BlogFM

Hua ren, hai shi xiang jiao?

2011-08-06T21:36:00.006+02:00

Cousin: Your mom can speak quite a lot of dialects ah... Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Guangxi, Chaozhou...

Mom told me that when she was a kid, everyone in the kampung mixed around, and that's how she picked up so many dialects from different people.

I knew Mom could speak in many Chinese dialects but upon hearing that statement from my cousin, I thought to myself: Being her son, I can only speak Mandarin and Cantonese, don't know how to write, speak also not to say very good. Hokkien also very char. And now I've adopted a European language.

It's kinda sad knowing that very soon, the various Chinese dialects we once knew will disappear; they are an endangered species. My cousin told me that in about 20 years time, Hokkien will be gone in Penang. The Chinese will generally speak English and Mandarin. If we could risk losing Hokkien, what about the other less-spoken Chinese dialects?

As our country looks west, with more and more parents sending their kids to Sekolah Kebangsaan schools and talking to them in English, being Chinese will soon be merely just the colour of their skin. I am not against Sekolah Kebangsaan schools, I studied there. But at the same time, having your kids studying in Chinese schools and end up not being able to converse in English or Malay is not good neither.

It's not impossible to find the right balance between the two, I know just 3 of the best examples of Chinese school students who speak excellent English: Alden Ong, Stephen Ong and Sharon Fong (Hey they rhyme!). Perhaps 3 of the few people whom I don't have a bad impression of among the ~~addmath monks, ah bengs and lala muis~~ Chinese school students.

Just the other day Gus, Kok Leong and I met up at McDonald's. Gus described the characteristics of the right girl for him and he asked me about mine.

Me: I don't really have specific characteristics in mind but....*thinks* If I really have to choose, I would want a Chinese-educated girl.
Gus: Dei don't you go find a lala girl ah.

Even if I can't read or write or speak proper Chinese, at least I would want my kids to learn from their mother. Just like how my Dad is English-educated and Mom Chinese-educated.

Mom: Your brother and your sister both speak Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien. Hokkien is learn from friends one.
Me: Then I should better pick up Hokkien. By the way, what dialect do you speak in with Aunty-aunty they all?
Mom: Guangxi.
Me: Do my cousins know it?
Mom: Some abit-abit lah...
Me: Then I'll try to master Guangxi if it's possible. ~~(Inner me: What about French?)~~

I'm really into learning Guangxi as much as possible, followed by Hokkien, Hakka and (I doubt I'm gonna reach that far...) Chaozhou. At least that would make up for my inability to read or write Chinese. As much as I'd hate to admit it, these dialects will very soon be gone one day. But I just want to at least bring them on one generation further.

Tanah tumpahnya darahku

2011-07-11T12:00:00.003+02:00

Yesterday while I was boarding the plane from Sabah back to KL, there was this well-dressed Chinese man trying to cut the queue through me. I didn't allow him space to do that, of course.

Frankly, that actually disturbed me. It's the fact that this uncle who looked decent, well-educated, well-dressed with rich brands somemore, wanted to cut the queue. It's a different story if you're uneducated, not knowing the importance of respect and good manners but this man?? He's not the only one, I've seen plenty other Chinese who are well-dressed,rich or have big posts being arrogant and bossy. Well, come to think of it, that is very very normal. But it's still disgusting.

I was at McDonald's with my friends when I saw an ex-Georgian. I greet any familiar face I see so I said "Hi" and he just ignored me, that lansi-kia. His girlfriend however, greeted me back eventhough I didn't notice her. Learn from your girlfriend, you arrogant goat-poop.

On the way back from KL, my family stopped at Bkt. Gantang for a restroom trip. Everyone "queued up" by waiting in front of each cubicle. When the guy from my cubicle came out, I allowed the man beside me to use it first, seeing that he was already waiting before me. Another cubicle opened, but some dude who just came zoomed inside immediately. Okay maybe he "couldn't tahan already." Otherwise, he was just as rude as diarrhea. After that, I talked to dad about how the French actually respect others by queuing up properly, having proper manners etc. etc. It's not a culture shock, seeing Malaysians with bad attitude, but it's still not a pretty sight neither.

I was at the KTM Station to buy tickets to go to Kuala Lumpur this Wednesday at about 4pm today. I went inside and there were 2 counters: 1 empty and another with a Malay man. I stood in front of the Malay man, he looked at me briefly, and then continued doing what he was doing. Okay so I let him finish whatever he was doing at that moment. I stood there for about 3 minutes, there were just the 2 of us and as I saw him packing up his pencil case and his bag, I said, "Excuse me." He then pointed to a sign which says "Tutup". WOW, excellent service. Living in France made me a patient guy so I think just gave him a high-score of 3 minutes of total ignorance. So I asked him what time should I come tomorrow to buy the tickets and he told me "Kat luar ada tulis besaq-besaq." Great. The least he could do was tell me the time and he didn't do it. And it wasn't "besaq-besaq" neither, it looked like it's printed on a paper with font size 32.

As the BERSIH 2.0 rally gets hot and being discussed everywhere by everyone, people are crying for a change in our country. I'm not choosing sides in this matter but what's the point if we're still going to end up with disrespectful Malaysians with no proper manners? What matters to me most at this moment is if there has to be a change, it's got to be the rakyat themselves: them and their mentality. No, personally I don't believe all that's gonna change even if you have an Obama or an Elizabeth here, sadly. Well, nothing new; that's the world we live in.

Last year, I was holding the door open for 2 Chinese guys as we were walking out and they just stared at me. Not even a single "Thank you" or EVEN a smile. How appreciative. There can never be too much kindness here, it's an endangered species.

Yes, I have problems with almost everything. Boleh muntah darah.

Pariah

2011-06-27T14:06:00.000+02:00

What do people really mean when they call someone or something "Pariah"?

The problem is most people who do use this word have little to no understanding of its real meaning:

According to Wikipedia, it is a word originated from Indian or Hindi. It is

"Used to describe something unsightly or disgusting. Used to describe the lowest and most unsightly caste (gravediggers and sewerage in Ancient India). In modern times, it is also used to describe something or someone of low quality."

I now vow to avoid using words which I do not know how to use or its meaning. "Literally" is also a commonly misused word.

Yeah I have problems with many things.

I am his son

2011-06-19T01:07:00.004+02:00

I haven't been updating my blog for a long time already, was extremely busy and then there were exams and now I'm preparing to go back to Malaysia this Tuesday. But I shall take a little time out from folding clothes to write this post dedicated to my dad this Father's Day.

I was a bright student back in primary school. It was when everything was easy as ABC and A was worth 90 and above. I pretty much excelled everything, bagging in A's everytime and making my parents proud until...

...a trainee teacher for Science in Standard 4 ruined my winning streak with a cruel 63. I was shattered, my innocent self at that time regarded anything less than an A a FAILURE. I don't mean to boast, but when you've had nothing but sweetness since the beginning, your first taste of bitterness really stinks. I couldn't forgive myself, and I was expecting a good scolding from my dad but to my surprise, instead he said, "Just try again."

Maybe it was because he saw my miserable dejected face that he didn't want to break me even more, but that actually motivated me seeing how cool and forgiving he was, that he wasn't a dad who doesn't tolerate failures. And so, with my tears wiped, my SPIRIT burning, my HOPE once again rekindled, I proceed to....

...obtain more B's and C's in my secondary school years (and an unbelievable D in Sejarah). Everything at secondary school was mercilessly tough, I ended up having no more trouble accepting failures. From aiming for a Top 5 between Std. 1 to Std. 3, Top 10 from Std. 4 to Form 1, to "I don't give a damn anymore" from Form 2 till today. BUT I still know what I'm doing and I'll always end up passing and reaching my goals when the time comes. I have not let my father down (so far).

The cool thing is, my dad doesn't set expectations on me. Though he was always anxious to know how well I did everytime. (He reached my school, gave me a call telling me my SPM result while I was still on the way there.) He'll still support me no matter what I do. If there's one thing that keeps me moving on despite being in the deepest of craps it'll be his words, "Just try again." It will always be my best motivational souvenir. I'm sure he's proud of everything I've achieved now, and I'm very grateful that he believed in me.

The one thing I'm always proud of is that I resemble my father a lot. I am proud of being my father's son. Yea it sounds totally normal but sometimes you see sons who look nothing like their father. Well I'm proud that I am. And even if I have the same bad traits as my dad, I'm still proud as that makes me even more like him. Hey, like I once said, "My imperfections only prove me more of a human I am." Plus, everytime I'm learning Electricity, it'll remind me of my dad who is an electrician. As he strongly discouraged me to be an electrician like him because working with high voltage is dangerous, I took up Electronics. If there's someone I look up to and hope to be like one day, it'll be my dad. And I hope that my children too will one day be proud of me.

I miss the times when dad will pamper us with KFC, Pizza Hut and snacks while mom will mention everytime that it's unhealthy. I miss going out with dad very early in the morning for breakfast at some coffee shop. I miss driving his car.

I just wanna say that I'm very proud to be your son, dad. Though I was quite a rascal, I'm just delighted that you're proud of everything I've achieved. I love you dad, and I'll see you soon. I'm coming home. =)

When we look at them all in the same way

2011-05-06T00:20:00.001+02:00

They say that in order to truly understand something, you must feel it for yourself.

It has already been 2 years since I left my country. And let me tell you, it is really an eye-opener. Do you know how it feels when the whole world actually thinks you'll catch pictures of everything everywhere and everytime? Or you being a deadly kungfu master who yowls like a cat for every strike you hit?

I am utterly disgusted as these cheese-eating, accordion-playing, big-nosed frogs under a coconut shell portray us with these comical stereotypes.

This phenomenon of generalisation/discrimination/racism is nothing new to me but I never really thought about it before.

Our country boasts its multiethnicity and our Pendidikan Moral textbook gives us every reason to be proud of it as everyone of each race lives together in peace and harmony holding hands wearing their traditional costumes and a happy face. It would be true if we look way back to P. Ramlee's era. I'm talking as if I have lived 50 years before I was born but I'm still glad that I grew up in the 90's, where TV1, TV2 and TV3 were worth watching and patriotic songs will be played before the end of transmission on TV2. My favourite is "Sejahtera Malaysia", which I still listen to right now.

But if you have a country of at least 3 different races living together, you can expect them to have something to say about each other. "This kind of people are (dirty/cheap/lazy/selfish...)" and so on.

People say that one man doesn't represent the whole community but the thing with humans is that they choose to believe what they want to believe, despite some things being true and others not. For example, nobody talks about Europeans being camera-freaks because it always has to be the Asians. Nobody cares about kind, gentle and good Muslims but when we hear about Al-Qaeda, Osama, Saddam and their terrorism, they will say "See! I told you so!".

The Bermuda Triangle is famous for many disapperances of ships and aircrafts BUT the number is not very significant if we compare it to the number of disappearances elsewhere in the ocean. But it still remains famous today because people WANT to believe that something strange is going on in this particular area.

The more I talk about it, the more I believe that I have just described the word "Ignorance". All it takes for a stereotype to stay alive is just 1 person to prove it right because people will just ignore everyone else who does not fit the stereotype. That's how narrow humans can be. And thus generalisation, discrimination, racism.

And that is why I am convinced that world peace will never be achieved. Because people just don't RESPECT each other anymore.

Tips-Tips Interviu Sukses JPA Edisi Terkini

2011-04-09T00:16:00.004+02:00

My previous post was a motivational entry. Link: http://leongfm.blogspot.com/2011/04/spm-jpacom-jpa-interview.html

After seeing so much support and recommendation by friends and colleagues alike(Thank you!), I have decided to go a little further...

...I shall be your "Interview Coach."

This entry should help you be prepared for any interviews, especially for JPA which is currently the buzz now.

1. Appearance

Put up a good smile, have a bright face full of confidence and energy. Don't DOTA or watch dramas late late the night before.

Guys: Formal. Collared shirt(long sleeve preferably) with trousers and shoes(I like black leather), a necktie and a good hairstyle. I've seen guys wearing their NS outfit but I don't know if it changes much things. I advice formal wear to look presentable and professional, and please avoid T-Shirt, singlets, jeans, shorts, slippers or anything in which by your logic, seems unprofessional.

Girls: I'm not pretty sure about girls, but I saw many wearing Baju Kurung, which seemed correct. But I think they can wear formally too, just nothing too sexy k? Dress appropriately. I saw a girl who wore formal but was asked to change to Baju Kurung because her clothes seemed...... improper. Anyways, do refer to a girl JPA senior if it's possible.

Normally they should have a dress-code guideline for this, right?

2. Preparations

Materials:
a) Your certificates. Normally after being informed that you have qualified for the interview there should be a list which states your certificates to bring. Follow the list, make photocopies of them and arrange them according to the list's orders. Prepare an album for your real certs, and bring along your photocopied certs.

b) Your stationery and a small notebook. In case you need them for group discussions.

Mental:
If you want an example of the questions they might ask, do check my previous post(link) and see the 6 questions I had for my interview. I'm not guaranteeing the same questions to be out again, but you can expect the same format.

Be confident, and be ready to answer any questions the interviewer may ask. They didn't ask me, but it would be embarrassing if you don't even know your Prime Minister or your Education Minister's name. Read and find out the current news in Malaysia or worldwide, stay up to date and be prepared to discuss them if the topic is brought up.

Research about your course and be prepared to talk about it if asked. Prepare to answer why did you choose this course too.

Some oral practices may help, like learning to pronounce and articulate your words correctly and smoothly.

And er... try to stop using vulgar words for a period of time. You don't want an F-bomb to slip through your lips, do you?

3. The Do's and Don'ts in the room.

Something I advise. But just keep in mind that the main thing is that you do what you think is acceptable, polite and correct and don't do things that are wrong and stupid, okay?

Do's
*) Go to toilet before interview
a) Knock before coming in
b) Greet Good Morning/Afternoon following the time.
c) If the interviewers are within reach, shake their hands. (Please don't shake a Malay lady's hand)
d) Wait until you are asked to be seated. Or ask "May I sit?"
e) Sit up straight.
f) Smile. Why so serious?
g) Answer in English if asked in English. Answer in Malay if asked in Malay.
h) Remain polite at all times.
i) Speak audibly and clearly.
j) Answer only to the questions they ask. Don't go off-track and do keep your time limited.
k) Think properly before you answer.
l) Keep calm, cool and confident.
m) Have eye-contact with the interviewers as you speak. Don't eye-contact so ganas that you're practically staring through them.
n) Lift up your hand and wait for the permission to speak if you wish to say something without interrupting other people.
o) In discussions, present the main idea of your points without elaborating too long.
p) In group discussions, participate actively and present your points without taking too much time and allow other people to speak too.
q) Just say that you don't know if you can't answer the question. It's better than to lie a miserable lie.
r) Apologize in case of any rudeness or mistakes in the end.

Don'ts
*) Don't forget to go to toilet before interview.
a) Don't be nervous.
b) Don't shake a Malay lady's hand.
c ) Don't cross/fold your legs.
d) Don't cross your arms.
e) Don't crack your fingers or any other bad habits.
f) Don't look around the room.
g) Don't look at the time.
h) Don't speak so loudly that you sound like shouting.
i) Don't speak too softly that noone can hear you.
j) Don't promote yourself or boast about your good points and stuff all the time. Do look for the right question and the right moment to slip them in without being so muka tembok.
k) Don't demote yourself, that's not an effort of being humble.
l) Don't interrupt other candidates as they speak.
m) Don't interrupt the interviewers. If you really need to, do lift up your hand and ask to speak.("Excuse me")
n) Don't make lame joke.
o) Don't be sarcastic or hurl insults.
p) Don't look so angry/fierce/sad/sleepy/drunk/high.
q) Don't smile unnaturally. Don't do pervert smile.
r) Don't talk too much.
s) Don't talk too little as well.
t) During discussions, don't bantai other people's ideas. Your job is to present your own ideas and let the interviewers conclude for themselves.
u) During group discussions, don't play captain and hog all the spotlight.
v) Don't give heavy political comments.
w) Don't rage/explode.
x) Don't dig your nose.
y) Don't fart.... loudly nor silently.

4. Useful phrases

Some of the phrases which might be useful during the interview. They're optional, you're not obliged to use all of them. Most importantly, do sound natural, alright?

"Good morning/afternoon."

"May I sit?"

"I'm sorry, I was afraid it would be rude to sit without your permission to do so."

"Excuse me, may I speak?"

"Excuse me, may I add something before we move on?"

"Pardon?"

"I'm sorry, can you please repeat your question?"

"I'm sorry, I do not understand your question. Can you please explain it to me?"

"I'm sorry, I do not know. But I'll look that up soon."

"Please excuse me if I have been rude or made a mistake at any time."

"Thank you."

5. Basic Format

a) JPA Interviews can last from 40 minutes to 1 hour plus or so. Depending on the number of questions your interviewers ask.
b) Number of interviewers may vary, I had 3.
c) Number of candidates in a room may vary, mine was 6.
d) Discussions may be by group or individual.

I am a Taiping boy, so I went to Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh for my interview. Jangan kecewa lo kalau stail tak sama nanti.

