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Penang, a humble town with a lifestyle to boosts. The flow of time here, is somewhat slowed, unlike the busy city of KL. Life here, can be said as simple.

In fact Georgetown was ranked by Asiaweek as one of the top 10 cities of Asia. Yes, Georgetown is considered city despite the term town. Strangely enough, Malaysia doesn’t recognize Georgetown as a city (legally) but the world does. Even more strange is that even Miri, a small area compared to Georgetown (and less in population and structural development) has been promoted to a “city” status, and Georgetown has not. I’m sure that people having been to Penang, would agree that Georgetown is a place fit to be called a city.

Penang, as many tourist knows, is a food haven. Almost any type of cuisine you can imagine, we got it all right here. The diverse cultures of Malaysia made it possible for you to enjoy, the wide selection of food here. Chinese, Indian, Malay, Western, Japnese, all the cuisines, gathered in one place. Naturally, one of the most favourite pastimes of Penangites would be eating. Enjoying food, is indeed a way of life for the Penangites, from morning to night, from night to day. In fact, some eating places are open 24-hours a day to serve that need. The ever popular 24-hours Nasi Kandar (rice with spicy gravy or curry on top) stall will forever be crowded with people, regardless of the time. In fact, we Penangites take food very seriously. Ask any Penangites about where is the best place for any kind of dish is, and I tell you, you’ll get a list so long that it reaches the ground.

The language of Penang is of course, plenty. English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandirin, Cantonese, Hokkien(dialect) and Indian are all spoken here. So, even if you are an English speaking person, you can still enjoy yourselves here. The uniqueness of the language here lies in the Penang Hokkien. This dialect, easy to pick up and is fun to use. One can appreciate the rojak simplicity of the dialect, made up from bits and pieces of Chinese, English and Malay. There are English derived terms like “gostan” which means move backwards. The origin was from the english phrase “go astern” a term commonly used in ports to guide the ships to the docks. There is little grammer to learn when picking up this dialect, just a bit, making it much easier to learn than Mandarin. Mind you, this dialect is not only popular with the Chinese only, even a good number of Malay and Indian people have mastered this dialect. So, never assume and watch what you say!
Penang, although small, it may be, is a place of historical value. Laden with old buildings and statues, the place is a walking history book. You can vividly imagine how the colonial times are like as you run your hands on one of the many cannons at Fort Cornwallis, even the many pastel-coloured buildings at Georgetown are pre-war buildings. Penang is indeed a historical heritage.

Unlike KL, Penang is a really a great place to live in. Indeed KL is a great place to work, make money and be successful, but after that, Penang would be the place to go. No, it is not the most powerful cities, but one of the most livable, which to me, is the most important thing for one to call a place home.

Beaches, they’re a plenty here in Penang and many tourists love to come here and laze in the sun. Can you get that in KL? I don’t think so…

Penang is indeed a perfect epitome of the saying that good thing come in small packages. There is so much for me to say but I think I’ll end here. The Penang lifestyle is hard to describe and is something one must come and experience. Excellent food, relaxing place, what can one ask for more?

Here’s a few links about Penang:

Asiaweek’s article on top 10 cities

The Official Penang Tourism Site

Human, a being gifted with the ability to express emotions, a being which can express sadness, joy, fear, just to name a few. But, how do you know what to feel? How do you know “happy” when you feel it?

I believe that emotional degree is relative. The question pondered on today is, “Can a person feel happy if he or she has not experienced unhappiness?” You see, description on anything is relative. Questions like, “how tall is tall?” or how “bright is bright?” can never be truly answered. All of this definitions or descriptive abilities are of nothing but comparison, mere comparison. This is also true with emotions. The degrees of emotions we feel are also, relative.

