THE INNOCENCE OF KIDS ON LOVE

Kids are getting smarter and smarter each day. Sometimes, a kid looks at things differently compared to an adult. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. Here are some of the quotes:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toe nails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca - age 8

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."
Nikka - age 6

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget,"
Jessica - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is more handsome than Robert Redford."
Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."
Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."
Mark - age 6

CHINA’S MANY BUDDHA’S LIGHT PHENOMENON

In China, this phenomenon is also called Buddha's Halo (Fo Guang). It was often observed on cloud-shrouded high mountains, such as Mount Tai and Mount Emei. It is a colorful circle of light appearing over the sea clouds. Observers can see the shadow of oneself in the circle. Buddhist followers say it is the light from Buddha's forehead. Buddha's Light got its name because it was thought to show a person's enlightenment, since the halo always surrounds the person's shadow. But others say it is a physical phenomenon or an optical phenomenon. After a rain or a snowfall, the sunlight penetrates the mist and clouds and forms a circle of seven colors by refraction through the tiny water droplets in the mist. The rainbow-colored halo encircles the image of the beholder himself. One may feel as though caught in the circle, which seems to move in synchronization with one's own movements, much like one's shadow. For centuries, this phenomenon was enshrouded in mystery, and Buddhists consider it good fortune to see Buddha's Halo.

On July 1, 2007, a human-shaped shadow in the middle of a rainbow halo appears on Zushan Mountain after a heavy rainfall in Qinhuangdao, North China's Heibei Province. The vision, which many tourists believed to be the Buddha, stayed for more than an hour.

On February 8, 2007, the wonder of Buddha's Light was captured above the Baihaba scenic spot in the Kanas scenic area in Xinjiang Province.

On September 14, 2006, Buddha's Halo appeared, around the reflection, atop of Mount Juewula (Chinese Pinyin) located between the Dingri County and Mount Everest or Qomolangma in Tibet, attracting many tourists.

On the morning of August 13, 2006, Buddha's Light occurred at the peak of Mount Wugong in Jiangxi Province.

On October 20, 2005, Buddha's Light occurred on the snowy mountain of Yala, in Ganzi, Sichuan Province.

On the morning of July 3, 2005, a spectacle of Buddha's Light was seen at the Yangshimu scenic spot of Mount Wugong, Jiangxi Province.

On January 10, 2005 Buddha's Light occurred on Mount Tai.

Sources:
- The China Daily
- The Epoch Times

GIMP 2.2.13 – FREE SOFTWARE FOR EDITING AND ANIMATION

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free distributed software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is a powerful software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, an online batch-processing system, a mass production image render, or an image-format converter. GIMP is modular, expandable, and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image-manipulation procedures to be easily scripted. It is user-friendly and has been tested spyware free. The software requires at least Windows NT/2000/XP and GTK+ Runtime Environment.

It is one of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around. The application's features include channels; layers and masks; filters and effects; tabbed palettes; editable text tools and color operations such as levels. The application provides professional tools that can stand against the big boys without the hefty price tag. The only downside to this otherwise flawless program is the installation process. As it stands now, you have to install the GTX Runtime Environment and The GIMP separately. Once installed, though, the program is extremely powerful and easy to work with. The GIMP is ideal for amateur photographers, web designers, and anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget.

NOTE: You will need to download both GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment 2.10.6 (5.41MB) and The GIMP 2.2.13 installers (7.56MB). Install GTK+ before installing The GIMP.

I have tested the software personally and found that it is quite useful. There are many more features which you should try them out yourself and get the hang out of it. Below are some of my test results:

SAMPLE PHOTO

ORIGINAL PHOTO:

EDITED PHOTO (USING THE LEVEL CONTROL OF GIMP):

CREATING A SIMPLE ANIMATION

Rippling Effect:

Spinning Globe Effect (4”x3” photo):

Spinning Globe Effect (3”x3” photo):

Waves Effect:

Required
The GIMP program and a picture in any format (set the picture as 100dpi for faster processing)

Step One
First open up your GIMP program, Click File>Open>Filename

Step Two
Now click Script-Fu>Animators>Rippling/Spinning Globe/Waves
A popup will appear, do not change anything just press OK

Step Three
Wait for it to finish [Map to Sphere] and your map should now be in a sphere form!
Now click Filters>Animation>Optimize (for GIF)

Step Four
Another Popup should appear that looks like an exact duplicate of what you had before you hit Optimize. Now click File>Save-As Now you have to name it and then type .gif. Save in what location you want and hit OK
Example: ABC.gif

Step Five
A Popup will appear that gives you two options - Save as animation and Merge visible layers. Click on Save as Animation and hit OK.

