Ex-GE Colleague pre-CNY gathering

Thanks to Tony Lim for organizing yet another wonderful yearly event of ex-GE colleague gathering that took place at Setia Walk on 24th Jan 2013. I think we have been doing this 3 years in a roll and I am happy that we still managed to maintain a count of 6 ex-colleague attending the gathering. Just like any other yearly gathering, food is not the main subject but rather a place for all of us (and spouse and children) to have a decent place to chit-chat and catch up on what life had been since we last met. Look, we were getting "wiser" and the kids have grown up a lot since last year!

My dear ex-colleague from GE, I surely cherish our friendship and hope we will be having gathering in years to come. Good luck and hope you have a great year ahead.

好心做坏事

（一）放生=慈悲？
根据台湾动物社会研究会、国际人道协会公布的台湾放生现象调查，台湾每年至少750次、平均每天约2.1次的放生活动。共有7个组织会到海外放生，放生地点遍及中国、香港、美国、加拿大、印尼、马来西亚、新加坡、尼泊尔、印度、西藏等。 身体不舒服、婚姻不幸福、求家人平安发财、迅速累积功德以求来世福报，通通都要「放生」。但台湾宗教组织的放生现象，在少数法师刻意扭曲慈悲护生原意，披上「赎罪」、「求功德」等外衣，已成为快速募款，具有「宗教市场区隔」的营利事业。 而且，放生行为背后有一套完整的商业供需。为因应市场需求，无数动物被捕捉、繁殖，动物及环境都饱受苦难。 「慈悲护生」的方式很多，例如积极投入河川保育，多做环保，宣导民众吃素等等，才是真正是不伤害动物生存的「护生」。 为了放生而放生，顺应潮流，却不知道背后肥了业者，也间接害死了无数宝贵的生命。是名符其实的好心做坏事。

（二）富从「乞」中求
从小至今我们被灌输的观念变是，助人乃快乐之本。乞丐是社会制度里不幸的一群，理应受到我们的施舍。但是，事实果真是如此吗？难道大家没察觉现在的乞丐趋向「专业」吗？好象来来去去都是那几种形象：或少了只手，或脚被锯了而伤口呈鲜红色（过了几个月再碰见还是一模一样那种），或手抱小孩暴晒于烈日下，等等等等。 乐善好施绝对是种美德，但施舍之余，是否有反思这是恰当与否？钱是真帮了他，还是受益的另有其人？有想过为什么这些乞丐没接受福利局资助而被迫出来行乞？ 再反思一下，有人抱著半睡不醒之婴儿沿途行乞，大家因一念之仁而施以金钱，这样是否助长那些不法之徒到处偷小孩来作摇钱树？在大马，或少听过，但在外国尤其是第叁世界国家好像时有所闻。 捐钱做慈善，管道多得是。慈济、世界宣明会等团体至少有较透明的管理和让人信服的方针。更重要的是，积沙成丘，它们从各路善士所凝聚的款项，是绝对能更好地造福那些需要帮助的人。

说好的以民为本呢？

政府高官们爱把 "以民为本" 这口号掛在嘴边, 但做出来的却是另外一套。远的不说，单看他们不理民意，坚持要发临时执照给莱纳斯便可见一斑。或许可以这么说，所谓的质询民意什么的，都只是公关秀。其实政府的终极目标便是允许莱纳斯在关丹作业。听起来蛮恼人的，但这是事实。
到底稀土废料是否真如莱纳斯所说的能再循环以制造石膏或道路建材什么的並不重要。我敢说人民不放心的莫过於我国官员们监督的效率及透明度，会否到头来把黑的说成白，高辐射也说成没有辐射，或是什么“比家里的LCD还低”等话来掩盖真相。伤害已经造成，到时就祸害无穷了。
看PTPTN，那简直是当年公共大学企业化的产物。在这之前，公共大学学费廉宜，是大部分人都能负担得起的。一部分小康或贫穷人家，都会申请JPA或各州级奖学全或助学金以减轻生活费负担，但数额不致于对日后还债时形太大负担。
如果当初政府有替人民着想的话，就根本不应该大幅度调涨学费。一个负责任的政府应该提供低负担教育。理由再简单不过，人民有纳税，理应获得纳税人的基本权利。
覆水难收，要废除PTPTN谈何容易？就算民联打包单上台后废除，我还是存有疑虑。
用手投票！不要用脚或用嘴投票。绝对要搞清楚，人民才是老板！为什么政府还反过来要老板感恩呢？

Fun with Beads

I bought a new game for Jia during my trip to Bandung recently.  It is a set of beads with pegboards and templates.  

