A Life Less Ordinary

Birthday Announcement : Happy Birthday to Lola who turns 23rd today. I think it’s 23rd. Well, wish you more of happy days ahead and have fun girl!

Sebut sahaja bulan Ogos, semua orang tahu perkaitannya dengan satu perkataan – MERDEKA. satu ungkapan, satu laungan bersejarah yang senantiasa segar menyinar jauh di lubuk hati setiap insan yang bergelar anak Malaysia. Biarpun bukan semua, tetapi hanya pada kebanyakannya, ianya tetap menjadi satu sumber inspirasi bagi menjana semangat patriotisme setiap insan.

Ukuran patriotisme pula cukup subjektif dan amat luas ertinya. Patriotisme bukan isu politik atau gimik dan tidak sekadar semangat. Ia lebih bersifat spiritual, rasa kecintaan yang kekal dan tebal kepada negara yang turut dicirikan oleh beberapa nilai seperti kesungguhan, keyakinan, keberanian dan kesinambungan. Pendek kata, patriotisme bukan hanya di bibir sahaja. Ia harus lahir secara semula jadi sebagai sesuatu yang dirasai dan ditafsir daripada degup jantung dan jiwa setiap rakyat Malaysia.

Bukan kerana nama dan rupa
Bukan kerana pangkat, darjat dan harta
Bukan kerana dipinta mahupan dipuja
Tetapi kerana rasa cinta

Bukan indah khabar dari rupa
Bukan kerana hujan emas di negeri orang hujan batu di negeri sendiri kita merana
Bukan kerana panas tak sampai ke senja
Tetapi kerana ikhlas menuntun jiwa

Bukan sekadar laungan
Bukan sekadar pautan
Bukan sekadar janji manis indah perkhabaran
Tetapi suara lantang memberikan erti kepada sebuah pengorbanan

Rasa cinta dan bangga tidak perlu dikempenkan
Biarpun pemodenan dan arus globalisasi memamah diri dan mengaburkan
semangat ini tidak akan luntur ditelan zaman
Tersemat indah dan gemilang tak lapuk dek hujan

cibol
Khamis, 30 Ogos 2007, 12:30 PM

Love doesn’t make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile

Elizabeth Browning

A few weeks back last two weeks I was tagged by Summer Fairy. It’s called the “BIG Letter L Tag“. For her, the BIG Letter L is just like honey dew. She just love the sweetness and juiciness of the Honey Dew running down her throat and the sweet wonderful taste it leaves. It refreshes and certainly makes her day a much more happier one. So, she tagged me and a few others to find out what do I think of the BIG Letter L. What is my idea of the BIG Letter L.

What is love? It is one of the most difficult questions for the mankind. Centuries have passed by, relationships have bloomed and so has love. But no one can give the proper definition of love. To some “Love is friendship set on fire” for others “Maybe love is like luck. You have to go all the way to find it”. No matter how you define it or feel it, love is the eternal truth in the history of mankind. Some say it’s mysterious, magical, complex, difficult, imaginary, thought-provoking, inspirational, intuitional, joyous, immeasurable, ecstasy, and undefinable. Perhaps.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:5-7

I remember watching “A Walk To Remember” where this particular scene when Jamie asked Landon to read over the bible verses from her journal. The phrase ever since, stuck into my mind and kinda help me to tell myself to define what love it is eventhough sometimes me myself was not even sure of what is love all about and then we’ll get back to square one, asking ourselves again and again what is love actually.

Depending on context, love can be of different varieties. Romantic love is a deep, intense and unending. It shared on a very intimate and interpersonal and sexual relationship. The term Platonic love, familial love and religious love are also matter of great affection. It is more of desire, preference and feelings. The meaning of love will change with each different relationship and depends more on its concept of depth, versatility, and complexity. But at times the very existence of love is questioned. Some say it is false and meaningless. It says that it never exist, because there has been many instances of hatred and brutality in relationships. The history of our world has witnessed many such events. There has been hatred between brothers, parents and children, sibling rivalry and spouses have failed each other. Friends have betrayed each other; the son has killed his parents for the throne, the count is endless. Even the modern generation is also facing with such dilemmas everyday. But “love” is not responsible for that. It is us, the people, who have forgotten the meaning of love and have undertaken such gruesome apathy.

