Where did human come from? Pt1

This week is a lazy week for me.

Apart from having the usual vendor/customer meetings, the one and only 'unusual' task which i'm working on is to prepare a scientific presentation for my company fortnightly get together session.

My company has a very weird policy, which is anti-knowledge base (KB). The management does not believe the concept of computerized collection, management, retrieval of knowledge a.k.a storing knowledge in a database. In their opinion, Knowledge can never be stored. Knowledge acquiring is a process of interpreting and understanding a sets of information or data, and that process only happen in a person's brain. As such, the management came out with this idea called 'Xchange' to encourage free flow of knowledge, vertically and horizontally (peers to peers/ science to technical team/management to employees) within the organization. In which, all the employees of my company were required to take turns to present a science/technical intensive topic during this Xchange session.

Well, it is my turn to present next week.

I have been scratching my head for the past few days to come with a scientifically sound topic, yet interesting and able to ignite thoughts. After reading through tons of papers, here come my final topic "Where did human come from". My thoughts of line is looking the subject matter from religion and scientific point of view, and whether there is a harmony between the two.

I hope my colleagues are not reading my blog, cuz its a big spoiler since i am gonna write some of my thoughts for the presentation here.

From the religion point of view, the origin of human dwells around the concept of creationism. I'm appalled at how similar the concept of creationism among different religion. They all sharing two things in common, which summarizes the creationism sciences:

• There is a creator-the deity or deities
• The creator(s) creates human

For example,

• Christianity and Jew talk about God (Yahweh) make man in His Image (Genesis, 1:26-27, Bereshit)
• Islam talk about Allah created man from dust and little fluid and make them pairs (Al Quran: Surah 35, Ayat 11-12)
• Hindusim talks about Brahma splitting himself into 2, one have the form of man and the other have the form of woman, which together the two created the beings (Siva Purana)
• Greeks believe that Zeus instruct Prometheus to form men in the image of God, while Athena breathed life into them
• Taosim principle stated that The way give birth to unity, which in turns give birth to duality, which in turns give birth to Trinity, and Trinity give birth to myriad creatures (Tao Te Ching)

The only outlier is Buddhism, the religion simply ignores the question of origin of life. Buddha said that "Conjecture about (the origin, of) the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conhectured about", why? because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life, do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, unbinding, self awakening. (AN 4.77, Acintita Sutta, Unconjecturable)

When i read this, i'm utterly impressed. Being a human, its kinda hard not to care about where are we from, and what makes us the human we are today isnt it? In fact, some said that life is nothing but a journey of soul searching, of who we are and what is the purpose of life. However, its not too hard to understand where the ideology come from as Buddhism practice detachment.

Anyway, back to my point, mainstream scientific research produces conslusions which reject the creationism sciences. For this reason, creationism was labeled as pseudoscience and were perceived as a set of believe instead of a proven scientific hypothesis. The most notable disputes is Darwin's 'human come from apes' theory.

Anyway, you know what my next post will be....

To be continue...

Italiannese is way overated

Fine dining and big fat bill do not always guarantee a quality meal, Peter and I learned the lesson when we visited Italiannese, Sunway Shopping Mall recently.

We've been hearing alot of good comments about Italiannese for quite sometimes but never have a chance to try it. Partly because Peter cooks great Spaghetti and we love to add a bit of extra personal touch here and there to suit our taste (which means ALOT of bacon and Olive oil). Hence we are not too keen on trying out the food which are common and easy to prepare but way too overpriced.

A few weeks before we went for high tea in Italianese, Garden and the experience was fabulous, the environment is classy and quiet, since it was late afternoon so there was not much of crowd. We've ordered a creme brule and chocolate hazelnut cakes, and both of us enjoyed the creme brule very much.

Thinking of maybe its worth a try to go for full meal, hence after a week, we went to Italianese to have our lunch again, but this time we went for the one in Sunway shopping mall.

That was a big big mistake.

