Curry... 'No' to 'Yes'!

I was not a curry lover. In fact, i used to scare of eating curry! Most of the time, i couldn't accept spicy food because each time after I've eaten spicy food, i would have slight sore throat on the next day. Therefore, you wouldn't see me order any curry food when eating out. :P 

However, few months ago, i started to fall in love in eating curry! Why is the sudden change? There was one time when my small group leader cooked laksa for us as supper at her home. At first, i was hesitating if i should try the laksa. At last, i've decided to try out! My first scoop of eating laksa... hmmm... it is not as spicy as i have thought. I continue with the second and the third scoop... wow! it tastes GOOD!! Since then, i started to love eating laksa! 

Occasionally, when i go to cafe, especially if the cafe famous for its curry, I'll give a try! And that's how i say 'YES' to curry finally! =) 

Moon Cake Making

My moon cake making! Here are the ingredients that my brother and i bought:

We shopped at K.S.T Bakery Ingredients buying the needed flour, shortenings, mold, and fillings. No worries if it is your first time making the moon cakes because you can ask for the recipe list from boss.

Under my little brother, Justin guidance, i managed to make the dough, which took about 15 minutes for the dough making. My brother advised that dough is the most important part because whether the moon cake will be success in making or not, it all depends on the 'skin'. If the dough is elastic enough for you to wrap the fillings, it means that you have successfully making the dough. If there are still broken pieces at certain part of the dough or exceeding time, it will cause the dough less elastic.

 After making the dough, we fill in the fillings and making the shape of moon cake out of the mold. The part that needed some skills is during the shaping as we will need to make sure that the flowers shape and wordings are clear enough and beautiful for viewing. Here is my moon cake making. What do you think? hehehehe.... I pack them in two types of boxes, one is as seen below and another one in microwave plastic containers.

Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration

This year, i have a very special and memorable Mid-Autumn Festival because i was celebrating the festival with beloved family,  loved one, and my most precious best friends! I had simple Noodles cum Char Siu dinner with my family after back home from work. Not forgetting also, thanks to my friend, Siew Feng for sending me and my family delicious moon cakes for yesterday celebration.

After that, i went to have another simple dinner at Jasmine Cafe with my loved one (My friend called him Mr. Come..... 来, 来,来 Come, Come, Come,..... hehehehe..... :P). He ordered Char Kueh Tiaw with Z Apple and I ordered Wantan Soup with Chinese Tea. I know i was getting fat by having two meals yesterday. But once a while is okay right? hahahaha.... =D

Next, was the exciting part! Together with my friends, we gathered at City Fan and carried with our most wanted lantern. Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Bunny.... You name it! You got it! hahahaha....
Thanks to GT and Cheryl for buying us the lanterns!

On the day itself too, we got to know that May Ling has increased her weight! Same as mine! Wow!!! Wow... Jia you, May Ling! And not forgetting also, our 'artist' Victor.... hehehehe.... Thanks for helping us to capture nice photo.

All in all, thanks to everybody who make it! Cuz the festivals wouldn't be so wonderful without you all! =) 

Coming up Activities Planning

A hectic and fully packed month for current month due to three exams coming up, two assignments which are going to be due in ten more days, ARGGH....!!! And the upcoming trainings, exhibition...... intermediate MySL Class.

Gonna plan some activities for me to relax in between and after the hectic season. Therefore, i come up with some ideas to join/ help up in activities as follows:

1. Life Camp in September
2. Teen X-Plosion in November
3. Visitation to Crocodile Farm (Planning)
4. Kite Flying (Planning)
5. Brunei one-day trip (Planning)
6. KK four-day trip (Next Year)


Looking forward!

Will this matter in a year from now?

In facebook, there is an application called "Message from God" that each day there will be different meaningful message from God delivered to us. Today's message is truly match with my queries that God sent out a message :

''On this day of your life, Lina, we believe God wants you to know ... that your remedy for anxiety is the question: 'Will this matter in a year from now?''

All the while, i have always think too much even to a little problem. I worry a lot till tonnes of another worries or anxiety existed in my mind. Some people will call it 'being too sensitive'. Sometimes, anxiety is just depend on how we cope it.

