Archive for November, 2008

Compensating Today’s Luxury or Tomorrow Quality

Our Government has recently come up with a New Policy that seemed to lightened up most of the citizens by declaring that people who are contributing to EPF can choose to cut 3% of the contribution from monthly paycheck, up to 2 years time.

It was deemed as a piece of good news by most people because we could have more ‘cash’ by taking this 3% decrement in our EPF saving. This is exactly what the government is intended to do. By giving more ‘Cash’ to us, so that the demon of spending the money which is residing in everyone of us can finally get the better of us. When we have more cash in hand, we tend to spend more, and by doing this we stimulate the economy growth. So this is the intention behind the government rational for implementing this policy.

But to some people who have opted to stick to the 11% contribution to EPF instead of taking the 3% decrement, it doesnt mean they have enough cash in hand though. They simply see the huge complication this 3% cut would bring about in the future. By saving lesser into the retirement account, we are actually taking out our retirement fund and use it for today’s luxury, risking the quality of our retirement lifestyle for today comforts.

Take for example, a person who’s making RM 5000 for a living monthly would have extra RM 90 per month by taking the 3% off EPF saving. So for the effective time period of 2 years under this policy, RM 90 x 24 months = RM 2160.

However, if this RM 90 is injected into EPF like normally would, under the projected 5% interest rate offered by EPF, in 2 years time there will be RM2160 as well. However, as this RM2160 would be inside this account and enjoy a 5% interest rate, let say for 20 year time horizon when this person reach retirement age, this RM2160 would become around RM 5200, we are looking at a 100% increment from the RM2160. If this person draws salary RM 10000 monthly, it would become RM 9600++(take RM300 n spend it today, or prefer to have RM 9600 when retire)

Havent this illustrates that if we decide to spend more today by using the money saved for retirement purpose, we actually compensated the quality of our retirement lifestlye?

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Fate Mastery

现在,黑人不再是以前时期的下等人民了。”

美国有空中飞人麦克乔丹(六枚美国职业篮球赛总冠军,无数次最有价值球员奖,无数次进入全明星代表队,其间还转型打棒球大的有型,已经是黑色肌肤的神话之一)

非洲有足球和平使者乔治维阿(海要是源自非洲某一小小国家-立比亚,还要赢得世界足球先生这每一位球员梦寐以求的加冕,成就非凡),

还有很多位虽然肤色是被列为另一等级却以实力证明肤色与成就是没有牵连的例子咯。

长篇大论,只是想说,很久以前,肤色就不是成不成功的理由了,尤其是对黑肤的朋友而言这不会是阻碍来的。

~气球会不会腾空飞起,是在里面的气,不是气球的颜色~

No exception for everyone of us, our success is not determined by external factor, not by external influences, not by environment, not by chances, not by luck, it is solely DEPENDENT on the INternal Side, on ourselves, on our determination, on our mindset, on our PARADIGM!

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Maturity. Defined

Maturity is the balance between Courage and Consideration.

It also been defined in this way :

“the ability to express one’s own feelings and convictions balanced with considerations for the thoughts and feelings of others”

The word courage in this context simply means how ‘brave’ one would be in expressing his or her thoughts and feelings out to people.
The word consideration in this context on the other hand means the ability to be considerate on how our choice of words and actions would hamper the person who’s on the receiving end.

All in all, balance between courage and consideration, means courage minus consideration, or consideration minus courage. This literally means how able one to express his own thoughts and feelings out after having went through effort of trying to be considerate and understanding toward the person who is on the receiving end.

This should define maturity in a better way than the conventional way of people saying maturity is not how old we are, but rather how much tears we’ve shed. Or not on how much sense what we said make, but rather how conservative what we said meant to people.

Conclusively, maturity should be defined as the ability of one person to express his or her feelings out WITHOUT having to COMPENSATE THE FEELINGS OF THE LISTENER.

now i think this would make more sense.

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4 sides of the Conference Table

~Neoh Kean Ming – Gan Say Quan- Chong William- Yong Kit Yan === 4 sides of the conference table~

—————————————————————————-

I have begun looking forward to the coming back of the 4 sides of the conference table now.

