A Leader

A long time since I drop by my blog to talk about what is going on around me. Something I would like to share with all of you who are reading my blog.

Earlier this week, I watched a movie by the title of Matchstick Man played by Nicholas Cage and my favorite Alison Lohman, gotten the DVD from HMV and really its a good movie for me to recommend to anyone of you who wants to watch a movie.

The day after, I was suppose to attend a camp as a facilitator. This camp is for my students and its somekind of leadership and motivational camp as to train the students to be student leaders. Its really a cool camp and also the camp was located a very cool place too.

Compare to last year's camp at Changi, this year the camp venue was at this super ulu place in Singapore. Lim Chu Kang. And this is the place people will come here to bury the dead. Ok lets not talk about that part.

What I really wanna share with all of you is that, while I as a facilitor to the camp, I am also responsible for the well being and the development of my students. So I was sitting together with the students as well as their trainers.

Extracting a quote from the movie Matchstick Man, I start to relate it this way..

"Money to some people are like foreign films without subtitles" This is the exact quote which I relate it to my students. Money is a value that we perceives in which we create to believe that it carries a value with us all the time. While foreign films without subtitles is difficult to be understand by anyone who dont speak that language and it loses its value if no one able to appreciate it.

It is the same as people, everyone around us perceives a value and we create a value to everyone around us which makes a believe that how much of value that a person carries. The value will then determine who we are and what makes us around us. So as a person and esp as a leader, we need to create a value for ourselves to let others perceives what makes us a leader.

A leader is someone who stands out from everyone else and they are the one who shape our environment. It is some think everyone ought to ponder upon if he/she wants to be unique in their own way.

Cheers,

Again..Weird Dreams..

Hmm.. last night I had a dream again. And again, as usual, I had weird dreams again.

Last night dream was more sickening. I have no idea why but its about child sexual abuse. I do not know who is the abuser yet I do not know how did it happened in the first place.

But this is how my dream goes..

It was sometime late at night and I was over-looking a room. This room has this particular cabinet which caught my attention. Its like a book-shelf and it is build with glass door. Its empty.

It is midnight and I saw this person, lifting up the sexually abused kids up and placed them into the cabinet and let them sleep in it. I could not see their faces but I remember how shy and timid they are, with their blanket and pajamas wrapping overthemselves. And also I remember that the kids shyed away from the man and keep saying please dont touch me anymore. The kids one by one wrapping themselves up and trying to sleep.

I remembered one of the kid trying to switch off the lights but I felt that the way how the kid acted was very weird and remember the movie, Ju-On? Its exactly how it shivers and twitches.

The lights went off and the next moment, I saw the kid switch on the light. One by one waking up. And because of the vibration towards the cabinet, the kids fell off from the cabinet. The weirdest things of all, THE KIDS TURNED INTO FILES!! Someone walked passed the files and tries to pick it up, he opens one of the file and I saw one of the filing of the abused case with the kid's photo and documentation. The file contains the documentation of the cases where and when the kid was abused! That means this kids are already dead!

The next moment, *poof* the files turn into dust. One file after another, the files turned into dust and couldnt be save anymore.

I got freak out and I got up. I just hope that its just a dream/nightmare and had been thinking about this the entire day.

Oh dear...

Weird Dreams...

It has been quite sometime since I visited my blog and had been tight down with many many projects and of course my students mid-year design module.

Anyway, my title weird dreams..

Recently I had been encountering weird dreams all over again which it may be weird but I thought I should share with all of you and maybe you can tell me what do you guys think about it.

The most recent dream that I had was last night which in my vision of the dream, I saw a family. A family, usually is the dad, mom and a kid, I think is a boy which is about 10 years old. This particular family was a happy one which they used to go for outing and they had dinner together and many other things.

I think his mother is a housewife and his dad works for a iron ore company.

One day, this boy started to give alot of problems to the family which in my dreamy vision, everything happens with a blink of an eye, the family was falling apart, while his father ran into terrible debts and his mother is always crying. She looks rather cheerful sometimes but when it comes to late evening, she will grin not only to her family, but to everyone else.

One day the kid went to school and out of depression, the kid started banging on his table and everything happened so fast that the kid was send to the headmaster room. The funny thing is that out of a sudden, the headmaster gave the kid some caning and the kid broke down with tears in his eyes. He cried and cried and the headmaster decided to call the kid's dad.

A few hours later, his dad came to school and the headmaster explained what had happened during the day. His dad was rather disappointed with his child's behaviour after which he decided to bring him back home.

Once back home, his dad asked the boy's mom to get into the car and he drove them to the place where he works. The iron ore factory. When they reached the factory, his dad mentioned that he couldnt take the level of stress anymore and he says that their son had caused much embarrassment to the family.