For the same kind of price, we received lower quality of food, services and environment, all together! The restaurant was hidden behind TGI Friday, and we had to go out of the shopping mall to get to the main entrance or through a 'small alley' to get in through the side door. The air condition wasnt cool enough as the 36 degree's sun was burning outside, and the setting was less classy compared to the one in Garden.

We've ordered the mince meat penne and giant meat ball spaghetti and it turned out to be a big disappointment. Although the portion is big, the penne was too salty and dried. Whilst the spaghetti was literally swimming in the gravy cuz its too watery. The two different pasta tasted exactly the same as though the gravy was cooked from the same pan.

The watery gravy

The funny thing is the tastiest out of all, is the appertizer which is consist of pieces of whole meal and white bread with Olive Oil and Balsamic vineger sauce, which came as FREE!

Frankly speaking, i rather go for Peter's 'leeky balcon-ish' Spaghetti which does not cost me RM65++ than having spaghetti from those high class Italian restaurant again.

Christian Brain washing?

I am surprised to see negative posts about religion appears frequently in local Bloggerphere nowadays, to be specific, post about 'Aggressive Christian'. Some wrote about their bad experience with some Christian who practices the 'preaching against people's wishes' or 'christian brain washing', and some just simply cannot stand the sight of the overwhelmingly loving and holy christian groupie, who use the mysterious christianese language to communicate among themselves.

*Click to zoom in

I'm appalled at the fact that this is how the non believers perceived Christian nowadays. That we, the christian are a group of self deception people with 'holy than thou' attitude, perceived the non believers as not having a purpose in life, and conclude that therefore they need to be saved.

... is that justifiable for the Christians to force our belief on others?

As i reflected on myself and this whole fiasco, i cant help but to think that we may have lose our grip on the reality and conveniently dis-connected ourselves from the world. Yes, Christians are taught to live a Christ-like life, which includes the obligation of sharing the gospel with others. However, the question is when we approach others, what is our attitude and ultimately do we understand the meaning of our own act. Of course we do this out of love and compassion, but can we just go out hardcore converting people in the name of God's love? I'm constantly surprised with some of the MLM equivalent tactics which certain churches employ as though they are doing it to meet an arbitrary quota of saved souls.

*Click to zoom in

Its simply ignorance if we think with a 4 spiritual law speech, we are able to 'shed some lights' and expecting the non believers to say "yes, i believe". Do we realized here that we are not passing a well memorized facts, but its our life that we are passing to them. what is more convincing than seeing a life testimony itself? Why we aren't starting by being their friends? And more important is, its shouldn't be our personal effort, as spiritual insight can only be revealed by God Himself.

Frankly speaking, being a christian does not make us any better than others (Being a better man is never the goal of a christian). We are all sinners and the only 'advantage' we had compare to non believers is that Christians have the strength to choose to sin or not to sin. It doesn't really make us more qualified to enter the gate of heaven nor gain favoritism in His eyes.

If i can see my life spread out in front of me, maybe i will speak with more conviction. The fact is i don't know, ultimately will I do enough to be called as His child in His Kingdom of Heaven? will I stay the course till the very end? The fact is i dont know, we all dont know.

And thats why we are human.

听说爱情回来过

自从N年前与张曼娟, 张晓娴的文字告别后, 我便很少阅读中文书籍了。可是，2009年短短的几个月里，我找回了挖掘书中黄金物的那份热忱，更重要的是那份读后的感动。

第一次的感动来自一个网上部落格. 这位北京部落客让我见识了后现代新新人类的思想，热忱,对爱情奋不顾身，甚至粉身碎骨也在所不惜的坚持。或许因为这是真实故事,所以才能这么贴近读者的心吧！当我到上海公干时，甚至有鼓冲动想要不顾一切买了张车票到北京去。可是若真正看到了他又如何呢？可能会幻想破灭吧！因为看不见的东西常常被美化了，网上与现实还是有距离的。

第二次的悸动是来自最近在上海公干时所买的这本言情小说- 如是嫣然的“听说爱情回来过”。说是言情小说好像有低估了这本书的感觉.因为市场上RM3.50 一本的爱情小说比比皆是, 尽都是肤浅的文笔, 渲滥的歌颂爱情的伟大.可是她的笔调很不同，淡淡的，却又是深刻的。

故事述说着三个人的故事。七年的爱恨交缠，最后发现原来唯有放下， 幸福才能临到。我也晓得这故事是虚拟的,然而所描述的感情却是那么的真实。我深感共鸣，甚至认为这样的故事是可能发生在我所熟悉的这个世界里.正因为现实,它才叫人这么的感动.

