BLESSED CHRISTMAS 2010 !

BLESSED CHRISTMAS !

Wow, it has been 1 year 17 days since this blog was updated. Well, nowadays with facebook, most of my updates are done through my facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wongyaping.

For the first time in decade, I have much more free time before Christmas, but unfortunately I fall sick for a week and only began to recover today on Christmas Eve 2010. So, at about 9pm, I set up my Christmas tree in hurry while talking to a visitor and half awake, take a look:

Well, it's really messy, will tidy it up a little tomorrow. To those who knew, it's the same tree year after year, hopefully next year would be something different.

Well, Christmas is not about Christmas tree and all the 'celebration', Christmas is not Christmas if it is Christmas in our hearts, the tree and the rest are just the 'fun' factors.

Christmas is always a time to refresh ourselves, to reflect on the year about to end and re-evaluate our life goals. Most importantly, it is a celebration of the Greatest Gift for each one of us.

My Christmas prayer for everyone that we may live our lives to the fullness, wonderfully and meaningfully,

There is this one particularly Christmas Song which I like the most every year, here is one nice one from YouTube, enjoy and Blessed Christmas everyone! (lyrics below)



Here are the lyrics:

Christmas isn’t Christmas ‘til it’s happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That’s it Christmas, really Christmas for you.

Jesus brings warmth like a winter fire, a light like a candle’s glow
He’s waiting now to come inside, like He did so long ago
Jesus brings gifts of truth and life and makes them bloom and grow
So welcome Him with a song of joy, and when He comes you’ll know….

That Christmas isn’t Christmas ‘til it’s happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That’s it Christmas, really Christmas for you.

CGIV08

Two weeks ago, we attended the CGIV08 Conference organized by USM and IEEE at Penang. Here is the six of us:

From left are Hau Lee, William, myself, Victor, my friend Dr. Ong from USM and Hee Kooi (Research Officer).

The official group photo:

Victor presenting our paper:

Hee Kooi presenting another of our paper:


Of course conference is not just about papers presentations, it is about ... well, what else la... :)

In fact the most 'torturing' thing about going to conference is over-eating, hey I am not even talking about the main dishes, just desserts were too much to handle :)

So got to do some exercises, the Gurney Hotel has gyms, pool table, table tennis, swimming pool, sauna and beach volley ball at its Recreational Centre. It is at the 7th floor, but you feel like you are on the beach. Here are some photos:



The room was nice:


Visiting Penang is not complete without taking photo of KOMTAR:

and the mini Twin Tower:

and certainly Cendol is a must:

Hey, we tried both Cendol stalls at Penang Road and I still can't figure out the different between the left stall and right stall, after almost half my life in Penang previously. Any know the mystery please let me know, my theory is that they are related, both taste exactly the same to me but most people go to the right one.

At last I visited the famous Khoo Kongsi for the first time! Even Dr. Ong whose whole life is in Penang visiting it for the first time:

With so many of my friends in Penang and so many of my former students also there, I always try to catch up with a few of them during each of my trip to Penang. Here is a photo with Wei Chong and Sylvia at Queensbay Mall:


Speaking of friends, Victor also met some of his 'friends' at USM Muzeum:


Anyway. since Victor's 'best friend' could not travel to Penang with him, he brought along his second 'best friend':




Hey, ask you to tengok kereta la....!

The rest of the photos is at my Penang August 2008 (CGIV08) Photos at Flickr.

Great Day for Malaysia!

Well, I guess everyone already knew the election results, so I will not say much about it.

For those who are still unaware BN lost Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor. BN is denied 2/3 majority in Parliament.

The whole Gerakan ship sunk in Penang. Koh Tsu Koon and Samy Vellu (a.k.a. semi value) lost...they deserved it big time.

If you notice, now you could drive from Selangor to Penang without passing a BN-controlled state !! Too bad the highway are controlled by Federal Government.....else...hahaha...

