Seasons under the Son

Confused?

Mike — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:02:13 +0000

I am.

I am confused when intelligent Muslims believe that they can be confused when Malay Speaking Christians pray to Allah as God.

I am confused when ordinary Muslims say they are not confused over the matter.

I am confused because the Government choose to believe that Muslims can be confused.

I am confused when Muslims and the Government of Malaysia refused to accept that the word Allah has been used by Christians for centuries, not only in this country but also in many Muslim countries.

I am confused why Muslims are so defensive.

Is it any wonder Malaysians feel poor?

Mike — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:06:17 +0000

RM370 billions had been allegedly squandered during the Mahatir and Badawi years!

RM100b by the good doctor and RM270b by the sleeping flip flop guy.

It is all here.

Last Minute Xmas Shopping

Mike — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:30:28 +0000

It is now ten days to Christmas and getting the proper gifts for family and friends will be the most stressful activities for most of us from now on. People are already thronging the malls and gifts shops snatching any available gifts. The sight of queues will raise the blood pressure gauge a few ticks and our hearts will have little or no peace nor goodwill towards all drivers and last minutes shoppers.

Have a look here for some neat solution if you use facebook.

Oh Malaysia

Mike — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:28:21 +0000

Now the minister wants us to use BM in the private sector.

If it was successful, we would have used it a long time ago.

http://www.nst.com.my/articles/14upu/Article/index_html

Because BM was used in the government offices, only those who cannot find a better paying job in the private sector will go for government jobs.

Free Air Travel For Life

Mike — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:44:58 +0000

While it might good news for some, it could have been a disaster for the child birthed and or her mother on a budget airline in Malaysia. The child was born during a flight from Penang to Kuching and had to be averted to Kuala Lumpur.

AirAsia as usual jumped onto the publicity and announced free flights for life for mother and child. But I am sure some of the passengers on that flight was non too pleased for having to have their flight diverted and wasted so many hours, maybe missing an important appointmnet at the destination.

http://www.nst.com.my/articles/27air/Article/index_html

How’s the weather?

Mike — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:11:09 +0000

When I was living in London, England, the weather is the conversation every time we meet with neighbors and friends. London is always damp and wet with unpredictable temperature. Even during the summer, the temperature can be lover than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Very seldom does it goes up to 80 degrees. And when it does, everyone will go out to the park to soak in the sun during lunch breaks and weekends.

How lovely it is to live in Arizona where the weather is now 80 degrees even in the falls. It is a haven for sun lovers and those going into Retirement . No more heavy coats and expensive heating bills.

Check this site out from Arizona: landscape design in Scottsdale AZ

How To Teach Young Children Value Money

Mike — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:18:51 +0000

I have 3 children age 20, 18 and 12. Teaching them how to handle money was and is an on going process.

Right from a very young age, we would let them have their own pocket money and teach them to budget, i.e. their daily allowance is all they will get and no more. When we find that they can handle the limitation on how much they can spend and even better if they can save, we will give them weekly allowances in a bigger lump sum.

Monitoring how they spend and encouraging them to put aside (save) money for toys/gadgets/meals/activities they like and that they can pay it themselves without asking us for it is what we did. We would not buy everything they want, every time they want it. If they throw a tantrum we will not give in. If they do so in shops, we will punish by withdrawing that day’s or week’s allowances.

They have to save for items they want. If we give in to them they will never appreciate the value of money and that they may think money is very easy to come by. We will at times pay them for doing house hold chores, if they want extra pocket money. As they grow older, especially during high school years, we will encourage them to work part time, during their vacation. This will make them appreciate earning money is not as easy as they see their parents taking money out from ATM anytime of the day. They do not see what we do at work and how hard it can be. By working it will educate them that one have to put in some efforts in order to get paid.

Academics or Applications?

Mike — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:58:57 +0000

This past two weeks saw two Prizes being awarded. One is the prestigious Nobel Prizes while the other is the preposterous Ig Nobel Prizes. Obviously one is for genuine research and the other is for the goofy research. One for advancement of mankind and the other well, one can never be sure how useful the knowledge will be. The line dividing geniuses and goofballs are blurring all the time.

Bras were found to be good for emergency gas mask! Well we will never think about that will we?And cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis? These were awarded with the Ig Nobel prizes for public health and medicine.

In the meantime, one would think Nobel Prizes for Physics would most likely be awarded to highfalutin highbrow theorists in creme de la creme universities that you and I would not even have a chance to understand what they do or say. I was wrong and surprisingly pleased to find out Charles Kao, a Polytechnic graduate was actually recognized by the committee for discovering the efficient fiber optics usage. Polytechnics graduates are trained for practical applications while universities graduates are for research first and perhaps development of applications later.

Mental Well Being

Mike — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:29:40 +0000

Someone asked me what do I think about mental illness?

Mental ill health as defined by modern medicine is mostly caused by some kind of imbalance, be it hormonal, chemicals, or damages to the nervous systems. I am not a doctor, nor a psychiatrist or psychologist so my knowledge of that is limited.As the years go by, more and more mental disorder will be categorized.

Personally, I think some cases of mental ill health are caused by emotional and relationship break down thereby causing extreme stress. Our minds are able to take some stress but over time when such stress are not relieved or balanced up, there will be a break down. And we will do silly things like drugs and alcohol abuse for relief or we go on excessive eating spurts. On the reverse some go into involuntary fasting, such as in anorexia. I personally believe that we are not just flesh and bones. We are make up of the mind, body and we have a soul. When the mind and soul is out of sync with each other, all kinds of ill health (not only mental) occurs.

One final personal belief is that there are also unseen dark forces which modern scientific minds cannot comprehend. I have seen mental illness caused by such unknowns too, which medically cannot be explained.This I will call it as spiritual illness.

How to avoid mental and spiritual illness?

Living a balanced lifestyle is my recommendation.

As I have said above, we have a soul, a body and a mind. All these elements that I believe make us as human beings. So each of these must be cared for. We cannot feed our soul with material needs, neither can we feed our body with love. Rather our well being is dependent on a balanced diet for the soul, body and mind.

Our soul need nourishing by being connected with our Maker. Only God can feed our soul.

Our body need balanced nourishment, too much of junk food is harmful Eat well and sensibly.

Our mind needs feeding with the right stuff. Feed it with beautiful and positive thoughts. That means we mix with the right kind of people too.

I am sure you will be asking more about ‘how to’? More of how I would do these things in another time in another article if there is interest for discussions here.

Bye Bye Dubai#2

Mike — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:42:20 +0000

http://y187.blogspot.com/2008/12/bye-bye-dubai.html

That was what I posted in 2008.

Now is the reality. http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/5/business/20091005075300&sec=business

A year after Dubai became the Gulf’s biggest credit crunch victim, dozens of gleaming new towers that mark the city’s skyline stand empty. Even camps for migrant workers have posted “to let” signs after the building boom ended and billions of dollars worth of projects were scrapped or put on hold, including a half-mile-tall (kilometer-tall) skyscraper that was announced at last year’s Cityscape.