HAPPY LOVE SONG !

Happy Love Song

I will never forget how we met that day
And I will always cherish it
The moment that we spent together was too short
And I wish the time can be stopped

Even in the falling rain or blazing sun
I will always be with you
The moment that we spent together was too short
And I wish the time can be stopped

Your angel face can make my gray sky blue
And I can’t deny that your smile makes my world
I can’t take my eyes and heart away from you
And it’s true


This is the song our group created during the early morning in class when everyone’s still sleepy.
(my group members: Tirawud, Swee Leong, Kok Loon, u guys r de greatest! evn tho im de only gurl stuck with the guys, all of u hv been very great teammates. Thanx sooo much!)
The title basically explains everything about the song, so just sing it according to the tunes of “Rhythm of the Falling Rain” with a slight modification.
(Rhythm of the Falling Rain tu lagu iklan chewing gum, igt x? cute je lagu tuh)
Enjoy!

That's a wrap!

This final blog for our LHP 459 class is meant to wrap up what we have learned throughout our four-month ordeal of studying. Having much to say, I don’t know where to begin. What I can say is I have been putting off this blog assignment until the last possible minute due to a common disease called laziness.

I remember my first day being in this class. It was 8am and I’m still not fully awake at that time. I didn’t know we were required to speak out a lot in this class so I made a point of saying that my strength lies in writing, not speaking. My statement goes unheard and we still did a lot of talking anyway. Gradually, I learnt that for me public speaking is best done when you are neither very well-prepared nor unprepared. Speaking spontaneously when you have the points in your head and elaborating it as you go along, I found that not so much different from writing. Of course, in writing you can always correct your mistakes but in speaking its like writing with a felt-tip pen and you have to be careful not to misspell anything because you can’t erase it. Okay, bad analogy but that’s how it is and what makes it more interesting. So we learned to speak spontaneously in this class to give our own views and opinions and do many successful group discussions in an orderly way.

Furthermore, by encouraging students to make our voices heard and make our presence felt, we now have more courage to do so and it will not be a problem to us in the long run. I’ve known some of my classmates who are really shy and never spoken in other classes before, but being in this class brings out the best in them. Participation in class, agreeing, disagreeing, and sometimes arguing over a topic makes us feel more confident to express our views because nothing we say seems to be wrong.

In the end, I can say this class has a lot to offer, what with interpreting any kinds of situations and learning to accept many different opinions and views. It is important for those who want to learn and understand more about everyday happenings, and I suggest they join this class to obtain what we have experienced.

Tears in Heaven

Tears In Heaven – Eric Clapton

would you know my name
If i saw you in heaven
Would you feel the same
If i saw you in heaven
I must be strong and carry on
'cause i know i don't belong here in heaven...

Would you hold my hand
If i saw you in heaven
Would you help me stand
If i saw you in heaven
I'll find my way through night and day
'cause i know i just can't stay here in heaven...

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart, have you begging please...begging please

Beyond the door there's peace i'm sure
And i know there'll be no more tears in heaven...

Would you know my name
If i saw you in heaven
Would you feel the same
If i saw you in heaven
I must be strong and carry on
'cause i know i don't belong here in heaven...

* * *

Our group chose this song because to us, it is meaningful and Eric Clapton’s guitar chords never cease to fascinate his audience. We understand he wrote this song after the death of his son, so it has a sentimental meaning for him and everyone who has lost someone they love.

The first stanza expresses his fear of not being recognized by the person he lost and that he has to continue living his life because they don’t belong in the same place anymore.
The second stanza is similar in meaning to the first stanza but it is conveyed in a slightly different way. The next stanza explains that while continuing to live, you can feel sadness and sorrow until it became uncontrollable, and makes you want to beg for the sadness to stop. After that he assures himself by saying that the one he lost is now in a safe and beautiful place and he will never be sad there.

Overall, this is a nice song to listen to, and it makes us appreciate what we have while we still can and accept fate as it is.

Soft Skills

I have to admit; when I flip through the newspaper I only select few articles that I would like to read. That’s why when our lecturer mentioned ‘soft skills’ in class, I gaped at him as if he was speaking in a different language. After asking around and actually reading the articles concerning this matter, I obtained better understanding of the topic.