Many times i look at my life like a microscope. Keen on focusing at a small problems or issues and enlarging it to see the reasons or other possibilities behind the small problems. I thought it was a necessarily to find out every possibilities for the occurrence.

However, this morning, God's message to me that 'Will this matter in a year from now?' The question makes me stuck in a moment. Does this really matter after a year? Sometimes we need to put down the microscope and imagine ourselves a year from now looking back at today. 'Does this really matter?'

My MSN Display Name

))**((&&%%^^$$##@@!!!!!!!

ehem, yes, above shows my current display name in my MSN (Windows Live Messenger). What is your first opinion towards the name? =D

Actually, i got this display name by copycat a friend's display name. I found the name 'special' and purposely copy it to 'kacau' her. muahahaha.....

Well, the first feedback i got after the change of display name was....

"Ah, you copy me! I thought i was talking to myself" by Miss Tang a.k.a. Miss Durian

"Your name is so cute" by Miss Jen, a great swimmer in future

"Lina, is that you? I thought it was virus. Almost want to delete you." by Mr. Chung, a good MC

In the end, before all my friends thought i was an 'msn virus', i change back my name to my actual name. Muahahaha.... xD

Vegetarian Fish

Have you ever eaten vegetarian fish (素鱼) before? At my working place, my colleagues and i having vegetarian fish at least once a week.This is due to that my boss are vegetarian.  The fish is made of tofu, bean curd and seaweed.

Below is the raw look of the fish when it is not cooked:

.







Inside are the tofu, which is being frozen in the fridge for one day. After that, the frozen tofu is being wrapped by seaweed followed by the bean curd.

Here is the outcome when the fish is cooked:

The fish is cooked by my brother Justin Yong. Normally, the fish is cooked with tomato sauce (with some spices) or it is cooked with curry. Yummy! It taste nice and crunchy!You may try to make this dish too!

Teachers' Day

During the previous three years, i used to be a part time tutor at tuition centre and it was my wonderful memory during teaching - mixing with the students around and doing what i like to do. It was fantastic when we are able to share our knowledge with the next generation. "It is more blessed to give than to receive". ^.^

This year i am having a unique Teacher's Day. I thought i wouldn't receive any wishes due to that i am no longer in teaching profession. It is blessed that i met my old students back in facebook. Thanks for my former students wishes and thanks to a friend for brighten up my days with Teacher's Day gifts. =)

Email

Believe it or not, i've never used email system to chat with friends although i had my email address since year 2004. Most of the time, i use email to forward emails sent by friends, formal communication such as communication related to work, school, or club matters.

 Until this year, i have a friend who is very used to email chatting, and there.... i start to chat using email too. I slowly fall in love especially into google email whereby we can chat instantly when see the person online. The good thing about google chat is 1st:  it is convenient (instant chatting just like windows live messenger - msn), 2nd it is not easily visible (especially when we want to *snake around during work... hehehehe.... let's keep this quiet, okay? hehehe)

I've also found out the yahoo email also has similar function whereby we can chat instantly as well, but it does not look too user friendly for me. Therefore, i go for gmail.... and yeah! Gmail is a good email system, not much spam and big space for us to store our mails!

It's Time to have a Spot Check!

Gotcha! Does it bring back your memory during secondary school life on spot check by the prefects? ::D
I was a prefect during secondary school and yes, i spot check students' bag when received orders. And today, after few years of my secondary school life, im back to spot check, this activity, not to spot check students' bag again, but to check my resolution list set early in January. Let see.......

I have set nine goals in this year, and among the nine goals, i have achieved three!
(1) Getting CL in Toastmasters - Finally, i received my CL pin in last workshop and my CL certificate post by today! Hooray!

(2) Learn Photoshop - There is a slight change on this goal. Instead of learning photoshop, my teacher has suggested to learn Swish Max 2, which is another software for learning computer animation and arts. The software is slightly easier to use compared to Photoshop. Still in learning progress. A lot to pick up due to my slow learning in this.


(3) Getting myself a shoes cupboard - Yes! I got it during CNY. A simple and nice for me to hold my shoes.