It was bought with the intention to keep Jia occupied throughout her trip in Bandung as Bandung does not have many fun activities for kids.  At the end, I find it to be an interesting and useful toy for her as it helps to improve motor skill as well as giving the sense of achievement when she got the shapes done by filling in bead by bead onto the pegboard.

Here's what it looks like inside the box.  It consists of a few packs of beads with different colors, a few templates, and two pegboards. 

This is how it looks like after it is harden by ironing under mild heat for around two minutes.  This is the fun part that excites Jia a lot as she gets to hold and feel the end result which is the harden beads that are joined together.  The harden beads can then be used as decoration by sticking onto wall, or just bringing it around.

Missing You

今天听到电台播了"Missing You" 这首巫啓贤N年前的歌，回忆马上一一湧现。

这是我大学时期很喜欢的曲目之一。没有复杂的歌词,只有贴近人心的情感，这就是这首歌特别之处。

人何尝没有思念?哪怕是那么一刹那，某人某景或会不自觉窜进思绪里。

思念真也不必说出口，或许摆在心里也未尝不是件好事。有好多好多的人、事、物，不是因为没有提起便表示是忘了。我想时间是会淡化一些不那么美好的记忆，但所有在生命中遇到的真、善、美，又岂会轻易从思念中抺去呢?

Take a stroll down memory lane - 1st Computer experience

 The passing of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs has triggered me to dig into the history of Apple and its first computer dated back in 1970s.
It is incredibly impressive to see how computer has evolved over time and how the world has become hooked into the technology so seamlessly.
Today, computer is no longer a computer. With the advancement in technology, it is indeed "devices" that we are talking about. Devices that are no longer confined to a box with CPU, a monitor screen, and a keyboard for input.
My first experience with computer was back in late 80s when I was in secondary school. Back then, computer was synonym to luxury item with not many people could afford, so do I. As an initiative to foster computer literacy among students, my school back then had organized "Kelab Komputer" which students could enjoy usage of computer and some instructor led classes with a nominal fees of RM5 a month. I was fortunate to be able to participate in the club and have had my first ever experience with a computer.
At that time, the lab was equipped with the Commodore 128  - a computer with white color body, a type writer like keyboard, and a mouse.  Obviously the Commodore is no longer in operation now (company went bankrupt in early 2000), but the design and UI of the computer was as good as Apple's Macintosh at that time. Guess what, the computer did not have MS-DOS and as far as I can recall, I have to type in the instruction is BASIC to get the computer to work! Yes, I wrote a couple of programs in BASIC (ranging from hello world to some graphical patterns looping).
I still remember the name of my teacher, Mr Lee Foo San. He was a very knowledgeable person in computer and I considered that to be scarce at that time as many did not know what computer was let alone using it.
Quite an interesting memory to me comes to think about it.

Artistic Works

Wen Jia has developed her art skills substantially over the last few weeks.
She used to have the fear of picking up a pencil and start drawing something, most probably due to lack of the concept of shapes and dimensions. But who cares? We didn't even bother to send her for a "training" just for that. No, I don't think she need that. And i know what she needs. She just need more time from both her parents to encourage and nurture her as she gets along.
We observed and noticed that she felt excited when seeing her cousins did painting work with water color. There she goes, we bought a box of Buncho water color for her and did her first ever drawing and painting with her. I was proud to see her producing her first painting with very minimum help from us.

Besides, her coloring skill has improved so much and she has indeed exhibited a fair bit of creativity when comes to choosing her own color. Below coloring work with color pencils has seen her using colors of her choice without even following the pictures on the upper side which are pre-printed as a guide.

She has also started some paper art as part of her class work in Purity Learning session that she joins twice monthly.
This one is a paper art of a dinosaur that was created in recent class.

Overall, art works train her patience and concentration which is the key to learning.