The Brilliant Mind

I just finished watching 'The Brilliant Mind' hosted by 8TV. It is a very good programme as it increases one's general knowledge. In the Reality Show, there are three competitors and one of them will be eliminated based on the lowest prize money gained. Then the remaining goes to the next stage of competition and finally one will go to the final when a RM30,000 is waiting for him or her if she managed to answer all the last five questions correctly.

In the first round, each participant is asked a general knowledge question. If he answers correctly he will be given RM300 and he will be allowed to answer question 2 which is based on a roulette with graphics and numbers superimposed and he will be asked to give two numbers where the graphics are identical. This question fetches RM200. Again, the same participant will be given another chance to give another pair of numbers whose grapics are the same in shape. This last question is worth RM400 if answered correctly.

All in all, I enjoyed watching the reality show.

Watching online TV

When I was touring China, I like to watch CCTV, the local television station. It came as a surprise to me that I could actually watch the same contents worldwide because CCTV has a online version with the same content broadcasted in real time. I discovered only today when I stumbled upon the site where you can choose to watch CCTV 1 until CCTV13.

I was attracted to the CNY special programme where talented people would be chosen to do the annual variety show. CCTV3 is now having auction and it is televised online. I suppose I will be able to watch the real variety show come this Chinese New Year.

It is a wonderful idea for countries to allow the world to view their television programmes as is done by China.

I will have a great time watching some of the wonderful documentaries thru this CCTV.

Happy Deepavali

Happy Deepavali to all Hindu readers of this blog.

According to my Indian friends, Deepavali is a day to commemorate the victory of Good over Evil and it is also known as the Festival of Lights.

As with other celebrations in Malaysia such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year and Christmas Day, Deepavali is a day of significance to us. On such a day, we will visit our friends of other religions to promote mutual understanding of their customs and religious practices. It is only we understanding that we can foster closer friendship with friends from different races in Malaysia.

Since the day I was a participant of a Students' Exchange Programme, I have come to realise the importance of knowing the customs and religious practices of other races in Malaysia. If all Malaysians harbour goodwill towards each other irrespective of race and religion, all of us will live side by side peacefully.

Once again, Happy Deepavali to all Hindus.

The demise of a young soul

During last night's Form 5 English class, I was surprised and sad to learn that one of my students, Al-Amin passed away in a road accident. A bus had knocked him down and dragged him a few meters ago. He died on the spot because of serious injuries sustained when he was being run over and dragged along by the bus.

This tragic news really awakened us to the transient world we are in. We are here for the time being and we can be called by God anytime.

I remember Al-Amin as an enthusiastic student in my English class. He would jot down the meaning of every new word he came across or the one whose meaning I wrote on the whiteboard. According to his friend, he had turned over a new leaf as previously he was a naughty student who always tried to test his teachers' patience with his rudeness and misbehaviour.

The Chinese always believe that if a bad person suddenly turns good it is a bad sign because some misfortune will befall him. Al-Amin's case seems to fit this phenomenon.

Beating the traffic light when it turns red always end up in tragedy. If Al-Amin had been patient enough to wait for the traffic lights to go green, he would still be in my class. However, sometimes, if his 'ajal' (the day one is destined to die) has come, there is no way he can escape it.

I really miss Al-Amin's naughtiness and his spirit to master the English language.

My Malay Blog

Readers who are interested in learning Malay or bahasa Melayu can go to my new blog entitled 'Halaman Bahasa Melayu Cikgu Yeoh' which I started to write three days ago. It is written entirely in bahasa Melayu.

My aim of writing the above blog is to help promote bahasa baku or standard Malay. It is my sincere hope that more users of the language will use it correctly and grammatically, in accordance with 'Tatabahasa Dewan Edisi Ketiga' - the official grammar book for use in schools and the media.