Love is wanting the best for another. You love them so much, you happily give him/her to another, if the person can achieve the greatest spiritual, emotional and physical fulfillment with someone else. This is the opposite of jealousy that wants selfishly for our own needs rather than the best for the one we love!

Love is INTIMACY. Into Me I See, letting the other half see into me by being totally open and honest about feelings. It’s sharing yourself spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically. I guess that’s my best way to describe what love is, in a way la.

How I see love, ermm … I’d say

Love appears like thunder, but it dissapears like fog

Sorry guys, I don’t really have the time to write stuffs. Just some pics during the convo. I will put in more pictures after I get a grip on all of them. Cheers!

Mr. Jawee, my junior but we go convo together

Little Prawn get freaky

Outside it gets so farking hot! And in this 3 kilos circus costume doesn’t help

People say, kenot take pics inside but I managed to curi curi take one

I came across clement’s post the other day on “what are the craziest thing you ever did for a girl?”. Well, this is not so something like that but maybe just a little bit, in a way.

Ever think if cooking something posh and nice for your dates on Valentine’s Day? Imagine you and your partner having a romantic candle light dinner. With fine wine and the music. “Ohhh … indahnya suasana” 🙂 Well, it was a few days before Valentine’s. I was like, “HECK!” What am I going to do for the day? And she on the other hand has been asking for surprises la like gifts and stuffs. To be honest, at the time, to make matters worst, my dad forgot to bank in my pocket money for that whole week. He left for training in Kuching without banking in money weekly allowence! Bummer!

I was like, no money what to do? The actual plan was to take her to have an expensive dinner. I don’t really mind spending once in a while. What I did was after that, I bought some beef burgers. You know RAMLY burger. Yup, that burger that the Abang Burger tepi jalan jual type. It’s nice you know. I bought some black pepper sauce and a few bottles of sparkling ribena. Well, I don’t want to spoil the mood while I already promised a nice dinner.

Come that day, yeah … I thought it was funny and sweet indeed. I mean, not being able to spend on expensive meal, but I manage to find substitutes for the steak and wine which is the RAMLY burger for the steak and Sparkling Ribena for wine. What I did was, I put up the burgers on the gril and just start grilling and then for the sauce I actually just fried up some onions and add some black paper to it and walla! .. There goes the steak substitute. I thought it was really smart of me. Well, we enjoyed our dinner and I think that was a memorable night for me, a memorable Valentine’s Day also I guess. We had some mp3’s on for exchange of the violin sound that you know .. the one always in the movies, where these people had dinner and then got a few violinist by their side playing some mushy mushy tracks.

There was no flowers, no gifts but that was the least that I could do for the day. When I look back at those days I must say that I’m impressed with myself. One conclusion here, it doesn’t have to be expensive, but it must comes from the heart. Because what comes from the heart, touches the heart.

Lovely …

Note : I’ve been tagged on two-fronts by Jen – She tagged me through friendster and drumsticks, through her blog of course. Here it goes then.

Here are the rules:

1. Each blogger must post these rules up first.
2. Each blogger starts with eight things about them that they think people don’t really know
3. Bloggers that are tagged need to respond to the tag through their own blog. At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to be tagged.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged, and read your blog.

8 Things That I Think You Don’t Really Know About Me

1. My favourite movie of all time is “You’ve Got Mail“
I always find myself amused by the way Tom Hanks play a character. In case you don’t know, Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actor. I’ve watched “You’ve Got Mail” for like a zillion times. I never got bored of it. I still laugh at it, I still enjoy the sentimental scenes and I do think that Tom and Meg Ryan look good together. I mean, they got that special kind of something between them, the chemistry. Apart from that I also enjoyed “Sleepless In Seattle” which also featured both of them. Another thing I found good about Tom Hanks is that when he act, he somehow brings romantic and comedy to another level. It’s not too much of a mushy mushy stuffs and the comedy is something I would like to say a brainy one. The comedy got essence in it and it’s not just some Tom, Dick & Harry hoo-haa thing like Ace Ventura which I consider so lame.

