What Is Easter All About

The Easter weekend is here again. It is a remembrance on Good Friday and a celebration on Easter Sunday for Christians. Easter is another essential occasion for Christians besides Christmas.

Is Easter the prequel or sequel of Christmas? It is the sequel. As Christians, we celebrate the birth of Jesus during Christmas. However during Easter, we remember a pivotal event in the Bible, that is the death and the resurrection of Jesus, God's one and only son. This is the crux of Christianity.

Bad News

We have sinned by rejecting and disobeying God. Mankind has committed various despicable acts such as: 

• Sexual Immorality
• Adultery 
• Debauchery
• Idolatry 
• Obscenity
• Lust
• Envy
• Greed
• Rage 
• Selfish ambitions 

among others. There is no concept of "Small" sins or "Big" sins in God's eyes. All these angered God because God is a holy God and because of His holiness, the punishment for sinners is death.  We are all sinners and imperfect people. There is no one who is perfect and righteous except God. We are made to obey Him but we choose not to because we want to take control of our lives.

Good News

The good news is that God still loves us. He loves us so much that he sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to die on the heavy cross, bearing all our sins. Not only that, he resurrected after 3 days, conquering sin and death. He took the punishment for all our sins although He had no sin and defeated sin and death once and for all after He rose. We do not deserve this but God chooses to save us from our sins. God has forgiven our sins because Jesus has paid the price for each one of us. He does not remember our sins anymore. This is the main focus of Easter and the gist of Christianity as mentioned earlier. This is why the cross is an important element to Christians around the world. It not only reminds us of the suffering that He went through before He was crucified on the cross, but also the power of His resurrection, which results in the victory over sin and death, as well as the forgiveness of our sins.

Note:

There is a misconception that Christians are perfect people. This doesn't mean that Christians do not sin anymore after they believe in God. Our human nature is still to sin. However, as Christians, God gives each one of us the Holy Spirit when we believe and place our trust in Jesus. The Holy Spirit will transform us from inside out, help us to sin less and to love others more as we journey with God. All our character, actions and thoughts will be more and more like Jesus as we grow deeper into our relationship with God. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This transformation is a gradual process throughout our life as Christians.

That is a summary of what Easter is all about

Here are some songs that we can listen and sing to during Easter:

The True Meaning of Christmas

Hi Everyone,

Christmas is the time where we receive presents especially children. Giving presents itself is not wrong but we also need to remember the real meaning behind Christmas. We need to know why Christians celebrate Christmas.

We celebrate Christmas to welcome the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus was born in a manger through the virgin birth of Mary in Bethlehem about 2015 years ago. The birth of Jesus came through Mary, a virgin who was pledged to be married to Joseph. Before they were married, Mary, a virgin¹, was pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, who was faithful with the law wanted to divorce her quietly when he heard about her pregnancy as it was shameful  for a lady to be pregnant before marriage. After considering this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him informing him that the baby his wife, Mary is conceiving is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and they are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.^2,3

I became a Christian by trusting Jesus as my God and Saviour during Easter 10 years ago. He is perfect and has no sin yet he bore the burden of our sins and chose to die on the cross for our sins, because of His deep and wide love for us. Jesus, who in very nature God, gave up his rights as God to fulfill the Father's will of saving mankind from sin. We are supposed to be at the cross to receive our punishment yet Jesus took them all. On the third day, He rose from the grave and sit at God's right hand. His resurrection proves that He has conquered sin and death. He died for all our sins regardless of who we are. All our sins are forgiven and we are made right in His eyes. We are saved by grace through our faith in God. He taught us to imitate Him, to be who He wants us to be. As we walk with God, we will bear his likeness and the fruit of the Spirit.

<sup>Below are the references to the birth of Jesus in the Bible. All of the verses are in the New International Version (NIV) translation.

Here are some related Bible verses that describes how God loves us:</sup> 

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV, Bible Gateway)

Romans 5:8-9

⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
 ⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Romans 5:8-9, NIV, Bible Gateway)

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

(Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV, Bible Gateway)

1 John 4:16-19

¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:16-19, NIV, Bible Gateway)

Galatians 5:22-23

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

(Galatians 5:22-23, NIV, Bible Gateway)

Through our faith in God, we learn to be generous and kind. We are also told to be a cheerful giver. We can give Christmas gifts and yet we also need to remember the birth of our Lord Jesus. We can also remember the needy and help them as well during this period. We can pray for them so that they can find hope and peace with God.

I would like to share some Christmas songs with you this year:

Chris Tomlin - Adore

Chris Tomlin feat. Kristyn Getty - Silent Night

Chris Tomlin - Joy to the World - Unspeakable Joy

Paul Baloche - Hark The Herald Angels Sing



Avalon - We Are The Reason

Christina Perri - Happy Xmas War Is Over

That's all for now. 