Also notice, BN lost all the most developed states !!!

No doubt the internet play a big role in this election, with http://malayiakini.com/, http://malaysia-today.net/ and all the bloggers championing and providing free flow of information, the people are informed and had decided that enough is enough and it is time for change !!

Give those new guys in these 5 states time to change for the better, expect Federal Government to give them hell. It is going to be tough job for them and they should also know Malaysians have learned to vote courageously that they can be voted out if they do not do their job and delivered their promises.

Great Day for Malaysia !

Great Hope for Malaysia !

080308 / Match 08, 2008: A Historical Day !!

I voted for a Better Malaysia

I just came back from casting my vote in the General Election. My voting station was at Taman Putra Perdana, it is actually very near Cyberjaya but there is no direct road to there as both places are separated by the KLIA highway. The only way is to go to Puchong first via the Pulau Meranti road ..... so near yet so far.

I thought there would be some free transport to go there but the population in Cyberjaya is too low for any party to allocate any human resource here.

So I took a bus to Putra Sentral and found that there is also no bus from there to Putra Perdana. So I ended up paying RM26 to take a cab there.

The cab refused to wait for me, so I just took any free transport back to Cyberjaya, which happened to be one Chinese man campaigning for BN, apparently he is a businessman whom the Datuk (I don't even know who the Datuk's name is) had helped him in his business.

The Chinese man asked me who I voted, I told him I voted whoever that is good.. :) he said he will take me back regardless who I voted :)

Who I voted is anyone's guess.

Well, I performed my duty and my right to vote, that is all that matters !!

p.s. Too bad the camera of my phone having hardware failure error, thus I could not take any photos.

I am back....and I do not exist on March 5, 2008

Don't ever ask me where I was on March 5, 2008 because I do not exist on that day.... well, kind of....

Just came back from a 30-hours journey flying from Miami to KLIA, took off from Miami Airport on Tuesday March 4, 2008 (Miami time) and reach KLIA on Thursday March 6, 2008 (Malaysian time). Feeling kind of weird of having one day of my life seems unaccounted for.. of course equally weird is gaining one extra day during the trip from KLIA to Miami.

Well, I attended the Microsoft Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education (GDCSE'08) ( https://www.msadgd08.net/Main.aspx ) and just landed at KLIA less than 4 hours ago and just reached home less than half an hour ago. First thing I did when I reached home was to check that my fishes are still in good condition, thanks to my niece who feed them during my trip. Second thing i did is to check my email box and found more than 200++ emails. Third thing is writing this blog, the purpose is not to tell the story of my trip which I will do much later, instead this blog entry is to tell everyone that i am back and request everyone to give me some time to read and reply the emails much later and for me to return all the missed calls. Since the conference was on a cruise at the West Carribean Sea, I do not have assess to internet and no phone assess too.

Anyway, more on this later..now got to unpack and take some rest...and figure out what I need to do next...reply emails? ...return missed calls? catch up with tons of overdue works? Hmm.. I think I will just take take a bath and take a nap....

Happy and Blessed Chinese New Year 2008 !!

Happy and Blessed Chinese New Year 2008 to everyone !!



Also...





The above is the new set up of my fish tank !!

Added 04 Feb, 2008 :

(the water somehow is clearer after 3 days)

Blessed Christmas 2007 !

Ya I know I know... it is a little late ....

Well, Christmas is traditionally celebrated for 12 days (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas), so I guess it is not too late to wish everyone:

BLESSED CHRISTMAS !

Well, this year I didn't have the time to set up my Christmas tree mainly for the same reason that I set it up very late on Christmas Eve last year ( see http://ypwong.blogspot.com/2006/12/blessed-and-merry-christmas.html.
). However, the real reason I did not manage to set it up at all was because I spent the few days before Christmas and also Christmas Day at my brother's place at Damansara Perdana and my sister's place at Bandar Utama.