2. I Share The same Birthdate with Juninho Paulista and Drew Barrymore.
I’m a pisces and being a pisces I am often cetegorized as a person who :

Excel in situations where they can leverage their imaginative and intuitive nature. They are exceptionally gifted artistically. Pisces are often intensely interested and skilled at a wide variety of things and tend to learn by absorption as opposed to logic. Pisces are loyal, family oriented, kind and giving. They are receptive to new ideas and circumstances. Pisces have an uncanny ability to nurture and support which is directly related to their powerful intuition.

Pisces make profound artists of all types because they possess great, vivid imaginations. That powerful creativity is often expressed in music, literature, drama and art. Pisces love style, luxury and pleasure, and are always ready for new adventures. When Pisces travel, they enjoy unique, exotic, luxurious places as well as modest, indigenous settings where like to live as the locals do. Main positive personality traits: Uncommon ability to instinctively respond to given situations; compassionate; understanding; artistic, sacrificing. They say, not me.

3. I Like Dogs
Dog has always been associated with the phrase “Men’s Best Friend“. I was born in the year of the dog. People born in the Year of the Dog are said to possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people¡¦s confidence because they know how to keep secrets. That have nothing to do with why I like dogs anyway. My favourite one is always, St. Bernard. I think this breed is one of the coolest on earth. They’re huge and hugable, nice to see nice too hold and you can ride on them. I will have one someday. I will … and I was not named Bernard Archibald because of the dog, it was just a coincidence.

Cute eh …

4. I’m A Musician
I play music. Basically drums and guitars. I am really into music. One thing about me is that I don’t read chords which makes it’s a little bit hard for me to gel with those who follow chords. For me, it’s simple … you just need to follow your heart. What comes from the heart, touches the heart. I like piano very much, but my hands are to “keras” to play piano. It doesn’t help! I never own a guitar. My favourite guitar is

Gibson Les Paul, It’s classic and .. What a babe!

5. I Am Planning To Add Some Tattoos
Tattoos are cool. I like tribal and angelic type of tattoos. Getting a tattoo is a little pricey nowadays but I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully I can add on my own design with some designs that I found on the net.

This one is cool …

6. I Have 4 Bens
You might be wondering what the hell is Ben. Well Ben is a name of a dog. But since I was young I was so used to name my pets as Ben and so to my teddies. Yes, I have teddies at home. All four are named Ben. So, I have 4 Bens.

I wanted to have some of these, but it’s pretty expensive

7. My Favourite Phrase – In a sense

8. I don’t give a damn on

what NameWee did or whatever that is related to it but the hype surrounding it does annoys me and it’s so ****** insane! Oh ya by the way, since it’s the last one which is number eight. This goes to zewt – famous Tottenham Number 8 was Steve Archibald. I was named after him.

My 8 Lucky Picks :

kennysia, xiaxue, jeff ooi, niamah, perez hilton, keiron richardson, andrea fonseka, dawn yang

Oh Yeah! What a pick …

Just a little note : I’ll be in KL for a week. Will be flying off to KL at 4:10 PM later in the afternoon. So expect less post in the coming week. 

Dear Daddy,

First and foremost I would like to say “Happy 50th Birthday“. Damn you’re old! Man, you doesn’t look like you’re 50. I’ll give you a big bear hug. *hugs*. What can I say? It has been a wonderful 25 years we’ve been together and along the way we’ve had our disagreement on lotsa things. You’re stubborn aren’t you? I guess I got that from you too. Maybe it is true that we are actually very much alike in some ways.

Hey, stop whining about not winning the premiership will ya? And that penalty, it was given to us and not that we asked for it but I thanked Rob Styles for not being so stylish. We’ve had our share of spoils so, we’re even. Are we cool now?

