Inspirational Stuff

I recently watched/read two very inspirational and touching movie/book, Facing The Giants and Tuesdays With Morrie courtesy of the amazing file-sharing download programs like Ares and Limewire, as well as my good friend Ong Lik Pin.
(Of whom, by the way, I will be partnering with to play doubles for tennis competition next week!! Sadly, I was supposed to miss the Peperiksaan Awal Penggal which coincides with the competition, but it turns out I still have to sit for Monday's papers anyway... crap!!)

Movie: Facing The Giants



When I watched this movie a few days ago, I was suddenly reminded how amazing our God is. Although it was a movie, but in real life... God is so much more wonderful, isn't He?
It's a story about a guy by the name of Grant Taylor. He is the head coach of a football team of a Christian school, but his team is a flop and he is about to get sacked.
(Actually, I was often confused about what was happening during their football matches because I didn't know anything at all about the game, but eventually I figured out that the objective was to get to the other side with the ball, and it is good if you bring down the opponent, and you have to kick the ball all the way through the post... XD)
He and his wife, Brooke, want children but they have tried for 4 years unsuccessfully. They are also not very rich, their car battery is broken and the house stinks. It is a very, very hard time for the family, obviously, but they still keep on praying, crying out to God - and God speaks through an elderly man who prays for the school everyday, telling Grant that God shuts door that no one can open and God opens doors that no one can shut, and that God is not through with him yet. Then Grant writes up a team philosophy that everything we do is not for ourselves but to glorify and honour God. Then revival happens after Grant tells a football player, Matt, that he hopes one day Matt will give his heart to Jesus because his life will never be the same. Grant gets a new truck, the team starts winning most of their games, eventually beating their greatest fears, the Giants who are almost three times their size, his family's needs are met and Brooke gets pregnant naturally!

I love this movie. Alex Kendrick (Grant Taylor) did a good job at expressing his emotional response to situations, for example when praying to God and when he heard news that Brooke was pregnant, he was like so overwhelmed, which made me so overwhelmed too... (his sad face is sooo sad, make me want to cry only) but most important was the message of the movie - it was about facing your fears, trusting God, honouring God in everything we do, and praising Him whether win or lose. I want to watch again... soon...


Book: Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

This is a true story of an old man, Morrie Schwartz, with a terminal neurological illness called ASL, and so teaches his last class to a young man, Mitch Albom, about life's greatest lessons. Even as Morrie's health deteriorates and he becomes more and more dependent on other people to eat, to wipe his backside, he tells of how you learn to live only when you've learnt to die. After 14 Tuesdays of teaching, Morrie passes away serenely, leaving a legacy of being A Teacher to the Last, but Mitch still goes to visit him every Tuesday, as Morrie says it, "you talk and I'll listen."

The book is full of many values of life that many people take for granted, like purpose and love. There are some principles that are not exactly godly or Christian values, but they are some that I feel are worth living for, like learning how to give out love and receiving it, learning how to live by learning how to die, offering others what you have to give eg time and concern, being fully present with the person you're with by paying attention when your loved ones are speaking as if it were the last time you might hear them, be compassionate and take responsibility for each other, and forgive yourselves as well as others.
"Love each other, or perish. - Auden"
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. - Henry Adams"

I think I'd like to be a teacher or professor next time. They really influence their students, don't they? Based upon the movie and the book above, I think I know what I want to live for: I want my life to glorify God, because that's what I'm here for anyway.

Animal Heart-throb

I have an overwhelming infatuation for irresistible cute animals. Every time I see them in picture or in real life, I cannot stop falling in love with the beautiful and innocent-looking creatures... My mind stops thinking, my heart goes into rapid systolic and diastolic contractions, and I faint in cuteness overload.
Like the way I did when I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks - artificial cuteness overload!!
As nature has it, just about every newborn animal HAS to be cute. Even the ugliest creature, be it a slimy crocodile or an enormous hippopotamus produces offspring as cute as a button!
However, most cute babies eventually grow into a not-so-cute adult, but some stay cute and beautiful until their deaths. These are my animbal heart-throbs!!!

