Fabulous surprise and something on V neck

I received a fabulous surprise last month. 

Then another one in September ;)

Its a new service which sells like hot cake in town, whereby ladies (maybe man too) pays RM35 per month and receive a box of surprise right at your doorsteps every month. The surprise is consisting of 5-6 latest skin care/ cosmetics products in sample size, but sometimes you get 1-2 full size too, like the Elizabeth Arden's ampules I received this month!   

So if you like to try out new skin care/ cosmetic products before purchase, then this is the perfect deal for you, but if you are those who use same type of shampoo since 20 years ago till now, then don't bother to subscribe this, because you'll end up with too many sample item in your makeup case.  

Anyway, moving to the next topic. Something about stereotyping and men in V neck. Notice how the fabulous surprise box is in stunning pink color, even the ribbons and paper fillers are in pink! By just one look at the box, I think most of the people will think that- this is definitely for ladies, even before checking what's inside. But if you think about it, so what, its just a color! The color has no gender. However, most people like to associate certain colors, design, character, clothing (and the list goes on) to specific gender. Sling bag- lady, gossipy- lady, football- man, muscular- men etc. 

Now, Malaysian has its own guideline on gender specific clothing, V neck- gay. Ok, let me not just picking on single point, here's the entire story. On Sept 13, at a parental seminar in Penang, Yayasan Guru Malaysia Bhd and Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parents and Teachers As­­­sociations distributed guidelines to help pa­­rents and teachers spot lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tendencies. Quoting from the star online, below are some of the controversial guideline:

1. If you’re muscular, like v-neck or sleeveless tight and light-coloured shirt, like big handbags, you’re gay;

2. If you like to sleep, eat and hang out with women and you’ve no affection for men, you’re a lesbian. 

LOL. The first one is funny, the guideline had just gay-fied all my guy friend in the church, because I saw all of them wore light colored shirt (a.k.a pink) before and some even in V neck. But wait, the second point is HILARIOUS. To my dearest kupo friend, probably you girls are all lesbian, because you all are hanging out with the same gender way too much. 

As what Malaysian Insider said, it's breathtakingly stupid, and you would have thought that only universe is infinite, apparently human stupidity too. 

How many more years will you live?

Yes, mine is 51 years. 

Hmm.... which makes me 80 years old by then. Well, at least my medical insurance plan covers me til 80 years old. Phew....

The logical question you would ask me is how accurate is this system. This Life Expectancy System is developed by Malaysian Statistics Department with the aim to give a description on the estimated average remaining life of the individual. The algorithm was generated based on Malaysian mortality rates using the Coale-Demeny (West) and the Brass Logit model. Please don't ask me what does it really mean. Since the name of the model sounded pretty impressive I assume that its a very sophisticated statistical analysis model.   

Anyway, go ahead and try out yourself. I wouldn't say its a dodgy system. 

To think about it, 51 years sound way too LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG....

Remember the Justin Timberlake's movie- In time? I wonder what would I do if I know exactly how long more I will live, like the characters in the movie.  

The bigger question is how long will I stay productive?

I'm 29 this year, and I've already started to feel the effect of aging on my body. Goodbye to those days when I can stay up till 2am in the morning and still felt energetic like a bull the next day. Goodbye to those days when I can burn up all the fat by doing absolutely nothing. My metabolic rate had slow down quite a bit, I get tired more easily, my skin felt more flabby and less elastic, and wrinkles... Lets not dwell any further in this. 

To think about it, I actually wish that I don't have to live that long. It will be better if I can leave this world before my body start to break down. The quality of life goes down the minute our lives get consumed by old age diseases. Hearing loss, muscle near to the point of disintegration, wobbly feet (maybe knee with arthritis), smell of rotten meat, and NO teeth. 

I think i'm feeling depressed already. 