For my first post, I write about 'Penggunaan kata pemeri 'ialah' dan 'adalah' (The usage of 'ialah' and 'adalah'). In my second post, I deal with 'Kesalahan Umum Penggunaan Bahasa' (Common mistakes in language usage), starting with the absence of prefix 'meN' in statements. As for today's post, I touch on 'ayat inti' (the basic sentence structures). Exercise and answers are also given for readers for self-assessment. If readers want to ask questions about Malay usage, they can key in their queries in the Chat Box and I will answer them in my post.

Just surf to http://halaman-bahasamelayu.blogspot.com to view my new Malay blog.

So much for my new blog.

One into two and now two into one

Looking at the title, you may wonder what I am trying to say. Well, it has to do with Socso or Social Security Organization or Perkeso (Pertubuhan Keselamatan Sosial) in Malay.

My sister-in-law passed away in 2003 and her parents benefited from this scheme by being able to receive monthly dependent benefit (something like pension) of RM243.08 each month. The full share is 4/10 of the monthly salary of the daughter which was about RM1200 at that time.

Then this year, my father passed away. The cheques in his name still kept coming. So I brought them back to the Perkeso branch in Penang and was told that I could help my mother-in-law to get her late husband's share credited into her account. Hence my mother-in-law can now receive RM486.16.

The above is a case of one into two (the dependent benefit is equally divided between parents) and now two into one (the husband's share and the wife's is combined and she gets the full share).

Parents who have children working in the private sector should know this benefit in case something bad happens to their working children.

On the good sides of tumeric and garlic

As I was waiting in the hospital for my wife who attended to her father who went for dialysis, I browse through a magazine provided. I chanced to read about some interesting facts which I would like to share here.

The first fact is tumeric in curry contains curcumin which can kill cancer cells. In other words, it is beneficial to eat curry with tumeric as one of the ingredients.

Another fact of interest to health-conscious people is garlic contains allicin which can block enzymes that cause viral and bacterial infections. It just mean that we can fight cold by consuming garlic regularly.

On exams

Exam phobia is common among students. Some students will shudder at the thought of having to sit for an exam, especially public ones such PMR, SPM and STPM. Whatever they have crammed into the heads refuse to come out when answering exam questions in the exam hall, thanks to the phobia that they experience.

If we don't have to sit for exams and just study for the joy of it, how nice it will be for the students. I personally do not fear exams as I treat them as part of the course of life we have to go through. Bearing in mind that exams are set to test what students know and not what they do not know, they must set in such a way that they should be able to pass them if they study according to the lessons taught to them. Many a time, you will find that some examiners set their questions to test what students are unable to answer, until the questions ask them for opinions or ways to solve problems that they have some inkling of what to do.

I have yet to see a day when exams will be a thing of the past.

Choosing compatible empty discs for cd or dvd writers

Have you ever face the problem of your cd or dvd writer being unable to write files to your cd's or dvd's? Well, I have. That explains why I usually go to a shop that sells cd's or dvd's and buy only 1 disc for testing to see where my cd or dvd writer can write on the disk. If it can, then I will buy more of the same type of discs. Otherwise, I will scout for other brands until I find one that is compatible to my cd or dvd writer.

It is advisable to look for a few compatible brands so that you can a stock in case one brand is out of stock. From time to time, access the discs to which you have copied files to see whether they still work. If not, it is time you backed up the same files from your hard disk. If I am not mistaken, I have advised readers to keep more than one copy of the same backup files to prevent mishap such as this.

Water can 'see', 'hear' and 'react'

Water can see and hear as well as react. There is a Japanese researcher who did experiment on water to see its reaction when being abused and praised.

First he filled five bottles with water and have the words 'I love you' in five languages on the walls of the bottles. He allowed the water to 'see' the words for two hours. After that, he subjected the bottles of water to temperatures below five degrees Celcius. The he looked at the crystals of ice. He was able to see beautiful crystals formed.

He repeated the experiment with the same water which was defrozened. The words on the bottles were changed to 'I hate you.' The Japanese researcher was surprised to see ugly crystals.