The Heart-Throbs


Generally, most dogs turn from cute to beautiful towards adulthood, except some eye-sores like the bulldog and the dogs that win the Ugliest Dog contests, however in my opinion, the cutest is the beagle a.k.a Hush Puppies. The beagle has one of the most cutest but forlorn looks I've seen, and this expression never seems to change. I saw one toddler beagle at a Banting friend, Mattew Lee's house, oh how I adored it!


Hamsters are just ADORABLE. I cannot stand seeing a hamster and not being able to touch it. Their fur is so soft and their smell, a woody and exotic fragrance, just makes me so faint with joy...! They are hairless at birth, but once their hair starts growing, there is no end to their cuteness!!!


The real, orginial chipmunk is probably just as cute as the animated ones... Alvin and the Chipmunks! So cute, so cute, so butter-warmingly cute, I can't stand it any longer...


I have always loved birds since I was a little boy, especially the big birds of prey (also called raptors) with huge, long wingspans like eagles, hawks, kites and falcons. They are pretty messy-looking when young, but when their great feathers start to emerge, they eventually become magnificent and elegant rulers of the sky!


Another species of birds they call "king of the lake" - swans! They are ugly ducklings in the beginning, but when they mature, they are really majestic birds that have never ceased to amaze me, after watching the Disney movie Swan Princess!!


Polar bears!!! Or generally any bear at all - panda bears, grizzly bears, black bears, kodak bears - they look the same, only with different colours larr. Why do you think people make teddy bears? Because bears are just unbelievably cuuutteee!!!

Ah, the list just goes on and on... dolphins, horses, seahorses, seals, big cats, koalas, wombats, echidnas, turtles... thank GOD for His amazing creations!! so cuuteeeee......... aaaaaa!!!!!!

First CF meeting

Welcome to the world of Banting. Welcome to Kuala Langat, where there is no Inter-School Christian Fellowship, unlike in Kuching. (This caused me some amount of grievous awkwardness when I asked my friends, "Hey where is the ISCF arr?" and was replied with confused stares.) Instead, they call it the CF (Christian Fellowship), and guess what? My school, Methodist English School, has the ONLY recognized CF in Kuala Langat. Can you believe that? Right now, it's not so hard for me to believe, since almost everywhere I look (outside church) is a Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist.

But anyway, God hand-picked my school to be the only one with a recognized CF (publicly known as "Persatuan Kristian"), so thank God! We had our first official meeting this afternoon. Guess who's the president? It isn't all that hard to guess, really - it's none other than the one-and-only Ps Chris Long's son!!

We had singspiration first (erhem, it is a Methodist school after all, thus explaining the Methodist format, but it's the same as praise and worship but with different name only larr) then preaching by Ps Vic Gonzalez (from Grace Family Sanctuary), about being salt and light of the school. XD

I hope and pray the CF will grow in strength and in numbers.
(sorry for the short post, I very busy larr...!!)

BY THE WAY
I am very sad to tell you... that after all the pains of deciding what post I should take as a librarian or class monitor... it was all a waste, because the teacher finally decided, after two interviews, that I wasn't scary enough. WTH!!!!!! Oh well.

Tenjewberrymuds

The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Asia. It was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review: To get the full effect it should be read aloud.
[You will understand what 'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation.]

Room Service (RmSv): Morrin. Roon sirbees.

Guest: Sorry, I thought I dialled room-service.

RmSv: Rye...Roon sirbees...morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen?

Guest: Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs.

RmSv: Ow July den?

Guest: What??

RmSv: Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?

Guest: Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please.

RmSv: Ow July dee baykem? Crease?

Guest: Crisp will be fine.

RmSv: Hokay. An Sahn toes?

Guest: What?

RmSv: An toes. July Sahn toes?

Guest: I don't think so.

RmSv: No? Judo wan sahn toes??

Guest: I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo wan sahn toes' means.

RmSv: Toes! toes!... Why jew don juan toes? Ow bow Anglish moppin we bodder?

Guest: English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.

RmSv: We bodder?

Guest: No...just put the bodder on the side.

RmSv: Wad?

Guest: I mean butter... just put it on the side.

RmSv: Copy?

Guest: Excuse me?