Conclusion

After having had my interview nearly 2 years ago, this is all I have to remember and share with you. I hope that this entry will help you in any way. If however you need more information, google up JPA Interview and you'll find many contributers as well. Try www.recom.org or even lowyat forums for example.

All the best and God bless!

SPM > JPA.com > JPA Interview > ?

2011-04-08T18:05:00.005+02:00

So it seems that it's the "JPA Scholarship Interview" season again. Firstly, I want to congratulate the students who are accepted for the JPA interview.

The purpose of this interview is to draw a line between deserving students and non-deserving students. It is to see which student is able to present himself in a proper manner, how fluid is his thinking and whether he is fit to take up the scholarship or not. This interview is important because JPA will only sponsor a certain number of students, so the interview will help to determine the best among the best to be given the scholarship.

Do you agree? If you do, keep that in mind, this is what you think.

This is what I think:

Once JPA has listed you for the interview, it only means that they saw that you have a potential to get the scholarship. Otherwise, they wouldn't even have qualified you for the interview. The truth is, they think you deserve the scholarship, now it's just up to you to prove them right.

And not the other way round: JPA holding an interview trying to eliminate you if you're not good enough and you are there to prove them wrong.

But frankly, how many people would look at this interview the same way I did?
That's the reason why students get so tensed up and nervous, afraid and frightened, and eventually lose confidence and will end up most likely failing the interview because the interviewers could see the lack of confidence in them.

We are all told that the interview's purpose is to distinguish the best out of the best. And with that in mind, comes the tension and the fear of not being able to outdo everyone else. Nonsense.

It's all in your mind, those that give you fear and make you nervous. Get rid of all that and be confident and you'll have one less problem to deal with. If you can convince the interviewers that you deserve the scholarship, they wouldn't have a reason not to give you your rightful spot.

For those who are wondering what did the interviewers ask during my interview, here are some highlights of the interview(I don't guarantee that the same thing will come again):

1) Introduce yourself in Malay

The rest was in English.
2) Talk about your family
3) Tell us about your course and why did you choose it?
4) Discuss about the government's effort to distribute free needles.
5) Discuss: "Should a scholarship student return to his country to work after his course overseas?"
6) Why do you think you deserve this scholarship?

Please don't ask me how I answered them, it is YOU who's going to be interviewed after all. And you shall see for yourself if you deserve the scholarship or not.

However, I can only tell you that you need to be confident at all times, have a sharp mind and be able to think and respond correctly. Present yourself in an agreeable manner. Be ready to answer any questions: be frank and stay correct. Basic social skills: Eye contact with the interviewers, sit up straight, don't cross your legs, speak clearly and don't tremble or else your nervousness will show, and of course, be polite and do not interrupt anyone, not the interviewers nor the other candidates. Oh and do wish Good Morning/Afternoon and do not sit until you're told to.

Well I did write about the 6th question some time ago, if you want to know what my answer was: http://leongfm.blogspot.com/2010/03/hope.html

Haha you can prepare yourself in case that question really comes again, but if you're thinking of using my answer... Well go ahead, I just hope that you can be as convincing as I did and not sounding as if you're reading a script from some movie you saw. Good luck.

And for the rest of you, all the best and may God bless you. =)

The biggest mistake a person can make is thinking that a 1% chance of success is a 100% sure failure. No matter how slim the chance can be, you can still put your hopes on that one FINE chance. One FINE chance, that's all you need, if you deserve it. He will make sure of it.

EDIT: And most importantly, SMILE. Don't smile like a pervert can d lah ok.
EDIT: The following entry has been made for motivational purposes only. Don't go muka tembok say, "JPA know that this scholarship is for me! I'm that DAMN GOOD"

Songs in classic English

2011-04-06T23:42:00.002+02:00

Inspired by one of my favourite memes "Joseph Ducreux", I have tried to transform some of the hit songs in classic English.

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

I desire thy intense feeling of affection and the totality of thy feeling of affection is a wicked act of vengeance,
The both of us have the possibility of being able to compose an unpleasant bond of love affair.

Oooooh, denied of my liberty of movement due to an unpleasant bond of love affair.

Rah rah ah ah ah
Roma roma ma
Gaga ooh la la
I desire thy unpleasant bond of love affair.

Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love the way you lie

Only going to rest stationary at that place and observe me engulfed in flames
Well it is acceptable because the manner it inflicts pain pleases me.
Only going to rest stationary at that place and listen to me weeping
Well it is acceptable because the manner you present a false information with the intention of deceiving pleases me

I adore the manner you present a false information with the intention of deceiving.

Linkin Park - Numb

I have developed a feeling of paralysis so intense
that I am unable to sense you at that place
Developed much fatigue, vigilant like never before
I am undergoing a change into this, the only action I have considered
Is to be much similar to me and to be less similar to you

Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Please do not announce my personal proper noun of identification
Please do not announce my personal proper noun of identification, Senor Alejandro
I deny being your sweetheart, I deny being your sweetheart, Senor Fernando

Do not have the desire to caress with the lips, do not have the desire to have physical contact,
Please use my tobacco roll and refrain from speaking.
Please do not announce my personal proper noun of identification
Please do not announce my personal proper noun of identification, Senor Roberto

Senor Alejandro.
Senor Alejandro.
Senor Ale-ale-jandro.
Senor Ale-ale-jandro.

Westlife - If I let you go

But if I allow you to part
I will at no time have practical understanding of
What my state of vitality have the possibility to be
Maintaining a grip on you within my local perimeter
Will I at any time observe
You expressing a smile in response to me
By what means possible will I have practical understanding of it?
If I allow you to part...

Coldplay - Viva La Vida

I hear the bells of the capital of Israel giving forth a clear resonant sound
A company of Roman Cavalry vocalists producing melodious sounds
"Be my reflective surface, my blade, and my protective device"
My members of a religious task in a land outside the local boundary
Due to a certain cause I am unable to justify
I have practical understanding of Saint Peter not announcing my name in the future
At no time a genuine word
And that was during the moment I exercised supreme authority over the world.

Linkin Park - In The End

I attempted strongly
And I have reached a grand distance
But eventually
This is not even a subject of considerable importance.

I was compelled to drop downwards from a higher level
to no longer have possession of every one of them
But eventually
This is not even a subject of considerable importance.

E.T - Katy Perry

Caress me with your lips, Ca-ca-caress me with your lips
Spread me your feeling of affection contagiously and
Occupy me to the fullest extent with your life-threatening substance

Escort me, es-es-escort me
I have the desire to be the one who suffers the circumstances
I am in the prepared state to be taken away by force

Young man, you are a creature from outer space
Your physical contact is unnatural to this world
It violates natural forces
Beyond the Earth's atmosphere

Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)

I have undergone a particular moment of my period of existence,
And at no previous time have I been through this state of emotion,
And I make a solemn declaration, that this is genuine,
And I am totally in debt to you
You-you-you-you-you
You-you-you-you-you
You-you-you-you-you-you-y-y-y-y-you

Unclean small portion.

Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal

Annabelle are you in a stable condition?
So Annabelle are you in a stable condition
are you in a stable condition Annabelle?

You have received a forceful contact by
You have been attacked by

A slippery offender of the law

Eminem - Ass Like That

The manner you move it to and fro in quick successions,
I am unable to accept it as being true,
At no time have I observe a pair of
Buttocks similar to those.

The manner you put it in motion,
You have caused my organ of copulation to be in the state of
Doing doing doing

LeongFM's Golden Classic Hits out now. By Sony BMG Music.

The Arabians and Africans.

2011-01-30T23:30:00.002+01:00

A little fun activity in French class last year during the Preparation program.

Besides the French, there are also the Arabians and the Africans who
live together in harmony. They are not people who
argue all the time for small problems.
There are some Arabians and Africans at the Student's Residence.
They play football and basketball all the time, they are
very athletic and they are absolutely not
arrogant and selfish. They speak in a manner which is
polite, and even when they're of a different races, we don't find them
weird and funny. The Africans, they are always
cheerful, no matter if it's a clear sunny day or a sky which is
black and dark. The Arabians, they only do
charity. I really love their food, for example
kebab.

Read it again, this time only read lines with odd numbers(1,3,5,7,9...)

Apart les Français, il y a aussi les Arabes et les Africains qui
vivent en harmonie. Ce ne sont pas des gens qui
se disputent toujours pour de petits problèmes.
Il y a des Arabes et des Africains à la Résidence Universitaire.
Ils jouent toujours au foot ou au basket, ils sont
très sportifs et ils ne sont pas du tout
égoïstes. Ils parlent d'une façon
très polie, et même s'ils sont de différentes origines, on ne les trouve pas
bizzare, drôle. Les Africains, ils sont toujours
joyeux, qu'il fasse beau ou qu'il y ait de l'orage ou qu'il y ait des nuages
noirs. Les Arabes, ils ne font que
de la charité. J'aime bien leur gastronomie, par exemple
du kebab.

A true story is always the best story.

2011-01-25T00:58:00.000+01:00

Specially dedicated to my godsister Jamie Yeap Tsuey Shan,

may this story of mine serve as a motivation and a reason to hold on and keep hoping even at the toughest of times.

March 16, 2010

Madame S: You don't want to do Mechanics?
Me : No.
Madame S: What about Chemistry?
Me: No.
Madame S: But why do you insist on Electronics then?

In the French grading system, the total mark for each paper/test is 20. The minimum passing grade is 10.

In the picture there are 2 rows: Etudiant and Groupe. The marks in the row Etudiant shows the average marks I scored while the marks in the row Groupe shows the average marks of the whole group(us 12 Malaysians in the Preparatory Program).

So as you can see, during Semester September-December, I scored 3/20 for Electricity whereas the group's average is 8.5/20. So I ranked 12th(last) among us.

And Madame S, who is the person in charge of our education affairs here in France came by to visit us after the 1st Semester to see how things were going, and to know what we planned to do next.

Me: Because it's the only thing I'm interested in. If I do anything other than that, I won't make it far.

Madame S: Well I hope you know what you're doing.

I have never felt so devastated before, so many things ran through my head: regret, confusion, anxiety. How can I hope to be an Electronic Engineer with such a terrible grade? I felt so lost, I started to blame myself for taking up Engineering while I know that Maths and Science were never my kind of thing. I regretted, I should have taken up Mass Communications or Teaching instead. And I cried.

Then I realised that it's useless for me to regret any choice I've made and any mistakes done. What I could do then was to only work harder and patch things up the best I could.

Father, help me to give the best I can give and bless me with what I deserve.

For Semester 2 I scored 10.5/20 for Electricity which is the minimum passing grade, though there was improvement but it wasn't good enough to make up for my bad start. I ended up with a 6.8/20 average for Electricity, something not-so-favorable especially for those aiming to take Electronics.

Madame JB: Don't discourage yourself, Leong. Keep your hopes high. When you get into an IUT, you'll start all over again from 0. Then you can catch up with what you have left out before. I feel that this is a wise choice for you because in IUT, you'll do a lot of practical work which will help you understand and learn things better. And you're very good at it, you'll do fine.

Madame JB was my Electricity teacher back in the Preparatory Program. She was like a mother-figure to me, she believed in me even when I lost hope on myself.

May 31, 2010

Madame S: I have just received a positive answer from the IUT of Bordeaux.

It was simply the most touching moment of my life. From failure I have managed to bounce back and been given a chance to start all over again. =)

And yes, I have promised myself that there will be no more nonsense from me, I'm getting serious now. I'm given another chance to make things right and I can't afford to screw it up no more.

This is what happens when a has-been-failure realised his mistakes, made the best out of his situation and held on till the very end:

From upper-left(clockwise):

Electrotechnique: 17/20, Electronic 1: 14/20, Electronic 2: 17/20,

Industrial IT: 20/20, Electrotechnique DM1: 16.5/20,

Electrotechnique DM2: 15.5/20.

Noone can "do better than the best", but you can do better since you have not seen your best yet. You have not given in 100%, you will never reach 110%, but in fact, you have only given 90% and yet to reach 100%! - Have you seen your best?

What's best about this story with a happy ending is that it's all true testimony. =)

May God bless you in the same grace as He has blessed me.

Special thanks to my parents and friends for their endless support,

to Ying Ning who listened to me and consoled me,

to Madame JB for guiding me and believing in me

and to God for His mercy and kindness and never letting me down through it all.

LeongFM's Poems and Dedications

2011-01-21T17:17:00.001+01:00

Give me a word and I'll make a poem for you.

Dick

I have nothing in possession, my hands are bare,
Nothing but a beating heart and a foot long dick;
I had to choose 'dick' among all the words out there,
Forgive me my love for I am just terribly love sick.

Ras (Curry Powder)

Siang hari belajar, petang balik dari kelas,
Makan malam mesti ada telur dan kari ras;
Bagai mengira berapa biji kita masak beras,
Mustahil dinilaikan, rinduku yang ikhlas.

Life

Life gave me trials through hard times and sadness,
Tears shed along with pain sharp as a knife;
Life gave me you to be my happiness,
And everything for you, I will give you my life.

Blood

I love you very much,
As red as blood can be;
I long for your gentle touch,
As you whisper your words to me.

Damn You're Good (Was actually a compliment from a friend, lol)

I have three words to say to you,
Deep in my heart for long they stood;
"Roses are red, violets are blue....
Damn I'm good!"

Ah Sok

Jat lui this is one advice you must heed,
You must study hard and dun be like ah sok;
Ah sok no go school words oso kenot read,
Everyday kutip tin wait people finish drinking Coke.

Air

Love is in the air,
Everytime you look into my eyes;
Lay in my arms with tender care,
For we share a love that never dies.

Siew Wee

She disagrees with our remboursements,
but she takes care of us our whole course long;
Professional and "elegant", Bien cordialement,
Madame Siew Wee our 'lou ban liong'.

Harassment

I'm losing self control as my heart pounds faster,
At mercy of your lust my self I submit;
O what is this feeling of forbidden pleasure,
Is it harassment by definition even if I want it?

Champ

Messi goes to Youtube to learn your football skill,
You suck blood from Edward the vamp.
In the Gladiator arena you only need a dentist's drill,
You know you can because you're such a champ.

Pokemon

Don't expect a romantic poem about Pokemon,
You could always listen to their intro theme song;
3 Magnemites make 1 Magneton,
Machamp would have been better wearing a thong.

Bomb

E to the MC square gives a nuclear bomb,
A dynamite in hand will blow you up sky high;
Kim Kardashian defines the meaning of sex bomb,
You too can drop a bomb with a big fat lie.

SNSD

My son has a taste in something foreign,
A group called Girl's Generation aka SNSD;
Doesn't matter if you don't get what they're singing,
When you have nine hot babes of plastic beauty.

B-Suite Hotel

‎13 wild teens went to the Penang Island,
All hantam 2 rooms in Hotel B-Suite;
Bakat's supersnore and Chee Leong's "cousin",
Our memories together were anything but sweet.

Chong Ren

Chong Ren who's now studying engineering of chemistry,
Could in fact end up one day as a hairstylist!
With a wide range of the English vocabulary,
Some moaning along with "Yamette ♥" for Japanese.

Champions League 2005

Milan went up three nil feeling all confident,
But the Reds equalized and won the penalties after;
It was certainly for Liverpool a glorious moment,
Alright now let us take a look at 2 years later...

Liverpool FC (Joke)

Oh Liverpool Oh Liverpool,
You are nothing but 11 fools;
Oh Liverpool Oh Liverpool,
Cristiano dives in your swimming pool.

You said you'll win the championship,
and if you don't, next year for sure.
Oh Liverpool Oh Liverpool,
Thank you for all the comedy.

Chelsea FC

The only Blues among the four teams ruling,
The next best thing after the Devils Manchester;
Captain Terry at the back while the Ivorian's scoring,
On-target Lampard and a helmet-wearing keeper.

Liverpool FC

The better half of England's Merseyside,
Underestimate them and they might upset you;
Their 12th man, the great fans are their biggest pride,
Chanting "You'll Never Walk Alone, Liverpool we love you."

I am a traditional man

2011-01-06T02:45:00.002+01:00

I am a traditional man, though some may call me old-fashioned. Can't really deny it, because:

a) I enjoy listening to oldies(50's-80's)
b) I CAN think/sound/act like an aged man so naturally.
c) My thoughts and opinions often clash with those of the youngsters today.

Recently I read a post of a friend who has looked ahead into the future so I gave a little thought too myself.

I thought about my life after marriage.

My wife...
I wouldn't put a certain criteria of how my future wife should be and such because love is mysterious in its ways; flowers may blossom, shit may happen. But the only thing that matters to me is whether I'm happy with her or not and whether I'll be happy living the rest of my life with her or not. And at the same time, she has to be happy with me too.

...and kids.
But the thing I'm sure about is that I won't want my wife to work when we settle down. It's alright if she wants to work for a few years after our marriage but I won't want her to continue working if we have kids. The household and the kids need somebody to take care of and it sure ain't gonna be some Indon maid. Nah-ah I ain't gonna let my kids be raised with "maidly love". The thing I want most for my kids is that they be well-raised with proper love and care, and only their parents can do that. The last thing I want is that my kids getting themselves at the wrong side of the society doing wrong things just because their parents had no time for them, to guide and to teach them. Looking around at the society we have today, the kind of teens you'll find these days, I can't help but to imagine just what my children could risk becoming. A friend of my aunt saw this as a major problem too and they didn't want to risk losing their Stephanie.

