Roger TJ Koo

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Remake of Songs

Hi Everyone,

It is very common that new singers or bands will popularise certain songs that were well known in the past and present.

Some of songs being remade are:

ABBA - I Have A Dream
Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Phil Collins - Against All Odds
Andy Williams - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Air Supply - Without You
Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Son
You Raise Me Up
Fun - We Are Young

So, are the remade songs have the same quality as the original versions? Glee, the musical television drama series also used some of the current songs such as Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would ... Without You, Fun's We Are Young, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and Leona Lewis' Take A Bow.

Westlife is one of the bands that remake many of the songs. In their first album, they remade I Have A Dream and Seasons In The Sun. Against All Odds (Duet with Mariah Carey), Uptown Girl followed after that. Later, for their Face to Face album, they recorded You Raised Me Up and When You Tell Me That You Love Me. In their Love Songs album, they also sang The Rose and Total Eclipse of The Heart.

Glee recently remade Fun's We Are Young. I think that both versions are good though. For Westlife, I would like think that I Have A Dream, Seasons In The Son, When You Tell Me That You Love Me are the better remakes. The others are ok only. Most original songs are better than the remakes generally.

Below are some videos of the orignal and the remade songs that we can compare:

The sequence is original song followed by remake.

I Have A Dream

When You Tell Me That You Love Me

We Are Young

Here are some of the artists that have the most original songs:

Taylor Swift
Leona Lewis
Kelly Clarkson
Daughtry
Simple Plan
Avril Lavigne
David Archuleta
David Cook
Kris Allen

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Stress Free Work

Hi Everyone,

We want to achieve stress free work. However, it does not always come our way. With my previous and current jobs, even though I have more work balance now, stress free work does not present every time. What I mean is that we also need to do support as well as other things that are out of our scope during our normal work routine. It does come no matter which company that we are working for.

In our everyday life, everyone is trying their best to do their job well without any hiccups. However, we do face unforeseen circumstances or have to deal with different challenges at work such as writing codes and dealing with other colleagues who may not respond immediately to their tasks.

Through this, we learn patience. No matter where we are, we will face this. Sometimes, I may be the delaying party instead of my colleagues. There are certain things that will take time and we can't finish it with the speed that we wanted instead. Occasionally, there are too many tasks for us to handle especially during busy project periods. We can still manage it if it is up to our capabilities. If it is too much, then we may not be able to manage it.

In my previous company, we will work late day after day without stopping including Saturdays. There is no life during that time. No time to meet up with friends, no time to take a rest and stop for a while. We will think about our work after working hours as well in the midst of our tiredness. We know we can finish it on time but there are always things that delayed us. Server , people issues (incl. management), production and programming issues are some of the things that we might get.

When I do programming, I will not get the program correct the first time if the program is complex. I need time to debug and find out the cause of the errors until all errors are fixed. We are not perfect people. There are occasions when after we have completed what we are supposed to do, our leaders or managers may ask us to change it. They do not want it this way and wanted us to use another way. We may also change something and need to revert back to the original one after that as well. There are always things like that.

We should not give up in our work when we face all these things. There is always a solution to all these things. We should not feel that we are hopeless or not good at something but as a team, we should encourage each other to do our best. We should help each other out in our tasks. We should not feel down about it. Team members may need to compromise certain things to achieve the target of our jobs.

This is the advantage of being in a team. I prefer it this way. We can help each other out. We can ease the burden of each other but sometimes, it is still too much. However, the burden will be lighter.

Here are some songs for inspiration during stressful / tired times:

Depending on individuals, we also listen to different songs during this period. I do enjoy listening to Red FM and my favourite songs on my IPod. I also listen to classical music to calm me down during exams previously and now as well. We need to have entertainment and relaxation time in the midst of our business.