Step Six
Yet another popup will appear that looks like this:

Don't touch anything but the millisecond part. Keep the setting at 100 if you want a normal rotation. The higher you go, the slower it gets. The example above is at 100 milliseconds.

Step Seven
Hit OK and you are done. Open the file in your folder.

This is not a sponsored post.

PHOTO HUNTERS: CREATIVE

This week’s topic is on CREATIVE,
I would like to show you what I have cooked last weekend.
SEAFOOD FETTUCCINE.
I have presented it CREATIVELY
in the shape of a FISH.
Look at how beautiful and lively it is,
swimming amongst the corals on the seabed.

Here is another angle of my yummy seafood fettuccine.

Here is close up shot of how yummy it looks.

Hop over Criz's Kitchen if you would like to have the recipe.
For more recipes, click Criz's Recipe Section.

For those Photo Hunters members,
Please click Mister Linky above and enter your information for easy tracking.
Thank you. Have a Great Weekend!

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET?

The days of having pen pals and writing letters on those cutely designed “Hello Kitty” letter pads are beginning to creep out of the lives of the new generation of today. We now have the internet where dozens of chatting programs are available and it is free to subscribe too. Chatting live with a person and getting an immediate response have been so common in our lives. Getting to view the photos of the person on the other side is also a norm. What will your first reaction be if you see the person’s photo online? Let’s do a simple test to see how you will react.

QUESTION:

After chatted with a person for some time and felt that he/she is a nice person. You have the urge to see how he/she look like. When you first saw the photo, you realized that he/she is not the person in your imagination. What would your reaction be?

A. What an ugly face. Faster disconnect. I do hope I not see him/her again.

B. Be right back. I need to go to the washroom. Trying to cool down from the shock before continuing to chat.

C. Not a big deal. Who is born to be perfect? After all, he/she is honest to show me his/her truthful photo.

D. Breathe in awhile and tell the person he/she is ugly directly.

ANSWERS:

ANSWER A: You always fantasized of the rich and handsome/beautiful. When you met with people who are not up to your expectation, you try to skip the reality. You tend to be too direct in many cases and thus hurting the feelings of the person. This is what the society discouraged in a person.

ANSWER B: This is what the society is looking for in a person who will take some time to cool down to have a clear mind before deciding what the next step. Even if your loved ones have irritated you or even did something wrong towards you, you will still think analytically to solve the problems without showing your temper first.

ANSWER C: Regardless of people or situations, you know how to differentiate between fiction and reality. You know how to respect a party without hurting their feelings. In the society, you are sociable, highly respected and liken by others.

ANSWER D: Your action is rather weird. Even though you have a target in life, you tend to go astray most of the time. In fact you are still not mature in the society as you need to polish up more of your human relationship skills. Sometimes how and what you think ought to be kept to yourself. It is the best of all parties.

AWESOME GUY BLOGGER AWARD

Thanks Roberta for coming out with this cool award. Some guys sure rock and I am sure they do need some sort of acknowledgement too. Firstly, I would like to thank PapaJoneh from http://www.papajoneh.com for presenting this award to me. Thanks for everything. You truly deserved this award as well. I have tracked back the award and nothing much has been mentioned about it. After all, the name “Awesome Guy Blogger Award” itself has already explained everything.

So who deserved to receive this award? I will need to award this to 5 persons whom I think are awesome in the blogosphere. After studying my whole list, I have decided to award this to these people in no specific order:

Beng Beng of My Longkang
Chee Hsien of Hsien's Dirty Secret
Alvin Chew of AC <> DC
BenjiPapa of Too Much Something
Aaron Chua of AaronWoolala: PHWROAR!!!

You guys are AWESOME!

As usual, I would not leave out the origin of this award. I shall take the initiative to set things right on track by providing the participation rules as below:

Participation Rules:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. It would be appropriate to include them with this meme.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 bloggers that make you think are qualified for this award.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme which was created by Roberta.

3. Optional: Proudly display the “AWESOME GUY BLOGGER AWARD” logo with a link to the post that you wrote.

DEADLY OBJECTS IN YOUR CAR

Note: This article should be highlighted no matter how busy you are.

It has been known that almost any objects surrounding you could be a deadly weapon. How many of us realized that? We usually go on with our daily lives, thinking that accidents might not happen to us. No matter what, a little bit more of precautions would not hurt us a bit.

Let us look at a sample case of a family outing. The one year old car has the latest safety features and has not missed a single scheduled servicing at the workshop. A young couple decided to take their 10 months’ old baby out for a stroll in their car. They are confident it will be a safe trip.