When he did the experiment again with music. He obtained the same results. When air is exposed to beautiful music, beautiful crystals were formed. When rap and heavy metal music were bombarding the water, it showe ulgy crystals.

The moral of the experiment is we should say good words to our body which consists of 70% water. Abstain from anger so that good water condition exists and not otherwise. When water is our body exists in very good condition, we will be healthy. In Zhineng Qigong, we always say, 'My heart is good, my liver is good, my lungs are good, my eyes are good and so on'. Through suggestions such as these, we will be able to generate good karmic force in the water inside ourselves.

How to cram many books into a book shelf

When I had to forgo one cupboard, I was left with no choice but to throw away about 250 books. Even that I still the spaces in the bookshelves insuffient for my books. Later I thought of an idea of economise space. What I did was to place those books which I will not be referencing at the book. I could place four books back to back in this way and had enough to place a row of books on the front.

If you ever have too many books to be put into limited spaces in the bookshelves, use the above method.

So much for cramming books into limited spaces in the bookshelves.

For Lack of Space

Being a apartment dweller, space economy is of utmost importance. I realized ever since I moved into my condominium. I have too many books and too few racks or cupboards to keep them. As I buy more and more books, I have to dispose of old and outdated books which I bought for my English and Malay lessons.

This afternoon, I got rid of nearly 250 books because I shifted books from three shelves into two. I think that is the price one has to pay for opting to live in a high-rise unit with about 850 square feet space to move around.

Day of some entertainment on CNY

Watching variety shows and movies were the activities for day 3 of Chinese New Year for me. I really marvelled at the ability of one man who could mimic sounds of musical instruments, bass, trebels and sang at the same time. I know that a ventriloquist can do that. Another skill that attracted my attention is the skills of break dance shown of some of the young groups in the variety show.

As for the movie I watched today. It was about a high school boy who had the ability to produce food out of nowhere. How I yearn to have such an endowment! You just materialise whatever you want to eat and drink and free of charge. Of course the imagination of the script writer has made this movie entitled 'High School Superhero' so entertaining, forgetting the absurdities in the movies, though.

Be a vegetarian

I was listening to a talk on how to stay healthy and gained some useful information which I would like to share with readers of this blog. Food is the one stressed by the presenter. According to him, cancer has become a common disease in the world. There is nothing to fear if one should contact this disease. He enlightened us that we have to use the right method to deal with cancer cells.

In the past we have treated cancer cells as enemies and try to destroy them through radium treatment and chemotherapy but they will still be in our bodies. A doctor who had suffered from cancer treated the cells as friends. He altered his life-style and food. From a hectic schedule, he had taken things easy. He turned vegetarian. Miraculously, the tumour had reduced to a negligible size and disappeared later.

A researcher who went to China during the 80's also found that those Chinese who took mainly vegetables and fruits had rarer cases of contacting cancer.

Hence, it can be concluded that switching to vegetarian has a better chance of not contacting cancer.

Be a vegetarian then.

How to avoid making mistakes

To err is human. It means making mistakes is unavoidable. We may commit some mistakes when we are in a hurry. When I key in words, I tend to make typing errors at times. Therefore, I make it a point to go through what I have typed to reduce such errors.

Hence we should exercise care so that we cut down mistakes to the minimum. This is important, especially in critical services such as medicine. The wrong prescription can cause lives. Leaving a nut in the body during operation was one of the incidents reported in the local newspapers. Imagine how much discomfort it has caused the unlucky patient, not to mention the risk of its presence there. Here is a good evidence that every care should be taken to ensure that the correct medicine is given to the patient and nothing is left in the human bodies except gadgets meant to be there after each operation.

I have done computer programming before. A misspelt command will render the program being unable to run. If you miss out one of the commands in pairs, you will never be able to make the program run as planned. Therefore programmers have to scan each line carefully before letting the program run for a trial.

In short, we should be more careful in carrying out our duties or tasks in order to avoid making mistakes. Don’t let ‘To err is human’ be the excuse for making mistake.