It was around 4 years ago when we first came together and went to Langkawi trip together after our victory on STPM, second toughest examination in the world. We walked a long distance on the island from west to the east, just for the great eagle. We took photos after photos, we had mcd in langkawi, we were amazed by the setting in the Oasis Restaurant, we played darts there, we played cards in the room, we were shocked by the pale face of the lady, we spent whole night talking, playing cards(bluffing game), we did a lot of things, from a-z, but i was still not so close to the other 3 sides of the conference table.

It was until few months later that life played its trick on us, casting its black magic on almost each and every one of us, that we began to stick together and share the joys and tears of one another. It was until that time that i began to gel with you guys. It was that time that saw us drinking and vomitted. It was the time that we almost went out every night and going places to yam cha. It was the time when everything seemed still at lost but except the 4 of us who have sticked together. We went through thick and thin. We walked through grass and concrete stone. We drank coffee and we drank liquor. We discovered winter warmers. We laughed at the chicken run incident. We indulged in the sotong goreng from USJ 9 mamak. Which we called it our ‘lou dei fong’. We talked from those days to these days to future. We gone through a lot.

When Jeff ‘leaving on a jet plane’, we kept talking about not letting this bond loosen its strength, not to any extend tat is tolarateable. We talked about keeping it strong. As if long distance is never a problem.

But in the end, what happened?

I got myself being isolated. At least i felt so genuinely true.
I was seen as the person who isolate myself from the group.

Apparently i would take my vow that i was really busy with my things in campus. When the Australia side of the table came back last year, i was really busy and had no choice but to stay in UKM most of the time. I took my effort to come back to rejoin. But i know it was not really appreciated. It wasn’t a make up effort from me, it was a ‘i really want to’ effort from me.

Right nw  i am still trying my very best to be around whenever any yumcha time was being called. I am now in subang jaya. I do not see any reason in terms of long distance travel stopping me anymore. I hope this time around i will be a better fren, a better side of the conference table.

22nd nov is the day jeff comes back. I know no one is going to see this post here.
but frankly speaking, i am beginning to counting down to the day already. I am really missing the time together. But right to the bottom, i am still very grateful that each and everyone of you have come into my path when i was at the trough at that time, i see no reason i would be the first one to call in a day and abandone this conference table at any given time, i appreciate so much.

Thanks again. To

Yong Kit Yan.
Chong William
Gan Say Quan
———————————————————————-

Credit also to Chng Set Ley, who ’s always been around (not really that always but you tried), who’s been a very true friend like the 3 of them, who’s shared most of the ups and downs i have went through in these 3 years, who’ve given me reason to be cheerful. who have kidnapped my pendrive for 2 weeks and stil not back from her china trip, you also wont be reading this, so i can write whatever here. got someone ask me to buy you a pendrive, you want or not? if want, tell me la.. but how to tell me when you wont even be reading this , hahaha…lala..bluek~

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A sober piece of thought

来思考一个问题,人的一生中能够活多少天 ??

一年有365天,
10年有3千650天,
如果你能长命百岁,那你就能活3万6千500天。

这只是一个简单的数学题,但是,如果我们从生命的意义来看,人的一生中只能活3天。不要惊讶,真的只是3天。 人活着的第一天是昨天,人活着的第二天是今天,人活着的第三天是明天。

昨天就是我们的过去。过去有美好的回忆,当然也会有不堪回首的往事!过去的你,可能有着辉煌的成就,可能是一个成功人士,一位模范生,一位“人见人爱,车见车载”的人,但是那是昨天,那是过去。

当然,过去的你也可能是一个一无是处的失败者,但是那是昨天,那是过去。当我们活在昨天的美好回忆中中,我们只是在缅怀过去,炫耀自己。当我们活在过去的痛苦中,它只会阻碍我们前进的脚步。

明天是无法兌现的空头支票. 明天是我们的未来。明天就像一张无法兌现的空头支票,不管数额是多么庞大,他始终不属于你的。它只是一个虚幻飘渺的假象。“未来”只是一个未知数,但人们总是迫不及待地想去打开那个盛放着“未来”的神秘盒子,祈望那里面盛放着神奇的“阿拉丁神灯”,或许拥有它就可以实现所有的夙愿与梦想吧!