。。。。。

不晓得为什么中文爱情故事总能触动心弦深处，是因为少女情怀总是诗吗？我可是上了年纪的也。
突然发现我似乎在隐约的透露着自己似乎也向往刻骨铭心的爱情

其实并不然

呵呵。。出尔反尔，突然觉得有种啼笑皆非的感觉

部落格真的让人不知觉的吐真意呵。没有一个人,是刻意记着昨日的种种,装腔作势在部落格写出这样的话,只不过是突然发现自己的遗忘能力不尽如人意，非得不吐不快罢了。

说真的，我不是一个浪漫主义者，虽然年少时也幻想过要轰轰烈烈的爱一回，却发现我真正要的只是平凡人的幸福。凡间的爱情不过是一种遇见，遇见了对的人，然后相守一生.着实是最幸运的事。

My second Photoshop attempt

Am working on some brochure design for my boss lately, nothing serious though, just a good will voluntary work. This is my second attempt of trying to do some brochure design work after the my virgin design experience for sister wedding invitation card .

All i have to say is that, photoshop do wonders. Just to share some of the design here.

Still rely heavily on external images though, most of the time i am just re arranging and putting different tone of colors together to form a big picture i have drawn virtually in my mind. Certainly, very unprofessional.

Anyway, opinion are most welcome.

Shanghai Yummies-pt 2

Here comes my part II culinary experience in Shangahai.

WARNING: Tons of photos!!Viewer adviced to take lunch before read this.

First day breakfast cum lunch at office canteen, pathetic western food with the burger patty sweet taiwanese hotdogs, mash potatoes, seaweed soup, salad and fruits. Its nice and filling but nothing much to shout about. A bit expensive though, the whole set comes at RMB28 (RM14).

Went to the famous Shanghai Shopping street- Nanjing street on the first night. Even though its nearly 10pm, the place was still congested and flooded by sea of shoppers. To some extent, the scenery and the cool breeze reminded me of the pedestrian shopping street in UK, but with a mix of local (Chinese advert, colorful neons lights) and foreign (branded clothes, shoes and the fast food restaurant) scent, and of course the major difference is that in UK, all shops closed at 5pm, but in Shanghai, the city never sleep.

Nanjing Shopping Street

Found some old looking chinese restaurant at a corner of the street. Without much expectation i just walked in for a bowl of beef noodles to warm up my body.

To sit alone in a table of four is a bit funny though, as i'm surrounded by families of Chinese people eating and chatting happily among themselves with a full table of food.

I went for the beef noodle (RMB 10) and of course a tray of siao long bao (RMB10). The portion of the beef was pretty generous, a bit raw but tasted fine. A bit similar to Vietnamese's Pho but with Chinese yellow noodles and lacking the fragrants taste of basil and mint leaves.

Here comes the second day luxurious lunch which causes RMB200++

My first impression of the first dish is: Sze Chuan style meat! as the '花椒' (a type of chinese pepper) smell and the layer of spicy oil floating on top reminds me of the sze chuan's steamboat which i had once in Liverpool. Turned out to be i'm half correct, yes, its sze chuan style, but its not pork or chicken, its

FROG MEAT!!!

I'm at horror when the host told me that its not even frog (田鸡) but bigger frog (toad??) (牛蛙). Chinese describe it as the cow frog, which is bigger and unglier than the green color frog which we usually saw. Nevertheless, The meat was tendy but quite bony though.

