Reef’s pages

I love kids. I wish I was a kid again. Not a care in the world. Everything was laid out to you. You wake up, or more precisely, woken up by your parent, take a bath, go to school, return home, play in the evening, return home and sleep. Easy. Kids to me represent pureness. They don’t know how to lie, they don’t know the value of money (thank God), they don’t have to care about current world issues, they don’t have to care about taxes and rising oil prices and terrorist attack and girlfriends and health care bill and how would I look if I eat that chocolate cake. They don’t have to care about all those shit that "grown up" constantly worry about. Try to remember your childhood memories. What do you remember about when you were a kid. I’m sure most of you remember about happy memories, hanging out camping at night with your parents, or playing hide and seek with the neighbourhood buddies. I still remember the time when I was 4, I took a scissor and began cutting MONEY because there was those hatched line on the RM10 and RM5 notes. You know, like those cut up drawing, I honestly thought that you were suppose to cut the money, see, "the don’t know the value of money" I was talking about, I got into a lot of trouble after that, but I don’t remember about my punishment, just the memory of cutting several pieces of red and green papers that made my mother very angry. That was so fun.

Another thing I love about kid is that they don’t know the meaning of enemy. They don’t know about jealousy. All they know is the word friend. When we were kids, everyone was our friend. The neighbors, the kids from class, the kids from the playground, all of them are friends. Its easy for kids to make friends. Now, we grown ups have just a few, limited friends. We hate our neighbours, jealous of our officemates and classmates, could not click with other people we consider "different" from our life style. Being enemies with everyone we couldn’t accept or refuse to accept. How utterly boring.

Being an adult also causes us to loose our creativity. We bound ourselves with technologies and accessories in our everyday life. We switch on the computer to play videogames and surf the net. We turn on the tv to watch shows. We buys cloths and shoes that we consider to be fashionable. We read magazines to know whats "in" now and whats not. When we were kids, we constantly use our imagination to create games or play make belief. We created our own props and toys. I know, many kids now have bundle of toys bought from "toys r us", but I still remember making my own toys. I’ve read articles about kids from third world country (poor nation) making their own toys from scraps. These kids were praised by readers for being very creative, using everyday "garbage" to make toys. To me, personally, I see them as saviour, as we adult would complain and become stressful from being poor, these kids use their creativity to overcome their shortcoming and just have a good time. Its simply a miracle.

Kids seem to have a certain characteristic in their eyes that just reflect innocence. They reflect purity. A human being who does not have hate in their eyes. Who does not have a trace of worry in their eyes. Who does not have stress in their eyes. Who does not have evilness in their eyes. Just sweet, pure, innocence…..

I found this on the net, and I find it to be very true, so girls, pay attention to the next few line.

1. Guys hate sluts.

2. "Hey, are you busy?" or "Are you doing something?" ~ two phrases guys open with to stop from stammering on the phone.

3. Guys may be flirting around all day but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about.

4. Before they call, guys try to plan out a little about what they’re gonna say so there aren’t awkward pauses, but once he’s on the phone he forgets it all and makes it up as he goes.

5. Guys go crazy over a girl’s smile.

6. Guys will do anything just to get you to notice him.

7. Guys hate it when you talk about your ex- boyfriend or ex love-interest. Unless they’re goin for the let-her-complain-to-you-and-then-have-her-realize -how -wonderful-and-nice-you-are method.

8. A guy who likes you wants to be the only guy you talk to.

9. Boyfriends need to be reassured often that they’re still loved.

10. Don’t talk about your guy friends to your boyfriend.

11. Guys get jealous easily.

12. Guys are more emotional than they’d like people to think.

13. Giving a guy a hanging message like "You know what?!..uh…nevermind .." would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking. And he’ll assume he did something wrong and he’ll obsess about it trying to figure it out.

14. Guys are good flatterers when courting but they usually stammer when they talk to a girl they really like.

15. Guys hate asking parents for money to buy girls presents. So they come up with ideas like saving their lunch money for a week. But it never works because guys are always hungry so they end up asking the parents for money anyway.