Well, Christmas is not about Christmas tree and all the 'celebration', Christmas is not Christmas if it is Christmas in our hearts, the tree and the rest are just the 'fun' factors.

Though there were no Christmas tree at home, this year Christmas was a meaningful one, one which I enjoyed very much. It is a good thing that I escaped from the Siberia Cyberia at Cyberjaya and came to PJ, I attended the Christmas celebration at my younger sister's church on Saturday evening (Dec 22, 2007); on Christmas morning itself, I attended the celebration at Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC), which my the other sister attends. It is especially meaningful that my mother went along with us too, though she attended the Chinese session while me and my sister attended the English session.

Christmas is always a time to refresh ourselves, to reflect on the year about to end and re-evaluate our life goals. Most importantly, it is a celebration of the Greatest Gift of Christ that life can be lived to the fullness for each one of us.

My main Christmas prayers and my prayers through all the days of the years is for my mother and all my family members to know personally and to have a wonderful relationship with this Child that was born on Christmas Day. This has always been my main prayers for more than half my life so far and always will be my main prayers.

To all my friends, my Christmas prayers are also for you, and also for myself that all of us may live our lives to the fullness, wonderfully and meaningfully,

There is this one particularly Christmas Song which I like the most every year, I managed to find one video of it at YouTube, here it is below, enjoy!



Here are the lyrics:

Christmas isn’t Christmas ‘til it’s happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That’s it Christmas, really Christmas for you.

Jesus brings warmth like a winter fire, a light like a candle’s glow
He’s waiting now to come inside, like He did so long ago
Jesus brings gifts of truth and life and makes them bloom and grow
So welcome Him with a song of joy, and when He comes you’ll know….

That Christmas isn’t Christmas ‘til it’s happens in your heart
Somewhere, deep inside you, is where Christmas really starts
So, give your heart to Jesus, you’ll discover when you do
That’s it Christmas, really Christmas for you.

In case you didn't see this...

Alright... I almost never blog about politics, but today I felt compelled to make an exception!

So many things happened in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur (KL) this afternoon and yet most main stream media was silent about it and gave the diluted "news" later the day as if nothing have happened.

Thanks to the information age, news blockage is the thing in the past.

In case you missed it, here are news coverage (mostly foreign) on the BERSIH Rally to deliver Memorandum to the Agong (King) of Malaysia:

AlJareeza News:


Malaysia Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin's comments on AlJazeera:

, aiks...what he said is so embarrassing that Malaysia has such a minister!

Bernama Mandarin News (at Astro's AEC News Channel 301) :

Oops...in Mandarin, just see the picture if you can't understand.

BBC:


CNN:


NTV7:


If by now you still do not know what the heck all these about, go to:Malaysia-Today website.

Update:
More news at:
- http://jeffooi.com/
- http://www.harakahdaily.net/bm/
- http://www.englishsection.com/
- http://bersih.org/
- http://www.malaysiakini.com/

Other news official information:

- http://www.thestar.com.my/

- http://www.nst.com.my/
- http://www.nanyang.com/
- http://www.sinchew.com.my/

Yellow Day!

My Chinese name is 黄耶斌, 黄 is my surname and literary means yellow.

You may notice, my blog is going Yellow today (Nov 10, 2007) BUT it has nothing to do with my surname.

If you are a Malaysian and you do not know why I am going Yellow today, then let me tell you that THE FACT THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW IS THE REASON WHY I AM GOING YELLOW TODAY. Go figure....

The Winds of Change is blowing everywhere, let's pray for Malaysia, let's hope for Malaysia.

p.s. I am not a heavy blog reader due to time constraints, but I notice a few site that I read turning into yellow today as well, check out:
- Marina Mahathir's Blog (MM is Former PM Tun Mahathir's daughter)
- My colleague John See's Blog
- may add more later.