Man, I’m terribly sorry for not being able to be there to celebrate your half a century celebration. What do they call that, silver jubilee? Whatever. Seriously dad, I wouldn’t mind to stay just for another day but you see, the ticket on 22nd is RM 99.00 and the ticket the next day is RM 165.00, if you were me which one would you choose? 🙂 Just pulling your leg la pa.

In another 5 years, no 6 years you’ll be retiring. Sit back and just enjoy life. I know you just can’t wait to retire. So that you can spend all day long lepaking at your favourite kopitiam every single day. I know you very well.

Remember last time when you asked me to take science stream. I actually didn’t even try to appeal. I just hate science stream. I’m telling you now. I could have been drafted into one if I appeal for it but I didn’t. I went on and stay in social science which is way cooler than the rest. 🙂

Remember when you asked me to apply for KMCJ for matriculation? I didn’t even put KMCJ in my choices. I penned down KL and Selangor as my destination. I didn’t tell you that but now I’m telling you. The reason was actually, I want to roam around. I don’t want to be stuck here in Sarawak all my life.

I remember when I told you that I might apply for UiTM diploma program because I flunk my matriculation and I don’t want to resit for my tests, you told me :

Don’t ever think of it. If you do, do not step into this house forever

I think it was a bit harsh and for that one time, I agreed to what you’ve said. To my surprised, I am happy that I chose to agree with you. I managed to get through my exams with flying colors. That was a miracle. If say I went on with what I have in my mind, only God knows what will happen.

Remember when you asked me to put UNIMAS in one of the choices for UPU? You know what? I didn’t. I put 5 for UMS, 1 for UKM and 2 for UPM. I got UPM. I got economics, I didn’t go for accounts as you told me to. Dad, I hate accounts.

Doesn’t really matter now eh? So, on your birthday … I can only give you “segulung ijazah”. A start to a new beginning. After 5 wonderful years in UPM. I will be graduating and this one is for you. We might have tonnes of things we did not agree upon but your still my one and only dad. No matter how sucky you can be, no matter how irritating you can be at times you’re still that dad that I looked up onto.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Cheers,

Cibol 

P/S : Today is Zul’s birthday. He shares the same birthday with my dad. So dude, if you’re reading this, I wish you a very happy birthday and congrats for … your engagement? Not really sure about that but anyway – semoga panjang umur dan dimurahkan rezeki.

Of late, I’ve been trying to dig out how on earth I can add my nuffnang ads here in my blog. Well, I’ve been registered with nuffnang for quite a long time I think. Might not be a year but enough to make money in a sense I guess. And so I did my research on it and found out that actually I can’t put any adverts up on a free wordpress account. Dissapointed? Yes I am.

I know for a fact that for a site like blogger, they allow adverts to be placed on your blog(s) which is not the situation at wordpress. Commercializing my WordPress.com hosted blog by hosting paid advertising is against the terms of service and will result in my blog being deleted

Now, I love wordpress. I do think that it is the best blog site ever created but the restriction is somehow rather absurd in a way. But to look at it in a different way, what wordpress is trying to do is perhaps to not let the blog site becoming into blogger which is primarily populated by sploggers and spammers.

There actually a few options that I have ; Go back to blogger – Which I don’t think I will do. At least not at the moment. For some reason I’m not a big fan of blogger eventhough I started my very first blog in 2004 on blogger. I would rather stick to wordpress because of the tight security that wordpress have. Unlike wordpress, there are no “File Upload” features in Blogger.com, which is there at WordPress.com and the most important thing, which blogger do not have is a plug-in to stop spam. So security-wise wordpress is a lot better.

My second choice would be ; Get another host but still using the wordpress platform. Doesn’t make sense kan? But actually you can download the wordpress software which can be downloaded from wordpress.org. You can still enjoy your wordpress editor, with theme editor and place up ads but NOT on wordpress server. So, that’s the catch.