Tough day at work, dear?
But the thing is, I just don't see the point of wives/mothers working. Frankly, I just don't want the job stress and difficulties to burden my wife. When I come home every evening after work I want to see a happy face welcoming her tired worn-out man home, and enjoy dinner prepared by her. Not a tired worn-out woman to see another tired worn-out face at the door. Ain't gonna be something I'll be looking forward to everyday after work.

Don't gamble on what you can't afford to pay for.
Well, women would usually work to further support the family's financial state. So I need to first make sure that I can earn enough to support my family all by myself before I start a family. I'm not gonna risk it by starting a family while I can barely earn enough to support them.

C'est pour le bien de ma famille
The thing is, I want a traditional family and I choose to stay traditional for the good of my wife and my children. I don't want her getting stressed and suffer job difficulties unnecessarily and I don't want my children to grow up without proper parental care. I may not know yet how stressful or tough working is but I sure don't want my wife to find out for me.

I am a product of a traditional family. My brother and sister are good testimonies too, better even. And I am very convinced of what I think will be right for my family.

A Trip Up North & Resolutions

2010-12-27T03:40:00.003+01:00

A Trip Up North

A very Merry Christmas and soon Happy New Year to all of you! May God bless you and your family with love and happiness abundantly.

Just spent my Christmas this year with 8 of my JPA batchmates in a trip around Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Bruges. Really had a great time, the places were nice. I just didn't appreciate the freezing cold weather and thick snow which drowned my shoes and socks throughout the whole trip. But the thing that mattered to me the most was getting to hang out with them again and having fun, joking, chatting and doing things together. Trust me, I've never laughed this much since the last time I met them and the last time I was with my friends at Taiping.

Some highlights were:
Amsterdam: Madame Tussaud's wax museum, Red Light District, visiting the Heineken brewery
Rotterdam: Cool hotel, countryside windmills
Bruges: Simple jalan-jalan while enjoying local food and snacks.

I AM-Sterdam

More pics will be uploaded at Facebook!

And I'm now at Tours staying a night in my junior's room, in exchange for borrowing my ski pants for his ski-trip next month. I'll be heading down to Orleans to visit my friends for 3 days before returning to Bordeaux and finally get some good rest at home before school reopens. =)

Resolutions

Christmas just passed and New Year's coming. Which also means time for New Year's Resolutions. This is so that one can hope to kick out old bad habits and adopt new good habits, hoping to be less imperfect for a new chapter of life. But one can also hope to achieve something new by setting himself a personal goal.

As I am as imperfect as a human I am, I do see a point in setting myself some resolutions/goals for 2011. Here goes my first New Year's Resolutions in 2011:

a) Finish a book! I've never finish a book unless obligated like when I took Literatre In English back at secondary school days. Be it fiction, non-fiction, I'll never go further than 20 pages before I leave it at a corner collecting dust. So this time I vow to finish at least 1 book(The Case For Christ) before I move on reading my next one.

Erm... that's all I have for now lol. I can't think of anything else. Sure I may have some bad habits like bad temper but I'm already improving on that. So that's it until I can think of something else. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a New Year's day for me to have a resolution anyways, isn't it?

But I do have what I call a "To-Do-In-My-Life-List" which includes the ambitious things I wish to fulfill before I die so that I may have lived a very meaningful and satisfied life. lol

a) Publish a book. Could be a comic? Could be something humorous? Could be something true and thought-provoking? I just want to be able to share with the people whatever I have and I'll be damn sure satisfied if it's good enough to rank among the best-sellers. lol

b) Write a song, or a poem of something meaningful in my life. Don't need to have a charming voice for this, it's the lyrics that matters.

c) Leaving a legacy. That my name goes down with history, be it inventing something new or making a social impact to be remembered.

I've always thought of doing something significant and meaningful in my life because I just don't want to live a commoner and die a nobody. But that's just how I think, so I'm determined to do something BIG.

FM's Quotes Volume 3

2010-10-30T02:14:00.000+02:00

32. Men sin often because for a moment there they have forgotten their family, their true friends and God.

33. It is good if a man is kind. It is better if we don't take advantage of his kindness. It is good if a man is patient. It is better if we don't test his patience.

34. Sincerity beats creativity.

35. One can't expect to harvest fruits the day after he plants his seeds. One of human's greatest weaknesses is a mix of impatience and expectations. Don't hope too much but also don't give up so soon yet. You can't expect quick harvest by watering it a lot neither, you'll only drown it.

36. Most boys are raised to think that ang-moh girls are the most good-looking people around. Well I met an African who I find very beautiful even though she's not ang-moh. I don't think it's actually possible to find a solid definition of true beauty.

37. Never go after your sweetheart if you're not ready for a relationship yet. You'll regret losing her later.

38. It is better to honestly say that you lied than to lie that you were honest.

39. The two most important people you need to talk to in your life: God and Yourself.

40. A life without difficulties.... is somehow difficult to imagine.

41. Bless me O Lord, so that I may bless everyone else around me. (My favourite bit of prayer. =) )

42. I didn't give up on it. It brought me down.

43. I have been afraid of the worst. I had the worst. What else can I be afraid of now?

44. I may be the richest man in the whole world, but I cannot afford to leave you.

45. Love is like a picture of people trying to jump across a canyon, where you'll have to take that leap of faith. If you make it across, you're a happy man. I don't know how it looks like at the other side, I'm at the bottom of the canyon "yamcha-ing" with the other bachelors.

46. Appreciation is the only thing worth paying for.

47. Many times when we fall, we ask God, "Why did You let me fall?" when He could have just hold you away from pain. Well God says, "It's by falling down that you'll learn to get up on your own."

48. They call it luck and coincidence simply because they do not believe in blessings and miracles.

49. You miss someone when you cannot miss a thought of that someone.

50. Men have 3 levels of dependancy: Dependant, Independant and Dependable.

BONUS

A friend from the church gave me a ride to the stadium to watch the Bordeaux-Lyon match,

and he said,

"It's funny how football has done what no religion in this world can do. It gets thousands and millions of people to watch 22 people chasing after a ball of rubber and plastic."

"When you feel that God is far away, make no mistake of who's the one moving." - Pastor Robert Bixby

Teacher: There are not enough computers here for everyone. Looks like I'll have to isolate you in the next room.

Me: It's because I'm Chinese, isn't it?

Of Football and Memory

2010-10-28T01:36:00.002+02:00

Sam came out from the examination hall, looking down and disappointed because he couldn't recall the name of the 4th Sultan of Melaka for his PMR Sejarah paper. It was the end of the examination, he should give himself a break at least; so he paid a visit to his friend and played FIFA 2011. His friend chose Spain so he decided to have the FIFA World Cup 2010 Finals replay by choosing Holland and selecting the finalists squad.

The irony is Sam couldn't recall the name of that Sultan which he revised and went through a day before the exam but he could recall the names of the 11 players from at least 3 months ago.

Here we can see a great level of memory allocated for football.

Do you know your team?

Here is a rough estimation of a football fan's memory:

a) 1 team has at least 11 players; at least 16 if substitutes are included (We know there are more in the reserve squad).

b) Everyone knows at least the best teams currently, there are about at least 10 teams:

5 teams from BPL/EPL: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, (a sum of mid-card teams like Newcastle United+Manchester City+Tottenham)

2 teams from Serie A: AC Milan, Inter Milan. (not to mention that there are also Juventus FC and AS Roma)

2 teams from La Liga: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona

1 team from Bundesliga - Bayern Munich. (Werder Bremen is also good too)

At a minimum of 10 teams, I haven't even included the French League!

So (10 teams) X (11 players) = 110 players AT MINIMUM!

An average football fan can remember at least 110 names and even more, then come the teams' formations, managers and even achievements.

It demands a real load of memory to remember all that but the human mind has been proven capable to achieve such a feat. Upon the discovery of this sport called football, we humans have taken a step forward in evolution. Charles Darwin could add another chapter in his books if he were to be alive now.

How?

If there's something which has brought out the full potential of a human mind, it's football. How? Could it be:
a) the simple but clear graphics presentation of the starting line-up?
b) the influence of the atmosphere and surrounding football fans?
c) the adrenaline and the excitement of the game? Or even the beautiful footwork skills by the likes of Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo?
d) the frequency of football matches which is weekly and not to mention big competitions like the Champions League, Euro Cup and even the World Cup?
e) Video games such as Pro Evolution Soccer or FIFA?

The FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer video games serve as memory enhancement elements which guarantee yearly updates and thus yearly memory maintenance.

So?

Our experts have proposed several hypothesis strictly based on the results from our findings and research. Hypothesis odds are accurately estimated to be 99.9% likely true.

a) If the Sejarah syllabus in the education were to implement the memory-enhancing techniques used by football, one would see a significant percentage increase of passing grades of at least 22.6%.

Pros: Just imagine the Sejarah textbook having the "simple but clear graphics presentation", a line-up of the "Tokoh Sejarah"s sorted by their states, and students revising it for 2 hours(45 minutes of each half with a 30 minute pause in between). That's how an A+ in Sejarah is scored.
Cons: With such an increase of passing grades, we can expect the graph to go up, thus bringing also the passing mark to a higher level, making the subject more difficult to score.

b) Interest in football helps in prevention of Alzheimer's disease.

Keeping an active mind is important in prevention of Alzheimer's disease at old age. When you have squads of 10 teams in your head as you watch football every week, or even reading its news and stay up to date, you'll be sure that Alzheimer's ain't gonna touch you. Screw crosswords, go football!

Conclusion

Football plays an important role in the development of a human mind. Me personally, I can recall 351 players. How about you?

Nice one, God!

2010-09-08T00:41:00.004+02:00

A girl once asked me why Christianity is so important to me.

I could give her many explanations and go on with details... but the best answer for me so far is, "Because God is so real to me."

I was looking for a church to go to here in Bordeaux, and the one church I found is about 1 hour's distance away from where I stay, made worse due to the fact that I have to depend on public transports to move around. This means taking a bus, switch to a tram, then switch to another bus before I can reach the church. Worse thing is, they are not as frequent on Sundays!

But somehow, I figured that I should pay a visit to the church and just look around, seeing that I have a whole day to spare. Today's the last day before my class starts by the way.

So off I go taking a bus to the tram stop. The tram arrives after a long wait, it's not usually like this but there was a demonstration by some group of workers today. Well, this is actually a common thing here in France, so we just have to deal with the inconveniences. As trams today are not as frequent as usual, all trams are always jam-packed like sardines. People just can't afford to wait for the next tram, so everyone just push their way in, even if it means squeezing the breathe out of another person.

But one thing really respectable about them is that they allow people to get off the tram first before making their way in! Well, that's actually how it's suppose to be done but then as I think of the LRTs in Kuala Lumpur...

So there I was in the tram, waiting for my stop. I swear that was the longest tram ride I have ever had eventhough I have been to the same place many times before this; it just felt that way! Mainly because I had to bear with the squeezing, the pushing and the smell all around me! Turn left smell some uncle's hair, turn right smell some tall French guy's armpit, look in front smell some African who perhaps did not have a shower for a couple of days! Oh the horror!

Some random French dude: (to me) You can hold on to that hairy arm of his if you want. *points to his friend* hahaha

Getting out of the tram, I walked all the way to the church as I wasn't familiar with the bus routes in this area. It didn't look far, according to Google Map, and I could use a little walk around here. But it is only after walking for about 30 minutes that I reached that church. I hate it when Google Map makes places look near to each other.

As I looked at the announcement board outside the church, it is written that they have a prayer meeting at 7.30pm. So I thought to myself, perhaps I could stay around and see how it's like in this church. It was 5pm. There is a shopping complex nearby where I can spend my time until then. So I hanged around there and bought myself a table lamp, a standing lamp and a wall clock.

On my way to the shopping complex, I saw this:

aka Christine Road, or Jalan Christine

This sign reminds me of a friend who studied in the same preparatory course when I was in Tours.

Wonder when can I have my "Rue LeongFM"? Hahaha ;p

I came back to the church and joined the prayer meeting until 9pm. It feels so good to come back to the home of the Lord. =)

It was already late at night, and seeing that I depend on public transports to move around, I was worried that I couldn't get back home that night. But then an uncle who greeted me at the church told me that there's one lady who lives near my place and that she could offer me a ride home. Quite segan to kacau that auntie but it's not like I have any choice then. So I hopped on her car and she gave me a ride home.

A very friendly lady she was, we talked a lot in the car and she even offered to fetch me along to church every Sunday! No more multiple bus rides, jam-packed trams and long walks down to the church! Yay!

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:13

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. - Philipians 4: 19

Surely God has sent her for me. I believe that God will provide you if you are willing to draw closer to Him. After all, God can make all things possible if you believe in Him! =)

Such a nice and kind lady.

Lady: *takes down my handphone number* And what's your name?

Me: Leong. And yours?

Lady: Christine.

Nice one, God! =D

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

2010-09-05T05:16:00.010+02:00

My friend and I were about to enter our corridor when suddenly, a girl opened the door.

She looked at us briefly, shyly smiled and walked past us.

Me: Eh, quite beautiful hor she?

Pretty eyes, sweet smile, cute face....and a beautiful body shape for those wondering. Seemed like a beauty any guy would want.

Unless if you don't mind that she's.... an African.

Friend: Hey I wouldn't mind taking her!

Hahaha.

From the moment I set foot in France, I always have people asking me about French girls. How beautiful are they, how tall are they, their fashion, etc. Well, no doubt that everyone would have an idea that French girls are hot/beautiful/pretty/sexy and so on. Paris is after all, the "city of love". Sure won't make any sense if this "city of love" is filled with "not-beautiful" girls, right? Besides, fashion is at its best here. With things like beautiful clothing, perfume, handbags, fashion accessories and names like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, how can one not pamper themselves and feel beautiful here?

Almost-everyone-I-met: Got French girlfriend?/Bring one French girl home lah!

Haha, frankly I don't know how to answer that lah. I know this is just for laughs, but it can be possible if jodoh suddenly comes like that and I want to make it happen! But the usual reply I give would be always: Very troublesome lah... Must fly her go and back, go sign papers and apply for some residency, and she won't even survive in Malaysia knowing only the French language!(well, she would be able to speak English, but still she'll have a hard time.) But then again, it's not impossible.

Even Dad has no objections if jodoh has to come like that. Haha. Don't worry Dad, I am stilll conscious that I am here in France to study and not to find girls. ;p

But why all the hype on foreign girls? The general mindset of Malaysians as I observe is that all Western girls are beautiful, some Asian girls are also beautiful like Korea, Japan and China(-dolls), Africans...well, *ehem* and Malaysian girls are usually out of concern.

Is it because of the fairness of the Westerners? The French here actually feels beautiful getting tanned, that's why they love to sunbath by the beaches. Or is it just because they look different; that's like saying the colour red is a nicer colour than blue. Or is it merely because of their selves being foreign? So it can be said that one can judge girls as how people judge imported products. What would be your pick? Made-in-China, Made-in-Dubai or Made-in-Germany?

Well, okay... I can't deny that the French are beautiful, well for many of them anyways. But it's the same for any other race in any other country. There will equally be beautiful and at the same time, "less-beautiful" girls; even in France! Even in our very own country Malaysia, we have beautiful girls just within our hand's reach and yet there are still people dreaming abroad. It is saddening to see some guys who would compare a Malaysian and a Westerner and the winner is usually known hands down.

The problem is, among those who claim that foreigners are better looking than our local girls, most of them based their claim on what they see in the media: TV, magazines and the internet. Of course the media would publish and put the most beautiful of those countries on air, would it make any sense if they choose to promote ugly-looking girls and have them representing their countries instead? Actors, singers and superstars that you saw on TV are the most beautiful of their respective countries out there, not just any average-looking people. Visit their country with high hopes and chances are, you'll be easily disappointed.

Korea got SNSD

Japan got Ayumi

Malaysia got Datuk Siti wert!

I do find many of our Malaysian girls pretty, beautiful and even many in Taiping itself! But compliment a girl that she's beautiful and rumors and suspicions will arise between you and her. Blame the local mentality if you're not getting enough compliments from the opposite sex. Getting a guy to call another guy handsome wouldn't mean anything, right?(In some situations it might get "gay-ly" creepy!) But getting a girl to call him handsome would take him up on cloud nine.

As I was saying, the problem with a lot of people today is that they pikat girls semata-matanya because they are foreign; "not-from-this-world". Here at France, I have seen couples of different races who don't look any more beautiful than an average person. Even a handsome French would date a China-doll reject! Or a Chinese Beauty dating a rotten French Fry! Okay I may have exaggerated, but you get the idea. These things do happen, happen a lot, and will happen even more soon. All because of this worldwide accessibility; you make friends with a foreigner at sites like Facebook, you fly over on a cheap promotional air ticket and you tie the knot. All so possible. Keep this up and in the coming generation, everyone will have origins of at least 3 different race! For example, a child of a Chindian father and an Australian mother would have Chinese, Indian and Australian blood flowing in him.

