Enjoying the silence

Geez, ever since yesterday, my lappy is sick, the fan system somehow went bonker and hence the lappy easily caught a fever and would just go to sleep without my permission. I was left speechless staring at him. I can't summon him back.

So, I started my life without my dear lappy. I rolled on the sofa in front of TV with a hand holding on the TV controller. No program caught my interest at all. I switched off the TV and continue to roll on the sofa till I went to the dreamland.

Argh.. I can't adopt to a life without laptop. Life seems so boring without going online. Am I addicted? Yeah... But sadly nothing much I can do. I've picked up this kind of life ever since I started my uni life.

This afternoon, I brough my lappy to see doctor, but somehow the doctor said that would take a long time since there's no suitable parts in my place. Ouch! My poor lappy. How I miss you now.

Oh well, I will try to enjoy my few days of silence now.

给我一首歌的时间

 
同样是周杰伦迷的咱们，再加上咱们都热爱同样的面子书游戏，很快地结为要好兄弟。两三年前，当我前往吉隆坡游时，我还在在你的地方逗留了一会儿，进而促进了咱们的友谊。

但是，经过岁月的洗礼后、因为忙着工作、因为生活的另一半。。。等种种理由，咱们之间的隔膜越来越深了，像个无底洞。

我知道你很忙碌，在公司里忙得不可开交。我也知道你必须把剩余的空闲时间分担给你的另一半，所以不再像以往那么常上线聊天。这些我的能够体谅。

但是你可知道吗？我在乎的并不是你能否在网上更我聊天，而是你能否抽出那么的一点时间，问候我，不管一星期只能够问候一次，或是一个月一次，哪怕只是一首歌的时间？难道我的要求太难办了吗？

Too many disasters lately

Within this week, our neighbour Indonesia has experienced one of the worst part, hellish days. Tsunami and volcano eruption both hit at the same time.

3 meter wave hit Mentawai Island which is just to the west of Sumatera island according to BBC, leaving more than 100 people died and 500 people missing and 4,000 homes destroyed. As for the volcano eruption, it was Mount Merapi volcano which was located at Java island, the death toll recorded is 25 so far according to BBC.

The hardship faced by our neighbours isn't something we can easily comprehend by us who have been living in peaceful days. Still, we should show our concern about their current situation, let's help them in whatever affordable ways we can. Best wishes to our friends in Indonesia there.

Fast Speech in English

Ever wonder why those Ang Mohs (English native speaker) can speak so fast that we could hardly understand what exactly are them talking about? We're speaking the same English language with the same ABC's, but somehow the way they speak sounds like Greek to us. Today, I'm going to share a bit on the secret of fast speaking.

Recently, I took up short English course to polish up my English. After not learning English for so many years, I really can feel that something is missing and my English seems to have become rusty. In one of the phonetics classes, I was dished with the way to pronounce short words (a, of, or).

Short words like articles (a, the), conjunctions (and, or) and prepositions (to, of) are usually unstressed.Every line has the stress pattern oOoO. They have this rythm because the first and third words are all unstressed.. These words are: some, and, a, of, a, for, the, to, or, as.

Shopping List

Some milk and eggs,

A tin of peas,

A snack for lunch,

Some fruit and cheese.

The loaf of bread,

A jar of jam,

Some juice to drink,

A piece of ham.

Some pears or grapes,

Some beans and rice,

A can of beer,

As cold as ice

Here's the tips. When a word is being stressed, it's being pronounced a bit louder, but the unstressed word is being pronounced lightly and quickly. Let's look at the phonetics for these unstressed words (credit to Merriam-Webster).

Phonetics
a	/ə/
and	/ən/
some	/səm/
for	/fə/
of	/əv/

You'll notice that in fast speech, these words aren't being pronounced as clearly as they are being pronounced alone. Take the word "some" for example, when it's pronounced alone, the pronunciation is very close to the word 'sum', but in fast speech, the pronunciation is close to "serm". You might notice this while watching movies.

Another example for fast speech:

and sounds like an: an apple and an orange and an onion of sounds like a: a bit of this and a bit of that

*** Edited on 29th October upon request on expanding the explaination for the second part ***

and sounds like an:

an apple and an orange and an onion

• Note that in fast speech, you'll hear this sentence like "n apple n n orange n n onion". Yes, you'll hear both "and" & "an" sounds similar to the letter "n".

of sounds like a:

a bit of this and a bit of that

• Note that in fast speech, you'll hear this sentence like "a bit a this n a bit a that". Uh huh, the word "of" sounds almost like the word "a".