Before reading up and do some research, I put in my mind that if I can’t make it with wordpress, I’ll change but again keeping my head straight I asked myself, what do I really want? I’m just blogging for fun and not really for the money. I know money comes in good with blogging once you have thousands of hits every freaking day. But for me who barely reach 70 hits per day? Worth it? Maybe not now. SO, I’ll save it for another time then.

So, does that still make me a nuffnanger or what? – Nuffnang, answer me!

P/S : I’m serious. WordPress rocks! Eventhough I have to fork out a hefty amount of money to host on wordpress and get the VIP package – the only one that supports ads and modifications, I wouldn’t mind.

Note : This is not a sponsored post. I am just doing my part in promoting something that I used to be actively involved in during my uni days.

Dear all,

Just a sharing with you all regarding the coming ICG ’07.

What is FREEDOM? Don’t you feel curious on the stand of the Church on FREEDOM? I think all of us are confuse, unaware, ignorant about this. By reflecting on what is happening now, don’t you feel that somehow there are restrictions in the freedom? I quote this from Oxford Dict-freedom: unrestricted use of something; exemption or immunity from something. Well, these definitions imply that there should be no restrictions in practising our freedom. In my point of view, restrictions are somehow needed, or else, the world will be chaotic by then, rite? But don’t u feel that sometimes this whole concept of freedom is just too complicated to be understood that we just tend to give up. When this happens, we will not know what is our freedom in standing for our right especially in terms of our faith in our multi-religion (I suppose this word is seldom used to describe Malaysia, multi-racial is a common one, rite? Correct me if I’m wrong. Tq) country. Yes, restrictions is needed but until what extent we are restricted? If restrictions are needed, why does the word FREEDOM existed in the first place? As you seek to understand the concept of FREEDOM, why don’t take InterCampusGathering 07 a shot? Maybe you will get a better picture of freedom especially from the Church’s stand after the ICG 2007

DETAILS :

You would be asking, why ICG 2007? Because the theme is

OUR FAITH, OUR FREEDOM
WHERE: St. Anne’s Church, Bukit Mertajam, Penang
WHEN: 13th – 16th OCT 07
FEE: RM 103 (T-shirt and transport are included. This fees varies between campuses as each CSS will also subsidize but for those who are not attach to any CSS, this is the amount that you have to prepare. This is only applicable for those going from KL.)

#Please be noted that bedding(mats, matresses, pillows) should be prepared by the participant themselves.

Xtra Info:
1. This is a bi-annual event that will involve ALL Catholic students from all colleges, universities in Peninsular Malaysia. Expected participation is around 450…Just imagine, all our Catholic friends will congregate at the same place!!

2. There will be 6 sub-themes to support the main theme:
1. Freedom to WORK,
2. Freedom to LIFE,
3. Freedom to MARRY,
4. Freedom of RELIGION,
5. Freedom of SPEECH,
6. Freedom to EQUALITY…
(Source: Project Proposal of ICG ’07)

P/S: These are subject to be changed.

The closing date for registration is 31st August 2007 (next Friday).

Another good news to share with you all! KLCC’s t-shirt is BORN!!! It will be sold at RM17. We are hoping that all those from KL Diocese will be wearing the same t-shirt during the ICG. That will add the fun, rite? With this, I attach the design of the t-shirt. Besides that, the selling of this t-shirt is also part of our fund-raising project to subsidize those who are going for the coming ICG. Please be reminder that the t-shirt is NOT restricted to students only….so, anyone interested????

Thank you so much for your precious time in viewing this message and I really really really really hope to hear from you all very soon. Till then, please take a good care of yourself and God bless. Please forward this to as many friends that you have. Please spread the good news, ya

For further enquiries/registration/booking of t-shirt, please contact:

1. Jennifer Vaz (012-6841605)
2. Adeline (017-6837533)
3. Alan (012-6896568)
3. Fiona (019-8153211)

I never really watch badminton. Yesterday, I stayed for a while after Tan Fook and Wan Wah lost to the Indonesian pair. Suddenly this caught my attention

Reiko Shiota … I think she’s cute!

But I don’t think Kumiko Ogura was bad either …

Why no cute Malaysian shuttlers eh?