Trivia: Chinese superstar Karen Mok is a Eurasian: her father is half-Chinese and half-Welsh, while her mother is half-Chinese, quarter-Iranian, and quarter-German. She speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, and French.

I believe that people of mixed heritage often turn out good-looking. And I have seen many convincing examples, including Karen Mok. lol ;p

So how does one actually define beauty? Big eyes? Blonde? Pointy nose? There's no definite answer for that, that's for sure; beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Like somewhere in Africa, people see fatness as a sign of prosperity, health and beauty, whereas thinness means unhealthiness and poverty. That's why girls over there get feed and fatten up into giant meatballs! DAMN that's just so wrong!

So to that rotten French Fry and that China-doll reject, good for you that you are beautiful in somebody's eye. As the Cantonese saying goes: "Jap dou lah lei!"(Direct translation: You are picked up! lol doesn't make sense at all) But hey, what's the use of being beautiful yourself, but not in anyone's eye?

So yes, again beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It really is up to you to define your kind of beauty. Because if there really is an officially agreed definition of a beautiful girl, 10 boys would go after 1 girl without thinking or looking any further solely because the definition says so. But if you have to find a hairy gorilla beautiful....well, that's your eye. lol

Something to think about: Would you rather be very specific and precise on your dream soulmate, and be the happiest man on Earth if you do find her, but run the risk of not finding her at all and stay single for the rest of your life? Or would you rather go cincai, take a girl who seems fine but then realise that there's something about her that you dislike or that she's not really the right type for you only after some time later(a couple years I would say), and then have problems in your relationship and begin regretting?

Hard to say, just pray to God, wait and see. Boyfriend or bachelor, I'll let God decide and follow His plan because that's how it should go. =)

Have faith, hope, appreciate and don't regret. Keep those four in mind. May you find the apple of your eye. God bless. =)

*puts on sunglasses, struts out*

♪ I believe in miracles~ Since you came along~ You sexy thing~ ♪

Volume 2

2010-09-01T19:36:00.003+02:00

Well, here I am at France!....again.

Nothing much to be excited about actually. Not as excited as I was before when I first came last year. Well, this is pretty normal, right?

I'm now all alone at Bordeaux, with nothing but a stack of books to read; no internet, no television, no nothing. Even now I had to take a bus and a tram to McDonald's in town just to online! Nothing to do at home, don't know what to do, even if I do I would feel lazy to do it. lol. Class starts at the 8th September by the way.

I hope all will be better as soon as I got my internet subscription, a new TV and a PS3 and perhaps a bicycle. =)

Need to look for a church here, buy a couple of things and at the same time, watch my budget.

My summer break in Malaysia was very much enjoyable, though I wished it was a little longer. Or even never end. This time, I felt even more "berat hati" to leave than the first time. It's really not easy to leave everything behind and come back only a year after. Who knows what would happen within that year you're away? I came back and I saw enough changes to be considered many already. One thing's for sure: the next time I come back Summer 2011, my Upper 6 friends at SGI will be going somewhere else d. =(

Coming back to Malaysia, I spent my time with my family, hanging out with my friends, visiting my bro, my sis and my relatives from Penang until Sabah. Some highlights of my summer break here include: my vacation at Sabah with mom, bro and aunt, watching movies with friends and family, playing football with my friends, going to Penang(Stephanie and the girls) and Shah Alam and of course lastly, Seik San's BBQ party, just the night before I leave. =)

Time really was limited, otherwise I imagine I would have done plenty more things while I could.

Before I leave to return to France, I sent many of my friends a "goodbye message". Though it's kinda late for that, I should have done it last year when I first left but I suppose it's never too late to say the things you need to say. After all, I really should appreciate everyone while I could, I can never tell what tomorrow holds. And it is then that I learnt, that words are really POWERFUL. Little words, bringing little meaning alone, but putting it in the right order in a sentence could touch one's heart, encourage one to stand up or even bring one down to tears.

For one, I always hoped that the SGI 2010 debate team would go far in the KDU tournament after all the things that Cik Nurul and the past debate seniors especially Stephenas has done. They weren't looking morally fit but I told Cik Nurul that "the best of them can do it." And my goodness, they did more than I have expected! Honestly, I didn't really have any expectations from them but man have they went far! Into the finals and at the top rankings! I have to believe it must've been something I said then, right Louis? Hahaha. No lah, I was away for a very long time and I believe they have progressed very much since then. And all has paid off. Congratulations guys... I am so proud of you. =)

And it is because of the power of words that I have told my friends things that they never saw coming. Mostly words of encouragement, little less of affection...okay, maybe there was a little "I love you", "I miss you" somewhere, but hey I really do! lol. They're mostly my goodbye messages, which I told things all of a sudden as if I'm gonna leave for good. lol. But really, I just wanna say everything I needed to say and I'm gonna say them sooner or later. Let it be now otherwise I'll risk being too late.

God has taught me many things upon coming back to Malaysia. Initially I had many things to write about, but delay them and I have forgotten what I wanted to write here. Paiseh. Sorry lol.

To end, I just want to tell my friends that I appreciate everything that you guys have done for me, your time spent for me, and I really love you guys very much. It is by growing up(because studying is not necessarily the case) in the same school with you guys that I became what I am today. A special thanks to my family for raising this child up with love and care to be successful in your eyes. Stay healthy and may God bless our home. Love you all forever. And Thank You Lord for everything that I am today. =)

Initially I had some words of advice for my friends here, but I could go on and never end. lol. The important thing is, stay healthy and happy at all times, do what you need to do, say what you need to say and don't regret k. Be wise. I love all of you. May God bless each and every one of you. =)

I wasn't happy about the idea of leaving for a long time, but it is after all, God's plan for me to take this road. And I am indeed happy that He brought me here, because otherwise, I don't think I'll be able to learn all these and be a MAN.

I wanted to write more things, but... so many things, so little time.

God, I asked to be a movie star and You made my life an award-winning movie - FM

(P.S. For those who noticed, I don't wish "Good luck" but instead I wish "All the best" because I never believe in luck. Who would you rather believe in: God or luck? Besides, do we really need to depend on luck to succeed? Can we always depend on luck everytime?)

....End of Volume 1....

....Volume 2....

It was a beautiful day, went over to my university to meet up with my professor in charge and talked a few things over. Important things concerning my stay here and my studies for this year.

Professor: In fact, there is a big match coming that you MUST watch if you have to watch the best match of the season. Lyon's coming over.

Yeah, that's important too. Haha. This guy is a fan of football too. Plays football too. Inilah yang aku panggil "jodoh". Hahaha. I'm starting classes next week. My plans for the week until then? Go around shopping and buying stuff for my new home at Bordeaux.

After getting through the important details, I leave my university over to McDonald's, just for the WiFi. Will subscribe for internet soon, can't afford to do this everytime I need to go online. Going inside McDonald's, I look for a table with a cup of drink left so it would look like as if I have ordered something here. But having dry lips and dry mouth, I am somehow tempted to take a sip from whatever that's left from this cup. lol.

And so I began to write my first blog post upon returning to France, titled "Volume 2"..... and will grab a dinner after it. =)

Goodbye, and may God bless all of you. =)

Four great men

2010-08-16T11:35:00.003+02:00

Last friday, Mom and I took a bus down to Shah Alam to visit my relatives. Dad's friend, Uncle I(not his real name) gave us a ride to the bus station. Entering his little Kancil, I saw a little stuffed toy with a label saying, "Praise the Lord" or something like that.

I have admired Uncle I and his three friends since a long time ago, when I actually found out briefly the story of their lives.

They were Uncle B, Uncle G, Uncle I and Uncle J. They were once drug addicts. But it came to a point in their lives when they realised that they should not continue living and wasting their lives like that, being the lowest beings in the society. Then they began their struggle to give up drugs and to search their way back on the right track. They sought God at AGAPE Taiping. They were always there for one another, helping each other to fully recover and rehabilitate. Heck, they would even beat each other up if they had to!

"For nothing is impossible with God." - Luke 1:37

With great commitment towards God and for their lives, they finally won the struggle, fully quit drugs and began a new life. They left their past behind them, it's over. In God's grace, they are now all changed men.

Uncle B and Uncle I are happy bachelors while Uncle G and Uncle J are married and have a family of their own. They now devote their lives to God, serving at FGA Taiping and are fully committed in fulfilling God's purpose. It's really heartwarming to see them in the church, sometimes I would see Uncle B playing the drum while Uncle G would play the guitar.

The thing I really like about them is that when I first saw them, I never knew they had such a past. The four of them, they have some of the most beautiful happy faces I've ever seen. They look even more joyful than most people out there. If I didn't know, I would say they were anything but once drug addicts. From the lowest beings of the society they are now the happiest men on Earth. Now whenever I think of them, they motivate me, showing me that hope is always there in God no matter how much your life seem screwed. HOPE. =)

Only God can make all these happen. It's just so beautiful. They are some of God's greatest living testimonies out there, these four great men.

Barnabas... Gideon... Israel... Johnathan

Bringing...... Glory...... In.......... Jesus

Hallelujah, Praise the Lord and God bless all of you. =)

Next post: FM's Goodbye Message.

Crying at Will

2010-08-15T09:16:00.000+02:00

It seems that actors think about things that sadden them the most to make themselves cry at the spot while acting. This beats applying eyedrops and give nothing but a fake cry.

So last night I wanted to try this thing; to cry at will, to be able to cry whenever you want. Okay so I laid down on my bed, and began recalling the things that made me cry before. For a guy like me, I do get emotional at times. Quite a number of times actually...lol.

After some minutes, I thought of everything possible, yet no teardrops. Nothing but an awful heartache. Goodness me I really wish I do not have to think about them ever again. So crying at will wasn't as easy as it looks after all, I thought I was about to spend the whole night with this heartache till the next morning.

But then I thought of something, and that 1 thing shed me two teardrops. So I got what I want, I cried at will, but I felt like crap the next morning. Seriously, this thing is no fun at all. No child's play; either you cry it all out and feel A LITTLE BIT better, or you'll feel like crap bearing that heartsore.

La vie est belle, don't try this at home. ='(

In the end

2010-08-14T19:45:00.002+02:00

This man did what he had to do. =)

Stephanie and the girls

2010-08-12T16:50:00.003+02:00

My trip to penang visiting my relatives was a real eye-opener. Because it was there that I've seen and learnt a lot of things.

For one, my cousins' 3 little daughters. Or my nieces. Two four-year-olds and one two-year-old. Cute memang cute...tapi they are just a little too 'hyperactive'. Hahaha, kids are just being kids wert, memang like that one...

No lah I didn't explode...but that pretty much summarise things up. Kids are just like that, I imagine how much of a little monster I was when I was their age.

Aunt: In the future you have one also enough already lah.

Hahaha...entah lah. Quite scary also when your kids are out of control. I've always wanted to have a daughter(Lucy ;p), but after what I've witnessed the last 2 days...erm. I better put that all aside until I finish my studies first, lol. What's the point thinking so far when you have other important matters at hand right now, isn't it? (Awek takde lagi nak fikir anak dah...)

Tapi they memang cute and adorable lah.... Little angels when they're sleeping, active little coffee beans when awake. lol. I'll just wait for the day when they'll only be texting, watching dramas, Facebook-ing and reading Twilight. Hahaha no lah... in fact, I want them to grow up to be pretty fine ladies. =)

Yeah, all parents do want their kids to grow up to be fine people. And everytime they will tend to worry; even if their kids seem good now, who knows what they'll turn into when they grow up. There's even a child genius who broke, fius pecah and turned into some *chicken*.

So all this worry led many parents to jaga their kids baik-baik and also resort to homeschooling, mother become your teacher at home, no need scared other kids bully or competing for placings in class. Then there was Stephanie.

Stephanie is my aunt's friend's daughter. After arriving at Penang, I was taking an afternoon nap...

Mom : Ey, do you remember a little girl who went to the zoo with you one?
Me : Hmm...? ....Got meh?
Mom : You two were just little kids only that time... That photo's still around at home I think.
Me : Oh ya ah....? Forget d lo so long liao...
Mom : She coming over awhile wert. She going to leave to study in US d.

So seeing that we have met once upon a time, and that she's leaving soon to US, might as well go out and see see awhile la hor.

Mom : Eik, you not very sleepy wan meh?
Me : Sleep too much also not good one ma...

Then someone came at the door, it was Stephanie and her mom. I was sitting down at the living room, blur blur and with a messy just-woke-up hair.

We all keng-kai lo, my aunt, Steph's mom, me and my mom. Steph's mom got ask me some questions lah, seeing that I went studying in France under JPA.

Steph's mom : Oh you get JPA ah? You must be very clever la hor?
Me : Er.... *smile* haha. (Lol how you want me answer lah...)

After Stephanie and her mom left, then only I started asking my aunt some questions.

It seems that Stephanie is from a rich family background, she was homeschooled by her mother. She went to primary school only until Standard 3, then her mother saw that the kids so naughty and noisy, that's when she decided that this is not a suitable studying environment; homeschooling is the way. She studied a different syllabus, she didn't take SPM; instead she sat for some foreign exam, either British or American. Her parents have planned for her to pursue her studies overseas to USA. She didn't even learn BM, and speaks little Chinese. So she was really set-up for the USA.

Wow.

Then on to her personal life, she doesn't spend her time outside yamcha ah, go watch movies at the cinema ah, or lepak-lepak one. But she goes to church. Her free time is well spent reading books, and if I'm not mistaken, she plays piano. She does the house chores on her own; I believe she can cook well too. I imagine if she want to watch movies also her dad should have her some original DVD or Blu-Ray discs to watch at home on her 'tai'-screen TV?

So she really is a picture of a perfect, well-raised young lady, one who is well-educated, grand family background, plays piano, reads, goes to church, cooks, and spends her time on beneficial things. WOW. I thought it must be hard to find a princess like this, but there she was! She seemed real nice, simply a product of a good upbringing. Her parents must be really proud of her.

But then again, how would she take on the outside world in the near future? Sure, the world's a harsh place, but she hasn't been out there to see and know the world; of what's good and what's bad! Want go pasar buy vegetables also susah lo. Hopefully she finds a good husband lah, someone who knows the world well, how to live and survive, someone really dependable and has the solution to every problem. Having said that, it's also hard to find a prince charming like this. But I imagine her partner to be someone of a grand family background too, rich, influential, well-educated and pretty much like her. Perhaps a son of some big taukeh.

But no matter what also, God will bless her all the way as she lives. =)

I imagine if I were to be homeschooled and such... What would I be now? Hm... definitely not the same FM as I am today, perhaps with a little less nonsense... ;p

L'amour n'est rien

2010-08-07T21:26:00.001+02:00

We have been together for more than a year already.

She came into my life one weekend, end of February.

It was at Penang.

As brilliant as gold,

An apple of my eye.

She's always there whenever I need her.

Whispering in my ears at times of silence.

Her sweetest lullabies,

Before I close my eyes.

People may not understand,

Why you're so precious to me.

There may be many better ones,

But for them, not for me.

Nothing can replace you in my heart.

Sayang sama u
iPod shuffle ku

What happened?

2010-08-03T11:28:00.000+02:00

Things change...but I don't know why.

"Sometimes we just have to learn to let go."

Inception is about dreams, which is not the case this time. I'm talking about mind-control

2010-07-28T01:02:00.001+02:00

I once stated that a human mind is vulnerable, if you play your chips right...

But really, I don't believe in mind reading, but what about making another person think the way you want it to?

I'm talking about some sort of a "mind-control" or rather a mindplay. And yes, it is very possible, especially to those unaware of it.

Perhaps you may be thinking that I'm bullshitting right now, but I assure you that this happens everyday just anywhere in our daily lives. It's only you who don't notice them all, because that's how it's done; they get into your minds, and insert any image/idea without you noticing it. Now if you were to be aware of all these, it wouldn't have work, would it?

Mind-control has been around since a long time ago, it may not be as direct as a psychic controlling a zombie-motion guy to do exactly everything he commands. But rather in a more indirect, but effective way to achieve the controller's goal. A big example would be Hitler, who successfully convinced a whole nation to be on his side. Propaganda is a mindplay. "Asia untuk Asia?" Look at how effective it turned out to be. And surely you won't expect McDonald's or Coca-Cola, will you? I shall elaborate more on Coca and McD below.

Okay, here are a few recent examples of mine(in fact, they're the reason why I'm writing this post now.)

Example 1: 7-11 and their super-bright white lighting.

Xian Yung remarked this to me, and I gave it a thought. It is indeed a clever strategy thought up.

Now business-related strategies usually have one aim: To attract customers.

How by 7-11? Bright lighting.

Why? It makes the shop stand out among other shops. Take the 7-11 at Taiping Sentral, I would say it's the brightest, clearest among any other shops there with those dull-yellow lighting. If there has to be a shop you would notice first, it would be 7-11.