I don't think I'm thinking pessimally nor I live cowardly. My definition of a quality life is fruitful, bountiful and ecstatic. Without optimal health, I will be deprived from living passionately and purposefully. And these are the very things that make us feel alive and worthy. I don't want to be just "coping" with life. It will be the saddest thing if I end up that way one day. 

I dont know about you but to me, I want to stay as productive for as long as possible, the day I no longer useful, I hope that God will be merciful to me and take me away. 

Virtual Communication

This is a post about the communication using the virtual tools. Some people called it online networking, some called in facebook-ing, some think that its the only way to communicate, some are addicted to it, some cannot live without it. Well, i guess if you are not part of it, people probably going to forget you very soon, because you are the dinosaur of this age, and only fit to be exhibited in museum. "Oh, you are so ANCIENT!" like a 8 years old used to tell me.

And i am still the same ancient person.

I do acknowledge the importance and benefits of what these online tools can do. It makes communication faster, easier, 'cheaper', more fun and creative. And thats why i never stop blogging and forum-ing. And recently i have make a vow to myself that i'll commit more time to what i term as "content writing".

(So this is not an anti-Facebook post, gotcha!)

Content writing is a technical words whereby some freelance writer writes the right content for certain websites and getting paid by doing it. Some people called it content marketing, or copy writing, or content strategy services, but generally the more bombastic it sound, the better it is. Its in a booming phase these days and the industry which depends highly on internet marketing offers very lucrative opportunities for such profession/services. However what i aspired to do got nothing to do with this.

So here comes my enlightment. On and off Peter and I were talking about the issue of mankind, how our world had slowly turned into a place of self destruction, and how the earth which we have inhabited and colonized since thousands of years ago have become a place which is no longer fit for our next generation to grow up and to live and survive. But there are also times we talk about how great it is to have each other, to be able to visit countries which we never visit before, to have intellectual interaction, to have the intellectuality and spirituality so that we can experience deeper and broader.

I have a ball of emotions inside of me which is running wild and shooting at all direction inside of me at times. Sometimes a tiny thing happens to me (maybe just a thought, or someone comments, or even news on the tele) and though its just a petty thing but it triggers a string of emotions in me and consecutively affects my action and the way I react other people. During those moments of time, I felt like I need a channel to talk to someone, an outlet to vent these emotions, but in a positive way, so that whatever i felt didnt just go into 'waste' or left in vain.

I love the process of able to express my thoughts in words which people can comprehend and able to receive feedbacks or echoes in return. The best way to do this is through writing.

Well, is it different from blogging? yeah it is. Cuz the writing is no more focusing on myself, i'm striving to write if not a positive message, then a mind triggering piece, and publish it in a place where it will reach out to bigger crowd. And its not easy as it sounds, cuz i will write about religion, about constitutional believes, about customs, about people relationship, about society and how we conform to it etc. It involves alot of research and it will be a brain consuming activities.

I will start of with a piece which i've did recently for bible study on Christians view on suffering and tribulations. and hopefully this will further triggers many other writings. So do stay tuned.

The chasing game

What will you do if someone 'carded' you?

That's the million dollar question which i read from the "lifestyle" section, Star newspaper last week. Cheek'd is the new dating gimmicks in town. Stranger coyly slip business card with cheeky message such as "feel free to stalk me", "i dare you" to those who catch their eye. The receiver will go to the networking website and check on the fella's profile/contacts and if you feel up to it, wallah! you have a date!

If you feel totally lost, don't sweat, cuz i felt the same. And that's not all, i came across September social and Skout the other day, and was totally taken aback by revolution of the act called "dating". Apply for a date through blog? location based iphone mobile dating apps which allow you to detect singles within 0.5 mile radius? Frankly, it was really an eye opener for me (maybe i am really from STONE age). I didn't now that dating had become so sophisticated nowadays. People are taking advantage of the new media technology and social networking to the maximum and the normal rules of engagement which used to apply to the previous generation (like me!) has somewhat became invalid.