They did not consider what were on the back-seat floor or in the cargo area. Although they were buckled in, they have a baby pram, water bottles, a mobile phone and bags of groceries, just to name a few items that might go along for the ride. Nobody gave them some thoughts. Why would they? Tens of millions of autos on the road today, just like his, have crash tested well and feature air bags and antilock brakes, giving the driver a sense of safety on the road. Yet speed limits have risen and SUVs and MPVs have multiplied. Meanwhile, people have turned their vehicles into second living rooms where hidden dangers abound, from a plastic card on the dashboard to tennis racquets and golf clubs in the back. In a crash, any of these objects could turn into a deadly projectile.

The automotive industry has known about this for years, warning that passengers and drivers could sustain serious injuries from unsecured cargo. “In one test, the laptop computer flew forward, striking the driver, who would have been killed by massive skull trauma and brain injury,'' says TNO UK's safety expert David Moseley. ''The baby pram cracked into the head of the front-seat passenger, causing serious, possibly fatal injury.''

The accident figures in Asia are no less sobering. According to the Royal Malaysian Police, in 2006 some 1215 drivers and passengers lost their lives; another 1589 were seriously injured. A spokesman from the US Highway and Auto Safety said that loose cargo and unbelted riders are safety issues that drivers overlook. ''We're losing more lives and suffering more injuries than we realize.'' Did those collisions result in serious injury? Not necessarily. It is the loose objects that created additional risk.

Anything has the potential to cause injury or death, even a Touch ‘n’ Go card or a credit card. In an accident, a credit card that was on the dashboard struck the young man n his neck. He was a passenger sitting at the back. Luckily, that was a minor injury. In a crash, any object with an edge can become a blade. Blunt objects can become sledgehammers. People are largely unaware of what can happen in collisions. The forces are extreme. After the collision outside, there are always collisions inside. Both can wreak havoc.

No matter what, check your car regularly. Do not leave any unnecessary loose objects in your car. Anything can happened when you least expected. I read about car safety quite often but why were all these never even mentioned in the safety guidelines when we apply for a license or even purchase a car? I have a habit of keeping the car interior clean or else do you think I would have survived this crash while coming down from Cameron Highlands?

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE (FROM CRIZ’S KITCHEN)

It has been awhile since I posted up a recipe to share with my readers. Last Saturday, I have decided to cook something healthy and less oil for lunch. I cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice. Here is my recipe:

’

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium chicken (3-4kg) (wash with salt and get rid of the intestines)
1 stalk Chinese parsley/cilantro (chopped about 2” in length)
7 stalks spring onions
4” old ginger (slightly crushed)
2 cups fragrance/plain rice
5 tablespoon sesame oil
some soy sauce
3 teaspoon salt
6 cups chicken stock (boil 6-8 chicken bones with 8 cups water)

RICE:
1. Wash rice until clean. Drain excess water until dry.
2. Heat up the wok. Put in 4 tablespoon sesame oil and add in 2” of crushed ginger. Stir until you get a fragrant smell.
3. Add rice and stir for about 10 minutes on medium high and transfer everything into a rice cooker.
4. Pour about 3 cups of chicken stock. Add in 3 stalks of whole spring onions and cook.
5. Stir the rice a little when it starts boiling. Mix in salt and/or soy sauce to taste.
6. Add some chicken stock if it is too dry.

CHICKEN:
1. Cook 4 cups of water and 3 cups of chicken stock into a tall pot on high until boil.
2. Add in 2” of crushed ginger and 3 whole stalks of spring onions into pot.
3. Add in 2 teaspoon of salt.
4. Put in the chicken and cook on medium high. Cover the pot partially. Lower the fire if necessary as the chicken should be cooked slowly.
5. Turn chicken once in a while to ensure it is properly cooked.
6. Cook about 45 minutes.
7. Drain the chicken. Pour one tablespoon sesame oil. Rub evenly all over the cooked chicken while hot, followed with some soy sauce.
8. Cut chicken into preferred sizes.
9. Garnish with some chopped Chinese parsley and spring onions.
10. Served with hot rice and garlic chilly sauce.

(Serves: 3-4)

Note: For those who do not wish to have rice, you can use whole meal breads or buns instead. You can slice the chicken into small cubes. Mix in some mayonnaise, pepper, herbs and a pinch of salt. Put in some chopped lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Tada…you have your healthy chicken sandwich.