Cheers,

Roger Koo

¹ Bible Gateway passage: Luke 1:26-38- New International Version

² Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 1:18-24  - New International Version

³ Bible Gateway passage: Luke 2:1-21  - New International Version

My Book Collection

Hi Everyone,

I like to read and here is my book collection. I bought most of it but some are from my sisters' collection. For example, my sisters had The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes and Wild Swans previously. Please do note that I have not read some of those books yet (Emperor Tang Ming, The Singapore Success Story for example).

The classics are mostly from my sisters' collection except for Bleak House, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (bought by my mum). Besides that, my mum also bought The Prince and the Pauper, A Tale of Two Cities and Black Beauty.

Here are my latest books that I bought:

The Racketeer
The Lord of The Rings + The Hobbit 75th Anniversary Box Set
Kill Alex Cross

I bought at a discount for some of these books. For example, I bought The Racketeer at MPH at 25% discount. Buying the box set for Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit is actually cheaper than buying each book individually. Currently, I am reading The Return Of The King (40%).

My main genres of books remain as below:

1. Mystery / Crime / Thriller (Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Michael Connelly, Michael Crichton, Stieg Larsson)
2. Lawyers / Court Cases (John Grisham)
3. Christianity
4. Fantasy (Narnia, Lord of The Rings)
5. Horror (Stephen King)
6. Classics
7. Biographies

In addition, I also read Life of Pi and the Power of One. I have also read other books such as Malay stories and books on health and IT magazines. Besides these, I read free classics on the IPad and my phone. I am considering buying e-books in the future. 

That's all,

Rogerkoo

Mengetahui Pelbagai Bahasa

Para Pembaca Sekalian,

Kebanyakan penduduk Malaysia boleh bertutur dalam dua atau tiga bahasa termasuk Bahasa Melayu. Ini tidak menjadi satu masalah kerana penduduk Malaysia berbilang kaum and bangsa.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) sebagai badan rasmi untuk bahasa negara mengambil langkah untuk memelihara and mengekalkan penggunaan Bahasa Melayu di negara kita. Ini adalah baik untuk mengekalkan warisan bahasa ini. Akan tetapi, saya berasa bertuah dapat berbual dalam lebih daripada satu bahasa.

Bahasa Melayu saya bukanlah baik sangat tetapi memuaskan. Secara jujurnya, saya lebih selesa berbahasa Inggeris daripada berbahasa Melayu. Selain daripada itu, saya juga boleh berbual dalam bahasa Cina, dialek Kantonis. Dari sekolah rendah ke sekolah menengah, kita belajar kebanyakan mata pelajaran dalam Bahasa Melayu. Dari sinilah kita bermula mengetahui Bahasa Melayu. Hanya satu pelajaran saja, iaitu Bahasa Inggeris kita dapatlah belajar bahasa ini.

Sebenarnya, tiada salahnya kita menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris atau Bahasa Cina di negara ini. Ini tidak akan menjejaskan budaya Bahasa Melayu di negara ini. Penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa kedua negara ini adalah baik untuk memajukan negara ini and memajukan diri sendiri. Bahasa Inggeris merupakan bahasa antrabangsa, juga dikenali sebagai lingua franca di dunia ini. Ia digunakan di kebanyakan negara seperti Amerika Syarikat, Australia, Kanada, England dan negara-negara Asean dan Komanwel dalam perbincangan rasmi sama ada ekonomi ataupun teknologi dan isu-isu antarabangsa. Kebanyakan istilah-istilah bidang teknologi maklumat, kewangan, sains, kedoktoran and kejuruteraan adalah dalam bahasa Inggeris. Syarikat-syarikat antrabangsa dan tempatan negara ini juga melihat Bahasa Inggeris sebagai salah satu keupayaan untuk seorang individu. Bahasa Cina sama ada Kantonis atau Mandarin atau dialek lain juga digunakan dalam perbualan semasa dengan ahli keluarga atau kawan-kawan. Bahasa Melayu hanya digunakan di negara ini, Singapura dan Indonesia. Ia juga digunakan untuk perbualan dan dokumen rasmi negara. Bahasa Inggeris adalah penting untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang ramai di negara-negara lain selain Malaysia.

Sebenarnya, kita mempunyai kelebihan jika kita boleh bertutur dalam beberapa bahasa. Sekarang, kita dapat melihat bahawa Bahasa Cina (Mandarin) sudah mula mendapat perhatian orang ramai. Negara Cina merupakan salah satu daripada negara-negara terbesar di dunia. Ekonomi negara Cina juga ialah salah satu daripada negara ekonomi terbesar di dunia ini. Lebih banyak orang sudah mula belajar bahasa Cina atau bahasa lain seperti bahasa Jepun, bahasa Korea dan bahasa Itali. Ini boleh digunakan jika kita mendapat pekerjaan di negara Cina atau semasa melancong. Ini memudahkan kita bertutur dengan lebih mudah di sana dan juga bertutur dengan sahabat berbangsa Cina. Negara Cina juga mengehos Sukan Olimpik Beijing 2008. Penduduk Cina beria-ria ingin belajar Bahasa Inggeris untuk mengalu-alukan kedatangan pelawat-pelawat demikian dapat mengeratkan hubungan.

