明天会更好

Whatever difficulties of life that we may be facing, we can always rest assured that 明天会更好 (It will be better tomorrow) !



This is indeed one of the most wonderful song of yesteryear!

蔡琴：轻轻敲醒沉睡的心灵 慢慢张开你的眼睛
余天：看看忙碌的世界是否依然孤独的转个不停
苏芮：春风不解风情 吹动少年的心
潘越云：让昨日脸上的泪痕 随记忆风干了
甄妮：抬头寻找天空的翅膀 候鸟出现它的影迹
李建复：带来远处的饥荒无情的战火依然存在的消息
林慧萍：玉山白雪飘零 燃烧少年的心
王芷蕾：使真情溶化成音符 倾诉遥远的祝福
黄莺莺：唱出你的热情 伸出你的双手
让我拥抱着你的梦 让我拥有你真心的面孔

洪荣宏：让我们的笑容 充满着青春的骄傲
为明天献出虔诚的祈祷
陈淑桦：谁能不顾自己的家园 抛开记忆中的童年
娃娃：谁能忍心看那昨日的忧愁 带走我们的笑容
王梦麟：青春不解红尘 胭脂沾染了灰
李佩菁：让久违不见的泪水 滋润了你的面容
费玉清：唱出你的热情 伸出你的双手
让我拥抱着你的梦 让我拥有你真心的面孔
让我们的笑容 充满着青春的骄傲
为明天献出虔诚的祈祷

齐豫：轻轻敲醒沉睡的心灵 慢慢张开你的眼睛
郑怡：看看忙碌的世界是否依然孤独的转个不停
江慧：日出唤醒清晨 大地光彩重生
杨林：让和风拂出的音响 谱成生命的乐章
合唱：唱出你的热情 伸出你的双手
苏芮：让我拥抱着你的梦 让我拥有你真心的面孔
齐秦：让我们的笑容 充满着青春的骄傲
余天：让我们期待着明天会更好

The Prayer

This is a nice song and a good prayer to start the year 2009.



I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer
As we go our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe

I pray we'll find your light
And hold it in our hearts
When stars go out each night
Remind us where you are

Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe

We ask that life be kind
And watch us from above
We hope each soul will find
Another soul to love

Let this be our prayer
Just like every child
Needs to find a place
Guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe

Need to find a place
Guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe

2008: A Year of Change It Was!

Indeed 2008 has been a Year of Change as I stated in my blog entry "2008 : The Year of Change !" in the beginning of the year. For one, my university has a new President, US is getting a black President into the White House for the first time in history, Malaysian on the other hand has reduced the 2/3 majority of the ruling party in the parliament and there were surprisingly and unexpected change of state governments in 5 premier states, though the much anticipated change of federal government never materialized and rather disappointing.

Now that changes have occurred, will they last? Will they turn out to be good changes?

Change is only the beginning, change will not occur if everyone still expects to work the old ways. Real change is not just at the leadership level, it is in the hands of everyone, as Barack Obama said:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

Real positive change requires actions; it is obvious the whole world is in uncertain times. There is the economy crisis, the leadership crisis in the world, in the country and in our society. Wars and turmoils are everywhere, there are people with too much to eat, and yet people are dying from hunger everywhere. People busy making a living and yet too busy to live. Homo sapiens are destroying the only habitat they share with other species and it is almost too late.

The first black president will take office soon in the White House next year, Malaysia is expected to have a new Prime Minister, Cyberia will hopefully get a new property management.

At a personal level, I will have to get my PhD somehow by this next year, but not by hook or by crook for sure. Getting PhD is not the end, just the opposite as there are lots to be done in research. Completing PhD will mean moving on different and tougher challenges in my life that has been pending for too long. My university is going through a whole face lift and many changes have taken place, it is still uncertain if those changes are sufficient to effect real changes when many people still work the old ways and having the old work cultures and mentality. Everyone of us will have to play our share of responsibilities to effect real changes, and that is like swimming against the stream and when many people are swimming merely following the stream down to the ocean of obscurity.