PHOTO HUNTERS: TINY

This week’s topic is on TINY,
I would like to show you what most of you have not seen before.
RARE RELICS …TINY pearl-like crystals.
They are also known as Ringsels (Tibet) or She Li Zi (Chinese).
These blood relics are found amongst the cremated remains
of a holy spiritual master from Myanmar.
You can imagine how TINY they are as
the biggest relic only measures not more than 1.5mm in diameter.
It is believed that one will feel a sense of inner peace, love and compassion
from viewing or being near the relics.
I do hope you all feel calmer after viewing this post.

Here is a not too near shot of the relics.

Here is how I keep the relics.

For those Photo Hunters members,
Please click Mister Linky above and enter your information for easy tracking.
Thank you. Have a Great Weekend!

WELCOME ABOARD THE TECHNORATI TRAIN

***Start Copying Here***

IF YOU WANT A HIGHER TECHNORATI RATING - TELL ME! GET ON BOARD!

It’s easy and worth it. If you want to move up in Technorati, there are 2 ways to get there: gaining massive amounts of links to you from other blogs, or getting the most favourites. One thing you can do is get lots of favourites who favourite you in return! Before you start you may want to grab this supercool autofave program from Eng Tech. All the people who have favourited you, this automatically favourites them in return. No more excuses for not returning the favour! Automatic Technorati Fave program the coolest program ever! Finds fans that have favorited you and automatically favorites them!

Grab the program here [2.4MB]

(Reword the following paragraph a little. The Monkey Wong link should be changed to link to who you got this from {me Criz Lai}. Move the 5 new faves (one is you) to old faves below Gary Lee. Add 5 new people to new faves. Each name linked to their blog, and Fave the site is the link on their technorati fave widget on their site. AND, name THE WHOLE POST DIFFERENT FROM MINE!) The time has come for me to get up on the Technorati Fave Train. I was added to the Technorati Fave Train by Monkey Wong. The Train was started at Gary Lee.

So, do you want to ride the train?

Here are the rules:

1. Write a short introduction paragraph about what how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.

2. COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

3. Take “My New Faves” and move them into the “The Original Faves” list.

4. Add at least 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://www.yourdomain.com)

5. Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” (Please FAVE EVERYONE on the List prior to posting the list or a Kitten will Die Alone in a Dark Alley Tonight).

Those who want good karma will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

My New Faves
PapaJoneh - Fave the Site
Sweetpea - Fave the Site
Alvin Chew - Fave the Site
Conan Cat - Fave the Site
Pikey Dude - Fave the Site

The Original Faves
Gary Lee - Fave the Site *
Criz Lai - Fave the Site
Nastasshea - Fave the Site
BabyFiona - Fave the Site
Quaintmelody - Fave the Site
JerryLee - Fave the Site
BokJae - Fave the Site
Lili - Fave the Site
Monkey Wong - Fave the Site
Dani - Fave the Site
Endoh - Fave the Site
Amber - Fave the Site
Mariuca - Fave the Site
JeanChia - Fave the Site
Janice - Fave the Site
Bobby Revell - Fave the Site
Wonder Woman - Fave the Site
Steve Olson – Fave the Site
BlogoSquare – Fave the Site
Dosh Dosh - Fave the Site
Nate Whitehill - Fave the Site
Ms. Danielle - Fave the Site
Jeff Kee - Fave the Site
Scribble on the Wall - Fave the Site
Jimi Morrisons Head - Fave the Site
Jon Lee - Fave the Site
SiteLogic - Fave the Site
Julies Journal - Fave the Site
Tea & Slippers - Fave the Site
Pencil Thin - Fave the Site
Garry Conn - Fave the Site
Stephen Fung - Fave the Site
eWritings - Fave the Site
Mommy’s Getaway - Fave the Site
GR8 Egypt - Fave the Site
Divya Uttam - Fave the Site
Sean Dinner - Fave the Site
O Salepito - Fave the Site
Kyle Beabo - Fave the Site
Six Degrees of Inspiration - Fave the Site
Randa Clay Design - Fave the Site
Failure is the key to success - Fave the Site
Tech Bold - Fave the Site **

* - Train Engineer
** - Last Wagon
***End Copying Here***

THY FRIEND THY ENEMY THY TRUTH

It is said that your best friend could be your worst enemy. How true is this statement? I would not know as it did not affect me as yet. Friendship is said to last forever. Again how true is this statement? Friendship is very important to us as it contributes to our process of growing up. It becomes part of our lives. It could sometimes flow into our personal lives, into our job careers, into our own circle of friends or even into our own families. To end a friendship means having many aspects to consider deeply before throwing out the axe as it also involved your whole social circle of friends. I will tell you, it is really complicated.