There are still seven months to go for me to catch up for the other six resolutions. Glory to God for all the above resolutions achieved.

Difference in Time

wow... it was unexpected that the time passed so fast, and today has come to the end of Apr '10. How time flies. What ever it is, i gonna take this hour to share about the time difference which i encountered recently.

I was making a call to Philippines Agent two days ago for work matters. I called up around 1pm to look for a person. The operator from the receiver side replied that the person was not in yet, as it was still their lunch hour, would be back after 1pm. So, i decided to make the call again after forty five minutes later.

When i saw the time struck at 1.45pm, i made the call again to look for the person. And was replied by saying that "I'm sorry, she was still having her lunch, can you call back later after lunch?" I was feeling quite weird at first place as i thought that the time in Indonesia is same as Malaysia time as the time lined on same Greenwich Mean Time (GMT +8)?

I put down the phone and checked the time online, and only after that i found out not all place in Indonesia are 8 hours ahead of GMT. Some places such as Jakarta and Sumatra are GMT +7, which means that their time are one hour slower than Malaysia.

I realized that it is important for us to understand the difference time zone of different places so that we can adapt to their cultures and living styles, especially if the places linked to our job. I will be more alert to the time zone now to ensure that i call at right time next time. And by the way, the international dial code for Indonesia is +62.

Presenting Speech is like a Roller Coaster

As usual, i will record down what i have learned in my blog as all these are worth while to be remembered. I learned a new technique for public speaking presentation yesterday; i.e. presenting speech is like a roller coaster actually. Have you ever rode on a roller coaster? How does it feel like? Does it come in speedy way in all the way? Or does it have a slower motion or stop at intervals?

To be able enjoy the full excitement, roller coaster will have speedy and slower movement according to where it goes to. At certain time, it may stop and hang up at halfway to increase the excitement.

Similarly, when we do presentation, it is necessary for us to have 'pause' to make the audience think as well as to create suspense to the audience. Let the silence speak. When there is some seconds for audience to think, you actually have let the audience rewind back on your speech and drawing the story line of the speech in their memory. With this, it can help in engaging the audience more to the speech.

Hereby, i would also like to share part of the theory shared by Bryan Tracy "The first party to make a concession is the party who wants to deal the most. You must therefore avoid being the first one to make a concession, even a small concession. Instead, be friendly and interested, but remain SILENT." (taken from http://www.markgarbelotto.com/tag/brian-tracy-quotes/)

Packet Mee

Packet Mee, I'm loving it! Why do people feel happy when taking packet mee? This includes myself too as each time when i am bored or dull, i will feel being lifted up after taking packet mee. So, what is the ingredients done with packet mee that has such an effect? hmm.... i wonder. Ha ha...

The irresistible nice smell coming from the pot while cooking the packet mee increases our appetite. And i've also found out that each time when i am sick or lack of appetite, packet mee is one of the choices of food that i can take to fill my stomach.

And for sure, we can't take this mee too often although the mee is nice to taste, easy to cook, easy to carry, easy to add ingredients, save time....... but one thing, you may not know which i heard from one nutritionist, she said that two packets of maggi mee require a month to be fully cleared out from body. Imagine, the MSG stay in our body for a month..... hmm....

Flowers make my day a great day!

Ah! Beautiful Roses!

The beauty of Roses make my day a great day!

:) 

Busy April

Ah! The Month of April is a busy, busy month for me. I've signed up myself in three courses in this month:
(1) Adult Public Speaking Course (lasted for two months)
(2) Basic Sign Language Class (lasted for three months)
(3) Basic Graphic Animation (lasted for three months) 


Upcoming Activities:
(1) Preparing Club Account Statement (to be submitted end of this month)
(2) Swimming Course (in consideration - month proposed - Jul)
(3) KL Trip (6 - 9 May '10)


What I've learned so far in the course attended above:

Public Speaking Class:
I attend the course at Lighthouse Education together with my little brother, Justin and it's been an enjoyable study during the whole session. So far, i have attended two session and during the last session, we were asked to do an Ice Breaker Speech. Through the Ice Breaker Speech, I found out one greatest secret of my little brother, he actually did very well in his public speaking! Go! Go! Justin!

