Those who are close to me would know how much I hate people smoke in front of me. Contrary to popular belief, I’m actually fine with people smoking in front of me, as long as they don’t EXHALE.

Let us list down some of the harm smoking does to you, shall we?

• Make your wallet bleed.
• Make your lung bleed.
• Annoy the people around you.
• Air pollution.
• Cause cancer.
• Decreased productivity.
• Waste time.
  And the list goes on and on …

How people would pay money for something that does absolutely nothing good for them in return still puzzles me.

If the smokers can smoke in front of me, can I fart in front of them?

Went to the Station1 at Sri Rampai last Saturday to meet up with a friend there. My friend and I sat down at the table near their cashier and bar area. No one came to take our order after 15 mins. Then I raised my hand to signal for a waiter and it seems like all the waiters there are too busy serving others and just plainly ignoring us. There was one standing at the cashier doing nothing.

After some “shouting”, finally guy at the cashier counter came and took our order. I blasted him of course for the really bad service before we made our order. After 20 minutes, our drinks still haven’t arrived. So I signaled again and another waiter came and I asked for the status. It seems like our orders weren’t taken. So we have to reorder again. DUH…

And then after 5 mins, the waiter came back and ask whether I’m ordering a cold or hot Honey Milk.. DUH …

Then I ordered a warm sky-juice. I did specifically mentioned WARM sky-juice, but they delivered ICED sky-juice instead. DUH …

There were a few guys who came and left because there is no one to attend to them to take orders after a long period of time... DUH

We were shocked when we got the bill … A whooping RM1.20 for a sky-juice. DUH

So we paid that a lot of money for a BAD SERVICE & BAD PRICE. I won’t be visiting this place again.

And I strongly advise to stay away from this shop.

This is the 1st part of the post-mortem.

The “A Green Symphony” event last Sunday at SeGi College, Kota Damansara was a great experience for us as it is the first time we perform with the 6 member lineup. Overall we did well, with some minor mistake but still sounded decent. We had some trouble during the soundchecks and “rehearsal” as the management keep on changing their itinerary. What we can do is to do our part to perform as best as we could.

As far as the PA system is concerned, my worry was true. Not everyone has their own monitor speakers, probably because we are not the main highlights of the event, so they didn’t bother to provide some for the bands. So in the end, Siang Xi cannot hear himself, Brett can only hear Choong How’s bass, Choong How can’t hear mine and others, Xiao Yu can’t hear herself. I on the other hand can hear everyone because my spot is the intersection of the all sound sources. I have no idea how it sounds like from the audience’s seat. Hopefully it will sound decent.

As for the management of events, I can’t say I’m totally satisfied with their work. I am grateful that they gave us a chance to perform on the stage (although we’re not the main highlights), but that does not justify them treat us and the rest of the band like we have all the time in the world to entertain their “ever-changing” itinerary. Things would have been easier if they had discussed with us and see if we can have a workaround. But sadly, they didn’t. So screw them.

More on the “uninforming” organiser. They only inform us about what we should wear only on that day. We didn’t bother to go back just to take our clothes, so I wore a V-neck T-Shirt hehe. Brett had to leave because he got an urgent phone call from his company to debug some issue. THEN, they told us that they’re going to have a full rehearsal so can fine tune the volume balancing and etc. So I called Brett to come back and he told his boss about this and manage to get someone else to stand in for him. AND THEN all of the sudden they say ONLY play 1 song. AND THEN AGAIN, they said the plan has been put off. So I was pissed and raised my voice when talking to the coordinator. So in the end, we manage to have some time to balance the volume between Siang Xi and Xiao Yu’s synth.

The sound crew on the other hand was being very helpful except for ONE, a Malay guy. He seem to not having an idea how to solve on stage problems. During our first soundcheck, we don’t have much issue because both synths are using separate DI Boxes to feed the console. Then after bringing back UPM’s synth on to the stage and they use the DI for that synth, we had more issue during our second soundcheck because both our synth is connected to only 1 DI, then when we requested to separate it again and the fella seems to get pissed. The issue would have been resolved without much hassle if he had connect one of our synth to the other DI. The other soundcrew joined in after that was very helpful and cooperative and helped us to solve our issue right on.