There are many types of friendships in our lives. Some are our cyber friends, true friends, love partners or those we mixed around for social functions. Many of those are temporary friends from our business contacts, colleges, universities or even workplaces. How long can all these friendships last without having a little bit of frictions happening in between? Only we will have the answers to that. To be a friend or a foe depends on our own views and discretion. How right are we at times?

Friendships usually go sour when one party feels that the other has somehow stepped over his or her imaginary line and accused him or her wrongly. This has become quite a norm in our present society. In fact, it has become part of our social illness. The lives of both parties involved usually end up in ruins, so will those people surrounding them. Before situations like this worsen, we should take a step further to find some ways to undo any disputes that may arise.

Friendships should never be jeopardized. Think of the consequences before you decide to make an enemy out of your friends. Is it worth it? Would your life be happier if you ever did that? What would you gain by your actions? You may likely to turn yourself into an outcast and lots of people may be dragged into your own problems. No one except you will end up in more trouble, stress, and sleepless nights.

Good friends who have been insulted or accused wrongly could become your worst nightmare. Not only do they know all your ins and outs well, they also have huge influences over your circle of friends. That means you are in deep trouble! By the time you realized it, it might be too late as it is no longer a one to one battle but many to one war. I for sure would not want to be caught in this situation at any time.

Thinking analytically and searching inside my soul, understanding deeper into the roots of any problems has always been my life philosophy. To me, there is always a solution to any problem. The solution lies in our own hands and it is up to us to decide our fate for the future. I have seen my share of this type of relationships in my life journey. Some were forced to relocate and change new jobs to be out from the madness they have created or being in it. Some indeed went for the worst choice by contemplating suicide. Is it worth it?

I always like to stress on the point that no one is perfect unless he is God Himself. We, as humans are walking time bombs. We easily get irritated with a simple remark when our moods are down. Slip of tongues, different opinions, delays, assuming love relationships, childishness, are some of the minor problems that ended up in big disputes. A simple sincere apology is all it takes to wipe out any issues. How many of us have the right state of mind to realize that at that precise moment? Suppressing anger has never the daily dosage of most people. Eventually, anger amplifies hate. Hate amplifies temper. Temper amplifies physical abuse. When will this stop if someone would not take the initiative to put a stop to this?

Time will heal as most people would say. As time passes by, anger will subside and solutions will be less complicated. But most of the time, problems are left to rot by themselves without being settled at all. Grudges still stay within the hearts of those being hurt. Find the time, find the courage, find that first step forward to sit down and have some mutual understanding between yourselves. Work things out and have a general consensus and eradicate the problem once and for all. After all, having a former friend to be your lifetime foe is not what most people can cope with.

Break not the friendship of a friend in vain
As the friendship can never remain the same
Friendship once broken is like a bowl
Will never remain as a whole
No matter how many times you review
Mended parts will still remain in view

POWER OF SCHMOOZE AWARD

I am honoured to be given the Power of Schmooze award by BengBeng. The first thing that will struck most mind is that why would I accept and blog about being a powerful “KISSER” in the blogosphere. Ladies and gentlemen, do not get me wrong. Smooches means kisses whereas Schmooze has its totally different meaning.

Schmoozing as defined by Dictonary.com is the ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” When it comes to blogging, schmoozing is your ticket to making new friends, getting yourself noticed and building a reputation. Some bloggers are gifted with the ability to effectively schmooze and others not so much. Mike and Danielle have jointly created this award to recognize those bloggers who exhibit strong schmoozing skills. Marzie, has also added that “Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their ways in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They do not limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

To kick things off, I would like to reward 5 bloggers, whom to my understanding deserved to be acknowledged with this award. They are:

PapaJoneh (You always leave your trail of liveliness, happiness and hope, in whichever blog you visit, not only mine. Thanks!)

Nastasshea (Somehow with your comments, I managed to have the motivation and inspiration to move a step further in the blogosphere. Your act of being personal and sincere while commenting has made a lot of people happy. Thanks!)

CC (Your wonderful touch has never failed to liven up my life with love and hope. You have the touch of an angel. Thanks!)

Kuan Hoong (Thank you for leaving your trails in wherever blogs you go. It surely makes a lot of people happy with your approach. You are a committed blogger!)

Pikey Dude (You have always been supportive and encouraging in lending a helping hand to those new bloggers with your technical knowledge and skills. You are the type of person this blogosphere needs. Thanks!)

Minny (You are a very friendly, outgoing, outspoken person even in real life. There is never short of laughter with you around. After all, laughter is the best medicine for all moods. Thanks!)

Why am I awarding 6 persons instead of 5? It is because these people really deserved this award for making this blogosphere a better place to be in.