Soft skills are actually the skills that are not taught in textbooks but are equally important in our post-student life, specifically during our pursuit of a career or our working life. It includes social skills, communication skills, leadership, teamwork, and lots more. When it is put that way, it is easier to understand.

After class discussions, we agreed that a number of students still lack these skills. When we try to analyze this problem, surely we have to find the cause of it but it will just be a long, endless list and I’m not interested in blaming anybody. So, we can just focus on how to improve the students’ soft skills.

I believe that knowledge still surpass all other skills so the first thing is to be knowledgeable, which is opposed to ignorant. Daily newspapers are to be read, and read the real news where you can benefit from it. Read a lot of books, for they will never fail to teach you something. Don’t hate your subjects in school. I used to hate history, but you’ll be amazed at how much it affects our life now. When talking about the constitution or historic events, I seem to miss out a lot on the matter. Even math, which just seems to be a bunch of numbers thrown together, are not just a bunch of numbers anymore when you’re actually working in the field that requires the skill. So that’s just a couple of examples about the importance of knowledge.

Communication skills can be acquired everywhere, excluding the time when you’re sleeping or in the bathroom (unless you want to bring your cell phone there). Speak, chat, talk with everybody and you will learn that with different people, different manners of speaking are required. This is actually a very good lesson so that you will know when to be formal or informal with the right people. If you are still stuck, go to seminars on public speaking or go purchase one of the many motivational books on communication skills. That should help.

Working alone is good, because you can get the job done the way you want it to. But what happens when you need to work with people? That’s where the leadership and teamwork skills come to use. Working in groups, team-building and that sort of activities requires skills so that everyone can benefit from it. For example, if you are a leader, you have to make sure everyone is involved and nobody is left out. Teamwork obliges you to be responsible for your duty and to help others in need. All of these skills are within us, it’s just up to us when and where to use it.

Those are some of the examples of how to improve soft skills among students. Learning is a life-long act, so we still have time to improve ourselves and learning something new everyday.

More on astronauts...

Hey!! I was reading Utusan online and I came across this article on astronauts (I'm not giving up, hehe), and I took an excerpt to show MORE reasons why they are going into space. I never knew how Muslims perform solat in space, and the astronaut is going to find out. It also explains the reason why the cost is so expensive. This article is from Utusan Malaysia dated 6th September 2006, in the Rencana section. Enjoy.

Penghantaran angkasawan ini ke angkasa lepas nanti bukan sekadar membawa
nama negara tetapi juga budaya Malaysia.
Antaranya makanan kegemaran rakyat
negara ini seperti roti canai, sate, teh tarik dan durian turut akan dibawa ke
angkasa lepas.
Institut Penyelidikan dan Kemajuan Pertanian Malaysia (MARDI)
kini giat mencari kaedah untuk menyesuaikan keempat-empat makanan itu dengan
keadaan mikro graviti yang wujud di angkasa lepas.
Selain itu, penghantaran
angkasawan negara beragama Islam ke ISS juga diharap dapat meneroka cara tepat
untuk menunaikan solat di angkasa lepas.
Penghantaran angkasawan pertama
negara dengan kos RM95 juta merupakan sebahagian daripada program mengimbangi
pemerolehan 18 jet pejuang Sukhoi SU-30 MKM dari Rusia yang ditandatangani pada
5 Ogos 2003.
Di bawah program berkenaan, angkasawan Malaysia tidak akan
semata-mata berperanan sebagai ‘penumpang’ pada misi angkasa lepas tetapi turut
menjalankan eksperimen saintifik di ISS yang terletak 402.34 kilometer dari
permukaan bumi di antara enam hingga lapan hari.
Sebanyak RM18.5 juta (AS$5
juta) diinsuranskan untuk program ulung Malaysia ini bagi melindungi sebarang
tuntutan atau tindakan undang-undang yang mungkin dikenakan ke atas kerajaan
Rusia atau pihak-pihak lain yang terlibat.
Manakala RM3.7 juta (AS$1 juta)
merupakan insurans nyawa bagi angkasawan negara.