Although i am not that old, but during my days (which is like 6-7 years ago), the entire dating process was very much depended on physical (not virtual) interaction, i.e. he/she is either your friend/classmates/churchmate OR your brother's friends OR your friend's friend (thats how i met Peter, hahaha... ) etc. and the modus operandi is always the same: exchange glance, show interest, sms/chatting online, finding excuse to ditch the rest of the friends and go out alone with him/her, more sms (maybe in tons), and finally comes the peak of the entire process, which is the love confession, its either a face to face "Will-you-be-my-girlfriend?" or a 10 page love letter which quoting all the lyrics from the love song you heard before.

Maybe i am the dinosaur here, but i still think that nothing can beat the feeling of a guy asking a girl out the old school way. If i am still unattached now, i probably end up being single forever, cuz i dont think i can keep up with the dating-pace of this generation. It seems as though they are simply making new rules as they go, wait.... is there any rules at all?

I asked Peter once whether did it ever crossed his mind that he may want to have a new girlfriend (you know 6 years is not short so he might getting itchy or start to develop wandering eyes syndrome). His answer was a firm "no", and here comes the reason: He is too lazy to go through the chasing and flirting game (a.k.a guy go all out playing Romeo, girl playing hard to get) all over again.

Priceless.

I think we are really made for each other.

On Bombing Church

Am not flaming any religious issue here, but when there is a need for a person to speak up, she has to speak up.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A church in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was firebombed early on Friday, gutting the first storey of the building in a residential area, amid a row over the use of the word "Allah" for the Christian God.

What is the meaning of this so called freedom of religion when a person cant even worship God in His name? What is the meaning of human rights if a temple of worship can be burnt down because of selfish cause? What is the meaning of a peaceful religion when its believers acts like a bulldozer who not only commit the crime of trespassing but also terrorism.

Frankly, if the evil carnage which we witnessed in so many occasions were the profession of FAITH, i have no words to describe the religion except cult-ish. Am i the only person who is confused over the identity of the religion here or what? The name of the religion itself suggested 'peacefulness', but paradoxically the act of its extreme believers suggested nothing but evil and violence.

I do understand that the people we should condemn here are the fanatics and the extremist. Honestly its unfair to point the fingers to the religion or its devotees for the irresponsible act of the minorities. However, everytime i heard such news being wired on the tele, i cant help but to question: Is it something went wrong with the system itself? The extremists seem to believe that their evil acts were justified by their belief, and they can conveniently bombing churches, mass slaughtering for the sake of a futile reason- to emphasize the differences between religions. Honestly, its scary that there seems to be no stopping of the occurrence of such incidents.

I still remember the skin deep horror i felt the first time i saw the youtube video of the extremist decapitating the Korean fugitive. The gruesome image was imprinted in my mind but it was the shouting of "Allahu Akbar" before the act of decapitation haunted me for a long long time. It startled me that there are people who actually believes that by killing others they are showing that their God is the greatest of all.

Religion supposed to save life, not taking away life. However, religion is one of the major contributing factor of human mortality in the history of mankind. Holy wars and terrorist attacks killed billions of life and caused enormous suffering to the people.

And now, its taking place in Malaysia as well. Yesterday was the bombing of the church, i wonder whats awaiting for us tomorrow?

Compassion

I was having lunch with my colleague and another friend at Sri Petaling last Friday. It was a typical mamak shop, crowded, sweaty, oily and congested with pungent smell of spices and curry. Anyway, while i'm happily eating my briyanni rice, suddenly i felt someone approached me from the sideway. I turned and saw this beggar, a very old man with filthy clothes, holding a cane on one hand and a cup on another asking for money.

To be frank, i usually dont give money to beggar, in my definition, its a crime to give to a person of right age, with no apparent mental in capabilities. But for some reason, i have a soft spot for those old ones/kids. Whenever i look at them, the picture of loneliness and unwanted sprung up my mind.