Then, it being a convenience shop, surely you can find almost everything at any hour anytime. So if you were to be driving down a lonely road at 3am when all shops would be closed, suddenly you see a bright white-lighted shop(that's where it gets your attention), you proceed to see what shop it is, and voila, it's 7-11.

There, this idea of 7-11 being open at anytime, having almost anything you would need, while other shops would be closed is planted in your mind. The main point is that you remember 7-11 and you remember it for being so convenient and so dependable.

(Wow am I promoting 7-11 or am I exposing their business strategy here?)

Example 2: Me asking for a plastic bag.

Lol normally it would be wrong to ask a plastic bag from a shop if you're not buying anything, right? Well I needed a plastic bag so I thought of trying to convince some fella in the shop to give me a plastic bag. And there I went, to "The Gifts" at Taiping Sentral.

FM: "Hello excuse me, can I please have JUST ONE plastic bag?"

See what I did there? I emphasized the words "JUST ONE", giving this image to the girl that I'm only asking for "ONE", the smallest number next to 0, the least she could give away, and I emphasized too on "JUST", a word portraying a harmless insignificance, and I did it with short pauses at the right time, allowing her mind to accept and allow my words to sink in.

She asked, "Pardon?" which is good, as I can once again repeat and allow those words to sink deeper in her mind. The first words went in subconsciously, while the 2nd time, it brings the 1st words to her mind/memory and thus emphasizes it even more.

She looked blur for a second, maybe I looked hensem? ;p lol or maybe she was wondering what does this weirdo want with a plastic bag? or maybe because she was confused whether or not to give a plastic bag away. But in the end, she gave it to me. So I left the shop with a plastic bag in my hand, thanking the 2 girls with a smile.

Alright maybe it was unnecessary, maybe she would give a plastic bag anyways no matter how I asked, but...maybe not? Haha...tak tau lah...also no business one that shop. That was Persuasion, an ability to talk one into thinking your way. Persuasion is a form of mind-play, convincing by mouth or words, from what was not right, you alter him into thinking it's right. Intonation, pauses, emphasizing, gesture, eye-contact; you see that's why Oral English is so so important!

Okay I have only 2 examples initially, but "Subliminal Messaging" is also another example, in fact, it is one of the most dangerous mind-controlling methods out there. I have done some research and studies about this since some time ago and I have seen them, how they work and so on. I don't think I can briefly explain "Subliminal Messages", google it for some info lah. For your information, the big names we know today like McDonald's, Coca-Cola even do subliminal messaging in their advertisements! I will not go in detail of their methods, but let's just say that they implement something there that would be planted in your mind and make you remember them forever. Well, everyone knows McD and Coca, right? Have they actually succeeded? Be aware, my friends.

Well, in conclusion, I just wanna share to you all this hidden warfare of mind-controlling that's around us. It is very important to be aware and stay alert at all times. Even as I watch a movie, I always look out for something strange, unusual or rather peculiar. I have seen some, and at least I am aware of what they are trying to do, how they work their way into our minds. These things, they work through our subconsciousness, when we are least aware of what's really going on, when we don't realise their plan. And that's how vulnerable a human mind is, when you're unaware of it, they go in and play with your mind, alter your thinking, and that's it. You would be walking blindly in their path set for you and you wouldn't realise it, because it's already IN YOUR MIND and PART OF THEIR PLAN.

So now that you've read this post, you should understand a little bit of this "mind-control" thing right now. It should not be ignored, because being unprepared and unaware only makes yourself more vulnerable to any tactics out there. Remember, they attack you when you least expect it.

This thing is not new, but it's just a matter of how many people actually realise it. 7-11, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, some of the few examples who utilizes mind-controlling methods on people everyday. And you didn't realise it, do you? Well let me tell you this: It is all true, and it's very dangerous unless you start realising it now. Those shops are just harmless business tactics, but what about bigger and serious things that might come in the near future? We may not have another Hitler or Japan coming to invade again, but there will be great consequences for an unprepared mind. For example, what about serious business deals? Or even politics? Remember, you want control of your consciousness and your awareness, so be alert for these kind of things.

Now, if you are convinced that you weren't aware of all these before and have now believed me that subconsciousness and mind-control is dangerous, click the 'Like' button of the link to this blog that I posted at Facebook. Voila, I have successfully convinced you into thinking my way, and at the moment you least expected it. I suppose you can come up with a conclusion yourself right now. =)

Is life too difficult for you?

2010-06-29T05:11:00.002+02:00

Many times people will ask, "Why couldn't life be easier?"

But I asked myself, "Why should life be easier?"

I tried to imagine a world where life is all easy and everything would just go fine and smooth.

But a life without difficulties.... is somehow difficult to imagine.

Well I didn't need to think too far to answer my question. I have come to believe that life's greatest lessons come from it's greatest difficulties.

Just imagine:

If difficulties were to not exist, there wouldn't be hardship, struggle, pain, pressure and all those things we were born to hate. Seems pretty nice at first. But if you were to join me to imagine a little further...

No difficulties means no need for compassion. No need for compassion means no need for kindness. No need for kindness means no help. No help means no appreciation and no need to even know how to say "Thank you." When everything goes well, no one would actually need each other then. Everyone would be just living an individualistic life minding their own business.

Now for those who have not felt pain, would they ever learn to appreciate the good things around them?

We remember everything good that has happened in our lives because they don't come often, making it as significant. Now if everyday was a good day, what makes a good day so significant then? No one would even bother to remember and cherish them.

I guess I wouldn't need to elaborate much on the fact that people learn from a failure instead of a success... it should be well understood.

And most importantly, one would have no need of God if life were to be easy. What would miracles be anyway? "Miracles" would happen just everyday everytime! No need to pray and ask for blessings, help or guidance. No need to have faith in God, to be thankful and to worship God.

I actually don't believe in life being easier. If you were to give me an example of being filthy rich... I would say that money doesn't make life easier, it only makes you financially advantaged. A rich man falling from a flight of stairs will be as bruised as a beggar falling from the same stairs. And we all know that there are things that money can't buy, like love and happiness. Life remains as hard and tough no matter what your situation is or how much you are "advantaged".

Life can never be easier, should not be easier and will never be easier. One can only learn how to put up with it, and move on.

God has made this world as perfect as it is, and there's no need to change it.

The only cause for the imperfections of this world is men.

Men have only themselves to blame on.

"Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated." - Confucius

Seek God whenever problems come. It is Him after all who gave you life in the first place.

God bless =)

De Danser Avec Toi

2010-06-12T16:03:00.003+02:00

Ferme tes yeux,

Mets ta main dans la mienne.

La musique, les gens qui dansent; oh l'ambiance de l'amour!

Où allons-nous? Tu me demandes.

Vas-tu danser avec moi, sous la Lune?

Ecoute la mélodie, les paroles; celles de mon coeur,

Seulement de danser avec toi, c'est mon souhait à jamais.

La fille de mes rêves,

Y'en a-t-il une autre comme toi?

L'étoile de mon ciel,

Y'a-t-il une raison pour ne pas t'aimer?

Non, je t'aime de tout mon coeur; il se bat pour toi.

Officially my first poem in french, I wrote this in an essay during French class.

Teacher's comment: "Très bien, tu as réellement su écrire de façon poètique." (Very good, you really knew how to write poetically.)

And that makes me wonder even more why I should end up as an electrical engineer later...lol.

Special thanks to Mr. Chan, my LIE teacher who brought the poetic side in me. =)

And not forgetting the english translation to that poem:

Close your eyes,

Put your hand in mine.

The music, the dancing people, oh the ambience of love!

Where do we go? You ask me.

Will you dance with me, under the Moon?

Listen to the melody, the lyrics; those of my heart,

Only to dance with you, that's my wish forever.

The girl of my dreams,

Is there another like you?

The star of my sky,

Is there a reason to not love you?

No, I love you with all my heart; it beats for you.

As The Deer Panteth For The Water

2010-06-07T01:05:00.002+02:00

I didn't go to church today...

I really shouldn't have done that.

But you know what?

God BROUGHT the church to me.

Not literally, but how do you define "a church?"

Just right now, a worship song + Bible reading + praying + a really meaningful lesson learnt + a touched heart... is as good as going to church this morning.

If I have to choose between going to church and this 5-minute moment so powerful and meaningful that it stirred me up to tears, I'd rather have this moment.

God is always with me, no matter where I am. And this time, He gave me a "church service" as how a teacher gives a private tuition class to a student.

Just me and God.

God is just so awesome. =)

How to "Buffet" to the max

2010-05-29T21:45:00.007+02:00

Bonjour to all you food-lovers out there!

Okay so you see a restaurant, a buffet restaurant, and you wanna eat to your money's worth, right? Today, FM shares his tips and techniques to eating till you drop.

Now how to eat to the max? 3 rules to follow:

1. Never take "Fillers"

Perhaps the most important rule of all: Never take fillers! What are fillers? Fillers are food that fills at its best! lol. Example: French fries, rice, noodles, bread, water, flour-based products, etc. (Notice that fillers are often carbohydrates)

It is very pantang to take fillers, because they will just fill you so quickly that you would walk out of the restaurant in just minutes. Fillers are food that tastes the least best(or worst, for short. lol) and cheap. That is why there are some restaurants which try to serve you as much fillers as possible: Gets you out quickly and saves them costs! So always be able to identify these fillers in the game of buffet. But if you really want to eat them, no harm taking them in small quantities, because you do wanna make room for the delicious ones, right? Fill your stomach with their delis instead!

Drink water in little quantity just to wet your mouth. Water+filler ends your buffet quickly! By the way, I was at some chinese buffet restaurant and there was this french chick who took 3 slices of bread! Damn. Oh well...*continues eating*

2. Eat slowly, chew thoroughly

Yes, in buffet one shouldn't eat too fast. "All you can eat" doesn't mean that you have to rush and gobble up everything! You paid to eat all you want so just take it slowly, enjoy your food and have a good chat with your friends. lol. The restaurant has no right to chase you out anyways.

Why chewing thoroughly? Chewing your food into its finest pieces would have done half of the digestion already! And you'll have to eat slowly in order to betul-betul fill your stomach: right at all corners, down that little space in between, etc. lol. It also helps in a sense that your stomach can properly digest the first batch of food before the next batch enters. Gobbling up quickly all at once will fill your stomach quickly, and later when you go back home, you would have only filled half your stomach after digestion, then you go hungry again. Which is wrong, because you shouldn't go hungry again at the same night you eat buffet.

So it's all about digestion. Digest it well by chewing thoroughly and eating slowly. Then you'll make full use of the space in your stomach. Imagine your stomach being a game of Tetris.

Don't eat so fast and stack them all right up to the top!

3. Don't walk out right after you're full

Wait and see if you can stuff in a little more or not. Have a chat with your friends while waiting. Or play something: a PSP, iPod, DS... Or read a book. Or play mahjong 15 rounds. lol. Just don't quit too soon. Once you pay, you can eat all you want until you step out of that restaurant. So who knows? Maybe you can go for a second round 30 minutes later!

And also, don't ever think of setting up a camp there and staying there until breakfast the next morning. It does not work that way.

Voila, follow these steps and you'll eat to your money's worth! And also cause fear to the buffet taukeh. 30 more people like you and his restaurant will go pokkai.

Happy eating!

This guide has been presented to you by FM, the Taiping buffet welterweight champion. Light-heavyweight champion: Jason Yiap.

Gosh I think I'm starting to fattening d! No, it must be the camera angle's fault.

And by the way, meet my friend Adin. ;p

Have you seen your best?

2010-05-26T01:49:00.006+02:00

You have put a great amount of effort. You have sacrificed a huge amount of time. For a period of moment, you have focused your whole self into that 1 goal you aim to achieve.

All in a hope to ace and score well in that examination. You know it is important to you. You know it's for your future.

But sometimes the world is harsh indeed. Life isn't always what it seems like in the movies. Sometimes even with effort and spirit, things just don't favor you.

So what would you tell me? That "you gave your best but you failed?"

"You gave your BEST but you FAILED?"

Let me try to get things straight. You gave your best, but you failed.

Then I would tell you to DEAL WITH IT.

Seems harsh, but yeah, because you have already given your best. Somehow you'll just have to be satisfied with it, because well it's already your best; if you're not satisfied with it, are you telling me that you will only be satisfied when you do better? Better than your best?

Do you actually believe that it's possible to be better than the best?

Let me tell you something that even little kids know but you don't. "Good" comes before "Better" comes before "Best".

Now if there is some pariah motivational movie which lies to the audience that one can actually "do better than the best" or one can "go 110%", I advise you to put your popcorn down, get your ass up and out of the cinema.

Ask for a refund too, never watch movies directed by a person who would say "Good, Best, Better".

NO it is by-all-means impossible to "do better than the best" or "go 110%". There is no such thing! Get real! This ain't no dream where all things are possible! So if you tell me that you have given your best when you have failed, just deal with it. That's it. Game over. Your best fails. You can't do better. You can only fail worse! So if you're not satisfied with your "best", you will forever be unsatisfied.

That is.... only if you tell me that you have given your best.

Now let me tell you something POSSIBLE. Something real that you didn't notice. The truth.

You have not seen your best. yet.

Exactly, you have not seen your best yet.

Why do I say so? It's not because you have failed. It's because you are not satisfied with it. You're not satisfied because you KNOW you can do better. Those results, they don't speak for you. You know you deserve better. So you should work harder a little more to get what you deserve!

I may not know how much your best is, but what I do know is that you have not seen your best yet.

What am I trying to tell you? That noone can "do better than the best", but you can do better since you have not seen your best yet. You have not given in 100%, you will never reach 110%, but in fact, you have only given 90% and yet to reach 100%!

So never EVER say that "it's already your best". Saying it literally puts a limit to how far you can go. That's it, it ends right there.

Instead, say "This isn't my best. I know because I am not satisfied with it eventhough I have worked my ass off, because I know I can do better and I will!"

If you wanna see your best, make it show.

And someday, when you have reached that target you aimed for, you would be satisfied indeed. But don't feel too proud just yet.

Are you really sure that it's already your 100%? Don't you believe you can do even better than that?

You will never reach 100% if you're satisfied with 99% - Will Smith

Misc: Rocky Balboa lost on his first film, despite all his hard work in his training montage. Now tell me what kind of an inspirational movie would have the main actor lost? But that doesn't stop him there, he won on a rematch in the 2nd movie and continued winning his way into a legend till the end.

Younger, Faster, Cooler, Stronger

2010-05-22T18:35:00.002+02:00

Before

After

Lol long time no update blog d....and now I update it with a new haircut. Some are quite disappointed that I didn't hold on to my long hair until I come back to Malaysia. Others are just glad I did. Even me, actually...lol. You know, having long hair was great and all, it was a different look but sometimes there can be just too much of a good thing. It was good until it became too long; that's when it got even more troublesome. Haha.

So I took a day to look for a barber and that mak cik barber said to me, "ça va vous changer." (It will change you). I usually hate haircuts, 'cause often barbers would mess up my hair, but I trust that aunty, she looks professional so I told her to go ahead and do whatever she wants with it.

And voila, I ended up looking like my brother. lol. My brother=handsome. Me=my brother. And so.... ;p

K lah...that's all. Nothing much to talk about actually. Summer's coming in. Just today it was burning hot at 24 degrees celcius outside. Damn I can't imagine Malaysia. Oh well. 2 more months to go for me!

I end this post with the following list of quotes....Au revoir!

20. Unlike them, you and me, we can't fly airplanes. But we can always drive a little while longer. Wherever they go, we can go too, if we are willing to drive a little while longer. Some people are born geniuses, others are not. Well, we have to work a little harder to make up for it, right?

21. A question brings affirmation or correction. It affirms the right and corrects the wrong. If neither comes, then it brings curiosity, until someone finds the answer.

22. You may say life is unfair, life is unfair. But when is life ever fair?? Life pushes you around back and forth and the only way you can get even with it is by standing up and push back! And not just staying down there crying, complaining and blaming everything. Stand up and keep walking against the wind! That's how you can be fair to yourself!

23. "Do not judge a book by its cover." Yeah but a bad cover doesn't convince me to look any further. First impression still matters much.

24. You see a lady walking by with a big tummy. If she's leaning backwards then she's pregnant. But if she leans forwards, she just ate too much. Probably just came out from a chinese buffet restaurant.

25. God could have gave him another pair of eyes; he would see better. God could have gave him another pair of hands; he would work better. God could have gave him another pair of legs; he wouldn't fall so easily. But instead He made you with those hands, eyes and legs, and gave you a heart, so that you may always help him in times of need. Be a blessing to one another. Lend a hand. God bless you.

26. Stay safe and you'll live longer. Take risks and you may lose your life. Do you want 80 years of plain dullness or 30 seconds of breathtaking moments?

27. It's a wonderful world for Danial just because his salad was delicious. If only everyone in this world could find happiness from such simplicity, then life would be just beautiful.

28. You may ignore the problem, but the problem won't ignore you.

29. But in all good things, there can be...too much of a good thing.

30. The world in my eyes is just a box of 12 Luna colour pencils. If I can have a beautiful picture out of them, why can't you?

