Today, i'm feeling kinda BLUE

Whale Shark

Photograph by Brian Skerry

The sweeping color of sea and sky, blue is a common thread in nature, seen in the cerulean of a whale shark (pictured here), the indigo of a stormy night, and the cobalt of a peacock's feathers. Over the centuries, the hue has come to represent calm, cold, mysticism, and sadness.

Barracuda School

Photograph by Tim Laman

A thick, swirling school of blackfin barracuda plies the blue waters off Sipadan Island, Malaysia. The fish are formidable predators, but they sometimes gather in groups for protection against sharks higher up on the food chain.

Iceberg Penguins

Photograph by Ralph Lee Hopkins

A group of chinstrap penguins lines the edge of an iceberg adrift in Antarctic waters. Chinstraps are among the most abundant penguins, and some colonies live on floating icebergs.

Polar Bear in Svalbard

Photograph by Ralph Lee Hopkins

A polar bear leaps off of sea ice near Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. Strong swimmers, polar bears have slightly webbed paws to aid in paddling.

Blue-Footed Booby

Photograph by Tim Laman

These distinctive webbed feet belong to a blue-footed booby of the Galápagos Islands. The bluer, the better: Courting males show off with a high-stepping strut—and those with brighter feet are more attractive to potential mates.

Frosted Ferns

Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt

Frost covers the brilliant blue leaves of lush ferns in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park. The park is an isolated wilderness that's home to more than 700 plants found nowhere else in the world.

photo courtesy of national geographic

My home, just a FLIGHT away :P

today will be the day i have been

 anticipated for months and months ago.....

finally, it will be 3 long hours 

heading back home

arrr....i missed the sight of airplane traffics at the airport

i missed having my passport stamped

i missed dragging my luggage around the classy building,

acting like a traveler from a faraway land

i missed the sweet and alerting boarding calls

i missed siting at the waiting hall observing passersby

i missed those chocolate and perfume shops 

though i hardly ever have the chance to buy

i missed waiting smartly on my sit

while others rushed to queue half an hour earlier

i missed flipping through the airline magazines

and read through each and every words in it

But

to top it all

i missed home

(counting down, 11 hours to board...huhu)

Be simple, or be sophisticated?

Simplicity, is the ultimate sophistication. 

-Leonardo Da Vinci

So, why try so hard to be sophisticated?
forget about those fancy cars and red carpets,

let's walk bare-footed and dance in the rain!

Gembira tak terhingga jumpe kawan lama!

haha....just when i thought the night is dead and was ready to doze off, this came up on my shoutbox

LAMA GILER tak nampak nama nie dah....hehehe.....zaerr, how are you my friend? since your blog doesn't come with a shoutbox, this is the only way i can get your attention, hahahaha.........

Are you too small?

If you think you are too small to have an impact, 

try going to bed with a MOSQUITO in the room.

(moral of the story: never underestimate yourself, no matter how small you may seemed to be :) )

World's greenest cities

Where Mother Nature would feel right at home.

What makes a city 'green'? It's definitely more than just bicycles lanes and eco-friendly buildings. It's also about green spaces, transportation policies and environmental policies, to name a few. 

1. The city with the green concrete jungle: Vancouver, Canada

The greenest concrete jungle boasts a huge family of carbon-neutral buildings. Structures abide by the 'Passive Design Toolkit', relying on natural air movements and sunlight heat, to lessen the need for artificial heating and air conditioners.

2. The city with the freshest air: Reykjavik, Iceland

As a nominee of the European Green Capital, a new Cycling Plan was implemented in 2010, stipulating that an additional 90km of cycling paths would be built in the next 10 years. The aim: to get more cars off the road.

3. The city with the smartest cars: Copenhagen, Denmark

A local company developed hybrid electric vehicles and the first public hydrogen fuelling station. As hydrogen is created with the use of water and wind turbines, that meant zero carbon emissions and the creation of an alternative source of renewable energy. In addition, a new environmental zone was introduced banning large trucks without particle filters from entering Copenhagen.

4. The city with the greenest land: Stockholm, Sweden

A majority of the population in Stockholm live within 300m of a green area, like a park. On top of that, passenger trains have zero carbon emission as it is fuelled by organic waste from cows!

5. The city with the greenest music: Oslo, Norway

Oslo is a recognized 'greeny' many times over, the recipient of several awards. Festivals like The Oslo Miljofestival and Oya festival keep awareness high and are themselves powered by a hydroelectric dam for energy, followed by responsible clean-ups after, like special sewage treatments and recycling programs.

this amazing article was By Rachel Lai, MSN Travel, 1/18/2011 (msn)

Seriously, our country should make these countries as examples, and put more effort into creating a green environment......at least no plastic day is a good start... 

