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What Can I Say?

I can't say much. So I'll just share lyrics from a song. 'Life Will Pass' Moments full of happiness Of sweet youth days, Nothing to do, you cannot bring them back, Fate is not to be controlled, it is not. Those days will be a thing of the past, Where dreams and fantasies are intertwined, Everything will remain an echo, When the time comes to think. The life passes, passes, Fleeting like a river, May your star never go out, Until the cherished dream is achieved. The life passes, passes, Everything in this life is in vain, May your star never go out, Until the cherished dream is achieved. When the fog will cover the soul, When happiness will leave you, When you're alone in the world, Will there be someone who will understand you? And your blooming youth, It will turn into a mirage someday. No matter how you deceive yourself, but in the end Your fate is in the hands of the Almighty. The life passes, passes, Fleeting like a river, May your star never go out, Until the c
Recent posts

I Blog Less When...

 I blog less when ... - I'm busy with interesting things. - I'm overloaded with work. - I haven't got things to complain about. I'm all of the above right now but I decided to try and make a few blog posts.  

Scammers On My Phone

 Be very careful when you get calls informing you that your IC has been used to open a company or register a phone line or even sent to an address in a box.  These calls are usually from scammers because police or LHDN ppl will ask you to go to the office or station.  They will not discuss such things on the phone. A lot of these calls are done on public holidays or weekends or times outside working hours.  They will sound very reasonable and tell you that you need to go to a police station or some where.  My personal experience is that I have been required to go to a police station in Seremban or Ipoh.  Yes, I am very unfortunate to have received two of these calls.  The first one was during lockdown in 2020 and it was from Pos Malaysia (so they said).  They claimed I sent my bank card and IC to an address in Ipoh via Poslaju.  They asked me if I knew it was a crime to send such items via post.  I said it is a moot point because I would never do such a thing.  How would I get money ou

I Am Back... In A Very Different World

 I've been 'away'... although not very far.  And I've decided to return... even though it's a very very different world now from the world in my last post. Don't ask me about 2018... but Life started to skew sideways at the end of 2019 when news started to trickle out regarding a strange new virus.  Then clips of people walking down streets and suddenly collapsing started appearing in chat groups.  At first I thought it was one of those fake clips.  Or maybe cut from a film about  zombie pandemics or insidious alien attacks.  Alas, I was wrong.  Then by March 2020, for the first time ever, I experienced a pandemic lockdown.  Schools were shut, shops closed.  Roadblocks sprouted up like mushrooms to deal with those who still didn't believe the reality of what was happening.  The government floated an app that looked like some sort of controlling mechanism.  Well, fast forward to October 2021... that app is now required for entry to most public spaces.  It hol

The Power and Beauty of Stories

I love stories... whether I hear them, read them or see them.  They make me feel things, and they also teach me things. Yes, I'm going to talk about Dimash Kudaibergen again.  He is a story teller par excellence, via his music and his lyrics.  So young, you may say, to earn such a title ... Surely he hasn't lived long enough to have gathered all those stories in his heart and to be able to share those stories with others.  But watch a video of him singing... and tell me that isn't a superb example of someone telling a story that grabs you by your heartstrings and stays with you for days and days afterward.  If I were a Buddhist, I would call him an old soul. Stories are powerful because they can paint swathes of colour across your mind and they can change the way you think.  But the stories need to be presented in the right way, with the right words.  I've always been a 'word' person and I've always believed I needed to know the words to be truly touche

Finding Your Magic

Someone once asked me how I learned to write so well.  She said it looked like magic the way I could lay down the words without seeming to think hard about it.  You know what?  I don't know. I just think a bit, and then I put pen to paper and the pen moves as if it is an extension of my mind. Sometimes it even moves ahead of my conscious mind. I suppose my writing has become a subconscious or unconscious part of me.  I have other theories but in actual fact, I don't really know. It could be due to the fact that I learned to read really young.  I don't remember ever learning my ABCs.  I just knew how to read.  I was told my grandpa used to seat me on his lap when he read the newspaper and then he would read aloud while moving his finger under the words.  I moved out of his house when I was two years old.  So that tells you how young I was. It could be due to the fact that I loved reading.  My father had to punish me to stop me from reading so much.  I'd wait t

Finding A MUET Band Fiver

Every day I walk the corridors of my school, smiling at my young students, exchanging greetings or even jokes.  I absolutely love it if they can pick up on something I mentioned, put a twist on it and sling it back at me.  In English, of course.  That practically guarantees my undivided attention because I'd be thinking,"Could this be a potential Band 5??"  Notice that I don't say Band 6.  Band Sixers belong to a totally different category.  So let's stick to talking about Band Fivers. It takes time and effort to get Band 5 in the MUET test and 2.5 semesters in Form 6 isn't enough time for me to bring an average English student to that level.  So what do I need to find?  Someone who has maturity when it comes to arguments, someone who has a good command of English and someone who is widely-read.  If I get someone like that, all he or she needs is a nudge, a push, some General Paper materials to read and exposure to the test formats.  And of course practices.