results and details of the competition~ (It's kinda late, I know)

Anyway, the competition was held on the 29th of April 2010 at IPG KBA's auditorium, from 2.30pm to 5.00pm. Apart from joining the competition, I was also the organiser of the competition -- multitasking is my middle name.

Well, to cut the story short, Milkshake came in 3rd place in the competition. Some might laugh at the results, as there were only 5 bands in total competing, but still, it was a pleasant surprise to all 5 of us.

The 2 songs we played were 'Seize the Day' by Avenged Sevenfold and 'Silly Lily' by Bunkface. As for the intro, we extracted a small part from Canon in D Rock. As we were all beginners at the instruments we were playing except for Alif, who has been playing the guitar for quite some time, everyone said that we were taking a huge risk by playing all difficult songs. Especially me, the lead guitar, who has to play the solo for all 3 songs. And let me tell you this, it's not easy...

Anyway, all of us were quite nervous as we were the last band to perform on stage on that day. I myself was so unfocused that I forgot to adjust my guitar strap properly, resulting in me having problems playing the high notes on the guitar (LOL). For all 3 songs, our tempo was faster than how we usually played during practice, and that made it harder for me to play my solo xD Also, during 'Seize the Day', our vocalist Alif wasn't in his best condition, and he hit the high notes EVEN higher =.="

Silly Lily was a good performance though. Although we went a little too fast too, but we were very active on stage, moving and jumping, and the vocalist for this song, Akmal, did a great job too. Besides, the audience loved the song and was well entertained~

Anyway, for our performance, I would say...
'Better aim high and miss, than aim low and hit'

Our song choices might be difficult, but we pulled it off pretty well.

This is US. Not Susu Kocak, but MILKSHAKE (our tagline xD)

From top left:
Abang Long Safwan (Bassist)
Yukina-Rei (Lead)
Akmal Hazimin (Rhythm/Vocal)

Bottom left:
Alif Aguero Alias (Vocal/Rhythm)
Syed Adiey (Drummer)

P/S: I will upload the video soon, once I get my hands on it :P