Kalau difikirkan, sesetengah perkataan Bahasa Melayu adalah dipinjam daripada Bahasa Inggeris. Perkataan seperti ais, dialek, diskusi, isu, efektif, kronik, kompromi, wad, hospital, klinik, ambulans, tren, sistem, radio, trafik, musik, pen, pensel, kad, fail, dinamik, telefon, tisu dan rel merupakan perkataan yang dipinjam daripada Bahasa Inggeris.

Penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris and Bahasa Cina tidak akan menjejaskan warisan Bahasa Melayu. Matlamat untuk menjadikan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa rasmi mata pelajaran Matematik dan Sains (Fizik, Kimia dan Biologi) adalah satu usaha yang baik untuk meningkatkan prestasi pelajar-pelajar di peringkat kolej and universiti. Penggunaan Bahasa Melayu dalam mata pelajaran Matematik and Sains adalah bagus tetapi ini akan digantikan dengan Inggeris terutamanya di kolej swasta dan universiti swasta. Cadangan ini akan membantu pelajar-pelajar memahami istilah-istilah Bahasa Inggeris dengan lebih cepat and mudah. 

Daripada,

Rogerkoo

Wars

Hi Everyone,

There is still war going on in various countries at this age. World War III may be imminent with the nuclear threats of North Korea. War is still going on between Israel and Palestine. Wars may be caused by people disagreeing in politics, ideology or past history. Humans want power and control over all things. It corrupts the minds of people and leads to violence, greed and malice. When this happens, people choose to attack one another instead of negotiating with one another. We do not want wars such as World War I and World War II to repeat itself. We should be able to forgive one another and move forward. We cannot dwell in the past any more.

We should make efforts to make peace with one another although we disagree on various things. There are always disagreements and differences in opinions. We can negotiate and have a win-win situation. There must be no more killings and massacre of innocent lives such as the genocide during Pol Pot’s regime and Hitler’s assassination of the Jews. Discussions can be arranged to solve all these issues. Compromise may need to be made as well. World peace can be achieved if we make efforts.

Israel and Palestine

Israel and Palestine have been at odds with each other for a very long time. The leaders of Israel and Palestine have made efforts to have peace but they still have not reached a mutual agreement yet. Leaders of both countries should continue to discuss on all the disputes without any disagreements. Both countries should not further agitate the situation further by imposing other conditions or expand their settlements. They should settle the territory disputes once and for all. The war and dispute between these two countries needs to be stopped. More innocent lives will be killed if the war continues on.  More information on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the peace talks can be found here such as:

• Wikipedia, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• BBC News – Middle East Crisis
• Human Rights Watch – World Report 2013 – Israel / Palestine

The territorial rights including the borders for each country should be returned accordingly. Those that belong to Israel belongs to Israel and those that belong to Palestine belongs to the Palestine.

Japanese War

The Japanese was involved in the World War II which causes the US to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Japanese actually apologised to the world. This is the list of apologies issued by the Japanese government after the war.

The British has conquered and ruled a lot of countries many years ago including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. All the countries gained independence after World War 2 ended. All the countries are part of the Commonwealth of Nations organisation now. Commonwealth countries have common values and goals such the promotion of democracy, human rights and free trade. There is no more war and colonization any more. Our country used to have war against the British to fight for independence. After independence, the war has ended.

We have been living in peace and harmony with each other regardless of nationalities and religion for a long time. There are a lot of multi-cultural cities in the world such as Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Sydney, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok and New York. In all the cities that I have visited, I can see Chinese there. There are Chinese churches in Bangkok and Jakarta. There are Malaysians, Singaporeans and Indonesians living in Melbourne and Sydney. Expatriates are also living in various countries to support the operations of companies and for transferring of technology to developing countries.

An interesting fact to note is that all of us are embracing each other’s cultures, products and technology. We embrace the good values of other countries. Almost every country is a multicultural country. Let's take a look.

Entertainment

Gangnam style dance originating from South Korea is so popular that Glee also made a cover in one of its episodes in Season 4. We listen to English, Chinese and Malay songs on radio. One Direction, Westlife, N-Sync, 98 Degrees are some of the popular boy bands from the U.K and the U.S. A lot of people like K-Pop bands such as Super Junior, Beast, Girls Generation and Wonder Girls. We are interested in Japanese animes and Hong Kong and Korean drama series. We also watch drama series such as CSI, NCIS, House, Chuck, 24, Glee, Scrubs, The Big Bang Theory, Law and Order SVU, Bunheads, New Girl, Miss Advised, American Idol and The Voice. We watch blockbuster movies such as Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Iron Man 3, Life of Pi, The Avengers, Les Miserables, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Finding Nemo and Infernal Affairs. Roda Impian was adapted from Wheel of Fortune. Business news are widely available through Bloomberg, CNBC and Business Insider.