The father then bring the family to the melting pot for the iron ore and he asked his wife and his son to grab hold of the cable. When three of them were secured to the cable, his dad lowered the cable which the cable heads directly towards the melting pot.

For a moment, I saw the faces of the family while the cable lowering the three of them down and they were screaming and screaming. I stand and watched them going down and feel so helpless but to watch them die.

From the point when they were melted in the melting pot, I couldnt bear it and I quickly opened my eye, thank god it is just a dream but yet it looks so real. It is so real that, I could still remember every detail of it.

If this story means something please tell me ok? because I keep getting weird weird dreams almost every night. And when I have weird dreams again, I will write.

Sign off..

First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is a 2000 nonfiction book written by a Cambodian author and survivor of the Pol Pot regime Loung Ung. It is a personal account of her experiences during the Khmer Rouge years.

From Wikipedia.org

First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

I came across this book which for me personally I like non-fictional novels after started reading 'A Child Called It' . I did not review on that book which is because it is more of a personal account in family abuse which happens every second in every part of the world.

I would rather review this particular book, 'First They Killed My father' an autobiography written by Loung Ung in which she recounts back her experience as a middle class citizenship during pre-revolutionary Cambodia and demoted to household helper during the Khmer Rouge reign lead by Pol Pot.

I hope that movie directors are able to bring this epic to real life and also to tell the rest of the world, the cruelty of Khmer Rouge with the propaganda which they know that they are weak against the Vietnamese but I do respect Khmer Rouge soldiers in a way that they are able to divide the society in just merely a year and propagade beliefs and hatred towards everyone else and imparting this hatred within the younger generations. If this is told in a movie, it will be a great success.

I like this book as each and every detail of true account in life and death within Loung Ung and her family are brought into my real imaginations. Even as young as 5 yrs old, Loung Ung tells the world that anxiousness and anxiety during a war keeps everyone to themselves and everyone learns not to speak to anybody and everyone is suspicious of everyone even in within the family members.

My respect to Loung Ung and to the rest of her family esp to her father, as a role model to every man out there, family comes first! As a man and as a leader in a family, making decision and to protect your family is the utmost role of respect in a family and to love your wife as much with your heart! To the fellow Cambodians who survived the war, give each other a helping hand and to relate this life account to your next generations.

Truely a good book to recommend to everyone. I finished this book in within 2 days and these 2 days, I began to appreciate that I am living in a very comfortable zone in within my society and the happiness that I have with my close friends and relatives.

Loung Ung, I hope you are reading this and it will be a great opportunity if we ever meet up.

Tuesday With Morrie - Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie is written by American writer Mitch Albom which was published in 1997 (ISBN 0-385-48451-8). The story was later adapted by Thomas Rickman into a television movie (directed by Mick Jackson), which aired on 5 December 1999 and starred Hank Azaria as Mitch and Jack Lemmon (in his final role) as Morrie.

This book tells the true story of Morrie Schwartz and his relationship with his student, Mitch Albom. Both the film and the book chronicle the lessons about life that Mitch learns from his professor, who is dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
From Wikipedia.org


Tuesdays with Morrie - an old man, a young man and life's greatest lesson by Mitch Albom

I was introduced to this book by my sister when I was back in Penang during Chinese New Year. She told me that Mitch Albom is a good author and I should try reading his book. As his books are in general light reading, i began to read it during my vacation back home. It took me about 4 days to complete the book and honestly, I should thank my sister for introducing this book to me.

Tuesdays With Morrie tells about Morrie Schwartz and his student, Mitch Albom which Morrie wants Mitch to understand the chronicle of life and to document this chronicle as a final thesis between both of them.

Morrie left with a few months to survive and also as a professor, through his ideas and philosphy of life before death, he wants everyone in the world to understand a simple fraction in life. And this simple thing in life, everybody needs it no matter how old you are, what are you working as, who are you with right now and many other possiblities is a simple four letter word.

LOVE is all everyone needs in our daily lifes. The first thing, a person must learn how to love him or herself and slowly by showing love to the person you are closest to and to every other person you care about.

This book tells and developed a sense of Love and respect to everyone around you. And as a general light reading material, this is a book I would strongly recommend.

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. May my well wishes be with you always!

Finally I am going back home for a week.

Sign off....

Pics from Bangkok - Grand Palace

Bangkok - Grand Palace

2008

Diary for 2007

Finally Im back to my blog and had being busy with so many things lately.