Since, most of the award recipients have left out the most important part of this meme, that is to leave trace of the origin of this award, I shall take the initiative to set things right on track by providing the participation rules as below:

Participation Rules:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. It would be appropriate to include them with this meme.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 bloggers that make you think are qualified for this award.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme which were jointly created by Mike and Danielle.

3. Optional: Proudly display the “Power of Schmooze award” logo with a link to the post that you wrote.

IF ONLY WE HAVE FAITH IN OUR OWN ACTIONS

The sound of thunder was booming very loudly, deafening my ear drums painfully. It was raining heavily and the chillness from the freezing cold wind felt as if it was piercing right into my bones. I was stuck, stuck in the mall because I forgot to bring my umbrella out from my car which was parked nearby. The sky was sunny and bright when I went shopping and as usual I assumed that the weather would be fine towards the end of the day.

Standing and tapping my feet impatiently at the entrance of the mall, I was cursing at Mother Nature for stalling my ever hectic schedule. The more I cursed, the heavier the raindrops fell onto the road, creating small puddles within a short period of time. From one end of my eye, I noticed a small boy with a man, which I believed was his Dad. My mind suddenly drifted back to my childhood years when I went shopping with my parents and brother. Those were the best times I ever had being together with the whole family, spending precious time together as a family. I missed all those good memories.

At that moment, I saw the boy looking at his Dad with those cute pathetic eyes while pulling the shirt of his Dad. I overheard what he said to his Dad and my heart went soft immediately. He said, “Daddy, why must we wait here when we can run through the rain to our car?” His Dad replied, “Let us wait until the rain slow down then we go together. You would not want to get soak and be sick right?” After a few minutes, the rain was still pouring heavily without giving any mercy to any of us.

“Daddy, we would not get wet!” said the boy. His Dad was stunned and asked him what he meant. “You told Mum that she could get through her sickness anytime if we have strong faith in ourselves. Daddy! Let us run through the rain!” The whole crowd became dead silent and all eyes were on the boy. Everyone was stunned at how a child so young and innocent would remark that way. Even an adult at times will not think so rational. The remark had affected all of us mentally and emotionally. “Yes, you are right son. Nothing can stop us from believing in ourselves. Let us run to the car!” said his Dad.

Everyone was clapping their hands and cheering at the father and son as they ran through the rain towards their car. They then followed, walking happily towards their cars, ignoring the wetness of the weather. I did too and I was down with a bit of flu. Sleeping through it and believing that I will be better the next day, I recovered and I was more energetic than ever. I then believed that there is always a reason for our actions. My reason was I never had enough rest as my workload just never seems to end. The mild flu made me rest more and now my concentration and thinking power has strengthened, enabling me to write better.

There are always many barriers obstructing us from meeting our goals in life. Do not ever give up as there are always ways to turn around for the better. Life is just like a stage. Overcoming the fear by having strong faith in ourselves, believing in what we can do, acting on it would not be much problem.

Run through your fear, run though your life without ever looking back into the sorrowful past, keep moving forward, keep believing in yourself that you can do it and running through the rain would not be so hard anymore.

Life is short... If you do not have faith in yourself, you might just miss the journey to a better life!

CONTRIBUTING RM127 TO THE DARUL IZZAH ORPHANAGE

Pikey tagged me for this meme and since it is for charity, I would not mind doing it as soon as I could. This is what it is all about. Idham wrote in his blog post that for every completed meme by Aug 26th 2007, he will contribute RM127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage, Bangi. If N amount of bloggers have completed the meme, then Idham will contribute 127*N amount of money to the orphanage. I have checked through his blog and he sounded genuine in his pledge.

Below is my meme and the meme is only deemed completed if 17 or more out of the 27 sentences below are completed. The origin of the meme is located here. My meme answers are in red and bold.

1. A person is only as good as clear water if the mind is left uncontaminated with sinful thoughts.
2. Friendship is always about sharing and caring for each other through ups and downs.
3. To love is to be committed and be able to sacrifice for the benefits of each other.
4. Money makes me happy as I can help those in need sparingly.
5. I miss ………….
6. My way of saying I care is by opening my arms to hug the person, giving her the warmth and comfort she needs.
7. I try to spread love and happiness by making others happy.
8. Pick the flowers …………….
9. To love someone is to be able to accept who she is and not what she has become.
10. Beauty is never part of my requirement as the heart matters most.
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was ………
12. When I was twenty one, I remember ………………….
13. I am most happy when I see that there are more smiles amongst my friends.
14. Nothing makes me happier than to be with my loved ones and friends.
15. If I can change one thing, I will change the fate that has fallen upon my Mum.
16. If smiles were ........... then I ...............................
17. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have more peace and less suffering in the world?
18. If you want to .............then you have to ................
19. Money is not everything but it does help in buying food to fill empty stomachs.
20. The most touching moments I have experienced is being able to lend my ears to a person in sorrow and letting her cry on my shoulder.
21. I smile when I know that joy is shared and sorrow is eased.
22. When I am happy, I will make another person happier by sharing my happiness.
23. If only I don't have to ..............., then.........................
24. The best thing I did yesterday was to have learned something useful and share with my friends.
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title, "SPREAD LOVE, DESTROY ANGER"
26. One thing I must do before I die is ............................
27. Doing this meme, I feel like I have done my part towards helping those in need.