RmSv: Copy...tea...meelo?

Guest: Yes. Coffee, please, and that's all.

RmSv: One Minnie. Scramah egg, crease baykem, Anglish moppin we bodder on sigh and copy...rye?

Guest: Whatever you say.

RmSv: Tenjewberrymuds.

Guest: You're very welcome.

XD XD XD XD XD

From Putrajaya to KL

My family and I went exploring on Chinese New Year Eve. We drove all the way to Putrajaya!! So brave horr...
Pictures of the entrance to Putrajaya...



This is the Botanical Garden (I think)





Going to KL Sentral by train




A trip to KLCC... and guess who I met purely by coincidence?

Nur Atikah my ex-classmate!!!!

The guy on the right is Hosanna's friend. Or more like, wannabe-but-no-hope admirers... muahahaha... XD

Fantastic!

Beach

Pantai Kelanang

Quiet, serene, but not very clean. Oh well.



Picnic - the Lis and Long family. XD




Port Dickson Beach

Crowded, noisier, not any cleaner than Kelanang. Oh well.



Wye Yii!!!

Pantuns

[This pantun a.k.a. Malay poem was written because of an incident I would like to forget forever. I had actually blogged about what happened, but my sister and parents decided it was too offensive to those involved, so ... you can find it in my blog trash can.]

Pantun Harmoni

Ketua kelas tidak berkuasa sakti,
Hidup dalam Kuala Langat;
Kalau kamu terkecil hati,
Janganlah tersinggung sangat.

Hari in hari Selasa,
Banyak orang yang kaya raya;
Mulut bercakap mudah binasa,
Pena ditulis lagi tajam matanya.

Pertandingan berpantun telah dianjur,
Pemenangnya banyak merupakan para sahabat;
Kata diluah sudah terlanjur,
Mengambil balik sudah terlambat.

Bulan kedua sudahpun kelam-kabut,
Ada murid tertinggal keretapi;
Sebuah bukit kecil semut-semut,
Janganlah dijadikan gunung berapi!

Puteri MES cantiknya muka,
Putera MES amatlah berani;
Aku menghulurkan tangan terbuka,
Supaya kita hidup aman dan harmoni.

Sebatang kayu jati amat merana,
Takut dimakan anai-anai;
Kalau dari kelas mana-mana,
Dijemput datang beramai-ramai.


Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Monopoly: The World Edition

Mr. Monopoly says...

"Have your say in the world’s first global Monopoly! I’m creating the world’s first global Monopoly so I want to know what your favourite cities are!
I’ve pre-selected 68 great cities for you to choose from but you can nominate any other city you want – these are known as Wildcard cities.
Vote for your top 10 cities… and keep voting every day!
The 20 pre-selected cities with the highest worldwide votes on February 29 2008 will make it onto the board. Plus, you will have from March 1 to March 9 2008 to vote on the most nominated Wildcard cities. Only the top two will make it on the board!"

Go to Monopoly.com to vote!!! Please vote for Kuala Lumpur!! And nominate Kuching and/or Banting!! Hehe... let's get our cities onto the international Monopoly boards!!!

Jugra Hill

My dad's here in Banting!!! He brought lots of kolomee which we ate up already and rambutans and my PEKA files and all that... finally!

So, this morning, my whole family, sans Esther the eldest sister, went to the famous yet lonely place called Jugra Hill (somewhere... no idea where lah) together with Sister Sherlin (Pastor Chris' one-and-only) and Sister Anusha (Pastor Vic's one-and-only).

It was a tiring climb up the terribly steep hill. My knees were aching and buckling under the tremendous strain on my bones. I started walking in a zig-zagged way so to increase distance and reduce steepness... but does that help? I asked my engineer-to-be friend, Mr. Mole, and he had no idea what equation of steepness is or how zigzagging would help, so... never mind.

It was a nice workout for me, but I heard that regulars at Jugra Hill tend to develop knee problems because of the strain coming downhill, so I would rather not go back there for a while. Cheers!

Pictures:

The treacherous climb...






Monkeys!!




The view...









They call this Laksa, but it was nothing like Sarawak Laksa. More like... big noodles in curry soup. That's about it... hehe!