When i was in Jakarta last year, i have to mentally confronted this feeling everytime the taxi stops, whether its in the middle of the traffic jam or infront of the traffic light, there is always someone, some child, persistently knocking on the glass window, extending their hands out. To turn away my eyes from them is one of the cruelest thing i felt i've done. After 3 days of staying in the city, i felt like wanna run away and never return again.

Back to my story, i was searching my purse for small cash to give to the old man, but only to find that the smallest note i have is RM5, without second thought i took it out and put into his can. and thats when my colleague gave me the "i cant believe you have just did that" look. They were shaking their head in disbelief as though i've done something bizarre and outrageous. In order to knock some sense into me, my colleague told me another incident happened in Bangsar quite sometime ago.

In was the same mamak setting and there was this old man who begged for money from table to table. The only difference was that this old man was hunching, it seems like his back was somehow deformed and he was having difficulties in walking around. My colleague's friend felt pity for him and took out a 50 cents and gave to the old man.

Then miracles happened, as soon as the old man received the 50 cents, he straighten his back and walk out of the restaurant like any other normal person. My colleague was utterly speechless, he felt so amused and told his friend that he is Jesus, cuz he healed the hunchback with 50 cents.

Although it sounds rare, but the fact is there are some people who do feel compassionate towards the disabled and poor. But with these kind of incidents actually occuring, i am sure people's heart will soon be hardened. And this is sad, people cannot do good without worrying being cheated. Good qualities such as compassionate and charitable are killed easily in the society we live today, there are no chance for these qualities to be nurtured so that it can bless more people.

This is definitely sad.

A God Believer

I was brought up in a hardcore christian family, that doesnt mean that i was oppressed and forced to accept the religion or anything. In fact, I had willingly accepted God into my life after i've personally experienced His presence and greatness.

However about a year ago, i've started to seriously thinking whether to continue to call myself LITERALLY a Christian or not. Don't get me wrong, i'm neither abandoning my religion nor thinking of converting. Its just that i've seen some lights for the past 1 year and it sorta led to a shift in my view and thoughts on religion. Anyway, what i really trying to say is that i wanted to identify myself more as a God believer rather than strictly a 'Christian' who wholly and only follow what the church/congregation/denomination's doctrines or creed says.

Recently i have seen so many examples of how things went wrong if we claim ourselves to be religionists who only serve single church or denomination's interest. Think about Protestants and Catholics conflicts, or conventional and charismatics debates, you'd be surprised at the vibrancy and occasional nastiness over musty theological tomes. Although Islam, Judaism and Christianity serve the same Yahweh God, however they are still blind and incompromise towards each other. Recently, there was a religious conflicts in local scene when Catholics lodge report against Al Islam for trespassing. Frankly, i'm sad and to an extent angry towards all these meaningless fightings and arguments as we all serve the same Kingdom of God.

I grew up in a conventional Methodist church, but attended a very much charismatic church when i first came to KL, it was funny that i went reverse and subsequently attended a conventional independent church in Liverpool when i study abroad. On top of that, occasionally i still go to Peter's Catholic church, and i have a mix of close friends who are Catholics, mainstream protestants and charismatic christians.

Prior to this, i have a very narrow definition of what Christian is, and its very much what the church taught me so. Instead of being a God believer, I was shaped into a church believer. And because of this, Peter and I have some heated discussion due to the differences of our understanding towards certain God teaching and principles. However most of the time, it was me who insisted that my way of being a christian is the right way and unwilling to think outside of the frame.

After that, things happened, which drastically and dramatically changed my believes. However its not the right time to share it here yet.

The point is, doesnt matter you are a protestants christians, charismatic christians, catholics, Jew, or even Islamic, you are a God Believer. I'm not saying our God is a also the God of greeks, Indian mythology or Chinese lagendary stories, but i am suggesting that our God is a universal God.