Well I got a bit carried away and filled up 19 sentences instead. Here comes the tagging part. The lucky tag goes to BenjiPapa, aL, Jessica, Healy, Alvin and K.Kim. After you have completed this meme, please leave a comment at Idham's post so he can keep count of the meme being done.

PHOTO HUNTERS: SHADOW

On this week’s topic SHADOW,
I would like to share with all the greatest source of shadows making.
It is none other than our favorite orb – THE SUN.
I managed to dig this photo out from my dusty old photo albums.
This was taken during my trip down to Mersing, Johor, Malaysia.
I forgot what year it was but I guessed it may be 8-9 years ago.
This is the biggest shadow that ever cast over the sun.
It is a shot of the SOLAR ECLIPSE.

Since I am at the topic of the sun,
I would also like to share with you how the sunlights
during the SUNRISE can have special effect too.

Here is a snapshot of SUNSET on top of the Penang Bridge.
With a length of 13.5km, it is amongst one of the longest bridges in the world.

For those Photo Hunters members,
Please click Mister Linky above and enter your information for easy tracking.
Thank you.
Have a Great Weekend!

STUDYING WITHIN OURSELVES WHO WE ARE

Life will not be a bed of roses if we do not study within ourselves the bad attributions that have been accumulated throughout our life journey. Sometimes, it is hard for human like us to sit down with a clear and peaceful mind to look into our inner soul to study what has become of us. Are we becoming more angelic or are we getting to be more demonic?

As for the latter, most people will not have the conscious stage of mind to realize of their wrong doings. These people rather get themselves deeper into the chaos they have created and refuse to change for the better. Thrill, suspense, revenge, anger, hatred, pride, self satisfaction and so on have been so seasoned in their lives that these resentments have overtaken and controlled them. As Hall said, “Proud man hath no God, the envious man hath no neighbour, and an angry man hath not even himself”

Some creatures cannot see either in the day or the night, so are some humans. When anger and hatred arise, neither will the person see the light nor the dark. Neither will they see what was right or wrong, even though the truth is just in front of them. What Stanley Jones said is so accurate, “It is said that a rattlesnake, if cornered, will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the habouring of hate and resentment against others is – a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but deeper harm to ourselves.”

Sometimes when grudges like this happened, innocent people’s reputation get contaminated. They ended up in the so called child play of a conspiracy. Do the victims really deserve that injustice? The answer is “NO”. Hacking accounts, impersonating others, writing hate comments and sending threat emails have become such a norm for the person. When will this end? When will there be peace and harmony again within bloggers?

We are a reflection of ourselves. When we look into the mirror with smiling faces, we see smiling faces. If we look at ourselves with full anger and hatred, then the reflection will be of an angry person. Nevertheless, a simple act of love and compassion will result in good qualities.

Happiness is…
He who has lofty and noble aspiration
He who enriches others’ lives
He who allows others to live in peace
He who makes the world a better place to live in
He who carries the spirit of spreading love and compassion
He who loves LOVE

Why am I writing this post as you may wonder? I was a victim of a conspiracy, I was a victim of injustice, I was a victim of verbal abuse and I was also a victim of being impersonated. Do I deserve this treatment? No! After all, my aim is to write quality blog materials on Life Improvement and not on blog politics.

“One cannot gain happiness by destroying others’ happiness, but by giving happiness and peacefulness to others”

PANDA HERE PANDA THERE PANDA EVERYWHERE

I AM A BLUE PANDA HOLDER! I HAVE SHOUTED 5000 TIMES!

Ever since joining ShoutOut on 25 June 2007, I have been shouting until I lost my voice. That was just an excuse but it can be quite addictive too. Haha! Well, I would say ShoutOut is the best creation ever in the blogosphere. Not only did ShoutOut create LIVE chats amongst the bloggers, it also created a big, cool, and happy family for all those bloggers out there. There is always the caring and sharing within the family members.