In a recent study by Regus, 50% of Malaysians worked longer than 8 hours daily. I was in the 50% as well! Now, I am slightly better because I don't need to work as much as that unless I am needed to. 47% of Malaysians take their work home according to the survey. 1,2

In a nutshell, please strive to seek work balance. It will be a healthy lifestyle as well. We need to ensure we don't overwork ourselves.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

1 All work and no play
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/4/nation/9971370&sec=nation
Accessed: 20th December 2011

2 50pc of Malaysians work more than 8hrs
http://e.nst.com.my/nst/articles/2owkri/Article
Accessed: 20th December 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Meaning of Christmas

Hi All,

Below is a video of the song, We Are The Reason by Avalon:

The chorus is this:

We are the reason that He gave His life

We are the reason that He suffered and died

To a world that was lost, He gave all He could give

To show us the reason to live

Christmas is the time where we receive a lot of presents especially children. Giving 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 borned in a manger through the Holy Spirit. The birth of Jesus came to Joseph and Mary who were pledged to be married. 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 where he heard about her pregnancy. After considering this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him saying that his wife, Mary what she conceives is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.^2,3
^{Below are the references to the Birth of Jesus in the Bible. All of the verses are in the New International Version (NIV) translation.}

^{I believe Jesus as my Lord and Saviour because God sent Him to die on the cross for our sins. He is perfect, then took all of sins and died on the cross for our sins because of His love for us. We are supposed to be at the cross and yet, Jesus took them all. On the third day, He rose from the grave to 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 thought 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.}

^{Here are some related Bible verses that describes how God loves us:}

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 learnt to be generous and kind. We 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.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

¹ Bible Gateway passage: Luke 1:26-27 - New International Version

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201:26-27&version=NIV

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

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201:18-24&version=NIV

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

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202:1-21&version=NIV

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2011: Big Apple Adventure

Hi Everyone,

I know it is a little late but I didn't have the time to post it a few weeks ago.

Guess what, this is my first year volunteering for VBS! It has always been seemed like fun when it comes to VBS. Therefore, I took the opportunity to volunteer for VBS 2011 this year at my church, Pantai Baptist, PJ.

The theme is Big Apple Adventure! I was assigned to be an assistant teacher for Std 3 and Std 4 students. Our class is called FDNY Reds. The main teacher was Chee Meng. The other teachers were Kevin Thomas and Kitty Foo. In a group of 4, we took turns to teach and went through all the rotation with the students. I taught them on trust (Day 3). This topic is based on John's gospel, Chapter 3, verses 1-19. It tells us how Nicodemus who is a Pharisee and trusted Jesus. He knows that Jesus can perform all the miracles and healing because He comes from God. He wanted to know more about

John 3:16 was the memory verse of the day. ¹⁶ "For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203:16&version=HCSB).

We had 21 students in total comprising 13 girls and 8 boys. 4 of them are from Precious Homes PJ. They are the children of drug addicts. Initially, the boys were always crowding with me. Some of them took some time to warm up to us. By the 3rd day, all of them have warmed to us. One of them was thankful that she gave Chee Meng and myself stickers on our name tags. She stuck them herself.

It has been a good experience for this is my first time teaching Std 3 and Std 4 children about God. I learnt that we also need to always look out for them as well and to make sure that they do not disrupt the class. We also needed make the lessons more fun so that their attention lifespan can be maintained.

I would like to thank Chee Meng, Kevin and Kitty for supporting me throughout the VBS. Kitty and I are first timers in VBS. Thank you to Chee Meng and Kevin for supporting us and gave guidance on how to teach them and pay attention to them.

Serving God always feels good. I had a great time there. It is worth it although it is tiring. I will recommend you to come join us next year. The songs are good too.