Identification of the emotion - “How do we know we feel sad when we are sad?”
This is one of the easiest to explain. The answer is that “SOMEONE TOLD YOU SO!” Yeah, just like that! Let me clarify this. When you were a little kid and you cry cause you feel sad, your mother would come up to you and probably saying something like “Come now, do be sad…” At that very instant, the kid starts to relate this emotion as “sad”. Repetitive event similar to this will occur and this will reinforce the recognition of this emotion with the word “sad”. In the end, the word becomes an ingrained part of the emotion, indistinguishable. In other words, the emotion IS sad. Simple, right? Let me give you another example. Assume if there is a person without the knowledge of colors, and I approach him with a red cardboard. I then state to him that the cardboard I am currently holding in my hand is red. So, next time when he sees this pigment, he will identify the color as red. I could also say that the cardboard is blue, it makes no difference. “Red” - the word means nothing but a name to a specific type of color that the world agrees to.

Happiness, one can classify it into categories, content, happy or joy. Perhaps there are even more subcategories of this single emotion. Now, I’ll try to clarify my original statement with an analogy. Consider a person that is perpetually happy all his life. But he himself does not know what this feeling is. Since it is a normal feeling for him, then he may subconsciously classify this emotion as “content”. So, perhaps his goal to find will never be reached because he is unaware of his status. Consider another person that lived in depressing times all his life. Suddenly, that person is move into peaceful times. Though nothing happens particular positive happens to him (consider it a normal day for us) his heart is filled with happiness and content. Emotions are displayed based on past experiences. I mean, past experiences provide a benchmark on the intensity of the emotion. This explains why they are grumpy people this world!

Since, emotions are relative, it can never be measured. You cannot say that you’re 7/10 happy can you? It is impossible for one to relate to another’s emotions exactly although it is possible to relate roughly. You can “feel” for the person’s grief but you cannot feel the exact pain the person is feeling. You may base you grief on the lost of a loved one sometime ago and that “grief” you are feeling is based on you own experience, not the other person’s. In order to feel, what the other feels, you must be the person himself, experience all the events that has occured in his life first hand. Interesting…

Perhaps, this theory may be flawed. In response, do write to me and give me your thoughts on this matter. Your replies are greatly welcomed.

Ambitions, as for most of us students know, are what drive us to aspires, to pursue our dreams and to achieve self-realization. Also, as most of us also know, most of us do not really have one. I mean, who really knows what he or she wants to be in the next twenty years time? Can someone really tell? How do you know that you will like to become a doctor when you have not gotten your hand bloody with human blood, losing a patient in your hands, killing a human being? Is anyone really sure of what they want to be. Ten years from now, you may wake up one day and say, “I really hate being what I am today!” Of course, one cannot see so far into the future, one can only do the best to see to this crossroad of life.

Ambitions provide a drive to work hard at even something we hate for a “reward” later on. You notice how those students with ambition, studies for an exam? Even I can do that! It is good to have ambitions, but one must be really sure of what one is doing. Do you know, what happens if one loses to drive to become what one aspires in the middle of the course itself? To lose all that motivation to study as now study has become meaningless as the goal you have been aiming for so long has now vanished, now that would be disastrous.

The purpose of a person’s ambition must be true. To aim to be a doctor because of the M factor is just wrong. Do you ever think of what happens after you become a doctor. You’ll probably hate your job and will always be stuck with what you do. “It is better to be what you like”, that’s what they say. If you try to do that here, you’ll probably die without a job. I believe that there has to be a compromise to your wants versus the jobs offered. Living your dreams, that all just unrealistic.

For me, I do not have one yet. For years during my academic life I have been without ambition, studying without a purpose and even until today is still without one, perhaps that is not adequate. For now, I attempt to aim for smaller goals, like getting in a good uni. Perhaps, that is the only way for now. As for the much hated subjects, why not try to pretend you like it? With enough pretending, perhaps you will actually like the subjects. Why not?

