Sunday is a rest day for most of the people. However, I had a tired but meaningful Sunday yesterday.
Yesterday, our group of volunteers went to repair the house of a family we had been taken care of for almost a year. At the same time of repairing the house, we also cleaned the environment surrounding their house..
The environment was very bad. It was like a mini garbage site near their house. We used an excavator to collect the rubbish and then put the rubbish in the City Council dump trucks for them to carry to throw. The dump trucks were already gone and came back for few times and yet there were still a lot rubbish at the site. So, you can imagine how bad is the condition surrounding their house. : -S
However, the excavator broke down halfway and was unable to continue to clear the site. Guess the site clearing can only be to continue later on two day later after the mechanic repair the excavator.. :
Beside clearing the rubbish, we had also collected a lot of recycable items such as plastic bottles, glass bottles, aluminium tins, and etc... loaded full on our lorry....
We had managed to repair and replaced new roof for the house..The project is going to be continue next Sunday to repair the kitchen and extend one more room for the family...
A lot of us always like to complain on things that lacking on our life such as not having enough money to spend, not living in big house or driving a nice car and etc.... But you do have a chance to see the condition of those who are really poor and sick people, you would appreciate what are you having now.........
面對清晨的寧靜,耳聞鳥叫蟲鳴,眼觀良辰美景,這麼祥和的境界,不就是人間淨土嗎?其實心淨則土淨,若能時時照顧好心地,去除煩惱、滌清心鏡,則能映照出人間的祥和與亮麗。
所以需要時時照顧好心地,才能以心轉境,而不受外境影響。所謂善惡一念心,面臨同一個境界,不同的心念,就有不同的解讀。學佛就是要學得如何調適自心、培養善念,即使處於逆境中,也能轉化為美善而破除諸多惡念。
佛陀在世時,說過一則故事:有一隻母鵠生了三隻小鳥,卻正好遇上乾旱,植物都枯萎了,因此牠們賴以維生的蟲類也都消失得無影無蹤。
這隻母鳥找不到食物,又看到幼鳥張大嘴嗷嗷待哺,實在不忍心,就撕咬自己翅膀的肉來餵幼鳥。但是這三隻小鳥還沒碰到肉,就說:「這些肉很像媽媽的味道,該不會是媽媽用自身的肉來餵我們?」於是牠們決定寧願餓肚子,也不能吃媽媽的肉。
這分親情至愛,感動了天神,即使是鳥類也有母慈子孝的情義,天神便協助母鳥餵養小鳥。
佛陀接著說:「那隻母鳥就是過去生的我,那三隻小鳥,就是現在的阿難、目犍連和舍利弗。」在過去生中,佛陀與他的弟子,經常以這種至情至愛互相成長,從前以自身翅膀的肉來餵養,現在則以法語培育。
現代也有一種中鵑鳥,因為不會築巢、育雛,所以在繁殖時,會趁著鷦鶯或其他鶯科鳥類的母鳥出外覓食時,把牠巢中其中一個蛋推出巢外,自己再偷偷下一個蛋。因為顏色和花紋都和鶯蛋幾乎一模一樣,所以等母鳥回來時,也不會發覺,而一同孵育。
因為中鵑鳥的蛋比較早孵化,幼雛的眼睛還沒張開,就本能地將其他的蛋擠出巢外,以免其他小鶯和牠搶食;充滿慈心的母鳥,不疑有他,還是不斷辛苦地覓食來餵養小中鵑鳥。
即使當小中鵑鳥的體型已經長到比母鳥大了三、四倍,母鳥還是盡責地餵食。但是,當中鵑鳥可以自己飛行的時候,卻頭也不回地離開。
人類也有很多是養子不教,更讓人感慨的是,有些子女非但不孝敬父母,甚至長大了還拋棄父母,不報養育之恩。
總言而之,眾生的世界確實複雜,不過若去深究,不論什麼眾生,都離不開一念心。若是一念心善,就像鵠鳥的母愛情深;如果一念心惡,就會如同中鵑鳥的無情。
同一種境界,竟是兩種截然不同的心念。我常說:善惡在人心中拔河。一念善心起,可以消除其他惡念,映照出一切美而善的境界;如果一念惡心起,就會吞噬其他善念,顯現出惡劣與污濁。所以一切唯心造,只要將這念心照顧好,拂拭心塵,彰顯清淨本性,那就是佛性了。
Labels: Daily Still Thought
This morning, I go to RHB to buy bank draft to pay for my examination fee. I have already filled up the application form before I go the bank. When until my turn, I submit the application form together with my bank book. Then, the counter staff ask me if I have any invoice. I was stunned for a while on the question she ask. Then I told her that the draft is for paying the examination fee and I told her that previously I went to Maybank to buy, they had not ask anything on that. Then, she told me that different bank different policy and the her officer in charge insisted for some proof.