In all these tough time and uncertainties ahead, hope is all we have, hope is what we need. Other than doing the little thing we should and could be doing to effect positive changes, all we could do is to hope for the best and to believe real changes will come.

Indeed 2008 has been a year of change, what 2009 will be? What do you think?

Happy New Year 2009 to everyone !

On Leave But Working ... Again !!

On Leave But Working ... Again !!

Just like last year ( see HERE ) , I am officially on leave from Dec 12, 2008 to the end of 2008. However, classes need to be conducted, research needs to be done and Ph.D needs to be completed, so I am still working... :(

Let's hope this is not going to be an annual feature.

Connie Talbot - Simply Adorable

Below some videos of 6-years old Connie Talbot singing at Britains Got Talent talent show 2007.

Simply adorable!

Britains Got Talent:


Britains Got Talent SEMI FINAL:


Britains Got Talent FINAL:


Official Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ConnieTalbotOfficial

Scams, scams, scams !!

This morning I got a phone call at my house phone from a lady who claimed to be from Malaysian High Court. She said I was suppose to attend the court and she questioned me why I did not sign the letter delivered to me twice, thus I will need to collect the letter myself from the court.

My initial reaction was wondering who could be the people who want to bring me to court since I paid all my bills. Failing to attend courts is no small matter and the initial reaction is of course worries.

But then even if somebody really want to deliver a court paper to me, registered mail would be the way to do it and I should get a notice if they can't get me to sign. The lady read out correctly my condo unit number and my name was correct, for a moment it sounds genuine.

However, her English accent is really suspicious and I have hard time trying to figure out what she was trying to say. She sonded like someone from China.

When I asked her what the letter is all about, she said she can check for me and asked me for my IC number. There is when I questioned her back and said "You called me, so you tell me! i am not going to give you not knowing who you are!". Then I asked her to give me a website or a number to call to find out myself. She gave me the number 03-62094000 and based on this number I google-ed and found that this is indeed a scam! Anyway, I called the number and found that the number is indeed belongs to Jalan Duta High Court, I chatted with the receptionist for a while and he told me there are indeed many such scam going on using the number.

Now I kind-of remember reading about such scam from the news. Only when you are actually in the situation, you will not realize how easy one can be cheated if one is not careful especially when they are targetting your fear that you may be in serious trouble if you do not find out what it is all about.

My first experience of such scam was more than 10 years ago in Penang, it was a scratch-and-win scam (of which you were supposed to give a deposit if you win huge prize) and the guy sounds so genuine. Thank God I refused to scratch somehow even though I did not know it was scam at that time.

My second experience was a hotel (supposingly) called me offering some free stays and package. That guy said he got my contacts from my credit card company. It sounded genuine enough until he asked me for my credit card number, then I told him right away that I will never give my credit card number to someone that I do not know.

And last year, there was this call telling me I won some prizes and the caller spoke with China's Mandarin accent. I just played along until she started asking for my IC number!

Whether it is scams via the phone, email or website, they have one thing in common, i.e. to target human's vulnerability of greed and fear.

The bottom line is:

• To defend against being a victim of greed, just know this:

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!

• To defend against being a victim of fear is not so simple, just bear in mind that:
  
• NO authorities will ask you for your IC number, contacts etc. IF they are the one who call/contact you. If they need these info, they would already have them.
  
• NO system admin of any service providers/websites/emails will ever ask you for email password or password of any kind for verification. The fact is that in most reliable system, there is no way the system admin can retrieve your password to check against what you give them. If your password is having problem, normally they will do a reset for you and give you a new password (which you can change later).
  
• NEVER key in your password at a website of which the link you obtained from a email !! Scammers may create webpages that look similar to other email or even bank websites to trick you from entering your password. Very often they even say they need to verify your password to prevent you being a victim of scam, but in actual fact they are the scam themselves! This is called Phishing ! My recommendation is to use Gmail which give reasonable protection against such emails.
  

So, beware of scams !

p.s. Stupid TM which can not protect our confidential information! Nobody other than my family members have my house phone number which is mainly used for Streamyx purpose (which is another stupid thing) !

Pale Blue Dot