Yep, one more day and it is back to school! A bittersweet feeling envelope this event as the day draws nearer to the 17th. All of us, that will go back to school will be thrilled to meet each other again, to catch up on those times we were on holiday. I mean, to catch up on things will still bring a nostalgic feeling even though we have not met for a couple of days, that feeling is really great. Time sure flies, it seems like yesterday we were taking the major government exam, cringing in fear and panic as the clock ticks ever closer to the time that marks to beginning of the first paper. Then, just like that, it was all over. That happened almost 8 months ago and it seemed all too vivid to even forget. Now, the class of 5Sc1 has all gone their separate ways, the group that we all come to know as friends, have been disband. School, a place to meet people, a place to commune with people we come to know as friends, have now lost hold of the people. The slate has already been wiped clean to a new beginning. I could still remember the first day of school. Everything seems so exciting and there were so many friends to make. Now, half a decade have already passed and now people that i have known for over 5 years or more, I may never see them again. We often take for granted the time we have among friends, as though it was eternal. Everyday in school, we are given the opportunity to communicate with our friends and we have never fully appreciated this gift. Now, even meeting those friends would be really hard for some of us. Some would be in Australia while others in the UK or even in the states. The class of 5Sc1 has dispersed, all going their own separate ways in life.

Perhaps it is all for the better. They will meet other they will come to know as friends and so will I. It will all be like the first day of school for all of us, all over again….

A good strategy can actually turn the tides of any war. Have you ever read the Chinese Classic, “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”? The struggle for power among three kingdoms, that is was it is all about. A shown countless times in the novel, strategy can indeed defeated brute strength. In the battle of Chi Bi, against the enormous army of Cao Cao, Lui Bei and allies put their heads together to defeat a mammoth such a Cao Cao. Many stratagems were made, creating ruse, deceiving the enemies, using the natural terrains against the enemy, all to reach a single goal, to defeat the enemy. In order to reach that goal, small tiny plan are utilized, forming what we call a strategy. The unbelievable thing about strategy is the ability of the strategist to look beyond the present, to predict what will happen and there by act accordingly to prevent or initiate an event. Do we have that power of perception? To be able to predict and strategize from all aspects, without a loop-hole, can a person possibly have such ability? Can such ability be trained? What do you think?

Getting back to point, the importance of having a strategy is that it ensures a better chance of achieving that certain goal we have set. But, what if we were to do without one? Ever notice how charging head on into things never work out right? “Faking it”, that is a lousy way to handle things. The importance of strategy in today’s world is increasing as men now battle with their mind, not their might. I mean, the caveman way doesn’t work nowadays and violence doesn’t really solve much. However I’m not saying that fighting doesn’t involve strategy but is it of less importance today. To be able to outwit your competitors in business (or in anything else), one must be able to identify strengths and weakness of the opponents and then take advantage of the situation. Evade the strengths and exploits the weaknesses that is what we must do. The problem does not lie in identifying the strengths and weaknesses but the latter. That is where the perception ordeal comes in. Oh yeah, about people with such a powerful perception, that is rare. As they say, two heads are better than one. Teamwork now comes into play. I’ll write about this next time.

In the meanwhile, I recommend you to reading the The Romance of The Three Kingdoms. I know, there is the game but the experience of reading the actual classic is totally different.

“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.” - Sun Tzu

Say, how many people sigh when they come across this word? Yeah, most people don’t really like school. I mean, it is a place where you sit and look at books the whole day. The unchanging education system make life in school mundane and sometimes life zapping. Day in, day out, you come to school, sit in class, wait for the bell to ring and have recess, go back into class, the bell rings again, you go home. Isn’t that boring?

If you think about school a bit deeper, you find that it is more than that. To me, besides being an education centre, it is a really great place to meet people. For a student, there will be a good chance to know that all the friends around him or her would be someone met in school. I mean, I meet very good friends in school, true friends that are not after anything you have. Since you start school at an early age, it gives a person an opportunity to meet people true to their character. No smokescreen and all, just a person the way he or she is. To make friends now, would be different, one cannot place that much trust in people than when you were in school. As a person becomes adult, the person will develop way to hide his or her true intentions and feelings. Yes, it is hard to distinguish a cunning person from a true friend when in the workplace. But this is not so in school, you normally would grow up with your classmates. By then you would know who are true friends and who are not . School is indeed a great place to meet friends.

