Charter for Compassion

I have heard of so much of random acts of kindness that rendered by people who we don't know are realise they are there. Yet when times of needs arises, they volunteered themselves to act. It can be just a simple act like holding an umbrella for us during the rainy days and when we don't have an extra hand or to donating to a person who is so much in need of the money although it is just RM5.

Such a story or act actually soften my heart and makes me realise that humanity and compassion still exist in this world which is so self-centred and 'kiasu'(afraid to loose).

Newspaper today bombard us with news that will just 'tear us' apart rather than positive news. As such, when I received an email from TED, I am so encouraged.

At least now there are people who documented an act of kindness or compassion done by people for people. By people like you and me and for people like you and me.

This Charter for Compassion have so much of random acts done by people. You can go there and read of the random acts and be lifted up or you can also signed up and support the charter.

Cheers and have a great day!

en route as i see it

why is this post entitle so?

journey. experience. unfinished business. growing. learning.feeling. seeing.

much more as we live the life!

 

work has been picking up and i am expecting it to be more hectic in the next tow months.

while working, suddenly it just makes me realise blue or yellow or white or black even brown, we co-exist! If i remove the yellow, the blue will also drop! everyone plays a role! coincidently, these tubes holds blood samples.in case you wonder and if you don't know, all is blood is RED colour!

life is short but the journey is not.

do we want to live comfortably or make a mark in the big ocean!

anyway life is a big web. inter-connected. one of us might be the head. others leg. some hand. but without one, it will be hard to operate. all have to function.

on another note, do take time to look up and look out, then enjoy!

saw this old man with his bicycle with his grandchild at the back. it's something of the past hardly can be seen now.

anyway, again, life is long, journey is not. don't let little things stop you or discourage you. look beyond that.

there is a bigger picture to it.

have a good day!

Steps...

I have not been writing for quite sometimes.

Had been very busy and keeping all extra times I have to do some reflections and thinking as much as I can.

Life, suddenly it dawn to me that ...

is passing by so quickly and we have such a short time to make an impact with what we are doing or who we are.

too short to mourn on what is past, failed, unsuccessful.

urgency to make a point of my faith.

to spend more time with love ones.

focus on the macro and not micro, the 'stones' and not the 'sand'.

 

As for now, I am spending a lot of time with love ones and making the best with the time I have.

Forbidden City (Palace Museum) Part II - The Throne of the Emperor

Part I - The Forbidden City

China has been ruled by different dynasties in the past. Each of the dynasty has their palaces in different places over in China. However, the last two dynasties built their palace in Beijing, a new city which was founded during the Ming dynasty. 24 emperors from Ming and Qing dynasties lived here before the last dynasty was overthrown in 1911.

The Emperor is known as the son of god during the feudal time and they rule the country with tight reign. The commoners are not allowed to come near them and they don't mixed with the people. They are known to live a very lavish lifestyle and have many concubines. However, don't mistaken their life to be easy because the demand for a good emperor is very high. They have to know the Chinese culture, Chinese literature, knows the martial art and good at calligraphy, having all the knowledge of how to rule the country and bring prosperities. Good emperors are known to wake up before dawn and meet the magistrates (cabinet) or the government as early as  6 am. They worked till late night and only go to bed after midnight.

In the Palace Museum, they have different halls for different ceremony. There is a place where the Emperor worked, where he rest, a hall where he meet his rulers, halls that he used to entertain dignitaries and ambassadors, halls where he sleep and many more for his different aspect of his life!

The hall where he works is so huge that I can't get the whole building in a picture.

In this place is his throne where he sits and also consult his advisors and meets his magistrates.

In front of this hall is a huge square where ceremonies can be held.

However, every reign or dynasty of an emperor, the emperor's seal is the most important. With the seal, it's the power of the rule. He will put it on every decrees that he made and also there are plates that shows his power. NO one can or dare to hit on the seal nor the plate that bears the name of the emperor.

Anyone caught disrespecting the emperor can be punished, and usually death. Not just himself but the whole family have to take the punishment too.

As the emperors are known as son of god, all their belonging have the pictures of dragon. The seal also have the dragon carved on it. Everywhere you go, there are dragons everyone. This is to symbolise their position also for lucks.

  The dragons are on the floors and also on the walls...

However, despite the popular belief that the emperor are the son of god, they don't stay in a very grand and lavish rooms. Their bedroom is small for an emperor. This is because they belief that big rooms have more evil spirits. As such, their bedroom are small.

Ini Itu...Sana, Sini, Situ

So much to complete in such a little time!

Time management! Must learn to make it better.

Sorry for not much of updates.

Hopefully, I will be able to blog more soon.

1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now

As I sit in the office, I am pondering and thinking about what I have been through this morning.

I have recently graduated from a public university and currently working on my postdoc with a university in US. However, I am now back in Malaysia for my field work and my wife is still a PhD student with the same public university I had graduated from. However, lately, the authorities had cordoned off all parking bays in the campus and students are not allowed inside. We are all asked to park at the 'park and ride' and ride the bus.