16. Girls are guys’ weaknesses.

17. Guys are very open about themselves.

18. It’s good to test a guy first before you trust him. But don’t let him wait too long.

19. Your best friend, whom your boyfriend seeks help from about his
problems with you may end up being admired by your boyfriend.

20. If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to
listen to him. You don’t need to give advice.

21. A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.

22. Guys love you more than you love them if they are serious in your relationships.

23. Guys will brag about anything.

24. Guys use words like hot or cute to describe girls. We rarely use
beautiful. If a guy uses that, he likes you.

25. Guys think WAY too much. One small thing a girl does, even if she doesn’t notice it can make the guy think about it for hours, trying to figure out what it meant.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (or UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946 to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on this old name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

A voluntarily funded agency, UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors. Its programmes emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 2006. In the United States, Canada and some other countries, UNICEF is known for its "Trick-Or-Treat for UNICEF" program in which children collect money for UNICEF from the houses they trick-or-treat at on Halloween night, sometimes instead of candy.

The current Executive Director is Ann Veneman who took control of the organization in May 2005 with an agenda to increase the organization’s focus on the Millennium Development Goals. Total income to UNICEF for 2006 was $2,781,000,000.

As one of the worlds leading advocates for child awarness and protection, UNICEF conducts numerous activites focussing on education of children in poor countries, immunization programmes, child protection and well-being, HIV/AIDS and safe and early childhood.

We as the general public could contribute to the society’s main goal by donating to the organization, signing up and becoming one of their volunteers or just by purchasing gift cards, calenders, books in one of their programmes, Art in All of Us.

To learn more about UNICEF and what you can do, go to www.unicef.org

Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.   It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.   We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?   Actually, who are you not to be?   You are a child of God.   Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.   There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.   We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.   And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.   As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson
A Return to Love

It’s been three years now since I’ve entered the world of KAED (one of those is in matric), and my, what experiences it taught me. I now have an utter most respect for sleep, which most student from other fields of study take for granted. Damn you. It taught me on time management and financial management as well. And what little time and money we KAED student have. It sets our biological clock, way off balance. I now can only sleep after 2am in the morning, and that is when I’m at home, doing nothing. And because of the skrewed up bio clock, I will wake up usually by 9am, also at home. I know, its weird, even for a KAED student.

Its been some time since I added anything in my blog recently, daily priority have kept me away from the blog pages for quite some times now. Time have moved on, things have change, the world is shifting, growing, I’m growing, my brother is growing, experiencing new things. He’ll be coming to KL to start college in few days time, by the way. Me, things have been working out quite well. I’ve expanded my hobby in photography by entering a few of my works in several photographic competition (manage to won first prize in one of those) and discovering how desperately I am in need of a digital SLR. I do have a film SLR, but the maintenance cost of it is more then I can bear. But maybe the most exciting thing that happened these past few weeks was finally able to go out with a special girl whom I greatly admired and well, couldn’t go through a day without at least her face popping in my mind.

I know, some of you guys out there are bursting your guts out, thinking this guy is another loser telling everybody about what he has done that day in hope that someone would take interest, boring. But the matter of fact, I couldn’t care less. I want to tell it, and if you dont like it, why are you reading it!

Now back to the point, this girl, whom I met a few years ago at a national camp, hmm, was not like all the other girls I’ve met before. Sure its easy for us guys to stare at some pretty face, and droole over, especially if that girl happend to be very HOT. But some guys, including me, find it hard to realy like some one to the point of making her the fame, girlfriend. Its not like I have a hard time meeting girls or even asking them out on a date, its just that, guys like us have several catogories of girls;

1) There’s the friend type. The common type.You like her and treat her like, well, a friend. I have a lot of these type. Some one who you can hang out with, you know.

2)A step foward from a normal friend is the good friend/best friend type. You like her, and care more about her, and maybe there is a fling, just a bit, but never the less, still just a friend.

3) And then there’s the admired type. Usually these are the HOT girls I mentioned earlier. Usually very cute and one who gets the most attenttion from the guys. You guys know what i mean, right.