昨天已经不属于我们,明天也是一个未知数,那么我们真正能活着的也只有今天。与昨天和明天比较,今天就显得真实了许多。它就在日常的生活中,只要你肯伸手就能触摸到它。它是完完全全掌握在我们自己的手中。今天的你,这一刻的你,在做些什么?当然,你是在看着这篇文章。如果看完了这篇文章你还是你,你依然没有改变,没有领悟任何的道理,那么你就浪费了这一刻。如果过完了今天,你还是你,你就浪费了今天,那请问你的人生还有哪一天是属于你的呢?

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A sound piece of advice

there is a saying that goes this way

           “It is not very regretful when you are well prepared but do not have the opportunity,
               It is VERY regretful when you have the opportunity but you are not well prepared.

What i understand from this saying saw me taking it personally and i feel it and take it deep into my heart.

People, we should always know that opportunity comes and goes, it doesnt wait for us. It does not come and knock on our door and wait for us to come and open the door for it to come in. If we are slow to react to those knocking on the door, opportunity always slip away to the next door and knock on it. It hardly comes back to the same door knocking for another time in another day, it may, but we just wouldn’t know when the next time would be.

Talking bout this, we should have realized that there are 3 type of people in this world.

- People who make things happen

- People who wait for things to happen

- People who wonder what have happened and why it happened.

People who make things happen could easily be people who create opportunity, people who make opportunity come to their doorstep. People who wait for things to happen, some may argue that these are the people who wait for opportunity to come, but i think that these are actually people who always relate their failure to ‘i have no luck’, or ‘i am not as lucky or he/she is’, or ‘its not easy cos it is meant for someone else’, these are people who wait for success when they themselves might not really put effort to sow the seed. From my personal point of view, i do think that majority of us falls into tha last category, ‘people who wonder what have happened, and why it happened’. We often wait and wait before we start to do something, and eventually time passes and makes the decision for us, and that is when opportunity is already gone, or long gone in some events. Even if we did not wait and wait, and we might argue that, ‘hey, i was so busy doing other things, when i finally hav time for this, the opportunity is gone, is not my fault’. Yeah, this could be a reason to explain. But how many of us actually find it easy to

“‘Do things that allow us to put off what we want to avoid’”
put it another way,
“‘Do what we like, than do what we have to do’”  ?

we know the answer ourselves.

If we want to get away from being the last category of people, we need to start changing our mindset now, right away.

You may argue that, why is there the need to switch category as well, but lets ask urself this, are you feeling frustrated with your life? are you feeling annoyed by events and circumstances most of the time? Are you constantly wish tat you could have more time in a day, or have you been thinking that ‘it’d be nice if i can sleep more today’, or have you come across time when you wish your eyes are not watery and heavy? If you are going through these, the good news is you are not alone, most people do, even me i am feeling sleepy this morning, and almost every morning i have the strongest resistance to avoid getting up from bed. So with this good news, i hope the following one would be a much greter news. the great news is. WE can get away from all these frustrations.

How?

i believe up to this point, you already know how. We have wisdom, we are given the most powerful tool in the universe, we have that in our brain, it is our mind. So you should know what to do if you want a change for betterment.

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Can you Hear Me

This town is colder now because temparature is falling so it gets colder. Temperature is a mean we use to measure if we would describe the condition we’re living in as cold, or hot. Temperature has 2 unit of measurement, atleast these are what we were being taught in school, during our foundation for sciences, and we were being shown more factuals thing on this subject when we took on the challange of taking Physic in examination. So i have learned about temperature, and not only this, but also about many other things from school, from the people who have come across my path all these years. Despite i said this town is getting colder due to the falling of temperature and i knew this because i have learned bout what temperature means, but without knowing what is temperature i could also have comment on the condition of the environement, whether it is cold, or hot. This is purely because i have senses, and the detector for this senses are well protected under the largest organ, skin. So this has demonstrated that i have atleast 2 way to find out if the temperature is cold, or hot.

What is it about the temperature thingy, is all about, the town is getting colder now, this very moment.
So i am sitting here. I said i am sitting here because i am not standing. And the tense i used have suggested itself that at this moment i am still seated, sitting, the tense is present continuous tense, which means i am still doing the action at this moment, thats why i can say, i am still seated at this moment.