Originated from Penang for Malaysian bloggers, ShoutOut has steadily expanded to many states as well as countries. We now also have shouters as far as Singapore and Holland. I would to take this opportunity to thank Lasker and Elise, the masterminds behind this wonderful creation and also to those shouters members who had made me feel very comfortable with their companionships throughout this short duration. You guys ROCK!

Here are the PANDA WALK OF FAME recipients:

First Panda Holder – Chee Hsien
Quiet in nature but once you get him a camera and an internet connection, he can be a hyperactive guy busy camwhoring and shouting, even in his sleep. .

Second Panda Holder – Angeline Tan
She is a cool and happy-go-lucky girl. She can shout so loud that everyone will just stop there and then to listen to what she has to say. She is now based in KL for further studies and we all do hope that she will get her internet connection up in no time to continue shouting. We all miss you Angeline.

Third Panda Holder – Adelene Tan
This one is really Beep Beep the Roadrunner. She can shout so much that we hardly realized that she had moved so far up in the ranking. I always call her a BRAT not because she is such a rascal. BRAT as in Beautiful, Romantic And Talented.

Fourth Panda Holder – Minny
This is the hottest and sexiest mummy of ShoutOut. She loved camwhoring just anywhere, even in the female toilet. I just wondered why ladies like to take so many photos in the toilet. Haha! She is also a naturally born Shopaholic. If you want to know where can get good stuff and offers, she is the MAN (in a woman’s body…haha!)

Fifth Panda Holder - BenjiPapa
A bachelor still even though he has the nickname of BenjiPapa, can be such a joker at times. He looked quiet too in person but can be a loud shouter when he is in ShoutOut. He is a handsome guy and you girls out there who would want a good boyfriend, he is the best candidate. Move fast now before you end up getting only his underwear left. Haha!

Sixth Panda Holder – Criz Lai
Well, I have not much to say about myself except that I am a real panda in life. I hardly sleep with a hectic work lifestyle. See me and you will see the two big black panda rings I have on my eyes. I am wild but huggable and most of the time, you will end up the trees or stuck to the wall with the joke I tell.

SHOUTOUT CAMWHORING SESSION WITH SUPPORTERS

Ben and Maria from London share the same interest in blogging

Two new persons in the blogosphere, Lily and Eng supporting ShoutOut

JJ and me, supporters of ShoutOut

8 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME

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I have been tagged by Cedric to blog about 8 random facts about myself. Somehow, it has some relations to my last post. So, I will be doing a quick one here.

HERE ARE THE RULES:

• Each blogger must post these rules first.
• Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

1. I looked tanned is because my Father accidentally drop me into the dark soy sauce tong when I was still a baby. Haha…as if you will believe me. Actually, I am extremely active in water sports when I was younger. The tan somehow got stuck to me even though both my parents are real fair in persons.

2. I work like a machine, hardly sleep at all. My average sleep is about 4-5 hours per day. If you happen to see me in person, you can see how cute my panda eyes rings are.

3. I have been writing and creating poems since I was still in upper secondary school. Thus, I cannot keep track of where they are now whether in black and white copies or in cyberspace.

4. I am a shy person by nature but a talkative person in cyberspace. What you know about me in cyberspace is not what you are going to get in reality. So be patience when you know me in person as it will take time before you would see no difference in both the personalities.

5. I love to learn up new things related to my work. No matter how long it takes to learn up, I will sacrifice some of my pleasure time to get to know them better. After all, the more I know, the better I am in proposing to my clients.

6. I am an anime maniac. I buy lots and lots of CDs, VCDs, DVDs related to the industry. Most of my animes are Japanese, English and Cantonese animations. Do not ask me about the titles as there are just too many to describe over here.

7. I love cooking. It may sound weird but most of the top chefs in the world are guys. My selection of dishes ranges from Western, Oriental to Vegetarian. I am not a top chef but I can create food with whatever ingredients I have. So far, I have not known anyone who got food poisoning from eating my cooking. Haha…

8. I do not go for branded items like most people will do. Anything that is comfortable to be in is fine for me. The most expensive items I have gotten are my own shirt designs that I got my tailor to sew for me. Even though I do not go for branded items, I love exclusiveness in a design.

Well, I am leaving some options for the tagged persons to do this meme when they are free, unlike Cedric’s 8 consecutive years of horniness. Haha! Here are the 8 lucky bloggers: Pikey, Conan, Nicholas, Aaron, JJ, Lana, Pinksterz and Shea Speare.

Note: I still owe Kuan Hoong a tag, this is a long tag and I guessed I will need more time for this.