:)

Bicycle lanes, eco-friendly buildings, hybrid electric vehicles, passengers train fueled by organic cow wastes, man....i wish to live in these cities!

A third of workers below poverty line

According to the Ministry of Human Resource, Malaysia, a third of workers are BELOW poverty line. 

34% earn less than RM700 a month.

Though this statistic was revealed few months ago, i doubt the figure dwindled much.

So, let us think about it. 34%, that is a huge number, meaning out of 10 people walking on the street, about 3-4 person are living below poverty line. That is last year. Marching into this new year, fuel price increased twice, foods increased, children's school fees increased, even government tax increased. With just less than RM700 a month, how are they suppose to make ends meet? 

RM700, as a student, it is only sufficient to cover my own food and house rent for a month. 

If a person earning this low, with 3 children and a wife, how is he going to pay for things? Prioritize? which should come first? Food? Children's school fees? Medical emergencies? Electric bills? 

There's too much going on now, things are getting more and more expensive by the days, even with a household salary of RM3000 a month is just sufficient to cover 2 children and a wife, barely.

It's saddening to hear this statistic, and there are people close to me whom are categorised in that below-poverty-line group. 

What can we do to help? I am clueless.....

reference: ministry of human resource malaysia

.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. -- George Washington Carver

Why wait?

image courtesy of:http://www.garagegospel.com/index.php/2010/02/dont-hesitate/

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' 

Start where you stand, 

and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, 

and better tools will be found as you go along."

-- George Herbert

Jom kecek ganu!

kyle dh tinggal kat ganu hampir dua tahun doh....meh kite kecek ganu sokmo!

Who is to take the blame?

 Feel like writing something today.. Let us all flash back to times when we were young...

Growing up in a huge vegetable and fruit farm, i used to watch how my aunt, uncle and grandma would go to farm every early morning and nurture all those tiny plants of different types. Then one realised that planting something is not as easy as just plain watering it everyday. There are alot of unexpected obstacles along the way, sudden pests invasion, rainy day for a week, scorching sun for too long...all these are inevitable.

And from them, i learn something very meaningful. That blaming is no use at all. When the plant doesn't grow as expected, you don't blame the plant. Instead, act fast and look for what is causing the problem, malnutrition? irrigation difficulties? pests? and find solution to that.

This, all of us understand. If we see someone blaming, shouting at a plant for not growing well, we would say, 'what a lunatic he is'. Yet, if we have problems with our friends or family, or even strangers, we blame the other person. Isn't this the same as blaming the plant?

Blaming has no constructive effect at all, and it does not even make the one who blames look wiser. Why hurt someone by firing at him while all you need to do is to shower him a little bit of care and understanding?


Stop blaming, it is not helping.

Unconditioned love

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth,

"you owe me".

Look what happens with a LOVE like that, 

it lights up the whole sky.   :)

BRAIN DRAIN?

Malaysia struggles to stem 'brain drain' as talent departs
By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 12/30/2010
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4549563

(p.s. do read this interesting article :P)

Read this article, and it really kept me thinking, as Wan Saiful said in the article, what does race and religion have to do with all the tiny things that we applied? Scholarships, house loans, university applications, and so much more.

Will those attributes be a contributing factors in determining the success of our applications? 

If yes, will these, then, be truly fair for all? 

Race, it's not my fault, it's predetermined by God, i have utterly no control over that.

What would one puts then, if he or she is of mixed descent? lets say grandparents of malay and arabic, with another side of indian and chinese, should he or she tick all the race option then? 

Back to the big question, what different does it makes? It really doesn't matter, what colour of skin you have, the inner attributes of all are the same, we are all created to love one another, to treat each others as brothers and sisters, it's the teachings of all great religions, isn't it?

When you become a parent one day, never EVER isolate your children, expose them to diverse cultures and peoples, this is the look of the world today.

Still, this is just a thought, a spark yet to see its shining days.

To the leaders of the world

A word of wisdom from the past, to the leaders of the world.

"To lead the people, walk behind them."

-- Lao Tzu

New year, new you

New year, 

new resolution,

new plans,

new aims, 

new you.

DON'T repeat the mistakes made last year, let it go with the wind..

and start over again anew.

"When you make a mistake, there are only three things you

should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and do not

repeat it."

-- Paul "Bear" Bryant

Can't wait for this year to unfold its mysteries in front of me :)