I would like to take this opportunity to send my best wishes esp to my sister, Good luck in your studies, Jie! haha.. CJ, I hope you could come back to Singapore soon and we could disturb Kyle again..To Kyle and Anil, stay cool bro! Both of you, I dont know how to say but its a co-incidental friends..hahaha!..To Sharina..GOLDIVA..good luck in your studies, Sha! Hope to see you back in Singapore soon again and we can go Arab street again!..Meri, :) good luck to you in everything you do, I wish I could see you soon again and thanks for coming to Singapore ..To Paulus and Junita..hmm..both of you are just very nice ppl...how I wish everyone is just like both of you..Ernie..study hard for your Master and hope to see you again..I dont know when but it has been coming to 7yrs we didnt meet up...to Casper..thanks for your support and good luck to you *casper*


First of all, 2007 has been an eventful year for me and I realized that I had being lecturing for the past 11months. I had successfully produced 25 graduates in Product Design and keep on going. It aint easy, yet aint hard to train the students. I had learnt the hard way and I am glad that I achieved it.

Holding the position as a lecturer, it is not a simple task. Managing students is only a portion. Probably about 40% of my job scope. I had learnt to make decisions, planning and moderation of schedules, managing projects, juggling students issues all at the same time and most of all, I had learnt to adapt in a corporate organisation. It is so complex that sometimes, emailing to our director is a taboo! Emailing to the directors has to have a certain format, font size, salutation and bla bla bla...Imagine sending an email to the principal...Sometimes the thought of being in the current instituition, makes me think that I want to work in the private sector. But anyway, I have more projects to come, crossing fingers...


I had achieved one of my wishlist for 2007. Travelling abroad. Eventhough it is not very far from Singapore, I had visited two countries last year.

Sept 2007 - I went to Jakarta, Bangka and Yogjakarta. Of this three places, I like Yogjakarta the best. It is no doubt the start of civilization in South East Asia, I had also learnt that Indonesia is a place full of culture, this place was blanketed with diversed religion and culture during the 6th century until the time when King of Java decided to adopt Muslim. My tour guide told me that in Java, is the only place in that are able to plant a very special rice grain, and this rice grain is red in color. I miss Yogjakarta alot and I hope I am able to go back there esp Borobodur. I would like to see the sunrise and the valcano again. Gunung Merapi!


I went to my Meri's hometown in Bangka. Superb. Its a super quiet town with very little activities during the night. I like the food there, It is different from Singapore and Malaysia, but if you really look into the cultural food in Malaysia, you can find the similarities in it. They love seafood and the best seafood restaurant was Hew Ko Sui. The seafood that I like best was the muscle cooked in this yellow stuff which I forgot what was the ingredient. I miss Bangka! Meri's sister's house is so big that I am able to host two badminton tournament at the same time!

Jakarta is the last that you will want to visit. A strong diversification between the rich and the poor. When the rich is richer, the poor is getting poorer day by day given the status of Jakarta's economy. I went to Ciputra Mall, Anggerek Mall and Tanah Abang. The point that I dont like about Jakarta is the traffic jam, pollution and people from all walks of life in a congested city. Traffic jam is massive! Imagine travelling at 60km/h on a super highway and caught in a jam at Tanah Abang for 2 hours trying to get to the first floor from level 11!! But one thing I learnt from Jakarta is, firstly, water is a precious commodity, save water and this is part of a contribution to the society, secondly, whatever you own, try to make use to the last bit to ensure no wastage of any sort and lastly Jakarta-ians has impressive driving skills!!


Dec 2007 - I went to Bangkok with my Sister, Kyle and of course Anil!! Was a fun trip. very very fun trip! I miss Bangkok, all the shoppings, bargaining and also I can buy the 'branded' stuff like nobody's business...hahha..I just love shopping in Bangkok. There was a few times when we got our way through in getting more than 70% off because we confused the shopkeeper..bad bad..tsk tsk tsk..We had massage and damn! The massage was good!.. All in all..Bangkok is touristy..so nothing much to expect from Bangkok..just shopping, more shopping and more shopping! I will be back to Bangkok again to visit the Grand Palace and the shopping areas again!

Overall, I still prefer Indonesia because Indonesia is so rich in culture that you will have alot to learn from and to understand human civilization. Comparing to Bangkok, Bangkok has a strong influnce from the French and the culture itself, you will be able to relate to the French somehow rather.

Year 2008 will be another year to go ahead with and I am now in my mid-20s. I have alot of plans to think ahead. My priority is to study and to achieve a degree program. I have these courses in mind, which is Urban Design & Planning, Architectural Studies and Materials Engineering. Considering to sponsor myself for the studies so as to not be bonded with anyone at all.

Anyway more exciting things to look forward to and Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Going back to my hometown is something I look forward to and this time round, I will be back there for a week and for the first time I will be flying back home together with my Jie!

Happy New Year to everyone and more to come!