新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year

Song : Chinese New Year medley from home.pacbell.net

Here I drop by to wish everyone the happiest Chinese New Year! A few friends of mine are pathetically stuck in their exams today, while some others are stuck on the flight to study overseas. I wish them luck and enjoy their special Chinese New Year! I guess this is a phase that everyone has to go through, the painful experience of having to endure solitude in festivals.

I am having a running nose now, not a good harbinger for a prosperous rooster year huh... Don't care, I am still going to enjoy to my best the last two weeks here in Malaysia. In exactly 2 more weeks, I will be flying to Melbourne to pursue my tertiary studies. Time flies. It really does. Well, the fact is, I haven't packed and bought the winter clothing. Haha.. Well, Chinese New Years first, everything comes second!

A lion dance picture taken in 2003 at my home.

I am eagerly waiting for the same lion dance troop to visit me tomorrow. (it has always been the same lion anyway.. :-D)

p/s: Can anyone kindly give me some feedback on the revamped look of the blog? Just some slight modification, the most noticeable one being the added background for the title of each message. Thanks!

Sorry Everyone!

I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up with this blog recently. I just realized that how good a procrastinator I can be...

In fact I have been able to access to the Internet for the past few days, and I have returned from my KL trip on 28th January. I was just immersed in some other things in my daily life, from writing Chinese New Year cards to buying new clothes, from burning CDs to reorganizing my harddisk contents, and most importantly, keeping up contact with old time friends!

So basically here is a brief report of what I have been doing since I last blogged:

1. I went to Kuala Lumpur on the 21st, had a 2-day tour with Winson, Yee Pin and Jason Lau. We visited KL city centre, the tower bridge of KLCC, sang karaoke in Red Box, and tried out the advanced toilet in Mandarin Oriental hotel. (forgive me if it sounds stupid... after all, we are all 20!) For more info visit my photo gallery on flickr.

2. There were 2 briefings held in Kuala Lumpur. The first one was organized by the University of Melbourne, the venue of which was in Pan Pacific Glenmarie, Shah Alam. It was on January 23. The second one was on January 27th, a briefing by my sponsor, Public Service Department of Malaysia.

3. I paid a fantastic visit to Jitra, the place I grew up in. It was truly a marvelous experience, the feeling of having chitchat with my old friend (Jenny) was simply soul-rewarding. It helped soothe my bad mood recently.

4. I got very addicted to ReCom forum. I posted my message mainly on the "God, Bible and ..." thread.

5. I will be packing my luggage. Trying my best to fit 30kg of my personal stuff into the baggage. Sigh, the limit of 30 kg set by the airlines is simply not enough, considering the medical books I need to bring there.

6. I received a few complaints about my passing interest in blogging. One even said, "Now I know you lose interest very easily." Haha, she kind of gave me the impetus to write this.

Till now. I hope that I can update with the Chinese New Year festival really really soon. It's going to be a big reunion in my family, and I look forward to my 6 sibling's homecoming!

Kong Hey Fat Choy!

Kuala Kedah

Alor Star Trip 070, originally uploaded by changyang1230.

This is a test, so I simply chose one of the best taken pictures.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

My Faith

I really have no time for today's blog. I will be going to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow for my future university's briefing as well as my sponsor's, summing it up it is away from home for 8 days. Blogging has been interesting and I enjoyed the increasing "readership". I will try to keep up with it while I still have some free time.

Just now I have posted a message in ReCom, the Worldwide Malaysian Students Network. As an aside, I would recommend any Malaysian student, whether studying locally or overseas, to join this informative and inspiring student forum. There is where the best of Malaysians are, I would argue. Anyway, my message was about the God-idea, and I do not wish this message to be considered as an act of sacrilege. I think any religion should be open to discussion and withstand all of them. Those who fail to open up to polemics aren't really religions by themselves.

SO here is the full quote of the message. Hope it triggers some thought and reflection on your own religions.

#BEGIN

ivysehoo wrote:


God exist because all life forms are interdependent on each other. This tremendous design within the universe deffinately requires a great designer or one main architect. One who came out with a plan for creation. Nothing lives or dies to itself. Each living thing, when it dies, supplies further live for other living things.

The universe is govern by laws such as gravitation. This requires a lawgiver which is GOD. Evolutionist, scientists, biologists, geneticists, are never able to demonstrate that the non living can make itself into the living. The law of biogenesis states that life comes only from life and hence, GOD is the great life giver.

Human in all his geniousity can never build, make, produce, or create anything that is superior to himself. Do you suppose that any power or force of less intelligence than your mind could produce you?

I am convinced that GOD exist because of fulfilled prophecies and answered prayers. However, it is our personal experience with God that will change our lives. God is personal. He created each of us with purpose and He loves us very much. How would we find Him and know our purpose? We have to give our lives back to the life giver before we can find the true meaning of life. Pride is the downfall of humanity when we lose the fear of God and start living on our own strength. Turn to God, people!

A typical evangelist post!

It's interesting that many people actually think that his or her religion is the only RIGHT religion while all other's are wrong. What's always lingering in my mind is that, what happens if we have been believing in a particular religion, but after you demised you are brought to face "another" God or *something* which proves that your religion is WRONG?

Is there a possibility that the REAL thing is the mixture of the religions? I mean.. God exists, but Buddha as the enlightened person can lead people out from suffering through nirvana. And deities do have miraculous power through their unbeknownst magic. And some other religious faiths also ring bold? WHY must we have to choose ONLY a particular religion? WHy can't someone say, I am both a Christian and a Buddhist?