Sign Language Class:
I attend the course at my church together with my big brother, Ken Yong and some friends. I'm also being with the lesson two times. The tutor, Mr. Victor is a great teacher, he simplifies and teaches us the easy way to memorize and learn the signs. So far, we have learned numbers, letter A - Z, some basic form of communication and some sign language related to family. The purpose of the class is so that one day, we can use the sign language learned to spread gospel.

Figure 1: I Love You in sign language letters

Figure 2: Sign Letter of My Name

Figure 3: I Love You in sign language (one sign to express all)

Graphic Animation Class:
I also attend the course at church. We are taught some of the history of graphics and some of the ways to do basic graphic. For the previous three lesson attended, we are exposed to graphic drawing and how to make a movement to a graphic. Quite an interesting course, hmm.... but i'm quite slow in catching up with this. Guess that i need to spend some time to study more on this when free.

Basically, these are what i'm up to within this month and the following months. Gotta go to have my lunch now! See you in next blog!  =)

The Sandwich Principle

Last week i learned about 'The Sandwich Principle' in public speaking class. This principle is inspired by Mary Kay 's famous quote "Sandwich every bit of criticism between 2 heavy layers of praise". So, what is 'The Sandwich Principle' about?

When we look at the sandwich itself,

The sandwich consists of two layers of bread - top and bottom and in between the bread, there are fillings. Now, let me ask you, what is the most important of the sandwich? Is it the top layer of bread, the bottom layer of bread or the fillings of bread?

Aha! The fillings! We all like to know the fillings of the bread before we purchase, aren't we? The fillings are the main part to determine the overall taste of the sandwich. And without the fillings or rather say that if the sandwich is a 'kosong' sandwich, the sandwich won't be whole, right?

Actually, what I'm trying to link here is in our real life, sometimes, we are required to EVALUATE' or to give some comments to people ideas, proposals or speech presentation. In this, comments should be encouraging and helping people to improve.  The connections of sandwich to comments goes like this:

Top Layer = Positive Acknowledgement
Fillings = Areas for Improvement
Bottom Layer = Positive Acknowledgment

You got the idea now? It is important to start a comment by praising or giving positive acknowledgment so that the person know what are their strengths and to continue motivate them in related task. After that, we go for the areas for improvement and give our best suggestion to the person on how he or she can improve by suggesting constructive ideas.  After giving the suggestions, end by telling the person his/ her greatest strengths and summarize the overall ideas.

For my case, being a Toastmasters, giving evaluation to other members' speech is one of our roles and things learned. I found out that giving evaluation is a useful technique, not only helping others to improve, but also can let us have clearer view on our own strengths/ weakness and improve our speech too.

The Climb

This song is released in March last year, 2009 and sung by Miley Cyrus. I've been listening to this song quite lots of times but have not actually pay attention on the lyrics of the song. Few days ago, i heard another version of this song, which have actually captured my whole mind for the song. The song is just too amazing, meaningful, and catchy to listen. I like the lyrics very much; feel calm and relax when listening to the song. And the song particular reminds me on a friend who is a very optimistic person and encourages me a lot through words. "Keep on moving; keep on Climbing; it's all about the Climb!"

Click for the song "The Climb"

Lyrics:

I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreamin' but
There's a voice inside my head sayin'
You'll never reach it

Every step I'm takin'
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shakin'

But I
Gotta keep tryin'
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facin'
The chances I'm takin'
Sometimes might knock me down but
No, I'm not breakin'

And I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep goin' and I

I gotta be strong
Just keep pushin' on 'cause

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes you're gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeah, yeah

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Keep on movin'
Keep climbin'
Keep the faith
Baby, yeah

It's all about
It's all about the climb

Keep the faith
Keep your faith
Woah, woah

(The red-colored words are my favourite part of the whole lyrics.)

For piano lovers who are interested to learn to play this song, please click the link below for the music sheet link:

Taken from www.ahdoe.com on "The Climb" Music Sheet

Friends, there are always ups and downs in our lives. No matter how is it, remember to look upon the bright side of the whole situation. We can always earn new skills and experience from our ups and downs. Never give up on the things you want; keep on moving and we will reach our dreams!