4) A step foward from that is the crush type. These are also the Hot girls who we feel that there’s a need to make contact with. Make us noticeable to them. And if we’re really lucky, maybe ask her out on a date.

5)The most rare of the type of girls are those who you really like. These are the type of girl who guys obsess about, apart form the celebrities, who we also obsess about but realize, we will never get them. The one who have that X factor. It doesn’t have to be the cutest or the hotest girl. You really like her for the way she is, and that’s enough. In my 20 years of life, there have only been 2 girls who I consider to like very much. The 1st one was a girl I had a crush on since standard 4. Old stuff back when I was young and stupid. And the second one was the girl I mentioned earlier.

When I first met her, she was starting a relationship with her former school mate, as I’ve learned later. So I became a gentleman, and step back, trying desperately to move on with my life. Thinking, "owh it’s just a fling, some girl I met at a camp". Easier said then done. The truth, I never really did got over it. In the process, I might have cause a slight stir in some girl’s heart as, trying to move on, I might have approached that girl and then leaving her hanging in mid air. Got to appologize to that girl, sorry. I did try to move on but as it turn out, I can’t keep this girl out of my mind. The more I tried to move on, the more I kept remembering her. It is to the point that I kept comparing the new girls with her. How they were not funny enough, not cute enough, dosent know enough about comics and all that stuff. Not a particullarly good habit, I must say.

So in all, I never manage to find a replacement. But God’s willing, I got the real thing. Now she’s broken up with the boyfriend and, by God’s will again, she was in KL, where I was. I mustered the courage to ask her out, and we did. We’re now taking it slowly as, well she’s studying in Penang and I am here in, in Gombak. I don’t want to rush things. Keeping my main priority, studying, in check. Maybe I don’t call her as often as I should or maybe even confess to her about everything as I should, but the thought of her is never far from my mind. Its ok if she doesn’t refer herself as my "girlfriend", so long as she knows how I feel. As long as I know how I feel about her. I just hope she stays the same, and maybe in the future, if there is fate, have a real serious relationship with her. Who knows…

But all in all, to me it was great while it lasted……

Keep hope alive.

I’m sure most of you guys out there are familiar with Top Gear. Those who have an interest with cars must know this show. If not, then there is a chance that your either gay or not that normal, hmmm. Back to the point, Top Gear is one of the most successful motoring show in the world, with the average viewers for last season topping off at 8.4 million, and that is in Britain alone. See what I mean. Its basically a show that features 3 blokes, cocking around with each others. You got Jeremy Clarkson who is a fat bloke that isn’t scared to call an Enzo Ferrari, an uncool car for trying too hard. There is also Richard Hammond, dubbed Hamster, who always argue with JC but usually loses because of his minute size. And the there is James May, dubbed Capt. Slow, because, well, he drives slowly. These 3 blokes, rambling on screen about cars and pretty much everything, makes a very successful car show. Owh, there are some cars being tested on the show as well. And I almost forgot about The Stig, the ultimate tester who really push each car on the show to the very limit.

The reason why this show is very successful is, to me, at least, is because it is a British production. Being British, they can say anything about any cars and still get away with it. And being very British, I think they’re accent is very brilliant. Everything from their choice of word to the tone of their voice, is pretty much amazing.

I’ve been to the States and recieving my elementry education there, I tend to speak English in a slight American accent. My peers would know, it just comes naturally to me. But recently, I have been watching a lot of British made films and tv shows. And my, what a cool way of speaking English. Even boring and utterly silly stuff said in a British accent could sound cool. And every thing made in Britain would some how reflect class and elegance. Dunhill, MG’s, Aston Martins, Jaguars are some of those brands. This is also evident in music where some of the most legendary band are from Britain. Take Rolling Stones, The Who, Muse, Oasis, The Darkness and many more that I forgot. The Beatles, eventhough when they sing they will loose that Brit accent. The only group so far who sing with that Britush accent is The Artic Monkeys, and their brilliant too.