Here is my favourite PORK with a big layer of juicy fat! it tasted heavenly with the chili oil



The 'lobak' 酥 with yummy shredded lobak inside and coated with sesame seeds outside, very crunchy and hot



豆鼓猪肉丝(fermented bean pork) with alot of onions slices, but a bit too salty


莲藕 (lotus roots) with sweet glutinous rice inside the hole of the root, yummy.


Toufoo soup with alot of corriander


Stir fried beans with 丝瓜, looks simple but surprisingly sweet and fresh

Of course and a good cup of tie kunyan chinese tea to wash off the fats and oil

i skipped the second night dinner as my heart was tormented and churned by guiltiness for eating so much for lunch, as an act of repentance, i ate ........ siao long bao instead. hahahaha... no difference.

The third day i was in a rush to airport so only managed to catch a fast meal. This is so called the chinese fast food restaurant, 东方既白，i have no idea why it was named in that way as it sound like rude words actually (pronouced as 'tong fang ji bai' in chinese, geddit?). The environment was similar to KFC and McD and they served food in seconds! However being a fastfood restaurant, it also came at fast food restaurant price, RMB 25 (RM12.50), a bit expensive though.

I went for a simple meal with the 卤肉饭 (pork cooked in soy sauce for long long time) and the Black Glutinous rice desert. The rice was so tender and it came with an 卤蛋egg and chicken wing as well. The desert is similar to the Malaysian Nyonya black glutinous rice deserts, except that its used cream and was cold , rather than with Coconut milk and hot.

Overall, it was alright. I am very much enjoyed and accustomed to Chinese food but for some reason, during that 3 days trip, i missed nasi lemak sambal more than ever!

Shanghai Yummies- pt 1(small bites)

Chinese food is one of the major highlight of my recent Shanghai trip, which i really have to thank my company business counterparts who had generously hosted me for good lunch. I've always aware of the fact that luxurious meals is a custom for the Shanghainese to welcome the guest. However its still a big shock to me when i see a table full of 6-7 different dishes for 3 person meal, its enough to feed a team of hungry footballers! Frankly, i'm actually abit annoyed to see so much of leftovers went to waste as the table is still quite full of food even after everyone done eating.

Nevertheless, food is a major element in Chinese culture, hence the best way to understand China is to hunt for its street food, which i think was much more enjoyable and adventorous.

中国人说，民以食为天，这话真是不错。这次的上海之旅的确让我大开眼界。虽然一直以来已风闻有关中国食品的种种负面报导，例如猪肉“瘦肉精”，谷类食品和腐竹中“吊白块”，及最近的中国毒奶粉等。但美食当前，我也管不了这么多，怀着视死如归的精神，赴汤蹈火寻街头美食去了！

早餐 My Breakfast-小龙包 small dragon bun，肉馅饼，乳酸奶 (草莓口味) yogurt drink

There are a variety of cheap packet drink available in Shanghai compare to Malaysia. Even for yogurt! i tried the strawberry flavor, tasted not too bad.

巧克力口味 chocolate flavor drink (its so weird to see different type of chocolate drink other than the usual dutch lady and milo)

Shanghainese drinks 'wong lou kat' like mineral water

油葱饼

肉包子


迷你汉堡 small hamburger, 肉馅饼


Popiah look alike wrap


浙肉夹摸


Muachi-Sweet Glutinous Rice ball




大娘水饺


肉包子


肉棕子 Chinese Dumpling


小龙包

The funny thing about 小龙包 is that the price varied so much compare to the one you get in high class chinese restaurant in Malaysia (such as 鼎泰丰), which is around RM20. In Shanghai, it cost me RMB 10 (RM5) for a tray of the 8 pieces small dragon buns in common chinese restaurant. When i went for the street side 小龙包, the same amount only cost me RMB5 (RM2.50)!

I went..... stoned, on the spot.

The realization had prompt me to eat 小龙包 for:

Breakfast

Tea Break

Dinner

..... and whenever i am hungry!

Ps: will blog about Shanghai dishes (lunch/dinner) next!