Putrajaya Firework Grand Finale

I went to see the Putrajaya Fireworks display once again for the Grand Finale. The place we watched from was about the same as the previous one but a little nearer, in fact it is at a point in Cyberjaya that is the nearest to PICC, but across the lake. The view there was very good. Click HERE to see the location.

The display seems to be much more boring as compared with the previous two display, perhaps it is because our expectations were much higher then after watching all the previous ones.

There were much less people and cars this time, thus we do not need to park our car too far.

Anyway, I managed to take some good photos. Believe it or not, after having this camera (Sony Cybershot P-10) for more than 3 years, there are still a lot of features which I am not sure of because I am too lazy to read the manual (actually also due to the reason that the manual printing is just too small). I realized only a few hours ago after i downloaded the soft-copy of the manual that the camera has a preset setting specially for taking fireworks photos.

Okay, here are some sample of the photos which I took:































For the rest of them, please go to my Malaysia International Fireworks Competition - Grand Finale (Sept 2, 2007) Collection.

I have also asked Ah Kek (my former students) to help to take videos from PICC using my video camera, since they are going there to watch.

Here are the videos:









Btw, the winner for this competition is Australia... oh dearly me, that is the one I missed!

Hmmm... I think I have enough of fireworks!!

Putrajaya Firework Team Japan

After the Italy performance last Saturday, we just can't get enough of it and decided to watch the one by the Japan Team (formerly World Champion I think) on the Merdeka (August 31) Eve.

Previously we watched the Italy Team performance on the road towards Dengkil and PICC but we got to sit on the floor with little stones and occasionally the ERL will zoomed by disturbing our views. My blog about it is HERE.

This time we decided to go somewhere nearer somewhere at the lake near Cyber Height overlooking PICC:



It is a much more comfortable place, nearer and have direct line of sight to the firing zone besides PICC. The downside was that there were a huge crowd there as well. Luckily we parked our car near Cyberview Lodge and after the show we got to walk a little to the car, but it is still far better than got stuck in the traffic ...



You won't believe that this is Cyberjaya..more like KL. 8 years in Cyberjaya and i have never seen such traffic jam.

Second thought, what traffic jam? There were NO traffic right after the fireworks display... the road was more like a huge giant car park, most cars didn't even turn on their engines because there were no cars moving for quite a while.

The usually fresh Cyberjaya air became so polluted with all these cars around.

Okay, about the performance, a few of us think that it is not as good as the Italy one. It was kind of dull and boring in the beginning, it was better only towards the end, here is the photo of the ending:



Click the above photo to see all the photos I took.

Here are the videos:







Well, shall look forward for tonight Grand Finale, stay tuned for more .. :)

Spectacular Fireworks @ Putrajaya !!

Wah......................... !

That was the expression of most of the spectators of The Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2007 held near the PICC (Putrajaya International Convention Centre) from 18 August, 2007 till 2 Sept, 2007.

Yesterday (August 25), we went to witness the fireworks performance by the Italy Team. The show started at 10pm but at about 8pm time, Putrajaya traffic was already very jam, thus we decided to watch it across the lake at Cyberjaya side in order that we can 'escape' from the jam after the performance was over. Since we are 'locals' to Cyberjaya, we know where to pick a good spot to watch and to 'escape' the jam after that.

The 20+minutes performance was spectacular !!

Here are the videos I took:







For more info, refer to http://www.mifc.com.my/

Here are other videos from YouTube:



There are plenty more of such video at http://www.youtube.com

The next competition day will be on August 30 and Sept 2. Very likely we will go to see again on one of these days.

The ticket to see from PICC is RM38 and 20% discount for certain customers, more info on http://www.ticketpro.com.my/akce/detail/25. We did not buy ticket to see from there partly due to the cost and partly due to the traffic jam.

Believe it or not, this is the traffic at Cyberjaya after the fireworks:










It is almost KL-like, we almost never seen traffic jam in Cyberjaya and Putrajaya.

Updated Sept 1, 2007: We watched this one HERE