It seems like in every movie made by Hollywood, the cool guy in the team or the villians would be a British bloke. James Bond for instance, is British. Not forgetting Austin Power, who is very British. Lara Croft, the perfect bombshell with a nice pair of rack, is also British. And who can forget Harry Potter, one of the most successful franchise in kids, teen and even adult literature and entertainment. I can’t see him as an American boy casting magic spell and riding flying brooms in a game I still can’t comprehend. It just doesn’t work. I think being British, adds a certain percentage to their coolness. It adds class and elegance to the characters. But some movies are a little bit too British. For example, "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells", a Guy Ritchie’s (also a Brit) film is so caught up in its British accent, that half of the script, I couldn’t comprehend, at all.

So in all, I would like to say that, I’m not a fan of the current British politic (that Blair scumbag) nor am I a British patriot, it’s just that I think British accent is very cool.

p.s: for those of you who have subscribe National Geographic, I suggest reading an article; The Three Peaks Challenge. Its about an American author who accompany a group of fire fighters scampering around Great Britain climbing the three highest peaks, in 24 hours! Its just, brilliant.

The morning was bright. Silence fill the room. Imran and Ejoy were partly asleep. We were supposed to go out today to Kancing with Kojak and Wafi. Last night the world cup had just started. It was Germany versus Costa Rica. Great match between a powerhouse and an underdog. Waking up feeling astrange, a dream I had I guess. Head buzzing. Suddenly I had this urge to write something. Guess this is a new hobby I’ve taken up. Heh. Never much been a writer but I guess there is first time for everything. Huh.

As I said, last night’s match was between Germany and Costa Rica. It was mostly a one sided match but never the last, it was interesting. Of course, Geramany, the host nation had the advantage, but Costa Rica put up quite a fight. The German constanly attacked and assaulted Costa Rica’s Goal post and was awarded with 4 goals. Cheers came from the crowd. But somehow, without a star player and much chance as to push the ball to the German’s half of the field, Costa Rica manage to inch out 2 goals of their own. An even louder cheer came from crowd!!!. I was one of them. Some how, no matter how strong the team are playing, the supporters always root for the underdogs. Why? I guess it’s because the underdogs were underdogs. Weak and unknown. But they have the guts and determination to go up against those who are well known, popular and strong. It is this struggle that we, the spectators are seeking. Sub consiously, we human are weak but have always tried to conquer the impossible. Trying to achieve fame and glory or just proving to them self that they could overcome their fear and are able to do what other have done or non have ever dare to do before. In the process, the had to sacrifice their body, put up with agony, face tremendous odds that would have seem impossible, fighting their sanity that say that it cannot be done. In short, becoming a hero.

What makes a person becomes a hero. Super powers? Intelligent mind? Courage beyond human? No. Hero are those who do achieve great wonders. But more importantly, before they achieve these great wonders, they had to undergone through immense pain and agony. They had to face an odd that was totaly against them. They had to conquer the impossible. What make the hero in the stories stay in our heart. Its not the fact that they had to face many obsticle in their journey, but the fact that they had didn’t turn around when there was so many oppertunity to do so. They didn’t given up eventhough the odds seems impossible. They didn’t hide and retreat when they were beaten up the first, second or third time around. No they kept moving foward. Pushing inch by inch. They kept pushing foward until their goals were achieved or at least they die trying.

Trying, that what counts the most. It is not so much that the goals were achieve. Its the efforts that was put in it. Even in religion, God says He does not look at what we achieved but what was our effort to achieve it.

And these hero are not only in just books and stories, or even comics for that matter. These heros are real, living, breathing human being. They were people, fathers, mothers, husbands, wive, daughters, sons of some one. They fought and died protecting those who are precious to them. They fought to liberate and free those they care about. They risk their lives in order to make the people around them happy. And these heros are not just the one that are mentioned in books and stories. Heros are ordinary people, with ordinary family and ordinary lives. A fisherman braving the seas in order to bring food to his wife and children. A single mother who faces the world to bring up her child alone. A fireman who rushes into a burning building in order to save a soul, risking his own soul in the process. A teacher, coming to class in the morning to pass down the knolewdge she gain from her teacher so that her student could pass down this knowledge to their students. My parents, in my eye are my hero. Dad who leaves home in the morning so that when he return in the evening, something would be on the dinning table. Mom, risking her life giving birth to me and bringing me up into this world. Staying at home, keeping the house tidy while dad is out working. These are the heros that are not writen in history books or stories pass down from father to son. Their name do not echo in songs or poems. No medal or title given in their honour. No, these are the unsung hero. The invisible hero hidden within the ordinary people living ordinary lives. But never the last, a hero and a ture hero at heart.

