We Are Living In Such Exciting Times

Some say we are the fated generation to see the end of days. Somehow I agree with it. Our generation belong to that where man has progress by leaps and bounds in such a short span of time.

It took our ancestors thousands of years to learn how to put clothes on their backs and gradually learn how to forge metal and cultivate the land. Yet, in about 100 years, we have advanced to a point where we have conquered the heavens, split the atom, and even peered into infinity. It used to take literally ages for news to travel but today it travels at the speed of light at just the touch of a button.

Progress and advancement in the sciences has led to better agriculture techniques and better health care. But with progress comes a heavy price. The world has seen two world wars, population explosion from 1.8billion people in the early 20th Century to estimate 6.7billion in less than a 100 years. This has placed a great strain of natural resources and environmental degradation of the environment.

Today, we stand at the crossroad...global warming is no more a theory but a fact. The ice sheets and glaciers which have been stable over the last 10,000 years are fast melting. (the temperature over here has been really hot and its not only Malaysia but also in several parts around the world. The air con in our bedroom is set at 16 Celsius throughout the night but the thermostat shows 27 Celsius).

And now we have the so called Swine Flu and the threat of a global pandemic. In 1918, estimated 40 million to 50 million people around the world died after contracting the Spanish Flu. If it happens again to day, some 200 million are expected to die.

Is its nature way of keeping check on us..that a great die-off must occur to keep humans from devouring the Earth? Are we, humans, not the real virus that has infected the entire Earth and gradually killing it?

Well, whatever the reason maybe...life is short...so make the best of it while we still can. This is my prayer......

Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD,
“He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,“ says the LORD,

”I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation”

To None I Wish Ill But To All I Seek Peace and Love

A Leap Of Faith

Well, the heading for the post says it all....'A Leap Of Faith' or should I say 'A Leap of A Fool and Pain'.

Took Kyra down to the poolside at about 3pm and was waiting to attend a meeting to form a new residents committee. Had some time to kill so accompanied Kyra and helped her blow some bubbles and just have some fun.

There is this small 4meter x 1.5meter water purification pool next to the main pool. Here I was, a 76kg and 41-year-old bloke trying to impress his kid that her dada could still leap across the pool like a graceful Gazelle.(Buffalo)

To be honest, the pool didn't look that wide and I was confident of making the leap. So, after some consideration and judging the distance I needed to 'fly'....I took my leap of faith (or should I say now, the leap of a fool filled with pain).

Bam...landed just millimeters short with two toes of my right foot slamming at the edge of the pool. The toes took the full force of my flying body and I almost peed in my pants at the excruciating pain that followed.

As a result of my folly, I think I fractured my big toe. My toe and foot has swelled up and I am now unable to walk properly. Lol...I pride myself in having a high threshold for pain but I guess I was wrong....I am in insane pain at the moment.

Popped two panadols and tried to keep the swelling and pain down in a small bucket of ice. I will have to get my toe x-rayed tomorrow.

When my toe heals.....I am going to give that darn pool another try. I know I am capable of making the leap. Once again I shall throw caution into the wind and take my leap of faith and hopefully not ending up taking a leap of pain instead.

p/s - couldn't take the throbbing pain and ended up at Mahkota Hospital at 10.30pm where it was confirmed via x-ray that I fractured the tip of my toe. Took a jab and pills to bring the swelling down but...darn...it bloody hurts to high heavens.

To None I Wish Ill But To All I Wish Peace and Love.

Aw...Come On...

I was brought up with the notion that 'the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world', that a man should always treat a lady with respect and that only a balless coward man raises his hand against a woman.

Men and women are unique in their own right, each with their own strength and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we live in such a male chauvinistic society with women usually ending up getting a raw deal.

Well, spotted a anti Aids advertisement on the back of a bus and could not resist taking a pot shot at it. The ad, in my opinion, may have been done with good intentions but the graphic example accompanying it was rather tasteless and hilarious.

Was on my way to work and stopped behind a bus at the Kota Laksamana traffic lights. The lights were red, so I did my usual of flicking through the radio stations trying to look cool in my beat up Proton. Looked up and bam...I didn't know whether to cry or laugh at what I saw.

Here was this huge anti-Aid ad on the back the bus that calls for one to be faithful to ones partner and avoid casual or unprotected sex. Sounds decent enough ya but accompanying the slogan was a picture of a pair of long sexy legs, that I presumed to be that of a woman.

Firstly, I found it rather distasteful as the words..'Jauhi Seks Bebas' (Avoid Casual Sex) were placed between the half spread eagle legs. Aw...come on...the ad makes it seems its the woman's fault i.e, that woman are born seducers and harlots where sex is concerned. Darn...as far as I know...its us men who are really the 'fuckers' 99percent of the time. (literally speaking).

Darn...they should also put up anti-prostitution advertisement similar to the wildlife protection ads that carry the slogan 'when the buying stops, the killing stops too' and just change it to 'when the buying stops, the fucking stops too' over the picture of a ham-sak looking man.

Anyway, took a photo and decided to blog about it. Almost fell of my seat when I took a closer look at the photo. Now I know why they choose to put up that particular poster...the legs don't belong to a woman...they belong to a man! So I guess they got it right with the slogan and picture after all...'avoid casual sex with a man' whether dressed as woman or not. (have a closer look at the legs and you'll see what I mean...darn they are as hairy as mine...lol)

p/s - decided to post photos of some good looking models took during the Chula international fashion show just to balance off the photo of the anti-Aids ad.

To None I Wish Ill But To All I Wish Peace and Love.

So You Think You Have A Problem?

Most, if not almost all of us, are so caught up in our everyday lives that we fail to pause for just a moment to relish life and count the little blessings that surrounds us.

We tend to forget that our lives is but a fleeting moment in time and that most of our precious time is spent on selfish wants and inconsequential things. We are so clouded by the now that we are blinded to how insignificant and how short our lives really are.

We have lost our child like innocence to appreciate simple beauty and joys of life, the ability to stand in awe and wonderment at the little blessing that we have.

Just some food for thought after coming across a post in the web on how big the known Universe is and a documentary on Höcker Album (or Hoecker Album) and Auschwitz.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread454951/pg1
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2706/spaceb.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoecker_Album
http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/10-13.html

Have you spend just one minute of out of the 1440 minutes of your day to:

brighten up someone day with a smile today.

tell someone close how much you love them.

stand in awe at nature's beauty or

be moved by music or art.

appreciate the security and comfort of home or

be thankful that there are those who care for you.

ponder that you have just one life to live and

how to make the best of it.

To None I Wish Ill But All I Wish Peace and Love.

Being Part Of History

Every job, be it the guy that is responsible for keeping our streets clean or the neck-tied bloke getting to work in his Merc, has its ups and downs. For me, it was a bit of both when having the good fortune of covering the recent Umno General Assembly held at PWTC Kuala Lumpur.

Being an election year and one where transition of power was to take place, the four-day event was quite an experience both for work an as an observer. It had everything from the excitement and anticipation, the mesh of people and continuous crowd, the roar of cheers, jeers and claps, tears of joys and agony of defeat, the rush for interviews and deadlines, the ordinary common folks and the dignitaries and of course the one or two special personal moments. (which included losing my phone on the last day and picking up the flu from a colleague)

I consider myself lucky to have be able to both record part of history in the making as a journalist and as an ordinary bloke.

To none I Wish Ill But To All I Wish Peace and Love.