Astronauts!!!

In yesterday’s class we were asked about our opinion on astronauts and the space service in Malaysia. Practically the whole class said it is useless and a waste of money, so my blog today is to prove otherwise.

Referring to articles ‘Doctor to be first astronaut’ and ‘Teh tarik in space’ (New Straits Times. September 5, 2006) and ‘HUKM doc says space experience comes before Masters studies’ and ‘Doctors make final cut in astronaut race’ (The Star, September 5, 2006), we can already see that not ordinary people get this once-in-a-lifetime chance, so the first question comes out here: Why do you think it is useless?

Out of 10,000 candidates, only four were left for the elimination round. They are S. Vanajah, a female senior quality engineer at Malaysia’s National Space Agency, Capt. Mohammed Faiz Kamaludin, Malaysia Airlines pilot, Capt. Dr Faiz Khaleed, an army dental surgeon, and the chosen one, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopaedic doctor in HUKM. Tell me, are they ordinary people? They have amazing careers, and they look presentable in the pictures, their choices of words when answering reporter’s questions reflect their high level of knowledge and wisdom. If you think it is useless, then why do so many people applied for this programme? Why do the short listed candidates are all from the professional fields? Why do the Space Agency director-general and even the Russian ambassador are willing to come to the ceremony?

According to the articles, the final cut was made after MONTHS of stringent training and medical tests. If you think it is useless, then why do they need to train so much? Why do they need so many skills? And yet Malaysians prefer to watch cheesy reality TV shows about singing talent, and put so much emphasize to it rather than appreciating real talent and skills.

Our Prime Minister said these people will make Malaysia proud and put Malaysia on the map, and they also earned a place in our country’s history. Yes, I think so too. In order to be remembered as one of our country’s pride, you have to do something that is significant and not something that anyone can do. Putting this in history is worth it, rather than having 15 minutes of fame by being famous for a while at a certain time and then people will forget about you.

When you say it is useless, do you know the objective of their going into space? Dr Sheikh Muszaphar said he wants to absorb the knowledge and experience from this mission into his research. He also plans to conduct orthopaedic studies on the evolution of bone cells in space. He will also undergo a research and development programme, which is one of the emphasized aspects in our RMK 9, including research on cancer and Biotechnology. The science, Technology, and Innovation Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said that this programme will help make children realize the importance of space science. Unlike my classmates who thought it is just useless and a waste of money...

The selected astronaut will undergo a 12-month training stint in the Yuri Gagarin Aerospace Training Centre, in Star City, Moscow. Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) is the first human in space and the first human to orbit the Earth. In 1961. if it was such a big deal then, why can’t it be a big deal now? When I was a Form 5 student at MRSM Taiping, I remembered our physics teacher showed a movie in lecture entitled October Sky (a 1999 movie), which is about 4 boys having the same dream, which is to build a spaceship and explore the outer space. I like the tagline, which is “Sometimes one dream is enough to light up the whole sky’. Jake Gyllenhaal starred in this movie as Homer Hickam, and it is based on a true story. There is a book too, and I think the title is Rocket Boys. The title of the movie is October Sky because the first Sputnik launch was on October 1957, which was what inspired the boys. What I obtained from the movie is, curiosity never leaves you unsatisfied.

Okay, what I’ve been meaning to say is, if we have no idea or no understanding of what other people is doing, then we have no right to judge them harshly. Try to put ourselves in their shoes, if people say what we are doing now is useless and a waste of money, how do you feel? You have been working very hard and suddenly someone came to you and say such things, you must be very angry. So, it is unfair to say that about them. Everyone deserves to do what they want to do. If the government has so much faith in them and willing to provide a large amount of money for them, instead of saying bad things about them, do something to gain people’s faith in what you do so that they will be willing to help you realize your dream.

Malaysians have the habit when somebody does something out of the norm, they will underestimate them. Just because other people are ignorant doesn’t mean that what you are doing is wrong or useless or unsuccessful. Don’t let what people say bring you down.

For those who still think that this space programme is useless and a waste of money, I only have two words for you: Think again.

Les Choristes (The Chorus)

The title of this blog bears the same title of a movie we saw in class. Yes, it is a French movie which requires us to read the subtitles (as we normally do). A few classes back some of us stated that their problem with English is that they depend too much on the subtitles. Well, so now the subtitles are in English so we have no choice but to depend on them ;)

Basically this movie starts with a phone call about Pierre Morhange's mother's death, which brought him back to his hometown. Pierre is an orchestra conductor and we can see that he has a great passion for music.

After the funeral, an old friend of Pierre named Pepinot came to the house. They started reminiscing about their past, which was at a school for troubled children. According to the narrator, which in this case is Clement Mathieu who worked as a supervisor at the school, the school's name itself reflected the kind of situation he got himself into (Fond de L'Etang – Rock bottom).The director of the school, Monsieur Rachin, uses a harsh disciplinary system to cope with the students' naughty pranks. In my opinion, his 'action-reaction' system which punishes students inhumanely is not necessary and it just might be the reason for the students' never-ending ill behaviour. The hiring of Monsieur Mathieu as the new supervisor changed everything. Sure, the students are just as naughty as before, but he discovered a rare and hidden talent in them, and used it to their own good. Because of his love for music, he conducted a choir with the students as his singers. Many things happened during the period of his teaching, including the entry of a very troubled student, Pascal Mondain, and bad attitudes from the director, and also an unrequited love scene between Mathieu and Violette Morhange. The jokes and witty dialogues add a little more spice to this already cleverly-made movie. The story ends with Mathieu getting fired from the school, but his unselfish effort to help the students made him remembered forever.

At first, I’m not too keen to watch this movie because I don’t really like European movies. American style is different, but I’ve watched Creep (a British film) and Amelie (French) and both of them consist of scenes that might not be suitable for some. I am open-minded and all, but sometimes you just can’t take so much of it. But Amelie’s storyline is original, and I like it. After all, the main actress (Audrey Tautou) has recently been cast as Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code, (my favourite book!) and the movie Amelie won an award, I think. What I noticed in those movies (including The Chorus) is that they are fast-paced and unpredictable, which is good because you need the element of surprise when watching a movie. Believe me, if anyone gave me the spoiler for any movie, I will never watch it. I’ve done this before. ;)

Anyway, back to The Chorus. Basically it is about a teacher who uses a different approach in teaching his students and catching their attention. Mathieu’s character is a good man who does things for others and not hoping for anything in return. I like the way he handles the students and the crazy things they do. His patience and ability to understand people is admirable. Pierre Morhange, even though he is one of the main characters in this story, the focus is not just on him. My favourite character is Pepinot, who first met Mathieu at the school gate, and ends by following him back home. He has waited a long time for a father figure and at last that is what he got. The antagonist in this story is Pascal Mondain, the troubled boy who was wrongly accused of stealing and had his revenge by burning down the school, and Rachin, the unnecessarily-strict director of the school. He even took credit for the choir which he doesn’t like at first, but only did so in front of the Countess. Even so, he has his cute moments when he made paper airplanes and joined the students when they’re playing soccer. I think Mathieu’s ways has softened him up a bit. This movie also shows the family values which is portrayed by Pierre and his mother, Violette. No matter what, blood is thicker than water. Violette only wants what’s good for her child, and even left a man she loves for the sake of Pierre’s education. The boy who can’t sing but has to be the music stand (I think his name is Le Querrec) and Pepinot who doesn’t know any songs but is appointed assistant conductor shows that nobody should be left out in any activities, and Mathieu is very smart in knowing that. What else should I say? It just shows that whatever behaviour the children have, it is just a phase in growing up and they need the right people to set them straight. In the end, Pierre who was one of the naughtiest students in school ends up being successful.

You can also feel every imaginable emotion when watching this movie. Anger, pity, funny, and most of all it is a very touching movie. Cleverly made, and as I said before witty dialogues! (I always have a thing for that). The translation is also very good because all the songs have been translated, at the same time retaining the aesthetic values of the lyrics.

All in all, the movie is very good for everyone, especially for the ones who want to teach, and be taught.