Since I did not bring any proof with me, I left the bank feeling a bit angry. X( . The bank draft I buy is only thousand australian dollar, not million...why do they insist to have proof on that.
Wasted all my time and petrol to go to the bank and end up with nothing... :(
Nay, do end up with something. A lesson to me: check on the bank policy first before you want to get any service from them....
Labels: Personal View
It is an email receive from a friend, just to post it out to share.. :)
The Main Causes of Liver Damage are:
1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are the main cause. 2. Not urinating in the morning. 3. Too much eating.4. Skipping breakfast.5. Consuming too much medication. 6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our body to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to 'schedule.'
Because: -
Evening at 9 - 11pm :
Is the time for eliminating unnecessary/ toxic chemicals (de-toxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes). This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will have a negative impact on her health.
Evening at 11pm - 1am :
De-toxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.
Early morning 1 - 3am :
De-toxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.
Early morning 3 - 5am :
De-toxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the de-toxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.
Morning 5 - 7am :
De-toxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.
Morning 7 - 9am :
Absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 -10am rather than no meal at all. Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood.
Therefore, have a good sleep and don't sleep late!
Labels: General
According to a news article in the Star today with the title"Comedy of errors in subtitling", a thriller movie show turns into comedy because of its error in subtitling....
"Serial Killer" is translated into "Pembunuh Bijirin". If I am watching that movie also, I am sure I will laugh until my tears come out..... =))
This is a very serious error in translation. I do not know whether nowadays the subtitling for TV or movie shows are still that bad because I seldom see the subtitling. I used to see the subtitle when watching movies when I was a kid but I did not regconize any errors in the translation.. Probably I was not enough expert to recognize the error at that time.. :P
Anyone have any more example of this to share with me? :D
Receive a SMS from a friend....
"Years come and go... But today is a special day.. #20072007#. Double Match. It happens only once in a lifetime...so...I wish You a very wonder Wonderful Day.. :) "
I do not realize that today is 20072007 until I receive this SMS....
Well, wish everyone that happens to read this blog a wonderful day also... :)
Labels: General
Yesterday, there was a black out in Miri from around 11am until 7pm.
I wait in the office until 4pm and still there was no current. After this, my colleague and I decided to go back since there is no point to wait anymore.
After came out from the office, I went to Imperial Mall to get some groceries. There was no current also but they were operating using generators. Then, the current finally restored at around 4.20pm at Imperial Mall.
Luckily, when I got back home, the current at my housing area there is already restored.... Otherwise, we would going to have candle light dinner... ;))
Before this, SESCO sent a notice to our office mentioning that the current to our area here will be disconnected for almost half a day for cable installation on 18/7/07. However, the current only got disconnected for 15 minutes only. Yesterday, without any notice, the current got disconnected for half a day.. :-<
:) ;) =)) :( :D :-/ :-t
The following is a news article from The Stars...
Last week, the Prime Minister lambasted those who still throw rubbish out of their houses, along roads and into rivers. Don’t bet on his scolding to have much impact, though.
If this is made a compulsory lesson for every Malaysian child, perhaps there could be better hope for us to achieve true national unity.
Labels: General
Q: Which one provides better return, growth or value investing?
Choosing between growth and value investing is always a tough decision. Value investing is concerned with the current price level and fair price of a stock, while growth investing is more focused on the potential earnings growth of the company.
According to Warren Buffett, the term “value investing” is redundant because “investing” is definitely an act of seeking value, at the very least, sufficient to justify the amount paid. He believes that growth is always a component in the calculation of value. For every dollar used in investing, it must create more than a dollar of long-term market value.
The principle behind value investing is using the market approach, which is concerned about the current price level of a stock. Therefore, ratios such as price earnings ratio (PER) and price-to-book are used and special attention is paid to the price component of these ratios.
When using the PER method, a low PER is preferred, as investors believe the current low price level may be due to an overly pessimistic assessment of the company’s future prospects. The PER will eventually revert to its normal market level when other investors realised that prospects are not as bad as they thought.
As a result, they rely on the movement in stock price rather than the earnings. They will search for companies with low PERs, as they expect the ratios to increase to their normal levels with or without an increase in earnings. However, value investors face the risk of misinterpreting a cheapness signal when the market’s concern about the stock may indeed be correct.
Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, defined a growth company as one that has performed better than the average company over a period of years and is expected to continue doing so in the future.
Growth investing is a method of identifying companies with average growth prospects. Its focus will be on the potential growth in earnings, which has not yet been reflected in the current stock price.
Here, the key risk is the non-occurrence of the expected growth. In some cases, growth investors may be entirely vindicated in their judgment of the quality of the underlying business, but the stock still performed badly because it was so overly priced at the time of purchase.
In addition, this method assumes a constant PER. If the PER declines for some unanticipated reason, the investors will incur losses as a result of lower stock prices despite a higher growth in earnings.
Thus, in addition to using the PER, value investors will use other measures, like dividend yield or price-to-book ratio, to support their purchase decisions.
In contrast, growth investors will come in at the early recovery stages of a company’s fundamentals. At that point in time, the stock’s price will have already moved higher from its recent low. Value investors will usually start to feel uncomfortable with the price level and sell the stock even though the company’s fundamentals have recovered, while growth investors will buy the stock in the belief that they are buying high to sell even higher.
Growth investors believe that it is safer to buy stocks when the fundamentals have shown definite signs of recovery, and will sell higher when the prices increase as a result of further improvement in the companies’ fundamentals.
Hence, both value and growth investing have their strengths and weaknesses. Failure to pay attention to their risk factors may result in unintended losses.
Labels: Investment
At last, all the exam result for my first semeter MBA subjects results are released... Luckily i pass alll....
The second semester has just started.... This semester I am taking Comparative Law and Business, and Investment Strategies....hmmm...two interesting subjects.. :P
Well, wish my luck for the second semester...
Labels: Personal View
Labels: Daily Still Thought
Received an email in my Yahoo Mail this morning:
"From lady T.Yengeni,WESSELSBRON-south AfricanDear Friend,My name is Mary Yengeni a south African Parliamentarian Wife. I got your Contact through a personal research .I am the Wife to Mr. Tony Yengeni . Mr Yengeni was the chairman of parliament's in south Africa and the former chief whip of the ruling political party ANC.
My Husband (MR. T. YENGENI), as a result of trust and Confidence has mandated that I search for a Reliable and trustworthy foreign partner,who Will help receive some funds, which we have in cash Totalling of(fifteen Million United States Dollars) into a personal,company or any Reliable foreign bank account for safe keeping and investment.Since our family bank accounts Within and outside the country have all been Frozen by the authorities. You can check the follwing web-sitesabout my husband and i and about the latest developement about our family.1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2756861.stm2) http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/10/03/safrica.arms/index.htmlHowever we have managed to push the money to West- Africa ( Ghana ) and it is presently in Ghana through a diplomatic means which was only the means the money could leaves South Africa . The total sum will be shared as follows:25% for you , 70% For my family , and the remaining 5% will be used for the reimbursement of all the expenses we incurre in the process of this transaction.In this regard,i will advice you to contact my Son that is in refugees camp in Ghana, He will give you further details on the way forward, and necessary surpport. Name Richard .Sam.Yengeni.E-mail address :samweah_kg@yahoo.co.id
Refugees camp Ghana R/M 47, Block 10 Endeavor to keep this business strictly confidential because of South African Goverment.I will be most grateful if you can assist us in this transaction.Awaiting your urgent reply asap.
ThanksMary Yengeni. Mrs(For The Family)"
I know this is a spam. However, I am curious what are things that will come out if I did click the link...so I copy the link and paste it in the browser..This is what come out...a news from CNN website..
"CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A senior official in the South African government has been arrested on multi-billion dollar corruption and fraud charges.
Tony Yengeni, the African National Congress (ANC) party's chief whip, is the first high-profile politician to be arrested in the long-running investigation.
He appeared in court on Wednesday to deny the charges of corruption, fraud, perjury and forgery in connection with a massive discount he allegedly received on a luxury car in exchange for influencing an arms deal, according to court documents.
Yengeni, former chairman of Parliament's defence committee, was arrested on Wednesday by the elite Scorpions police unit after he voluntarily surrendered to their custody, Reuters news agency reported.
An arrest warrant had also been issued for Michael Woerfel, an official with European Aeronautic and Defence Space Company (EADS), which was involved in the suspect arms deal.