Maybe you are wondering have i been striked by lightning or what, to come out with such a blasphemous thought. Well the answer is no, but the impact or the aftermath maybe the same. Honestly, i was confused and i have struggled badly when my so called 'church cardinal belief' were challenged, but at the same time i began to open up and i know more now than i ever knew in my life. And still, i'm craving to know so much more.

Parallelly, being a science thinker had also open up my horizon like never before. A lot of scientific discovery fascinates me, and it bring out another perspective for me to understand God's work. In fact, I still think that our God is the greatest scientist of all, He had created the life itself, and human was merely trying to solve all the riddles in the name of science. Probably its really like what my friend Dorcas said, when we meet the creator one day, it will be the biggest science convention of all time, as all the truth of life will be revealed once and for all.

I can imagine myself sitting on the audience seat, raising my hand asking God on the stage, excitedly, "God, why does our genetic makeup is so much similar to the apes?" * chuckles *

Anyway, i better shut my mouth now. I may not be strike by lightning, but i maybe stoned to death if i continue. Sign off!

where did Human come from? Pt 2

Here come my second part of "where did human come from". Anyway, since the presentation was over and i am just too lazy to spell out the entire presentation content letter by letter, hence, i will do a quick summary here on the science part and substantiate with my personal opinion on this topic.

From Scientific point of view, Charles Darwin theory of Evolution form the basis of the view of Scientific community towards human origin. In his second book "Descent of Man", he had stipulated that:

"Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, arboreal in its habits, an inhabitants of the old world, classed amongst the Quadrumana, an ancient progenitor of the monkeys and ape. The Quadrumana derived from an ancient marsupial animal, through a long series of diversified forms, came from an amphibian like creature, which in turn came from a fish like animal"

Darwin, Descent of Man

If your previous understanding towards the evolution theory is that human are decedent of ape then you are 100% wrong. According to the Father of Evolution, the most primitive life form is a fish like creature appears in Paleozoic era. Since Evolution talks about common ancestry, hence macro evolution across billions of years has give rise to the modern human, the homo Sapien we are today.

However, controversy still arises within the scientific community itself although the evidence of speciation or microevolution (of genus Homininid, or within the homo species) was well documented, but not at the level of macroevolution. Genetic studies showed that there is 96% (not 99% as previously claimed) of similarities between a chimp genome and human genome. Although i am not practicing sciences anymore, i still can comprehend that the scientific evidence of microevolution cannot be simply disregarded. However macro evolution (fish-human) is something questionable.

Personally, i am not taking side by saying that evolution theory is right or wrong. If human made from soil and spirit of God is bizarre, how about human evolutionized from a fish like creature or even a single cell organism in the primordial soup theory? Does that sound anyhow more convincing?

The truth is there is no way for us to put the two school of thoughts- Science: evolution and Religion: creationism on a same balance and weigh it, simply because they are of different nature. Religion is based on faith, whereby it was written clearly in Hebrew: 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Whilst Science is based on facts and evidence (something we can see). Furthermore, Religious cardinal truth/teaching is absolute, cannot be changed and challenged. While science is progressive and accumulative. Today the evolution theory holds true, maybe in another light years time, some researcher will come out with new discovery saying that human are descended from some alien species in outer space.

To what extent can a scientist be spiritual? can those with naturalistic view of the world, who doesnt believe in God, spirit and ghost accept human are made by The Almighty's hand? There seems a prima facie paradox here since spirituality were often posit as a non physical realm category separate from this secular world described by science. However, despite of how analytical and scientifical i am, I've always thought that science is there to help us to understand more about God. In this never ending course of scientific discovery, there will be one point whereby this path will intersect with the human belief, and that harmony between the two can be somehow possible.

That's my faith for being a Science thinker and a God believer.

At the end of the day, doesn't matter a religionist or a scientist, everyone needs faith to believe in certain things.

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...