Before our turn for soundcheck, there’s already a band up on the stage doing their “souncheck”. To me, it seems more like a practice than a soundcheck and it’s a complete waste of our time. Seems like either they have never practiced before or never practiced enough and taking their own sweet time on stage to practice without realising they should be sound-checking and there are other people downstairs waiting for them to fuck off from the stage so the others can have their turn to soundcheck. tsk tsk tsk … these inconsiderate twerps. Never mind, we also had some fun time down there laughing and joking with the other bands.

Guess that’s all for Part 1… Stay tuned for Part 2

Hybrid failed in the Spirit of Music audition.
I can only blame our unpreparedness to be the main cause.

We've only jammed 3 times :

1st Time :- (A week before audition)
Vocal was sick
Still looking for keyboardist
Drummer first time jamming with us

2nd Time :- (Day before audition)
Guitar not available
Keyboardist first time playing with us

3rd Time :- (Audition Day)
First time full band
Practised for 20 mins.

However, I'm pretty impressed that we manage to pull off quite decently L'arc'en'ciel's "Nexus 4" and GLAY's "Winter Again" with that amount of practice.

I can't help to laugh on the comment sheet that we received.

**********************************************************************
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:33:01 +0800
From: spiritsofmusic@gmail.com
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Comment Sheet of The Audition


We are sorry to inform you that ??? was not selected to perform for Spirits of Music 2009. Below is the comment sheet of the audition.

Don't give up! We hope to see you in our future event :)

HYBRID

No.	Name	Position	Remark
1.	David Chin	Guitar	Steady, good touch! Nice tone
2.	Kian Meng	Guitar	Not so skillful
3.	Sim Choong How	Bass	Tone very good, consistent
4.	Gary Chua	Vocal	''feel' very good, not so powerful
5.	Siong Xi	Keyboard	Volume control a bit messy
6.	Jun	Drum	Consistent! Steady!

Style of Music

JRock

JPop

Markings:

**********************************************************************

Anyhow, I'll take this as a challenge. Thank you to those who encouraged us by coming to see us practise. We'll do better next time.

P/S : RM50 to play just 2 songs at a CRAPPY studio is DAMN HELL EXPENSIVE based on the fact that this is NOT a competition and "winners" is not guaranteed on receiving any prize out of this event.



!!! UPDATE !!!
Pics from Audition

他妈的天气，就是偏偏在我没有拿雨衣出去时候下雨。
我每次拿出去就是没有下，搞到我不能上健身房。
他妈的每次在不对的时间下雨。搞到路上车水马龙，到处都塞车。
真是他妈的！！！

他妈的！！！

FXXX the weather!!! Rains everytime when I don't bring my raincoat along.
And bright sunny side when I take my raincoat along. DUH
Damn, I can't join RPM class today.
FXXX! Always rain at the wrong timing, causing traffic jam here and there.

FXXX!!!

They cut my electricity although I paid my bills way one month back.....

In the end, I have to make a few phone calls and endure a fan-less night.

Sweating like hell although sleeping with just my underwear......

They better fix it today.....

Last Saturday, got a call from Jacob for a lunch at Midvalley first before going to church for service. I was lazy and do not want to drive my bike to Midvalley, and so I decided to take the train instead.

The lunch was scheduled to be 12:30 and so I reached Bank Negara KTM Station at around 11:15am. A quick glance at the LCD panel and was relief that the train to Seremban is arriving in another 5 minutes... So was thinking of visiting Peoples and Philosophy Men if I reach Midvalley early.