Technology, Cars & Brands

Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Mercedes, BMW are car brands that we buy and appreciate. Some of us prefer Chery. China made things are common. Printers sold in Australia are made in Malaysia.  Most of us use social websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We like to own an IPhone, IPod, Samsung Galaxy series such as Tab, Note 2, S4, HTC One, Windows Surface Tablet and Amazon Kindle among others. We use the PC everyday. We like Nike, Adidas and Reebok shoes.

Food

We have various restaurants showcasing the different cuisines of other countries. In fact, Papparich and Kayu Nasi Kandar has opened outlets in Australia. We have restaurants such as Tony Roma's, San Francisco Steakhouse, Sushi Zanmai, Baverian Bierhaus, Dae Jang Gum, Amarin, Dapur Penyet, Shihlin Taiwan Snacks here. Most countries have Japanese, Korean, Western, Chinese, Thai, Taiwanese, and Malaysian cuisines served.

Others

We all dream to work in Google or Facebook.  Most of us want to learn Mandarin to improve our command of this language. Everyone likes discounted offerings from Groupon. All eyes were on China and London when they hosted the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the London Olympics in 2012. We support international football teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. 

Do you notice that the idea of all these things above come from various countries such as U.S, U.K, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and others? All of these things unite us. These are the things we share in common although we are from different countries.

In a nutshell, please do not start a war again in this age. Please live peacefully with one another embracing the good values of various cultures. If we can embrace each other's technology and culture, we can also end the war. 

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Taking Things For Granted

Hi Everyone,

I attended a memorial service for a church acquaintance who passed away at the age of 22 due to ovarian cancer. She has a bright future ahead of her and can experience marriage, successful career and other significant events of life had she survived her battle with cancer.

Are we taking things for granted? Are we spending less time with our family due to work commitments? Are our jobs completely secure? How about our health? Perhaps we do not realise it. We cannot always think that all these things are always there. It can just vanish or crumble in an instant.

Sometimes we wish that we could have done something about it when we lost it. The question is “If only I have done this”. The Bernas Chinese New Year advertisement this year depicted a son who has not gone back to celebrate Chinese New Year with his mum for a few years. His mum is living alone at her own home while the son was too focused on his friends and work. He may think that his mum is fine living alone by herself until his colleagues reminded him of the significance of family reunion during Chinese New Year. He then recalled and reminded how his mum sacrificed herself to support him. She rushed to fetch him from school after her clothes washing job. She had dinner with him no matter how busy she was. He had meals often with his mum. His mum will ask him whether he needs more rice (ka fan?). He then went back to his hometown to celebrate Chinese New Year with his mother. It was a very good advertisement.

We should cherish our family and friends and not take them for granted. Family and friends are important in our lives. They are always there when we need them most especially our immediate family. We will only realise that our family is there for us when we are away from them. It is the reason we feel homesick when we are overseas studying or migrated overseas. We want to have home cooked food. With the help of technology such as webcam, Skype and Facetime, we can chat with each other. Just like God, a family loves one another unconditionally regardless of what we do. Our fathers and mothers sacrificed a lot for us. Please spend time with our family through meals together, sports, recreational activities, movies and holiday trips. Come back earlier from work. The strength of a family is important. Please cherish our family.

Best friends and good friends are built over time. It can be childhood friends, school friends, college friends, university friends or colleagues at work. It can be someone at church or the friend that you mix with during a conference or training. It can be a friend’s friend. We can share things with friends that we cannot share with our own family. We can share our troubles and prayer points with them. I am talking here about friends that we can trust. Some people are supposedly friends with us but they leave us when we are in trouble. We can take for granted our friends who help us. Sometimes we don’t show that we know their presence there. We should also cherish them and not assume that they are always there.

Our career may not be as secure as it seems to be. We may not see the signs sometimes. Then when something happens, we only realise that it is too late. We could have done something so that that thing will not happen. We need to perform the best in our career. Something will happen if we are not careful.

We also cannot take money for granted. During my younger days, I did have a thought that money falls from the sky. Money is actually earned through our career. It is hard work. We should not gamble it away. We can spend it but not to the point that we have nothing left at the end. We should have some savings and not spend it all at once. We will have bigger issues when we are slaves to money.

Health is important as well. We thought that we are healthy. Some don’t eat vegetables at all.  Some can’t control in their intake of fried and oily food. We should always look after ourselves no matter how busy we are. We should not overwork ourselves. We should not sleep too late. We should eat 3 meals a day. We should have dinner before 10pm. We need balanced and healthy meals. We need exercise. We need to see dentists twice a year. It is too late when we find out they have heart disease, liver disease, cancer, diabetes or high cholesterol. Tooth decay and gum problems may occur without us knowing it. It happens to both young and old. It does not discriminate. Please take care of our health.