Braving the odds. Overcoming their fears. Risking life and body. Never once turning back even when there was so much chance to do so. Conquering the impossible…

Imran and Ejoy are still sleeping. The clock, ticking close to 12 noon. Those darn rain clouds treatning to ruin our trip. Tik…Tik…Tik… Its raining. Heh. Guess I’m stuck here with these two airheads still sound a sleep.

I wonder what kind of a hero will they become… or what kind of hero will I become…

Humans…thats what we are….the word human itself have several significant meaning, it can either mean some thing of greatness or even something of great weakness. we usually hear the phrase ”i’m just a human” when we do somthing we’re not really proud of…sure we’re not angels or demons….but thats what makes us great. God have given us the mind, will and heart to be who we are. thus, the term humanity enters the scene….

what is humanity actually….again, i don’t have the definite answer, its because every one have their own interpretation of it…be it the strong lives and the weak dies (shishio makoto) or its the strong who must protect the weak(kenshin himura)…..all in all, humanity have something to do with survival…we’re all are survivors actually…just being born means that we survive in the race to reach the ovum, we survive the period of pregnancy, we survive the process of our mothers giving birth, and just living in this world, we survived it some how…knowing how easily we could die in the period mentioned before, its lucky we’re still breathing right now…..again in this matter, we are just human…not inmortals….just think about the treats the environment bring to our being is overwhelming, and yet, we still engage in war, crime, killing….

why does this happen….an interesting to thing to ponder, the notion the strong lives and the weak dies…the strong must protect the weak…is the butterfly and spider theory….say a butterfly is caught in a spiders web, and the spider is about to consume the butterfly…we human, who is looking at this…what are we suppose to do????…..some say we should live it as it is, let nature take its course….thus the notion the strong (spider) lives and the weak (butterfly) dies….some say we should free the butterfly from the web….so both lives….but wait, if we free the butterfly that was suppose to be food for the spider, we would in the long run kill the spider…and thus the strong (spider) dies and the weak (butterfly) lives…maybe another will say….kill the spider to let the butterfly live….that is a bit of twisted conception of humanity….as human being, we are the only being who are given the power to change our world according to our will…..that is a privilege that God to humans only….

do we have the right to judge people….label them as apex of evil or villain…Adolf Hitler for example ( not that i’m a pro at what he did)….could we label him as evil…he must have some reason for what he did, he actualy believe in what he did was right, it fits his definition of humanity..what he did was right atleast to himself….he is not evil…he is just a human….same thing to other people labeled as evil….Osama Laden, Fidel Castro and so on…..their not evil, their just human…..

yeah…student life, in this sense i mean university student life…. some say its the most interesting faze in life, many new things happening… people regards u as an adult now, u get more responsibilty….manage more thing…open up new relationship…..i can go on forever, but that would bore you… this is the time where your mind mature, we are leaving the the world of kids and entering the world of adults, which makes this the most crucial time…these are the time when a person becomes what he will be in the future…

i guess this is also the time when a person’s hormone becomes wild…. they say that our feelings, emotions, sense are all chemical reaction….think about it, what is the one thing teenagers can’t live without…love, and the subject teenager often hate the most…chemistry…are both actually inter-related…haha..crazy…yeah…but there is more to it than we know….what is love??? there is no definite answer for that…because everyone interpretes it differently….and dat add the beauty of it…a sense of mistery, uncertanty (sorry for the spelling error) … if you ask me now, what is love….i can’t give the you the answer…n how do you know it….i say, u just do…some say u feel stronger yet weaker at the same time, you feel liberated and ready to take on the world…the thing is, you don’t know what ur feeling…the thing is, you want whats best for the person you love, even if it hurts you…

because you know its worth it…