5 minutes went by..... no sign of train .........
Another 15 minutes went by ..... train came ..... but on the other side of the track.
Another 10 minutes went by ..... train came ..... on the correct side of track ... different route (P.Klang) #$&#^
Another 5 minutes went by ..... opposite train came
Another 15 minutes ..... opposite train came again
Another 5 minutes ..... the train came .... different route (P.Klang) wtf.....
Another 5 minutes ..... opposite train came
Another 15 minutes ... P.Klang train came again..... (where the heck is the Seremban train?)
and finally the train arrived after around 10 mins or so.... but the train is jam packed with people.
Don't care lar... just squeeze..... I'm tall enough to get some good air in a stuffed train anyway.

Well.... frequent KTM users will be able tell similar experiences that I had. It's being more than 6 years since I first used KTM services to commute from places to places and I've NOT seen any service improvements. Their company motto - "Terus Maju" means "keeps on progressing", but somehow I don't see any point of their motto.

I hate this KL weather.....
Sunny at the wrong timing
Raining at the wrong hour
FXXX!!!!!

2008年8月16日是我创下纪录的一天。

2008年8月16日是“第四届全国大专华语歌曲创作比赛”的决赛日子，英文名为"Inter-Varsity Song Composing Contest"，简称为"IVSC IV"。地点在MMU, Cyberjaya举行。我也以乐手的身份参与这次的比赛。不过，我代表的不是国民大学新调子参加比赛，而是代表马拉亚大学(马大UM)摇篮手参加比赛。



为什么这样子？
其实是因为摇篮手另一个的吉他手临时不能参与，所以祥熙要我帮忙他弹吉他。我就在比赛前几天拿到歌曲的demo，他们共有3首歌入围决赛，我就负责弹了3首歌的吉他。我们就在比赛前一天的晚上练了一次，过后就是比赛了。于是，我就这样次创下一个新纪录。

那天，马大摇篮手入围的歌曲有3首歌，分别是《Love Goes Around》，《你走了》，《我有我自由》。



《我有我自由》是一首节奏较轻快，带有Fusion Pop的感觉。词曲我不妨多说，编曲方面还有很多进步的空间。可惜是练习时间太少和太迟了，来不及补救。对我来说，这首歌的主要backbone是鼓和贝斯的配搭，因为这首歌是以groove为主。鼓和贝斯的编排欠佳，再加上歌手的range不搭。这个key对男主音很低，因此也为编曲大打折扣。再加上本人的错notes哈哈哈。不好意思啦。。。



《你走了》是受很伤感的歌，所以在编曲上不能太过喧宾夺主，好让整首歌的感觉能够通过歌手的演绎，加上适中编曲的配搭，完整的带出来。这一点，这个编曲做到了。唯一缺的就是少了swelling cymbal的效果，在适当的时候把感觉推上更高一层。主音很漂亮。。。哈哈哈（她看到了一定会很爽）



《Love Goes Around》是首典型抒情歌。我也不知道要怎样评，因为太典型了。虽然是一首很容易的歌，但我觉得是练习不够，导致整个band都不是很tight，感觉不够候。可惜。



总结来说，摇篮手能胜出是实至名归。恭喜恭喜，有机会在多多交流和合作。
恭喜祥熙以《你走了》赢得了最佳编曲。也恭喜词曲创作人，表演者，工作人员以《你走了》的了全创亚军。



至于主办当局这次的安排，我觉得不妥当。原本说好了一首歌有15分钟sound check。不过，还是有些参赛者一直拖拖拖拖拖拖到超时，也不见得有主办当局工作人员在那里跟负责音响的人协调。当轮到我们3首歌一起soundcheck时，就一直催我们快点收工。理应来说我们应该有45分钟来soundcheck。这样，对我们很不公平。再加上食物安排不够，以及我在后台看到一些情景，让我觉得主办当局的工作人员没有站好自己的岗位，也不完全清楚整个流程。



暂时能想这样多。。。迟些再添加一些。。。。先出去吃午餐。

Went to one of the coffee shop here at Amcorp Mall and queuing up for my turn to place my order. Then there's this 3 lady in front of me is taking their own sweet time to choose what they want to order....