Here is the music video of S Club 7's Have You Ever:

It talks about this.

The chorus goes like this:

Have you ever lost and love somebody

Wish there was a chance to say I'm sorry

Can't you see, that's the way I feel, about you and me baby

Have you ever felt your heart was breaking

Looking down the road you should be taking

I should know, caused I've loved and lost, the day I let you go

I am a happy go lucky person but there are things we need to do to ensure we do not take things for granted. We need to remind ourselves daily on this. We should cherish our lives, our family, our relatives and our friends. We need to seek work life balance and lead a healthy life. We should not think that everything will be okay throughout our lives.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Domestic Violence

Hi Everyone,

We still hear of many child and family abuse, maid abuse and animal abuse in Malaysia. We are shocked to hear of all these cases regardless of our religious beliefs. As a Christian, I feel it is very sad that this is happening today.

It is sad that some parents abuse their kids for no reason. Parents who are supposed to take care of their baby / babies reacted differently when they are crying. We have heard of news that some fathers actually beat their baby up when they are frustrated with their cries. We hear of fathers raping their daughters in Austria and also in our own country. We also heard of cases of brothers raping their sisters as well. Mother and children are sometimes at the receiving end of a father’s anger. All of these happened rarely but there are a small number of fathers who are like that. Domestic violence is also depicted in the books such as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo written by Stieg Larsson.

The responsibilities of parents are to raise their children to be good and responsible persons. Parents give unconditional love to their children regardless of their attitude and behaviour. They discipline their children when the children are turning to the wrong paths such as befriending bad company, involving in gangs, bullying and rebelling. They train their children to inculcate good values such as:

• respecting elders
• honesty
• integrity
• kindness
• polite
• hardworking
• compassionate
• patience
• generosity
• perseverance
• caring for others
• trying our very best in what we do

For Christian parents, they are also planting the seed of the gospel in their children. Parents are supporting and encouraging their child / children when they fall and when they are facing difficulties in life. They are there when their children gets married and graduated from university. They are there to help you cook and clean the house when you need help from them. They give advice when we are facing troubles in our life.

There are also husbands abusing their wives and vice versa. The numbers are much less now unless I am mistaken. Husbands are the head of their families. They should look after their wives and families. Anger and impatience must not result in violence at all. Both husbands and wives are supporting each other in their roles and responsibilities at home.

Maid abuse is especially common in Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines have been sending less maids to our country due to the number of abuse cases here. The percentage of people abusing their maids is possibly little. We heard of cases whereby the employee struck her maid with an iron. Another case was the maid’s hands were burnt due to her employee using the hot iron on her hand. Slaps and bruises are common among these cases. A small number of employees are giving their maids leftovers of their meals for dinner or lunch.

Most of us will treat our maids as normal people, providing them with a place to stay, food and other necessities. We will bring them to the clinic / dentist when our maids are not well or have toothache. We allow them to call their family back at their country every few months. Some of us buy our maids mobile phones as a reward for their help at home. Maids are helping families with two working parents to look after their children, ironing clothes, cleaning the house, washing cars, cooking and tending our garden. Our family will give her the dishes first before we start eating. We will also buy her favourite coffee and biscuits from the supermarket. She will also have new clothes occasionally. We will give her rest when she feels tired.

Animal abuse has been in the radar for some time now. The recent euthanasia of the police forces’ K9 dogs raised the ire among people. Animals in some shelters are not treated in the right way. Wrong food was being fed to the animals. The hygiene of the animal shelters is not good and cleaned often. It is smell of urine and faeces of animals. Dogs are given the title “Man’s Best Friend’ and yet these are happening. We know that a dog can be very loyal its owner from the movie, Hachiko starring Richard Gere.

We are made to take care of animals and the people around us. We must not abuse them at all. Each one of us has civic consciousness and we know that domestic violence is absolutely wrong. Please help our society to change.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Songs That I Like Listening To

Hi All,

Here are some of my songs that I always play on my IPod. The first song is Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. It is a good song with meaningful lyrics that a guy likes his girlfriend / wife just the way she is. Glee, Jaylesslee and the Philiipine acoustic singer, Sabrina have also made covers of this song. This is definitely one of the best love songs today.



I will also embed here the Jaylesslee version of the song:



Secondly, the next song is One Direction's Little Things. Bringing almost the same message, it is also a nice song to unwind.



Listening to oldies such as Bee Gees, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, The Drifters, Carpenters, ABBA among others has a calming effect too. Christian songs are also good for my mind as well. It reminds me of God. 

