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!

Crazyguyonabike

It has been an interesting weeks and the semester ended with a video shoot lasted for a week. The video shoot was about some documentary on design process and the appreciation to design.

I got to know about this particular friend of mine. Law Tzuo Hann. Got to know him during primary school. A good tennis player back then. And now he is on his way attempting to cycle from L.A. back to our hometown. Its kinda crazy though but then its for a good course. Fund Raising is all he had in mine.

Check this following site and you will get in touch of what, where, when and many other things he is doing right now. How I wish I could do the same thing.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=rzyi&doc_id=2405&v=1xQ

Singapore Design Festival 2007

Singapore Design Festival 2007

Save the Earth Project

Design & Disasters

useless ideas Utterubbish

Photo Montage

Design & Disasters

Audi @ Singapore Museum

Audi @ Singapore Museum