Below are the pictures and my tag during VBS Big Apple Adventure this year:

VBS 2011: Big Apple Adventure - FDNY Reds

VBS 2011: FDNY Reds Name Tag

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music

Hi Everyone,

This song is one of Rihanna's popular hits throughout her career so far. Don't Stop The Music has been played numerous times last week including today. I think I have heard this song at least 3 times this week on Red FM. Most likely Red FM listeners have voted for this song to be played. Below is the video for Don't Stop The Music by Rihanna:

This video has been viewed 156,552,038 times on YouTube.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Adele - Rumour Has It

Hi Everyone,

This is Adele's 3rd song that I listened on Red FM. The repeated phrase in the song is Rumour Has It. To me, I would prefer to listen to Rolling In The Deep and Someone Like You than this. I actually like the tunes of the previous songs.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Saturday, November 5, 2011

What Happened To Our Moral Values? (Part 2)

Hi Everyone,

What does corruption and graft have in common? It happened to countries all around the world. It involves politicians! Politicians are meant serve the people, implement policies / laws that benefits all people and develop the country. Yet, we heard of governments officials being involved in corruption.

More common in Malaysia, there were a lot of baby dumping cases. Most likely this is due to under aged sex or unlawful marriages or just sexual immorality. They are then desperate enough to dump the baby instead of putting into adoption.

Corruption

Transparency International (TI) is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. Set up in 1993, TI played a lead role in improving the lives of millions in the world by building momentum for the anti corruption movement.1

We have heard of corruption cases happening in these parts of the world that include Somalia, Haiti, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan, Bangladesh and our own country, Malaysia. TI has been monitoring corruption through the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) rankings, the latest being updated on 26th October 2010. The CPI ranks almost 200 countries by their perceived levels of corruption (0-10), as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.2 The higher the perceived levels are, the cleaner the country is.

Based on the latest CPI, Malaysia is ranked 56 out of 178 countries with a perception index of 4.4. Singapore, our neighbour is at the top of the list, sharing the honours with Denmark and New Zealand with an index of 9.3. Brunei is also better than us, having obtained the rank of 38 with the index of 5.5.3 In fact, I just did a Google Search with the keyword, corruption, Malaysia is found in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th search items. ⁴

Well, our country does have numerous corruption cases throughout all these years. We have the Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ) scandal a few years back. The trials are still running now.^5,6,7

With the Audtior-General's 2010 Report, it is found that the Marine Park's department has paid RM11,800 for RM3,400 laptop and a printer. There might be some things going on here as well. The department did not check the retail price of these items before agreeing.8

Corruption does not only present in Malaysia, but also in other countries as well especially African countries. According to the latest Corruption Perception Index 2011⁹, Somalia, Sudan and Haiti are ranked 182th (the lowest), 177th and 175th respectively. Somalia is the most corrupt country of all. Please also check out the 10 most corrupt countries in the world as reported by Business Insider¹⁰. The rankings here are based on the CPI.

The most corrupt country for the 5th year running, Somalia's leaders are still the most corrupt. They have set up refugee camps in order to divert food donations that they will then steal and sell them on the black market. There is also a religious group that bans aid agencies such as UNICEF and WHO to provide supply to almost 160,000 malnourished children.¹¹ I do not know why on earth do they want to do this. All the children are precious people.

Also ranked the same with Somalia is the country of North Korea. We can see North Koreans fleeing into Korea and China.¹² The corruption in North Korea includes nepotism and bribery being accepted by government officials. Some of the companies in North Korea are owned by the president's relatives¹³.

May we continue to keep praying for all of these countries, including those not mentioned here so that there will be clean governments in the world. Government leaders should seek to implement policies that benefits the people and meet the needs of people impartially.

There are a lot of issues on corruption. I may want to split this into two or three posts depending on my content. As for now, it covers three countries. These series on moral issues would be quite long. Therefore, I would split these into several blog posts instead. The next one will be on rape or sexual immorality.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

¹ Transparency International: About Us

http://www.transparency.org/about_us

Accessed: 26th October 2011

² Transparency International: Policy Research: Survey Indices - CPI

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi

Accessed: 26th October 2011

³ Transparency International: Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 Results

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

Accessed: 26th October 2011

⁴ Google Search: Corruption

http://www.google.com.my/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1&nord=1#hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=6&gs_id=6&xhr=t&q=Corruption&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&nord=1&site=webhp&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=Corrup&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=f&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=3829c9d23f3c3799&biw=1366&bih=624&ion=1

Accessed: 26th October 2011