Karma

Most paper headlines have the word “shock” on the front page, when it report on the result of Sarawak election. Country leaders were asking for a post mortem. Honestly I was not shocked at all. I told my sister a week ago, that possibly this Sarawak election could be an eye opener. If the country leaders would like to know why, I believe all they need to do is put a mask on, one that represent a Malaysian, not one with colour or race or political belief but a true Malaysian.

If the country leaders flipped through the papers for the past few months, they could find the reasons why. I believe shocking and irresponsible comments by a lot of minister is the cause. Public in general is not blind and deaf. I believe the result is actually the conscious voice coming from certain quarters of the population. Just because the government were given a “big” mandate in the previous general election it does not means that they can do whatever they want. Some even have the guts to remind others that they cannot be question. Having a big mandate is not like having a “blank cheque”. Even if it’s a blank cheque, it will be only valid until the next election.

Whatever we do we must always remember, there is such thing as cause and effect or in short Karma....

News Link.

Cancer "Cure" in 5 years time

The big “C” has always been an alphabet that a lot of us would not want to hear. However it has been cropping up so often that I am wondering will it be one day that it will become common just like catching a cold. Even within my company I have heard a few, one have it personally and the rest it’s either the mother or the father. So to my surprise I saw this particular news today, cure for cancer in 5 years. Is it possible? I really hope that this will become a reality. As this is a illness that not only eats you physically but also mentally.

I remember when my mom was diagnosed with cancer; initially we opt to follow and use conventional medicine. As her condition worsen we starts to look for alternative medicine, be it herbs or “super pill”. The most interesting one is from a Sinseh at 9 miles Cheras who uses certain powder to cook crab in certain way, he says "I use 'poison' to fight 'posion'"As you are searching for a “solution” especially on a thing that no one could actually offer you any, you tend to listen to whatever “rumours” out there.

Now a flickering light is at the end of a tunnel, lets hope it will grow stronger and brighter…..

Life is Fragile

Just heard a very sad news today and while I was eating my dinner after a stupid day that filled with work, I saw the same piece of news on one of my colleague blog. The word Life is Fragile came to my mind. The first question that flipped through my mind, is that how old is she? This follows by the question does age matters, my brain was running through question and answering it with more questions. A “stop” has been put to a life, a life that possibly was and could have filled with more happiness and occasional sadness but why a sudden stop.

What is her family feeling now? I believe is sadness and disbelieve, even my colleagues who has worked with her and knows her sparingly is in shock. What about her family? I remember the thoughts of my father passing away were a huge shock to me and my sister. The thought of losing a loved one in such “short notice” is a feeling that could not be described. Just a moment ago, you could see them lie on the bed and the next you were in the morgue identifying them, a lifeless body in which you wish to hold and hug and not identified.

A lot of friends and colleagues, said to me, I have been buying a lot of “toys” and things recently. I told them I wished to enjoy myself as much as possible before I can’t. As each day passes an extra day of memory is slowly etch into my mind, memories that was made from emotion, laughter, feelings, longings, touch and etc. All of which was generated by interacting with another human being. Although these memories could not be taken together to the next life but its something in which we could savour daily when we are alive. These memories will be “play” again and again in our mind in occasion such as this.

I do not know how one feels when they are about to go, possibly it could be a mixture of sadness and happiness filled with thoughts of not seeing and taking care of your loved one again. As he or she is hanging on to a world that is to be a past and drifting into another that would be the future, thought of hopelessness grips through the body that slowly comprehends that it is in a situation that it could no longer control.

I do not know her but I just wished to post and note down my thoughts at this moment. A link to my colleague blog

Rest in peace.

Green Carrots?

Do you know there are 3 types of carrot? White, red and green carrots, I was a bit surprised when my wife told me; she has not seen green color carrot before. Hence last Sunday, we put all this carrots together and cook it as a soup. For Chinese, pork rib is preferred to be use as the meat to bring out the taste of these carrots. Combining this 3 types of carrots, is known to have a detoxification effect.

It is rumours that this soup will help the body to naturally cleanse itself of toxic. However you will need to slow boil it for 4 hours, reason being, white carrot is known to cause breathlessness. Hence the 4 hours is to get rid of this potential breathlessness effect. If you loves carrot, try this out…..

Its not true.

It’s not true; I am still a plain old man who still needs to slog daily to have food put on my table. I still need to wait every month end for dough to come into my account, to enable me to pay my car loan, credit card bill and etc. I still need to look and smile at faces which I dislike. I guess I am those type of people where “lady luck” is not a word I know.

There is a saying in cantonese, “How many things you eat, wear, spend and work is fated.” No matter how you try to change it, its stays the same. If you are fated to have X amount of dollars for you to spend for this life time, you will not have more. Who knows if I strike lottery I might just fast forward and reduce the duration of my stay in this world, hahaha.

Here is the link, to generate the headlines, read the rules and have fun.

Is this true?

Am I dreaming? or is it someone else...