That's all, I'll post up more interesting things on English if I come across in the future. Till then, stay tune :)

2 years old kid singing to plead her dad to stop smoking

Also on Facebook

。。。我的爸爸每天都在抽烟
打他骂他都听不见，
爸爸为什么你要抽烟
抽烟身体会生病
为什么你要花钱去买香烟。

Translation:

 ... My dad smokes everyday

Scolding him is useless

Dad, why do you smoke?

Smoking will bring harm to our body

Why do you want to waste your money to buy cigarette?

This video was mentioned in The Star Online:

Sin Chew Daily reported about a two-year-old girl in Singapore who sang to her father, pleading to him to stop smoking.

Apparently, the videoclip of her singing has become a hit on the Internet after it was circulated through Facebook. The 39-second footage showed the girl sitting on the floor, singing in front of a camera, believed to be held by her mother.

Online viewers commented that the man was lucky indeed to have a daughter who could express herself well. They also hoped it would encourage other smokers, especially those with children, to give up the habit.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I came across this video yesterday.This could be her mum's setup for her kids to sing, but still, at such a young age, she knows that smoking is bad for health. It's quite touching to see that a 2 years old kid is so concern about her dad's health.

What about you? Are you aware that smoking is bad for health?

A Pit Stop 暂停

 一小时的午睡后，突然想去跑步。毕竟，已经有一段很长的日子没去运动了。隐约可以感觉得到身体的变动，尤其是开始有了小肚腩（羞）。

戴上了鸭嘴帽及一手提着苹果的 ipod，我便开始跑步了。一边听着音乐，我一边思考几件事情。我已经察觉到队部落格的那股热情开始冷淡了少许。也许可以一边休息一边寻找对自己有兴趣的文章材料。无论如何，我必须找会以前的那股劲力，以不辜负读者的期望。

跑呀跑，听完了三首歌曲后，开始感觉到全身有点痛，而且又很累，上气接不到下气。唉，看来以后的日子都必须更加努力运动，加油吧!

my ipod

After napped for an hour, out of blue, I decided to go jogging a bit. It's been a really long time since I last jogged. Really can feel the changes on my body, especially tummy which needs to be worked on more :P

After I put on a blue cap and got my ipod, I jogged happily out of my house. While listening to the music, I let my mind running wild while trying to grasp a few things. I did realise that my interest for blogging has dwindled lately. Perhaps taking a break is necessary and try to find a topic that interest me. Whatever the method is, I need a fresh start to regain the passion for blogging again so that I won't let my readers down again.

After listening to 3 songs, I started to feel the fatigue, my legs were giving up and pretty much out of breathe. Really, I need to force myself to exercise more in the future. Gambateh!

Prego - Halal Issue?

I just read an article about a famous spaghetti sauce, Prego in Facebook, written by Tok Wan this afternoon. It piqued my interest as I like eating spaghetti and the pasta paste added in it is always from the Prego brand.

Prego - spaghetti paste

Among the interesting lines quoted from the article:

Anak saya Kamal makan sampai dua pinggan, sedap sangat spegetti Ummi  masak dan kebetulan pula memang favouritenya, saya cuma sepinggan kecil  sekadar nak rasa. Setahu saya sauce speghetti biasanya tomato dan  kadang-kala ada mushrooms tetapi yang ini lain sedikit......

  saya pun bergegas ke dapur, pergi lihat botol sauce yang diberi nama  Italian Sausage for Speghetti keluaran PREGGO made in USA ..

Tiba-tiba terlihat INGREDIENTS: tomato,bla-bla,bla-bla..... ... pork minced meat!

translation (by myself):

My son Kamal ate till 2 plates (of spaghetti), mum's cooking is delicious and spaghetti is so happen to be his favourite, whereas I only ate a plate (of spaghetti). As far as I know, spaghetti paste usually consists of tomato (paste) and sometime got mushroom, but this one (Prego) is a bit different.

I rushed to the kitchen to check on the (Prego) bottle which was named Italian sausage for the spaghetti product of Prego in USA.

Suddenly, saw (the words) INGREDIENTS: tomato, ... minced pork!

side note: pig's meat is called pork, we never call it pork meat. Here, it seems that the writer of the note is a bit suspicious to include the word meat, at least those Westerners would hardly use wrong grammar in a label which is distributed through out the world. I doubt if he really copy it 100% exactly from the label. However, I'm not suggesting if he made it up.