For the reason that God must exist because everything in this world is in such a great order yet complex, I have been exposed to this theory for years but yet it still fails to convince me completely. As someone who believes blindly in logic (is this wrong in terms of faith? many people tell me in faith you don't apply logics completely, because there are many things which are out of grasps of logic) I think this argument is fatally flawed.

Yes, people are arguing for existence of god because everything must have its "more intelligent and powerful" designer. Note the word "EVERYTHING". Yet, when you say that God is the one who created everything, isn't God a THING by itself? Then by saying that God is the ULTIMATE creator, you are actually refuting your own premise, that is EVERYTHING must be designed. The solution of "GOD EXISTS BY HIMSELF" is just a contradiction to the premise. Think about it.

God may exist, but I can't find out yet, till today. Perhaps it's back to faith. When you have faith, everything will happen. But I don't really agree to purely xenophobic devotees. I mean, if you are a believer in God, you are totally right in holding your faith but please don't hold any prejudice against atheist. People have their mindset, and if you think that he is a "traitor" so he must be a bad guy, then it's you who are acting unjustly.

Right now, my own hypothesis is... things are interdependant and feedback is the thing that makes it happen. I speak vaguely, I know. Let me give a not-so-good example.. hmm... If I were to ask, who has the biggest power in the world? George W. Bush? Yes, at first glimpse, he is indeed the answer. Yet, his election as the president was related to so many factors, and it was his american citizens who held the power to choose the person they want to lead the country. But then again, what was the power that influence the american people? Their brain power? The crowd psychology? The propaganda? The media? The foreign countries? But who influenced the media? George W Bush, probably? I know this example is lame, but I just hope to voice over the idea. *things are interdependant, it's either you let the causality cycle run through a circle, or you let it diverge to the infinity (which is the case of God)*

Infinity is still an idea too far from me. The distance: infinity. Probably it will become close one day.

#END

Thank you Xaph and Woody!

Thank you xaph and woody for dropping by!! I thought that my blog wouldn't hold the feeblest interest for anyone.. I appreciate it. (",)

I will continue on the death issue when I have time later, Woody. Your visit on my blog was such an impetus to my momentum of writing blogs, as I only started itout of pure interest and kiasuism. A 54-year-old reader makes me feel like someone "important". :-P But at the same time, I feel a great sense of responsibility too.

To xaph anyway, it wasn't really to boast off the "moment of glory". In primary school years, I used to be be a haughty little kid. As someone who had won numerous prizes while beating seniors in the process, subliminally I developed a condescending attitude towards others. I thought that people around me were stupid or this sort, you see, I was dealing with the hardest problems in mathematics competition while some of them are grappling with the "easy" school routine practice. With too much of self-esteem at such an impressionable age, it was me who bred the inflated self-image. I became arrogant.

As I entered secondary school, things have changed and challenged me out of my home-grown rose bed. So many things are now out of my grasps, and I find myself more and more shackled by the environment and the people around me. Yes, I still score in the exam (the yardstick of "achievement" in schooling years), but I paled as I enter my secondary school which was one of the "elite" school in the area. I was outperformed by many. Eventually I got dropped out of top ten in the first final exam, and I started to think, "Am I not as smart as I thought?"

Form 2 (second year in secondary school) was not much better. I was appointed the team leader in an intersquad first-aid competition. With the ballooned self-esteem, I thought, yeah, this is the time to rock and roll~~ I trained as if I was the best leader in the world, basking in my own preposterous glory. Nahh.. the truth showed its colour. The truth barked at me in my ears - "You are a bad leader!!" My team members were reluctant to go for training, and the whole team became virtually disintegrated. At the end, I ended up admiring the girl champion leader.. :-P She was both charming and tough, man.. haha..

I should say that Form 2 was a bit of a watershed of my outlook on life. I learnt to accept that I cannot be, and I am never the best in anything. Even the world's fastest runner need to improve his record, let alone a weeny guy?

Getting in the Malaysia team was a reinforcement of my new faith of life. I went to the United States and it was really the best experience I had in my lifetime. Not for the first airplane trip nor the land of liberty, but the newly gained vista I had on intelligence and humility. I got one of the lowest marks in the whole competition, as expected, but that wasn't a bad reward for the whole trip. It was an eye-opener at the very least. You see, even those maniacs who got perfect score have to be on the same standing with 3 other guys, so how can I be arrogant with my little accomplishment?

At the end of the day, my notes of growing up told me that it's not the shouting guy who was heard. Mount Everest doesn't need a loudspeaker to announce its height, but people just know it. That's why I learnt not to be snobbish and brag about.

Question Of The Day

Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool

~~ George Sanders, British actor

And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you're about to see another first - an attempted suicide.
Shot herself during broadcast.

~~ Chris Chubbuck, newscaster, d. July 15, 1974

Yesterday I read about the late Leslie Cheung in Wikipedia. The famous actor committed suicide in Hong Kong on April 1, 2003 by jumping from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He was 46 years old. Most famously, he left a suicide note as follows:

Depression(沮丧、抑郁)。多谢各位朋友，多谢麦列菲菲教授。呢一年来很辛苦，不能再忍受，多谢唐先生，多谢家人，多谢肥姐。我一生没做坏事，为何这样......

Leslie

[Summary by Wikipedia]
He was depressed followed by conferring his gratitude to his friends Lydia Shum among others as well as thanking his fans before ending on a plaintive mood stating that he has done no wrong in this lifetime, and that he was disappointed that his life should have to end like this.

Many people didn't do anything wrong, yet they died from cancer, accidents and tsunamis. Yet, many people did the most obnoxious crimes yet they remain at large until their death. [to be continued]