Another song that I like to listen is Fun's We Are Young. Glee and 3 Youtube artists comprising Jake Coco, Corey Gray and Caitlin Hart also made covers of this song.

To Give or Not To Give, That's The Question

Hi Everyone,

We passed by people who are begging for money everyday. The question that comes to mind is whether we should help them or not. Do we give or do we not give? Monetary or food? Most of the time we just walked away or just give about 10 to 20 cents.

It is not that we do not want to help them. We have been warned and heard of cases where the beggars / people in need asking for money are not genuine cases. They may appear to be pitiful or limping but they may be putting an act thus our givings will end up in vain. There are definitely some who are impostors and we will get swindled by them. It is very hard to identify genuine ones. We can feel bad after these incidents yet if we give, the money may end in the wrong hands.

I do give a small amount sometimes but usually I ended up without giving them. I may also buy one or two packet of tissues from them.

Should we show sympathy and give to some beggars / people asking for money or all of them? What do you think?

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Taxi Services: Revamp for the Better

Hi Everyone,

The taxi services in Malaysia is known for its inefficiency. It is perceived to be not save generally. 

These are some of the feedback / complaints on taxi drivers:

• Taxi drivers are refusing to fetch passengers to certain places because of traffic jam
• Cheating foreigners and expatriates by charging exorbitant rates.  Taxi rates can be RM100 from Pavilion to KLCC and vice versa
• Taxis may not come whe needed 
• Not using metre
• Rape cases if they are fetching passengers to secluded areas
• Speeding

The attitude of the people of the taxi company manning the operations at KLIA and LCCT are not good as well. Some of them answered questions rudely when we asked them about the different zones for an area or about the pricing. Some of them do not know certain areas well such as Cheras. Cheras is a very big area with covering KL and Selangor (towards Kajang). The Cheras area nearer to KL is in a cheaper zone but we may get a more expensive rate for it.

Having said that, not all taxi drivers are like that but most of them are. There are a number of good taxi drivers. For example, we have a taxi driver friend who is honest and drives carefully. He also arrives on time to pick us up. The taxi service at the Bandar Tun Razak LRT station is quite good too. They are courteous and they agree to fetch passengers to their homes. I commend all the good taxi drivers.

When I was at Indonesia, I sat in taxis operated by Blue Bird and Gamya. The taxi drivers are willing to fetch passengers anywhere near or far. They will pass through traffic jams everyday and so they will still fetch passengers. The service will be more limited during rain but they will still come. The number of vehicles on the road is far more than the number of vehicles in KL. This is the same for Bangkok as well. However, we also met some taxi driver who did not use the meters durnig the ride.

MyTeksi is an organisation that aims to improve the perception of taxi drivers in Malaysia. It also seek to improve the efficiency of taxi services in KL. Some of MyTeksi's missions are:

• Improves the efficiency of taxi services in KL through smartphone bookings
• Nearest taxi is available to reach customers' starting point for each booking
• Provides a safe and pleasant taxi ride for passengers

For more information, please visit MyTeksi's homepage.

Here are some suggestions for taxi services to improve:

• Willing to fetch passengers to any location regardless of traffic jam and weather
• Be courteous to passengers
• Honest
• Give passengers a pleasant and safe ride
• Use the metre for both locals and tourists / expatriates

Just 3 months ago, taxi drivers gathered at the ever busy Bukit Bintang to protest against SPAD's move of introducing the GO-KL free bus for both tourists and locals. It covers Bukit Bintang - KLCC area and Bukit Bintang - Central Market routes. SPAD knew about the report of the taxi drivers and they introduced the GO-KL free bus services to make it more convenient for tourists to travel around the Golden Triangle area. A lot of people are satisfied with the services provided by the free bus.

In a nutshell, the perception of the taxi drivers should be improved over time so that people feel safe to take taxis anytime. They can be confident of taking taxis anywhere and know that the taxi services are efficient here. They also should drive safely There will be no more worries of taking taxis at KL.

This year is also Visit Malaysia 2013 so please let customers give a feedback on the taxi services here. Please help to improve the image of taxis in KL not only this year but the future as well.

Cheers,

Roger TJ Koo

Road Manners

Hi All,

We still see a lot of irresponsible drivers everyday. Speeding cars is still a common scene. People are overtaking and going into different lanes without giving proper signals. Do they know they need to use signals / indicators? I have experienced this a few times before where a car suddenly appeared in my lane from the right. There are cars who purposely follow closely behind you on the right lane forcing you to move to the middle lane. Some of these drivers will honk or display bright lights at you.

There are drivers who make illegal U-Turns. Some cars are parked indiscriminately at junctions. There also cars that are parked indiscriminately even though proper parking lots are provided. Drivers could not be bothered to adjust their car or park their cars properly causing traffic kiosk. Some drivers double / triple parked their cars resulting in traffic congestions. This prompted DBKL and MBPJ to make roads one way. Previously in Taman Connaught, we can see a lot of double parking but now it is a one way road. There are no more double parking. It is worst in Damansara Utama (DU) whereby there are triple parked cars. There are some improvements now. There also people turning right from the left lane where the left lane is going straight and vice versa. This is cutting queue. Most of the cars in Malaysia also do not give way to pedestrians.