In Bitterness you could taste sweetness

Sitting here on a Sunday morning, as I flipped through my email, my thoughts flicker through the old days when I used to sit at the market eating my favourite breakfast, nasi lemak with a cup of iced coffee, Malaysian style. The taste of the chilly in the tongue triggering all senses causing drop of sweat forming on my forehead, the thoughts of eating something spicy is like driving a Ferrari on a 100 meter stretch at 100 mph, something which is “dangerous” but enjoyable.

This morning, I ate my wholemeal bread, dipping it in my pure cocoa which my wife has bought for me from bangkok. If you are fortune teller, and you tell me about these 2 years ago, I could have burn your stores and I will say I rather die. The bitterness of the pure cocoa brings me back to my present state. This past 2 years taught me that even in bitterness you could taste sweetness. Some may ask, how long will I continue with this, 5 years? Honestly I have no answer to it now……..

The Miracle cream

Most of us use moisturizer. I used to be one of those male who do not use moisturizer that is until I could see skin peeling off from around my lips which looks like dandruff. I could rub it off and my face was a dull looking piece of wood. I used to tell my wife that is good at least, my skin “regenerate” itself like a snake shedding its skin. I guess its fine when you are young as it rebuilds itself faster but when you are old, it takes time.

I guess as compare with the older generation whereby there is no aircond, just fans, there are fewer problems. We spend most of our time in Aircond, in the office, cars and homes. Our face, skins are exposed to dried air more than natural air. As you look at the mirror, you could see your face starts to change from a boyish look to a more mature looks with more lines around your eyes, forehead, lips that you thought someone has just drew it on overnight.

Everyday we are bombarded with advertisement from papers, idiot box, internet, billboards and etc, on creams that could stop you from looking like a preserved fruits or mummy. It always claims that it could turn back the clock or stop the clock, the biology clock. I used to buy my moisturizer from Watson, normally I just walks in, pay and walk out. Now I bought it at cosmetic counter in departmental stores. There are so many brands in the market that when you walk through the departmental stores you get confuse on which brand to choose from. Especially most of the counters is brightly lit and with youthful, clear skin sales personnel fronting it. Which brand should you choose? Based on what criteria? Price? Recommendation?

Updates on Four Face Buddha.

Just a picture update on Four Face Buddha of Bangkok as in my previous post. The new Four Face Buddha is ready and will be put back in place in about 10 days replacing, the picture.

Does size really matters?

When you flipped through the paper, there are times you will come across news such as this country is building the tallest building, biggest airport, having the biggest pizza, tallest firecrackers, biggest TV and etc. When it comes to TV, is it the bigger the better? My family first TV is a 14 inches black & white, then 24 inches black & white, 21 inches color and 29 inches color.

My house in Malaysia, have 4 TVs’. A 29 inches in the living room, a 21 inches in my bedroom, a 14 inches in my sister room and a 14 inches in the room my dad used to stay. Most of the time, there will be only me and my sister in the house, why the heck do we need 4 CRT TVs’, I guess it’s because we have 4 eyes, hahaha. I think nowadays TV’s has become a necessity in most family.

If you are on the lookout in buying a new TV, what size and type will you look for? 21, 29, 32, 37, 40, 42, 50, 60 or ? Will you buy a normal CRT TV, plasma, LCD, projection TV or a projector? There is a lot of promotion now as this coming July is the world cup month, hence if half of the football fan decided to buy a new TV, I believe the manufacturer could actually rest for a year. Is it the bigger the better?

Basically the difference between all this technologies is the quality of the pictures. However most of the buyer has actually forgotten about the source of the picture. Does the source itself come in digital format or analog format? If your house only uses normal basic TV antenna and most of the devices output only composite video, does it makes any difference if you buy the latest, greatest and the biggest TV? The answer is NO. For example a 60 inches LCD TV having such input, the result is that you could see patches or squares in most images.

If you do intend to buy a good and big TV, you will need to ensure that the source such as DVD player, cable or satellite TV, notebook, video camera, player and etc support it. The latest input source is high definition multi media interface (HDMI). Hence for most of us if you look at the back of your current DVD player, ASTRO box (in Malaysia) and other devices most likely you could only see the yellow head (for video) together with the white and red head (for audio) which is actually the composite video. For some you could see the S-Video which is pure black connector or for some component video which is the green, blue and red head connector.

My house in Bangkok now has 4 TVs’ after the new addition that was added on last Saturday. A 42 inches 3 LCD projection TV from Sony which was on sale for 59,900 baht, I have since upgraded most of the input sources. I have changed my composite video cable in my home theater to component video and my satellite TV (UBC) composite video to S-video cable. That is the best I could do, although the TV accepts HDMI input sources. The verdict so far, this is the best projection TV I have seen but it’s still a bit behind the quality of a LCD TV and also the life span of the bulb is 8,000 hours as compare with 50,000 to 60,000 of LCD TV.

Let’s wait until all my video devices are capable to generate 1080i resolution then I might change it to a 40 inches LCD TV. It the mean time, I am looking at a true to life size images of animals from the animal planet channel. Actually I am very close to buying the 5th TV for my house in Malaysia, it might be a LCD TV as my DVD player is on the way to "heaven" and I am looking at replacing it with a HDMI modal…..