31. The devil gives me hell now, but God will literally give him hell in the end!

Extra

Faiz: Kenapa beli sikat perempuan?

FM: Ni bukan sikat perempuan! Ni sikat untuk......orang berambut panjang!

A light of hope for Judas?

2010-04-17T05:00:00.004+02:00

The following content you're about to read contains religious issues and may be offensive to certain readers, even Christians. This post is rated 18PA.

This is a 4-days work of my studies on Judas.

The Judas Kiss

Wednesday 14 APRIL 2010

I have given a thought on Judas some time ago, that guy who sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Betrayer, traitor, greed, Judas is always portrayed evil.

To betray the Son of God, without question sure go to hell dy right? Can anyone actually picture the one who betrayed the Son of God going to heaven?

Say this loud in your church and all heads will turn to you.

What did you just say?

But somehow, I just have this thought: The crucifixion of God's only son Jesus Christ is a plan to save our souls from sin and death. And in this plan, he has to be betrayed by someone to get crucified. Judas was the chosen betrayer. Now all these must have been foreseen just as how the coming of the Messiah to save the world is. Judas' betrayal is set too. It seems as if Judas lived just to betray Jesus. Poor guy didn't know what was coming to him.

Think about it. If Judas didn't betray Jesus, Jesus would not be crucified, and our souls wouldn't be saved. The way I see it, Judas was part of God's plan to save the world from its sins.

So this is what I thought.

I knew I had to discuss with another Christian about this, so I found Sophia. Well, she is a pastor's daughter and a debater. Perhaps she could give me answers.

FM : What do you think?

Sophia : I think men wouldn't be able to find a definite answer. It's too deep. Have to save those doubts...to be asked in heaven.

Yeah... Sophia said it right. There are really many questions I plan to ask God when I meet Him in Heaven. Then it is there where I can be satisfied, knowing the answer to everything. =)

So I looked my friend Alain Bernard up on Facebook and asked him about this. Screw my limited French vocabulary, it was so hard to explain my thoughts to him. But somehow he understood me and we discussed.

Alain was so against the idea that Judas is in heaven. lol. His direct answer was no, impossible. He was like, "How on earth do you get the idea that Judas could be in heaven??"(He didn't say it actually, but I could sense it). Hahaha. But he pointed out the fact that even if Judas admitted Jesus' innocence and gave back the blood money, he did not ask God for forgiveness and hanged himself to death.

Good point there Alain. To suicide shows that you do not appreciate that one life God gave you, so suicidal is considered to be really wrong. And he did not ask for forgiveness.

Going out of my room I gave Christine's and Joyce's doors a knock. Christine said no at first, but after thinking some time, she added "or yes". Just like Sophia, Christine thinks that we can't be sure of this because even the other disciples themselves are not sure where he went, they didn't say heaven or hell, they just said, "a place where he belongs."

(24) Then they prayed, "Lord, you know the thoughts of everyone, so show us which of these two you have chosen (25) to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs." (26) Then they drew lots to choose between the two men, and the one chosen was Matthias, who was added to the group of evelen apostles.

Acts 1: 24-26

Joyce on the other hand, was also sure that Judas can't be in heaven. But what she proposed was that he could be in this "waiting room" where everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike stay until the time of judgment comes.

Now this is something new to me. I was always told that salvation brings us all to heaven, the whole picture I get all this while was that we are to go to heaven as long as we believe in God and accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. I didn't know that there is this "waiting room".

Yeah, again this question left us baffled. "If God wants you to know the answer, He will tell you. Otherwise you'll have just have to wait then," said Joyce. Christine will ask her dad and promises the answer by Sunday. Her dad's a pastor too, perhaps he can shed some light on this. =)

And then Christine talked to me about her trip to Amsterdam...

Back to my room I tried searching on the net to see if there's anyone else who thought about this. And yes, there are results. Some asked this question and this brought up many discussions and debates. This is a good site to read, it has articles and opinions of 20 people discussing this issue. Link here.

Thursday 15 APRIL 2010

And then Ying Ning came and said, "Judas has no place in heaven. Thats for sure." Perhaps she knows something. I have yet to discuss this with her. =p

So in conclusion, it's either you are SURE that he's not going to heaven or UNSURE of where he'll be going. There's no such thing as being sure of him going to heaven. But still, this does not end Judas' small hope to heaven.

For those who say that Judas is out of heaven, these are their points:

* Judas betrayed his Master, the Son of God, even after following him for years, witnessing miracles and hearing him preaching.

* Judas had a choice whether to betray him or not. God would have a 2nd plan even if Judas were to choose not to betray Jesus. And Judas chose to betray him.

* During the Last Supper, Satan entered Judas. Satan used Judas' greed of money against him. And it was Judas who made that conscious decision to betray Jesus because of this temptation of money. (John 13: 21-30) (Luke 22: 3-6) (Matthew 26: 14-16)

* Even though Judas admitted Jesus' innocence and gave the money back, he did not ask God for forgiveness of this sin and proceeded to hang himself. (Matthew 27: 3-5)

Hanging is like a show of loss of hope and Judas has lost his hope to ask God for forgiveness.

And for those who don't rule out the possibility that Judas could be in heaven:

* Judas worked in the plan of God to save the world. What if Judas didn't betray Jesus

(UPDATE: This point has been rebutted! Read update below at SAT 17 APRIL)

* Verse 3 of Matthew 27 says, "When Judas, the traitor, learned that Jesus has been condemned, he repented and took back the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders." From there one can understand that Judas repented. And God's forgiveness comes by repentance, right?

* How would one see the hanging of Judas? Perhaps Judas couldn't bear all these guilt of having to betray Jesus, plus knowing the fact that he would be hunted down by soldiers as well as the other disciples, there was this guilt and fear haunting him. And who was there to help him? He couldn't face the other disciples after the betrayal, thus he was left alone to slowly torturing himself mentally. He couldn't take it anymore; his fuse broke and he hanged himself. Hanging would seem to be a quicker, brief death rather than to be tortured and crucified just as Jesus did. So what could Judas resort to?

* Compare Simon Peter with Judas. Peter who has denied Jesus 3 times has sinned against Jesus as well. But he turned over a new leaf, spread the gospel and lived as God's blessed man, and is no doubt in Heaven right now. But what about Judas? Not a very happy ending for him, but many would assume that if Judas were to have more time, he would have some sense in him and would do the same as Peter did.

* Acts 1: 25 says, "to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs." This shows that even the disciples are not sure of where Judas went, only God knows. This shows that the disciples did not rule out the possibility that Judas could have a chance to go to heaven somehow, if God forgives him. (According to Ying Ning, she said that the disciples would have forgiven him.) Sure we could say that Judas can't be in heaven, but then who are we compared to the 11 disciples who have spent years with Jesus and Judas? With their understanding, if they themselves are unsure, what more can we say?

Friday 16 APRIL 2010

And just now I chatted with Sophia and Ying Ning about this(Sorry YN if I kacau-ed you watching TVB drama. lol). Ying Ning is certain that suicide guarantees him a trip to hell. Sophia made a good point that the 2 criminals who were crucified along with Jesus didn't ask for forgiveness too. And yes, it's true!

A criminal challenged Jesus to save them all if he was the Messiah, and the other rebuked him, saying, "Don't you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!" And Jesus promised him that he will be in Paradise with Him. (The story of Jesus and the 2 criminals - Luke 23: 39-43)

The way I see it, just like this criminal here, Judas too acknowledged Jesus' innocence in the end, and repented and gave back the 30 pieces of silver. The question here is: Was it enough for Judas? Did he ask God for forgiveness? Did his suicide end all his hopes?

This is a really debatable topic, and this debate will keep going on until one day we go to heaven and see if Judas is there or not. Some important points to look at:

* The betrayal of Jesus: The choice of Judas?

* The devil took advantage of Judas' weakness: greed of money.

* Is repentance alone enough?

* Judas' suicide: Game over?

* Simon Peter and Judas: Same sin, different endings.

Christine and Joyce said that it's good that I can think of such a question, not many Christians can think that far, Christine said. Christine suggested that my gift is sermon: to be able to think, and then to share your findings with other people. Pastor FM? Hm... if it's true then I wouldn't want it to go to waste then. May the Lord guide me =). And Christine's gift is in worship. Amen. =D

Early Saturday morning 17 APRIL 2010

Woke up after falling asleep from watching WWE RAW on TV(Yeah, that's how boring WWE is now). And so I continued to give this matter a thought after 3 days working on this blog post already. This is perhaps the longest time I have ever taken to write a post. Haha.

A very important discovery I've made:

"The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will; but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

Matthew 26: 24 and Mark 14: 21

From my understanding of these verses, Jesus would have still die for our sins even if Judas were to not betray Jesus! Jesus was destined to die for our sins, Judas' betrayal only made things worse! So, what if Judas didn't betray Jesus? Jesus would have died for our sins, just in a different scenario! Could one say Judas' betrayal has little to no significance in God's plan to save the world?

Ying Ning : Ya we would be saved anyways. Judas is just an extra.

But what really disturbed me was this verse Acts 1: 18, where Judas fell to his death and his insides spilled out. What a horrible death, I mean this is dying at its worst! (I don't think those who received grace and mercy from God would die such a horrible death, but that's just my opinion.)

I did some research on the net and there's this 1 guy who talked about Judas' death. It seems that there was this Jewish belief that those who touches a corpse would be be ritually unclean for seven days (Numbers 19: 11-13). And there was another law concerning a hung body (Deutronomy 21: 22-23). So a general scenario would be: Judas hanged himself on a tree by the edge of a cliff, so that his feet would touch no ground and he'll be suspended mid-air by rope. Someone tried to get rid of Judas' body and so cut the rope and Judas' body fell and burst open. Even if he hanged himself on a tree not by the edge of a cliff but tall enough to prevent his feet from touching the ground, a rotting corpse would burst as easily as poking a dead crow with a stick.

Where am I going with this? I don't know... I just thought it's strange for Judas to die so horribly. This is just extra info, I guess. lol

In Conclusion

I guess I can wrap it up now. For now, I have come to this understanding that Judas' betrayal, whether he chose to do so or not, would not change God's plan to save the world. His greed of money caused him to fall and betray Jesus. But he did repent, admitted Jesus' innocence and gave back the 30 pieces of silver, but he did not ask God for forgiveness and suicided by hanging himself.

How you choose to see this, from which angle, it is up to you. The question I raised here is: Does Judas have a possibility to be in Heaven?

I've written all these, but do not misunderstand me, I am not trying to say that Judas should be in Heaven. And I am not trying to say that Judas should be in hell neither. I am no position to say where Judas should go; God calls the shots. What I'm trying to say here is that we shouldn't rule out that little possibility of Judas going to heaven, because all these while people would always say that Judas stands no chance to go to heaven, most likely in hell!

Ying Ning : I don't get why you pity him?

At first I did pity him, seeing a disciple of Jesus having such a terrible ending. And I thought that we should all not forget that it was Judas' betrayal that set up Jesus' crucifixion. But now I've learnt that Jesus came and would save the world, no matter Judas betray him or not.

But somehow, I feel disappointed that Judas betrayed Jesus. I mean, I can imagine how disappointed Jesus must have felt to know that his own disciple, his loved one sold him out.... and for 30 pieces of silver! Surely Jesus would have wanted Judas to join Him in Heaven along with the other disciples, right? If I could feel disappointed and sorry for Judas, what about Jesus who loved him and took care of him over the years?

Joyce : You will not go anywhere by asking yourself and us all with these questions. If God wants you to know the answer, He would tell you. I mean, none of us would know the answer. If we were to know everything, then we ourselves would be "God"s already. Only God knows where Judas should go.

Ya I may not go anywhere, may never find the answer too. But what I really want to do is to point out that one shouldn't rule out that little possibility of Judas' chance in Heaven, 'cause there are many people(well, almost everyone actually) who say directly that Judas is not in Heaven, but in hell. I don't know, it's just a thought that came to my mind. Correct me and convince me if I'm wrong. =)

To end this study/research, I propose a best-case-scenario I could ever think of for Judas.

Moments before Judas hangs himself, Judas asked God for forgiveness. Well he did repent, admitted Jesus' innocence and gave back the money. He was sorry enough for what he had done I guess. And being as sorry as he was, couldn't he have thought of God who would forgive him before he cracked out? I mean, after having followed Jesus for years, learning and hearing him preaching, surely he must have thought of that.

Well, this is the best I can think up for Judas. Even so... the fact that he suicided by hanging leaves me doubtful...

I am not saying Judas should go to Heaven or should go to hell, but I am opening up another possibility for him!

A little note before closing

I've learnt a lot just by writing this post. This study has taught me that we humans have limit in our understanding. Otherwise, if we were to know them all, we would be "God"s ourselves. One thing we can never fully understand is God and His Holy ways. They may be mind-boggling but they all work in just marvelous ways. We stand in awe at the wonder of God.

I may not know what happens to Judas in the end, but I do know that God is fair and just. (This reminds me of my Buddhist uncle who passed away. He was a good man, but I wondered where he could have went. I was left with this answer: God is fair and just. For now, I will never know.)

Christine told me that sometimes if we ask ourselves too much of these kind of questions, we might question God's decision. For example, we might say God would be unfair to put Judas in hell and such. So this is why it's important to seek someone for help, to discuss and for guidance. We are in no position to question God and His ways and decisions. Even if Judas were to go to hell, it's God's will and is to be respected.

Many questions unanswered now, just like this case of Judas. One day, someday I shall ask God everything when I meet Him. Amen.

But for now, I leave this question unanswered, but I've opened up another possibility.

We should not take Jesus' sacrifice for granted. Remember that He has saved us from our sins and eternal death. Amen. =)

Thank you for reading this long post/this long study I've made. I hope this post has helped anyone to understand more about Judas(in a certain way...) and opened up your minds to think about it.

Opinions are always welcomed. Do not hesitate to share your thoughts with me! I am open to see at any point of view. Correct me if you must as well, for I am nothing but human, a man who does make mistakes. =D

And this is a very serious case: misinterpretation of God's word. If somehow anywhere I have done that, do inform me, I will take it out immediately. This is the last thing I would ever want to do.

Credits

Special thanks to:

Christine, Sophia, Joyce, Ying Ning and Alain who have discussed this case with me and gave me so much helpful opinions. Truly God has blessed me with all of you. =)

Chong Ren for discussing this with me too. It was only then that I found out you do read some of the Bible. Haha. But somehow we strayed chatting about other stuffs (pink). LOL

Faiz kerana asyik datang lewat untuk masak. Betul-betul maaf. Tengah kaji hal ni. Terima kasih kerana telah masak tanpa saya beberapa malam ni. Haha. Tapi you masak banyak sedap lah, k? Thanks! Haha =)

The people on the net who posted questions and answers that contributed a big part to this post. 1 guy from Yahoo! Questions, some other guys somewhere else, lol. Thanks ya. God bless all of you. =)

Google Chrome for allowing me to open so many tabs at once. If not sure damn hard want find so many informations at once d. lol

Pictures which do not belong to me, I thank Google for helping me and the owners of those pictures. Sorry for having to take them ya. lol

The Bible, my one source of God's word. =)

and last but not least, God. You are just so great. =)))

Thank you and God bless. =)

FM's Quotes Volume 1

2010-04-16T05:51:00.009+02:00

Many of you would have seen my quotes on Facebook. And now I'm compiling them in this post. Search them in Google and you'll never find them! But I don't know much about copyright so if anyone steals my quotes: Screw them.

1. Once the darker side of the world is seen, innocence is lost.

2. Your mind is not always the main control of your body. Sometimes your heart overrides it

3. You have a decision to make. A tough one. But no matter how tough it is, you decide on one. And when you do decide on one, do not regret it. For you have given it a deep thought, and your conscience tells you that this is the better decision, the best decision. Do what you think is right, you know what's best for you.

(This I have to admit was based on a TVB drama if I'm not mistaken. I watched it when I was little and all I remember was this uncle advising his daughter I think. I forgot what he said but it was something like that. Wouldn't say I thought this up myself.)

4. A criminal, a murderer still has a heart. But it's only a matter of whether he hears his heartbeat or not.

5. I can understand everything, I can explain everything. But I cannot explain the wonder of you

6. The path of wisdom? It's not a single road leading straight towards the light.

It's having walking everywhere on every soil you can see at every degree around you.

Keep walking, to achieve total wisdom is impossible, there will always be more soil ahead wherever you go. But keep walking, at least you are your steps closer to it.

You look back, you smile at those walking on your path, because you saw your footsteps, you have been there.

And one day, you will stumble across a set of footprints very familiar to you, of your size in fact. And you look up and far ahead of you, and you see 360 degrees of your footprints across the horizon. Then you know you are wise.

But I do not walk this path alone, He walks and guides me by His side.

7. You style your hair nice which you normally wouldn't, you dress cool 'cause that's the trend today, you learn to speak cool, you learn from your friend how to pikat a girl and you follow his advices whole. She's impressed, she's in love, but not with you, she's in love with someone else.