A sudden strange feeling rushed to my head since I ate spaghetti this morning. I quickly raced too the fridge to find out the truth. I check on the label thoroughly and took a few pictures. Here there are:

Prego - front view (click on the pic for a better view)

Prego - side view (click on the pic for a better view)

Prego - side view (click on the pic for a better view)

Prego - Ingredients (note that no pork mentioned)

By comparing the pictures taken by my camera and the note, you'll notice that there's no such thing as minced pork in Prego, at least not the Prego spaghetti paste I bought. It's a really bad habit to spread rumours, however, it's always good to be precautious of whatever we eat. Think twice and check thoroughly for details first before we speak of something, like a Chinese proverb saying, once spoken, it's hard to get back our words.

This reminded me of the recent rumours spread across the internet regarding the Indonesian instant noodle, Indomie containing cosmetic ingredients, which was later proven wrong by the Health Ministry of Malaysia according to the Star Online. 

Too many rumours lately, it makes me wonder how true is this world. Is it so hard to remain being truthful?

33 trapped miners rescued in Chile

miners being rescued using capsules

The men were trapped underground since 5th of August when the tunnel collapsed due to rockfall. The rescue job began on Tuesday (12th October) for about a day. Finally, those 33 survivals were managed to be rescued. The rescued miners have been taken to hospital. All have severe dental infections, and some have eye problems. A few unfortunate ones didn't survive those hardship and passed away underground there, according to BBC News.

在观看了网上的拯救片段后，隐约可以感觉到他们的那份喜悦，终于摆脱了被困在地低下的困境。当中，有一位小男孩很焦急地等待爸爸被拯救的那一刻。看到爸爸后，小男孩立刻冲向爸爸，场面很温馨。

I saw the video of rescuing them with the capsule to carry a person per trip, which takes about half an hour per trip due to long journey.When the men were being rescued one by one, their family waited out there anxiously. There's a boy who cried when seeing his father being successfully rescued. All those applause when the father hugged his child and wife made the scene so much touching.

Accident happens anywhere and usually is uninvited and unplanned. So, we should take precaution and stick to the safety rules based on OSHA. It's like taking flights, having taken more flights doesn't decrease or increase the probability of plane crash. It's all random.

搏君一笑 Joke

前阵子，在面子书上看到了一份漫画，说起来是有点很现实的，也很搞笑。

For a bigger view, click on this picture (read from left to right)

For my English reader, here's my translation. It's done within a hurry, so please forgive me if the translation isn't that accurate. If you would like to correct any mistake or give any suggestion, feel free to drop your comment. Would be my honour to be corrected. Anyway, have fun.

disclaimer: I'm trying to minimise the usage of Singlish or any other broken English in attempt to improve my English :P





1. During primary One
- Mom: "You're now in primary one! No longer a baby, do you understand? Don't play anymore, study harder!"

2. During primary six
- Mom: "Thinking of playing the whole day! Go study now! You thought that you're still in primary one?"

3. During Form One in secondary school
- Mom: "If you're still a primary school student, I won't blame you for being so playful. But you're now in primary one in secondary school, don't only think of playing, understood?"

4. During Form Six in secondary school
- Mom: "Still thinking of playing! Playing and playing! You thought you're still in Form one? You're 18 years old now, understood?"

5. During the first year in University
- Lecturer: "Everyone, if you're still a secondary school student, being playful is understandable, but you've entered a university now, don't be so playful anymore, understood?"

6. During the last year in university
- Lecturer: "You're going to face the society soon! You can't be playful anymore! You all thought that you've just entered uni?"

7. Just stepped into the society
- Dad: "You're in the society now, find a job, don't be playful anymore, understood? You're no longer in your honeymoon student time!"

8. During marriage
If you're being playful previously, I don't blame you! But now you have a family, it's time to stop being so behaving!"

9. Upon becoming a parent
- "You've become a dad, still acting so playfully! Are you scared that you won't have the time for it next time? Go and earn more money!"

10. At old age
- Wife: "You're already seventy eighty years old! Still being so playful! You thought that you're just in your thirties? Sit properly can't you?"

11. Before death
- Wife: "After retiring, didn't try to enjoy himself, now before the last breath,only then thought of enjoying! *sigh*"

12. After death
- Soul A: "Someone didn't try to play football before death, now that you're dead, isn't it a bit too late?"
- poor guy: "I really want to kick this ball... !@#$%^& Till when can I start playing?"

Relieved

Lately, I've been dried of idea what to write, so my blog is getting less frequently updated. I thought nobody cares if I don't update my blog, except Hui Hui my UTM friend. Apparently, I was wrong. I received a mail from Jamy asking why am I slacking off. I totally caught me off guard as I never thought that there is someone still looking forward my posts here.

Feeling much relieved, I took a deep breath and started to write again. Thanks for the support, everyone who is reading this. I'll try my best to work on more interesting posts.

By the way, I'm most probably returning to my secondary school tomorrow for a food fair. Let's look forward for a better post tomorrow :D