In Australia, car drivers are fined if they do not give way to pedestrians. While I was studying at Monash University in Caulfield between 2004 and 2006, a speeding sports car stopped for me to cross the road at the small roundabout there. We don't see that in Malaysia. Cars just sped through. We will get honked when we stop at a pedestrian crossing. 

Pedestrians also should cross roads using the crossing or the pedestrian bridge. There are a lot of shoppers who just crossed in the middle of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. As drivers, we need to be very careful. I can't understand the risk they are taking crossing in the middle of the road instead of using the pedestrian crossing. It is much safter doing that.


View Larger Map

In the morning at the fork between East West Link and Bandar Tun Razak / Bandar Tasik Selatan (coming from Taman Connaught) as shown below during weekdays, there are cars jumping queues in the morning by going to the front and force themselves to the right lane going to Bandar Tun Razak or to the most left lane going to Tasik Selatan. This act is causing jam backing up to Giant Taman Connaught. 


View Larger Map

We are educated with driving skills and safety but most of us do not follow them or ignore them. We should give indicators when moving lanes and follow the speed limit. We should park at the designated parking areas properly. We should give way to passengers. Perhaps, careful and safely driving should be incorporated in the driving course syllabus. We are only tested on 3 point turn, side parking, hill climbing (manual transmission cars) and street driving. I am not sure whether the new syllabus for automatic cars will include the hill climbing test. 

Please improve our road manners, people. Thank you.

Happy Driving.

Cheers,

Roger TJ Koo

Animes

Hi All,

Anime is defined as a Japanese animated productions that comes in all formats including tv series and computer animation creations¹. This definition is from Longman Dictionary. It can be an original work or adapted from mangas, books and video games.

The themes for animes can range from fantasy, futuristic plot, music, love stories, alien invasion and action The characters are very colourful and appeals to all people, young and old. I have been watching animes through Animax since a few years ago on Astro. To me, animes are fun and interesting to watch. 

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime that centres to two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric to save their mother using their knowledge of alchemy. However, it ended up disastrously with Edward loses his leg and Alphonse losing his body. Edward managed to seal Alphone's soul with a huge metal armour.  Edward, the full metal alchemist has a prosthetic arms known as automail build by his friend, Winry and her grandmother. It talks about their journey to find the precious "Philosopher's Stone", the most powerful stone of all that can restore their bodies. The Philosopher's Stone, if ended up at the wrong hands will be used to kill people².



K-On meanwhile is a story of a secondary school band that comprises of 4 people namely Yui (lead singer), Mio (bass), Ritsu (drummer) and Tsumugi (keyboard). Later in the show, another team meamber, Azusa joined in. This anime is funny and hilarious. The characters are fun and happy.

Sergeant Keroro is another anime that features frog-like alien creatures who wanted to invade Earth. Sergeant Keroro, the main character and his friends / comrades that include Kururu, Giroro, Tamama among others always have a plan to invade Earth. However, they always failed miserably. Keroro, the leader can be annoying and his plans are always stupid. It is overall a hilarious and entertaining anime. The theme song is as below:



Two of the musical animes that I watched are La Corda Doro Prima Passo and Nodame Cantabile. La Corda Doro Prima Passo talks about a girl who plays a magicial violin given by her musical fairy. She plays greatly with the violin although she herself can't play any musical instruments. She joins a music school and meets a lot of musically talented friends who helped her along the way. She will eventually learn to play the violin from scratch after she broke the magical violin. Nodame Cantabile, centers on a girl, Nodame and her would be boyfriend / mentor, Chiaki. Nodame is a girl who is very talented on the piano but does not practice regularly. Chiaki meanwhile is a very talented piano player and a conductor. He would lead and guide Nodame to be a very successful pianist. All the characters are very interesting. There are some strange ones as well. Here is the official song from Nodame Cantabile:



Among some of the other animes that I have seen include Inuyasha, Blood +, Jigoku Shoujo (also known as Hell Girl), Fate Stay Night, Tears to Tiara, The Law of Ueki and Fairy Tail. 

Jigoku Shoujo tells us the story of Hell Girl. People who like seek revenge will find her to kill the persons they hate or wanted to take revenge. Hell Girl will give them a surprise visit and then will bring them to hell.

 

Fairy Tail is a story of wizards who go on adventures to defeat evil. Main characters of Fairy Tail are Natsu (with the power of fire), Gray (the power of Ice), Erza (she is an skilled fighter and can change into another character that gives her different capabilites) and Lucy (she can summon people to help her fight). Lucy has the weaker power among her friends but some of her characters she summoned can fight.  