My words to them :
"Hello ladies, the BIG menu up there is for your reference to help you to decide your order from AFAR. If you haven't make up your mind, please buzz off and let the people at the back to order first. Please be considerate."

This reminds me of my similiar experience at other places, which includes :

- ATM Machines
- Ticket Vending Machines
- Cinema Ticket Counters
- Food Counters (especially fast foods)
- Shopping Malls
- Karaoke
- Buffet Meals
- Touch And Go lanes
.. etc .. etc .. etc .. etc .. etc .. etc ..

Please be more considerate, shall we?

不知道为什么觉得做上什么事情都很闷。。。
不知道是不是不够睡眠的关系。。。。

These few weeks has been busy organising the event. Some aspects of it are smooth sailing, while some not.

I'm deeply saddened by the fact that someone is being irresponsible to the task that has given to her. The other committee members has already done their job and manage to get things done and here comes SHE promising us sky and heaven and in the end didn't give anything but SHIT for us to cover.

I do not want to go deep down to the details and history, but just some of what has happenned. Initially, she said 4 sponsors will be sponsoring cash for our event. But up until now, not even a SINGLE one has been confirmed by her. Then she go on promising Sushi King, Jusco for food and beverages, and again NONE was confirmed. Then come the Media for Star, Malay Mail, NST and etc, and as expected NONE was confirmed. Then she requested a Black and White document from the venue sponsor blar blar blar this and that and we gave her the documents and yet NOTHING has been confirmed by her. She said she wants to look at the venue, and we requested with the management and we went to take a look. Then after a few weeks, she was saying we didn't get her a scaled floorplan. DUH. What you didn't draw it when we were there? So all our past meetings and visits are a waste of time, money and effort.

So in the end, Aaron, Jay, Ichiro and I have to settle some stuff on our own. Everyday we'll sms or call each other to update each other on the progresses. We manage to get Animax, Star, Photopintu, Behringer, ISOCKS and etc. What did she do? NOTHING. Did she called us to update and follow up? NO. We called her and can we get her? NO.

If I were to count what she's contributed, the only thing I can think of is she brought Aaron in. Aaron has been a big help to us. Thank you Aaron.

Well, it's already expected in any committee, there will be someone who will be troublemakers. We will work hard to get things done.

If you're not capable of doing anything, then don't say you can do this and do that. It's so fxxxing irresponsible.

Sorry for the long rant. If you want to know the details, find me lar hahaha. I will give you a grandfather story on it.


Anyhow, a side note : PLEASE GET YOUR JROCK KINGDOM EVENT PASSES!!!!!

Please visit our site and forum at http://www.jrock-kingdom.com

每做一件事情，都有它的障碍。。。
有些人可以克服，有些人会退缩。。
一切就在看我们怎样去对待。。。。
每当遇到困难，就要告诉自己是一个可以让自己学习的机会。
当然也缺少不了来自各方面的支持和鼓励。

当然，有些不明白的人会一直来要求这个要求那个。以为他们要什么就有什么。没法子，这些人就是这样无知。
希望船到桥头自然直。


No matter what we do, there's always obstacles.
Some manage to overcome it, some chose to run away.
It all depends on how we look at the issue.
Whenever you face obstacles, always tell yourself that this is a golden opportunity to learn.
Of course, you'll need support from all over the place.

Still, there are people who will come to request this and that, thinking that they will get what they want. Too bad, these bunch of people are just being ignorant. I don't blame them.
Hopefully things well get sorted out.

God... help us...

昨天和一班新调子的朋友们到马大去看马大摇篮手的大型创作发表会。
发觉他们一年又比一年进步，这是一个好现象。可能是有一班要求高的学长们一直在后面推他们。
我也为他们感到高兴。

我这次去是为了支持chrispy,阿符和Alvin。虽然我们不算是什么猪朋狗友，但是我们也可说是音乐上的战友。去支持他们，给他们打气。

去看了他们的发表会，我坐在台下时，有一些感触想要和大家分享：-

1。我觉得现在的年轻人，都不知道怎样去尊敬那些在台上的人。特别是在贵宾演讲时，台下人就在那里谈天说地。没有一点教养，也没有一点文化。

2。我们去看别人的发表会，目的是为了什么？我去的目的是为了要支持朋友在台上演出，支持本地创作，支持本地音乐。然而，会有些人去的目的是为了要“踩场”，要“宣战”，要“比较”，也会有些人抱着高高在上的态度，去胡乱批评人家的演绎，人家的作品，人家的努力。这些人对我来说，不配当个音乐人。每个音乐都有它的意义存在。（这一点是翁诗杰演讲时说的，有专心听的就会听到）虽然它的演绎会很烂，不过假如你认真去看去听，就会察觉到他的特点在哪里。

恭喜马大摇篮手，你们进步了。加油加油。

*****************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER : The content of this post was not originated by me, nor I have any involvement in the writing. It was widely circulated via email. I shall not be held responsible for any implication caused by this article.
*****************************************************************************

Got this article via email from a friend a while ago. Quite an interesting article to read and judge it yourself ......


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
on top of that ... still want to send 2 'fan cheong' to bulan. Untuk apa ya ???? minum teh tarik ke ??

Harga minyak sepanjang zaman.. (dalam masa 16 tahun - sejak 1990 )

sebelum 90 - RM 0.89
tahun 1990 - RM 1.10 (kenaikan RM 0.21 )
01/10/2000 - RM 1.20 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
20/10/2001 - RM 1.30 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
01/05/2002 - RM 1.32 (kenaikan RM 0.02)
31/10/2002 - RM 1.33 (kenaikan RM 0.01)
01/03/2003 - RM 1.35 (kenaikan RM 0.02 )
01/05/2004 - RM 1.37 (kenaikan RM 0.02)
01/10/2004 - RM 1.42 (kenaikan RM 0.05)
05/05/2005 - RM 1.52 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
31/07/2005 - RM 1.62 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
28/02/2006 - RM 1.92 (kenaikan RM 0.30)

Nota
: (ayat - ayat standard)

1. Kenaikan minyak masih rendah berbanding mana2 pun negara ASEAN.

2. Kerajaan akan pastikan kenaikan tidak membebankan

3. Kerajaan tidak mampu lagi menampung subsidi.

4. Kerajaan memberi jaminan harga runcit petroleum tidak akan dinaikkan lagi pada TAHUN INI .

Saudara / Saudari,

Pertama sekali abang Perdana Menteri kita ia itu Ibrahim bin Badawi menerusi syarikatnya SkyChef menjadi supplier makanan kepada syarikat penerbangan MAS yang sekarang mengalami kerugian RM900 juta untuk sembilan bulan pertama 2005. Abang PM kita jual sebotol air mineral kepada MAS dengan harga RM30 setiap botol. Kenapa kita hairan MAS rugi ?

Menteri Besar terengganu Idris Jusoh telah mengadakan lumba kapal layar Monsoon Cup yang menelan duit rakyat sebanyak RM300.0 Juta.

Duit ini di bayar kepada
seorang taukeh bernama Patrick Lim dan kekawannya termasuk Khairy Jamaludin menantu Perdana Menteri. Perlumbaan kapal layar tak sampai lima hari makan duit rakyat RM300.0 Juta. Sudah tentu duit RM300.0 Juta itu ditelan oleh orang yang sungguh bertuah dapat kontrak RM300.0 Juta itu.

Untuk menutup kehilangan duit sebesar ini sekarang sabsidi minyak di potong dan harga minyak nail 30 sen satu liter.

Telekom Malaysia pula rugi lebih RM700 Juta duit rakyat sebab terpaksa bayar ganti rugi kepada syarikat telekom German ia itu Deutsche Telekom.. Terpaksa bayar ganti rugi RM700 Juta sebab Telekom Malaysia tak tahu buat kontrak.

Nak tutup rugi ini pula kerajaan potong sabsidi minyak.

Sekarang lebih murah naik kapalterbang Air Asia pergi balik dari
Kuala Lumpur ke Kuala Terengganu. Tambang pergi balik Air Asia dari Kuala Lumpur ke Kuala Terengganu tak sampai RM300 bagi tiga orang sekeluarga.

Air Asia diurus oleh orang yang tidak rasuah dan yang tahu buat bisnes tanpa menyusahkan rakyat.

Sekarang dengan harga minyak yang sudah naik, belanja minyak sahaja nak pergi balik dari Kuala Lumpur ke Alor Setar sudah naik hingga RM220 (kereta Proton Waja). Bayar tol pula lebih RM120. Belanja makan dan minum (nasi campur dan teh kosong) bagi sekeluarga enam orang tambah lagi RM40. Ini bermaksud jumlah belanja minyak, tol dan makan minum pergi balik dari Kuala Lumpur ke Alor Setar hampir RM400.

Negeri lain bukan macam negara kita. Walaupun harga minyak di Thailand lebih mahal daripada harga minyak di
Malaysia tapi di Thailand tak ada bayar tol.

Dari Bukit Kayu Hitam ke Bangkok jauhnya lebih 1,100 batu (bukan kilometer) naik lebuhraya enam lorong tanpa bayar TOL (bukan empat lorong macam Lebuhraya Utara Selatan kita).

Di Thailand tak ada rasuah AP. Harga kereta Honda Civic 1.5 di Thailand tak sampai RM40,000. Lebih murah daripada harga kereta Perodua Kelisa 1.0 di Malaysia. Inilah kelebihannya di Thailand - tak ada AP di sana .

Di Malaysia pula ada AP. Sebenarnya harga AP yang perlu di bayar kepada Kerajaan (MITI) tak sampai RM250 sahaja. Tapi AP boleh di jual sehingga RM40,000 sekeping kepada Dato Dato yang kaya yang di kenal sebagai 'AP King'. Rasuah AP ini telah berlanjutan selama lebih 30 tahun. Akhir kata rakyat Malaysia yang terpaksa tanggung rasuah AP ini.

Oleh yang demikian kereta Honda Civic 1.5 yang dijual dengan harga RM40,000 di Thailand naik harga sehingga RM110,000 di Malaysia. Rakyat Malaysia rugi.
Kerajaan pun hilang wang. Bila kerajaan tak cukup wang - maka potonglah subsidi minyak. Maka naik lah harga minyak 30 sen satu liter.

Malaysia Boleh!!!!

Sekian. Salam.
* Tolong hantarkan informasi ini kepada kawan kawan yang anda kenali. Tolong print dan sebarkan kerana hanya 1% penduduk Malaysia yg celik IT.... 99% memerlukan informasi ini sebagai langkah pertama untuk transformasi negara.... Sedarlah sudah 50 tahun kemerdekaan negara kita, tapi kita masih di takuk lama.... HAPUSKAN
PENTADBIRAN ASAS RASUAH!!!

Adakah kita harus menjadi mangsa dalam kejadian sedemikian?
Orang lain hutang duit,kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia pula kena membayar ?
Yang penting sekali, bukan setakat bayar sahaja, manakala nak bayar sampai bila ? Adakah ini akan berhenti ?............



#############

Regards,

who else . . .


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today while on Youtube, I found an interesting video on the Apostasy.

According to Wikipedia, Apostasy (from Greek αποστασία, meaning a defection or revolt, from απο, apo, "away, apart", στασις, stasis, "standing") is a term generally employed to describe the formal renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociologists without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to one's former religion. One who commits apostasy is an apostate, or one who apostatises. In older Western literature, the term typically referred to baptized Christians who left their faith, thus, according to some Christians, were never "Christians" in the first place. Apostasy is generally not a self-definition: very few former believers call themselves apostates and they generally consider this term to be a pejorative. One of the possible reasons for this renunciation is loss of faith, another is the failure of alleged religious indoctrination or brainwashing.

Many religious movements consider it a vice (sin), a corruption of the virtue of piety in the sense that when piety fails, apostasy is the result. However, most converts to a new religion can also be considered apostates from a previous belief.

Several religious groups and even some states punish apostates. Apostates may be shunned by the members of their former religious group[1] or worse. This may be the official policy of the religious group or may happen spontaneously, due in some sense to psycho-social factors as well. The Catholic Church may in certain very limited circumstances respond to apostasy by excommunicating the apostate, while the writings of both Judaism (Deuteronomy 13:6-10) and Islam (An-Nisa 4:89) demand the death penalty for apostates.

Conversely, some atheists and agnostics use the term "deconversion" to describe loss of faith in a religion. Self-described "Freethinkers" and those who may view traditional religion negatively may see it as gaining rationality and respect for the scientific method.

The reliability of the testimonies of apostates is an important and controversial issue in the study of apostasy in cults and new religious movements.

The difference between apostasy and heresy is that the latter refers to rejection or corruption of certain doctrines, not to the complete abandonment of one's religion. Heretics claim to still be following a religion (or to be the "true followers"), whereas apostates reject it.

The term is also used to refer to renunciation of belief in a cause other than religion, particularly in politics.

Other terms to describe leaving a faith and the associated process are treated in religious disaffiliation.


The video below shows a real life case happaned in Malaysia, where the religious law went overboard to ignore the Constitution law and the basic human right of a mother to take care of her child and husband.





Another video regarding the Truth about Apostasy and Islam.




My prayer is to the victims of those who hunger for power and control. May the Lord comfort in this time of trial and tribulation.

*sigh* Today I'm supposed to be on holiday. But then it's working day for my company. So sad that as a Terengganu boy, I can't have a holiday on the King Coronation Day.

Anyhow, today I went for a training at Menara Olympia. The training is about Principles of Business Improvements. It talks about the proven methodology to properly lay out your improve plans. It's a one whole day training. It's kinda fun training. Lots of hands on.

Get to meet all sorts of people from different working environment. Some I don't like, some can work with, and some can't. Some just keep on talking crap but not contributing to the whole discussion (not the facilitators of course). It's weird that there are this kind people at this age but still think like kindergarten kid. (Maybe it's just my ego, I don't like to waste my time having a meeting that's not fruitful). Some just flow along, some still blur blur don't know what the discussion is all about and just basically repeating what have been just said and some just come for the sake of coming.

In the end, I need to step in taking over the leadership role and get the group at the very least come out with something valid and useful. If not, the whole group will not go anywhere. Managing a group of people is not easy, especially there are people who don't willing to learn and stubborn and arrogant.

Anyhow, enough said. The lunch provided is good :-). Forgot to take a pic on the food. The facilitators are good, very helpful throughout the sessions. Lots of hands on during the training for us to get a better understanding on the theories.

Speaking on training, I think the education system in Malaysia definitely have to change. Currently, our education system is more like a "knowledge based" system, in which a person with very good memories will surely excel in their exams and studies. However, how many of them really understand the theory behind their lessons, or the application of it, how to apply the knowledge and etc. I'm not surprised that lots of university graduates nowadays facing difficulties to find jobs because they lack of substance although they score good grades. IMHO, just stressing on the knowledge is not enough. You need to have something extra which is not taught from books, for example : critical and creative thinking, social skills, extra skills, communication skills and etc if you really want to survive in the working world.

If I'd really want to comment, I'd say Malaysian education system is a failure. You can say that there are outstanding peoples out there but I'd like to counter your claim by asking "What's the ratio between these outstanding people to the other graduates? Is it 1 to 1? Is it 1 in a 1000? or 1 in a million? Think about it.


2 pics for the day.... :)


A view of KL Tower from the training room.



My student workbook