A Straight Line Upon Reaching Your Goal

First, let us use a pencil to put two dots on a white paper, the A dot on the left side and the B dot on the right side. After that, draw a straight line using the ruler from A to B. What do you think of the straight line? Does it appear to you as a 'short distance'? Do you find out that when you have two points written down, it is easier for you to draw the line?

"Yes!"

I hear your answer. "Yes!" A straight line is actually reflects to our line, our journey life. Similarly, A is your stand point and B is your goal. A goal is something you want to be - your dreams and your ambition. It is important that we have a clear goal to reach out along the journey to the goal (the drawing of straight line) is to focus; to understand; to passion, to be patient, consistency, and put words into action.

How do we know that if the goal set is correct? In this case, this question might be popped out in your mind.

"Will i change my goal after i proceed on with some actions?"

Before i answer this question, let us look at the story below:

A young man, aged 24 has a goal to slim down by 10kg in three months. His current weight is 110kg. So he started to write out his schedule: 5.30am wake up and go for jogging for 30 minutes. Breakfast: 2 pieces of bread with mayonnaise (no butter or margarine). Lunch: Skip and replaced with fibre drink/ fruits Dinner: vegetables with rice. He succeeded follow the schedule in the first week. And he is happy for the result that he found out that he has successfully lost 2kg in that particular week. "Wow, i have lost 2kg! That's great! hmmm.... perhaps jogging for three times affect still okay as long as i reduce my meal should be no problem." The man told himself in his heart, cheerfully. Slowly, his schedule was not followed orientedly and day by day..... the next morning, "well me just have longer sleep.... the next morning i shall exercise more to replace yesterday exercise".

You got my points here? Many of us will start bargaining when we move on with our steps to reach our goals. We tend to give less focus after weeks by weeks. Or best say our focus being distracted by other temporarily goals? or attraction? or people words?

A line shouldn't being crooked. Similarly to our path to goal (A --> B), the path shouldn't be crooked. It should IN LINE with our missions and ways to reach the goal.

How can we make sure that we do not get lost along our path to our goal? Here are some suggestions:

(1) Write it out big and clear enough in a piece of paper/ whiteboard and place it at anyplace that easier for you to see to remind you on your goal that you need to achieve.
(2) Motivation. Reading motivation books, talking with entrepreneurs/ successful person to increase your motive to success and also attend required course to widen our knowledge and get to know how other people reach their goals.
(3) Visualisation. Dare to visualize yourself in your current goal now. It will trigger you more to reach your goal. Imagine what will you feel when you reach your goal.
(4) Action. Put on actions when you have set the missions.
(5) Focus. Do not get distract by other unnecessarily or temporarily attraction.
(6) Clear. Be sure what you want to do. List out your hobbies, dreams, expected future.
(7) Checklist. Write down what you have done so far and what other things needed to be done to reach your goal.

Be sure of you have the right feelings, thoughts, ideas to reach your goal!

And most importantly "Never Give Up in anything you do!"

*** The writing of this title is specially dedicated to all my friends who are on their path in searching goals of life. Best wishes for you all in journey.***

Keluang Gal?

I got a new nickname called "Keluang Gal". If you still remember, few years back, there was a local cartoon called "Keluang Man" (Click for "Keluang Man" brief history) . The nickname is given for (1) fun (2) encouragement to be positive minded and be dare and strong in every circumstances.

Okay, now.... i'm the Keluang Gal. I will conquer the fear in me (fear of speaking in front of crowd? fear of being leaders of a team? fear of doing something wrong? ) Alright..... i am gonna to conquer the FEAR! hehehehe!

Lagging

'LAGGING', 'LAG' .....
often we hear people say:
"Argh, my pc is lagging!"
"My streamyx line is very lag, argh..... "
"Issh... Those people so lagging in doing their works... just can't stand it"

A very optimistic friend has inspired me by saying that:

"Lagging is simply another way to train our patience." 

Can't help to agree that as this is just too beautiful for me to learn.

At the same time, we can learn to control our frustration too!

Hope it applies to you too!

Cheers!