Retreating a step

Retreat one step and the sea is wide and the sky is empty. So says a Chinese saying. It simply means by giving in to someone's demand or admitting defeat, we still have many other things to gain.

Many instances of quarrel between two parties persist because either side refuses to give in. Each of them wants to be the winner. If both parties think of the above saying, one of them will let the other side win and the quarrel ends just like that.

In Buddhism one gains more merit in giving than receiving. If one is willing to render help to others, he will cultivate good karma. Letting others win does not render you a loser. In fact you gain in the sense that you help to settle one tight situation which will yield no result if nothing is done to untangle the mess.

Let us all retreat a step so that peace prevails in situations where one side must give in.

As CNY approaches

The Chinese New Year (CNY) is on the rise now. I can feel it as I go for my morning round of the two market places I go to – the Jelutong market and the stalls behind Chowrasta market. New Year clothes of brilliant red and pink steal the limelight as we walk in front of stalls selling clothes meant for CNY.

There are also stalls selling fireworks and CNY decorations. Business is really good for these stalls. The CNY biscuits are on sale too. These are for those who want to get a taste of CNY delicacies before the real day.

The crowd seems to get bigger with each passing day before CNY which falls on the 14th day of February. It will take us quite some time to get pass the crowd on our way to buy things at the market. If you have read my post entitled ‘Down Ipoh Lane’ you will see how many stalls there are in Jelutong market.

The CNY songs keep blaring from stalls selling VCD’s and DVD’s add merriness to the morning atmospheres at these two places.

How to detect a stroke

I just learnt of a few ways to detect a stroke attack on someone. It is from a nurse. She simplified it to S.T.R. which are the first three letters of STROKE.

If you find that someone is suddenly feeling uneasy.

1 Ask him or her to Smile or

2 Ask him to talk to see whether he or she can form a simple sentence correctly or

3 Ask him or her to raise his or her hand.

If he or she fails to do any one of the above actions, call for medical help for him or her quickly because he or she has suffered from a stroke.

There is another way to detect stroke too. Ask him or her to show his or her tongue. If it is crooked or bent to one side, it is an indication that he or she suffers from a stroke.

A stroke patient must get medical attention within 3 hours so that his life can be saved.

I hope this information is useful and can help to save more lives.

About a special child and handwriting

I was reading the newspaper when I was touched by the plight of an seven-year-old girl, Ooi Zhao Qian, who entered primary 1 this year. She is a special girl because she had no limbs when she was born. Yet she was trained by her mother to write with her right leg which has only four toes. Her uncle had made a custom-made wheelchair for her so that she can move around in school.

The newspaper report also showed her handwriting of her name. It is very neatly written. When it comes to handwriting I am very angry at the poor handwriting of my pupils especially the boys. The a's are not closed, the e's has no space as if c is intended and the n's look like h's. All these poor handwriting makes reading their essays more like deciphering what they are writing rather than knowing exactly when they have written.

The Chinese pride themselves in writing properly and forcefully. There are even kungfu exponents who practise writing as a form of kungfu. This happens when they write on the rocks or on papers with Chinese brushes.

Writing properly is a form of discipline and a way of showing that we want to do a job properly. Poor handwriting makes lives of teachers horrible.

Let us write properly if there is still a need to write now that we key in words with our keyboards.

Cashing in on the compassion of the public

I read today's The Star (a local newspaper) about a syndicate who makes use of foreign disfigured beggars to beg for money. Most people who take a pity on them will generously give them money. At the end of the day, these beggars will be picked up by a taxi employed by the man behind this scam so that he will take all the money from the poor beggars and give them some in return for their work.

This act of cashing in on the compassion of the public should be condemned. As a Buddhist I will generously donate money to the needy, beggars included but I don't agree that we should be fooled by the man who imports maimed and disfigured beggars to obtain money for him. While our hard-earned money goes to him through these beggars, he will enjoy the earnings without any effort. Is it fair to us?

The authorities should round up these beggars and put them in proper places and send them back if they are from neighbouring countries.