However, as a graduate student, our work and research doesn't just confined to a specific lab. We worked with so many research labs and also places. We also don't work with just books but with equipment and kits which we have to carry around. Our time is flexible yet at a very fast pace. We can't afford to loose our time with the research materials we are carrying. Every minute that we are transporting our materials/ subjects will cause it to degrade.

As such, how do we parked our car outside the campus and take the bus into the campus and then, do our work. After that, take the bus again, to get to our car and drive it in to load all our research equipment into the car? How long will that take and how much time will it be wasted?

We went to complaint but the answer that has been given is this:

1) Staff also don't have enough parking - so, how do you solve this and that will the benefit both sides? Most of you clock in and then clock out without necessarily needed to go out.

2) Student parked at the lecturer parking lot. Our dean also don't have place to park - so, now you asked all student to park outside so that the dean have a place to park?

3) Talk to the dean - where the heck is the dean? will he meet us?

4) Thanks for your complaint -so what are you going to do with it?

So, whose performance are we trying to help to push?

When did the university try to help to give us better facilities to promote a better environment for us to work. At first, they took away our rest area/ sitting room. Now the car park. What next? The lab?

The student can't work if we are always embroiled with campus politics and also problems that caused us to work inefficiently!

Who is the people first? Where is the performance? It seems all this benefits the staff only!

Wake up!

P1 Wiggy Wimax

It has been three months since I was given the privileged of trying out the P1 Wimax Wiggy!

Then, the Wimax coverage has not reached this Satay town (Kajang). But since June, we have been in the coverage area and I am happy with my Wiggy thus far.

Right now, P1 is having their promotion again for WIggy and it's going only for RM69 per month with up to 800kps of WIGGYLICIOUS fun!

So hurry up and sign up for wiggy now!

Previous related post:

P1-Wiggy

P1 Wimax Wiggy Sneak Preview

My own search engine

I was just surfing online and I came across this search engine. I thought this is cool and I also create my own search engine.

Now, graceupondoulos also has its own search engine. Try it here. 

Am I overdoing it?

It never occur to me one day I will asked myself this question, am I overdoing it?

If you have been following my blog, you will realise by now that I love travelling and capturing every moments of it in pictures. However, lately, I have been travelling quite a lot. In fact, for the past 2 months, I have only stay at home for about a week.

I have been to New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Hershey over in US for about 3 weeks. From there, I flew back and travelled to Kuching and Sibu for week before travelling back to hometown for about 4 days to visit my parent and grandparent. Then, I have about 5 days at home to do some work and catch up with some errand and church work. Then, I travelled to Beijing, China for about 8 days.

 

However, I don't really enjoy the trip in Beijing as much as I would love too. When I am there, I longed to go back home. I have never had that feeling before that is so strong. Every time I longed to go back home is because I missed my wife too much to be away from her. But this time, she is with me in Beijing and I longed to go back home.

So, am I overdoing it?

But then again, this will not stop soon. It will continue till year end. I have 8 Orang Asli villages to visit in 2 months when I get back to Malaysia. Then, I am leaving for US again in October and to Dominica in November.

I guess this is working life!

On another note, I am not looking forward to the trip in October because that means I will be away from my wife for a long period. We have never been away from each for more than 3 weeks before and this time round will be for about 6 months!

I do hope I can stop the time! But then again, God always in control.

Forbidden City, China

If you want to have a taste and know how the emperors live, you should try to visit the Forbidden City. It was once forbidden for commoners to enter this  massive palace that when it was open to the public, it was know as Forbidden City. This place is so huge that it is not known as a palace, nor a complex or even a village or a town. But a CITY!

 

Now this place is known as Palace Museum. So, you are not entering this place to look at exhibits but the building itself hold the stories unknown to many. This place is simply massive and amazing.

Who have this massive drain to separate their compound from the public?

This is no drain...nor it is a stream. This is bigger than most rivers. And the Palace Museum has it surrounded at four corners!

And you don't just simply place any oil barrels as guard post but you built a massive command centre for it at four corners.

And at the main gate, let's built a fort! Not just any fort like Fort Cornwallis but a tall, huge fort! More like a castle cum fort!

 

Well, this is just the outside. Imagine what you can expect from the inside. Imagine, what will the emperor do when he is bored? How will he built his garden? Well, you have a big cascading waterfall 3 to 4 stories high!

 

Then, you built ponds and decorate it with stone sculpture...

nice, unique plants...

and also put up a massive 9 dragons mural!

Just to give you an idea how huge and massive this Palace Museum is, I spend the whole day in this place and only cover like 40% of the area. To walk from one end to another end without stopping takes me about 30 minutes. In this Palace Museum, they have more than 9000 rooms! Who have such a grand palace? I don't think Brunei's Sultan has such a big palace too.

Next time, when you are Beijing, do pay a visit to this place. It's open from 8.30am to 5pm and cost RMB60 for the entrance ticket. If you have your student card, bring along as the ticket only cost RMB20. Entrance to the Clock exhibits and Palace Collection is another RMB10 each!

Coming next Forbidden City II- The throne of the Emperor!