Ok i think it is about time to call a day for all those nonsensical fuss and begin to write something which would have more weightage of senses than nonsense. We differentiate thing with senses from things without senses without any devices, but our common sense, but our feelings. But this doesnt mean common sense is the highest available senses we posses, because there are still some poor people out there who have no common sense, yet they do can differentiate what is nonsense and what is meaningful sentences. So this has to say something bout common sense not being the highest amongst senses.

But wait, did not i say stop all those nonsensical fusses just now. So i am actually suppose to say something which are not nonsense out of nature. for example. I have got attracted to this Alliance bank-MPH Bookstore collaberated short story writting contest. Deep inside my memory depositary bank, i could still recall that few years ago i also noticed this thingy and got the thinking like, ‘if only i will be able to write something qualified to participate in things like this’. Knowing that it was like something beyond my reach, and seemingly far-fetched enough for me to dream, i did not even try to pick up the pen, without picking up a pen at the first place, surely there would not be any script or story being produced in the end, and that thing had slipped away from mind since.

Writing seems like a thing so complicated to do, it is like doing calculus, solving calculus equation, finding solution for calculus problem, you need to have the wisdom, you need to know the facts, you need to know the basics, you’ve gotta have a good flow of story, you’ve gotta know some writting skills, it has to be interesting, it has to contain messages and values, otherwise, what’s the point of spending time writting nonsense.  Like this post.

and so this post become a  perfect teaching tool to convey this msg: do not do things without purpose, without planning, must have point, must have direction, there is no progression if we keep thinking that we are stucked at a cross junction, a T junction, or a never ending spiral of staircases, or even a never stopping high way. Stop and check where we have placed our feet at at times and rescript, then perhaps we would find a better way to continue the flow. This is like what One Republic tried to deliver via the hot hit, STop And Stare. otherwise, going nowhere.

So i do stop, and stare at my position.
i have evaluated where i stood, what i want, and ponder to think on if where i stood at that moment would get me to where i wanted to reach when i started out. Consistant check-back have got me this far. And i have still the pride in me to assure me i still know what i am doing all these whiles, albeit sometime things happened to steer me off track, or i might have stepped on something that cause some setback. But the bearing that my compass shows me is still the bearing i have adjusted after each setback and drawbacks have hit me hard. The end of the day. I still know what i want, i am certain sometime i may not have my wish fulfill and i may stumble upon obstacles and circumstances that draw enormous pain upon me and see the dream of my life slip away, nevertheless, i am contend that i at least have not given up and i have tried. Missing out is painful. Recently learned about it and it reinforced the thinking i’ve been thinking about. Missing out is really painful and the most harsh side is you could no longer tick back the clock to catch what you have missed out on. It sent tremendous regrets into your soul and it resided there forever. So it would push you to not miss out on things anymore, That could be a good thing and it also could turn out to be a bad thing.

Missing out on you is my biggest loss. The script that designed this missing out story would make everything more painful to bear. The flashes of memory kept on playing back as if i need more reminding of it when i still remember everything so vividly clear.

People say that humanbeing are gifted because we have 2 hemisphere of brains to make up one brain after a lobe been attached to the 2 hemispheres. So we could think logically and emotionally by utilizing the left n right brain respectively. And having the lobe can bring terrible problems when what you remember reminds you of some pictures that you knew it was too good to recall back as it would no longer be seen in reality. This thing is now so messed up that no one would be able to guess who is talking bout who anymore for i think it has mixed in too many story lines in it. the worse thing about human ’s gift, the brain is that the logical side is often the side people tap into when they live their life. This makes people only act after they’ve gathered enough logic to support them doing something, and this is how most often than not, people tend to miss out on things, on people that they really wished not to lose, but logical side has always got the better on us, and we missed out, like how i missed out.

So now i will agree that to act boldly would be the better option. But to act boldly like a bull would get us nowhere. without logical thinking most of the time we will lose our way charging without looking but boldly charge along. So we have to really practise to utilize both side of our gifted brain. so that we will find the best solution to whatever muddy skid life has to offer to us.

I can call this one a short story, because it is not a novel, for its length could not yet make up a novel, and it has no characters inside. But if i call this one a short story, then i would have to call myself an imbecile. For it has no flow in it at all. furthermore, the so called stories were only fractions and fractions of things that could have been a long story itselves. However, at the end of the day, i have written another long script, albeit it should have no power to turn into a page-turner.