School is also a great place to practice one’s conduct. How you speak, how you react is properly trained when you attend school. No, I’m not talking about your English class here, I’m talking about you communicating with your fellow classmates and teachers. Your daily conduct here, would not bring such a big consequences that it would in the working life. Think about it, if you insulted your teacher, your teacher would just punish you and then you say sorry. Then all is over, that’s it with the exception of maybe a bit of demerits or detention. But…. if you were to do that to your boss, then your life is over! I mean, you’ll probably lose your job, if not, there will be no chance to get a promotion, your working life will probably turn into a living hell as if it is not bad enough. Even if you apologise, there will always be a good chance your boss will still hold a grudge against you. In school, even if the teacher hates your guts, you can always look toward next year, when you get a new set of teachers! Even your conducts with people of the same level can be practise here. Insulting people on the street may result you in getting a major beating, even the slip of the tongue may get someone so enraged as to flurry you with words of hatred. Insult someone at work may result in major backstabbing. However, in school normally all will be forgiven and forgotten with time. Worst comes to worst, you probably end up with a black eye or lose a few friends. Bout the black eye, you can’t do much but for the friends, you’ll probably make more, no problem.
School is a great place to prepare a person to the working world. It is not only about the academic knowledge but also the living skills you need. Suddenly, school doesn’t sound like such a bad place after all does it?

Pic: My alma mater!

Stories-everyday we come across them, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Stories come in many forms and are so integrated with our normal lives that we sometimes fail to notice them.

The first thing that will come to your mind are books, story books! Yes, this is indeed true but stories are told not only in books but also in the soap operas people watch everyday. Even the evening news could be considered a story, events unfolding about the political tensions between countries and et-cetera. Commercial are too stories!!! Take a mosquito repellant ad for example. Person X has troubled dealing with the pest, person Y comes along and recommends product to person X. Person X commends how unbelievable/ miraculous product is and states the many reasons why you should have the products.
Even the gossips among elderly folks can be considered a story. The “exposé” about the private lives of your neighbour being told in explicit detail, would that not classify to be a story of some sort?

Everyone loves to hear a good story, don’t you agree? Stories are often so as it ignites the viewer’s interest to a certain event. For example, when you read a good storybook, you would often find yourself asking, “What is going to happen next?” or “Will the hero/heroine die in the end?” Yes, interest, that is what reels those readers/viewers/gossipers.

In light of the general idea that the public loves stories, stories can actually be used to influence a person. This is where all the fun begins! Stories can be used to project countless type of emotions and all. A sad soap opera for example can be used to tug the emotional heartstrings of the audience no matter how ridiculous the situation will sound to a person not hooked to the show. Advertisers now are getting so brilliant with the capabilities to gain revenue through ads, which tells a story of some sort. There was a shampoo ad, which ran like a news report saying how their formula was stolen and all. The idea was fantastic as they actually created sequels for this ad, giving the viewers its update on the stolen formula. On the more basic side, there are books like Chicken Soup for the Soul that often invoke the feeling of being touched and all. Hallmarks channel also does the same don’t you agree? Sometimes, they are acclaimed as life changing to those that read/listen/watch the stories. Yes, stories are incredible persuaders.

In my opinion the most powerful incorporation of the influencing powers of stories with the goal to gain revenues is some Japanese cartoons that were build to sell. There was this super yoyo craze half a year ago. The reason? The launching of a cartoon series about yoyos. Yoyos being the simple toy as we know it (two pieces of plastic with a string attached in the middle) are super-inflated into sophisticated tools of skills with ball-bearing axels, high grade string and all those expensive extras you need to wield the yoyos like a pro. Dramatisation, that was the key to make the series work. Yes, the series made yoyo looked like the toy of all toys. There are many other series that was made to sell, Pokemon (card and games), YuGiHo(card game), battle racers(mini car with spikes), Beyblade (tops! Wow, they can even popularize that?!!!). I tell you this people can make anything look good!!! They can even make something like flossing look like an epic battle of good versus evil!!! Yes, they’re that good!! (I even saw comics on Mahjong and Pachinko in Japan!)

To cap it off, stories is indeed a tool of persuasion. Even lawyers use them to gain the interest of the jury. The power of stories can be used by almost anyone, whether it be a public-speaker, an MC, the advertising firm or even a kindergarten teacher to her pupil. No matter what you do, it doesn’t really matter, everyone loves a good story.

Here’s a thought, why not write a story today?