8. No, I won't pick up a guitar and sing you the best love songs, I won't quote love phrases from no drama or film. Yeah plenty of them have done them, many find them romantic, lovely and touching. But our love isn't the same as theirs, I want it to be special rather than being another plain old cliché. You deserve more than a copy of the others.

9. Do not worry what you may regret later, but do not regret later just because you have worried.

10. I took up the dictionary and looked up the word "Beautiful". I closed the dictionary with your picture in it. Oxford may know every single word on Earth, but I know very well the most beautiful girl on Earth.

11. Girls are the greatest weight-lifters. They can lift the heaviest of hearts with just a smile.

12. Common sense will always tell you not to do things out of the ordinary. And that's the problem: common sense will limit you to being just another commoner if you let it. Throw it out the window. Surprise the world. Don't let it stop you from enjoying life.

13. They all call it "breakfast cereal". Now have they ever said that there can't be "lunch cereal",

"tea-time cereal", "dinner cereal" or "supper cereal"? Definition is man-made. Define your own world.

14. Frown all you might soldier, but it ain't gonna make the war easier. Take this rifle and have a nice day!

15. I will not say you are as beautiful as a rose, or as sweet as honey. For you are so special to me that I will not compare you to anything else.

16. I define jealousy as a fear of losing someone precious to someone else who doesn't deserve that someone.

17. Set your favourite song as a ringtone or an alarm and you'll risk getting sick of it easily.

18. Taking up online personality quizzes is like saying that a computer program knows you better than your family, your friends or even yourself!

19. If He ever slaps you in your face real hard, it's because you have turned your back against Him. He did it out of love, He wants to wake you out of your senselessness. If He could, He'd wish He wouldn't have to slap you but He had to; He's afraid of losing you.

19 quotes and still going! And now these are just some miscellaneouses:

Dani : A dragonfly which cannot fly is a dragon.

FM : A dragonfly which cannot dragon is a fly.

*combs hair*

*msn beep*

*types* tak tak tak tak tak tak tak *enter*

*looks around for comb*

*puzzled*

*realizes comb is still on hair*

Now where did it go...

And it really did happen!

And now an inspirational speech that I liked:

"When things got hard, you started looking for something to blame. Like a big shadow.

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.

You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

Now if you know what you're worth, go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that!"

- Rocky Balboa/Sylvester Stallone (Rocky 6)

FM sends a message regarding Animal Testing

2010-04-08T16:43:00.021+02:00

I just read Chong Ren's message regarding animal testing.

Yea as a debater I've heard of this many times before but I didn't have a clear picture of how ugly this thing is like. That is until I saw Chong Ren's message, and my goodness this isn't just animal testing, this is animal torture!

Just look at that poor chap's face! Completely helpless, being injected by who-knows-what and just praying that it isn't something fatal. By the way, this is just the mildest picture I can find from that message. The rest are just sick, and I was eating lunch while surfing Facebook.

And to my surprise(well, not really actually... maybe it's just that the company's heck famous), L'Oréal is one of the culprits of this madness!

Yup, L'Oréal Paris. And to think I'm currently using their hair cream. How disappointing.

Why test human products on animals? Just by what logic is this acceptable? Are these products made for animals? If they do make monkeys look beautiful then you want to make women look as beautiful as monkeys ah???

This is just outrageous. FM's not gonna take this shit. It's time FM sends a message to all animal testers out there! If you wanna test human products on animals, I'm gonna test animal products on you then!

Pas de chance(No chance), Monsieur L'Oréal. There are many other animal-testing companies but I chose to deal with you first! Since I'm using your products now ~~and it is quite good actually~~.

Yes you. Monsieur Jean-Paul Agon. K lah nak bagi kau test PEDIGREE jap.

And I'm not talking about the dog food Pedigree.

So I took the next train down to Paris looking for the L'Oréal company.

Security was tight at first, but I knocked the secretary out cold with a steel chair and head on to JP Agon's office. JP saw me coming so he panicked and ran down to the ring. I chased him and cornered him in the squared circle, kick him in the stomach and pressed L1.

JR: BAH GAWWD KING! THE PEDIGREEE!!!

So JP was busted wide open. My little monkey friend, unhappy of being injected with who-knows-what came by to settle business. It seems that he has been injected with L'Oréal's newest muscle-enhancing formula! So he laid the smackdown on L'Oréal's model lady.

JR: STUNNER!! STUNNER!!!

I hope that we have made it clear to all animal testers out there. Do not torture those poor innocent little creatures with your beauty products or whatever pun. What's beautiful to you is ugly to them.

If you guys still insist on testing them on animals, I dare you all go test on this animal.

Oh ya Mun Keong, Mr. Socko said hi.

Des Chansons Françaises

2010-03-28T04:17:00.006+02:00

Maintenant je vais vous parler des chansons françaises. Voici une liste de mes chansons préférées, les chansons que vous pouvez essayer d'ecouter et peut-être vous les aimerez aussi!

Now I will speak zu you about zee frrrenche songzzz. Here zees my lisste of my favourrrr..rrrr..favourritezzz songzz, *AH putain l'anglais est vachement difficile! ehem....zee songzz zat you can try to listen and maiybee you will like zem too!

*Ah ***** English is so damn hard!

FM's Playlist

Toi Mon Amour - Marc Lavoine

(Toi Mon Amour/You My Love) is a very beautiful romantic french song. Frankly, I think that Marc Lavoine is my favourite french artist because of his mature-manly physique and his lovely voice. No doubt he is one of the most successful french artists around. Very beautiful song, captures the mood of romance. But I don't understand why in this video at 2:07 there is some random Mexican playing a guitar by his bathtub....ergh. lol

Même Pas Fatigué - Magic System feat. Khaled

(Même Pas Fatigué/Even Not Tired) lol the title doesn't really make sense in English. This song, believe it or not is French! Some of you may not know about this but Arabians and Africans are 2 of the biggest races in France alongside the white real Frenchies. It's just like Malays, Chineses and Indians in Malaysia. The genre of this song is "Raï N B" , Raï being a genre of Arabian songs in France. Yup, it's Khaled from Algeria who does the Raï along with Magic System from Ivory Coast. Khaled, and Magic System are successful artists themselves in their own genre, and now this song is a blend of 2 of the best.

But the most interesting fact about this video is Franck Ribéry making his special appearance in it! At the beginning of the video, he is seen proposing a football match with his friend. This MV is just absolutely BIG. So semangat u know listening to this song no matter what you're doing. =)

Stromae - Alors On Danse

(Alors On Danse/So We Dance/So One Dances) sings about life's problems and stress, very common in today's society. The man in this video is an example of an average daily office worker and to let go of all problems and stresses, he drinks, dances, sings and takes ecstasy.

This MV is particularly weird in some way because everything in this video seems "malas"! Just look at the man, look at how he sings and even with such simple beats and music, it still remained top in the French charts for sometime. Wow. Lagu malas lol. He looks high throughout the whole video by the way, like some kind of a drug addict...

Olivia Ruiz - I Need A Child

Ya she needs a child so badly. Olivia Ruiz is a perfect example of Franglish. The lyrics that messed up my mind was "I got flowers exploding on my swinging tits" and "I got a mother exploding on my swinging meadow". OH MY. Lol this french hottie thinks she can sing whatever crap of english and gets away with it. Well, she did! 'cause no French really bothered anyways, most of them don't even understand. Lol. (So Malaysians, come here and lagak your English lah...feel superior abit. Wahahahaha)

Despite her poor usage of vocabulary, her super-sexy voice makes up for it. Rrraaoo. Lol. This live performance is not her best, her audio version is much better, and more sexy. =p

Mylène Farmer - C'est une belle journée

(C'est une belle journée/It's a beautiful day) Mylène Farmer is like the french Madonna+Kylie Minogue. Her songs are just fantastic and magical. The chorus of this song originally meant to go "It's a beautiful day, I will kill myself" but is changed to "I'ts a beautiful day, I will go sleep/I will put myself to sleep" because it would have sounded so....wrong. lol. This song is quite bizarre because it puts me into this kinda sober mood, eventhough "It's a beautiful day". It seems like she doesn't even care if it's a beautiful day, she just wants to sleep. Kind of a gloomy feeling. Or she's just plain lazy. lol. But nice song anyways. =)

Mylène Farmer - L'amour n'est rien

(L'amour n'est rien/Love is nothing) is another magical music by Mylène Farmer. If Marc Lavoine is manly, Olivia Ruiz is sexy, then Mylène Farmer is angelic. Her voice captures my heart instantly "comme un coup de foudre"(Like a strike of lightning - it is in fact a real French proverb meaning falling in love. lol)

This is Mylene's live performance. I recommend searching it up at Youtube for the official music video because it's much better. And there is a particular reason why I shouldn't upload that video up here....ehem. What a lovely angel. =))

(Never mind her lingerie. That's just her. lol)

Marc Lavoine - La Semaine Prochaine

(La Semaine Prochaine/The Next Week) is another song by Marc Lavoine. Kinda new this song. If you want to see the music video you'll have to search it up at Youtube, because the embedding is disabled I don't know why. lol.

Voilà some of my favorites to you. I have more french songs in my folder but...currently I am listening to those 7 now. Actually even here in France the frenchies listen more American like Akon and David Guetta's Sexy "Fish" and BEP's "I Got a Feeling".

Au Revoir et Bonne Journée! =)

Hope

2010-03-27T07:55:00.005+01:00

Auntie Interview JPA: And you, Leong Foo Mun. Why do you think you deserve this scholarship?

Erm... me having 5A1's and 6A2's... what am I compared to others who have straight A1's: 10, 11A1's, 13A1's and so on?

But I am here today, which is very important to me because it means that I have a chance for this scholarship. And with this very chance, I have hope. Because the fact that I am here today means that I can, it's possible for me to have this scholarship. And I'll put everything I have on this hope. I believe that I can have this scholarship because JPA believes that I can have this scholarship, which is why I'm sitting right here today. I put hope and believe in God because He has blessed me with a good SPM result, blessed me with a chance for this interview and once He starts blessing, He will never stop.

Auntie Interview JPA: Very good. *writes down notes*

Lord, I shall see You in Heaven

2010-03-23T01:04:00.005+01:00

My final words before closing my eyes and giving up...

True story

Time: 2002, I was Std. 6 then.

Place: Bukit Merah, more specifically, the place with the biggest pool, it's called the Wave Pool if I'm not mistaken.

I was at the other end of this "Wave Pool" near to the yellow floating balls towards the top right corner of this picture, and when I was there, there weren't many people actually. And all of them were like closer to the shore(blah that's where I should have stayed)

I came to this Wave Pool and somehow, feeling so cheeky I tried swimming across to the other end of this pool. Then I've reached those floating yellow balls, and then tried to swim back. As I was swimming back, I started to have cramps around halfway along the pool. Even there, the base was very very deep, and I was just so little when I was 12! (Because memang pun not advisable to go that deep without pelampung or something...)

I didn't notice it at first, but there weren't many people there at that time. And all of them were like closer to the shore, nobody around me. I don't know if this is a kind of feeling only a drowning person can get, but it was like as if I was so so far away from everyone, drowning all by myself. It's hard enough to look for someone around you while you are dying to keep yourself above water. By the way, didn't anyone notice a poor little kid struggling in the water??

I was choking on water, I was breathing air+water, I was thinking that I couldn't make it; that's it this is THE END. Seconds of struggling in the water turned to many thoughts: from my family, my life and God. (What would happen if my parents found out about my death?) Scary thoughts came by. Seriously, it was like I had only seconds left before I actually DIE. So while I still had the time, I prayed what was supposed to be my LAST prayer to God: "Lord, please forgive me of all my sins and prepare me a place in Heaven." So eventually I closed my eyes and gave up. After fighting so hard to keep myself above water, I felt so light as I stopped everything and let myself sink. I hoped that the next thing I see would be light, Heaven and God...

Then suddenly out of nowhere, a huge Indian came by with his friend. He touched me as he walked by, and I immediately caught his arm and clinged hard onto him. He was very surprised, but I told him that this was too deep for me and I asked him to take me to the shore. (Even he did not notice I was drowning?) This giant just walked easily from where I was drowning till the shore and left me there.

There is something I have always thought about: that God has given us all life for a reason: be it a reason you may think big or small, but it is still an important reason to live this God-given life! It could be making someone happy for a day, helping someone out of a problem, contributing towards a better life, or even saving someone else's life!

I salute my LIE teacher, Mr Chan for teaching me the value of making someone else's day. He paid for a guy behind him at a highway toll, and he did that because it feels good to know that you've made someone happy and appreciate you for it. God bless you, Mr Chan. =)

If everyone were to be like you, world peace would be easily possible. If only everyone lives to make someone else happy, at least.

There are people who live to make someone else happy, there are people who live to help someone out of trouble. Marie Curie, Graham Bell, and Edison are some of them who lived to make our lives better. Brave soldiers of war lived to die for their loved ones and their country. Einstein, Newton and Darwin lived for knowledge and science. Mandela and Gandhi lived for human rights.

Everyone, in God's eyes live for a reason, a reason in which I believe plays a role in God's greatest plan for all. I myself am not really sure of my objective, but I'm very sure that God has plans for me. Because in response to my "last" prayer, somehow I really heard God replying me, "Not yet." =)

Lord my God, my Saviour my Father

You took me out of death to live another day

I owe my all to You, twice since You gave Your only Son

Christ to die on the cross for our sins

To redeem us from our deaths

My life, my heart and my soul are in Your hands

Please forgive me Lord whenever I forget that

For I'm but a human with his faults and weaknesses

Who needs Your guidance and wisdom to live

Mold me in Your will O Lord

Use me in Your plans

I breathe again today

For You have in me a job to do

In which I would do for You

And all in the glory of Your name

And soon joining You in Heaven

Hearing You saying

Well done.

Amen. =)

FM's Top 10 Kerinduan

2010-01-31T17:03:00.002+01:00

Here is FM's Top 10 list of the things he missed the most since leaving to France.

10.

Checking the postbox to find a letter with my name on it. lol

The Star Newspaper. Sports 1st, Comics, then Nation, then the rest....hehe.

Cycling around just about anywhere, seeing new places. Miss my bicycle, passed down from my brother.

The excitement when family wants to go Penang or KL, or when Bro or Sis comes back.

FGA Taiping. Be it the chinese group, the english group, I have fond memories with both of them. Auntie Lai Phing and Pastor Dalbir, the people I've met, the friends I've made and fellowshipped with. The Kem's I've went.

And the thing I really miss most from FGA is the worship. Now that I'm miles away from them, listening to Hillsong just doesn't do it. I mean, it cannot replace the 'umph' of the YP team. YP worships in a way like no other. =)

FM's YP Worship wishlist: Above all powers, From the inside out, Shout to the lord, I love You Lord, History Maker, Worthy is the Lamb, Lord I give You my heart, and many more of which I can't think for the moment. I do hope someone from YP would read this so I can hope to hear them when I return this July. =)

Chicken rice, Char kuay teow, Roti bom, Hokkien mee, Nasi lemak..... all the delicious goodness of Malaysia.

The snacks I would find easily, always stocked up by Mom. Thanks! =) And how Dad would insist on buying us pizza or KFC and mom would disagree. Miss those moments...hehe.

Time with friends. Go out Taihu drink, talk nonsense, or go cinema, or hang out just about anywhere, or just stuck in the middle of the road don't know where to go. Missed the times when Kok Leong, Yung, Chin, Seik San or Yiap would fetch me home. lol. thanks ya!

Mom's cooking. I lived and grew up with it. =)

My family. Need I say more? =)

Next: FM's Top 10 Music.

Fil Facile Kononnya.

2010-01-09T19:33:00.015+01:00

Fil Facile (Easy Ticket) is a system for buses at Tours.

Normal ticket price is €1.05 for each person. But if it's the weekend and you are 3 or 4 persons you can buy this "Fil Facile" for €2.00 (saves you €1.15 or €2.20 that way.)

Wow, how cheap and convenient! A very good system indeed!

So here's how it went today:

This afternoon, I went to Carrefour for shopping with 3 of my friends, by bus. We were 4, and thank God we have Fil Facile! Just €0.50 each person! WOW! (Happy little stingy nuts. lol)

2 of my friends went back earlier, my friend Shashi and I stayed back at Carrefour for dinner. OK makan puas2 d....go to bus stop wait. Naik that bus, I asked that Makcik Bus Driver for fil facile.

FM : Un Fil Facile pour deux, s'il vous plait. (One Easy Ticket for two, please.)

MCB : Vous êtes deux? Mais il faut trois ou quatre pour ça. (You are two? But it needs three or four for that.)

FM : Oh, donc nous sommes trois. (Oh, then we are three.) *Lol...dunno why i said that oso.*

MCB : *Feeling a little annoyed* Vous êtes combien vraiment? (How many are you really?)

*One girl gets on the bus*

FM : Nous sommes avec lui. (We are with him.)

Girl : Quoi? (What?) *Very surprised, stunned*

MCB : *To Girl* Êtes-vous avec eux? (Are you with them?)