But again, i tried. at least, dare to try, deal with the failure after fail.

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Elementary of thing

I do not possess the ability to write things in a way that is fascinating,
I do not have the skill to string together words to make it looks beautiful a sentence,
I do not have the knowledge to prosper and sharpen my communication skills,
I do not have what it takes to strive in life.
But i do have the will and desire to improve over time.

Sometimes we feel pain,
when we fall,
only after feeling the pain,
will we begin to dread feeling it.

Experiences are always the best teacher.
For it taught us not to repeat the act that made painful experiences ours.
For it taught us to treasure what made us a better person and learn from it.

So we might want to walk carefully to avoid falling, after the first fall.
you may walk with a step-by-step caution thinking this is safest way.
You may walk with your eyes staring down most of the time to avoid getting tripped.
He may think that walking with a stick in hand could provide some strength and support.
She may think that walking holding something would surely mean no more falling down.
And a smart fellow would think that never to walk again would settle the score at the end of the day.

So there we practise cautions and want to avoid stumbling down again.
But as thing goes on its natural path,
often people fall back to the same spot, to the same mistake, to the same trap, to the same experience,
and sometime people might not even notice,
notice that something have gone wrong, something was done in a wrong way,
something was spoken out and caused some emotion upstir,
something was seen as against the natural law governance,

And often time when you notice that,
it has been too late for you to make amend,
you have given out the chance to redeem urself.
You have been trashed to the bin.
You have been forgotten, or atleast will be forgotten by intense desire-based will.

Part and parcel of life,
pros and cons of life,
brightness and darkness of life,
happiness and sorrows of life,
love and hatred of life,
key and lock of life,
water and fire of life,
black and white of life,
boon and bane of life;
be it what you would feel comfortable to call it or known it,

Life is Just an ambiguity, it depends on how you look at it.
LIfe is a paradoxical experience, it based back on how you want it to be.
Life is another form of roller coaster, it has the flow to bring us to the hightest and the trough.
Life is a mirror, it reflects what we see and what we think and what we perceive.

Live on, for you are not destined to fall and be laid here forever.
Live on, for you are not designed to stop at this stage of your life.
Live on, for you are the person in-charge of your own life.
Live on, for you are the light house to your ship.
Live on, for your feelings and instincts should guide you out from the mess.
Live on, and you will live on.

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走步 与 跑步

我的笔锋其实很平凡,
写不出卓越的文章,
表露不到想要的含义,
传达不了心内的情怀。

有时候,
跌过了,
才会痛;

有时候,
痛过了,
才会痛;

要不痛,
就应该别跌倒,
那就不会因为跌倒而痛;

但是,
与其想着别要跌倒,
倒不如想看如何把路走好;

一步一步慢慢走,
跌不着了吧?
眼睛张大小心走,
不会跌倒了吧?

人很奇怪,
走走下稳定了,
脚步变快了,
步伐开始跨大了,
速度开始随心了,
痛的教训仿佛淡忘了。

再跌多一次,
那么就会开始想起痛的教训了。

再开始走过,
安定的走多几步后,
又再有点得意忘形了,
开始忘记跌倒时会痛了,
结果,
几步变成了疾步,
看你及时再跌过。

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Challenger transformed Winner

It was on a pleasant 2nd Nov afternoon, a saturday afternoon that i went to the event to received the award which i am one of the 14 ppl to scoop it back in Month August due to potentially encouraging performance.

Perhaps did not sleep well and that was part of the reason didnt feel as excited as it should have been.

Nevertheless, nothing went wrong while ascending up to the stage, except that the person who handed the prize to me was not someone i know or not someone i think holding big enough post to hand me my prize, wow look who’s talking now  =)

With the swift run i was quick enough to show up onto the stage from the floor just moments ago.And there standing up there with the applauses all round, it was just the right kind of feeling i need to keep up the momentum which i have somehow lost away for sometime. now. lets get back on feet and walk again.

First and foremost credit and appreciation must be recorded towards the people who’ve placed their faith in me. It wouldnt have happened without you guys. Thanks!

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