EADS -- owned by DaimlerChrysler, Aerospatiale Matra of France and Spain's Casa -- won a number of defence contracts in South Africa after the end of apartheid to supply helicopters, submarines and fighter jets.
Fifty allegations
Yengeni and other senior government and defence officials are alleged to have bought luxury cars at massive discounts through EADS.
According to court documents, Yengeni bought a Mercedes-Benz ML320 4x4 at a 48 percent discount from DaimlerChrysler Aerospace -- which was later folded into EADS -- with the intention of using his power to influence the awarding of defence contracts to the company.
Yengeni, who was not asked to plead when he appeared before Cape Town Magistrates Court, had previously denied receiving a discount for the car.
EADS has acknowledged that it did arrange about 30 car deals over the last three years but said it made a profit from the sales.
In a statement released to Reuters news agency the ANC said: "We believe in the principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty (but) should there be any truth in the allegations the ANC will not hesitate to take action."
Three South African state agencies are probing up to 50 allegations of fraud and corruption in the awarding of defence contracts after parliament's public accounts committee found irregularities. "
Now, why should I want to help a corrupted politician? Even this is for real, I would not offered to help them also. The people who have been charged with the above allegations should been setenced to whole life prison. The money they obtained should be given to help those poor and needed people in South Africa. How can these people live in such luxury life and yet there are people in their own country who have died because of hunger....
Labels: General
My MBA exam result just released yesterday. Got a pass for one subject. Waiting anxiously for the result of any subject. Hope I can pass as well..... :P
Labels: General
人間菩提--全球最重要的話題 (Protecting The Environment- A Critical Issue for Our World Today)
Posted by snowswallow on Friday, July 13, 2007日前一個名牌環保袋引起數千人搶購,雖然環保袋的美意是希望民眾珍惜物命,但是在之前卻得花錢、花心力在錯誤的行為上,讓 證嚴上人相當感慨。反觀慈濟人做環保的精神,不僅延續物命,也讓垃圾變黃金,因此 上人特別感恩慈濟人,能擁有正確的心念,珍惜每一個資源,這才是真正愛地球、落實環保的行動。用過的塑膠袋一個一個摺好回收,這就是最實用的環保袋;小小的橡皮筋一天一天累積起來,也是可以重複利用的物資。環保就是要在生活中落實,人人都能夠珍惜物命,地球的資源才不會被消耗殆盡。 馬來西亞的慈濟人用回收紙做成書袋,就成為孩子們上學可用的書包提袋。各種居家用品,回收後經過整理,一樣可以讓物命延續,這都是因為懂得用感恩心來惜福,所以更能用智慧來造福。環保生活,隨時都能開始,環保物資,隨處都能取得,何不用感恩惜福的心,改變奢侈浪費的迷茫?!
source: http://www.newdaai.tv/chinese/program.php?func=program_view&id=29115
Labels: Master's Teaching
According to the Star today, the Health Minister has adviced the public not to reuse plastic and food containers. According to the Minister, the quality of these products are questionable and people are at risk being exposed to chemicals that might seep into the food or liquid.
These has raised a very questionable situation. Since they know that those plastic containers are bringing hazard to the public's health, why the government does not ban the use of those containers and also stop the production of those containers? Although you can dispose the plastic containers after one use, these plastic containers will containminate the environment if the disposal are not properly handled. Plastic can not be burned because it will release toxic gas whey it is burned with fire. The government should educate the public on the handling of plastic disposal.
Currently, although there are recycle centers that recycle plastic items, the government should also impose legislation to reduce the use of plastic items such as plastic shopping bags. People should be encouraged to bring their own bags when shopping. The practise of bringing own bags when shopping has long been implemented in other countries such as Taiwan. The Malaysian Government should also start to implement this kind practise before our environment turn to a even worse condition.
Labels: Environmental Issue
In the Star Online News today, the Prime Minister has warned that Malaysian that surrendered their citizenship might not be able to get back their citizenship. According to the Deputy Home Affairs Minister, there are 106,000 Malaysians that gave up their citizenship between 1996 and April this year.
What I surprise me most is that most of the Malaysian that gave up their citizenship are Malays (70%). In my mind, I thought the most would be the Chinese because Chinese people are known for migration. There is an old saying that if a place can be travelled by water, there is Chinese. I am now curious on the reason why these Malays are willing to surrender their citizenship. From what I know, although there are many Malaysian Chinese migrate to other countries, most of them do not surrender their citizenship. I think the government should perform a investigation on this matter (people giving up their citizeship.
Labels: Daily Still Thought