  

Romeo and Juliet was adapted as an anime too. It is also the same for Emma.   

Cheers,

Roger TJ Koo

<sup>1 Anime - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime, Accessed: 30th December 2012

2 Full Metal Alchemist - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist, Accessed: 30th December 2012</sup>

Work's Life Like That

Hi Everyone,

We want to enjoy work, we can't get it
I like my work but do not like the nature of it
Most do not want to work late, and yet we need to
Sometimes we are forced to

Life at Work Part I

Stress and Pressure

We try to perform our best a work
Sometimes we do it well, sometimes we don't
Sometimes we get scolded, sometimes we are praised, sometimes leader / manager advises us
Some managers / leaders will reward us for what we do, some don't
This is not right, we should be rewarded
Some can manage deadlines, some can't, it's just too much
Sometimes we can get second chances or more, sometimes we are not given at all

We do not want to make mistakes but we make them
Experienced people do make mistakes too
There are easy and hard ways to do things
When we do wrong, we want to to correct it

Workload should be just right but we have much more
Pressure and stress should be balanced but we have much more
This causes "Work Only, No Life". Companies are like that sometimes.
Certain industries may have "Work Only No Life" tagline informally
This does not happen all the time but for some companies, it may happen all the time

We do not want to overwork but we have to / needed to / forced to
We do not want to work overtime but everyone does it
Some companies have this culture, some companies don't
We want to go back on time but we can't

We want to take a break but we can't, only weekends / take leave
Sometimes we work during weekends / holidays and we can't take leave

Deadlines are good but it can be too tight
We want to finish but we can't finish it
Status updates are a must, sometimes too much, everyday

Our minds can be tired
Sometimes I wonder how others can store so many things, I could not, it's already too much
I once said I have upgraded from Dual Core processor to Quad Core processors
Now I need to have 8 cores processors

Efficiency and Integrity

We want to do things fast but it ended up slow and sometimes it's the other way round
Sometimes it is our fault, sometimes it is not
Some bugs are my own crap, some are other people's crap
Sometimes we want to help others, sometimes we can't
Sometimes I fix it fast, sometimes I am not
Working together is a must to get things done

It is sometimes much faster if we do it ourselves
When we know what to do, we are a fiend, when we are not, we are at a lost

Multitasking


We are not good at multitasking but we need to
We are told to prioritise our work but if there are more than 2 things happening concurrently, we lost track, both are equally important, we don't know which one to do
We know what we are doing, however, sometimes we know and we don't know what we are doing at the same time
We are confused, we are not focused, too many things on our mind
Everything happening concurrently
Everyone is busy, response time is slower
We want to finish one thing at a time but we can't. We need to finish more than one thing at a time


Workflows

There are workflows to be raised, so many authorities to go through
Sometimes workflows are performed fast, sometimes not
Waiting for our turns are necessary, other teams said it's urgent too
Documentation are important but sometimes we do it later
Other companies can be more flexible


Security

There are things we think it's trivial, it is actually not and vice versa
Security and software compliance is a must
Patching is a must
Deviations may not be necessary too
People are doing audit too
When we are busy, do we have time do to this? We still need to do

Life at Work Part II

People Relations

There are people who are easy to work with, there are people who are not
There are people who are understanding, there are people who are not
There are good managers and there are not
There are good leaders and there are not
There are people who are flexible and there are people who are not
We can work well with team members, I do mostly
Sometimes we just can't work with them (I saw before)
I am fortunate to have mostly good ones
Some of us always scold people but he or she is a good person
Some of us always scold people but he or she is manipulative
Some of these are covered under Life At Work Part I, Stress and Pressure section

There are things we can ask others to help, but if others are not experienced, it also comes back to us, we will be asked questions, we need to check too
We still need to make sure everything is ok, sometimes we can't understand things wrongly
Sometimes it is caused by us, sometimes others
Sometimes there can be changes all the time
Some people may not help us when it is necessary, we are there to find out ourselves

I have "Makan Kakis" who are also my good friends too
I have good friends I can share with
My team is understanding, some teams have no understanding
Our mood can be good, our mood may not be

We can get scolded by our own team, we can be in hot soup by others
This happens between IT vendors and clients, IT Department and users
Some people are good to us, some  people always blame us whether it is our fault or not
Some users are understanding, some are not
We are fortunate to get good ones
We need to deal with the others
Can these be improved? IT people, we need to good at this

Life at Work Part III

All these activities above are normal. I experienced it with my previous and current job.

Can our work gives us all the things below?

We want to have job balance
We want to go back on time most of the time
We want to spend time in church / other religious activities
We want to spend time with our family, relatives and friends
We want to have our pleasure time
We want to be engaged socially
We want to play sports with work colleagues and friends
We want to travel
We want to live well, eat well and play well

We all have different priorities in life.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo