Barter Sharing

Study Visit to Dewan Negeri Selangor

2015-11-03T19:33:00.001+08:00

Everything happens for a reason. Everybody would tell you that. For me, I tell myself that quite often enough to remind myself, that everything that happens around me, is a sign of where I should be turning my head to. Of course, you can say 'like attracts like', and that is also probably another reason how I found out about this organised study visit to the Selangor State Assembly. The fruitful visit - organised by Adrian Yeo, who has also founded Power Shift Malaysia, a youth organisation where the younger generation strives to redeem the public attention towards the climate crisis - is a testimony of why I should be convinced that waking up early on a Monday morning, and driving one hour to Shah Alam to visit a mundane-looking governmental organisation is worth every pounce of the effort.

Why is it fruitful?

There was a time where I always wonder, what is so amazing about watching something live? What has being physically there for band concert, a sport match, or an orchestra got to do with instead watching every single detail from Live TV? Or couldn't I read about it later from a magazine? The answer is: the experience. We learn and collect informations through sounds, sights, scent, surrounding energies and the people that were present in the experience itself. Hence, touring around the Dewan, watching the 13th Conference of the assembly live from the visitor seating area, learning about the state legislative and their database website at dewan.selangor.gov.my (yes, their website is quite up-to-date, thanks to the dedicated Azira, Head of the Research Unit of the Speaker's Office), meeting the honourable Speaker, Hannah Yeoh, and the current executive committee member in charge of environment and tourism, Elizabeth Wong - are all part of my knowledge of the Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor now. Did I also mention that they served vegan lunch consisted of spicy delicious curry, fragrant black pepper seitan and long beans? It is really not very difficult to earn a space in my heart, as far as a veggo tag is present, you have my keen eyes.

Hence, this study visit to Dewan Negeri Selangor, where the state laws are discussed, passed and enforced - would be considered as one of my baby steps, towards delving deeper to the solutions of any climate crisis, social problems and education gaps. I truly believe that public policy, the principled guide to action taken by the admins of the government and organizations, is the best platform to effect large-scale social and economic justice gradually. Public law and policies govern actions of people, and organizations, and subsequently their thoughts. In time, this becomes a habit and form a collective consciousness of what is rightful and what is not, even when the norms perceived as socially acceptable could in reality be far from ideal. I believe a kind, intelligent and informed society is common sense, and is not impossible if our societal platform encourages everyone to become the best of themselves.

Photo with YB Elizabeth Wong

Photo of DUN (Dewan Undangan Negeri) Selangor

Climate change is real, and it is affecting millions of lives, humans and animals alike. In Ghana, severe droughts and floods, together with rising temperatures, rainfall reduction and its erratic patterns - is decreasing crop yield and soil fertility, as a result plundering incomes and social securities of the mostly already poor farmers and agriculture workers. Among many other examples, our changing climate is also causing looming threats to animals, including to the Great White. Rising sea water temperature has made the sea unliveable for many fish, causing their death (imagine to live in a haze situation for a full whole year round), and this has plummeted the food supply of the sharks. In order to feed, there is a current phenomena where the sharks move closer to the shore in search of food, to swimming and boating areas of humans, sometimes bumping into surfers and swimmers. Climate change is known to have brought about extreme flood, bush fires, thunderstorms, ocean dead zones, disappearance of ice caps, inundation of villages, wilting crops, among the many others. What could you do to help? Become Vegan. A vegan diet can reduce 87% of global warming. In precise, the greenhouse gas emission by a vegan is 87% lower than that of a meat-eating person, while that of an organic vegan is 94% lower. If you'd like to read more about it, there an article published by the UK Parliment at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmenvfru/213/213we70.htm
or from Foodwatch, a Germany Non-Profit that exposes food-industry practices that are not in the interest of the consumers at
https://www.foodwatch.org/uploads/media/foodwatch_report_on_the_greenhouse_effect_of_farming_05_2009_01.pdf.
My favourite foodwatch demands: Agricultural policy must be part of climate change policy.

Translating SPM cert

2015-10-17T00:19:00.001+08:00

Got my SPM cert translated for RM10 at Lembaga Peperiksaan yesterday. Took quite a drive, and with the recent and sudden toll hike, it was RM20 for toll driving from IKEA area to Putrajaya. Putting avoid toll options on google map will save a few couple of bucks. Positive news was the process itself was very quick, in less than 10 minutes, my cert was translated and certified by the Assistant Director of the Examination Syndicate, as the true certified copy. I actually thought the cert is an original translated copy and hence need not to be certified. I am still thinking the same.

Drove to the Taman Duta branch before to check in, but according to the security, this branch only deals with 'confidential' information. So putrajaya it was, and the parking there was very shocking to me. it was quite confusing to see where the parking spots are, and many cars were parked surrounding the front of the all the kementrian office's entrances. The flow was pretty bad in there. Had some time to sight see before driving into block E11, there are definitely many rooms for improvements.

Been through some other options before lembaga, such as getting a list of embassy approved translators, and even self-translation, the former is plausible but it was too expensive compared to lembaga option, and the latter was obviously just something for me to have fun and retrain my bahasa-english language translation skills.

Hope posting this will save you time and money on translating your cert that I've voluntarily invested in. Also took a picture of how the terjemahan sijil looks like!
Blurring it a little bit for some discretion :D

Favourite Positive Channel

2013-03-26T18:00:00.001+08:00

Tune in to http://suprememastertv.com for more constructive programming on uplifting shows and causes, climate change and global warming, the devastating effect of meat industry on the environment, information on the vegan diet, free cooking shows and recipe originating from all around the world.

Message from the founder
"It’s a sure sign that the consciousness of the world is rising. People present themselves by acting, thinking, talking or writing. People who are elevated and have a positive mind, they write positive things, they see things in the positive way, and act positively. People who are good at heart think good about others and vice versa, etc. Whatever’s in our heart, we will think like that; then we express it in different ways, in television, theater and writing. So, if we have more positive channels and media as a whole, that is a sure sign that the collective consciousness of the world is more elevated and more wholesome. And by the way, everyone, I believe, can be an inspiration to the world, to contribute to a better life, a more elegant life, a more desirable life, a nobler life on this planet for all to enjoy. Because if we create a positive atmosphere, a benevolent atmosphere, we are also benefited, we live in it. So, we have to create benevolent atmosphere for us. And that, everyone should remember."

Animals Improves Health and Wellbeing

2013-03-24T18:53:00.000+08:00

"We cannot even emphasise how important the animals are to our wellbeing, emotionally, psychologically, mentally. Imagine our world with no animals at all, just imagine it. And if anyone who has dogs, cats, birds or any other animal, turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, if they have them as pets, they would understand more than I can express how important the animals are to our wellbeing. And anyone who has cats and dogs, according to medical studies, they are healthier, they live longer. Even if they are ill, they get cured quickly. Even just by being with animals, stroking them, petting them, loving them, taking care of them makes you healthier, according to scientists and medical research. That is how important it is. The animals, they emit some kind of healing. Even the wild animals as well, they emit a healing energy to anyone around or to humans as well. They are more than important."

And to testify to that, here is a picture with my first love and all bundle of joy together, paws-wide:

The mystical crop circles

2011-07-21T19:24:00.000+08:00

I remembered my mum once borrowed a book from a big brother when I was about 12 years old, and in this book, the so-called mysteries have been discussed, but of course, I wasn't interested in the discussion, but only the pictures.

Anyway, it also talked about crop circles, but I was so sceptical back then, and also I didn't think much about it, and treated the book just like any other other story books, only it is more mysterious.

And now with these images and story teller surfacing, I am just not so sceptical any more.

Click on the title to read sample books about crop circles. A renowned author regarding this would be Barbara Lamb.

A Hike at Broga Hill

2010-01-11T00:06:00.000+08:00

I don't think you'll believe it if I were to tell you that I woke up at 5am, well, 4.55am to be exact, just because I wanna see the sun rise from the horizon. Well it's kinna hard to convince myself that I ACTUALLY did that! Well if my sister didn't wake me up I'll probably call off the plan again. Slept at around 2.30 and waking up at 5am just isn't something that will put you in a mood for a DAWN hike.

The sky was pitch black when we embarked on our journey, all the wayyy UP! Whatever la, lucky the guy in front of me has a torch, or else it's really impossible to NOT get your left or right leg stuck into one of the holes or, both.

Well if you're looking for a leisure walk up hill, this is definitely the choice. It took us for about 40 mins to reach the second-class peak (my jeh-fu couldn't take it anymore) and for the toughs and fits, 20 mins is more than adequate. Plus, you get to enjoy the invigorating air once you're at the top and also, a ZEN vista.

While enjoying the varied mountain scenery, we managed to snap a few pictures~

SO! In short, although the trip was tiring (Won't be so if I could doze off earlier), but at least it was worthwhile.

And that was how I spend my Sunday morning =)

What a wig!

2009-08-30T04:13:00.000+08:00

When we see ourselves in the mirror everyday, 9 out of 10 times we will definitely involuntarily do something with our hair, either touch it, fiddle with it, or etc. And human's one kind of creature who loves new things. We get bored with our current hairstyle. So, we cut our hair. Perm it. Rebound it. Dye it. Gel it. Wax it. Some even go to the extent to Bead it (its quite cute anyway).

BUT! This modern age has given us an opportunity to change our hairstyle in no time-thanks to d WIGS!

And since I was waiting for my mum, I really didnt mind to try on some new hairstyle.

Dont I just look like CORDIN BLEU? If i got dark skin I think I can look like a pretty decent black...

This look like the hairstyle I got when I was in Form 3. Sudden change. Previously curly long
hair. Then, BAAM!

Hmmm. This one...Broom?Poodle?

And this one is my favourite! So I've decided to use it as my profile picture! hahahaha
Whats next?

HAHAHAHA.My sister and I laughed like hell when we see this one. Non stop. LOLs.
And this is my sista. 2 years younger.

Yeah that's the wig I used. But she looked fine in this=)
And my mum actually bought this wig.

And if the wig didn't cost as much as RM 300, I would certainly have bought a few for myself just for a new look in a fast and easy way.

That's my real hair. If you got confused after looking at so many different hair styles =) Do leave some comments~