FM : *After looking closely, only notices it's a girl. Oops* Oui, elle est avec nous. (Yes, she is with us.)

Girl : Non, je ne suis pas avec eux. (No, I am not with them)

FM : Mais avec le Fil Facile, ça va nous coûter moins cher que si on paye séparément. (But with the Easy Ticket, it will cost us cheaper than if one pays separately.)

Girl : Ah oui c'est vrai! Je suis avec eux. (Ah yes it's true! I am with them.)

MCB : *Furious, starts to bising d. Rambled so fast that I dunno what she said. But she said something about the bus officers doing random ticket checkups and will do more often at night, and if they find out, we will get fined. Because the Fil Facile requires that all 3 of us go to the same destination together. So she wants us to buy tickets separately, otherwise she won't be responsible if anything happens.*

*Girl and FM stare at each other*

MCB : *To girl* Vous allez où? (You go where?) *lol...direct translation*

Girl : A la Jean Jaures. (To Jean Jaures)

Here, we were at Carrefour. Shashi and I wanted to go back to Fac de Grandmont (Grandmont Faculty). But this girl wanted to go to Jean Jaures, which is to the town, not the same route as ours.

MCB : Je ne vais pas passer par Jean Jaures. (I will not pass by Jean Jaures)

Girl : Ah? *Terkejut again. Took wrong bus liao. lol* Est-ce que vous allez passer par la Fac de Grandmont? (Will you pass by Fac de Grandmont?)

MCB : Oui, allez-y. (Yes, go on)

FM : Oui, très bien! Elle est avec nous alors. On va aller aussi à la Fac de Grandmont. Nous trois ensemble. (Yes, very good! She is with us then! We will also go to Grandmont Faculty. Us 3 together.)

MCB : *Speechless* 2 euros. (2 euros) *Kalah d still wan ramble samo...wasn't paying attention to what she said coz I was busy looking for 2 euros.* *She said something about me being lucky this time, the next time she won't do it anymore. Something about officers being strict and fine and such*

FM : Ne vous inquiétez pas. Ca va aller. (Don't you worry. Nothing will go wrong.)

FM : *Pays and takes ticket* Merci c'est gentil. (Thanks, that's kind.) lol

So we took our seats, had a chat. Her name's Asma, from Morroc. She lives at Building F, whereas me and the Malaysians, we live at Building A. Just a couple of blocks away from our place.

FM : Je paye pour toi. (I pay for you.)

Asma : Merci, c'est gentil de toi. =) (Thanks, that's kind of you.)

*Bus reaches destination*

FM : MERCI!! (THANK YOU!!) *gets out of the bus*

What I don't understand is why is it that this Easy Ticket needs 3 or 4 but not 2? So much for it being "Easy". If 2 people buy normal ticket means €2.10. Fil Facile is 10 cents cheaper! 10 cents still matters ok. Convert means 50 RM sen. Can buy keropok d. I want Fil Facile! Hopefully the next time I'm out with my friend again, there will be another random girl coming up the bus.

FM : Elle est avec nous.

Girl 2 : Quoi?

Winter at Tours

2009-12-18T12:06:00.003+01:00

Christmas Market

At Christmas market, it's like pasar malam for Christmas...where they sell things like Christmas gifts...cookies...and many more.

It snowed =)

SEASON'S GREETINGS TO ALL!

Merry Christmas to Dad, Mom, Bro, Sis and all my friends out there! =)
God bless.

Pics

2009-11-15T13:01:00.005+01:00

My Room at Tours

Very small, only 9m square

Bordeaux by the lake

Arc de Triomphe

So nice d they go kiss behind me...

Tours Town Hall

Bordeaux

Je ne sais pas

2009-07-20T23:54:00.003+02:00

Long time no update blog...but now I don't wanna what to type or where to start also.

Started missing home now. Haha. I've already spent 1 and a half months here and I don't feel so foreign anymore. Learning French gets harder and harder but it's still alright, am progressing quite well.

Life at hostel ain't too bad, just that we cannot cook good meals, can only curi-curi cook with ricecooker. There's a microwave downstairs for us to use, so usually, my friend Lionel(he shares his ricecooker with me) will cook either rice, spaghetti or pasta, while I prepare something with the microwave. I have experimented with a few ingredients in a different way and came up with quite a few new recipes I've discovered. Not too bad, pretty good for "survival food". Our main ingredients would usually be bacon slices, sausages, eggs, potatoes, garlic and some kiub pati ayam.

Breakfast is provided, just like buffet you can take as much as you want. Everyday, everyone of us would "ta pau" alot of things.
Breakfast menu:
Cereals (Honey stars, Corn flakes or Koko Crunch)
Yogurts (Sugar, vanilla, fruits)
Sugar
Lipton teh
Packets of jam, chocolate paste, butter and honey
Breads.

Usually I ta pau sugar, lipton, the packets especially chocolate paste. Often I would just take them and eat like yogurt. Yum. lol

If it's possible, I hope to come back to Malaysia next summer, I hope.

A few pictures I've uploaded here, coz I have very limited access to the internet.

Puy Du Fou, A medievil festival with lots of wonderful performances

Sunrise

Survival food

My room

Seal performance at Zoo de La Palmyre

Au revoir!

Will be moving out to hostel

2009-06-28T06:50:00.002+02:00

My time with the foster family is up. Today I'll be moving to a hostel. This means that I won't be able to go online anymore, but perhaps I might at school. But see how first lah...cannot online so often d lo.

Can't on MSN anymore, perhaps checking a few mails ya, blog oso may not gonna be updated for a long time. These days also getting busier d...haha.

2 more months and I'll move to Tours to begin my Pre-U. Hopefully, I may get internet with my friends there, but we'll see how first.

1. Been to the beach twice so far, both times getting sunburnt. But nevertheless, it was still fun: enjoying the sand, the waves...the seawater needs some time to adapt to, but after awhile it'll be ok.

2. Bought myself a new handphone, in the contract, the phone Samsung Player Style F480 only costs me 1 Euro(RM5), but I'll be paying 38 euros a month for 2 years which gives me unlimited SMS and unlimited 3G+ Internet. But no unlimited SMS to Malaysia la of course, calls and SMS to Msia will be very very expensive.

3. Summer's coming, things are really heating up now. But still the air is still cold, so it's not too bad.

4. Michael Jackson est mort. R.I.P.

K lah...till I get access to the internet again. Hope everything's fine in Malaysia now, and will be better soon. See ya. =)

June 19

2009-06-16T23:45:00.003+02:00

French keyboard

My school

NEXT:
Zoo De La Palmyre - More than 1600 animals, extending over 18 hectares, among the best zoos in France, and also in Europe.

Eglise Saint Pierre, Lionel, Natalie and Benjamin

2009-06-12T17:24:00.003+02:00

Eglise Saint Pierre (Church of St. Peter)

Lionel

Natalie and her boyfriend, Benjamin

More photos

2009-06-07T23:34:00.007+02:00

Royan War Memorial

Beautiful sunrays bursting through the clouds

The Church of Notre Dame. Also known as The Big Church, Grande Eglise.
It is one of the biggest Catholic churches around.

Organs.

The Last Supper

A look in the Grande Eglise

This is where people can light candles in remembrance of the ones they've lost.

Sainte Jeanne D'Arc

A look in the Protestant church.

Market

Morning market. Just like pasar malam but it's in the morning.

Many things for sale here are cheap.

Very nice scenery of a house by the beach at night.

At the garden

There's a window just above our room. Sometimes I sunbathe here. A warm sunshine does feel nice on a cold weather. Hehe.

The beach

Streets of Royan

Movies. lol

Our foster mom's dogs: The big one's the mother, it has 3 puppies.

This is Jacques, the father dog.

Cute~! =)

Lionel, surfing champion on a newspaper article

1. Almost every household here in France has a pet. Most French love dogs. Big dogs, small dogs, cute dogs, fierce dogs...

2. Roman-Catholic is a common religion in France, there are many Catholic churches here in Royan but there is 1 Protestant church. Thank God it's only 20 minutes away from our foster house by walking and the Pastor is an American. lol

Bonjour!

2009-06-05T00:46:00.008+02:00

Bonjour.

First of all, before I begin I'd wish to say that I really appreciate everything that my family and friends to for me upon my last moments in Malaysia. Many thanks to Kok Leong, MK, Geet, Lavin, Jason, Gaik Tian, Suit Mei, Rathina, Shu Pei and Wai Yee for the surprise birthday party. Hehe. It really was surprising, I knew something's fishy, KL acting so strange...I thought perhaps that it's just Gaik Tian making a surprise appearance before my departure, but a birthday celebration 1 month ahead? Lol. So unexpected, but unexpectation brings the best surprise. And yea, I was very touched, I may not be able to express my gratitude and happiness in words, but I sincerely do appreciate it and I really liked what you guys have done. Many thanks for that. =)

Present from Gaik Tian and co.
So adorable...miss it so much.

And many thanks to the F3 gang for planning a farewell party for me at KFC. And thanks for the football. lol. Wish you guys good luck in your PMR ok. Do study hard and well. And I can see that you guys have special interests. (e.g. beatboxing...popping...etc) Make good use of your talents k. lol. We shall dine again. =)

And also thanks to my friends who accompanied me throughout my last week in Malaysia. Lepak...watch Champions League Final at SS house...movie...Tai Hu....Starbucks...Mun Keong's party...many many more. Really had fun. =) . Final outing before departure: McDonald's, Subang Jaya. =))

And also thanks to my family for bringing me up this far, to see me through my difficulties as well as my successes. Love you, mom, dad, sis and bro. Auntie Lai Phing and Uncle Dalbir, to me, I anggap them as my family edi. =)))

And last but definitely not least: God. The One that made it all possible. Amen. =))))))

The Beginning

me in the plane to France, just before take-off

Assembled at KLIA at 7.35pm. After everything was done, we took off at 11.35pm. It was a 13-hour flight, but one can't get bored at all in the plane!

Voila. (pic: John Terry. lol. Was watching BPL Highlights)

Got mini-television for each passenger, with a remote control and a pair of headphones. Enough entertainment for the whole flight. Notice that if you hold the controller sideways, the 4 buttons at each side, left and right would make the controller look like a PlayStation joystick. This mini-TV got:
* some simple games - minigolf, tennis, chess, congkak, etc
* some nice movies - watchmen, wall-e, enchanted, new in town, pink panther 1 and 2, etc
* music - oldies, country, rock, top hits, etc
* tv shows - monk, house, etc
(sleeping itself already took away my 7 hours) =(

Ipod charge full-full, PSP charge full-full. But didn't touch at all. lol.

MAS Food

Not bad. Filling and nice. This meal is beef+potatoes+brocolli, biscuit, bread, tuna+salad, orange juice. Delicious. Another meal I had was Nasi Lemak. 2 meals total.

Reach France, walk out of the airport, cool air blew in. I thought it was the aircond they usually have at the supermarket entrances, but it wasn't! The weather's very cool in France, although it's summer. The sunshine is hot in the afternoon, just like in Malaysia, but the cool air blows everytime in France. It's hard to sweat around here.

Took a bus, 7 hour journey to a town by the seaside called Royan.

France's signature food. And Lionel and Shashi, my friends.

Once we reached Royan, we were assigned to our foster families. Me and my friend, Tung, our foster mother is Madame Patricia.

Madame Patricia

She's a very nice lady. Kind, nice and jovial. She's a single mother with 2 daughters and 1 son: Natalie, Valerie and Lionel.

Natalie and Valerie are both beautiful. (The French are really beautiful people. lol). Valerie's not around here, we did meet Natalie, along with her boyfriend. Very friendly and nice, both of them. (Pictures coming soon)

Lionel is a special man. He is France's surfing champion. We saw a newspaper cutout with an article about him. At the age of 17, he surfed very well and won many championships and competitions. Very fit and handsome, he is. (Pictures coming soon)

Altogether, they make a very nice family. Oh and they have pet dogs as well, both cute and pretty. 2 dogs, male and female with 3 cute little puppies. (Pictures coming soon)

Madame Patricia took us around Royan for a tour. Show us how to go to school, market, shops, restaurant, and sight-seeing. She took us to La Plage de Pontaillac(The Beach of Pontaillac), it's very beautiful and nice.

La Plage de Pontaillac

La Plage de Pontaillac is 1 of the 5 beaches one can find in Royan.

Very big and beautiful house by the beach. Oo la la.

Dinner prepared by Madame Patricia.
Chicken with rice. Chicken rice, French style. lol. Very delicious.

My room. Small and compact, but comfortable. Shower+sink+toilet also got.

Madame Patricia painted it herself, her dad was an artist.

Shower and sink. Toilet is just beside those.

We are assigned to our foster families to learn to speak French. So it'll be 100% French everyday. Although it's hard at first, with her not being able to understand us and us not being able to understand her. But in the end, we will understand each other, with the help of the dictionary, drawing and sign languages. Haha. But as time goes, as we expand our French vocabulary, things get easier. Now, we can even have a short chat with Madame Patricia. =)

Streets of Royan

Tung looking at car

Here in France, I saw alot of cars: Peugeot, Audi, BMW and Mercedes. And few Toyota and Honda.

Wow.

Le Lido, The Cinema

Me enjoying my pizza.

Yum

La Plage de Pontaillac at night.

1. French people. Very nice and kind. Everyone will most likely greet each other(Bonjour or Bonsoir). The French drivers, although they drive fast, but they will give priority to pedestrians. Even if when you wanna cross a road, and the driver is suppose to go, you insist he drives first, but he will stop and insist that you cross first, no matter what.

Not many of them can speak English. I would say only 35% can speak a little Englsh, and 5% can speak English well.

They are very beautiful people. Handsome men, beautiful women.

2. French food. Nothing that one will find hard to eat. They're very nice and delicious. Main diet: Meat+bread+cheese.

3. Money. Everything is in Euro. Means 1 Euro = RM5. So it's quite difficult to plan my budget, but I will try to spend wisely. A meal like the pizza I had costed 8.50 Euro. But it's filling and delicious, so I wouldn't say it's too expensive. I just bought 3 shirts for 10 Euros, stock clearance promotion. Haha. Bought a telephone card to call home to Malaysia for 15 Euro, calling home isn't too expensive, really. With 11.50 Euro credit left, I have 118 minutes talktime to Malaysia.

4. Weather. Now it's summer, but the sun won't kill you. It's just like Malaysia's, but there is cool wind blowing all the time. The sun rises at about 6-7am in the morning and sets at about 9pm+. 9pm here is like 6pm in Malaysia. lol. Perhaps it's because now it's summer, so daytime would be longer than night.

5. Schedule. Monday to Friday, French classes are at 9am-12pm, 2pm-4pm. After 4pm, we have plenty of time to do anything. There are some after-school activities such as ping-pong, beach volleyball, karaoke and billiard, but it's optional.

In conclusion, I'm doing very fine here. No problem so far. Not too hard to adapt. I'll update this blog regularly, with of course, more pics. Do check this blog sometime k.

(For those who are curious to know how am I doing in France, do recommend them to visit this blog, everything about me in France I will post it here.)

=)

With love,
FM

Dengan Sebuah Hati Yang Berat...

2009-05-25T19:39:00.002+02:00

...ku menulis post ini.

Sigh...1 more week in Taiping, or for that matter Malaysia...to make things worse, I am currently recovering from this seasonal flu...not really in the mood for anything.

Things come and go so fast...too fast actually.

Looking around my room...everything, each one of them brings memories...1 year, 2 years and even 10 years ago.

Flipped through the pages in the photo album...boy, everyone and everything looked so young back then.

...

Have to stop typing now...better get some sleep. My eyes are all teary now...

Sometimes...we just have to learn to let go.

Goodnight.

FM.

GoodBYE

2009-05-04T17:05:00.002+02:00

It's been ages since I last blogged....so here's a summary of stuffs that happened around me..

1. SPM. Got 5A1, 6A2. Many considered me a lucky bum, but this is actually God's mercy and kindness upon me.

2. Scholarship. Got JPA scholarship for French Engineering. When I tell people that I chose French Engineering, most will "Har?" me. Korea, Japan, Germany they know lah....but France nobody know. It seems that there are 40 people chosen for this course, 39 now because 1 did not turn up on registration day(maybe he rejected it or he couldn't get JPA's call). Out of 39, 3 are from Perak: 1 Selama, 1 Ipoh, 1 Taiping.

3. KL life. Not bad lah...so far alright. Just that I can't find any chinese restaurants around. So I can only eat mamak food everyday. Thank God I'm only here for 1 month. KTM 2 stations away from Shah Alam is Subang Jaya, where Yung, SS and Kenny are. Went to find them on Labour Day, had fun with them for 3 days 2 nights. lol. Watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it is one of the best movies in 2009. A must watch.

4. France. Finally, a lifelong dream come true. Passed the 2nd interview, and now will be leaving to France on the 31st May. Studying there for 7 years, but will come back a few times lah, during summer holidays.

Mixed feelings...happy oso got...sad oso got....everything just came too fast. I'll be occasionally updating myself in this blog lah...Most probably can chat by MSN...like that still ok kua. Haha.

So bye bye and stay tuned. =)