To hell with Lin Dan …

And Gao Ling …

Eventhough they lost .. I’ve found another reason not to missed another Badminton Championship in Malaysia ever …

Wah .. I’m missing a lot

Rose Wong

Ah Lost, I PIMP you liw. Don’t say I didn’t 🙂 What I get in return?

Ok … Time to get a little mushy mushy on Friday!

Let music be the food of love! – Heard of that before? I’m sure you do. Now, when we talk about things like this the word “romance” comes to mind. Now how important is being romantic in a relationship? Well, every single person have their own little judgements on how important can it be but what I think, doesn’t really matter if I think it’s important or not because in the end … the thought that my other half would like to think that I should be romantic does counts. She doesn’t have to say that but we know it by heart.

Romance is the flavor of love. Have you ever paused to wonder what it is that brings enthusiasm in life? Romance is that elixir that makes you vibrant, vivacious and full of vitality. Everyone has their own idea of romance and romantic ideas,for some : Someone who’s sensitive about his or her beloved’s needs is romantic, for some : The idea of romance can be as simple as a peck on a cheek, a warm hug or just uttering those three miraculous words “I love you.” These gestures appear romantic and are best when your beloved is least expecting them.

Now guys, whether we like it or not, whether we would want to admit it or not … being romantic is indeed important. You might say that, what matters is the heart but you yourself at least for once thought of doing something romantic for your girlfriend, spouse be whatever she is. Admit it guys!

Something worth sharing …

Wrong ideas about romance and being romantic …

A fulfilling relationship can do without romance: Between our jobs, hobbies, and all the other things that life throws at us, our relationship with our partner tends to take a back seat to those things we perceive as more important in life. The reality is that the relationship with our partner is the glue that holds everything else in our life together. Adding Romance to your relationship will not only make it more exciting but also more enjoyable.

Being Romantic requires spending money: Romance isn’t about how much money you spend on your partner or how much money you have. It’s about trying to make some of their fantasies and dreams come true. Most of the time just opening the door for your partner or complementing them on the way they look, smell or feel will make them feel more loved than buying them an expensive gift.

Romance requires effort and a lot of time: While some aspects of romance can require lots of time, romance is also about the little things that make a big difference in a relationship. A simple thing like turning down the lights, putting on your favorite music and close dancing in the kitchen while dinner is cooking exudes Romance and takes very little time and effort.

Only Women are more romantic then men: In most relationships, the woman is considered to be more romantic, however this does not have to be the case. Both men and women need to partake in the game of romance. The only difference between a romantic person and the unromantic person is the amount of time they devote to doing the little things for their partner and their relationship. It is about paying attention more than anything.

Flowers and candy means romance: Although flowers & candy are a nice gesture, they are so common and often a cold gesture. You can still give your partner flowers and candy but spice it up some or try variations. Try taking your partner to the place where you first met and present the flowers and candy to them there. Going that extra step and not stopping at ordinary makes all of the difference when it comes to being romantic.

You cannot learn to be romantic: The truth is, no one is born with a ‘Romance Gene’. Everyone has to learn how to be romantic either from a book, the way your friends or family treat each other, movies, TV, or some other resource. One nice thing about Romance is that it is contagious, as time goes on you want to be more and more romantic towards your partner and chances are your partner will be more romantic in return. It should come naturally and eventually with love, will.

You have to plan to be romantic: The nice thing about Romance is that there is no exact formula – what one person finds extremely romantic may not be romantic at all to someone else. The key to being Romantic is to find out what your partner finds Romantic. Don’t be afraid to ask them, they will be glad you did. Again…pay attention to your partner!

Being Romantic on Valentines Day, anniversaries or on a birthday is sufficient: Being romantic on the days you are supposed to be is expected. Being romantic all year round on the other hand is vital to the overall health of you relationship. Every successful relationship needs impulsiveness and spontaneity – it keeps things exciting.

Whatever it is I think it’s a – YES! You just have to be, or else it wouldn’t work in a long-standing relationship! We have to keep them happy, vice versa la.